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Institute for Studies of the Recent Past ... |
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 Institute for Studies of the Recent Past |
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In the more than 15 years since the fall of communism, Bulgarian society has failed to make an adequate assessment of its recent past (the term is used to refer to the period from the 1940s to the changes in 1989 and the subsequent period of transition), and for this reason it has been unable to draw the appropriate conclusions or establish the proper basis for its future development. |
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The Communist past has been overcome but it has not been cast off, not grown out of as a mentality, and it continues to be reproduced. Although such relapses into past patterns are condemned in political speeches or in the media, every day we come across phenomena in different spheres that are geared towards the secret rehabilitation of events, people or cultural facts closely related to the Communist regime.
Of course, one can say that these are isolated cases that cannot change the direction of our social development but the accumulation of such exceptions has led to considerable confusion in Bulgarian public life and in the education of the younger generations, which grow up with no historical memory. Bulgarians face the danger of bypassing their own history, or, more accurately, of history passing them, without realizing what has actually happened.
This is hardly typical for Bulgaria alone. But it is a fact that all of the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe with the assistance from governments, individuals and international funds have established institutes for the study of the Communist past as well as museums of totalitarian art and researchers have been granted access to the secret archives. In Bulgaria, despite the succession of governments of different political tendencies, nothing significant has been achieved in this respect since 1990. We have yet to see the kind of research, publications, and curriculum which ensure that Bulgarian pupils and students are exposed to the knowledge about their country’s recent history, which is essential for them to embrace the spirit of democratic values, and to learn all of the lessons necessary for the future of democracy.
This is the reason why the founding of the Institute for Studies of the Recent Past addresses a long-standing need in our public and academic life.
The Institute for Studies of the Recent Past aims to encourage and support research in the field of modern Bulgarian history, taking into account the existing gaps in our present-day historian science. Its activities also contribute to the methodological and thematic enhancement of modern Bulgarian historiography.
The Institute was founded in Sofia in October 2005 as a non-profit organization. Its founders and members of its Executive Council are: Prof. Ivaylo Znepolski, professor at Sofia University, Dimitry Panitza, Chairman of the Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation and Lenko Lenkov, historian.
More information on the Institute’s main thematic areas and research programs can be found on www.minaloto.org
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