#stara planina

[putovanja-i-osecanja]

Sa bajkerima

U Knjaževcu nailazim na grupu bajkera iz Holandije koji su na proputovanju kroz Srbiju…nisam mogao da ne zastanem i pozdravim se sa njima, ipak zna se šta je bajkerski kod. O mašinama bolje i da ne pišem jer ni jedna nije ispod 1200cc. Zadivilo me je to što svi oni zajedno mnogo bolje poznaju našu zemlju i lepote nego i mi sami. Krenuli su putem Stare planine i nastavljaju dalje u obilazak ostatka Balkana. Uz pozdrav se rastajemo…ja dalje nastavljam prema Donjoj Kamenici jer me tamo čeka nesto kao iz bajke. Ostanite sa nama i saznajte šta… Inače put do Knjaževca je delom katastrofalan, 50 nijansi sivih, delom dobar, krivudav, preko litica i veoma zahtevan za vožnju. U sl. objavama prikazaću i to. . . .

serbia #serbiaphoto #srbija #instaserbia #serbianature #obidjisrbiju #srbijauslikama #instagramsrbija #mojasrbija #serbiatravel #serbiatourism #myserbia #vidisrbiju #seeserbia #turistickaorganizacijasrbije #upoznajsrbiju #lepotesrbije #beautyserbia #discoverserbia #turizamsrbija #istrazisrbiju #exploreserbia #visitserbia #posetisrbiju #dozivisrbiju #knjazevac

[gohomeyouredrunkmynigga]

Стара планина

[layzowl]

Stara Planina, Europe, Serbia 2023.

By @layzowl

[loonfull-sonnetzz]

To Soothe The Ache

Note: I lost motivation for this fic so I decided to just post the WIP since ya'll have been waiting for AGES. Sorry guys :') No beta we die like Frou Frou

༊*·˚Pairing: Alexei Vronsky X Soldier!Transman!Reader

༊*·˚Universe: Anna Karenina (2012)

༊*·˚Summary: You and Vronsky are soldiers and secretly find comfort

༊*·˚Warnings: menstruation, cramps, unsafe binding (do not bind with bandages!! Please!!), historical inaccuracies, mentions of war, probably out of character Vronsky (hadn’t read or watched Anna Karenina sorry :( ) 

༊*·˚WC: 1k

Divider credit: Florietas 

Finally, serenity.

The cavalry unit you had found yourself in had traveled across the Stara Planina, trekking through the jagged peaks and small cliffs while leading the horses, praying to god your foot doesn’t slip on the ice or one of the horses panic from the distant howl of wolves that haunted the vicious winds. All for the sake of fighting off the Ottomans in Serbia. However, the stress was worth it, even as your legs screamed to rest and your eyelids began to go heavy from the restless nights guarding the makeshift camps the unit had made throughout the weeks.

Now your unit had finally left the mountains, finding a decent clearing amongst the soaring pines to rest once again. The wind no longer howls with threats, but whispers along the gently rattled pine needles. Between the spaces of the trees, up high, you could see stars twinkling in the inky night sky, hundreds and thousands of stars gazing down upon you – you could’ve sworn you could see into the eye of the milky way – Something you could never experience in your home city St. Petersburg where the fog and smoke hid the celestials. 

You took a deep breath. One good, deep and well-deserved breath. The crisp winter air filling your lungs, held, then exhaled – coming out as white mist that danced in the dark before dissipating.

But soon enough serenity would not last. Sure, it was relieving to be out late, no longer burdened by your comrades’ complaints and sharing company with the stars, but your body protested. Not just with the ache that dully throbbed in your legs or your eyes that you had to fight to keep open, but the pains that shoot from your hips and to your stomach, an unfortunate reminder of your secret. Stress could do so much before there could be no more delays and the time of the month comes crashing in. Or Alexei Vronsky chiding you for wearing your bandages for too long.

Alexei Vronsky, the man that was just as handsome as his frivolity and ambition, became an unlikely friend. It was all an accident, really. Months ago when they were stationed at some headquarters back home in Russia. Soldiers had to share washrooms, but you were vigilant and always went early in the morning or late at night when it came to changing so no one could know you were born a different boy, a boy who didn’t have the same body as the others. But one of those nights Vronsky was out for a while and returned late, exhausted and accidentally stumbling to the washroom to only catch a brief look as you panicked and slammed the door on his face. 

Even to this day it was hard to know why you had come out to him in the first place. Perhaps it was his hesitant inquiry, or the guilt for being rude for shutting the door on him. Or perhaps something more, that you both didn’t exactly fit societal norms. Vronsky may be charming, ambitious and brave – bearing the image of the perfect soldier, but he is still a man with his own struggles. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t freak out or prodded you with uncomfortable questions as most other people, especially aristocrats like him, usually did.

Shaking your head and pushing the reminiscing thoughts aside, you briskly make your way back to your tent. Your nimble fingers made way to your buttons in a swift fashion, undoing them until the top of your military uniform started to slide down your shoulders and gooseflesh covered your exposed skin. The cold once again reminding you of it’s limited mercy as it bit your flesh and sent chills down your spine. But hypothermia was probably better than cracking your ribs in the long run.

You were already about to unhook the pins that held the bandages before you heard someone clear their throat and call your name. You whipped your gaze at the intruder, stiffening up and crossing your arms over your chest instinctively before you realized who it was.

“Come here, will you?” Alexei murmured, his voice low and soothing like the distant babble of the creek. He drew you slowly enough that you could have pulled back easily. “You’ve already done so much for us since the beginning of this journey, this is the least I could do.”

You felt your face burn from the sudden praise and care, but you soon felt your shoulders droop and arms fall to your sides. He was right in a way, you could collapse at any point if the cramps or your duty as a soldier didn’t keep you up. So you let him trace the pins, unhooking them and unraveling the bandages. Your gaze flickered from his hands to his face, his brows a little furrowed with compassion and concentration as he buttoned up your uniform – not letting a moment of the wintry air freeze you or the discomfort of having your body vulnerable and exposed go on any further.

He catches your gaze as soon as he finishes, his hands lingering on the last button before one glides over to caress your cheek. His worry became more evident on his visage. “Is there something on your mind?”

The lie on your tongue was silenced by another wave of pain, making you hold your own waist and curling further to yourself. Alexei quickly holds you steady, his sapphire eyes flickering all over you to search for the cause of sudden agony.

“I’m bleeding out,” You said with a slightly self-deprecating chuckle, a little amused by Alexei’s fretting to something natural as menstruation. This only confused your fellow comrade before it seemed to click and he sighs and embraces you, his arms wrapped around your waist.

“I’ll be okay, it’s just cramps,” You said, biting down your tongue to smother a wince. But you didn't make an effort to leave and neither did Alexei, who didn’t look convinced by your lame excuse.

“I know, darling. But I'm not leaving your side to suffer this alone. I just want to make you feel better,”  He said, pulling back slightly to meet your gaze again. His hands trailing down to hold onto your hips, the warmth soothing the ache. Alexei then dipped his head down, his soft lips pressed against yours before he whispers against your lips. “How can I be of service?”

[yoga-onion]

[Image above: Vila by Andy Paciorek]

Legends and myths about trees

Legendary tree deities (19)

Samodiva – ‘Wild alone’, the Slavic tree nymph

The samodiva, samovila or vila, are woodland fairies or nymphs found in South and West Slavic folklore.

Thought they are predominantly associated with Balkan, specifically Bulgarian, folklore. Yet as there still Slavic, they can't be even semi friendly to people. It's the Slavic way. Samodivas are humanlike creatures, usually wearing a white cloak or dress and armed with a bow and arrow used to catch their human prey. The name ‘samodiva’ is formed by combining two separate words, ‘samo’ and ‘diva’. The former means ‘alone’, whilst the latter ‘wild’, or ‘divine’, hence the name literally means ‘wild alone’. The first part of the creature’s name signifies its avoidance of human beings, whereas the second indicates their wild or divine nature.

Samodivas are commonly depicted as ethereal maidens with long, loose hair, and in some cases, wings. They are typically dressed in free-flowing, feathered white gowns, which give them the power of flight. Samodivas are often described as having blonde or red hair, tall, slender women with pale, glowing skin and fiery eyes.

Sometimes, they are described as having a veil which could hold all their power. If they get deprived of their veil, they lose all their power. If they get deprived of their veil, they lose all their power.

The samodivi dwell in mountainous areas, and their favorite haunts include the Pirin, Vitosha, Rila, and Stara Planina Mountains. They enjoy riding on deer and use twisted snakes as reins. They are extremely protective of their mounts and would cast a spell on anyone who killed their deer, even if it was by accident. The spell would result in the person’s death. Most thair stories involving them are like that, though they enjoy dancing they often entice mortals to dance with them until said mortal die of exhaustion.

But, they are not always the bad, and sometimes they appear like normal working women and help with the harvest. They would especially help women with children and if a man did something good for a samodiva, she becomes his patron or a sworn sister. Sometimes, a samodiva can fall in love with a human and bear him children, who grow up to be great heroes. As they are forest creatures they know a lot about herbs and forest plant yet as they are not so keen on sharing their knowledge, you have to eavesdrop on their gatherings.

木にまつわる伝説・神話

伝説の樹木の神々 (19)

サモディーヴァ 〜 「野生で一人」、スラブの木の精

サモディーヴァ、サモビラ、ビラは、南・西スラブ民話に登場する森の妖精またはニンフである。

バルカン半島、特にブルガリアの民話に多く登場する。しかし、スラブ人である以上、半端に人に好意的であるはずがない。それがスラブ人のやり方なのだ。サモディーヴァは人間に似た生き物で、通常は白いマントやドレスを身にまとい、人間の獲物を捕らえるための弓矢で武装している。「サモディーヴァ」という名前は、「サモ」と「ディーヴァ」という2つの別々の単語を組み合わせて作られたものである。前者は「一人」、後者は「野生の」「神聖な」という意味であり、文字通り「野生で一人」という意味である。前者は人間を避け、後者は野性的、あるいは神々しいという意味である。

サモディーヴァは、長く緩やかな髪と、場合によっては翼を持つ、幽玄な乙女として描かれるのが一般的だ。サモディーヴァは、しばしば金髪か赤毛で、背が高く細身の女性で、青白く輝く肌と燃えるような目を持っていると表現さ れる。

時には、彼女たちのすべての力を秘めたベールを持っていると表現されることもある。もし、そのベールを奪われたら、すべての力を失ってしまう。

サモディーヴァは山岳地帯に生息し、ピリン、ヴィトシャ、リラ、スタラプラニナなどの山々を好む。彼らは鹿に乗るのが好きで、ねじれた蛇を手綱として使う。馬を非常に大切にし、たとえそれが偶然であったとしても、鹿を殺した者には呪文を唱える。その結果、その人は死んでしまう。ダンスが好きで、人間を誘い、その人間が疲れ果てて死んでしまうまで一緒に踊ることもある。

しかし、彼らは常に悪者ではない。時には、普通の働く女性のように現れて、収穫を手伝うこともある。特に子供のいる女性を助けることが多く、もし男性がサモディーヴァに何か良いことをすれば、彼女は彼の支持者や誓いの妹になる。時には、サモディーヴァが人間と恋に落ち、子供を産み、その子供が偉大な英雄に成長することもある。森の生き物である彼らは、ハーブや森の植物について多くのことを知っているが、その知識を共有することにあまり熱心ではないので、彼らの集まりを盗み聞きする必要がある。

[zvetenze]

Sava Filaretov house, view of sofa within the čardak

Žeravna, Bulgaria

The sofa area is difficult to fully enjoy through a photograph. The čardak invites occupants to look beyond the place itself, to look instead to the courtyard, its garden, and the landscape beyond. Like the čardak, the sofa invites occupants to look outward to the courtyard, its garden, and landscape. Elevated and open, the sofa provides the best place to observe other people as well as the outdoors, village rooftops and pastureland beyond. In the valleys of the Stara Planina, the summers can be hot and still; the shutters around the sofa can be adjusted to control air flow and light balance. (photo 2000)

[beardedmrbean]

In the Bulgarian parliament, a heated dispute erupted over the proposal to award Georgi Yordanov the "Stara Planina" order of the first degree, nearly resulting in a physical altercation. The conflict centered around the communist regime and "State Security."

Atanas Atanasov, co-chairman of "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB), called on Prime Minister Glavchev and the Minister of Culture to cancel the nomination. He read the law declaring the communist regime criminal. In response, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the successor of the communist party) occupied the tribune, prompting the speaker to announce a 10-minute break.

Atanasov criticized the caretaker government's decision to propose the former member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) and Todor Zhivkov's Minister of Culture, Georgi Yordanov, for the state’s highest honor, calling it absurd. Ivan Chenchev of BSP defended Yordanov, citing his contributions to Bulgarian culture.

Kostadin Kostadinov of "Revival" (Vazrazhdane) chimed in, presenting a book on communist morality to Atanasov, labeling him a former communist. Boyko Borissov of GERB expressed solidarity with Atanasov, urging the cancellation of Yordanov’s award but also calling on Atanasov to distance himself from those connected to "State Security."

Bozhidar Bozhankov of WCC-DB responded, blaming GERB’s loss in the elections on their mismanagement of the capital and dismissing the relevance of the BCP and "State Security" connections.

"You lost these elections because you didn't manage in the capital, accept the result and let's move on. It's not the fault of the BCP and 'State Security' - you are there with warm connections, only you and your incompetent management in the capital are to blame," commented Bozhidar Bozhankov, WCC-DB.

[stumbleimg]

Tupavica waterfall in Stara Planina national park [OC][1080x2085]

[grossemond89]

Okay just as a note or a snapshot: drunk but safe in my flat, really hard last weekend with toni and leo, sold a lot of tshirts and i keep losing money, andrea in zagreb and ksuš in stara planina, i'm falling so hard for i. and i want to develop it further into a romantic relationship because i'm the only person she would show her favorite thierry de mey ballets to, several nights on weed and ketamine, feeling free but cautious because of past traumas, last night probably last gig of džezbollah, obsessing over clarice lispector again so much that i sticknpoked 'agua viva' on my underarm, cobi becoming a feral dog so much that he attacked an old guy in new belgrade, starting my power electronics project in a couple of days, closer than ever to joining a communist party (?), happy birthday ludwig wittgenstein and i promise to translate your biography to serbian by the end of this year

[putovanja-i-osecanja]

Putem Stare planine

Ove kadrove sam uslikao putem prema Knjaževcu. Toliko toga ima lepo zabeležiti i prikazati da sam na svakih 2 km zastajkivao, sikao, snimao, skidao, penjao na motor, tražio bezbednu lokaciju gde mogu sve to da zabeležim…delom sam i uspeo jer je po vrućini kad motor gori a vi pod punom opremom veoma teško da sve to izvedete. Nešto sam sigurno i preskočio, ali uvek postoji drugi put. Nastavljam dalje prema vrelu Moravice, pokazaću vam u sledećoj objavi izletište gde možete uživati svim čulima. Ostanite samnom… . . .

serbia #serbiaphoto #srbija #instaserbia #serbianature #obidjisrbiju #srbijauslikama #instagramsrbija #mojasrbija #serbiatravel #serbiatourism #myserbia #vidisrbiju #seeserbia #turistickaorganizacijasrbije #upoznajsrbiju #lepotesrbije #beautyserbia #discoverserbia #turizamsrbija #istrazisrbiju #exploreserbia #visitserbia #posetisrbiju #dozivisrbiju #knjazevac #staraplanina

[gohomeyouredrunkmynigga]

[where-to]

Časti me noći, stara prijateljice

U čašu natoči, žudnju da me slomije

Zar nisam dovoljno gubio

Tko će izmjeriti bol

Do očaja ljubio

Namjerno bježao, da bih se vraćao

Opet mi se budi tuga, tuga najveća

Koju nosi snijeg s planina, vjetar ravnica

Koga sad joj srce voli, kaži nek' još jače boli

Idemo do dna, tuga ti i ja

[rose-took-my-nose-i-supose]

Arbinje, Stara planina, 2023.

[noblehcart]

Do not read unless; you're a mega nerd interested in Bulgaria in the 14th century or @malka-lisitsa

Bulgaria under Ottoman rule (1396–1878)

The fall of the last tsardom; the Tsardom of Vidin marked the end of what’s historically known as the Second Bulgarian Empire. By this, the Ottomans had subjugated and occupied Bulgaria. Even though a Polish-Hungarian army commanded by Władysław III of Poland set out to free Bulgaria and the Balkans in 1444, they were defeated in the battle of Varna from the Ottomans.

The new authorities dismantled Bulgarian institutions and merged the separate Bulgarian Church into the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople (although a small, autocephalous Bulgarian archbishopric of Ohrid survived until January 1767). Turkish authorities destroyed most of the medieval Bulgarian fortresses to prevent rebellions. Large towns and the areas where Ottoman power predominated remained severely depopulated until the 19th century.

Even though conversion to Islam was not forced on the Bulgarian people, several cases of forced Islamization were recorded such as the Pomaks who got to keep their Bulgarian language, dress and some customs that were compatible with Islam.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Bulgaria became a thriving cultural centre. The flowering of the Turnovo school of art was related to the construction of palaces and churches, to literary activity in the royal court and the monasteries, and to the development of handicrafts.

In the fourteenth century many new monasteries were built under the patronage of Ivan Alexander on the northern slopes of Stara Planina, especially in a area near the capital Tarnovo which became known as "Sveta Gora" (Holy Forest)—a name also used to refer to Mount Athos. The numerous monasteries across the Empire were the very centre of the cultural, educational and spiritual life of the Bulgarian society. After the mid fourteenth centuries, many monasteries began to build fortifications under the thread of Turk invasions, such as the famous Tower of Rely in the Rila monastery.

In the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks were a rising power in the region. In 1393 they captured Turnovo. All Bulgarian resistance to the Turks ended in 1396. Bulgaria was under Turkish rule for nearly 500 years.

The Bulgarians had to pay taxes to the Turks. They also had to surrender their sons. At intervals, the Turks would take the cream of Bulgarian boys aged 7 to 14. They were taken from their families and brought up as Muslims. They were also trained to be soldiers called Janissaries.

The Bulgarian People Under the Rule of the Ottoman Empire (15th-18th C.)

The fall of the medieval Bulgarian states under the Ottoman rule interrupted the Bulgarian people’s natural development within the framework of the European civilization. To the Bulgarians that was not just a temporary loss of their state independence as it was in the case of other European peoples which had had this bitter experience at different stages of their history.

In the course of centuries the Bulgarians were forced to live under a state and political system that was substantially different from and distinctly alien to the European civilization which had evolved on the basis of Christianity and the Christian economic, social and cultural patterns.

The intrusive nature of Islamism and its intolerance to anything that was not part of it, resulted in the continued confrontation between the Ottoman empire and Christian Europe in the l5th-l8th centuries. That fact drew an iron curtain between the Bulgarian people on the one side, and Europe and the free Slav countries on the other.

In other words, Bulgaria was separated from the progressive trends of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment as well as from the nascent modern bourgeois world.

The Bulgarians were pushed into a direction of development which had nothing in common with their seven-century history until then, history deeply connected with the natural course of the European political, economic and cultural development.

The Turkish conquerors ruthlessly destroyed all Bulgarian state and religious structures. The natural political leaders of the people in the Middle Ages, i.e. the boyars and the higher clergy, vanished from sight. That deprived the Bulgarians of both the possibility for self-organization and any chance of having foreign political allies for centuries on end.

The place allotted to the Bulgarian people in the Ottoman feudal political system entitled it to no legal, religious, national, even biological rights as Bulgarian Christians. They had all been reduced to the category of the so called rayah (meaning ‘a flock’, attributed to the non-Muslim subjects of the empire).

The peasants who represented the better half of the Bulgarian population were dispossessed of their land.

According to the Ottoman feudal system which remained effective until 1834, all of it belonged to the central power in the person of the Turkish sultan.

The Bulgarians were allowed to cultivate only some plots. Groups of rural Christian families, varying in number, were put under an obligation to give part of their income to representatives of the Muslim military, administrative and religious upper crust, as well as to fulfil various state duties.

The number of the families liable to that payment was determined according to their position in the Ottoman state, military and religious hierarchy. The establishment of that kind of intercourse in agriculture – the fundamental pillar of the economy at that time, clearly led to the total loss of motivation for any real farming or and production improvements both among the peasants and the feof-holders.

The complex and incredibly burdensome tax system forced the farmers to produce as much as needed for their families’ subsistence, while the feudals preferred to earn a lot more from looting and from the incessantly successful wars waged by the Ottoman empire in all directions until the end of the 17th century.

The Ottoman Turkish state was founded on and propped up by the dogmas of the Koran. At the beginning of the 15th century when the empire prostrated from India to Gibraltar and from the mouth of the Volga to Vienna, it proclaimed itself the supreme leader of Islam – Prophet Mohammed’s standard and sword, and a leader of the Koran-prescribed perpetual jihad (holy war) against the world of Christianity.

It went without saying that under this conception the Bulgarian Christians could not hope for any. access to even the lowest levels of statecraft. The enormous imperial bureaucratic machinery recruited its staff only from among Muslims.

The Bulgarian people was subjected to national and religious discrimination unheard of in the annals of all European history. During court proceedings, for example, a single Muslim’s testimony was more than enough to confute the evidence of dozens of Christian witnesses. The Bulgarians were not entitled to building churches, setting up their offices or even to wearing bright colors.

Of the numerous taxes (about 80 in number) the so called ‘fresh blood tax’ (a levy of Christian youths) was particularly heavy and humiliating. At regular intervals, the authorities had the healthiest male- children taken away from their parents, sent to the capital, converted into Islam and then trained in combat skills.

Raised and trained in the spirit of Islamic fanaticism, the young men were conscripted in the so called janissary corps, the imperial army of utmost belligerence known to have caused so much trouble and suffering to both the Bulgarians and Christian Europe.

The Turkish authorities exerted unabating pressure on parts of the Bulgarian people to make them convert their faith and become Muslims. That policy was meant to limit the Bulgarian ethnos parameters and to increase the Turkish population numbers. For, according to the medieval standards in that part of Europe, the affiliation of a given people was determined by the religion it followed. With a view to facilitating the assimilation process, the Turkish authorities took the Christian names of those who had converted into Islam and gave them Arab names instead.

A variety of ways and means was used in the assimilation of the Bulgarian people. Some of these were the aforementioned ‘blood tax, and the regular kidnaping of children, pretty women, girls and young men to Turkish families.

Quite frequently, whole areas were encircled by troops and their inhabitants forced to adopt Islam and new Arab names, while the objectors were ‘edifyingly’ slain. In those cases, however, the ‘new Muslims’ were allowed to go on living in the compact Bulgarian environment, i.e. as a community which retained both its language and its Bulgarian national consciousness.

The present-day Bulgarian Muslims representing about five percent of modern Bulgaria’s population, are descendants of those Mohammedanized Bulgarians, whom the Bulgarian Christians used to call pomaks (from the Bulgarian root-words macha or maka, meaning harassed or caused to suffer). And yet the thousands of Bulgarians whom Bulgaria lost once and for all were those who had been subjected to individual conversion to Islam. For, it is only natural that having fallen into a community of strangers, speaking a different language and practicing different customs and faith, they had easily and quickly been assimilated.

The genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks during hostilities in the Bulgarian lands, at the time of uprising or riot suppression, during the frequent spells of feudal anarchy, or even of Ottoman troops move-ups from garrison stations to the battle-field, had struck heavy blows on the Bulgarian nation. The Bulgarian Christian population was treated as infidel and hostile and it was outlawed even at the time of peace. Individual and mass emigration of Bulgarians to foreign lands was another cause for no lesser losses to the Bulgarian nation. There were times when whole regions became depopulated. 

During the l5th-l7th centuries the Bulgarian nation had suffered a gradual but grave biological collapse which predetermined, to a large extent, its demographic, economic, political and cultural place in the European civilization. According to some Bulgarian historians’ estimations, the beginning of the Turkish oppression in the 15th century found Bulgaria with a population of about 1.3 million. Those were the then demographic parameters of any of the large European nations, for example, the population in the present-day territories of England, France or Germany.

One hundred years later, the Bulgarians were already down to 260 000 people and remained as many in the course of two more centuries. The demographic growth was suppressed through genocide, Mohammedanization and emigration. The biological collapse of the l5th-l7th centuries had repercussions which are still being keenly felt. The Bulgarian nation, nowadays, amounts to some ten million people while its European equals in number, back in the 15th century, are now sixty to eighty million-strong.

The unbearable conditions during the Ottoman yoke could not deaden the Bulgarians’ anxiety for resistance. Deprived of social and political organizations of their own, they were unable to undertake any sizeable liberation initiatives. Thus, during the first centuries of the oppression, armed resistance was only of local and sporadic nature. The so-called haidouk movement was its most frequent manifestation. The haidouks were brave Bulgarians who took refuge in the high-mountain woods, organizing there small armed detachments and bringing them down for merciless struggle against the provincial administrators.

This guerrila-type struggle continued for centuries on end (one group destroyed was instantaneously replaced by another) and succeeded in sustaining the morale of the Bulgarians by preserving, to some extent, their properties and their honor. In some places, it even had the authorities maintain more humane relationships with the Bulgarian Christians. The haidouk movement indirectly encouraged and safeguarded other forms of resistance such as maintaining the style of life, the language, the traditions and the religion, or incompliance with forced obligations and refusal to pay heavy unjustifed tax.

Liberation uprisings were the supreme form of struggle against the oppressors. The first one broke out still in 1408. Significant uprisings, proclaiming the independence of Bulgaria, took place in 1598, 1686, 1688 and 1689. They were connected with the anti- Ottoman wars waged by the West European Catholic states with which some Bulgarian representatives, mainly merchants and both Orthodox and Catholic clergymen, had established joint venture contacts.

All insurrections were quelled and accompanied with inhuman atrocities.

The Bulgarian people were living through one of the most difficult periods in its centuries long existence.

It had been deprived of its state, its church, its intelligently and its legitimate rights. Furthermore, its survival as an ethnos had also been put at stake. Linder the heel of that powerful, ruthless and uncivilized Asiatic despotism, it lasted out but remained without any substantial material and spiritual resources needed for its further development. Thus, the Bulgarians, along with all the other European peoples which had been engulfed by the Ottoman empire, were to lag some centuries behind the attainments of present-day Europe.

The Ottoman Empire was founded in the early fourteenth century by Osman I, a prince of Asia Minor who began pushing the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire westward toward Constantinople. Present-day European Turkey and the Balkans, among the first territories conquered, were used as bases for expansion far to the West during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The capture of Constantinople in 1453 completed Ottoman subjugation of major Bulgarian political and cultural institutions.

Nevertheless, certain Bulgarian groups prospered in the highly ordered Ottoman system, and Bulgarian national traditions continued in rural areas. When the decline of the Ottoman Empire began about 1600, the order of local institutions gave way to arbitrary repression, which eventually generated armed opposition. Western ideas that penetrated Bulgaria during the 1700s stimulated a renewed concept of Bulgarian nationalism that eventually combined with decay in the empire to loosen Ottoman control in the nineteenth century.

Introduction of the Ottoman System

Ottoman forces captured the commercial center of Sofia in 1385. Serbia, then the strongest Christian power in the Balkans, was decisively defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, leaving Bulgaria divided and exposed. Within ten years, the last independent Bulgarian outpost was captured. Bulgarian resistance continued until 1453, when the capture of Constantinople gave the Ottomans a base from which to crush local uprisings. In consolidating its Balkan territories, the new Ottoman political order eliminated the entire Bulgarian state apparatus. The Ottomans also crushed the nobility as a landholding class and potential center of resistance.

The new rulers reorganized the Bulgarian church, which had existed as a separate patriarchate since 1235, making it a diocese under complete control of the Byzantine Patriarchate at Constantinople. The sultan, in turn, totally controlled the patriarchate.

The Ottomans ruled with a centralized system much different from the scattered local power centers of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The single goal of Ottoman policy in Bulgarian territory was to make all local resources available to extend the empire westward toward Vienna and across northern Africa. Landed estates were given in fiefdom to knights bound to serve the sultan. Peasants paid multiple taxes to both their masters and the government.

Territorial control also meant cultural and religious assimilation of the populace into the empire. Ottoman authorities forcibly converted the most promising Christian youths to Islam and trained them for government service. Called pomaks, such converts often received special privileges and rose to high administrative and military positions.

The Ottoman system also recognized the value of Bulgarian artisans, who were organized and given limited autonomy as a separate class. Some prosperous Bulgarian peasants and merchants became intermediaries between local Turkish authorities and the peasants.

In this capacity, these chorbadzhi (squires) were able to moderate Ottoman policy. On the negative side, the Ottoman assimilation policy also included resettlement of Balkan Slavs in Asia Minor and immigration of Turkish peasants to farm Bulgarian land. Slavs also were the victims of mass enslavement and forcible mass conversion to Islam in certain areas.

Traditional Bulgarian culture survived only in the smaller villages during the centuries of Ottoman rule. Because the administrative apparatus of the Ottoman Empire included officials of many nationalities, commerce in the polyglot empire introduced Jews, Armenians, Dalmatians, and Greeks into the chief population centers. Bulgarians in such centers were forcibly resettled as part of a policy to scatter the potentially troublesome educated classes.

The villages, however, were often ignored by the centralized Ottoman authorities, whose control over the Turkish landholders often exerted a modifying influence that worked to the advantage of the indigenous population. Village church life also felt relatively little impact from the centralized authority of the Greek Orthodox Church. Therefore, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, the villages became isolated repositories of Bulgarian folk culture, religion, social institutions, and language.

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Elena is a Bulgarian town in the central Stara Planina mountain in Veliko Tarnovo Province // Balkan (Bulgaria)