Of Other Balkan Wars: Affective Worlds of Modern and Traditional The Bulgarian Example

Abstract

Nobody is so poor as not to leave any legacy behind when he dies, said Pascal. But what inheritance of war also involving the problem of its heir is left behind by the soldier who keeps writing his notes and sending letters from the front line when he faces something unimaginable – dying by cholera? What else invisibly stands behind such a soldier’s urgent need: is it to bear witness, and is it to become an opportunity to accumulate other affective of the soldier’s anger, rage, hatred, anguish, pain, fear and bitterness archives of the Balkan Wars? Is this witnessing a condition in itself for penetrating the other, the invisible reality of the fighting man’s world, so as to problematise the other heritage of this war the sensitive man who has let himself be affected and its stakes the questionable values of the modern and traditional ? This article searches answers to these questions

Keywords

• War, trauma, cholera, modern, traditional, soldiers’ letters and notebooks, witness.

References

1. This article owes much to the research of Michel Foucault, Carlo Ginzburg, Giovanni Levi, John Beverley, Giorgio Agamben, and John Flatley – as evidenced by the title.
2. State Archive, Veliko Tarnovo (SA-V.Tarnovo), F. 844к, inv. 1, a.u. 16. [My italics, S. D.].
3. Ibid., F. 1040к, оп.1, а.е. 6, 25; Ibid., F. 1032к, inv. 1, a.u. 29, 30; SA-Montana, F. 1157к, inv. 2, a.u. 66; Ibid., Occasional Proceeds (OP)-38; Ibid OP-37; Ibid., F. 1370к, inv. 2, a.u. 601; Ibid., F. 592к, inv. 1, a.u. 1; Kitanov, Sotir P. (1914) Spomeni ot Balkanskata vojna 1912- 1913. Dnevnik. [Reminiscence of the Balkan War – Diary], Plovdiv: Centralna pechatnitza.
4. SA-Silistra, F. 127к, inv. 1, a.u. 2, l.45; Archive of Science, Bulgarian Academy of Science (AS, BAS), F. 40к, inv. 1, a.u. 444; Central State Archive (CSA), F. 1965к, inv. 1, a.u. 14; SA-Silistra, F. 127к, inv. 1, a.u. 2.
5. I will quote only two (out of seven) examples: G. Stoynov, (1914) Krav i salzi. Napevi ot Balkanskata vojna i zhivota [Blood and Tears: Refrains from the Balkan War and Life], Plovdiv: Trud; (1913) Nova pesnopojka za Balkanskia Sajuz: Spomen ot vojnata. Naredil Zaprian M. Terziev, vojnik ot 30-ti Sheinovski polk, 5-ta rota [Remembrance of War: New Army Songbook of Balkan Alliance; Completed by the soldier Zapryan M. Terziev of 30th Sheinovo Regiment, 5th company], second edition, Chirpan: Village Sransko.
6. ‘Why don’t you weep for us – we’ll never return Tell the wives never to marry again ’ This verse from a soldier’s song is copied in the war notebook of second lieutenant Spiridon Bakardzhiev, who was to become the first Bulgarian military psychologist; he commented: ‘Very prosaic and, under normal circumstance, banal, a cabman’s song, but which is now endowed with special meaning and expressiveness’ [My italics, S. D.]; AS, BAS, F. 40к, inv. 1, a.u. 16, p. 16.
7. SA-Montana, F. 36к, inv. 1, а.е. 18, p. 173-4.
8. Cf. How another soldier bears witness to this other war reality, in his daily notes: ‘28.11. […] Every single day, literary every single day is raining with chilly wind. Trenches are filled with water. Such pain soldiers endured in their positions, worse than the infer. I learnt about one or two suicides in the 15th Regiment.’; Ibid., F. 1157к, inv. 2, a.u. 66, p. 46.

9. AS, BAS, F. 40к, inv. 1, a.u. 444. [My italics, S. D.]
10. SA-V. Tarnovo, F. 844к, inv. 1, a.u. 12. 13 Ibid., a.u. 29. 14 Ibid., a.u. 21. 15 Ibid., p. 16.
11. Ibid., p. 17. [My italics, S. D.]
12. Vojnishki dnevnik na Petar Zhechev Kurdomanov za Balkanskata vojna. Predg., sastav. Stanka Georgieva. [Soldier’s Diary of Petar Zhechev Kurdomanov from the Balkan War], Silistra, ‘RITT’, 2001, p. 62; it is kept in the SA-Silistra.
13. SA, V. Tarnovo, F. 844к, inv. 1, a.u. 16.
14. Ibid. Cf. The daily note written by R. Kurdomanov: ‘I couldn’t sleep because of the scratching and moaning of a man sick with cholera, who had gone to relieve himself. Despite all his pleas, not one person in the whole regiment would come to his aid. Everyone looks to save himself. Only at sunrise did they go to lift him up. Artillery fire could be heard from the direction of Silivria.’ [My italics, S. D.]. Vojnishki dnevnik na Petar Zhechev Kurdomanov, p. 64, 76.
15. Cf. also Ibid., а.u. 29.
16. Lefterov, Christo. Balkanskata vojna: Spomeni i dok.: Po dnevnika na Cenzurnata komisia pri shtaba na dejstvashtata armia, Voen. izd. fond. [Balkan War: Remembrance and Documents according to the Journal of Censorships’ Department within General Quarter of Operating Army], Sofia, Military Editing Funds, 1938.
17. Cfs. Saga za Balkanskata vojna. Dnevnik na sveshtenika Ivan Dochev [Saga of Balkan War: Diary of priest Ivan Dochev], Sofia, Iztok – Zapad, 2012.
18. It is noted in all the soldiers’ diaries, that observance of hygienic and sanitation regulations, together with the efforts of the Red Cross, led to a decrease in infections, so that the fight against cholera was eventually successful: the statistics confirm the soldiers’ remarks.
19. He learns about his ‘appointment as regular teacher at the Gabrovo High School’ at the front, from the newspaper Mir, and shares the good news with his parents, seeing in this a promise for a better social future; S, BAS, F. 40к, inv. 1, a.u. 444, p. 12. 32 Ibid., p. 11.
20. S, BAS, F. 40к, inv. 1, a.u. 444, a.u. 16, pp. 12-3.
21. Ibid., a.u. 444, pp. 2 – 15.
22. Ibid., a.u. 444, a.u. 16, 17.
23. Ibid., a.u. 444, p. 13. 38 Ibid., p. 14.
24. Ibid., a.u. 16, 17.
25. It is evident from these diaries that all parcels to the front line – including coffee, dry milk, biscuits, raki, underwear – which, according to the protocols of the Bulgarian Red Cross were ordered and sent to the front, arrived regularly; CSA, F. 156к, a.u. 14.
26. SA-Montana, F. 1157к, inv. 2, а.е. 66.
27. ‘If you’re sharp, wealthy, and have a recommendation from some officer, you can get whatever job you like in the army’; Ibid., p. 5.
28. Vojnishki dnevnik na Petar Zhechev Kurdomanov, p. 82-83. Cf. S. Bakardzhiev’s first long letter he wrote to his parents: ‘11.12.1912. Village of Tarfa. Dear parents, This evening I