Prof. Ivanov, the third volume of „The Bulgarians“ has been published, in which you maintain an optimistic tone, against the backdrop of pessimism in Bulgaria?
Thank you to you and your authoritative media. First, we are on the threshold of global changes, in the course of which weak countries will want order and the strong will redistribute chaos. Second, whoever loses spirit and friends will sink into darkness and will have to learn hard historical lessons. Book 3 is an idea for salvation in Jurassic Park. It is a look far back to outline the Bulgarians far ahead, based on facts and patterns that have been known since the time of Rakovski. History develops and comes out of the “Byzantine circle”, where we have been a barbaric non-European unwanted formation since 681.
When allies were needed against the Arabs, Tatars, etc., it suddenly turned out that we were Europeans. Today it is the same. Why is there no talk of Volga and Kubrat Bulgaria, of Duloba, what is bothering us to boldly say that the borders of Europe (and the Bulgarians!) are in the Urals? In the three books I propose a methodology with which to evaluate our path through the millennia without dividing ourselves into camps. So far, geopolitics has allowed us this, our scientists before and after the Liberation had such information.
The authors before us did not have the evidence of genetics, linguistics, archeology, discussions about the civilizations in Sumer and India. And most importantly – global information networks have given us access to world knowledge and the opinions of thousands of researchers who have traveled, seen, translated, lived and heard about the antiquity of the Bulgarians around the world. They point out objective facts - we are surrounded by the great civilizations of China, India, Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Rome, there is no way we can survive by chance, without our own large-scale spiritual and material structures.
Whichever version of our origin we take, which Bulgaria we point out, from the Volga and Bactria, through Scythia to the Adriatic, we are at the center of the world whirlpool, we have the best natural and climatic conditions and prerequisites for rise. But our elite has shrunk to a neighborhood with its understandings.
It is difficult to prove such large scales!
On the contrary, Bulgaria has been called the “State of the Spirit“ by great scientists and world leaders, it is as big as the Cyril and Methodius cause. Vladivostok is an old Bulgarian name and means “Lord of the East“. Veli-mir, Vladi-mir, Bala-mer are our names, they have been in the Balkans and on the Dnieper and the Volga since the beginning of time. We are like the Greeks, today they are a small country, but they left a great cultural and historical heritage. The difference is that our empires are land-based, while the Greeks are based on coastal cities. Read Nikolay Derzhavin – he says that the Preslav and Ohrid literary schools created the Church-Slavic civilizational community. Geographically and linguistically it roughly coincides with the empire of the Hunno-Bulgarians in the 5th century.
This again raises the question of what kind of people we are, where do we come from?
There is no need to philosophize much. We open the Internet and see the people depicted in the Kazanlak tomb, we go outside and see the same wonderful copper-red people. This is us - the Bulgarians. All tribes close to us are described physically and metaphorically in this way (Alani-scarlet, Asi-shining, Aryans-enlightened, Beli-bel-g-ari). We know that wine left traces on the hair and bodies of the Thracians, the Slavs are also light. In the 10th century, the Rus also appeared, rising in place of the Getae empire, the Hun-Bulgarian empire, Kubrat's and Volga Bulgaria.
At some point, the brothers had a chance to lead within Great Moravia, it is no coincidence that the mission of Cyril and Methodius (with Bulgarian names Tsarho and Strahota) was there - from Paeonia to Pannonia and Polonia. The Polish nobility was proud of its Sarmatian origin, wore khokhl on their shaved heads and ruled Moscow. Which kings ruled beyond the Danube with shaved heads? All this is still in the bosom of the Thracians, the largest people after the Indians according to Herodotus (Book V, 3.).
A number of foreign and our authors have long proven that later they were known as Getae, Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Bulgarians, Slavs. That is, we are talking about the eastern part of the Japheth people, today's Eastern Europeans, whom history has recorded under different names. How is it that the Persians, Greeks and Germans (and they have many names) are on their ancestral lands, and our great civilizing people in the middle disappear, where did a new people come from and how many times?
Genetics and linguistics say that we are a stable, millennial community, inheriting the language of the Thracian-Pelasgian tribes. Writing systems can change, but language is the most stable sign. Here too there is now clarity, the Lower Danube script and Magura are the prototype of Linear A and B. But we must be objective - where we have interceded with other civilizations, there is an exchange of genetics, culture, religions, ruling dynasties, weapons, titles, beautiful women. And this is not a humiliation, but our wonderful secret in the center of Eurasia - over the millennia we have taken and given the best. Our great historian defined the case brilliantly - we spend our days in Europe, we spend our nights in Asia.
How will you explain our difficult fate and confused history?
We look ahead, the great thing is that we have remained. There is no easy fate, all communities move through ups and downs. During the five-century yoke, we were not a state subject, every neighbor took land, Janissaries, women and glory, they mercilessly divided power and Bulgarian families. Our history was rewritten by Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany. After the Liberation, the Bulgarian notarial act was already torn up and in order to have no claims to the fatherland, the surrounding powers found an option by bringing us from the Gobi.
Another ridiculous staging – the Turks of the Balkans are freed from Turkish slavery. What kind of science do they offer us - can a twenty-thousand-strong illiterate horde from another civilization impose an alphabetic and linguistic norm on half of Europe? Why didn't the Varangians and Genghis Khan impose their language and alphabet on Russia, but the Bulgarian enlighteners did? Well, because "enlightenment" has been our word since time immemorial and means "for the world, knowledge, enlightenment".
For behind-the-scenes reasons, someone has written in the encyclopedias that the ethno-linguistic community of Getae, Goths, Guti, Hittites, Thracians, Pelasgians, Dacians, Scythians, Sarmatians is dead. Therefore, the Old Slavic language (hence the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets) was implemented by the Roman Empire into a nameless biological mass. But Maximinus Thracianus, Galerius (from the Serds), Leo Bes (from the Bess), Justinian (with our name Upravda), etc., etc. Do you suppose that Romans, Greeks and Persians imported ruling families from foreign worlds? Then, who is this people, to whom Rome (founded by the Thracian Aeneas) and Constantinople (founded by an emperor, born in Niš) paid in gold?
There are preserved sources from these times and dozens of our authors, such as Al. Delova, showed them to the world. The Bulgarians are described brilliantly in the 6th century alongside generals such as Belisarius („Commanded from Above, from the Dawn“, and he „Arian“, born in present-day Sapareva Banya) in the battles for power in the empire. Suddenly this is forgotten and a new clique in Constantinople refers to us as Far Eastern intruders (Onoguri, Kutrigur, Utiguri, etc.).
There are such facts, the influence of Asia is enormous, but the political Byzantines should know that the tribal suffixes „ari, uri, eri“ (Bulgar-Ari) speak of Aryan origin, that Europe in the Greek sources is an Asian princess, that the Bulgarians define themselves through „AZ“, „YAS“ and „YAZE“ – clear, white, divine, enlightened, like Belisarius. The restorers Asenevtsi are among them. The semantics of the „Iliad“ is undeniable – from Thrace comes Rez, a demigod with snow-white horses and shining armor, and from Scythia, Achilles Bogoraven Peleyev, and he from the white, enlightened ones. Science cannot ignore such a concentration and logic of facts, highlighted by indisputable authors.
How is the past transferred to the present of Europe?
Significantly negative and divisive. The EU could not cope with the divisions, today the brothers in Ukraine are paying for their sins in another Trojan War. The European empires after the 15th century have made a huge mistake - they have rewritten the history of Eurasia in their own name and have ignored the antediluvian people of the Thracian-Pelasgians. They have not united Europe, they have operated with intrigues and wars, and not with science and European brotherhoods around the Black Sea. The powers of the time allowed the Eastern Roman Empire to be conquered and civilizationally obliterated, rushing into foreign lands instead of preserving the unity of the continent. The Balkans were placed outside it.
What a geopolitical suicide - an explanatory term was also invented - – – “Scythian Desert”, in order to forget the great people. Attila (ata-tata, father) was declared a foreigner. He led 100,000 fighters (Bulgarians, Getae, Gepids, etc.) to the Catalan Fields in 451. Against them, “the last great Roman”, Aetius (from a glorious Thracian brood, born in Dorostorum, became a general in the camp of Attila's father), raised as many of our people, Visigoths (Misio-Getae), Alans, etc. They all speak similar dialects, their cries and moans are indistinguishable.
Tens of thousands perish, not a single Mongolian skull has been found among them. Pure European fratricide. The enlightenment for Bulgarians and Europeans must begin with something as obvious as Bratislava - in all our languages, this name sounds clear and touching, glorious brothers. It sounded like this in Hittite, and in Geta, and in Thrace, and in Slovenia, Slovakia, Slavinia. All this is written in the Bulgarian alphabet, the prototype of which can be seen in the Magura cave and Phrygia.
We know that the past determines the future, only if it lives in the present. What do you propose?
I have already said that we are entering a dizzying geopolitical, cultural and social whirlpool. The American president is looking at Canada and Greenland, blood is being shed on Kubrat's land, a nuclear scenario is ripening around God's lands. Therefore, I call for respect for historical lessons. We risk once again opening Pandora's box without knowledge, with petty intrigues and geopolitical blindness. We cannot afford (like some neighbors) to declare everything Bulgarian. The truth is that in the vast brotherhood, Bulgarians have had the most states since the Antediluvian period, that the Bulgarian core in the Church Slavonic charter is a fact. But that's all.
Everyone already has a national identity, mutual respect, respect for achievements and international law are necessary. A few authors or government departments will not solve the problems, a national institute is needed that starts from the fact that we are all Indo-Europeans and the genetic source of the Thracian-Slavs and Celto-Germans is from the Black Sea region. The biblical setting for Noah is in this womb. We are talking about millennia, the facts cannot be ignored, but there is no way to change the foundations of culture and science with a cavalry charge. This has happened in the course of large-scale wars, but today they are unacceptable even as a plan.
If we want our names to be heard, we must first put the goddess Europa with the idea of the Indo-Europeans on a pedestal. This is the answer to “Do they ask me the day of dawn“. Volume 3 “THE BULGARIANS“ offers this historical, ethno-cultural and geopolitical view. Thank you to everyone who supported me, a bow to the authors from whom I learned all this. I especially highlight Yordanes, Paisii, Georgi Rakovski, Georgi Sotirov, Nikolay Kolev, Pavel Serafimov, Nikolay Todorov and dozens of others who should have seen Bulgaria from foreign lands and done much more than us.
You emphasize that the deeds of our ancestors are a civilizational landmark in Eurasia. But you end with Bulgarian civilizational pillars.
Hello, thank you for noticing these parallel processes. A look at Eurasia reveals the monumental image of the Bulgarians, surrounded by the great civilizations of China, India, Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Go to the Internet, type “Cyrillic“ and you will see a zone from the Adriatic to the Pacific Ocean. In order to survive among the powerful demographic and cultural-political colossi, our civilization has its own identity, a millennial move far before the Cyrillic alphabet.
This is the result of objective factors, subjective qualities and the will to live. From them grow the clans, tribal unions, statehood and nation. All subjects that have reached the present times have built their own weapons to maintain independence and a stable “I“. The Greeks are still good traders, intermediaries between several coastal civilizations. The Germans are a northern, disciplined, constructive people. The Egyptians, even if one million remain, will be great because of the pyramids. The Indians and the Chinese are a huge mass of people who will sooner or later give birth to a powerful state.
To say who the Bulgarians are, I started from the Patriarch's question: Do they ask me, Dawn? Like a ship in the unknown expanses, we will always seek the direction of the Earthly Paradise. For us, it is where the Earth conceives from the Sun and gives birth to Bulgarians. All this is embedded in our archetype. Thousands of communities have lost their bright dream and have sunk into the ocean for millennia, the starry skies do not exist for them, the dawn does not rise for them. Remarkable scientific schools and legendary authors, religions and prophets have tried to explain these processes.
Our science also owes an explanation why today we mainly emphasize misfortunes and divisions and, despite everything, we move forward. I try to use a transdisciplinary methodology, a synthesis of knowledge and methods that summarize the processes in the context of immense time. I propose a system of national pivots that have created and will lead the communities of our people (in the Balkans, on the Volga, near the Dnieper, in the Caucasus and everywhere in the world), despite the transience of everyday life and eras.
This approach does not require resources, does not create risks for peace, does not need approval, it is the worldview of the happy nation. Directly speaking, the national pillars are what is fundamental for Bulgarians, what academic science, primers, parents, parties and the media must necessarily say before we choose a direction for the future and give freedom to the Bulgarian individual genius.
Many of our scientists and teams have already tried to propose drafts of a national doctrine. Please present your ideas.
Yes, we are an enlightened people, we create many beautiful projects. But, today we have difficulty working as a team, we oppose each other, we give way to intriguers and we start looking for a way out when dark times come. Unfortunately, in Bulgaria there is always a remnant of Byzantine times, which the editor of the newspaper “Belomorska Bulgaria”, in 1944, pointed out to the poet Kiril Madzharov: “Do not imagine, dear ones, that in Bulgaria one can buy power without selling Bulgaria”. That is, today we write our history according to the strongman of the day, the one who gives the money and allows access to the media.
For a science that aims at millennia, this is a frivolous approach. Look at how the Serbs, Hungarians, Poles, Greeks approach it. They are first patriots and then talk about parties and foreign policy. I think that our people have experienced enough, there is already a lot of information about the past and the present, a global element is underway and the changes will surpass all imagination. If God allows us to dock at a saving peak again, we will again ask “day Zorata“. If we do not answer, then we have merged into another community.
And where will we look, what should we see, who are the pivots?
The first spiritual pivot predetermines our position in science and folk psychology – Bulgarians have been documented both directly and indirectly since the beginning of the world. Many authors point out that today we are marking more than seven millennia since our beginning according to the Old Bulgarian calendar, recognized by UNESCO. We have no reason to ignore the record from 354. “Ziezi ex quo vulgares”. Ziezi is a name known to the Thracians, Hittites, Scythians, Sarmatians and Slavs (Siu, Sivat – god, whiteness, light). The radiant Ziezi ruled Sumer (2750 – 2725) with borders from the Indus River to the Black Sea.
If it seems too mystical to you, we remind you that D. Homatian (11th century) speaks of our great people (Mysi, also called Bulgarians), exiled from the time of Alexander the Great (4th century BC) to the North Ocean and the Dead Sea, who later regained almost the entire Balkans. That is, without denying 681, we must look for our sources (dei Zorata) far beyond.
There is a universal law – the deeper the roots, the wider the branches of the Bulgarian tree will be in the future. This tree lives in us and we live with it – biologically, mentally, politically and as an intellect. If we cut something from below, something will wither from above. And vice versa. That is why the ancients said that the past determines the future if it lives in the present. While our science, institutions and parties are busy, neighboring entities take everything newly discovered and embed it in their own universe. Everyone wants Ziesi, the Cyrillic alphabet, the calendar, the gods of antiquity (we have them in our ethnonym – Bog-ari).
Secondly, all sources show that the Bulgarians and Bulgaria are the only ones in Eurasia who bear the unchanging signs “Bel” and ”Aryans”. “Bul, bel, pel, bal, bial” and their synonyms, clear, bright, radiant, scarlet (i.e. from the dawn, divine) characterize our antiquity and that of our related tribes. Some of them, such as Pelasgians (Belasgians), Carians, Paeonians, Cimmerians, Myrmidons, Mysians, Getae, Huns, etc., are directly referred to by the old historians as Bulgarians. In Rome and Athens they are also mentioned in general terms - barbarians. It has long been noticed that “vulgares”, “uulgares”, respectively “Vulgaria/Uulgaria/Βουλγαρία”, is directly related to “bulgares” and “Bulgaria”. And since, Scythians, Thracians, Getae, Sarmatians, Huns, etc. no longer exist on the map of Eurasia, the Bulgarians are among their first successors today - semantically, vocally and nominatively among the surrounding civilizations.
Kutriguri, Onoguri, Ultindzuri are also “Aryans“, just like the Cimmerians. Understandably, the competitors were not kind to us, they called us “vulgars“ and “barbarians“ (rude, disagreeing with foreign culture and language). Without suspecting it, they recognized the vast land, people and civilization to the north of them. Approximately, this is the area of Scythia, Sarmatia, the Thracians, the Slavs, the Cyrillic alphabet, the eastern tribes of the Japhetic people. Among them, for long periods, the Bulgarian tribes were leading.
Third, the geographical expanse in which the sources document the Bulgarians is the homeland of the white race, formed about 7 - 10 millennia before us. That is, we again refer to the beginning according to the Old Bulgarian calendar. We do not deny the achievements of other civilizations, races and communities - we emphasize that we are among the First Creators.
The above three foundations naturally predetermine the fourth national landmark - the work of Cyril and Methodius is Bulgarian. The institutions must clearly state the Bulgarian names of the brothers - Tsarho and Strahota. Understandably, their names were changed for religious reasons, but they performed a colossal national restoration feat, which has ancient roots and their native names are indicated by the sources. After the eras of Latinization and Hellenization, they restored the alphabet of Orpheus, Varna Culture, the Lower Danube script, the Thracograms, the runic script, Magura, the Linear, the Phrygian script, in which Constantine the Great wrote, etc.
These are all sacred symbols and strings, encoding and recreating the speech of our people. All this in the 9th - 10th centuries was understood, consolidated, protected in Bulgaria and carried again among the fraternal spiritual level from the Balkans to boundless Scythia. Therefore, the concepts of “Church-Slavic“, “Slavic-Bulgarian“, “Hunno-Bulgarian“, Thracian-Bulgarian, cannot divide us, they clearly show who are the enlightened statesmen, leaders among the fraternal communities in Eurasia. They defend the borders with China and Persia, they are the reason for great statesmen and scholars to call us “State of the Spirit“.
The fifth (political), pivot for the Bulgarians indicates that the Bulgarian states are always in the area of fraternal tribes and are not of the colonial type. All of us from time immemorial speak similar dialects, share a spiritual circle and rule our ancestral lands, but we create communities that in different eras are led by different clans. This is documented by Homer, Herodotus, Cassiodar, Jordanes and dozens of ancient writers. Indisputable evidence and generalizations are also provided by contemporary Bulgarian authors. Among this spiritual, geographical and political expanse, the Bulgarians are invariably the ones who created the most states in Scythia and its southern analogue from the Balkans to Persia, from Moesia to Media, from the Getae in Scythia to the Massagetae (Misio-Getae) in Sarmatia.
The sixth national landmark is also undeniable - our ancestors have been carrying the cross and the Christian faith since the 1st century. Saint Andrew the First-Called and Saint Peter preached in our lands. The reigns of Constantine the Great and Galerius - emperors born of our people, in our lands - were decisive. They introduced Christianity as the official religion in the Roman Empire in the 4th century. This fact orients us towards Europe, but should not distance us from our still living communities in Asia, which the Byzantine and post-Byzantine oligarchy abandoned.
The seventh national pivot implies a principled, equal and dynamic distance from all centers of world power. This is the guarantee of state and people's sovereignty. The national and personal image of the world always begins with the SELF, without denying harmony and interactions. The lessons of history show us that the scarlet dawn will dawn only if we hold our own course among neighbors, allies and competitors. Any attempt to unconditionally bind ourselves to the strong of the day leads to a loss of identity, periods of despondency, megalomania and the risk of national catastrophes, accompanied by internal divisions, bloodshed and disastrous geopolitical reassessments. Do not forget the fratricidal Trojan War and the Danaan gifts, which are still offered to us today.
The last, eighth national guideline focuses on domestic politics. It dictates that in the large-scale historical context for us there are no Germanophiles, Russophiles and Slavophiles, monarchists and communists, Christians, barbarians and pagans, Europeans and Asians. There are Bulgarians. The modern stage of our existence is marked by internal faults and fratricide among all peoples. It is a consequence of the policy formed at the end of the 19th century under the influence of the great external powers.
Over the past 150 years, Bulgaria has allied and re-allied repeatedly and opportunistically with all of them, cherishing the hope of uniting the land and the people after the five centuries of darkness experienced. In the end, it turns out that we waste our national energy on foreign scenarios and interests and always end up with some form of Berlin Congress.
Some of our neighbors have been more careful and have not made a mistake. It is time to weed out the unnecessary and, without unnecessary propaganda and internal strife, give our due to all our allies. And they are the ones who stood spiritually by the Bulgarians and shed their blood together with our fathers and grandfathers so that we could exist in the millennia, where dozens of other peoples were lost. When we thank them heartily, we must emphasize what they have taken from us since the time of the Varna Gold, Early Christianity, the written word and the worldview charter.
You are an academic scientist, don't you use mythology a lot?
I try to systematically and analytically cite worthy Bulgarian authors and foreign sources. There is not a single example in the books around which I do not look for evidence, contradictions, analogies and connections with the central theme for Bulgarians. I am sorry, but when there are megalomaniacs around us who build history on myths, I will not agree with scientists who have huddled around Sofia and do not know that it is Serdica, and the Serdica are also our ancestors. A large part of the history, art history and culture around us, and in Europe too, is built on Olympus and its gods.
The founders of Rome were raised by a she-wolf. Ataturk insists on emphasizing that everything in Anatolia was built by the Turkic first people since the time of Gübekli Tepe, that is, 10,000 years ago, 100 centuries. In Europe, Attila is anathema as an evil Asian, but in the epics of Europeans, one of the heroes is Atli (Etsel). All this is written in books, sold through tourism, names and brands. Only we do not dare to say that our forefathers cast the first gold, survived the flood.
You can hear that “Ziezi ex quo vulgares“ was a fabrication, that Jordanes, another monumental author after Ablavius, Dion, etc., did not know what he was doing when he wrote that the Goths were Getae - Thracians, that Rakovski was a romantic because he says that we are Pelasgians, “Gimeri and Cimmerians”. The mufti of Kazan in an interview is proud that the Hun-Bulgarians were glorious rulers of Scythia. In the “Iliad“ there are two god-equals – Achilles Peleyev from Scythia and Rez from Thrace. Rome itself was founded by the Thracian Aeneas.
What more do we need to prove to our institutions and politicians? Our entire people in the Balkans, on the Dnieper, on the Volga and in the Caucasus know and are proud of all this. Is it not enough to place ourselves in the civilizational matrix of the world since the times of the first calendar?
How did you come to these conclusions?
I started from the glorious ancient Getae, rulers of the land, which was then ruled by Attila and Kubrat with their sons. I found many authors, I wandered the nets, I worked around the clock, I saw and wrote everything as if in one breath, because all the facts merge into one logical chain. I apologize to all those whom I could not notice, quote, pay tribute to. They are great spirits, they know that we are working for the common cause. When I saw before me the three volumes of “BULGARIANS“ I realized that my guiding stars were the authors who saw and understood our history outside the Motherland (Yordan of Mizia, Paisii, Rakovski, Georgi Sotirov, Nikolay I. Kolev, Pavel Serafimov, Nikolay Todorov....).
I owe special thanks to one of them – fate brought me together with Dimitar Il. Dimitrov FLS, from him I took a Universe in the knowledge of the antiquity of the Bulgarians, but he never tried to suggest to me which is the correct line and who are the strong ones of the day. I know there are skeptics, but science moves forward while we hesitate, behind all discoveries a subject appears. Recently, the bagpipe was recognized as a discovery of our neighbors. I wish the Bulgarian scientific and spiritual elite more latitude, because people's affairs have far outpaced the status quo, they lead discussions in the global media, share discoveries, reach consensus and are related to the authorities.