The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Transition from Learned Society to Totalitarian Academy (1944–1949)

Abstract

The process of transforming the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1869 as a Bulgarian Learned Society, into a national research center began in 1940 and was significantly accelerated in 1944, immediately after the coup d'etat of September 9, 1944, called during the last 50 years a 'socialist revolution'. Strong pressure was exerted on the Bulgarian 'bourgeois intelligentsia' by the new Fatherland Front ruling circles controlled by the communists. Closing down of the old and appointing a new 'progressive' Academy was also discussed. The urgent actions of the Executive Council of the Academy prevented these plans. A number of progressive-minded scholars and artists were elected to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts in January 1945 and July 1946, and a plan for reorganizing the Academy was approved in November 1945. This opening stage of self-restructuring of the Academy was crossed out by the Law of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences of 1947. By this law the Academy was transformed into a governmental organization, but some academic autonomy and respect for the academic traditions were preserved. Only two and a half years later, however, when the Bulgarian Communist Party had an absolute majority in the Parliament and the 'open building of socialism in the People's Republic of Bulgaria' had been already announced, a new, completely totalitarian, Law on the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was passed.