site.bta127 Years of History: The Past and Future Preserved in BTA’s New Archive Repositories

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) was founded as a dedicated service for delivering news about foreign events to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religions.

BTA released its first bulletin on February 16, 1898, and the next day, its telegrams were published in the Unofficial Section of the State Gazette. Oscar Iskander, the inaugural director, began the agency’s archival collection, a historical legacy that is still mostly unknown in present day.

For over four decades, BTA’s bulletins were stored on wooden shelves along the agency's ceiling, in rooms with concrete structures on both the floor and ceiling. Narrow gaps between shelves allowed dust from the busy Tsarigradsko Shose Boulevard to enter, affecting preservation conditions.

Now, 127 years after its first bulletin, BTA has established modern archive storage facilities equipped with advanced shelving systems and climate control, ensuring the long-term preservation of its records in compliance with Bulgarian archival standards.

New facilities have been developed for storing bulletins, thematic archives, the library, and the photo archive. The bulletin collection is divided between a main repository and a special storage facility. The main archive holds bulletins from 1921 onward, covering around 150 titles that have evolved over the years. The special storage facility preserves bulletins from 1898 to 1920, including the first bulletin handwritten by BTA’s first director, Oskar Iskander.

The special storage room also contains books published before 1878, along with rare editions from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many featuring handwritten dedications. These volumes form part of BTA’s library, which has served as a depository since 1950. In 1952, the library contained 11,000 volumes; today, it houses approximately 90,000. The new library facility is now fully equipped to meet archival storage requirements.

In 1950, BTA established the Reference Department as an independent information unit to support other editorial departments with quick and reliable data. The archive contains 5,000 thematic boxes with approximately 2.75 million items, all systematically organized into thematic files. It is now stored in a modern archival facility.

The agency's photo archive originated in 1940 with the appointment of the first BTA photographer. In 1952, the establishment of an independent Press Photo editorial office marked the beginning of the Photo Archive department. The collection, featuring photographs from 1943 onward, has been consistently updated since 1952. The photo archive is now housed in two dedicated rooms, adhering to the latest Bulgarian archival standards.

Since 2023, BTA has been carrying out the Digitization of Museum Collections, Libraries, and Archives project as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. On May 4, 2023, an Operational Agreement was signed involving the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, the Bulgarian National Radio, the Bulgarian National Television, BTA, the State Archives Agency, the Bulgarian National Film Archive, and the Electronic Governance Infrastructure Executive Agency.

The investment aims to reform State policies on digitization, preservation, and public access to Bulgaria’s cultural heritage. 

A National Expert Advisory Council, chaired by Milena Dobreva, has been established under the Ministry of Culture to provide strategic recommendations for sustainable digitalization efforts. Svoboda Todorova, who leads BTA’s digitalization project, serves as deputy chair.

As part of the Digitalization of the Specialized Archival and Reference Funds of BTA project, which falls under Component 4 of the Ministry of Culture’s programme, BTA is working to digitize its extensive archival collection.

To date, 2,286,951 pages from BTA bulletins and 264,859 photographs taken by agency photographers have been digitized under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

At the start of 2024, BTA’s bulletin archive was officially registered as part of Bulgaria’s National Archival Fund.

A Legacy of Information and Global Connectivity

In its early years, BTA’s bulletins frequently reported on European royal courts and crime-related news, often featuring commercial and stock market updates. By 1905, the agency was issuing two telegram bulletins daily, sourcing international news primarily from Havas and Reuters.

On May 9, 1910, BTA published the first issue of Review of the Foreign Press, later renamed Press Review in 1914. 

During the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), international interest in regional events grew, prompting the agency to expand its services. By this time, BTA had established connections with Havas, Reuters, Agenzia Stefani, and the Athens News Agency.

After the Balkan War, the BTA department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Denominations (MFAD) was reorganized into the Press Directorate, which included two divisions: BTA and the Press Division. The Press Division was responsible for monitoring both domestic and international press and translating materials related to Bulgaria and its foreign relations into Bulgarian.

Following the Balkan war, BTA was integrated into the MFAD as part of its Press Directorate. In 1921, the agency began publishing bulletins in both Bulgarian and French. The following year, it started issuing the Public Review of the Foreign Press daily, except Sundays. By 1923, the agency had 33 part-time contributors.

BTA's domestic reporting started off quite limited. Initially, information from Bulgaria was processed by MFAD, translated into French, and then sent to international news agencies. In 1921, the agency broadened its services, issuing bulletins three times daily. By 1928, BTA had begun using radio, and by 1930, it had set up a Documentation Department with its own library.

BTA’s Evolution in the 20th Century

In 1932, the agency introduced the Hell self-recording radio receiver and underwent several reorganizations in the following years. By 1937, it was issuing three bulletins daily in both Bulgarian and French. In 1938, BTA added Daily News and the Economic Information Bulletin as supplements to its main publications.

After the events of September 9, 1944, BTA was transferred to the Ministry of Propaganda and later restructured into an independent institution under the Council of Ministers in 1951.

By 1958, the agency was receiving broadcasts from 18 foreign news agencies, including five global and 13 national ones. BTA had 325 staff members and 10 foreign correspondents. In 1965, it launched four weekly magazines: LIK, Around the World, Science and Technology, and Parallels.

From 1977 to 1989, BTA expanded its operations, running specialized editorial offices for international news, domestic news, photojournalism, political analysis, and more. The agency issued both public and classified bulletins, the latter marked by distinct colours: black for official documents, red for confidential materials, and blue for public information.

In 1964, BTA received a mandate to monitor foreign anti-Bulgarian propaganda, analyzing content from Western news sources such as Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and the BBC. In 1973, state funding was provided to publish an anti-Bulgarian propaganda bulletin. The secret bulletins were published in 2 to 500 copies, depending on the subscribers' rank.

BTA produced Supplements (C-1 to C-3) of these Special Bulletins between 1975 and 1989, which are still available in BTA's archives. Of those, only Bulletin C-4, intended exclusively for Todor Zhivkov, has not been preserved in the archive.

From 1977 to 1989, BTA published Foreign Propaganda Against Bulgaria, analyzing coverage critical of the Bulgarian government. Between 1979 and 1990, an exclusive bulletin for the Institute for Contemporary Social Histories provided analyses and forecasts on domestic and international events, including dissident activities.

After the political changes of 1989, previously classified bulletins became freely accessible.

BTA’s archival collection, encompassing bulletins, photographs, and thematic files, serves as a vital resource, ensuring that the agency’s legacy remains preserved for future generations.