site.btaIvan Hadzhiyski: The Pioneer of Bulgarian School of Social Psychology

"His work was a sort of rebellion of modern man against the conventional way of life and thinking. And it was a profoundly civilized rebellion that did not discard traditional values, but rather embedded them in the cultural memory of the nation," late social psychologist Mincho Draganov once said of philosopher, sociologist, and publicist Ivan Hadzhiyski, who died 80 years ago on this day.

Hadzhiyski was born in Troyan (North Central Bulgaria) on October 13, 1907. He graduated in Philosophy from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia in 1932 and in Law in 1936.

Regarded as one of the pioneers of the Bulgarian school of social psychology, he developed a novel method for studying social problems. Hadzhiyski invented a new branch of scientific knowledge, which he called "concrete mass psychology".

He is the author of the first study of the ethnopsychology of the Bulgarian people, Way of Life and Spirituality of Our Nation. In it, he analyzed the past and present of Bulgarian society, examining the lifestyle and spirituality of different social groups and the manifestations of collective consciousness and behavior.

A large part of his works, including observations on various social phenomena, analyses, historical accounts, and studies, remained unpublished until his death.

During the final phase of World War II (1944-1945), he served as a war correspondent. He volunteered to be drafted into the Army and was killed in action against German units in Yugoslavia on October 4, 1944. On November 2, 1944, he was buried in his hometown.

Several decades after his passing, his daughter, sociologist Maria Hadzhiyska, assembled his archive piece by piece with the help of other researchers and published unseen writings and expanded already published works.

Hadzhiyski’s collections of essays, articles, and letters include Authority, Dignity and Mask (1933), Love and Marriage (1936), Optimistic Theory for Our People (1997), and Civil Death and Immortality (2003), to name but a few.

His archive is housed by the Ivan Hadzhiyski Institute for Social Values and Structures, founded on October 15, 1997, on the occasion of his 90th birth anniversary.

On October 2, 2007, the Institute of Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences awarded Hadzhiyski posthumously for outstanding merits and exceptional contribution to Bulgarian sociology.