"Untrustworthy" Stories - аn Аrchival Reading of Personnel Files of 'Oppositional' Employees of the Bulgarian Cinematography State Company in the Period 1948-1958

Abstract

The political change that occurred in Bulgaria in the middle of the 20th century had a serious impact on administrative practices for personnel selection in various professional fields. In culture and the arts, it becomes especially important to attract people with appropriate political views and behavior corresponding to the imposed party criteria, goals and values. At the same time, the totalitarian machine worked mercilessly against any form of difference, whether it is a matter of lifestyle, character traits or simple expression of disagreement. Diverse information is duly collected for anyone who starts work in important spheres for the new government, such as cinema. By studying the personnel files of candidates for certain positions or employees who are inconvenient to the authorities, trends can be discovered in the way personnel are selected in the Bulgarian cinematography. This would allow for inferences to be made about the practices of enforcing the new political doctrine on the 'cultural front' by minimizing or eliminating opportunities for divergent thinking, individualism, innovation or cultural pluralism. The effects of this ideological and cultural recoding have a tangible impact on entire cultural and professional fields, but also on the development of cultural industries in Bulgaria and their ability to adapt to subsequent changes. Мoreover, studying and rationalizing the past could help us make visible causality obscured by historical time in order to find more effective solutions to some problems of the present.