The wanderer newspaper7/4/2023 ![]() Formally, he was not an emigrant, and was to be expected to return home when his passport expired – a prospect that was not attractive to him. Markov’s position in this moment was precarious. While abroad, a campaign against him started, and he was starting to get worried about serious repercussions against him, once he would return to Bulgaria. Markov decided to apply for a passport and to live for a certain time abroad, until his recent conflicts with the censors in Bulgaria had somehow cooled down. But it soon turned out that Markov’s and other writers’ hopes for some real reforms and more artistic and personal freedom would never be fulfilled in the totalitarian system in which they lived. At that time, in the early 1960’s, there was a short period in which formal experiments and criticism in works of art and literature were allowed and even encouraged within certain limits the leader of the communist party, Todor Zhivkov, took matters of literature in his own hands and had frequent meetings with writers, among them also Markov. Georgi Markov had his first successes as a writer in Bulgaria in the 1950’s, and after his admission to the Writers’ Union, he could embark on a professional career as a writer. The book “ Kill the Wanderer” (Gutenberg 2013, translated by David Mossop) by the investigative journalist Hristo Hristov is a breathtaking account of how Bulgaria’s State Security Service assassinated one of the best Bulgarian writers, who had turned into the most feared enemy of the communist nomenklatura in Bulgaria. I think it is therefore good and necessary to remember what the State Security did to some Bulgarians abroad, and how a network of informants were complicit into destroying the lives of people like the writer Georgi Markov. What was for me most interesting was the fact, that many intellectuals in Bulgaria tried to downplay Kristeva’s role, based on the argument that – even if she was an agent, it was all rather harmless what she reported, and she wouldn’t have done any harm with her reports – if indeed, she worked knowingly for the State Security. There are of course a few question marks in this particular case, and it remains to be seen, if Kristeva was really the victim as which she is describing herself. There is also a document in which Kristeva signs up to be an agent of the State Security – according to Kristeva, this is all a fabrication with the aim to tarnish her reputation. While Julia Kristeva denied all accusations against her, the Commission published her dossier online, containing hundreds of pages of transcripts of reports by Kristeva on the Bulgarian community in Paris that she knowingly or unknowingly delivered to Bulgaria’s Secret Service. What followed was a heated discussion about the interpretation of this information. See photos for details.In March 2018, one of the top news in Bulgaria was the announcement of the “Dossier Commission” that deals with the files of the former communist State Security Services, that Julia Kristeva, the prominent French writer and intellectual of Bulgarian origin has been an agent of the State Security, according to their findings. Sixteen pages, in good condition, and contains additional prints and related text. Two illustrations of the 'Inauguration of Governor Morgan' encompass nearly a full page. ![]() An article "Incidents of Travel on the Tehuantepec Route" features several small illustrations. Two half page illustrations entitled 'Railway Train in a Snow Storm' and 'Stopped by the Snow-Drift'. Other illustrations within include a full page illustration of: 'The United States Sloop of War Brooklyn'. History would prove that the Wanderer did carry slaves, in fact it delivered the last load of slaves to land in America. The next heard of her was early in December last when she suddenly loomed up on the coast of Georgia and was charged with having been engaged in the slave trade.The general opinion.is that the Wanderer did not herself carry slaves from Africa, but that she served as the pilot and decoy of a larger vessel which did and that between three and four hundred slaves were landed on or near Jekyll Island & from thence scattered throughout the Southern country.". Part of the article notes: ".after detaining the Wanderer for a week or so, let her go. Its infamy is in that it was the last documented ship to bring a cargo of slaves from Africa to the United States, which it did on November 28, 1858. HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, JanuThe front page features a rather large illustration of: "The Yacht 'Wanderer'" along with a related article on it.
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