Networks and Mechanisms of Influence - the archival heritage of the Georgiev brothers
Networking and influencing regional economics. Balkan and European contextualization of the archival heritage of the brothers Evlogi and Hristo Georgiev
Funded by Scientific Research Fund, Contract № КН-06 ОПР 05/02 ОТ 17.12.2018 г.
Duration – 36 months
Contract Amount – 119 947,48 BGN
Project team members:
Prof. Ivan Parvev, Phd - Project Manager
Prof. Plamen Mitev, Phd - member
Assist. Prof. Maria Barumova, Phd - member
Assist. Prof. Petar Dobrev, Phd - member
Assist. Prof Ivaylo Naydenov, Phd - member
Assist. Prof Alexander Zlatanov, Phd - member
External experts:
Prof. Harald Heppner, Phd
Assist. Prof.Nadezhda Zhechkova, Phd
Valery Katsunov, Phd
Kirila Atanasova
The main objective of the project "Networks and Mechanisms of Influence in the Regional Economy. Balkan and European Contextualization of the Archival Legacy of Evlogy and Hristo Georgiev Brothers" is to reveal the importance of social and economic informal networks of acquaintances, contacts and economic ties for the implementation of political and economic initiatives in Bulgarian Revival society, reflected in the exceptional archival legacy of two of the most prominent figures of the Bulgarian Revival - the brothers Evlogy and Hristo Georgiev. In this context, the project team focuses on revealing the role of these networks in the implementation of political and social agendas (hidden and overt) in the long term against the specific regional (Balkan) and continental (European) context of the second half of the 19th century. This research approach has not yet been applied in studies related to the activities of the Georgiev brothers.
The specific goals and objectives that the project team wants to realize can be grouped into several categories - strictly research, educational and applied (popular science): research on the networks of intermediaries and partners created by Evlogy and Hristo Georgiev in the Balkans and Central Europe; research on the influence of these networks on the formation of Bulgarian political, cultural, economic elite in the period before and after 1878. ; to pilot the development and testing of a methodology and procedures for the full sub-documentary digital discovery of personal archival holdings with the provision of public access to the contents of the documents stored in the Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (for this purpose the project team encloses a supporting letter from the Director of the Scientific Archives); to investigate the relationship of the expanding economic activity of the emerging national elites in the Balkans to the major European military conflicts of the 19th century. on; to explore the relationship between the established networks of the Georgiev brothers and the expanding mental horizon of the forming national economic elite.
One of the established contemporary research hypotheses consists in the claim that the lasting economic success of a large-scale entrepreneurial initiative in the Balkans and Europe from the mid-nineteenth century onwards is no longer possible without the construction of one's own networks and mechanisms of influence, as well as their purposeful 'activation' in a regional and continental context. As a result of testing this hypothesis through the study of the economic, political and social activities of the Georgiev brothers, a "theoretical matrix" could be formulated to explain the specific development of Bulgaria and the Balkans in comparison with, for example, the political and economic circumstances of Central Europe.
