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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 population 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 today 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 Bulgarian 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 painters 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 historical 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 territories (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 strengthening 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 cultural 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 twentieth 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.
