Papers of BAS Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 6, 2019, No. 2 Philanthropic activity - building the basis of scientific research in Bulgaria: Donors of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 1869-1911 Tzvetana Velichkova Abstract. The idea for establishing the Bulgarian Learned Society (BLS) in Brăila in 1869 was turned into reality due to the efforts and donations of numerous Bulgar- ian emigrant communities spread across Wallachia, Moldova, Serbia, Austro-Hungary, Istanbul, Russia, Ukraine. The objectives of the Learned Society and its funding during the initial years of its existence were closely associated with the name of Vasil D. Stoyanov and those of some more affluent traders, public figures and revolutionaries. Not only didn’t the restoration of the Bulgarian state in 1878 break this tradition, but it further enriched it in terms of forms of expression, practices and the scope of philanthropic activity. By the time the Society was renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), donors had helped establish the first three donation funds and marked the beginning of a succession of donations for decades to come. One of the most outstanding philan- thropists in Bulgaria, Ivan Evstratiev Geshov, a renowned politician and long-standing president of BLS/BAS, paid off the mortgage of the building of the Academy, as a result of which, in 1911, BLS was renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and continued to function as an independent and autonomous scientific institution. Keywords: donation, donors, auxiliary members, Bulgarian emigration, donation funds In the 1850s and 1860s, in the course of a comprehensive educational and cultural upsurge and the revolutionary events on the Balkans, the idea for the creation of a Bulgarian Learned centre came into fruition among the Bulgar- ian emigration. Following the example of other European nations which had their own Academies and Learned Societies, the progressive and democratic Bulgarian emigration in Russia, Ukraine, Wallachia, Moldova, Serbia, Austro- Hungary, Istanbul and other Bulgarian emigrant communities united their ef- forts and laid the foundations of a new organization which went down in history as the Bulgarian Learned Society (BLS). Led by the desire to create “one national institution, whose single purpose is the dissemination of enlightenment among the peo- ple” (SA of BAS, f. 1К, inv. 1, file 4), representatives of the Bulgarian emigrant 148 groups gathered in the Romanian town of Brăila, where the sessions of the Constitu- ent Assembly from 26 to 30 September / 8 to 12 October 1869 were held. The founders held their sessions in the house of the Bulgarian patriot Varvara Hadzhiveleva in Brăila (Baev 2005, 118-119). Born in Yambol, she had left her native place, as many other fellow countrymen had done in the aftermath of the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829 and the ensuing Treaty of Adri- anople, she had settled in Brăila and joined the Bulgarian emigrant community in the town. She became sponsor to the Bulgarian church “Ascension of the Lord” and donated the land on which the church was built. She held the firm belief that faith, education and knowledge represented the core of the na- tional spirit. Varvara Hadzhiveleva opened Fig. 1. Vasil D. Stoyanov (1839, the doors of her home to the patriotic initia- Zheravna - 1910, Sofia) - a scholar and tive and in doing so she was part of the tradi- public figure, full member and docu- tion of gratuitous donations to the Bulgarian mentalist of the BLS Academy of Sciences. According to Marin Drinov, organizer of the Learned Society, the Society was founded as a result of the apostolic activity of Vasil D. Stoyanov (Fig. 1). While studying at Prague University Stoyanov was under the influence of the numerous Czech organizations and scholars as well as Bulgarian scholars and revolutionaries - Marin Drinov, Sava Dobroplodni, Dobri Voynikov, Georgi Ra- kovski and others. In September 1869, Vasil Stoyanov met Marin Drinov in Prague, whom he had not previously met in person. A decision was reached at the meeting to set up a society, to make it a “done deal”, as Drinov put it, some- thing which no enslaved nation had yet dared to do (SA of BAS, f. 1К, inv. 1, file 42). With the active support of M. Drinov and Vasil Drumev, Vasil Stoyanov tirelessly visited all the towns with Bulgarian communities in Wallachia and Bessarabia in search of moral and material support. In 1868, he set off to Bu- charest and from there to Odessa and Brăila. Everywhere he went as an ad- vocate of the idea of the Society, he encountered the support and agreement of the Bulgarian emigrant communities and managed to win over followers and adherents among the Bulgarian traders and entrepreneurs. Those were well-off people who donated money for its establishment and provided the initial financial support. The active campaign for the collection of material resource started in 1868 and actively went on into the first half of 1869. Re- corded in the Kondika (the Book of accounts) (Fig. 2) of the future Society are the names of 322 patriotic Bulgarians, who expressed their readiness to donate and enthusiasm about the idea of its creation (SA of BAS, f. 1К, inv. 1, file 1). 149 Fig. 2. Kondika with the names of the sponsors supporting the creation 150 of the Bulgarian Learned Society. Odessa, 11 December 1868 151 By 1869, with the voluntary sacrifice of those Bulgarians, the gross capital of the Society had amounted to 3,000 roubles. In the list of sponsors, we see the names of Nikolay Toshkov, Stefan D. Toshkovich, the brothers Evlogi Georgiev and Hristo Georgiev, Nikolay Hr. Palauzov, Todor Puliev, Mina Pashov, Stan- cho D. Uvaliev, Spiridon Stomanyakov, Todor Minkov, Petar Odzhakov, Dimi- tar Bobov, Ivan Gyuzelev and many others. Written next to their names is the amount of the respective donation, ranging from 4 roubles to 15,000 roubles. Some of those people were reputable traders and public figures, others were writers, educators, luminaries and revolutionaries, e.g.: Vasil Drumev, Todor Peev, Dobri Voynikov, Rayko Zhynzifov, Ivan Kasabov, Lyuben Karavelov, Hris- to Botev, Dimitar Tsenovich, Todor Ikonomov, Nesho Bonchev, Nayden Gerov, etc. Kept in the archive, as a sure sign of the patriotic nature of the BLS, are the receipts for the donated sums by famous Bulgarian patriots, among whom was the Apostle of Freedom Vasil Levski. On 3 January 1870 he donated for this no- ble enterprise 22 francs and 70 bani (SA of BAS, f. 1К, inv. 1, file 547). With no existing public financial fund in the country, it was only through the voluntary sacrifices of the Bulgarians living in the big emigrant centres of the time that the foundations of the new academic institution were being laid. Kept to this day, the Brăila archive collection in the Scientific archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) contains letters of appreciation to some of our first benefactors. It is from them that we learn about the generous donations and “most treasured contributions” of the auxiliary members of BLS (Snegarov et al. 1966, 156-157) Georgi Papazovich and the noble gesture of Maria Konstan- tinova (SA of BAS, f. 1К, inv. 1, file 61), who donated all the financial means bequeathed to her by her parents to the Society (Velichkova 2009, 39-41). Admittedly, the Society was faced with great difficulties in the early years of its existence - lack of experience, paving new pathways for the organization to follow, personal rivalries and difference of opinion between the separate emi- grant centres about the character and purposes of the Society, and above all - chronic funding shortages. Many were the promises for generous donations recorded in the Kondika which turned nothing but empty. Even one of the seemingly most ardent supporters of the enterprise in the preliminary stage of the whole process, the Odessa trader Nikolay Toshkov, never fulfilled his com- mitments (Bozhkov et al. 1971, 14). Despite all obstacles, relying on scarce financial means, the organization had its first full, corresponding and honorary members, as well as its own publi- cation organ - “Periodical Journal” (1870). With the efforts of a circle of activists, which inevitably included Marin Drinov, Vasil Drumev (the future Metropoli- tan Kliment of Tarnovo), Vasil D. Stoyanov, Todor Peev, Nikolay Tsenov, and with the noble material support of renowned representatives of the Bulgarian emigrant communities and foreign adherents, the library, archive and museum collection were set up. The ambition of the Society, as postulated in its Statutes, was to assemble collections of old Bulgarian and foreign books, manuscripts, etc., which would comprise the so-called “antique cabinet”. It is this cabinet that epitomized today’s Academy archive and library, the future National museum of Archeology and Museum of Natural history at the Bulgarian Academy of Sci- ences. Initially collected were documents recording the activity of the Learned 152 Society, old manuscripts, donated by patriotic Bulgarians. The Society Library was established with a view to building up a fund of old Bulgarian and foreign literature, newspapers and journals about the history of the Bulgarian people and country, necessary for the purposes of the Learned Society and the educa- tion of the Bulgarians. With no money available for purchasing books or other objects, the beginning was made with the donations of private individuals and scientific institutions. One of the first benefactors of the future Academic Li- brary was Dr. Petar Beron, who was one of the most esteemed and authoritative Bulgarian scientists of his time (SA of BAS, f. 1К, inv. 1, file 51, 64). He donated part of his works to the Society. His example was promptly followed by the Sla- vonic charitable committees in Moscow (SA of BAS, f.