Dr. Elitza Stanoeva will present her research proposal on the topic: "1,300 Years Bulgaria" and "750 Years Berlin": Comparing National and International Objectives in Late-socialist Anniversary Celebrations" on 14 April 2016 (Thursday) at 16:30h at CAS Conference Hall.

Summary:

This research project aims at comparing the anniversary of "1300 Years Bulgaria" (1981) and the GDR-staged anniversary of "750 Years Berlin" (1987) in light of their international aspirations and the national implications of their historical narratives.

These two examples of grand celebrations of late socialism were events extraordinary in scale, investment and involvement that intended to reinvigorate regime legitimacy by celebrating the nation-state or the national capital. In that, they served the double function of positive mobilization of the population and international image-building for the countries. Apart from their internationalist ambitions, the anniversary campaigns were also precipitated by deeply rooted national contentions. The dual celebration in the two counterparts of divided Berlin stirred controversies related to the status of both East and West Berlin as well as the GDR, and thus caught in a nutshell the unresolved issues in the inter-German relations. Likewise, the Bulgarian anniversary reflected and affected the state's diplomatic relations within the Balkans: in particular, with Yugoslavia over the Macedonian question and with Romania due to its similar claim of ancient statist roots. Moreover, the historicist turn fueled by the celebration soon provided justification for aggressive identity politics whose climax was the campaign of assimilation and expulsion against the country's Turkish minority. Therefore, both anniversaries are analyzed not only in the perspective of their national programs but also in view of the relations between the two camps in the Cold War's final episode.

As this research project is still in its early stage, the presentation will first outline the research design and especially the comparative directions of analysis and will then elaborate some of the points made based mainly on the Bulgarian case.