Over the coming weeks I will be adding some photo's of how things were in Bulgaria many years ago so keep checking back


Professor Marin Stoyanov Drinov (Bulgarian: Марин Стоянов Дринов, known in Russia as Марин Степанович Дринов) (1838 - 13 March 1906) was a Bulgarian historian and philologist from the National Revival period who lived and worked in Russia through most of his life. He was one of the originators of Bulgarian historiography and a founding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (then the Bulgarian Literary Society), as well as its first chairman.

Drinov was born in Panagyurishte in 1838. He left for Russia in 1858 to continue his education. He studied history and philology in Kiev and at the Moscow State University, travelled and worked in Austria and Italy between 1865 and 1871. In 1869, he became one of the co founders and an active member of the Bulgarian Literary Society. Drinov achieved a master's degree and became a reader of Slavistics at Kharkiv University, beginning to work as a regular professor in the end of 1876.

During the period of Russian government of Bulgaria (1878-1879) Drinov was Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Spiritual Affairs. Taking an active part in the organization of the newly liberated Bulgarian state, Marin Drinov is known as one of the authors of the Tarnovo Constitution, the person to have proposed Sofia instead of Tarnovo (favoured by Austrian diplomats) for the new Bulgarian capital, and the person to have introduced the standardized 32-letter edition of Cyrillic that was used in Bulgaria until the orthographic reform of 1945.

Drinov lived in Kharkiv after 1881, continuing his scientific and educational activities until the end of his life. He died in the town in 1906 after a long fight with tuberculosis.

Another interesting topic thanks! its always good sometimes to look back in history to fully understand a country and maybe answer some of the questions we all have at some point.

Good idea its nice to see how the forfathers of Bulgaria looked and what life was like all that time back

•The first electronic computer was invented by Bulgarian John Vincent Ansoff. He named it the Anatasoff Berry Computer, or the ABC. It was the world's first electronic digital computer and built between 1937-42 by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University. It used regenerative memory, parallel processing, binary arithmetic and split computing functions (routines) away from memory use and management.
Few would deny that the invention of the computer has revolutionized society or that the world of today would look quite different without computers. In the relatively short span of time that has elapsed since the world's first electronic digital computer was invented in 1939, computers have become universal tools that are an integral part of modern life. Yet, comparatively few people know that John Atanasoff, the genius who invented the first computer and initiated the computer revolution, was of Bulgarian ancestry. John Atanasoff was a prominent American inventor who took pride in his Bulgarian heritage and maintained strong ties to his ancestral home of Bulgaria.

John Atanasoff's father, Ivan Atanasoff, was born in the village of Boyadjick, Bulgaria. Ivan Atanasoff had lost his own father in 1876, when the latter was brutally killed in the April Uprising of the Bulgarians against the Ottoman Empire. In 1889, when Ivan Atanasoff was thirteen years old, he emmigrated to the United States accompanied by an uncle. He later married Iva Lucena, a mathematics teacher. John Vincent Atanasoff was born in the town of Hamilton, New York on October 4, 1903. After John's birth, the Atanasoff family moved a number of times as Ivan Atanasoff sought better employment in several different electrical engineering positions. They eventually settled in Brewster, Florida, where John completed grade school. The Atanasoff home in Brewster was the first house the family had lived in that was equipped with electricity. By age nine, John had taught himself how to repair faulty electric wiring and light fixtures on their back-porch.

It was recognized early that John Atanasoff had both a passion and talent for mathematics. His youthful interest in baseball was quickly forgotten once his father showed him the logarithmic slide rule he had bought for facilitating engineering calculations. The slide rule completely captivated the nine-year-old boy, who spent hours studying the instructions and delighting in the fact that this mathematical tool consistently resulted in correct solutions to problems. Young John's obsession with the slide rule soon led to a series of discoveries on the logarithmic principles underlying slide rule operation and, subsequently, to a study of trigonometric functions. It was not long before the gifted youth had achieved substantial progress in his math studies. At this time John's mother introduced him to counting systems and number bases other than base ten, including an introduction to the binary system which would prove important in his later work.

John Atanasoff completed his high school course in two years, with excellence in both science and mathematics. He had decided to become a theoretical physicist, and with that goal in mind, entered the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1921. Because the university curriculum did not offer degrees in physics, John began his undergraduate studies in the electrical engineering program. The knowledge of electronics and higher math that John acquired as an electrical engineering student would later prove fortuitous in helping to transform the theory of the computer into a working reality

John Atanasoff graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1925, with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He received his Master's degree in mathematics from the Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa in 1926. After completing his graduate studies, Atanasoff accepted a position teaching physics and mathematics at Iowa State College. He was then accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin, and received his doctoral degree (Ph. D.) in theoretical physics from Wisconsin in 1930. In his doctoral thesis, "
The Dielectric Constant of Helium"
, Atanasoff was required to do many complicated and time consuming computations. Although he utilized the Monroe mechanical calculator, one of the best machines of the time, to assist in his tedious computations, the shortcomings of this machine were painfully obvious and motivated him to think about the possibility of developing a more sophisticated calculating machine. After receiving his Ph. D. in theoretical physics in July 1930, John returned to the staff of Iowa State College and began his work on developing a better and faster computing machine.

In 1970 John Atanasoff was invited to Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and the Bulgarian Government conferred to him the Cyrille and Methodius Order of Merit First Class. This was his first public recognition, and it was awarded to him three years before similar honors were conferred to him in the United States. The credit for this timely recognition of Atanasoff's achievement should be given to the Bulgarian academicians, Blaghovest Sendov, Ph.D. and Kyrille Boyannov, Ph.D., among others. During his lifetime, the highest honor and recognition awarded to John Vincent Atanasoff, the Father of the Computer, was the National Medal of Science and Technology, conferred to him by George H. W. Bush in 1990

Thought you would all like to read this,i live in this village just one village up from Netsniper so much history in this country

how interesting, never really looked further than the churches, i love buildings, but learning of the history of bulgaria is quite interesting.

Here are a couple of pictures from varna but I can't tell you much about them sorry

This is what I term as BRILLIANT!! to see how Bulgaria was and the architecture from the past is going to be wonderful

This Chemical plant is one of the communist era "
prides"
of Yambol. It is named after Bulgarian writer Dimitar Dimov and in its "
peak"
years was the working place of over 2500 people. Another name of the factory is "
Yambolen"
now a textile factory, it is owned by an off-shore company and is almost ii in decline.

This could be one of the hangers at Bezmer Air Base ??

Netsniperthefirst wrote:

Here are a couple of pictures from varna but I can't tell you much about them sorry

First Pic is the original entrance to the Sea Gardens, and eventually down to the sea. The statue of Stalin has since been removed. Entrance to the Sea Gardens now looks like this for those folks that would like to know how things have changed:
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Second one is the Opera House. The Opera House (which you can see on the left) is still there, along with the fountain (which is now much bigger), the rest of the buildings have since changed.

Here's the Opera now:
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and here's the fountains now:
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Great Stuff Nets ... keep 'em coming!

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What l find interesting in the Bulgarian ancient history is the the possible genesis biblical flood that poured into the black sea basin from the med.The black sea as we know it was really a fresh water basin that was below the sea level of the med.A earthquake separated the 2 lands and the sea water contaminated the black water lake.
There was a growing thriving community all along the Bulgarian coastline exploiting the fresh water resources.This flooded the whole communities and some finds under the coastal regions were found as well as many wooden boats.
Makes you wonder whether the bible is a fairy tale story or a book filled with a knowledge from beyond the realms.
Have a look at this photo and you will see the lighter color of blue was dry land where the communities settles.Makes you think when out on a day out with the family swimming that just under you could be the 2 cities of sin that are mentioned in the bible.Sodom and Gomorra[l think that’s how you spell it]

spooky or what

Yambol, 1960-1970

I can't say I recognise this part does it ring any bells with anyone?