Before Oblivion Comes, a book by BNR journalist Rumen Stoichkov

published on 12/11/12 12:33 PM

Photo: archive

A book featuring a mosaic of routes had a double premiere in Sofia: at the International Book Fair that has just closed in the National Palace of Culture, and at the Sofia City Library. Its author is Rumen Stoichkov, journalist from the Horizont Channel of the Bulgarian National Radio. The asset of the new book is that it takes readers astray from traditional tourist routes. It is our guide as we revisit legends and the facts of history about Thracian shrines, walk along Roman roads and stop by old and forgotten churches and small, depopulated villages. The book consists of 74 reports made over the last ten years.

“About fifty of the reports are about little known villages, some of them completely forgotten and even absent from the map of Bulgaria. There are 15 reports about small towns in Bulgaria such as Varshets, Majarovo, Oryahovo, Lom, Teteven, Aprilitsi and others”, Rumen Stouchkov said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria. “There are ten reports I have made about Bulgarian communities abroad – in Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Austria. There is a report about the Rakovishki Monastery located close to the border with Serbia. It is important in history since the decision for an uprising against the Ottoman Empire was made in it. The rebellion was planned to break out in Northwestern Bulgaria, and was conceived 26 years before the tragic April Uprising of 1876.”

In the foreword to the book Rumen Stoichkov writes, “In my reports I have always tried to single out a problem that troubles a certain village such as unemployment, bad roads, poverty, a church about to collapse, a cultural center, school or nursery school about to close doors, etc. This entails depopulation, and eventually, the disappearance of the place from the map of Bulgaria. Well, as I traveled to make my reports, there was positive information too. It came from legends, the local natural scenery and traditions, the folklore and the wisdom of the local people.”

In this way the journalist has provided a record of villages and values that are threatened with oblivion. His book is in support of the efforts of those who try to counter depopulation and oblivion by building new tourist routes and trails, guesthouses and by the restoration of churches. Apart from the reports the book contains an interview with late Petar Uvaliev, an erudite and a wise man. He was a theoretician of art, literary critic, writer, broadcaster and polyglot. This interview is a gesture of veneration to an almost extinct breed of encyclopedic intellectuals that we should not forget ever.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

По публикацията работи: Veneta Pavlova

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Before Oblivion Comes, a book by BNR journalist Rumen Stoichkov

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