The 'Bulgarians' ( or '''bǎlgari''') are a
South Slavic people generally associated with the
Republic of Bulgaria and the
Bulgarian language. There are Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries, too.
Ethnogenesis
Bulgarians are said to have descended from three main ethnic groups which mixed on the
Balkans during the 6th - 10th century. The first one being the local tribes - the
Thracians, the second one - the
Slavs, who gave their language to the modern ethnic Bulgarians and the third - the
Bulgars, from whom the
ethnonym and the statehood were inherited.
In physical appearance, Bulgarian population is characterized by the features of the
southern European anthropological type with some additional influence of other ethnic groups. Genetically, modern Bulgarians are more closely related to the other Balkan populations -
ethnic Macedonians,
Greeks and
Romanians, than to the rest of the
Europeans and the
Mediterranean people
[1][2].
The Thracians
Main articles: Thracians
The ethnic contribution of the indigenous
Thracian and
Daco-
Getic population, who had lived on the territory of modern Bulgaria before the Slavic invasion has been long debated among the scientists during the 20th century. Some recent genetic studies suggest that these peoples have indeed made a significant contribution to the genes of the modern Bulgarian population.
[3] This is also apparent in the
Mediterranean physical anthropological type of the modern Bulgarians. The ancient languages of the local people had already gone extinct before the arrival of the Slavs, and their cultural influence was highly reduced due to the repeated barabaric invasions on the Balkans during the early
Middle Ages by
Huns,
Goths,
Celts and
Sarmatians, accompanied by persistent
hellenization,
romanisation and later
slavicisation.
The Slavs
Main articles: South Slavs
The Slavs emerged from their original homeland (most commonly thought to have been in
Eastern Europe) in the early 6th century, and spread to most of the eastern
Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, thus forming three main branches - the
West Slavs, the
East Slavs and the
South Slavs. The easternmost South Slavs became part of the ancestors of the modern Bulgarians, which however, are genetically clearly separated from the tight
DNA cluster of the most Slavic peoples. This phenomenon is explained by “the genetic contribution of the people who lived in the region before the Slavic expansion”
[4].
The Bulgars
Main articles: Bulgars
The Bulgars were a seminomadic people thought to have spoken a
Turkic language, who during the 2nd century migrated from
Central Asia into the North
Caucasian steppe. Between
377 and
453 they took part in the
Hunnic raids on
Central and
Western Europe. After
Attila's death in
453, and the subsequent disintegration of the
Hunnic Empire, the Bulgar tribes dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe. In the late
7th century, some Bulgar tribes, led by
Asparukh and others, led by
Kouber, permanently settled in the
Balkans, joining the southern
Slavic tribes[5]. Together, the two peoples formed the
First Bulgarian Empire in
680-
681.
The Others
Other steppe peoples who also contributed to the Bulgarian ethnogenesis include small numbers of
Kumans,
Pechenegs and
Avars who after the disintegration of their tribal unions during the
Middle Ages spread all over the Balkans eventually fully assimilating with the local populations. Presently the significant minorities of Bulgaria include
Turks,
Armenians,
Vlachs,
Roma and
Greeks. Even though they have preserved their cultural heritages to a certain exent, they are being gradually assimilated through intermarriages, especially in the Greek, Vlach and Armenian communities.
The "Ex"
Bulgarians are culturally, linguistically and genetically very closely related to
ethnic Macedonians, with their both languages being mutually intelligible. The overwhelming majority of the ancestors of the present-day
ethnic Macedonians did, in fact, identify themselves as Bulgarians until the middle of the 20th century. A high profile example included
Lazar Koliševski who succeeded
Tito as President of
Yugoslavia. Originally born
Kolishev, he later adopted an ethnic Macedonian identity and chanded his surname as many others who were forced to in that period. Citizens of the
Republic of Macedonia who identify as ethnic Bulgarians have nevertheless survived, and composed about 0.5% of the population at the last census. Bulgaria has maintained a policy of making the procedure as easy as possible for Macedonian nationals who claim Bulgarian origin to claim citizenship.
[6] During the last few years in which Bulgaria saw rising economic prosperity and admission to the
EU, many citizens of Republic of Macedonia have applied for Bulgarian citizenship in this way.
[4]
Population
Most Bulgarians live in the Republic of
Bulgaria. There are significant traditional Bulgarian minorities in
Moldova and
Ukraine (
Bessarabian Bulgarians), as well as smaller communities in
Romania (
Banat Bulgarians),
Serbia (the
Western Outlands),
Greece, the
Republic of Macedonia,
Albania, and
Hungary. Many Bulgarians also live in the diaspora, which is formed by representatives and descendants of the old (before 1989) and new (after 1989) emigration. The old emigration was made up of some 160,000 economic and several tens of thousands of political emigrants, and was directed for the most part to the
USA,
Canada,
Argentina and
Germany. The new emigration is estimated at some 700,000 people and can be divided into two major subcategories: permanent emigration at the beginning of the 1990s, directed mostly to the
USA,
Canada,
Austria, and
Germany and labour emigration at the end of the 1990s, directed for the most part to
Greece,
Italy, the
UK and
Spain. Migrations to the West have been quite steady even in the late 1990s and early 21st century, as people continue moving to countries like the US, Canada and Australia. Most Bulgarians living in the US can be found in
Chicago, IL. However, according to the 2000 US census most Bulgarians live in the cities of
New York and
Los Angeles, and the state with most Bulgarians in the US is
California.
The largest urban populations of Bulgarians are to be found in
Sofia (1,241,000),
Plovdiv (378,000), and
Varna (352,000)
[7]. The total number of Bulgarians thus ranges anywhere from 7 to 8 million, depending solely on the estimation used for the diaspora.
Bulgarian Communist Dictator Todor Zhivkov's forcibly deporting Turkish ethnic minority
Around the year 1989, Bulgarian
Communist and
Nationalist dictator came up with a harsh
nationalistic doctrine of deporting all
Turks out of the country. More than 300,000 sadly left everything behind.
Todor Zhivkov showed no mercy and seized their properties after they forcibly thrown out. This stains the Bulgarian history, as the biggest
nazi remark. This negative action opened the way to demise and collapse of Zhivkov as well as communism in Bulgaria. Later he was arrested for using of government funds, and embezzlement of monies, as well as hatred crimes he committed. It is now expected that the links between
Turkish ethnic minority and Bulgarian start and get stronger again.
Culture
What was done in the past
The old version of the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
Medieval Bulgaria was the most important cultural centre of the
Slavic people at the end of the 9th and throughout the 10th century. The two literary schools of
Preslav and
Ohrid developed a rich literary and cultural activity with authors of the rank of
Constantine of Preslav,
John Exarch,
Chernorizets Hrabar,
Clement and
Naum of Ohrid. In the first half of the 10th century, the
Cyrillic alphabet was devised in the
Preslav Literary School based on the
Glagolitic and the
Greek alphabets. Modern versions of the alphabet are now used to write five more
Slavic languages such as
Belarusian,
Macedonian,
Russian,
Serbian and
Ukrainian as well as
Mongolian and some other 60 languages spoken in the former
Soviet Union.
Bulgaria exerted similar influence on her neighbouring countries in the mid to late 14th century, at the time of the
Turnovo Literary School, with the work of
Patriarch Evtimiy,
Grigoriy Tsamblak,
Constantine of Kostenets (Konstantin Kostenechki). Bulgarian cultural influence was especially strong in
Wallachia and
Moldova where the
Cyrillic alphabet was used until 1860, while
Slavonic was the official language of the princely
chancellery and of the church until the end of 17th century.
Art and science
Bulgarians have made valuable contributions to world culture in modern times as well.
Julia Kristeva and
Tzvetan Todorov were among the most influential European philosophers in the second half of the 20th century.
Nicolai Ghiaurov,
Boris Christoff,
Raina Kabaivanska and
Ghena Dimitrova made a precious contribution to
opera singing with Ghiaurov and Christoff being two of the greatest
bassos in the post-war period. The artist
Christo is among the most famous representatives of
environmental art with projects such as the
Wrapped Reichstag.
Bulgarians in the diaspora have also been active. American scientists and inventors of Bulgarian descent include
John Atanasoff,
Peter Petroff, and
Assen Jordanoff. Bulgarian-American
Stephane Groueff wrote the celebrated book "
Manhattan Project", about the making of the first atomic bomb and also penned "Crown of Thorns", a biography of
Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria.
Sport
In sports,
Hristo Stoichkov was one of the best soccer players in the second half of the 20th century, having played with the national team and
FC Barcelona. He received a number of awards and was the joint top scorer at the
1994 World Cup alongside Russia's
Oleg Salenko. High-jumper
Stefka Kostadinova was one of the top ten female athletes of the last century and holds one of the oldest unbroken world records in athletics. In the beginning of the 20th century Bulgaria was famous for two of the best wrestlers in the world -
Dan Kolov and
Nikola Petroff.
Language
Main articles: Bulgarian language
Bulgarians speak a
Southern Slavic language which is closely related to
Serbo-Croatian and is often (mostly words, not sentences) mutually intelligible with it. The
Bulgarian language is also, to a degree, mutually intelligible with
Russian on account of the influence which Russian has had on the development of Modern Bulgarian since 1878, as well as the earlier effect of
Old Bulgarian on the development of
Old Russian. Although related, Bulgarian and the Western and Eastern
Slavic languages are not mutually intelligible.
Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic developments that set it apart from other Slavic languages. These are, however, shared with
Romanian,
Albanian and
Greek (see
Balkan linguistic union). Until 1878 Bulgarian was influenced lexically by medieval and modern
Greek, and to a lesser extent, by
Turkish. More recently, the language has borrowed many words from
Russian,
German and
French.
Some members of the diaspora do not speak the Bulgarian language (mostly representatives of the old emigration in the
USA,
Canada and
Argentina) but are still considered Bulgarians by ethnic origin or descent.
The majority of the Bulgarian linguists, as well as some international ones, consider the officialized since 1944
Macedonian language a local variation of Bulgarian. However, the linguistic consensus suggests that a language is a language if its speakers define it as such.
Bulgarian language is written in the
Cyrillic alphabet.
Name system
Main articles: Bulgarian name
There are several different layers of Bulgarian names. The vast majority of them have either
Christian (names like Lazar,
Ivan, Anna, Maria, Ekaterina) or
Slavic origin (Vladimir, Svetoslav, Velislava). After the Liberation in 1878, the names of historical
Bulgar rulers like
Asparuh,
Krum,
Kubrat and
Tervel were resurrected. The old Bulgar name
Boris has spread from Bulgaria to a number of countries in the world with Russian
tsar Boris Godunov and German tennis player
Boris Becker being two of the examples of its use.
Most Bulgarian male surnames have an ''-ov''
surname suffix (
Cyrillic: ''-ов''). This is sometimes
transcribed as ''-off'' (John Atanasov —
John Atanasoff, but more often as ''-ov'' e.g.
Hristo Stoichkov). The ''-ov'' suffix is the Slavic gender-
agreeing suffix, thus ''Ivanov'' () really means "Ivan's". Bulgarian middle names use the gender-
agreeing suffix as well, thus the middle name of Nikola's son becomes ''Nikolov'', and the middle name of Ivan's son becomes ''Ivanov''. Since names in Bulgarian are gender-based, Bulgarian women have the ''-ova''
surname suffix (Cyrillic: ''-овa''), for example, ''Maria Ivanova''. The plural form of Bulgarian names ends in ''-ovi'' (Cyrillic: ''-ови''), for example the ''Ivanovi'' family (Иванови).
Other common Bulgarian male surnames have the ''-ev''
surname suffix (Cyrillic: ''-ев''), for example Stoev, Ganchev, Peev, and so on. The female surname in this case would have the ''-eva''
surname suffix (Cyrillic: ''-ева''), for example: ''Galina Stoeva''. The last name of the entire family then would have the plural form of ''-evi'' (Cyrillic: ''-еви''), for example: the ''Stoevi'' family (Стоеви).
Another typical Bulgarian surname suffix, though much less common, is ''-ski''. This surname ending also gets an ''–a'' when the bearer of the name is female (''Smirnenski'' becomes ''Smirnenska''). The plural form of the surname suffix ''-ski'' is still ''-ski'', e.g. the ''Smirnenski'' family ().
The surname suffix ''-ich'' can be found sometimes, primarily among
Catholic Bulgarians. The ending ''–in'' (female ''-ina'') also appears sometimes, though rather seldom. It used to be given to the child of an unmarried woman (for example the son of ''Kuna'' will get the surname ''Kunin'' and the son of ''Gana'' – ''Ganin''). The surname ending ''–ich'' does not get an additional ''–a'' if the bearer of the name is female.
Religion
The St. George Rotunda (4th century AD), Sofia
Most Bulgarians are at least nominally members of the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church founded in 870 AD (
autocephalous since 927 AD). The
Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the independent national church of Bulgaria like the other national branches of
Eastern Orthodoxy and is considered an inseparable element of Bulgarian national consciousness. The church has been abolished twice during the periods of Byzantine (1018—1185) and Ottoman (1396—1878) domination but was revived every time as a symbol of Bulgarian statehood. In 2001, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church had a total of 6,552,000 members in Bulgaria (82.6% of the population) and between one and two million members in the diaspora. The problem with the allegiance of the Orthodox Bulgarian minorities in
Serbia,
Romania,
Moldova and
Ukraine has not yet been settled and Bulgarians in those countries still hold allegiance to the respective national orthodox churches.
Despite the position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a unifying symbol for all Bulgarians, smaller or larger groups of Bulgarians have converted to other faiths or denominations through the course of time. In the 16th and the 17th century
Roman Catholic missionaries converted the Bulgarian
Paulicians in the districts of
Plovdiv and
Svishtov to Roman Catholicism. Nowadays there are some 40,000 Catholic Bulgarians in Bulgaria and additional 10,000 in
Banat in Romania. The Catholic Bulgarians of the Banat are also descendants of Paulicians who fled to Banat at the end of the 17th century after an unsuccessful uprising against the Ottomans.
Between 15th and 18th century, during the
Devlet-i Osmaniye, a large number of Orthodox Bulgarians converted to
Islam. Their descendants now form the second largest religious congregation among the Bulgarians. In 2001, there were 131,000
Muslim Bulgarians in Bulgaria, some 30,000 in the
Xanthi and after Communist Party Leader Todor Zhivkov's racist deportation of muslim communities, some moved down south to
Rhodope Prefecture northeastern Greece and, around 100,000 to
Turkiye, mainly in
Edirne. Zhivkov regimes seized their properties, these forcibly deported groups look forward to re-gaining their property ownerships back in Bulgaria again, as the justice requires. New open minded government of Bulgaria in 2000s are expected to carry this requests out.
Protestantism was introduced in Bulgaria by missionaries from the United States in 1857. Missionary work continued throughout the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. In 2001, there were some 25,000 Protestant Bulgarians in Bulgaria.
.
Symbols
Flag of Bulgaria
Coat of Arms of Bulgaria
The national symbols of the Bulgarians are the
Flag of Bulgaria and the
Coat of Arms of Bulgaria.
The national flag of Bulgaria is a rectangle with three colors: white, green, and red, positioned horizontally top to bottom. The color fields are of same form and equal size. The colors of the flag mean: white — peace, purity; green — nature; red — blood, symbolizing soldiers' blood that had been shed throughout Bulgaria's military history.
The
Coat of Arms of Bulgaria is a state symbol of the sovereignty and independence of the Bulgarian people and state. It represents a crowned rampant golden lion on a dark red background with the shape of a shield. Above the shield there is a crown modelled after the crowns of the kings of the
Second Bulgarian Empire, with five crosses and an additional cross on top. Two crowned rampant golden lions hold the shield from both sides, facing it. They stand upon two crossed oak branches with acorns, which symbolize the power and the longevity of the Bulgarian state. Under the shield, there is a white band lined with the three national colors. The band is placed across the ends of the branches and the phrase "Unity Makes Strength" is inscribed on it.
Both the Bulgarian flag and the Coat of Arms are also used as symbols of various Bulgarian organisations, political parties and institutions.
Population data
1This total population estimate includes only ethnic Bulgarians born in Bulgaria and their descendants abroad.
² Results according to the latest available census held in the country in question and year of the census: Bulgaria (
Census 2001), Canada (
2001), Kazakhstan
1999, Russia
(2002), Serbia and Montenegro (
2002), Ukraine
(2001), USA
(
2002), Slovenia
(2002).
³ Official number of citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria in [ftp://www.statistik.at/pub/neuerscheinungen/vzaustriaweb.pdf Austria],
Germany,
Greece,
Italy and
Spain. The numbers do not include Bulgarian-speaking people without Bulgarian citizenship, except for Spain.
4 Estimates of the ''Agency for Bulgarians Abroad'' for the numbers of ethnic Bulgarians living for the country in question based on data from the Bulgarian Border Police, the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and reports from immigrant associations. The numbers include legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, students and other individuals permanently residing in the country in question as of 2004.
5 Bulgarian embassy, Dublin statistics
6 Government of the Czech Republic: ''Report on the Situation of National Minorities in the Czech Republic in 2001''
References
1. HLA polymorphism in Bulgarians defined by high-resolution typing methods in comparison with other populations.
2. Y-chromosomal diversity in Europe is clinal and influenced primarily by geography, rather than by language
3. Paleo-MtDNA Analysis and population genetic aspects of old Thracian population from South-Eastern Romania
4. Anthropological Evidence and the Fallmerayer Thesis
5. On the origin of the Proto-Bulgarians, by Rasho Rashev
6. Shkodrova, Albena, 2005. Bulgaria's Warm Embrace. Institute for War and Peace Reporting
7. Главна Дирекция Гражданска Регистрация и Административно Обслужване
See also
★
List of Bulgarians
★
Banat Bulgarians
★
Bessarabian Bulgarians
★
Bulgaria
★
Bulgars
★
History of Bulgaria
★
Bulgarian language
★
Music of Bulgaria
★
Bulgarian cuisine
★
Bulgarian-Americans
★
Macedonians (ethnic group)
★
Old Great Bulgaria
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