The National Museum of Military History was founded in 1916 following a decree of Tsar Ferdinand in order to store for time immemorial the artefacts related to major events of Bulgaria’s military history. It has been part of the country’s cultural and historical space for almost a century now, storing more than 1,000,000 valuable items that have witnessed Bulgarian and European military history. On February 7^th, the museum welcomes its guests with a renewed exhibition and a children’s museum called “Thinkers, Inventors, Heroes”.

“We have been considering this idea for a long time and we had the chance to implement it with the financial support of America for Bulgaria Foundation and I am happy that we can already offer it to children – our most faithful audience”, says the director of the Museum of Military History, Sonya Penkova, adding:

“If we make an abbreviation from the motto of our museum “Thinkers, Inventors, Heroes”, we can read the name of a military craft – the MIG fighter, which is also our entertaining way to welcome our guests to the museum. Our desire is to draw children here in order to show them that it is not war and armed conflicts that can solve the contradictions between us – within the framework of personal relationships, communities and even nations. It is namely this that we rely on: teaching them the values of tolerance, mutual aid, respect to people and ideas.  This is what we want to achieve with the active participation of children who, via playing different roles, will be able to solve problems, imagining they are famous figures of Bulgarian history. We have taken care so that the youngest visitors to the museum could successfully play the part of these characters. They will get dressed in costumes of different historical epochs specially tailored for them. They will be given medals for a task well done. And they will be able to take the place of an ordinary Bulgarian soldier in a tent, on the front line, put a helmet and military armour, and they will be able to feel the burden of being a soldier on their own shoulders. These strategic and role games will encourage children to learn more about the traditions and values of the Bulgarian army and about Bulgarian history from a very early age”.

In this journey across the new museum, children will be accompanied by two invented heroes. Who are they and what is their intended role?  The names of the heroes were selected via a children’s competition for the purpose, says Sonya Penkova:

“The names were proposed by two siblings from Sofia, a boy and a girl, and they will be called Hrabrin and Hrabrina (the chivalrous boy and girl). The jury was overwhelmed with proposals with all kinds of children’s names, both concrete and metaphorical ones such as Warrior and Victory. These young heroes will tell stories of important figures of Bulgarian history, ordinary people, inventors, they will play and study together with children. And the two kids who came up with these names will receive a gift – free access to the museum all year round”.

English version: Rossitsa Petcova