Papers of BAS

Papers of BAS. Humanities and Social Sciences

Vol. 6, 2019, No. 2

Philanthropic activity - building the basis

of scientific research in Bulgaria:

Donors of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

1869-1911

Tzvetana Velichkova

Abstract. The idea for establishing the Bulgarian Learned Society (BLS) in Brăila in 1869 was turned into reality due to the efforts and donations of numerous Bulgarian emigrant communities spread across Wallachia, Moldova, Serbia, Austro-Hungary, Istanbul, Russia, Ukraine. The objectives of the Learned Society and its funding during the initial years of its existence were closely associated with the name of Vasil D. Stoyanov and those of some more affluent traders, public figures and revolutionaries. Not only didn’t the restoration of the Bulgarian state in 1878 break this tradition, but it further enriched it in terms of forms of expression, practices and the scope of philanthropic activity. By the time the Society was renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), donors had helped establish the first three donation funds and marked the beginning of a succession of donations for decades to come. One of the most outstanding philanthropists in Bulgaria, Ivan Evstratiev Geshov, a renowned politician and long-standing president of BLS/BAS, paid off the mortgage of the building of the Academy, as a result of which, in 1911, BLS was renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and continued to function as an independent and autonomous scientific institution.

Keywords: donation, donors, auxiliary members, Bulgarian emigration, donation funds