Zagorchinov, Stoian

Born Dec. 3, 1889, in Plovdiv; died Jan. 31, 1969, in Sofia. Bulgarian writer.

Zagorchinov was first published in 1912. He concentrated his attention on the history of the Bulgarian people. The novella The Legend of St. Sofia (1926) is devoted to the struggle of the Slavs against the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century; the novel Ivailo (1962) portrays the antifeudal peasant uprising of the 13th century. His most important work, the novel The Last Day (1932-34; Dimitrov Prize, 1950; Russian translation, 1955), paints a broad picture of life in Bulgaria in the 14th century, on the eve of the Turkish conquest. A romantic spirit is characteristic of his realistic works. Reflections on the development and future of the historical novel and on Bulgarian national heroes provide the underlying themes of Furrows (1956).