“Lord, Lord, why didn't you take me,
old and no longer good for anything, and spare our queen to stay alive”
(Contemporary of Haidut Velko, baba Neda Lachkova, 1931).
Who is Tihomir Pavlov?
Tihomir Pavlov (born Alexander Alexandrov Pavlov) was born on June 14, 1880 in Kazanlak (then in Eastern Rumelia). He was a multi-layered personality, bearing in full the positive characteristics of his time – a National Revival ideal combined with a complete dedication to its realization. He graduated from the Law Faculty of the Sofia University, but even before the university he hinted at his literary talent. His first work was the poem “The Orphan” (1898) and it opened his prolific writing career, which continued until his last breath. In his youth, he was also fascinated by left-wing political movements that were fashionable at the time. He developed an active political activity in unliberated Macedonia (mainly in the city of Bitola), and after the group was uncovered, he actively participated in the struggles of the Bulgarians in Edirne Thrace with his squad.
After the end of the First World War, he devoted himself exclusively to journalistic and literary activities. He is the author of novels, short stories, poems, journalism, ethnographic works, etc. He collaborated with a number of literary magazines and newspapers. Both his life and his work were connected and influenced by the historical vicissitudes that the young Bulgarian state went through at the beginning of the new century. In addition to his historical journalism and books related to Bulgarian history, which are a distinctive feature of his work, he also published poems, short stories and novels about modern life.
A key theme, both in his historical and artistic creations, is the question of historical justice and the curse that awaits the violators of justice (“Bogdan's Tower, an ancient Chronicle”, 1926). The following can also be included here: “Ancient Chronicles and Tales” (1927), “The Feast of Basil the Bulgarian Slayer” (1929), “The Exploits of the Haidut Velko and the Fate of the Bulgarians in Moravia” (1931), “Strahil Voivoda – Patron of the Oppressed” (1934) and others.
Perhaps the most significant and at the same time the most scientific part of his work, and for this reason the most familiar, is related to his work at the “Western Periphery” scientific institute, where he was invited by Emanuil Popdimitrov. Following such eminent researchers as Prof. Ishirkov, Prof. Mladenov, and other participants in the scientific expedition in Moravia and Timok region, he wrote a number of studies dedicated to the Bulgarian character of these areas. These works, mainly on ethnographic and local lore topics, published at the beginning of the 30s of the 20th century retain their significance to this day: “From Timok to Morava, Domestic and linguistic studies of the Moravian Bulgarians” (1918), “The Bulgarians in Moravia and the Timok region. History, language, habits, customs, beliefs, struggles and expectations. Today's Moravian” (1931), “Serbism and Bulgarians in the Balkans” (1933). In his books, he talks about “our criminal negligence” and about the oblivion of a significant number of Bulgarians who remained outside Bulgaria.
Regardless of where and what he worked, he dedicated his whole life to the unification of Bulgaria. Tihomir Pavlov is of the generation of Bulgarians broken by the injustices that befell Bulgaria after the end of the Balkan Wars and the First World War. His novel “Sorrow over the Motherland” (1937) can also be mentioned here. But his faith was not broken. His novel “Blessed Land” is proof of this. It is a sacred covenant for all who devote their honest efforts to the good, justice and freedom of the Fatherland.
He rested in the Lord on December 1, 1937. In his obituary we read: “Having spent his whole life in unceasing struggle, always standing on the side of the weak, wronged, oppressed, he carried in his loving soul, full of human love, many sufferings, abuse and failures, – from enemies and near ones – but he was never disappointed, never lost heart, because he firmly and honestly believed in the rightness of his thought, his artistic outlook and never expected support, vain reward”.
