The exhibition features documents from the personal collections and records of nineteen rectors, stored in the University Archives. These include manuscripts of academic research, letters, reports and photographs, depicting the rectors as lecturers, researchers, leaders or in their everyday lives.
The exhibition features documents from the personal collections and records of nineteen rectors, stored in the University Archives. These include manuscripts of academic research, letters, reports and photographs, depicting the rectors as lecturers, researchers, leaders or in their everyday lives.
Noteworthy items include letters from Prof. Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan, requesting books for the University Library; a draft letter from Prof. Georgi Zlatarski to the Minister of People’s Education, in which he asks not to be appointed as rector, as this would hinder his academic work; Prof. Zlatarski’s unpublished atlas of palaeontology. On display in the showcases are notebooks, belonging to Prof. Panteley Zarev, containing notes on meetings and conversations with party and state leaders; Prof. Ilcho Dimitrov’s diaries, containing notes on important events in the country, as well as notes from his meetings with representatives of various political parties prior to 9th September 1944. Among Prof. Nikola Popov’s documents, one can find photographs of him as a guerrilla fighter and a mountaineer.
The University Archives’ programme for the acquisition and preservation of valuable documents belonging to the university’s rectors has been ongoing for 25 years, and currently includes the personal collections of the following rectors: Georgi Zlatarski, Georgi Shishkov, Dimitar Kosev, Panteley Zarev, Hristo Hristov, Ilcho Dimitrov, Georgi Bliznakov, Nikola Popov and Nikolay Genchev. The exhibition organisers invite anyone who is in contact with the heirs of distinguished university lecturers to assist the University Archives in adding their documents to its collection.
The exhibition will be on display from 1st September to 15th October 2026 in the foyer of the Central University Library.