East–West Encounters in Early Bulgarian Socialism: Dimitar Blagoev’s Theoretical Legacy in Three International Contexts

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe problem of external influences is of primary importance for making sense of early Bulgarian socialism. The establishment of the first Marxist party in the Balkans, in a country with underdeveloped capitalism and almost no industrial proletariat requires explanations which are usually found in literature around the East–West (Russia-Europe) axis. This article proposes to analyse the theoretical legacy of Dimitar Blagoev (1856–1924), the founder of Bulgarian socialism, against the background of three intertwining discursive contexts: Western Marxism, Russian Narodnichestvo, and Russian Marxism. By doing this, it becomes possible to outline more clearly the basic features of Blagoev’s discourse on socialism as well as identify the ways in which external idea transfers are used actively to legitimise Blagoev’s own position. Making use of a discourse-historical approach and discursive genealogies, the research establishes Blagoev’s strategies of monopolising the Bulgarian socialist discourse through reappropriation of topics and recontextualisation of concepts from other socialist discources. The article argues that this monopolisation helped Blagoev overcome, for a time, the dilemmas and controversies in the Bulgarian Marxist left, to the benefit of his ideological authority.