Bulgarian Journals at the
Library of Congress, 1846-2008

Index:   A-B   C-G    H-K   L-O   P-S    T-Z   Titles Published Outside of Bulgaria

Introduction

Publication of the first Bulgarian serials began in the 1840s, at a time when Bulgaria was still part of the Ottoman Empire and when the Ottoman authorities prohibited printing presses on Bulgarian territory, hence the earliest Bulgarian language serials were published on the territories of present day Turkey, Austria, Romania and Serbia. The first such serial was the journal Liuboslovie, which appeared in Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey) in 1844, but ceased in 1846 after just twenty-four issues were produced. The next attempts at serial publishing were two newspapers, Bulgarski orel in Leipzig in 1846, which ceased after just three issues, and Tsarigradski vestnik, in Constantinople from 1848-1862. The fourth Bulgarian serial and second journal was the philological journal Mirozrenie, which was issued in Vienna in 1850-1851.

As the Bulgarian Renaissance movement continued to expand in the second half of the 19th century, so too did serial publishing. By 1878 over one hundred journal and newspaper titles had appeared. Most of these titles, however, were short-lived and published outside of Bulgaria due to Ottoman restrictions. After Bulgaria achieved autonomy from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, serial publishing continued to grow. By 1900, close to 500 journals and even more newspapers had appeared, most of which were published on Bulgarian territory. Today several hundred journals are published in Bulgaria each year.

With over 1700 titles in paper and on microfilm, the Library of Congress may have the largest collection of Bulgarian journals in the United States. This collection includes serials published in Bulgaria regardless of language as well as journals about Bulgaria or in the Bulgarian language published outside of Bulgaria. The Library's holdings begin with selected rare editions of the earliest titles from 1846-1877 such as the second volume of the above-mentioned Liuboslovie (1846), the single issue of Bulgarska starina (1865) published by the famous Bulgarian revolutionary figure, Georgi Rakovski, and nineteen issues from 1866-1867 of Gaida, the first Bulgarian satirical journal, edited by the noted 19th-century Bulgarian literary figure, Petko Slaveikov. These scarce early titles from the so-called Bulgarian Renaissance period are held in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division and comprise part of the Todor Plotchev Collection of Early Bulgarian Imprints.

The Library of Congress has some significant holdings from the late 1800s in the fields of law and government, and from scholarly societies. Examples from the legal arena are the official legal gazette Durzhaven vestnik, from its inception in 1879 to the present day, and Riesheniia from the supreme appellate courts beginning in the 1880s. Other examples include Dnevnitsi na obiknoveno narodno subranie, the proceedings of the national assembly from 1879 to the present day, Periodichesko spisanie from the Bulgarsko knizhovno druzhestvo (1870-1910), and Sbornik za narodni umotvoreniia, nauka i knizhnina published by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 1889 to the present. Some notable early 20th-century journal runs include reports and statistics from Bulgarska zemedelska banka beginning in 1904, statistical annuals for the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and annuals of major series from Sofia University starting in 1905. Although these are important early titles, most of the collection dates from the post-World War I era. Collection strengths include history, literature, political and cultural life of Bulgaria, economics, and law. The majority of the titles are in Bulgarian, but some are in English, German, French, Armenian, Turkish, and Russian.

Most of the serial titles are bound volumes shelved in the general collections, but some are held in specialized divisions or on microfilm. The Library of Congress continues to subscribe to over 100 journals from Bulgaria with recent issues of many titles available in the European Reading Room. This bibliography attempts to list every journal in the Library's collections, and provides details regarding holdings as of October 2008 - information that for the most part is not included in the Library's online catalog. For information about Bulgarian newspapers, please refer to the related bibliography Bulgarian Newspapers at the Library of Congress.

This bibliography is divided into two sections: titles published in Bulgaria and titles published outside of Bulgaria. The journals are listed alphabetically by title. Some are grouped together for minor title or bibliographic changes to show at a glance the extent of the run of a particular title. Separate entries are provided with SEE references to guide the user to those titles with more significant title changes. The information following the words Dates of Publication indicate how long the journal was published, but for information on what the Library of Congress actually owns, see the line beginning with LC Has. Titles to which the Library currently subscribes are indicated by the words "currently received" at the end of the LC Has field. The LCCN is a unique identifying number for the title in the Library of Congress online catalog and may be useful for titles that have common or complicated titles. The ISSN field shows a unique serial identification number and is left blank in many instances either because titles were published before the ISSN system was developed or because no such number was located by the compiler. Some titles are available in electronic format and this information is provided in one of two fields. Via Subscription Database is used if the title is available to a Library user only inside one of the buildings of the Library of Congress. URL is used if the title is freely available to anyone via the Internet. If these two lines say the title is not available, that means that the Library does not subscribe to an electronic version or the compiler was unable to locate one on the Internet. A final note about the LC Has field is that consecutive issues are listed with a hyphen, while double-enumerated issues are listed with a slash. For example, 1996:1-2 means that LC has two separate issues from 1996, one numbered issue 1 and the other numbered issue 2, whereas 1996:1/2 means that LC has one issue that is labeled as both 1 and 2. This convention is used for dates as well. 1996-1997 means two separate years are held, whereas 1996/1997 means one volume or set exists that is dated by the publisher as covering two years.

Abbreviations for locations are:

• Eur (European Reading Room)
• MicroRR (Microfilm Reading Room)
• GenColl (General Collections)
• AMED (African and Middle Eastern Reading Room)
• Landover (off-site storage, request in Main Reading Room)
• Ft. Meade (off-site storage)

Serial Bibliographies: A number of bibliographies have been consulted in the compilation of this list. Those listed below contain information related to the history of Bulgarian serial publishing. They include several outstanding retrospective bibliographies as well as sections of the Bulgarian national bibliography. These sources provide detailed information about publishers, dates of publication, numbers of issues per year, editors, and so forth. The annuals listed below also have lists of new titles, ceased titles, title changes and the like for each year.

Bulgarski periodichen pechat 1844-1944. Anotiran bibliografski ukazatel. Sofiia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1962-1969. 3 volumes. European Reading Room, Bulgarian Reference Collection Z6956.B9 B88
Volume One contains a long article about the development of serial publishing in Bulgaria beginning in 1844. Volume Three has indexes for names, printers, publishing collectives, subjects, and place names with a chronological component. Volume Three also contains sections for single-issue papers, papers in foreign languages, and additions and corrections.

Bulgarski periodichen pechat 1944-1969. Bibliografski ukazatel. Sofiia: Narodna Biblioteka "Kiril i Metodii", 1975. 3 volumes. European Reading Room, Bulgarian Reference Collection Z6956.B9 S76 This 3-volume work has detailed indexes and specialized sections similar to the title described above.

Bulgarski periodichen pechat. 1947-1950. LC has 1947, 1950. General Collection Z6956.B9 B87

Periodichni izdaniia v NR Bulgariia. 1953-1955. Annual. LC has 1953, 1954, 1955. General Collection Z6956.B9 P4

Natsionalna bibliografiia na N.R. Bulgariia. Seriia 4. Bulgarski periodichen pechat. Sofiia: Narodna Biblioteka "Kiril i Metodii". 1965 - present. Annual. LC holds 1968-1980. General Collection Z6956.B9 B87

Although every effort was made to be comprehensive, it is likely that some titles have escaped notice. If a desired title is not to be found on this list, readers are advised to check the Library's holdings in the online catalog. To report gaps or errors in the bibliography, or to inquire about the Library's Bulgarian journals, please contact Angela Cannon, acannon@loc.gov.

Index:   Introduction   A-B   C-G   H-K   L-O   P-S    T-Z   Published Outside of Bulgaria