The Contribution of Dr. Dimitar Mutev (1818-1864) for the Construction of the Bolgrad High School as a Bulgarian National Educational Centre

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the 200-th anniversary of the birth (September 4, 1818) of the Doctor of Philosophy Dimitar Mutev. A prominent Bulgarian Revival Enlightener, who has an outstanding contribution to the creation of the first Bulgarian secondary school. During the Renaissance it gained popularity among the people, such as Bolgrad High School “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”. Dr. Mutev became its director on October 15, 1859, and remained in this post until his death – 14 January 1864. For just over four years he attracted well-trained pedagogues such as: Vasil Popovich - a teacher of Bulgarian language and literature; Teodosii Ikonomov - lecturer in Old Bulgarian language; Ivan Filipov - teacher of mathematics; Nikola Kazanakli, a teacher of history and geography, and Dimitar Mutev a teaches physics and natural history.
Dr. Mutev is working on the Bolgrad High School to become a center of spiritual awakening and national consciousness of all Bulgarian colonists and also of the Bulgarians in the enslaved homeland. To fulfill his plans he opens to a high school a boarding house, where both the children of the Bessarabian Bulgarians and those coming from enslaved Bulgaria are accommodated.
Dr. Mutev creates the first in the history of the Bulgarian school: modern physics cabinet, equipped with 140 objects, models and other materials purchased from Vienna; a high school library, which has a rich book fund and receives almost all Bulgarian revival periodicals and plays the role of a large Bulgarian community center. On August 6, 1863, the first school printing press was opened in high school, the content of which is aimed at educational and educational literature. In the first place, textbooks are required, both for the high school and for the schools in the Bessarabian villages and especially for the enslaved Bulgarian lands. Books with religious themes, different socio-political literature and artistic works are published.
In the city began its activity and the theater company. Whose actors are teachers and high school students who bring residents to theater art. That same year, for the first time in Bessarabia, the feast of St. St. Cyril and Methodius, and for the first time in Bulgarian history is celebrated as a public holiday - St. Ivan Rilski, which in the 20th century became a “Den na narodnite buditeli”.
The greatest historical merit of Dr. Dimitar Mutev is that for four years he turned the Bolgrad high school into an elite secondary school on a European level; in a Revival educational, cultural and social center not only for the Bulgarian emigration, but for the entire nation.