Seite 451 [451]
Visualizations of “Hooligans”. A Bulgarian Film of the 1960s
(TKZS) and in the forest. The incomes from the production of the different labour
activities formed the so-called off-budget account, which was allocated partly for
meeting the basic needs of the school, partly for organizing leisure activities, for
celebrations of birthdays, for small gifts on various occasions, for the purchase of
radio sets and so forth, and partly for personal use of the juveniles after their release
(each student had a savings bank account in the Darzhavna spestovna kasa (‘State
Savings Bank’).’”
The aim of behavioral and cognitive indoctrination through the establishment
of a normative socialist culture was served through regular lessons such as “Our
Future and Communism’, “The Socialist Discipline and Its Meaning”, and “Moral
Purity”*’ and also through concerts, plays, and celebrations on occasions of political
state holidays. Patriotic and political-educational excursions and trips around the
country were organized in cooperation with the Bulgarian Tourist Union (Fig. 1).
Despite clear ideological intentions, these excursions provided the juveniles from
the closed institution with both recreational time and new insights.
The retrospective autobiographical narratives of Nevena and Metodi Gran¬
charovi, as well as the archival materials from the 1960s, show the intertwining
of theoretical knowledge and practical elements borrowed from the officially
recognized, and dominant at that time in Bulgaria, pedagogical systems of Ma¬
karenko and Vasyl Sukhomlynsky and also of teachers such as Janusz Korczak”
(Grancharova 1966; Grancharova & Dencheva 2003). The educational program
involved sensitising the students to the beauty of nature, and art—a drama circle,
a choir, and a workshop on artistic speech were organized in the very first year. The
students were encouraged to find a place near to the school for an annual celebra¬
tion of a specific school feast on March 22, which was given the name of Vecher na
mechtite i mladostta (“Evening of dreams and youth).°*° At this place, called Ezero
na mominite tayni (“The lake of girls’ secrets’) the students, under the supervision
of a master, built a “sun palace” and staged plays of historical content and others
such as Cinderella (Fig. 2).
The state politics included meetings and mutual visits to the LES schools
throughout the country; since 1962, LES festivals were held annually. These meet¬
ings were confined largely within the institution of LES. Despite the restrictions,
27 Tbid.: 14.
8 Tbid.: 8 gr., 9. Combining the philosophy of Todor Pavlov with the implementation of the classical
conditioning theory of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) a necessary requirement for all subjects was
the permanent underlining of the partiynost (‘class-and- party-standpoint’ which meant ‘communist party
standpoint’). The lack of qualification and training of the teachers led often to ridiculous claims, such as:
“The partiynost (‘class-and-party-standpoint) is violated when precise data are not given, for example, in
the story for the 3“ class ‘War’. In this story should be explained that the fight between different kinds of
weeds and plants is possible but not inevitable as the struggle between the two classes is” (Ibid.).
» Korczak’s pedagogy was recognized in socialist Bulgaria because of Janusz Korczak’s resistance to fascist
Germany.
% DA Pernik, E 705, op. 1, ae. 1:6 gr.
449