Southern and Western Slavs in the second half of the nineteenth century in Bulgarian historiography after 1989: research trends and directions

This article aims to present the main trends in the Bulgarian research conducted after 1989 into the history of the Southern Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Bosnian Muslims, and Montenegrins) and the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks) as well as various forms of cooperation between Slavs as Yugoslavism, pan-Slavism, and Neo-Slavism in 1848–1908. The review allows to recognize trends that have been developing after the fall of communism (Bulgarian relations with Serbs, Croats, and Czechs) and those that have been neglected to a greater or lesser extent1(Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Bosniak, and Montenegrin issues). While we can easily explain this regress in Slovak, Bosnian, and Slovenian topics – after all, Bulgarians have only limited relationships with these nations – this cannot be said of Polish and Montenegrin issues, with which Bulgarians had strong relationships in the second half of the 19th century.