The article considers the issues of the nature and conditions of the formation of the geopolitical identity of the Bulgarian nation. The author analyzes the specifics of geopolitical thinking in Bulgaria as a small state in South-Eastern Europe associated, on the one hand, with the approval of the “central”, “core” position of Bulgaria on the Balkan Peninsula, and with belonging to “Intermediate Europe” (“Wide South-Eastern Europe”) along with all other Balkan countries on the other hand. It has been shown that the fundamental Bulgarian geopolitical notions are not part of any clearly articulated doctrine, as was the case in neighboring Greece or Serbia, but are the result of a number of political events, due to which the modern Bulgarian national identity begins to take shape. First of all, we are talking about the firman of the Ottoman Sultan, according to which the Bulgarian Autocephalous Church – Exarchate was founded on March 11, 1870, and after that the draft about autonomous Bulgaria worked out at the Istanbul Conference of Ambassadors of the Great Powers (December 1876), and finally – San - Stefan Peace Treaty of 1878, which completed the formation of the national geopolitical ideal of "Greater Bulgaria."

Kovalevskiy Alexander Alexandrovich, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Philosophy, Sevastopol State University, 33, Universitetskaya st., Sevastopol, 299053, Russian Federation, e-mail: ilabian.org@gmail.com

Kovalevskiy A.A. The Geopolitical Identity of the Bulgarian Nation. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2021, vol. 37, pp. 78-92. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2021.37.78 (in Russian)

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