Golden Fund of the Bulgarian Science

The aim of the project “Golden Fund of the Bulgarian Science” is to preserve and make available to the public in the tradition of the oral history of science the living memory of the most influential Bulgarian scientists, who have made a significant impact on our cultural heritage and shaped the ways we think about our national identity. We expect to achieve this by creating a digital video archive of their memoirs, interviewing 100-120 famous scientists and publish two book with extract of all interviews
It is a unique treasure house of Ego-documents, also, of the voices and images of the leading representatives of the Bulgarian science, who in easy conversation tell about their intellectual journeys and discoveries, about the illusions of the historical time they were living through, and about their historical expectations, such sort of archive, will have an impact on the ways we think about our national identity, cultural traditions, and roads toward the future development of the country.
The interview with its air of matter-of-factness and authenticity contributes to creating an image of revived historical process, of personal involvement with the past. Whether focused on creating a (self)portrait of a person and his epoch or more concentrated on a specific area of problems, the interview opens the door to getting both subjective and objective aspects of the events witnessed by the person interviewed. This modern digital archive preserves for the posterity the images, words and the presence of our leading scientists, and thereby becomes a unique document of our time. Apart from that, the interviews discloses abundant information about a whole range of moments in scientists’ lives, work, and careers, that otherwise would not be easily recorded in the traditional written documents. This way, the historians of science and culture will have a direct access to valuable knowledge about esoteric aspects of scientific controversies, the ‘kitchen of the scientific research, more intimate facets of the making of knowledge, etc., which they will be now able to treat in various new ways. Apart from that, the interviews will become a basis for expert analysis of the current condition of the Bulgarian society, of its educational, research and cultural institutions as well as of the big social and educational effect without which the cultural heritage is hard to preserve and national memory is difficult to keep alive.