Ivan Shterev’s memoirs as a source for studying the self-identification of the population living north of the Azov Sea in the 1920s–1930s under conditions of multiculturalism

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the informational content of the records of Ivan Shterev (1910–1989), a native of the Bulgarian village of Inzovka, located in the Northern Azov Sea (Tavria) – “The Shterev family. Autobiographical Memoirs”. Their text shows the main trends in the mutual influences of the main ethnic groups of the region. It makes it possible to study specific manifestations of an antagonistic and complementary nature in interethnic relations and the role of the Sovietization factor of the Bulgarian village in southern Ukraine in the interpenetration of cultures. The influence of the education factor on the formation of foreign and supranational identities among the Bulgarian youth of the region is established. Based on broad empirical material, the penetration of the so-called "new socialist way of life" into the traditional Bulgarian peasant environment is studied: the assimilation of national clothes, forms of leisure, a shift in the emphasis of life strategies. Particular attention is paid to the perception of "strangers" (non-Bulgarians) – the author himself, his relatives and the closest circle. The death of xenophobia and the spread of the ideas of internationalism among the Sovietized youth of the Bulgarian village are shown.