Details

Subject(s)

• Communism and science—Bulgaria—History—20th century [Browse]
• Bulgaria—Social conditions—1944-1989 [Browse]

Series

Routledge histories of central and eastern Europe

Summary note

"The book explores the intellectual history of Bulgaria between the 1960s and the 1980s at the intersections of the country's social and political history. Based on case studies, the research delves into three areas: the control and pressure mechanisms used on science and the university; the clash of ideas while performing the formal and hidden functions of academia in a communist regime setting; the processes whereby research and academia acquire a relative autonomy and alternative academic communities are being formed amidst the eroding ideological legitimacy of the regime. Centred on the concept of the 'incident', this setup allowed us to eschew the narratives around the role of the dissidents or 'freedom as a gift' and interpret society's transformation as the outcome of intersecting and overlaying sectoral events, which gathered strength down the years and lay the ground for the eruption labelled here as the 'Big Event of 1989'"-- Provided by publisher.

Source of description

Description based on print version record.

Contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface/Acknowledgements
• Introduction: On this book's nature and objectives
• Notes
• 1 Seizing power and institutionalisation of "the new socialist science"
• Purging the university
• De-Stalinisation and swift re-Stalinisation in the university
• 2 The Zhelyu Zhelev case: Sinning against faith and the party Themis
• Claiming subjectivity through individual action: Eventual subjectivity
• How to use the topsy-turvy political speak
• Types of party discourses
• of the prosecution, of the defence and of the defendant
• Radical honesty or venal pragmatism?
• Structure and event in a post-Stalinist society
• Theoretical outcomes (1): A sense of community awakens. Small groups of civic engagement
• 3 The Ivan Slavov case: Between the threat of social exclusion and the moral sanction of the group
• A pamphleteer versus communist logomorphia
• Private life as pretext for political blackmail
• "The betrayal" as a private drama and test for the group's integrity
• The excommunication from the group as a loss of identity
• Theoretical outcomes (2): On actions committed under duress and amidst severe freedom shortage
• 4 The Nikolay Genchev case: Against historiography as the chambermaid of politics or life in two parallel worlds
• Broadening the solidarity field
• The early Nikolay Genchev and the history of the Algerian revolution
• For a national
• rather than class
• history. A critique of official historiography
• A personal story morphing into social history. Tearing apart and sewing together of the physical author and his ideas
• New challenges. Initiating the debate on Bulgaria's political system between the two World Wars
• Changes in the intentional background of action. Nikolay Genchev: The "double contingency" principle
• The dual use of the primary party organisation. Nikolay Genchev, an expert in the guerrilla warfare in the jungle of the party's chain of command
• 5 The Zhelyu Zhelev case (continued): Between truth and authority
• creation of "the revisionists"
• Attempts at a philosophical position in the context of modern times
• The artfulness of a small man in the battle for survival
• Zhelyu Zhelev, the postgraduate student and Todor Pavlov, the academician
• Samizdat within the bounds of legality. The scandal
• a publicity strategy in a closed system
• The contrivance of scientific facts through text-substituting "translations"
• The informal public sphere
• how it functions?
• A purging trend at the Philosophy Faculty
• From criticising leading to wrenching Lenin out of the dogmatic stranglehold. The generational discourse as political speak in disguise

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ISBN

• 1-00-301987-0
• 1-003-01987-0
• 1-000-05080-7

OCLC

1130327905

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