Oldal 576 [576]
574
Violeta Periklieva, Ivaylo Markov
introduction of the population to the historical events related to King Samuel and
the Battle of Belasitsa and of construction of cultural memory among the popula¬
tion that in the 1920s migrated to the region from Aegean Macedonia and the
villages in the Ograzhden Mountains. Perhaps this is when the historical studies
gradually began to lay upon existing legends and to objectify themselves through
already existing toponyms. This could also explain the simultaneous existence to¬
day of similar legends related to the same toponym but referring to two different
epochs—the time of the Battle of Kleidion and the Ottoman period. In addition
we could also mention the existing confusion among some of the local people who
think that the army of King Samuel engaged in a battle with the Ottomans.
In the context of the First World War, in a time of increased aspirations for
a national union of all lands inhabited by Bulgarians and for a revival of the Bul¬
garian state from the time of its glory (that is to say the medieval period), the first
Bulgarian artistic interpretations of King Samuel appeared. Some of the paint¬
ers took part in the military operations as military men. This is the case of Petar
Morozov, who fought in the Balkan War and the First World War. During this
wartime period he artistically recreated the daily round of the soldier but also his¬
torical figures and events. Thus, in 1916 he painted The Shadow of Samuel (Samuel
Hails the Triumphant Bulgarian Troops) (Fig. 2). The painting’s propaganda idea
is perfectly clear as suggests the second part of its name—the spirit of King Samuel
appears to the victorious Bulgarian solders who reached Samuel’s Fortress in Ohrid
in Macedonia, in order to support them in the battle for these lost Bulgarian terri¬
tories (Moutafov 2014: 13-14). Thus, in accordance with the patriotic heroic spirit
needed in wartime, in artistic aspect the theme of King Samuel was interpreted as
“the glorious medieval Bulgarian past”, whereas the dramatic events of the Battle
of Belasitsa and the blinding of the Bulgarian soldiers remain out of the scope of
the painters’ interest.
During the interwar period, as a result of the Bulgarian defeats,’ the painters
temporarily dropped the theme of King Samuel; however, the policy of strengthen¬
ing his glorious memory remained. It was then that the first toponyms referring
directly to Samuel appeared in the region of Petrich—the newly founded in 1926
village of Samuilova krepost and the village of Samuilovo, which until 1935 bore
the name Dimidovo. The additional strengthening and encouragement of the cul¬
tural memory of King Samuel and its materialization through the naming of these
two villages transformed them into a symbolic expression of the Bulgarian ethnic
origin of the population in the region and of its Bulgarian national identity. This
cultural policy reverberated throughout the country; in the first half of the twen¬
tieth century, four more villages named Samuilovo appeared in other regions of
Bulgaria (in Stara Zagora, Sliven, Dobrich, and Razgrad).
5 With the signing of the Treaty of Neuilly in 1919 Bulgaria was required to cede various territories. This
marked the end of Bulgaria’s aspiration for national unity and the so-called second national catastrophe.