VENETS: the Belogradchik journal for local history, cultural heritave and folk studies

234-250

Authors: R. Zaimova

The area of Gara Oreshets and the surrounding areas are tightly connected with the roads and the fate of the town of Belogradchik in the Bulgarian Northwest. The article deals with two votive crosses from the middle of the 19th century, located near Oreshets. The inscriptions on both of them show important events in the life of the local population: Christian holidays and riots against the Ottoman government. This study is the beginning of a research of votive crosses as a reflection of the folk memory in the region of Belogradchik.

273-300

Authors: P. Bankova

Sredets is the modern name of a Bulgarian settlement located in the border area between three countries: Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of Turkey and Hellenic Republic. It has a rich history dating back to antiquity, but its population had to survive within the boundaries of different states and political regimes, clearly marked by the privileges and limitations of a border area. In this article the author presents the results of her research carried by the methods of field ethnographic research and included observation. It focuses on the individual life scenario of representatives of the local community, whose family is connected with the town history for the period from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. Both economic aspects and the socio-political reflections that democratic or totalitarian government imposes on people's lives are analyzed.

315-337

Authors: R. Ilieva

The topic is part of the author's research in the field of extramarital forms of socialization of Bulgarian children. Using different types of sources, the religious children's resorts organized in the 20th century will be presented. The article will outline the boundaries set by religion in terms of the selection of children in the camps, and will seek an answer to the question of whether religion creates division between individuals or serves to include children. The relevance of the topic is an indisputable fact, due to the many organized children's summer camps of a religious nature today.

368-373

Authors: V. Atanassov

The church "St. Nicholas" is located in the village of Tsarevets (Tsarevo village), ten kilometers from Mezdra. Until 1936 the village was called Wallachian village. The church in Tsarevo Selo in construction is similar to the with the churches in the Belogradchik villages of Gorni Lom, Varbovo and Chuprene. Nowadays, the church has been restored, but before that it was looted by treasure hunters. The state of the church in 1937 was described by Atanassov (1937).

384-399

Authors: B. V. Toshev

Book review

138-143

Authors: G. Savchev

Among the early stories of the Belogradchik writer Georgi Savchev (1883-1949) is the short story "Fate", published in the magazine "Teacher" in 1909.

154-159

Authors: V. Atanassov

The editorial board of "Venets" has the ambitious and responsible task to find and archive the publications of the famous in the past, but forgotten in modern times, Vassil Atanassov (1876-1943) - archaeologist, historian and artist. The article "The Roman well in the village of Zhelezna" was published in the news-paper Mir in 1937 (Atanassov, 1937)

197-213

Authors: I. N. Nikolova

The present reflections are based on the thesis that the Bulgarian folk song reflects the soul of the Bulgarian. It houses memory, traditions, life and heritage. In terms of content, however, the ideas in some Bulgarian folk songs are developed on a Christian basis. This fact is often ignored or rejected. If our folk-song heritage is to be preserved, we are obliged to preserve it and translate it in its entirety. As a result of this attitude, Bulgarian folk songs with Ortho-dox-religious content are born - a real experience in a small municipality in Bulgaria, which thinks not only about preserving our Christian and native heritage, but above all to reach our children, to continue to spread through the generations to come.

223-224

Authors: B. V. Toshev (Ed.)

Belogradchik in Art (Chudomir); Belogradchik in Art (Mara Nonova)

11-18

Authors: G. Savchev

The Belogradchik writer Georgi Savchev (1883-1949) has a huge and very different in nature literary work - poetry, humorous poetry and current affairs, military poetry, fiction - novels and short stories, among them the exceptional novels about Hristo Botev, Vasil Levski and the Batak massacre, short stories, adventure novels, short historical novels, journalism, literary criticism, children's works, plays. Georgi Savchev's military prose is among the least known of his literary works. Here is given the story "The Immortal Feat" (Savchev, 1943).

29-35

Authors: V. Atanassov

Osman Pazvantoglu's mother is Rukiie Khanum. Neither her grave was found, nor she can be said not to be a Muslim. Found two books, which were donated by her to Pazvantoglu's library. Certainly, however, it can be argued that both she and her son Osman had religious tolerance for Christians (Атанасов, 1937).

67-83

Authors: L. P. Tomov

In the present paper, we discuss the origins of ancient Greek theology and atheism in relation to geometry, chance and the scientific method. We consider the theology of Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoreans a consequence of logical necessity and not primitive worshipping of heavenly bodies. We claim that the whirl based astronomical models of Anaxagoras and Democritus were influenced by their materialistic philosophy enough to force them to accept the least likely explanation for the motion of the planets and the Sun with the best knowledge of their time. We compare their approach with that of modern scientists like G. Kirchhoff to demonstrate the difference in use of probabilistic reasoning in scientific conjecturing. Thus, our main thesis is that the atheism of Democritus and Anaxagoras lead in some cases to unscientific hypotheses and models, which slowed down and prevented research in that field.

107-112

Authors: V. T. Toshev

After the disbandment of the 15th Infantry Lom Regiment in 1945, 2/3 infantry battalion remained in Belogradchik. The chemical property of the former regiment remained in the possession of 2/3 infantry battalion in the ammunition depots near the city. The information listed in this article is extracted from an official document of 1946.

128-128

Authors: BVT (Ed.)

no abstract

14-19

Authors: I. Petkov Tsekov

The short history of the Belogradchik archieral district is written on November, 10th, 1967 by Ivan Petkov Tsekov, a priest at the Belogradchik church. It is an archive document found by Ivan Spassov, a local historian.

26-33

Authors: G. Simeonova

Letter to the Editor

57-73

Authors: John Madoshi Peter

Okot pBitek’s Song of Lawino and Ocol manifests a conflict caused by Cos-mos and Ontological differences between African and western culture. The main character, Lawino in the Song of Lawino, laments of the cultural death of her western educated husband Ocol. Examining the book through the lens of African Philosophy, it is shown that Lawino has no sufficient knowledge about western cosmos and its ontology. Thus her argument is centered upon the protest and defense of Okoli’s tradition and customs. Two perspectives seem to conflict within Song of Lawino and Ocol. First is the way Ocol views African tradition and customs and second is the way Lawino regards her reli-gion and the foreign religion into which her husband has been converted. Ocol in Song of Ocol, seems to attack the center of African ontology. He sees that Lawino’s beliefs in African tradition and customs is superstation. In the side of argument, Ocol appears to be stronger because he knows the weakness of his society. Being the advocate and prophesying western civilization, he under-stands what he advocates through the knowledge he acquires from reading. (Song of Ocol), Ocol shifts from attacking Ocol’s culture and his attack is ex-tended to African culture in its totality. He attacks the Gikuyu,, the Ankole women of Rwanda and Burundi, the Swahili women with their buibui attires, the Luo, the Karamajong the Kalenjin and the Maasai warriors. The fact that Ocol shifts his attack to cover the large area of African tradition and customs shows that the two characters are used symbolically to represent traditional Africans (Lawino) and educated Africans who who are represented by the character Ocol. However, despite the fact that Ocol is educated, he retains his roots just as Ocol tribe retains his name.

99-107

Authors: B.V. Toshev

The only visit of a Bulgarian patriarch in Belogradchik is in 1954. The citizens met Patriarch Kirill with a joy. Ivan Frolov, a senior priest in Belogradchik, met the Patriarch with a speech.

117-127

Authors: R. Vladova

Veselin Borisov is a physician, professor. He is known as a poet and publicist as well. An anthology of poems - old and new, was published by him in 2019.

136-180

Authors: B. V. Toshev

The narrative of Prof. B. V. Toshev, a former head of the Department of Phys-ical Chemistry at the University of Sofia, is on the history of the Bulgarian Physical Chemistry. It is a personal view on the research activity and social life in the Department of Physical Chemistry – a University unit established by the Professors Stranski, Kaischew and Scheludko.

195-226

Authors: L.P. Tomov

The paper discusses the nature of scientific discovery and proposes an application of the barbell methods as risk management strategy on the place of current policies for guided (teleological) investigation. Scientific discovery cannot be predicted, planned for or controlled. The nature of discovery is unknowable, with predominant role of chance in it, the probability for a researcher to make breakthrough in his or her life is equal at any age and funding successful scientist does not increase substantially their chance for new discoveries. Probability distributions in intellectual and creative work such as scientific research are very different from those in manufacture and mass production that requires redesign of policies for its funding, assessment, and development.

255-255

Authors: B. V. Toshev (Ed.)

Artist: Ivan Christov (1900-1987)