Address by the Director of the NMMH on the Occasion of the Museum’s 110th Anniversary
Today, when the future of the world drifts amid geopolitical fault lines of the present and when birds build nests out of optical fibres used for drones, museums face their most difficult task — to preserve not only heritage and memory, but also humanity.
Established at the height of the first total war in human history, when, as they said at the time – the enemy was where his heart beat, the National Museum of Military History amassed 110 years of experience in helping people overcome the wounds of conflicts. For 110 years, the Museum has collected and told through artefacts stories of how victories and unfulfilled ideals transform the state, communities, and myriad of individual lives, offering the many different perspectives within the context of their time.
I would not dare to assess these 110 years in a few short sentences. Each decade is imbued with the efforts and dedication of generations of museum professionals who, with determination and expertise, have collected and preserved the fragments of history encoded in every object.
That which is beyond dispute is the immense number of artefacts and stories from the wars for national liberation and unification of Bulgarians, as well as those connected with the history, memory, and values of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.
I cannot neglect the fact that, thanks to the dedication and efforts of those who had worked at the Museum during the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, today it holds Bulgaria’s most comprehensive collection of artefacts linked to the iconic figures of the armed struggles for political sovereignty across the long 18-19 c. period: from Hristo Voyvoda, Indzhe, and Kara Kolyo, to Rakovski, Levski, and Botev, as well as the most comprehensive archive related to the search for the Apostle’s grave. Thus, the NMMH heeds the behest of those post-Liberation champions of remembrance, who were unable to establish a Museum of the Bulgarian National Revival.
When discussing the role of the Museum, it is important to note that, despite the political vagaries and interventions since 1947, it succeeded, unlike many other institutions, to preserve vast collections of artefacts associated with Bulgaria’s heads of state, generals, and officers from the period of the Tsardom of Bulgaria, ensuring that today, in a free Bulgaria, these collections occupy their rightful place in the historical narrative.
And the final point I would like to make, and I do so with great pride, is that today we are the only museum in Bulgaria that has the courage to interpret within its permanent exhibition, difficult subjects such as political coups, the People’s Court and the nation’s mistakes, and the only one to present in a museum interpretation the more than 30 years now of transition, in both the country and the Bulgarian Army, with all the risks associated with the interpretation of a historical narrative that remains unfinished, in the context of today’s political divides.
This list could go on for a long time.
But who are we today — one large family of the Museum in Sofia, our branches in Varna — the Naval Museum and the Park-Museum of Military Friendship — 1444 “Vladislav Varnenchik,” with whom we have been together since the early 1950s, and the Aviation Museum in Plovdiv, which has been a part of us for the past 20 years. Together we are building the great narrative of our distant and recent past.
Today, the National Museum of Military History is responsible for more than one million cultural assets — movable and immovable, recorded under over 330 000 inventory numbers – compared to an average of 43 000, according to the National Statistical Institute. Each year, the Museum team accepts, studies, and registers approximately 1 000 artefacts. An important asset is the Museum’s libraries, which preserve around 50 000 books and periodicals.
The Museum offers 9 000 square metres of indoor exhibition space, with ca. 20 000 cultural objects displayed year-round, as well as an open-air exhibition area of ca. 120 000 decares with over 1 200 movable cultural assets — large pieces of military equipment and weapon systems, as well as immovable cultural assets. This makes us the museum in Bulgaria that provides the widest access to cultural heritage — and to this we must add our digital collections accessible online.
The National Museum of Military History is the only museum in the country that offers its visitors, alongside its permanent exhibitions, collection galleries, and up to six rotating temporary exhibitions simultaneously, year-round. This is a serious challenge, not only because of the small size of the team, but also because of the conceptual and exhibition design decisions that meet contemporary standards and technologies for access to heritage, the dynamic exhibition and events programme, the resources that go into design, display, service, and preservation.
The Museum reports a stable trend of annual growth in attendance — ca. 150 000 paid visits to its indoor premises each year, and indeed many thousands of visitors during free-admission days, and especially attendance at special events exceeds 10 000 within a single day.
The National Museum of Military History offers a wide range of educational programmes, activities, and services designed to socialize military heritage, that focus chiefly on the young — children, students, and young families, who are the future of Bulgaria.
But beyond the figures what matters is that, through everything we do, we build communities in divided times:
– communities of people with a special interest in history and, in particular, military history;
– communities of people for whom the past is a field of debate about who we are and where we are headed;
– communities of people who believe that conflicts can be prevented through reason rather than aggression;
– communities of people for whom history is told through the palette and words of Bulgaria’s artists, etc.; the list could go on.
In conclusion, I will offer a gratitude:
to the people who created this Museum — the Bulgarian officer corps and general staff and in particular to the Generals of the Infantry Nikola Zhekov — Commander-in-Chief of the Field Army, Pravoslav Tenev, Chief of the Main Rear Administration when the Museum was established, and the then-Minister of War, Lieutenant General Kalin Naydenov
to the people who laboured within this Museum before us and built that of which we are proud today, and which we continue to grow
to our friends and partners over the years, some of whom are here with us today — representatives of the academic and artistic communities, civil society organizations, the business sector
and last, but as an emphasis — the Joint Forces Command, the Land Forces, the Air Force, and the Naval Forces, for your support and for always standing by us; thank you for your dedication, despite the difficulties that you yourselves face
to the Ministry of Defence, of which we have been a part for 110 years, and which supports us in the enormous responsibility of preserving and making accessible military heritage; and, while this may not be the appropriate place to raise the matter, I voice my confidence that its leadership will reconsider the recently announced Museum staff cuts, because everything we do is the work of a small team of 98 people working across four museums in three different cities. Stripping people from this already limited number would undermine the institution’s ability to perform its legally mandated functions
and finally
thank you to the Museum team – you are the best! I am proud of everything you do! It inspires, every day, because you are a team, as the saying goes — like a hewn stone — you can do anything.
To all of you here today — thank you for honouring our celebration and I hope that you will all continue to support us as on the path ahead.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sonya Penkova
Director of the National Museum of Military History
