HISTORIOGRAPHYCAL PROBLEMS: A MEDIEVAL REVOLT AS A LEGITIMAZING NARRATIVE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

 In 1277, a revolt against the throne of that empire took place in Bulgaria. Peasants, led by a pig farmer named Ivaylo, mobilized to confront this enemy, as they considered him incapable of facing the Golden Horde, which threatened the lives of these peasants. After centuries, a whole bibliography remains as a legacy that addresses this historical event, and this work selects one of them, the (self-proclaimed) Marxist one, and makes an interpretative effort between what would be propaganda and what would be scientific. How was a peasant leader, who was a pig farmer, able to be crowned legitimate emperor? Historiography narrates this event, and one of these narratives to be analyzed is based on observations from a work by the writer Petr Petrov. In addition to narrating, this historical event is reconfigured as a political instrument, committed to fulfilling the expectations of a specific political agenda. This work aims to analyze these narratives and point out these Bulgarian phenomena.