... A philatelic journey through the history of Bulgaria ...

1. The First Kingdom (852-1018)



 
 
 
 
Next: The second kingdom


Attacking riders
Mi 443

 
The Bulgarian people are assumed to originate from the Siberian highlands around Altaj and belong to the same population group as the Huns. Bulgarian tribes took part in several migrations towards Europe between the 2nd and 6th century, assimilating other population groups along the way. The word "Bulgarian" actually originates from a Turkish verb which means "to mix".

In 632 Khan Kubrat (†651) united several Bulgarian nomad tribes on the steppes north of Caucasus between the Kuban river and the Asov Sea and the Black Sea. Kubrat put an end to the Bulgarians nomad life with frequent raids against the Byzantine empire, and founded a military alliance between the tribes. He negotiated a peace treaty with  Byzantium and created a state with an extension from Kuban in the east to the rivers of Donets and Dnjepr in the west and the Black Sea in the south.
 

Legend of Kubrat
Mi 442

 
A legend tells that Kubrat on his deathbed made his sons bring him a bundle of twigs. Kubrat asked his sons to try to break the bundle in two, but none of them were able to. The old man then took the bundle apart and broke the twigs one by one. In this way, Kubrat wanted to show his sons how the Bulgarian tribes had to stay united against their enemies. Otherwise, these would defeat them one by one.

However, his sons did not follow his advise. After Kubrat's death the different tribes were divided. In 680, his 5th son Asparukh led his tribe across the Donau and into Moesia. Next year, he founded the first Bulgarian state in the Balkans in the Dobrudja area.

 

Khan Krum (†814)
Mi 444

 		 The expansion of the new Bulgarian state was limited by the warrior tribes on the plains to the north and by the Black Sea to the east, and thus had to go towards the north-west and south-west. Khan Krum (†814) dedicated this life to this expansion. First, he invaded the Avar kingdom to the north-west and incorporated Transylvania in Bulgaria. Then he moved his attention to the south, and in 811 he took Sredets (Sofia) from the Byzantine empire, followed by Nesebur on the Black Sea coast and Adrianople (Edirne) in Thrace. The Byzantine emperor Nicephorus was in 811 killed in battle as the first of his stand in 500 years. In 813 Krum's army stood outside the walls of Constantinople. The Bulgarians prepared the attack on the city for nearly one year, but due to Krum's sudden death in April 814 the attack was never initiated. In addition to his conquests, Khan Krum is also credited the making of the first written laws of Bulgaria.

Christening of Boris I
Mi 445

 		 In 852, Khan Boris I inherited the throne of one of the mightiest states in Europe at the time. He is best known for introducing Christianity in Bulgaria in 864. This enabled a peace treaty with the Christian Byzantium and easier acceptance from the other Christian powers in Europe. More important, however, was Boris' achievement of merging the two dominating ethnic groups in Bulgaria, the Christian slavs and the pagan Bulgarians, thus increasing the nation's unity against the abundant foreign enemies.
 

 

Crowning
of Simeon I
Mi 447
 


Tsar Simeon the Great
Mi 217

 After 37 years on the throne, Boris I in 889 voluntarily abdicated in favour of his son Vladimir. When he tried to reintroduce paganism in Bulgaria, however, he was overthrown by Boris himself in 893 and blinded. Boris' second son Simeon then took over the throne (893-927). Simeon's constant warfare made Bulgaria the mightiest slavic state in Europe, and he is often denoted in Bulgarian history as "Simeon the Great". He was a well educated and ambitious man, and his leadership was dominated by two major goals: First independence from Byzantine political and religious influence, then make Bulgaria a mighty rival to the Byzantine empire itself. After several decades of victorious campaigns, Simeon ruled over most of the Balkan peninsula. In 913 his army stood outside Constantinople, and Simeon was given the blessing of the Patriarch and the title "Tsar of Bulgaria". Simeon died in 927 during preparations to an attack on Constantinople itself.

Under the reign of Simeon also Bulgarian culture and litterature got an enormous uplift. Simeon was himself educated in Constantinople, and was an advocate for Bulgarian artwork and language during what is called "The Golden Era" in Bulgarian history.

After Simeon's death in 927 Bulgaria was gradually weakened due to inner discord and religious disagreements, as well as constant warfare against the country's neighbours. Gradually the warfare became more and more defensive, and in 1014 Tsar Samuil was defeated by the Byzantine emperor Basil II in a terrible battle in Macedonia, after which the emperor got the nickname "Basil the Bulgar Slayer". 4 years later the Bulgarian state finally collapsed and was incorporated in the Byzantine empire.
 


 
 


 


 

The cyrillic alphabet



St. Climent of Ohrid
Mi 212

The holy brothers 
Cyril (827-869) 
and Methodios (825-885)
Mi 307

School of St. Naoum
Mi 446

There are few facts available about the making of the Cyrillic alphabet in the 9th century. Two monks from Salonika, Cyril og Methodios, are generally acknowledged as the originators. It is assumed that the new alphabet was developed after a request in 862 from Prince Rostislav in Moravia, who wanted a separate Slavonic alphabet to stem the influence from the Franks and Germans. The new alphabet enabled the use of Bulgarian language in both administration and liturgy, and in 893 a national council adopted Bulgarian as official language in the Bulgarian state and church both.

St. Climent of Ohrid (†896), a disciple of Cyril and Methodios, established at the end of the 9th century a Bulgarian school in Ohrid which included both theological and other subjects. During it's first 7 years the school attracted more than 3000 students. St. Climent simplified the newly developed Slavonic alphabet and gave it the name "Cyrillic" after his master. The university in Sofia is named after Climent Ohridski, who is buried in the St. Climent monastery in Ohrid.

Another of Cyril's and Methodios' diciples, St. Naoum (†910) from Moravia, established a school in Preslav which also taught Bulgarian with basis in the new slavic alphabet. 
 

Next: The second kingdom

 
 

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