Култура

On July 15, Velingrad citizens who came to meet the writer Anton Donchev filled not only the hall of the Art Gallery, but also the corridor in front of it. Personally, the mayor Atanas Vodev welcomed the author of "Time Divided", of the book-epody "Tale of Khan Asparuh, Prince Slav and the Priest Teres", "Tale of the Time of Samuel" and of more volumes Bulgarian spiritual wealth and the grandson of Pancho Vladigerov - violinist Vladimir Vladigerov.
The meeting opened Avram Gerev and emphasized that it is 41 years old. since the publication of the novel Time Divided, which has already been translated into 29 languages, has undergone 20 editions in Bulgarian and more than 1 600 000 copies have been printed. Ivan Granitski presented Anton Donchev - the spiritual leader who always strives to find for himself and in his books an answer to the eternal question for us Bulgarians "Where are we from, who are we and where are we going?". It took Anton Donchev 30 years to write the 4 volumes, more than 2000 pages for Khan Asparuh, for the refusal of Thracians, Bulgarians and Slavs to fight each other and instead make a state. The calendar of the Bulgarians is 1000 years older than the Chinese one and in addition they are the creators of several countries. In his book, the author points out that in 681 only a treaty with Byzantium was signed, and Bulgaria was established in this place many years before. His claims are increasingly being proved by scholar-historians. Ivan Granitski reminded that in 1965 and 1966 Anton Donchev has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Time Divided has been compared to the tales of King Arthur. This is the most published Bulgarian novel after Under the Yoke and the most published book of the 20th century. In the book about Samuel, the author has shown the strength and will of the Bulgarian spirit and how only the national idea can make the Bulgarian in minus 40 degrees cold build a fortress. And as for the book about the Bogomils - "without them the history of Europe would not be as it is today." The conversation with Velingradians Anton Donchev began with the words that a book standing in the drawer is not a book. It becomes a book only when it comes before the reader's eyes and he reads it. He highlighted the sad fact that only 10% of young people up to 25 years old read books, while in the smaller of Bulgaria Finland there are 20,000 stationary and 18,000 movable libraries, and in Sweden, book sales have increased by 40% in recent years. He also made the sad observation that today the spiritual occupies a funny place in our society, that is why we are in this state. The path of change that Bulgaria has started is wrong, because we have started with our backs to the spiritual and added that we need a selfless national idea for which we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. Anton Donchev mentioned that he has held 5 meetings with Bulgarians abroad, where there are more than 1 million of our compatriots, of whom most women and his conclusion is that "Bulgarians abroad are learning slavery." He reminded that the first word in Europe's new constitution is "dignity", but what dignity when the Bulgarian lacks self-esteem. The most terrible curse in the world is "He who forgets his past, let him go blind with both eyes" and we should think as our ancestors thought: with one hand let us throw wheat, so that we may have something to eat, and with the other acorns, so that oaks may grow, that there may be water, that there may be spirituality and that Bulgaria may have it!
The meeting continued long after it had officially ended, because the citizens of Velingrad talked with the writer, received autographs, and the chairman of the Society for the Protection of the Rhodopes G. Pashov gave him the book on M. Sharkov, whom Anton Donchev has heard of.
Veska Bozhkova