Bogomil Rainov
(1919 - 2007)
Bogomil Rainov was born in Sofia; he is the son of the Academician Nikolai Rainov. He completed his high school education in the capital and graduated from Sofia University in Philosophy (1943). After 9 September 1944 he worked in newspapers, magazines and radio stations (often in top managerial positions); taught aesthetics at the National Academy of Arts (became a Professor in 1954), and between 1953 and 1960 he was a Cultural Attaché at the Bulgarian Embassy in Paris. He was among the leaders of the Bulgarian Union of Writers (1967-1989), corresponding member of BAS since 1974; member of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. During the years of the communist regime he took an active part in “dealing with” “misguided” Bulgarian writers and artists from the position of strict adherence to party prescriptions. In the period of “mature socialism” he was within the inner circle of Lyudmila Zhivkova.
His works started to appear in print from the mid-1930s; he was drawn to leftist ideas but at the same time did not denounce the intellectual heritage of his family background. His first volumes of poetry (Stihove [Verses], 1940; Lyuboven calendar [Love Calendar], 1942) resonate with the modern sensibility of the city dweller; the city is also at the centre of his novel Patuvane v delnika [Travel on a Weekday] (1945). His post-war collections of poems Stihotvoreniya [Poems] and Stihove za petiletkata [Verses on the Five-year Plan], his early publications on aesthetics, as well as the short stories in the volumes Chovekat na agala [The Man on the Corner] (1958), Dazhdovna vecher [A Rainy Evening] (1961), and Noshtni bulevardi [Night Boulevards] (1963) are explicitly ideology-laden. The long short story Kakto samo nie umirame [The Way We Only Die] (1961) however reveals a process of overcoming communist dogma, while Patishta za nikade [Roads to Nowhere] (1966) – due to the portrayal of the lonely man faced with defeat – is generally regarded as emblematic for the doubts and quests Bulgarian literature struggled with in the period after “denouncing Stalinism”. After the publication of the crime novel Inspekrorat i noshtta [Inspector in the Dark] (1964) Bogomil Rainov became one of the most popular writers in his day (this short novel, together with Edin chovek se vrashta ot minaloto [A Man Comes Back from the Past] and Brazilska melodiya [Brazilian Melody], shaped the triptych Tri sreshti s inspektora [Three Meetings with the Inspector], 1970). The novel Gospodin Nikoi [Mr. Nobody] (1967) marked the birth of his spy hero Emil Boev – also an emblematic “face” in Bulgarian socialist literature (Boev is a leading character in a number of subsequent texts, the last of which appeared in the 1980s).
In parallel to his series of crime and spy novels Rainov also published critical texts which focused on mass culture theory (Cherniyat roman [The Noir Novel], 1970; Eros and Tanatos, 1971; Masovata kultura [Mass Culture], 1974). In the 1970s he wrote a number of books (most of them having autobiographical characteristics) which discussed the specific features of creative work, ethical issues arising between different generations, and the nature of aesthetic appreciation (Chernite lebedi [Black Swans], Tyutyuneviyat chovek [The Tobacco Man], Patyat za Santa Cruz [The Road to Santa Cruz], Elegiya za martvite dni [Elegy for Dead Days], etc.). Rainov was also an author of a number of studies in art historiography, monographs on Bulgarian and foreign individual artists, volumes of essays in art criticism, and even of a book which revealed his esoteric inclinations. He also wrote scripts for some of the most popular in socialist Bulgaria films and translated poetry from Russian and French (Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, Mayakovski, Villon, Baudelaire, Eluard, etc.). After 1989 appeared his novels Tihiyat kat [The Quiet Corner] (1999) and Chenge vtora upotreba [Second-hand Cop] (2000), as well as the highly polemic books Leka ni prast [May We Rest in Peace] (2008) and Pismo ot martvets [Dead Man’s Letter] (2009), among others.
By 1989 Bogomil Rainov had received all the highest awards in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria – Hero of Socialist Labour, Laureate of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov, National Activist of Culture, etc. In the Republic of Bulgaria (after 1989) he also received the Order of Stara planina and the Paisii Hiledarski State Award.
Bogomil Rainov is one of the most controversial personalities in Bulgarian culture in the post World War II milieu; his personal and creative biographies inevitably continue to raise issues and provoke analytical takes on the relations between talent and ethics, between the intellectual and the disposition of power across different political regimes.
Rainov’s works have been translated into English by Teodora Atanasova, Nevena Zhelyazkova, and Peter Tempest, among others.
His works started to appear in print from the mid-1930s; he was drawn to leftist ideas but at the same time did not denounce the intellectual heritage of his family background. His first volumes of poetry (Stihove [Verses], 1940; Lyuboven calendar [Love Calendar], 1942) resonate with the modern sensibility of the city dweller; the city is also at the centre of his novel Patuvane v delnika [Travel on a Weekday] (1945). His post-war collections of poems Stihotvoreniya [Poems] and Stihove za petiletkata [Verses on the Five-year Plan], his early publications on aesthetics, as well as the short stories in the volumes Chovekat na agala [The Man on the Corner] (1958), Dazhdovna vecher [A Rainy Evening] (1961), and Noshtni bulevardi [Night Boulevards] (1963) are explicitly ideology-laden. The long short story Kakto samo nie umirame [The Way We Only Die] (1961) however reveals a process of overcoming communist dogma, while Patishta za nikade [Roads to Nowhere] (1966) – due to the portrayal of the lonely man faced with defeat – is generally regarded as emblematic for the doubts and quests Bulgarian literature struggled with in the period after “denouncing Stalinism”. After the publication of the crime novel Inspekrorat i noshtta [Inspector in the Dark] (1964) Bogomil Rainov became one of the most popular writers in his day (this short novel, together with Edin chovek se vrashta ot minaloto [A Man Comes Back from the Past] and Brazilska melodiya [Brazilian Melody], shaped the triptych Tri sreshti s inspektora [Three Meetings with the Inspector], 1970). The novel Gospodin Nikoi [Mr. Nobody] (1967) marked the birth of his spy hero Emil Boev – also an emblematic “face” in Bulgarian socialist literature (Boev is a leading character in a number of subsequent texts, the last of which appeared in the 1980s).
In parallel to his series of crime and spy novels Rainov also published critical texts which focused on mass culture theory (Cherniyat roman [The Noir Novel], 1970; Eros and Tanatos, 1971; Masovata kultura [Mass Culture], 1974). In the 1970s he wrote a number of books (most of them having autobiographical characteristics) which discussed the specific features of creative work, ethical issues arising between different generations, and the nature of aesthetic appreciation (Chernite lebedi [Black Swans], Tyutyuneviyat chovek [The Tobacco Man], Patyat za Santa Cruz [The Road to Santa Cruz], Elegiya za martvite dni [Elegy for Dead Days], etc.). Rainov was also an author of a number of studies in art historiography, monographs on Bulgarian and foreign individual artists, volumes of essays in art criticism, and even of a book which revealed his esoteric inclinations. He also wrote scripts for some of the most popular in socialist Bulgaria films and translated poetry from Russian and French (Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, Mayakovski, Villon, Baudelaire, Eluard, etc.). After 1989 appeared his novels Tihiyat kat [The Quiet Corner] (1999) and Chenge vtora upotreba [Second-hand Cop] (2000), as well as the highly polemic books Leka ni prast [May We Rest in Peace] (2008) and Pismo ot martvets [Dead Man’s Letter] (2009), among others.
By 1989 Bogomil Rainov had received all the highest awards in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria – Hero of Socialist Labour, Laureate of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov, National Activist of Culture, etc. In the Republic of Bulgaria (after 1989) he also received the Order of Stara planina and the Paisii Hiledarski State Award.
Bogomil Rainov is one of the most controversial personalities in Bulgarian culture in the post World War II milieu; his personal and creative biographies inevitably continue to raise issues and provoke analytical takes on the relations between talent and ethics, between the intellectual and the disposition of power across different political regimes.
Rainov’s works have been translated into English by Teodora Atanasova, Nevena Zhelyazkova, and Peter Tempest, among others.
