This section was established in 1960 under the name “[Bulgarian] National Awakening” and is direct heir to until then autonomous in the Academy’s system Botev-Levski Institute, which the same year was integrated to the Institute on History. Botev-Levski Institute itself originated from the Hristo Botev Scientific Institute, established in 1945, guided by Mihail Dimitrov as its head. The secretary was Alexander Burmov. In 1953 the institute was renamed to Botev-Levski with Mihail Dimitrov as its director and Ivan Undzhiev as its secretary, and was ultimately integrated to the organizational structure of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In the early 1970s the Section on National Awakening was enlarged by encompassing the discussion-and-research group History of the Bulgarian people in ХV-ХVIII centuries with the Section on Medieval history of Bulgaria, as both scientific divisions have built close cooperation and interaction and were refurbished to make up an integral section of History of the Bulgarian people in ХV-ХIX centuries. Since 2011 the section has been bearing its current name The Bulgarians, the Ottoman Empire and Europe.
During past decades a number of distinguished scholars worked here. They have crucially contributed to shedding essential light to Bulgarian past from the epoch of Ottoman conquests to Bulgaria’s Liberation. We will mention but some of the names who are no more: Academy fellow Mihail Dimitrov, Prof. Ivan Undzhiev, Prof. Krumka Sharova, Prof. Virginia Paskaleva, Prof. DSc. Zina Markova, Prof. DSc. Velko Tovev, Prof. DSc. Doyno Doynov, Prof. DSc. Bistra Tsvetkova, Prof. DSc. Elena Grozdanova, Academy’s corresponding member DSc. Vera Mutafchieva, Assoc. Prof. PhD. Yoanna Spisarevska.
The Section members develop multifaceted activities centered on research, divulgation, teaching and giving expert opinion. Basic accent in the section’s work still from its establishing has remained conducting fundamental scientific research on political, socio-economic and cultural-religious life in Bulgarian lands and their contact zones in ХV-ХIХ centuries as well as identifying and publishing Bulgarian and foreign sources on this period of Bulgarian history.
The section was successively led by Academy Fellow Mihail Dimitrov (until 1966), Prof. Ivan Undzhiev (until 1972), Prof. Krumka Sharova (until 1989), Senior First-grade Research associate (later converted into Prof. DSc.) Rumyana Radkova (until 1992), Senior First-grade Research associate (Prof. DSc.) Nikolay Zhechev (until 1994), Senior First-grade Research associate (Prof. DSc.) Iliya Todev (until 2012) and Assoc. Prof. PhD Olga Todorova (until 2022).
STAFF:
Plamen Bozhinov, assoc. prof. PhD (acting supervisor)
Antoaneta Kirilova, assoc. prof. PhD
Stefka Parveva, assoc. prof. PhD
Daniela Vitchkova-Nusheva, chief asst. prof. PhD
Stefan Dimitrov, chief asst. prof. PhD
Krastyo Yordanov, chief asst. prof. PhD
Mariya Levkova-Mutchinova, chief asst. prof. PhD
Ivaylo Naydenov, chief asst. prof. PhD
Dimitar Hristov, chief asst. prof. PhD (secretary)
Boryana Aleksandrova-Goleva, specialist
Former members:
Iliya Todev, prof. DSc
Olga Todorova, assoc. prof. PhD
Lyubomila Solenkova, chief asst. prof. PhD