EFFORTS OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMIC society IN BULGARIA TO SAVE
the MEMORY FOR THE RUISSIANS ABROAD
The study of the different aspects and problems of the Russians living abroad and the publishing of the results from them have become one of the main directions of development of the activity of the Russian Academic Society in Bulgaria (RASB). The unique book album “The Russian Immigrants in Bulgaria: history and modern times”, which was highly commended, sets an example to this effect.
While preparing the book album the publishers arrived at the conclusion that the personal memories of the representatives of the Russian-speaking community are of interest not only for the members of their families but that they allow, through concrete examples, to follow history and the current situation of this community in Bulgaria.
If there is no awareness of the importance, which the publication of the memories will have, as well as the enormous meticulous (but very pleasant and important) efforts to collect, arrange and describe the documents of the family archives, these materials would not be published. This should be done now and without delay. The closer the author is to the collection of the materials from the source, the higher number of details he would be able to reproduce and describe. This would be a harder task for the next generations. One should do it most of all for his family and himself and then .. to share the happiness of his memory with the others. The specific human stories will make it possible to tell the amazing history of the Russian immigrants in Bulgaria. It will set an example for the ancestors of the Russian immigrants in the other countries, so that they could carry out similar activity in their countries.
Our memory keeps valuable information! We wish to see higher activity to this end on the part of the Russian immigrants residing in Bulgaria. We would often hear the argument that the information of the family archives is only of interest for a given person or the closest members of the family or that the said information has no public relevance.
It is namely for these purposes – the collection, preservation and discussion of the memories of contemporaries – that the Russian Academic Union in Bulgaria has begun holding the historical and scientific seminar “Along the Waves of Our Memory” at the Russian Cultural and Information Centre in Sofia. The participants in the seminar get familiarized with the fates of different families through documents of the family archives. We believe that this could be a highly useful form of involving representatives of the older generation in the building up of an active position as EU citizens. Several sessions of the seminar have already been held.
The competition announced by RASB within the project “Steps Towards Active European Citizеnship” had a similar goal – description of the life of your immigrant family. Participating in the competition were representatives of different Bulgarian towns. In their literary essays on the topic “My new life in Bulgaria” the participants in the contest shared their experience after the immigration, the problems and happy moments of their new life. The contest has been closed and the winner was awarded with a trip to Germany financed under the project.
Along with this, RASB collects photos of immigrants of the latest wave as they are most interesting in terms of the project goals.
The materials are collected and published in the Russian-language media in Bulgaria and, mostly, in RASB’s media partner, “Russia Today”. It is planned to publish a special edition, which will include the materials of this seminar, the essays from the contest and photos of the family archives of representatives of the Russian-speaking immigrants.