Elizabeta Georgiev
Narodna biblioteka „Detko Petrov”, Dimitrovgrad
betageorgiev@yahoo.com

doi: 10.19090/cit.2017.30.41-54
No. 30 (May 2017), p. 41-54

Stilian Chilingirov and His Contribution to the Preservation
of Serbian Libraries Confiscated by the Bulgarians in the First World War

Summary

Stilian Chilingirov was a prominent cultural figure of Bulgaria in the first half of the 20th century whose work left a significant trace in Bulgarian culture and greatly contributed to the status of Bulgarian social and other libraries. He was engaged in literary and scientific work, theory and history of literature, literary criticism and history. This paper brings little-known information about the role of Stilian Chilingirov in the preservation of the Serbian books seized during the Great War, including the books from the National Library of Serbia. The paper is based on the research done using materials from the Central State Archives, the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia and Chilingirov’s memoirs as well as the information presented in a variety of publications related to the history of the Bulgarian National Library. On the basis of the existing historical sources, relatively little is known about the fate of the Serbian books seized in the Great War that were kept in the National Library in Sofia until 1919. The presentation of the previously unknown facts from Bulgarian sources is undoubtedly important for the history of Serbian librarianship.

Keywords:

Stilian Chilingirov, World War I, book collections from Serbian libraries, pillage, National Library of Serbia, National Library in Sofia (Bulgaria), Jovan Tomić

Submitted: 25th February 2017
Correction to the manuscript: 15th March 2017
Accepted for publication: 22nd March 2017

Stilian Chilingirov and His Contribution to the Preservation of Serbian Libraries Confiscated by the Bulgarians in the First World War by Elizabeta Georgiev is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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