Oldal 117 [117]
ns
114
Anelia Kassabova
Photographs subsumed under the categories “Revolutionists and Fighters for Lib¬
erty” belong to the earliest photographs, made by Anastas Stojanovié (Karastoyanov)
in Belgrade in the 1860s and 1870s. In the 1860s, the programs of the leading ide¬
ologists of the Bulgarian national-revolutionary movement included the establish¬
ment of a Bulgarian national state as a key idea. However, as an alternative, they
also saw a democratic Balkan federation as an independent alliance of Christian
Balkan peoples against the Ottoman Empire. The formation of two Bulgarian Le¬
gions (Beazeapcexa naeeua)—military bands formed by volunteers and revolutionary
workers—with the support of the Serbian government (1862 and 1867) in Belgrade
was a result of such ideas in concrete political circumstances. Their ultimate goal was
the “liberation from the Ottoman rule” through coordinated military actions with
the neighboring Balkan countries. Anastas Stojanovié (Karastoyanov) became part
of such revolutionary circles in Belgrade and made photographs of members of the
legions and of the leading revolutionists in Belgrade (see ill. 41).
In the nineteenth century (and for Anastas Karastoyanov), the camera was un¬
derstood as a fundamental source of truth. The photograph was thought to be an
unmediated reflection of the world, a true record of the subjects who stood in front
of the lenses. These photographs have served (even at the moment of their produc¬
tion) as historical documents (Popsavova 1984). Since the common characteristics
of the photographs of revolutionists from this period have been discussed already
(Kassabova 2012), the emphasis shall now be on the fact that by using a symbolic
vocabulary with a focus on the theme “fighters for liberty,” Anastas Karastoyanov
reveals the idealism behind the compositional modes of his pictures.
The focus, not only on the struggle against the Ottoman Empire, but also on
the ethnic Bulgarian became strengthened after the establishment of the Bulgarian
nation-state in 1878—the period from which the greatest number of photographs
picturing revolutionists dates. The state became the main producer of an integrated
national memory. Because of the coupling of state and nation, the nation’s memory
was held to be powerfully unified, with continuity from the Greco-Roman past.
In the teleological perspective of the nation, politics (the two medieval Bulgar¬
ian states), military, orthodoxy, and tradition were all considered to be pillars of
continuity (Kassabova 2002). The period of the Bulgarian Revival/Renaissance
became an important time during which a national identity was formed and an
independent state was established.* The emphasis with respect to history changed
over time, before and after the establishment of the independent Bulgarian state,
2 "The Bulgarian National Revival is traditionally divided into three periods, an early one spanning the
eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century; a middle one spanning the Ottoman reforms of the
1820s to the 1850s; and a late one beginning with the Crimean War and ending with the establishment
of the Principality of Bulgaria and the autonomous unity of Eastern Rumelia in 1878. For contempo¬
rary discussions on the Bulgarian Revival/Renaissance, see Aretov 1995; Natev 1998; Todorova 1999;
Daskalov 2002; Zapryanova, Nyagulov, Marcheva 2006; Todev 2011; Todorova 2009.