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Polina Spartyanova

    To enjoy the exhibits at the Bulgarian National Museum of History one should know two things, namely the Bulgarian language and the history of the territory of today's Bulgaria. Otherwise, one will have to pay a lot of money to see some artefacts from the past 5500 years of the history of the Bulgarian lands.
    The National Museum of History in Sofia is one of the largest museums in the Balkans with more than 700,000 cultural monuments and an impressive archaeological and historical archive, but, at the same time, it could also fall in the ranking of the most poorly maintained historical collections in Europe. Upon entering the park of the museum, I faced a variety of monuments, stone pillars, sarcophagi and other artefacts dating back to antiquity and the Middle Ages. Maybe they have been arranged precisely here for the National Archaeological Institute and the Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Science has no room for them. Even before entering the actual museum of history, I was feeling a little embarrassed in view of the history of the territory of today's Bulgaria since I saw a military helicopter parked near the archaeological finds, without any explanation.
    When I climbed the marble staircase of the history museum, I was confused again. There I saw several headless statues from the Roman era, which had no explanatory signs and, for a moment, I thought that they were part of the decor of the former communist residence. Unfortunately, they were not the only exhibits without explanatory signs and as I walked through the various rooms and eras, I often wondered what I was actually seeing. Some of the artefacts were exhibited without description and information on where they have been found and the period they date back to, which had naturally deprived the showcases of my attention. Several halls and ages later, while I was examining the main figures of the Bulgarian National Revival, I came to the portraits of Sophronius of Vratsa and Zachary Zograph who had also remained unnamed and unimportant for the Bulgarian spiritual revival. There is no way of knowing who these Bulgarians are, unless you pay extra for a guide, which is is probably the solution to the riddle of the anonymous exhibits on the part of the management of the National Museum of History.
    The building, which today houses the National Museum of History, was the official residence of the last communist leader in Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, and therefore it is not very suitable for museum exhibitions. The huge staircases and corridors in the building cannot be fully utilized as a museum space and some of the rooms are not big enough to display several eras at once, as in the case of the Thrace Hall. The numerous exhibits in the hall, including different types of Thracian weapons, ornaments and stone applications show the rise of the Odrysian kingdom and its flourishing, the focus being on the world famous Panagyurishte Treasure. The work of goldsmiths of the early Hellenistic era that combines ancient Greek motifs with Thracian and Achaemenid styling techniques enjoys great attention from visitors to the National Museum of History and probably it is the best-maintained exhibit at the museum, precisely for this reason. While the Panagyurishte Treasure is as neat as a new pin, other historical artefacts in some of the surrounding glass windows are thick with dust, which makes me wonder if one should judge a treasure according to its maintenance, as the museum employees obviously do.
    If you do not know that Bulgaria was under the Ottoman rule for five centuries which had constantly terrorized its population, there is no way for the exhibition at the National Museum of History to make you aware of one of the most important historical periods of Bulgaria. One of the most difficult and bloody periods in Bulgarian history is represented by several oriental ornaments and objects of the Ottoman life. The undue suffering and deprivation of hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian families during the rule of the Ottoman Empire is not present. At the expense of the Bulgarian tragedy that lasted 500 years, the National Museum of History offers visitors the opportunity to explore the monuments of ecclesiastical art from this period as "the Christian faith is the major factor uniting Bulgarians during the five-century period of dominion," according to the multimedia presentation at the museum.
    The section presenting the development of the Third Bulgarian state after the liberation on 3 March 1878 is dedicated to the history of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia and the struggle for national unity. A significant part of the exhibits present the politicians and public figures involved in Bulgaria’s recovery and development, but mostly with their personal belongings and with scarce biographical information. It seems as though these people have fallen behind the glass showcase panes at the National Museum of History for having been awarded a significant number of medals for unknown activity.

     The National Museum of History also presents the period from the liberation of Bulgaria ​​to1944, when the country fell under totalitarian control. A flag of this period and brief information on the communist authorities in a small glass showcase present the communist regime to 1989, failing to mention the history of 45 years of repressive communist rule, like the five centuries of Ottoman rule, and its effects on the Bulgarian nation are ignored. It is as if those fifty years have not happened and thousands of innocent people have not lost their lives because of the oppressive power of the Bulgarian Communist Party. No wonder that, nowadays, there are still Bulgarians who feel nostalgia towards the Communist Party and who are weary as regards socialist Bulgaria. If the National Museum of History cannot recall the dark side of the past of the Bulgarian people, then what is the point of reminding them of the beauty and brilliance of its history?! Ultimately, this misguided opinion remains only for the truest patriots and chauvinists in Bulgaria.
    When Paisius of Hilendar was writing "Slavonic-Bulgarian History" in XVIII, telling the story of the Bulgarian people, he sought to awake the national awareness of the Bulgarians and to make them believe that, in historical terms, they had sufficient grounds for high national consciousness and pride. Nowadays, when we are fighting the economic and political crisis in Bulgaria, the National Museum of History must play the role of the modern Paisius and remind us of both Bulgaria’s rise and fall in order to not lose our faith in the brighter future.