COURAGE

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Sofia Municipality is the government of the city of Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. It is a juridical person with its own budget. It is led by the mayor and the City Council. The city runs essential communal services. On a low level, it has 24 district councils with administrative responsibilities on the day-to-day level of municipal government.

Sofia Municipality is also an important actor in the sphere of culture. In 2012, the City Council passed the "Strategy for the Development of Culture in Sofia 2013-2013" (https://www.sofia.bg/culture-strategy). It clearly puts culture as an essential element of the city's development and well-being, and lays out a holistic approach towards its development. It aims at turning the city into an incubator or arts and a plattform for the support of the cultural activities of its citizens. Culture should help to turn Sofia into a cosmopolitan city and to underwrite its opennes for innovation. The full text of the strategy can be found here.

The city of Sofia operates important institutions preserving and presenting the cultural heritage of Sofia and its neighbourhood, such as the the Sofia Regional Historical Museum, the Sofia City Art Gallery, the gallery "Dechko Uzunov", the City Library, four theatres and numerous cultural clubs [Dom na kulturata]. The Department for Culture of the City also initiates further activities and support initiatives carried out by third parties. Altogether, these efforts help to collect, maintain and present the cultural and historical legacy of Bulgaria, including that from the communist period.

For more information on Sofia's cultural activities go to: https://www.sofia.bg/web/mayor-of-sofia/culture-department

The Association Song and Social Movements was founded in 1991 and had the goal of advance the “collecting and merging of songs and documents of the songwriter-movement and adjacent genres” that “developed in the 1960s in cooperation with the social and political movement” (excerpt from the articles of association). The core of its interest lies in collecting items for the singer- and songwriter movement in the GDR. However, it connects this historical basis also with today’s song culture and social movements. As the successor of the former Festival of Political Song (Festival des Politischen Liedes) it organises since 2000 every February the Festival Music and Politics (Musik und Politik). The non-profit organisation and its archive can be reached under PO Box 180154, 10205 Berlin.

The University was founded as a branch of Sofia University in 1975 in order to locally train teachers for primary school and kindergarten. In 1983, the branch was transformed into the separate Higher Pedagogical Institute. New programs, including mathematics, physics, Bulgarian language and literature, Bulgarian language and history were established in the following years. By 1990, the Institute had five faculties running ten study programs. After 1990, and especially with the Law on Academic Autonomy, the Institute continued to expand its scope. Paid education was introduced as well, alongside study places funded by the government.

In July 1995, the Bulgarian parliament decided to transform the Higher Pedagogical Institute into Neofit Rilski South-West University  -  Blagoevgrad. In 1997, the College of Machine Building and Electrotechnics in Blagoevgrad was affiliated as a Technical College as part of the South-West University.

Today, the university offers training in 71 Bachelor's, 100 Master's and 74 specialized PhD programs. It has the around 14,000 students in the following faculties: Law and History, Natural Science and Mathematics, Economics, Public Health, Health Care and Sport, Pedagogy, Philology, Philosophy, Arts and Engineering.

The KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopastnosti/Committee for State Security), the Soviet secret service, was established in Soviet Lithuania in 1954, but the origins of the Soviet security service go back to post-Second World War times: the NKVD (Narodnyi komisariat vnutrenih del/People's Commissariat for Interior Affairs), and later, in 1953-1954, the MGB (Ministerstvo gosudarstvennoi bezopastnosti/State Security Ministry). The main task of the security service at that time was to fight the anti-Soviet armed resistance that lasted in Lithuania for more than eight years (1944-1953).
On 1 April 1954 was established the KGB on the bases of MGB. KGB was under the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers. Methods of activities and operiational work continued chekist traditions introducing more flexible forms applaying to the local situation. While old staff of the MGB, mostly Russians, were employed in KGB as well, more Lithuanians after graduation of high education were invited to KGB in 50's and 60's. This "Lithuanization" of KGB was rational step surveiling society especially in fighting with more sophisticated forms of cultural opposition. So called "line two" operated by the KGB 2nd division and "line five" operated by the 5th department were most involved in activity against cultural opposition. The Second line meant keeping and control of state secrets and it was concentrated in industrial factories, construction, science and transport organization. The Fifth line was directly concentrated on counter-ideological work and acted mostly in high schools and culture institutions.

The St. Cyril and St.Methodius National Library is currently the largest public library in Bulgaria. It is the oldest cultural institution of Bulgaria, established in 1878 as the "Sofia Public Library". The library received its own building in 1900.  In 1939, the construction of a new building began, but in 1944 both the new and old buildings were destroyed during allied bombardments of Sofia. In 1953, the National Library opened its new building under the name "People’s Library Vasil Kolarov", named after one of the leading Bulgarian communists, who was a leading functionary in the Communist International, and prime minister of Bulgaria from 1949 to his death in 1950. In 1963, as part of the process of strengthening national identity and reaffirmation of Bulgarian Mediaval history,  the library was renamed into "Cyril and Methodius" library, named after the famous monk, who created the Glagolitic alphabet for their translation of the Bible into Slavic. The Cyrilic alphabet is named after Cyril. The so-called "Apostles to the Slavs" are honored in Bulgaria with festivities on 24th of May, which is the official state holiday "Day of the Slavonic Script and Bulgarian culture". After the collapse of the communist regime, "Saints" was added to the names of the two missionaries in the official designation of the library.

In 1994, the National Library was declared a cultural institute of national importance. In 2009, with the Law for Public Libraries, the institution's name changed from "People’s Library" (Narodna Biblioteka) to "National Library" (Natsionalna Biblioteka).  

The National Library is a mandatory depository for all documents published in Bulgaria: books and periodicals. It contains also special collecitons with items from the Bulgarian cultural heritage, such as manuscripts, incunabula, old books, maps, prints, photographs, and private archives donated to the library. The National Library collects and stores official editions; cartographic and graphic publications, musical publications and others from countries around the world, and functions as a national information center. The library fund contained 8,040,804 registered units at the end of 2016.

During the communist regime, public access to many publications, books, and magazines, was forbidden, as they were placed in the so-called Special Collection. But the literary (and partly musical) legacy of the period of socialism is kept; the Library hosts many collections which reflect the cultural opposition against the communist regime. Through a range of cultural, educational and informational initiatives and events, the characteristics of the culture from the period of state socialism and the forms of opposition are discussed and popularized.

The National Library performs various public activities. Only in 2016, there have been more than 130 exhibitions. NCBM also conducts extensive research activities and participates in national and international projects and programs: Europeana. Culture. Denken; The European Library; World Digital Library; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Memory of the World. The library organizes public outreach activities, such as the literary event series "Club Pismena" and "Galeria da dumite".

Since 2006 the library implemented digitization programs, with the result that many documents of cultural value and old periodicals have become accessible online (http://www.nationallibrary.bg/wp/?page_id=1337).