Kultura

About

"Kultura" is the oldest specialized publication in Bulgaria for culture and art. The beginning was made on January 26, 1957 under the name of "People's Culture" (Narodna Kultura), and in this first issue, the founding editor Alexander Obretenov defined the tasks of the publication with the following words: "to expand the field where the issues of our culture are discussed, which join forces'. Despite the task, the newspaper, being state-owned, followed the directives set by the communist government during those years. Editors in these early years of the publication were: Alexander Obretenov, founding editor (1957–1958); Nikola Lankov (1958–1965); Krum Vasilev (1965–1966); Vladimir Naydenov (1966–1967); Hristo Santov (1967–1969); Ivan Rouge (1969–1972); Vladimir Karakashev (1972–1976); Georgi Naydenov (1976–1984); Stefan Prodev (1984–1988); Grigor Chernev (1988–1989); Stefan Prodev (1989–1990).

In the 1980s, authors and positions differing from the official line of the newspaper and state cultural policy began to be less scrutinised and more tolerated. Following the shift of directions the wave of young authors would prove to be the core of the newspaper in the years after the 90s. Among them are Alexander Kiossev, Ivaylo Dichev, Georgi Lozanov, Georgi Kapriev, Mitko Novkov, Diana Popova and others. Under the leadership of Stefan Prodev in the 1980s, "Narodna Kultura" became a forum for dissident intellectuals.

In 1990, the term "people's" dropped from the newspaper's title, and the it ceased to be published by the state. Koprinka Chervenkova became its editor-in-chief. It was published every Friday in 4 "notebooks" (16 pages in total), dedicated to columns supported by permanent columnists and observers (for cinema, theater, visual arts, radio, television, books, foreign humanitarian studies, less often sports), and since 2008 - for politics. Kultura newspaper is also the only humanities and culture newspaper to maintain full, free online access to its archive since 1997. Since 2007, the publication of "Kultura" has been taken over by the "Comunitas" Foundation.

From September 2018, "Kultura" began to be published as a monthly magazine in 10 issues per year (each issue contains 80 pages), whose editor-in-chief is Tony Nikolov. Thus, the publication renewed its vision to attracts authors, without giving up the established authors of "Kultura" magazine. Since 2012, the publication's website has also existed under the name Portal "Kultura", whose columnists are Prof. Kalin Yanakiev, Teodora Dimova, Deyan Enev, Tony Nikolov, Mitko Novkov and Ivan Krastev.

The characteristic graphic layout of the "Narodna Kultura" newspaper is the work of Vladislav Paskalev, and the appearance of the weekly "Kultura" from the 1980s and 1990s was imposed by Hristo Gradechliev. The design of the new "Kultura" magazine is by Chavdar Gyuzelev.