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

261-278

Authors: V. Kachev

Recently Valentin Kachev, a writer who is born in Belogradchik, has written a new and still unpublished poetry book: “Goddess of My Soul”. An excerpt from the second section of the book is presented. All of the rhymes chosen are inspired from the poet’s memory for his home and relatives in the lovely Belogradchik.

316-323

Authors: N. Grigorov

Chervenata stena [Red Mountain] is a mountain in the skirt of which is the town of Bitolya, Macedonia. In the last years of WWI 15th Infantry Lom Regiment (Belogradchik) was there. This excerpt is a personal narrative of a soldier who participated in the military operations of that regiment. His story under the title “Chervenata stena” was written 13 years after the war and was published in Mezdra (1931).

374-386

Authors: C. Maritsas

The goal of the article is to offer new definitions of civilization and art and to show their interconnection. The author aims to show the “weak man” as the art and civilization creator.

392-399

Authors: R. Vladova

“The Golden Fund of the Bulgarian Science” contains interviews with 57 eminent Bulgarian scientists. These people are asked to sketch their course of life and their scientific achievements in their fields in natural sciences, social sciences and art and humanities; they share with the readers their opinions on the basic problems of research, education and science/education policy and management.

133-169

Authors: A. Kaltchev

"Belogradchik mysteries" is a cycle of poems dedicated to Belogradchik and the Belogradchik Rocks. This cycle has been published in poetry "And Still Come Back" (2010). The author, a geologist by profession, during his expeditions was fascinated by the beauty of Belogradchik region. "Schoolgirl," "The Bear", "Dervish", "Madonna," "Rider", "Cuckoo" are rocks, which are presented here in poetic imagery.

198-226

Authors: N. Savchev

Here is the first guide-book of the town of Belogradchik (1928). Its author is Nikola Savchev, a respected public figure in Belogradchik in the first half of twentieth century – bookseller, community activist, school trustee, MP from the Radical Party. The book contains actual for that time information about the town and its vicinity. This slim book is richly illustrated. Most of the pictures were produced as postcards and sold in Savchev’s bookstore. The book also presents panoramas which are expectedly to be among the first panoramas printed in Bulgaria.

252-255

Authors: V. Kachev

The Union of the Community Centers (chitalishte) in Bulgaria was established in April 1911. In May 2011 the 32nd Congress of the Union was held. This poem was written by Valentin Kachev in celebration of the centanary of the Union.

5-14

Authors: D. Bozhkova

This is a selection of poems published during the years in the journal “Venets”. The admiration to the Bulgarian spring and summer is their basic clue.

50-62

Authors: N. Tomov

This paper describes the work of Dr. Alexander Tomov on establishment and equipment of the Astronomical Observatory of Belogradchik. Tomov’s research activity in that observatory is commented as well. The official opening of the observatory took place on July 21st, 1965. During the period 1966-1969 a monitoring program for determining the orbits of artificial satellites was successfully realized. Constructing a new building expanded later observatory. In mid-1969 the observatory was supplied by 60 cm reflector optical system ‘Cassegrain’, produced by Carl Zeiss in Germany; it was the biggest telescope in Bulgaria at that time. In the period 1970-1973 a modern single-channel photoelectric UBV photometer was constructed and put in operation. In 1976 the Belogradchik observatory joined with the Institute of Astronomy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In the second half of seventies and early eighties hundreds of galaxies were studied.

70-83

Authors: N. Jain

Identity politics and a politics of culture have largely preempted South Asian literary studies since the days of post-colonial theory. While proactive attitudes to development have substantiated the conventional modes of thinking responsible for shaping the contemporary Indian society, the history of the subcontinent has been contoured by visions of nativism in turn formed by the cultural ethos of the land. As the new nation matured, the earliest national leaders along with Mahatma Gandhi worked hard at creating an environment of cosmopolitan liberalism. Today, with intrepid globalization, the South Asian community and more closely, the Indian psyche has acquired an interface of healthy multiculturalism, which in its turn has evolved out of an assertive attitude of political correctness. All this has grown over a period of time and the Indian society has assumed identities compatible with its consciousness; as that of nationalism, multiculturalism, cosmopolitan liberalism and religious secularism. Spatial boundaries within the nation often determined the typical nature of the identity. My attempt will be to study Ajay Mohan Jain’s, “Nothing can be as crazy…’ in the light of the above hypothesis.

114-127

Authors: V. Kachev

This poem was written specially for the concert “Bulgarian Symbols”, held on 19th of December 2010 in the Great Hall of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. It marks the most important moments in the Bulgaria history.