Evaluation of the Symbols of Modernization of Bulgaria at the Turn of the XIX and XX Centuries in the Descriptions of Russian Travelers

The article provides a discursive analysis of the descriptions of Bulgaria compiled by Russian travelers in the first years after the fall of S. Stambolov and the normalization of relations between the two countries, in semiotic and axiological aspects. Publications in newspapers and books of those years, materials of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art are compiled. On their basis, the features of Bulgarian public life that the authors paid the most attention to are highlighted: urban improvement, political development, attitude to religion and culture. Based on the analysis of the attitude to these symbols of modernity and Westernization, it is assumed that the descriptions of Bulgaria by Russian eyewitnesses contain elements of both oriental and occidental discourse, and the descriptions are based on a comparison of Bulgaria with an ideal modernization project.