90th anniversary of Vladimir Bashev's birth – between a pilot and a poet… Dr. Mariana Kirova in front of FACT

The National Literary Museum is organizing a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of the poet Vladimir Bashev today in front of the poet's monument in Borisova Garden at 11 a.m. As a tribute to his literary work, two of the laureates of the "Vladimir Bashev" award - Dimitar Hristov and Nadya Popova - will read their poems. Dr. Mariana Kirova, chief curator at the National Literary Museum, spoke in front of FACT.


Dr. Mariana Kirova

- Mrs. Kirova, we are celebrating the 90th anniversary of the birth of the poet Vladimir Bashev (July 28, 1935 – November 19, 1967). What mark did he leave in Bulgarian literature?
- Vladimir Bashev is different from his generation of the so-called “April poets“. He accepted socialism as a social system and believed in it in his youth, but at the same time, the main emotional line in his work is the individual person who seeks the philosophical meaning of life and who relies on love as a starting point for this meaning. It is not by chance that he was called “The Aristocrat“ of the “April Generation“. In his archives, among his unpublished works, there is a poem in which he talks about “left“, but “not further left than the heart“. Vladimir Bashev is the son of a prosecutor who worked in Lom and Shumen before 1944, and although the young poet was promoted by the communist authorities because of his talent, this authority always had certain reservations about him. He made his way into literature absolutely alone – he sent poems to the Bulgarian radio for anonymous competitions, his poems ended up winning awards, and his parents learned about it from the radio itself. Thus, his dream of becoming a pilot gave way to his love for literature.

- In the period from 1957 to 1967, Bashev left behind 7 collections of poetry, and his work is an emotional reflection of the social, moral and cultural era in socialism. What makes him so characteristic?
- First of all, I want to say that one can speak of the cultural era of socialism with a lot of conventions. There are propagandist artists who leave no artistic value. However, there are others who look into the personality and there seek the meaning of things. Bashev is from the second category. Here we are talking about a talent placed in the conditions of the social system of socialism. An artist who tries to search for the moral dimensions of the personality. Vladimir Bashev's active creative period is only 10 years - from 1957 to 1967, when he published seven poetry collections - “Anxious Antennas“ (1957), “Overcoming Gravity“ (1960), “Iron Time“ (1962), “Unkissed Girls“ (1963), “Watch Shop“ (1964), “Age“ (1964) and “Atelier“ (1967), which was published posthumously. Vladimir Bashev died in a car accident on November 19, 1967, when his car was swept away by a truck in the center of Sofia. Interestingly, his archives contain memories and notes that sound farewell, the same is seen in the poems of his last year. And he was only 32 years old.


- A very favorite topic for him is the life of a person in a big city. He conveys this in his own way, but how do his poems sound nowadays? „If we have nothing to give to the world, what were we born for?“ How will we continue these words of his today…
- The understanding of Bashev's generation was that something must necessarily be left to the generations. And if psychologically it was motivated by ideology, that something material must necessarily be left, the poet expands this understanding – in his opinion, it is enough to leave a sincere thought and a verse. This is what makes him different from his generation of poets. During the apogee of communist propaganda, he did not write about „bright communism“, but about „salvation“ in spirituality. In one of his poems – “Knowledge“, he confesses: “So, live in numbers! The poems saved me!“ Today we can ask – what they saved him from, but back then such questions were not asked.


- The National Literary Museum and the National Endowment Fund “13 Centuries of Bulgaria“ announce a competition for the National Literary Award for Poetry “Vladimir Bashev“, which is awarded every two years to authors up to the age of 32. How do I participate and what is the deadline?
- The National Literary Award for Poetry “Vladimir Bashev“ is one of the longest-serving poetry awards in Bulgaria. It was established in 1969 by the newspaper “Puls“, whose first editor-in-chief was Vladimir Bashev. Candidates for participation in the competition can send their books published in 2024 and 2025, personally or through publishing houses, until September 15, 2025 to the address: Sofia 1000, ul. “G.S. Rakovski“ 138, National Literary Museum – for the National Competition “Vladimir Bashev“. The award is presented in November, in the home of Vladimir Bashev, today converted into the Literary Cabinet at the National Literary Museum. The Literary Cabinet is located on the capital's “Sitnyakovo“ Boulevard 79 and is established as a meeting place for contemporary artists. In the jubilee year of Vladimir Bashev 2025, when he turns 90 years old, 14 of them were included in the collection “Eye of Time“, funded under the “Help for the Book“ program of the Ministry of Culture, with part of the circulation being provided to community centers and hospitals, which have difficulty accessing new Bulgarian books.