Vasil Zlatarski - Life

Life

Vasil Zlatarski was born in Veliko Tarnovo in 1866, the youngest child of the teacher Nikola Zlatarcheto (from his home-town Zlataritsa, near Tarnovo) who was a prominent activist in the educational movement and the religious and national struggle in the Tarnovo region before the Liberation. Zlatarski obtained his education in Veliko Tarnovo (until 3rd grade) and in the Peter and Paul Seminary at Liaskovets, near Tarnovo where he was preparing for priesthood. After the early death of his father, he went to his brother in Russia, where in 1887 he graduated the First Classical Lyceum in St. Petersburg. Studied History at the University of St. Petersburg in 1891 and as a post-graduate in Berlin in 1893-1895. Then he returned to Bulgaria and became a high-school teacher in Sofia and Lecturer in the Higher School (now the Sofia University). He was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1906. Between 1926 and his death Zlatarski was vice-president of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Zlatarski is a historical objectivist, close to the positivist school. He contributed significantly to the development of Bulgarian historical science by becoming the first professor of history at the Sofia University who conducted original research and by creating the field of Bulgarian medieval history proper. Between his first appointment at the university in 1893 and his death in 1935 he worked on his monumental History of the Bulgarian State in the Middle ages - a comprehensive study of the political history of the medieval Bulgarian state with long discussions of cultural and religious problems and meticulous analysis of broad source evidence. Zlatarski popularised historical research in the country and established contacts with major Russian and Western medievalists and Byzantinists like A. A. Vasiliev or Henri Grégoire. He was the chairman of the Fourth International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Sofia, 1934.