Aleksandăr Balabanov and Kiril Hristov: the dimensions of an artistic and real-life conflict

ALEKSANDĂR BALABANOV AND KIRIL HRISTOV: THE DIMENSIONS OF AN ARTISTIC AND REAL-LIFE CONFLICT 

Elka Traykova 

(Summary) 

The article traces one of the sharpest literary controversies in the 1920s, provoked by a series of critical articles that Aleksandăr Balabanov published in his newspaper “Razvigor”. In them, he not only denied the talented presence of Kiril Hristov in Bulgarian literature, but also painfully injured his personality. 

The reason for the scandal was the “Anthology” published in 1922 by the Ministry of Public Education with selected works of the poet. In the socio-cultural and social context in the aftermath of the First World War, Kiril Hristov’s chauvinistic poems were associated with the horror of the national catastrophe, for which he was also blamed. His name became an emblem of a venal intellectual, a self-interested man, a kind of ‘a muse in uniform’. 

Here are analyzed the reasons why the “Anthology” provoked a noisy political discussion and the very unfair Balabanov’s assessment of Hristov as ‘an ex-poet’ were unanimously supported by literary circles with irreconcilable ideological and aesthetic positions. The article traces the documentary, aesthetic and psychological dimensions of the conflict that led to Hristov’s voluntary long-term emigration to Prague. 

Keywords: literary scandal, poetic anthology, sociocultural and political context, literary criticism