The patriotic initiative linked with the publishing of the luxurious edition of Slavonic-Bulgarian History by Saint Paisius of Hylendar, dedicated to its 250^th anniversary, continues. Georgi Peshev who is part of the team which started the project said that the second edition of Istoriya Slavyanobalgarskaya (Slavonic-Bulgarian History) is due to the huge interest of the Bulgarian readers.

“The first edition was already sent abroad. Bulgaria’s Vice-President Margarita Popova brought that book to Marseille during one of her official visits. She granted the book to one of the city libraries. We gave the Bulgarian Presidency a certain number of volumes. We had to remake some texts, because a team of six or seven experts found some small inaccuracies. That is why the second edition of theSlavonic-Bulgarian History was improved and remade. However, the overall content of the book was preserved and the book looks almost the same as the first edition. We made the first edition dressed in Italian leather and printed on high-quality paper thanks to the financial support of many Bulgarian contributors. We did not make any savings and used the best ink available on the market.”

Why Military Publishing House published the second edition of the book?

“We have been searching for elements of patriotic upbringing. Most people who are employed at the Bulgarian Armed Forces, the National Police and the State Agency for National Security still remember the time when military service was mandatory and there wasn’t any professional army. The young Bulgarian men were also taught to be patriots, which is not the case now. The Finance Directorate of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense decided to provide us financial support. We decided that since the Defense Ministry provided financial help, the publishing house had to be chosen by them. This initiative was also discussed with the Abbot of Zograf Monastery in Mount Athos Archimandrite Ambrosius, who is in fact the intellectual owner of the Slavonic-Bulgarian History.”

Are there any unique and interesting moments in the second edition?

“A team from Saint Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia together with a team of Mount Athos Monastery worked for three consecutive years under the prototype of this edition. It actually consists of two books. One of the books is a phototype copy of the original. We also made a critical edition, because people find it difficult to read from the original. The hand writing was remade in print in this new edition. It is very difficult to understand the combination of phrases. That is why people can see a perfectly remade text on the right side of the pages, which is in line with the subtleties and the rules of the Bulgarian language. Thus, you are able to understand every single word, to read it with the relevant transcription and if you are still struggling to grasp the general idea, you can read how the people from the university and the monastery described that word.”

Currently, the book can be bought in Zograf Monastery in Mount Athos only. Next year, or in 2017, people may find the second luxurious edition of the Slavonic-Bulgarian History in some luxurious bookstores.

The fact that nearly 2.5 million Bulgarians live abroad and they all love and miss their country made the publishing team send some copies to the so-called mixed societies - the Bulgarian-Danish society, the Bulgarian-German society, etc. These societies are of great significance for the preservation of the Bulgarian national spirit. Some books were already sent to libraries in England, the USA and Munich.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov