Ivan Bogorov: Don Quixote on our Renaissance

The Revival is an epoch of Bulgarian history, dominated by the adventure spirit and the thirst for knowledge. There are several personalities who embody this era. Paisius, Sophronius, Rakovski, Levski, Botev, Zakhari Stoyanov - they are both enlighteners and brave heroes who have experienced many adventures and adversities in the name of the bright ideal Bulgaria.

Around these giants there are other notable personalities, some of whom are gifted with very original qualities. One of them is Ivancho Andreev Bogoev from Kotel, who became known in history as Ivan Bogorov. Boyan Penev notes that Ivan Bogorov is one of the least known writers of our Renaissance, for whose great contributions the future generations seem to care. Today we will present it to you in Bulgarka magazine, as its name is too pale against the background of the sacrifices made for the well-being of Bulgaria.

Ivan Bogorov, a Bulgarian national revivalist, devotes his life, as he admits, to seeking "to find the Philosopher's Stone." This extraordinary personality is reminiscent of Don Quixote, but not just in appearance. The writer Ivan Bogorov is a remarkable and unwavering idealist. His "Philosopher's Stone" is a sleepy Bulgarian nation that wants to awaken at any cost through enlightenment. "We were planning for the sleepy Bulgarian nationality that was just waking up," he shares in his autobiography.

In 1846 Ivan Bogorov created and wrote down the first Bulgarian newspaper, boldly called the Bulgarian Eagle. Thus Ivan Bogorov became the founder of the native newspaper. His newspaper is published in Leipzig. "Written in a pure vernacular, just as it is written on all sides of our fathers." In the second issue, the issue is already under the heading "Bulgarian National Celebrity".

In the program article, Bogorov pathetically calls his people to spiritual awakening: "Do we Bulgarians need to stay alive-dead, as before? Should we not at least say a word in the kingdoms of the nations, are we also a nation of five million people? Do we still have a long time to go unnamed to other peoples on this earth? We Bulgarians, too, must begin to feel like a people who share the same righteousness with other European nations. We must keep our language and our faith firm! "

"I was trying to persuade Bulgarians not to study in Greek forever, but only in Bulgarian."

Bogorov has three incredibly difficult tasks ahead of him. He works simultaneously for the development of Bulgarian science, of Bulgarian fiction and of Bulgarian journalism. From today's point of view, these are unbearable activities. But Bogorov has a broad interest in the encyclopedist's attitude.

Bogorov is a tireless traveler. We see him from Kotel in Constantinople, then in Odessa, in Stara Zagora, then in Bucharest. He lives in Leipzig, where he is a newspaper man. He then settled in Paris, where he completed his medical studies. For a short time he is a doctor in Plovdiv, then a newspaper in Constantinople, and again in Bucharest, and again in Plovdiv. He created the first New Bulgarian grammar, the first Bulgarian geography, he authored the first Bulgarian travelogues, long before Aleko Konstantinov and Ivan Vazov developed this genre in Bulgarian literature.

He received his elementary education in Kotel under the famous Hellenist Rayno Popovic. After the end of this "Greek man-made disciple," he enrolled at the "big church school" at Corus-Chesme in Constantinople. His classmate is Georgi S. Rakovski. He moves in the circle of other prominent Bulgarians, including Sava Dobroplodni, Hilarion Stojanovic and Neophyte Bozveli. Then, "it blew my mind to go to Russia to study Slavic." Bogorov "follows the sciences" at the Reshelev high school in Odessa.

In Odessa, he publishes his first book, Mathematical Geography, in which he defends the view that written language should be based on folk. "Since I got into a little apprenticeship, I went through Bucharest to Svishtov, Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Izvornik, Veta-Zagora, and I was trying to prevent the Bulgarians from learning Greek forever, but only Bulgarian. For this reason, in the last town (Stara Zagora) I was invited to be their Bulgarian teacher. "

While working as a teacher in Stara Zagora, he supplemented his geography and republished it under the heading "Universal Geography for Children". He works tirelessly, which results in the printing of another of his books. "In a year of stagnation, I could write a Bulgarian Grammar." This book is published in Bucharest as "The first Bulgarian grammar. Posted by Ivancho Andreev. "

This is the first grammar in the new Bulgarian language. Ivan Bogorov does not recognize the grammars that came out before his, as they are grammars either of the Church Slavonic, or of the Slav-Bulgarian, but not of the spoken Bulgarian. "Bulgarian Grammar teaches us to speak and write neatly Bulgarian." Bogorov proceeds from the principle: "To write in a high language, we neither have a dictionary, nor quite a few Daskalians, and again who as he likes to write."

As Boyan Penev points out, there is a huge difference between the Church Slavonic of Konstantin Fotinov, the Slavonic Bulgarian of Neophyte Rilski and the New Bulgarian of Bogorov. All Bulgarian teachers and grammarians who believed that literary language should be the basis of folk speech, stand behind Bogorov. From a contemporary point of view Bogorov is right in his understanding of the development of the Bulgarian language, he emerges victorious in the dispute with the other grammar schools.

But this does not satisfy him and he goes to extremes. In order to purify the Bulgarian language and completely liberate it from the "foreign elements", he "forges" new words. Apart from strangers, these new words (neologisms) are extremely funny and, over time, begin to compromise the well-intentioned Bogorov. Bogorov defends the language to the extreme, he is too purist (guardian of linguistic purity). According to him, the word telegram has no place in Bulgarian - it should be called "fast". The telegrapher must be a "self-speeder", the billiards should be "tick-hammer", the mail should be "backbone", instead of galoshes - "fenders", instead of history - "bivouac", the English ambassador should be called "narrow-minded envoy", etc. .

Bogorov's neologisms make Bulgarians treat him with derision and irony. This is especially clear in the years around Liberation. Setting aside the oddities and extremes of this native Don Quixote, who has devoted his life to the pursuit of his philosophical stone, it is good to remember this assessment:

"In 1879 we traveled with Drinova through the Balkan Mountains to Berkovitsa. It was about the foreigners in our language, and I mentioned to him the oddities of Bogor's "pure Bulgarian language." Our famous scientist said to me: "We have to thank that there is one Bogorov!" this number - we are sinning against the purity of language ”(Ivan Vazov).