We are lucky that as a people we have a rich history and we can choose what to tell. Not every nation has this privilege – to have an ancient history. This is what Mario Mishev, co-founder of the "Bulgarian History" association and publishing house, said in an interview with BNR. In his words, patriotism is a matter of inner feeling and in the past it required much greater efforts than today.
"Nowadays, history has been put on the back burner, except on days like today, when we are obliged rather than doing it more often as a voluntary act," he commented.
"We are heirs of people who wrote the history of Bulgaria with their blood. The least we can do is to tell our children the family history of these people," Mishev pointed out.
"The European had forgotten that wars exist and can be in his backyard. Wars will always exist, and the lack of historical memory can rekindle them," the publisher stressed.
Asked if parallels could be drawn between the recent past – after the Liberation, and the present he noted: "Then people had something to fight for, they were motivated to achieve something, they were charged with fervor. Today, the exact opposite is happening. I don't think today's politicians have the moral right to say, "Union is strength." What compound? Unfortunately, historical dates tell us what was and what could be, but not what is today."
"We are already becoming a small nation in Europe in terms of numbers, but per capita we have enormous talents,", Mishev believes.
Among the dimensions of patriotism today, he pointed to treating society as one's own family. "Patriotism is not on the agenda in the soul of a Bulgarian. Patriotism, historicity are "archaic" terms. Things that modern man does not like. This worries me a lot."