site.btaBook about Bulgarian Emigration to Brazil Launched in Moldova

The new book Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauz: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow has been published. The author and compiler is the doctor of history Ivan Grech. The publication is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of mass immigration to Brazil.

"I thank Ivan Grech for his confidence, and I hope he also liked how the organizational processes went. In 2025 we will organize presentations in Taraclia and other Bulgarian and Gagauz populated settlements. We will also do a larger event in the city of Chisinau, where we will invite all those who are sincerely interested in our history and culture," said Oleg Kosih, the director of the Bulgarian Spirit Foundation, on social media.

He added that this edition was made possible thanks to the long-time donor of the Bulgarian Spirit Foundation, Alexander Gosudarev, and Kiril Dimitrov from the Bulgarian Embassy in Moldova.

"I would like the book to reach every Bulgarian and Gagauz village in the region. It reveals how geopolitical, internal political and social factors have influenced our community and its historical fate in the Danube-Dniester interfluve," he added.

According to the historian, the book examines not only the Brazilian emigration of the Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauz, but also their 250-year history in the Budzhak region. It contains specific stories about emigrants from different villages in the Ukrainian and Moldovan parts of the region. It is, he says, the first serious attempt to shed light on issues of the ethnic, ethno-cultural and religious identity of these communities.

The collection is not for sale and will be distributed among the villages, Kosih added.