La troisième génération : conceptions politiques et ambitions personnelles de la jeunesse nationaliste dans la Bulgarie des années 1930

The article examines the debates on the “third generation” in the larger framework of the debates on Bulgaria’s twentieth-century political history. The term “third generation” appeared as a self-designation in the 1930s among part of the radical nationalist youth who was influenced by contemporary authoritarian, fascist movements and regimes in Europe. These young people considered themselves the third active generation after the creation of the new Bulgarian state in 1878. They claimed that their generation was meant to restore the unity of the whole nation and achieve national regeneration and advancement. From a present-day perspective, the same generation could also be regarded as the last active generation before the instauration of the communist regime in 1944, which means it is now often regarded with compassion, and is even somewhat idealized. Such an approach results in a distorted understanding of the political views and activities of the young people of the self-proclaimed “third generation”. The article thus provides a new perspective on the mechanisms at stake in the rethinking and rewriting of the history of the pre-communist period.