“…let us not erase the achievements of the past…”

On May 18, on the occasion of International Museum Day and European Museum Night, a chamber exhibition entitled “…let us not erase the merits of the past…” was opened on the first floor of the Bulgarian History Museum, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Vasilka Tapkova-Zaimova – a prominent Bulgarian Byzantinist and medievalist, perceived by her students and herself as a continuator of the Cyril and Methodius tradition in the selfless and devoted dissemination of knowledge among young researchers.

Born in Sofia on August 7, 1924, she is a descendant of a patriotic Bulgarian family of educators (enlightheners) from Thessaloniki and a family with traditions in classical education and Francophonie. This probably predetermined her creative path in science. After graduating from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” with a degree in Classical Philology, she was appointed by competition to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, initially at the Institute of History and later at the Institute of Balkan Studies. She is one of its doyens, at the heart of its structural organisation, thematic focus and staff development. Overcoming the atmosphere in Bulgarian historiography in the late 1940s and 1950s, she made significant contributions to the field of historical source studies, which found expression in her translations of Byzantine, Latin, Slavic, and Old Bulgarian written documents. The focus of her academic interest is the topic of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki. Her work with sources inspired her monographs “Invasions and Ethnic Changes in the Balkans in the 6th–7th Centuries,” 1966, and “The Lower Danube – Border Zone of the Byzantine West,” 1976. International recognition for her multifaceted scientific contributions came with the collection of her articles in the authoritative publication Variorum Reprints, 1979.

She also pays attention to the Bulgarian theme in the corpus “Bulgarians by Birth” with sources on the Komitopuli family, which left a vivid mark on the history of Bulgaria and Byzantium. Her articles, published in some of the most authoritative scientific journals, are also noteworthy: Historical Review, Études balkaniques, Bulgarian Historical Review, Palaeobulgarica, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Byzantine Chronicle, Byzanotinoslavica, Linguistique balkanique, etc.

In 2004, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo. Among her other distinctions are a certificate from AIESEE, the Cyril and Methodius Award, the Greek medal “St. St. Cyril and Methodius,” medals from La Sapienza University in Rome, the Macedonian Society in Thessaloniki, the “Academic Palms” of the French Academy, and others.

“A historian must be informed, must not lie, must respect himself in order to be respected. History should teach lessons, not just give a bunch of facts, but give and give what it deserves, like gratitude and a new perspective, but also not erase what the past has done. Recent history should be judged now, because everything after that will be seen differently. On a European scale, we should not think that we have to fall below all European nations. And cosmopolitanism is a good thing alongside patriotism.”
Manuscript from 2009.