This article aims to argue that new, significant research on the history of the April Uprising of 1876 can be conducted only if previously unknown archival documents from foreign archives are sought out and made available. Of particular importance among these is the Ottoman Archive in Istanbul (T. C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Arşivleri Başkanlığı Osmanlı Arşivi / BOA), which, unlike in the past, is now accessible to Bulgarian historians. It contains valuable documents on the course of the uprising, its suppression, and its aftermath. The article provides a general description of some of these documents, with the most detailed presentation being a petition by 137 citizens of Islimie (Sliven) dated May 30, 1876. In all likelihood, the original was written in Bulgarian or Ottoman Turkish, and this is a French translation of it, intended for the Sublime Porte, specifically for the “Press Directorate” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The petition is presented in its entirety, followed by comments and analyses of its content. The document provides a basis for assessing the role of a segment of the Ottoman administration (in this case, the Sliven provincial governor, Haydar Bey), which sought to protect the Bulgarian population from killings, looting, and pogroms. Senior administrators such as Haydar Bey belonged to the second generation of Tanzimat rulers, who understood well that without the implementation of a European legal system, the Ottoman Empire had no chance of survival. For them, the lives and property of the state’s Bulgarian subjects were just as important as those of the Muslims, and maintaining peace within the state was a top priority. The documents presented in the article also reveal something else, namely that the large-scale pogroms against the Bulgarian population in the spring of 1876 were carried out by the Bashibazouks and the Circassians, while the regular Ottoman army was primarily tasked with maintaining order and safeguarding the lives and property of the Bulgarian population, as evident from Saadoulah Bey’s account of the work of the commission charged with rebuilding the burned villages in the Plovdiv Sanjak, also presented in the article. In conclusion, it is evident that the discovery and incorporation into scholarly research of new, previously unknown archival documents regarding the April Uprising of 1876 can provide answers to important questions – answers that historical scholarship, contemporary education, and Bulgarian society need.

This article examines the development, functions, and institutional transformation of Edirne’s money changers (sarrafs) from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. While existing scholarship has largely concentrated on the sarrafs of Istanbul, the financial actors of the Ottoman provinces have received comparatively little attention. Drawing on materials from the Ottoman Archives, this study traces the evolution of the Edirne sarrafs and investigates why, despite their significant economic role, they failed to form a fully institutionalized guild comparable to its Istanbul counterpart. It argues that Edirne’s strategic location, commercial vitality, and administrative importance fostered a sophisticated provincial financial sector that extended beyond currency exchange to tax-farming finance, customs administration, credit provision, and monetary regulation. However, the Ottoman central administration deliberately maintained a distinction between the sarrafs of the imperial capital and those of the provinces. By analysing relations between provincial financial actors and the Ottoman state over approximately four and a half centuries, this study contributes to the historiography of Ottoman financial institutions and offers new insights into institutionalization, state formation, and centre – periphery relations in the Ottoman Empire.

The study focuses on an aspect that has not been thoroughly explored in the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Greece since the middle of the 1920s, more specifically, the first football contacts between athletes from the two countries, against the background of the foreign policy context. The football matches were at the club level and were played in 1926 and 1927, while the Sofia sports club Slavia was a representative of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The visits are to Thessaloniki at the invitation of the hosts and on the first visit a debut match between clubs was also held of two neighboring countries. The matches were attended by representatives of the political elite, the military high command, and the higher clergy. There were official ceremonies before the matches, including speeches of a political character as well as a solemn performance of the Bulgarian national anthem “Shumi Maritsa”. These were events that happened for the first time. The matches were played in the complex situation of distrust between the two countries, which had emerged as a consequence of the military conflicts preceding the period. For the purpose of the study, documents were located and analysed, as well as publications in periodicals and library collections both in Bulgaria and Greece. In methodological terms, a historical approach, content and comparative analyses were used. The study demonstrates the positive role of the first football matches between Bulgarian and Greek sports clubs, which contributed to overcoming the adverse attitudes between the two neighbouring peoples and proves the fundamental social function of sport, that is to transcend barriers and differences between people.

This study explores the intersection of labor and festivities in the context of a given ideological narrative. It aims to demonstrate how the celebration of professional holidays during the communist era in Bulgaria was used as a means of reinforcing and confirming the propaganda’s influence on communities. The focus here is on the celebration of Miners’ Day at the “Marishki Basein” coal mining enterprise, headquartered in Dimitrovgrad. The analysis is based on data drawn from the enterprise’s archival records, deposited at the State Archives in Haskovo, and covers the period from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. The methodological approach adopted is that of a case study, with micro-level data gaining their meaning from the relevant context. Consequently, certain aspects of public life in the specific time and space are brought to the fore. Dimitrovgrad as the embodiment of the communist utopia and the coal industry as a privileged sector of the national economy are characteristics of the period that pertain to the case under study. More significant, however, is the focus on the development of propaganda institutions and the role of trade unions in exerting ideological influence across the various dimensions of working life – labor and leisure. Archival sources show that, over the years, the organization of the professional miners’ holiday drew upon the full range of propaganda tools – lectures, movies, radio broadcasts, visual propaganda, ceremonial gatherings, and festive dinners. The message was directed at different groups of people and offered them a corresponding ideologically motivated narrative. It reaffirms the prestigious place of miners in Bulgarian society, but also conveys broader ideological themes – about the bipolar world, its evaluation, and our place within it (with gratitude to the government, the Party, and the Soviet Union). The dissemination of these messages specifically within the framework of the holiday is essential, insofar as the holiday is a significant modality of communal life, linked to the transmission of values, the affirmation of the community, and positive identification with it. In this sense, the effects of the functioning of propaganda institutions during communism can still be observed today.

The article examines the concept of archives as “green memory” and the possibility of reinterpreting archival heritage through the lens of the historical relationships between humans, society, and the natural environment. It analyzes the potential of archival sources as carriers of ecological memory and explores the prospects for their public presentation through the application of archival merchandising practices. The emphasis is placed on the opportunities for archives to utilize their resources in the creation of educational and cultural products that stimulate interest in the past and foster an understanding of contemporary environmental challenges.