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The Rise of Bulgarian Nationalism and Russia's Influence Upon It

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The Rise of Bulgarian Nationalism and Russia's Influence Upon It University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2014 The rise of Bulgarian nationalism and Russia's influence upon it. Lin Wenshuang University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Wenshuang, Lin, "The rise of Bulgarian nationalism and Russia's influence upon it." (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1548. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1548 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE RISE OF BULGARIAN NATIONALISM AND RUSSIA‘S INFLUENCE UPON IT by Lin Wenshuang B. A., Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, 1997 M. A., Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, 2002 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Humanities University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky May 2014 Copyright © 2014 by Lin Wenshuang All Rights Reserved THE RISE OF BULGARIAN NATIONALISM AND RUSSIA‘S INFLUENCE UPON IT by Lin Wenshuang B. A., Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, 1997 M. A., Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, 2002 A Dissertation Approved on April 1, 2014 By the following Dissertation Committee __________________________________ Prof. Dr. Mark Blum (Director) __________________________________ Prof. Dr. Charles Ziegler __________________________________ Prof. Dr. Shiping Hua __________________________________ Prof. Dr. Svetlana Stoicheva ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of a dissertation is a long journey. From the beginning of my academic journey, many have contributed to my learning and writing experience. First and foremost, I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my dissertation director, Prof. Mark Blum who has the attitude and the substance of a genius: he always conveyed convincingly a spirit of adventure and creativity in regard to research and scholarship, and an excitement in regard to teaching. Without his guidance and persistent help, I would not been able to complete this dissertation. I would like to thank my committee members, Professor Charles Ziegler, Prof. Hua Shiping and Prof. Svetlana Stoicheva Anderson, whose work demonstrated to me that concern for global affairs should always transcend academia and provide a quest for our times. Their valuable comments and warm support encouraged me to complete this long journey. I am lucky to be part of the joint joint Ph. D. Program between the University of Louisville (UofL) and Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). I appreciate the lectures offered by the professors, which led me to an academic world with humanistic spirit. They are Prof. Annette Allen, Prof. Osborne Wiggins, Prof. Elaine Wise, Prof. Robert St. Clair, Dr. Pamela Beattie from UofL and Prof. Jin Li, Prof. Sun Youzhong, Prof. Zhang Jian, Prof. Wu Yi'an, Prof. Zhang Zaixin and Prof. Chen Guohua from BFSU. My special thanks also go to Dr. Sun Xiujie, the coordinator of the Program, for iii her full support and indispensable help. In addition, I would like to give a ―thank you‖ to Carly Johnson, Rick and Adam of the Virtual Writing Center of UofL, and also to my friend Li Menghong and Ke Liejuan for giving advice on proper writing and their thoughtful and careful editing. I owe also my sincere gratitude to my colleagues: Prof. Ding Chao, Prof. Ge Zhiqiang, Prof. Zhao Gang, Prof. Ke Jing, Prof. Chen Ying, and to our Bulgarian lectors Lyuba Atanasova and Mariana Tian. Their support and warm help have contributed to the completion of my dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my family: my parents, my husband and my baby daughter. Without their continuing love and unconditional support, this dissertation would not have been possible. Thank you all. iv ABSTRACT THE RISE OF BULGARIAN NATIONALISM AND RUSSIA‘S INFLUENCE UPON IT by Lin Wenshuang April 1, 2014 The exercise of nationalism is the assertion of the political sovereignty of a community in the form of a nation-state. In the case of Bulgaria, nationalism, in practice, was a long journey towards the establishment of a Bulgarian nation-state. This dissertation aims to clarify the place and role of nationalism in the reconstruction of the Bulgarian state and to examine to what extent the development of Bulgarian nationalism was influenced by Russia at the vital stage — the 1870s, when the nation fought hard against Ottoman rule and finally achieved national liberation. My motivation for examining Russo-Bulgarian historical, political and cultural relations and Russian elements in the rise of Bulgarian nationalism is to offer an example for future studies in how to construct a rational pattern of relationship between great powers and small nations with common faith and culture. The investigation in this dissertation is conducted in five disciplines: political science (constructivism), historiography, journalism, linguistics and literature. I apply a constructivist approach in discussing the factual ―process and structural change‖ over a period of time in the Bulgarian public world, as well as how Russo-Bulgarian v relations influenced the development of Bulgarian nationalism. Constructivism states that the structure leads actors to redefine their identities and interests in the process of interacting and that structures can be changed through acts of social and public will. By investigating a great number of primary documents, as well as analyzing the linguistic evolution of the Bulgarian, this dissertation concludes that Bulgarian national identity is not fixed or resistant to change, but fluid. It changes according to how the people (particularly the national elites) evaluate the domestic and international circumstances at a certain time and place. By examining the rise of Bulgarian nationalism, this research highlights Russia‘s special and complicated identity represented in the fluidity of Bulgarian national identity, concluding that Russia, as a Great Power, to which the Bulgarian national elites often went, played dual roles in the formation of the Bulgarian national identity and the consolidation of the Bulgarian nationalism. Based on the observation that Bulgarian nationalism played different roles in different historical periods, my project proves that nationalism is a process that defines, creates, and expresses the essential loyalty to the nation, and the term nationalism ought to be viewed in a neutral sense. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................................... 1 What is nationalism and why constructivism? ......................................................... 4 Historical background ............................................................................................ 11 Why 1870s? ........................................................................................................... 14 Why study Russian influence? ............................................................................... 16 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 19 Contribution ........................................................................................................... 21 Overview of chapters ............................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER 1 THE PROCESS AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE THROUGH NATIONALIST EFFORTS – 1760s-1870s ........................................................ 30 1.1 Bourgeois economic relations and new political ideas in the resistance against the Ottoman rule .......................................................................................................... 33 1.2 Participation in the liberation movements of Balkan ―friends‖ and expectation of rescue from ―big Brother‖ ...................................................................................... 39 1.3 From reliance on external forces to action of internal self-liberating .............. 46 1.4 Liberation of Bulgaria – furitless effort to control own destiny ...................... 53 1.5 Discussion ........................................................................................................ 58 vii CHAPTER 2 RUSSIA AND BULGARIAN NATIONALISM ........................ 66 2.1 Russia‘s political concerns in Bulgarian National Revival .............................. 72 2.2 Pan-Slavism and Slavic consciousness ............................................................ 85 2.3 Cultural identification versus political alienation ............................................ 90 CHAPTER 3 PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS REFLECTION IN BULGARIAN MEDIA .................................................................................................................. 97 3.1 Urgent requirement for the independence of the Church ................................. 99 3.2 Pre-state of April Uprising ............................................................................
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