Forms of Recording and Representation of Historical Memory in Bulgaria in the 9th — the beginning of the 13th Century

The article offers a brief overview of the main texts of medieval Bulgarian literature from the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century, which contain elements of historiography or, among other things, serve the function of recording and representing the historical memory of the Bulgarian people. The historiographic tradition of the Bulgarian polity of the 9th to early 13th centuries is distinguished by several unique features. In the polity of Archon Krum and his descendants, the recording of current events and elements of historical memory started even before the adoption of Christianity, in a society with a primordial pluralistic (“pagan”) religion. The borrowed Greek script was used by the Bulgarian archons for ideological and historical purposes, representing their power and recording current events. In the early Bulgarian state after the adoption of Christianity, the genre of official historiography (“chronicles”) didn’t emerge, and a “canonical” version of “national history” didn’t develop. Historiographic elements were fragmentarily incorporated into other genres of Bulgarian literature. The Bulgarian tradition has preserved a monument of “unofficial” historiography, an apocalyptic text that reflects the popular-fantastic perception of historical figures and events.