/ world right this moment information/ Professor Andrey Pantev isn’t solely a historian, however an aristocrat of the spirit – generations of his college students would testify to that. He turned 80 on March 26.
When he speaks in a corridor – irrespective of whether it is in probably the most distant village, within the college or within the parliament, the listeners virtually all the time ship him to their ft. When it seems on tv, one merely places the distant management away – it isn’t wanted. You all the time be taught one thing or simply pay attention. He actually is the historian everybody acknowledges. They know what he thinks about what occurred in world historical past a century or two in the past, for instance, or about what is going on right this moment, however few have an concept of what marked his life.
“I’m not such a major individual to be attention-grabbing to others,” says the historian with out an oz. of pretense, and takes a puff of his pipe with pleasure. One of many causes for not writing memoirs lies exactly within the recognition that he can’t be “open with everybody and about every little thing”.
“I do not consider that the Greek maxim: “Know thyself!” is legitimate for the person. The human soul isn’t a store window. We’ve to take some secrets and techniques with us too!” These phrases of the professor should make the makes an attempt to be taught extra about his private life pointless.
His first encounter with the world’s good and evil is when a four-year-old gazes in amazement on the white fluffy trails of airplanes buzzing excessive above his father’s dwelling within the Kula village of Rakovitsa. Like big birds. Not understanding that these are literally bombers and that they’re dropping one thing scary. He would later come near Winston Churchill’s disturbing however practical remark that the historical past of the world is a historical past of wars. And the boy from Kulsko was born only a kilometer from a monastery from the thirteenth century. His mom and father have been lecturers all their lives, with out understanding Goethe and Baudelaire, however they instilled that kindness which for him was stronger than cognitive knowledge. The ankle-breds of that point model him now as a pink, understanding nothing of him. When he grew to become a pupil, his mom went to the gypsy college in Vidin to take extra as a result of she had a pupil in Sofia. Nonetheless, one childhood reminiscence nonetheless pierces the professor’s coronary heart and soul, it grew to become a wound, a hidden trauma till the top of his days – his father died on the desk in entrance of the household on Mount Zagovezni at midday, suffocating. It is type of like assembly a six-year-old’s creepy.
Rising up on the banks of the Danube, he was powerfully attracted by the thriller of its move. For him, each Danube fisherman is a hereditary aristocrat, and the river is magic, it’s a part of his blood. The lecturers of his youth have been the writers. From Dostoyevsky to his beloved Remarque.
Concerning the skilled biography of Andrei Pantev, born in 1939, every little thing is obvious, Wikipedia and Google know every little thing. After highschool in Vidin, he graduated in historical past at Sofia College. A curious contact from his biography is that on the college he was in the identical graduating class as our eminent literary scholar Prof. Nikola Georgiev, with whom he was additionally a soldier in Razgrad. Each of them are right this moment one of many few Bulgarian sages. On the request of his mom, Andrei returned to his birthplace and for greater than three years was the popular tour information on the partitions of the “Baba Vida” fortress.
In a newspaper blown by the wind, he examine a contest for a graduate pupil within the historical past of England on the Institute of Historical past on the BAS. And he leaves once more for Sofia. Every part begins. A graduate pupil from the village of Kula turns into a candidate of sciences, affiliate professor, physician, professor, and so forth. And most significantly, they begin noticing it and speaking about it.
He specialised in England in 1969 and within the USA in 1979. Through the interval 1982-1984 he taught Balkan historical past within the USA. He grew to become one of many college students’ favorites, first at Sofia College, after which all over the place he appeared. He has been a visiting professor at Veliko Tarnovo College for 35 years, the Nationwide Academy of Arts, Plovdiv College, UNSS and different increased training establishments. He has been the president of the Bulgarian Affiliation for American Research since 1990, and since 1999 he has been the chairman of the civic affiliation “St. George Sofia”.
They name him one of many “white crows” of the Bulgarian parliament – through the three phrases of workplace he didn’t enable himself to vote otherwise from his personal conscience. A few of his signature disagreements are nonetheless remembered. He declared himself towards NATO, towards the battle in Iraq, in Afghanistan, towards the popularity of Kosovo. It was additionally towards the dismantling of our missiles, towards overseas bases in Bulgaria and so forth. And right this moment, when somebody remembers to ask him about it, he modestly solutions: “I didn’t carry out a feat, however I couldn’t do in any other case.” With out posturing and pathetic. Within the parliament, he’s additionally awarded the title of greatest speaker.
For him, happiness has specifics. He likes the crackle of ice from heat scotch, Russian vodka, Armenian cognac, Zitan cigarettes, Chelini tobacco, sunsets over the “sleepy” neighborhood of Mladost, the place he lives, the pleasant laughter of a neighboring firm. And the pipe is his trademark – it provides him “a way of safety stronger than NATO”. He’s satisfied that typically small issues could make us completely satisfied, and actual catastrophes – detached. He believes that the psychological luxurious of speaking with individuals is greater than any well-being.
And most significantly, he actually loves his Motherland. However with such love as is incommensurable with a payment, a paid workplace, or a subsidy.
A few years to you, Professor!
His daughter appears like him
Andrey Pantev has a daughter who appears like him, no matter which means. The professor regrets not having extra youngsters, however that’s previously. And the story with the girl of his life, who has been by his facet for a lot of, a few years, would in all probability be an amazing plot for a phenomenal romance. Nonetheless, they are going to by no means expose this casserole thrill for public show. Tsveti can prepare flowers in a vase for half an hour, and for him that is elegant poetry. He solely is aware of that when he approves of one thing, he appears like he can contact the sky. Conversely, when he appears at him with reproach, the universe collapses for him.
For him
I like your trustworthy place
Your in-depth historic information, mixed together with your charming speech and expertise as a storyteller, captivate audiences far past the confines of your alma mater and allow our compatriots to be taught items of the puzzle of the previous in a means that deeply touches souls and hearts. Your trustworthy place on socially delicate points, shared overtly and reasonedly, is worthy of admiration. I consider that each private vacation is an event for reckoning. I hope right this moment the steadiness sheet of the scientist, trainer, creator, MP and public determine is passable.
President Rumen Radev on the event of Pantev’s eightieth anniversary
Protects sanity
His phrases of knowledge invariably accompanied all of the sharp turns of latest many years. I do know that true selfless gratitude has all however disappeared in our commercialized society, drowned out by false rewards. I do know that real mental values have been changed by insane sensationalism. This won’t cease me from expressing my deep gratitude to colleague and good friend Andrey Pantev for being so adamant in defending widespread sense and the thought of social justice in these tumultuous and, if I have to be completely trustworthy, quite vile occasions.
Prof. Iskra Baeva, historian
Maintain your ethical excessive floor
Prof. Pantev is among the iconic figures of the Bulgarian intelligentsia. His title needs to be written in capital letters, as a result of he’s among the many few who preserved their ethical and mental top through the transition after 1989. One of many few worthy individuals from the time of the final three many years, when a big a part of the Bulgarian intelligentsia was compromised and marginalized, and intellectuals as nice ethical and mental authorities virtually disappeared.
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