The Bulgarian dream of the 19th century national revival
The Bulgarian dream about the nation forming process that started in 1762 and brought an end to the five-century Turkish slavery after the 1877–1878 Russian–Turkish war is aprocess that was mythicized and stereotypicized and became avery selective vision that held aconsiderable influence on the historical memory of the contemporary Bulgarians. It is apicture that producesthe conviction that the processes undergoing among the Bulgarians under the Turkish rule since theend of the 18th century were successful. However, their “flawlessness“ was questioned even by the activists of the last phase of the Bulgarian national revival, who emphasized the peculiar illusion of the process. Their opinions were subsequently developed in anumber of literary and journalistic works written by the authors who attempted to answer the questions about the social attitude of the Bulgarian society. It seems that this important and complex national project, so fundamental for the modern Bulgarian history, remains unfinished.