The Social Reproduction of Cultural Deviance: legal debates on illegitimacy in early-twentieth-century Bulgaria

Abstract

This article explores the formation and evolution of Bulgaria's first law on children born outside marriage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It traces the uneasy legal discourses surrounding the rise in illegitimate fertility in Bulgaria, and the path to the law's eventual amendment at the start of the Second World War. In particular, the article examines the legislators' arguments concerning local culture, issues of modernisation and ‘neo-traditionalism’, as well as the incorporation into Bulgarian legislation of prevailing cultural attitudes towards the ‘proper role’ of the family.

Notes

Peter Laslett (1980) Introduction: comparing illegitimacy over time and between cultures, in Peter Laslett, Karla Oosterveen & Richard M. Smith (Eds) Bastardy and its Comparative History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), p. 1.

John Hajnal (1965) European Marriage Patterns in Perspective, in David Victor Glass & David Eversley (Eds) Population in History (London: Edward Arnold), pp. 101–143.

Maria Todorova (1993) Balkan Family Structure and the European Pattern: demographic developments in Ottoman Bulgaria (Washington, DC: The American University Press), p. 29.

Robert McIntyre (1988) Bulgaria: politics, economics and society (London and New York: Printer Publishers), p. 21; Michael Drake (1997) Population: patterns and processes, in Martin Pugh (Ed.) Modern European History, 1871–1945 (Oxford: Blackwell), pp. 3–24.

McIntyre, Bulgaria, p. 26.

Roumen Daskalov (2005) Bulgarskoto Obshtestvo, 1878–1939 [Bulgarian Society, 1878–1939], 2 (Sofia: Izdatelska kushta Gutenberg), pp. 16–23; Nikolay Botev (1995) The Story of a ‘Maverick’: Bulgaria's fertility decline, Journal of Family History, 1, pp. 44–66; N. Botev (1990) Nuptiality in the Course of the Demographic Transition: the experience of the Balkan countries, Population Studies, 44, pp. 107–126; McIntyre, Bulgaria, p. 26.

Dimitur Mishaikov (1914) Statisticheski Belezhki vurhu Balkanskite Durzhavi [Statistical notes on the Balkan countries], Demokraticheski pregled [Democratic Review], 2, p. 134.

Vasil Mitakov (1940) Motivi kum Zakonoproekta za Izvunbrachnite Detsa i tiahnoto Uzakoniavane, i za Usinoviavaneto [Preamble to the Law for Children Born outside Marriage and their Avowal, and for Adoption], in Minutes of the XXV Ordinary National Assembly, II Regular Session, 8 Meeting (12 November 1940), p. 162.

The illegitimacy ratio is usually expressed as the number of births out of wedlock per hundred births. It strongly depends on the overall nuptial and fertility fluctuations, and is likely to rise numerically if marriages and births overall decline. Hence, the illegitimacy ratio is regarded as more ambiguous in its significance than the illegitimacy rate, the latter indicating the extent to which unmarried women produce children outside marriage. For further details, see R. M. Smith (1985) Illegitimacy Ratio, in Christopher Wilson (Ed.) The Dictionary of Demography (Oxford, UK; New York, USA: Blackwell Reference), pp. 101–102.

For a detailed account of the history of post-1878 Bulgarian law, see Mikhail Andreev (1993) Istoriia na Bulgarskata Burzhoazna Durzhava i Pravo, 1878–1917 [A history of the Bulgarian bourgeois state and legislation, 1878–1917] (Sofia: Sofi-R); Daskalov, Bulgarskoto Obshtestvo, 2, pp. 82–91.

Ivan Elenkov (1994) Vuvedenie I (Introduction I), in Roumen Daskalov & Ivan Elenkov (Eds) Zashto Sme Takiva: eseta vurhu bulgarskata kultura [Why are we like this: in search of the Bulgarian cultural identity] (Sofia: Prosveta), pp. 5–6.

A. Vakarelski (1901) Kum Chlen 213 ot Nakazatelniia Zakon [On Article 213 of the Penal Law], Spisanie na Iuridicheskoto Druzhestvo v Sofia [Journal of the Juridical Association in Sofia], 1, pp. 38–39. The translation of all documents from Bulgarian into English were done by S. Baloutzova.

Ibid., p. 38.

S. S. Bobchev (1906) Obichai i Zakon: stranitsa iz istorji drevnobulgarskogo prava [Customs and law: pages from the history of the ancient Bulgarian law] (St Petersburg: Tipografia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk), pp. 14–15; N. Dumanov (1923) Obichaiat v Nasheto Polozhitelno Pravo [Customs in our positive law], Advokatski Pregled [Solicitors' Review], 19, p. 231.

Dimitur Marinov (1984) Izbrani Proizvedenia [Selected works], 2 (Sofia: Izdatelstvo Nauka i Kultura), p. 511.

Ibid, p. 481.

Ibid.

Ibid.

For a brief summary of the French law on illegitimacy of the nineteenth century, see Etienne van de Walle (1980) Illegitimacy in France during the Nineteenth Century, in Peter Laslett et al. (1980) Bastardy, pp. 264–265. For a detailed study, see Crane Brinton (1936) French Revolutionary Legislation on Illegitimacy, 1789–1804 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press). On the changes introduced in the French Civil Code under Napoleon and directly affecting the status of illegitimate offspring, see James F. McMillan (2000) France and Women 1789–1914: gender, society and politics (London: Routledge).

Nikola Zlatarski (1934) Turseneto na Bashtata [Searching for the father], Iuridicheski Arkhiv [Juridical Archive], 4–5, p. 385.

Van de Walle, ‘Illegitimacy in France’, p. 265; P. Stoinov (1914) Noviat Frenski Zakon vurkhu Direneto na Bashtata [The new French law regarding paternity suits], Iuridicheski Pregled [Juridical Review], 7, pp. 463–464.

Konstantin Vachov (1911) Direneto na Bashtata [In search for the putative father], Iuridicheski Pregled [Juridical Review], 5, p. 307.

Ibid.

Bulgaria fought two wars with her Balkan neighbours, from September 1912 to 30 May 1913 (with Serbia, Montenegro and Greece against the Ottoman Empire), and from June 1913 to October 1913 (against Serbia, Montenegro, Romania and Greece).

Stoinov, ‘Noviat Frenski Zakon’, p. 460.

Simeon Angelov (1924) Po Zakonoproekta za Izvunbrachnite Detsa, za Uzakoniavaneto im i za Usinoviavaneto [On the Bill for the Avowal of Children Born outside Wedlock and their Legitimisation, and for Adoption], Iuridicheska Misul [Juridical Thought], 6–7, pp. 117–118.

Van de Walle, ‘Illegitimacy in France’, pp. 264–265.

Carl Ipsen (1996) Dictating Demography: the problem of population in Fascist Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 68–69, pp. 147–151.

Paradoxically, while being eligible to study law at Sofia University, Bulgarian women, nevertheless, were barred from practising in court. It was only after the communist takeover in September 1944 that the restrictions were lifted and women were granted the right to openly pursue a solicitor's career. The controversy is illustrated by Krassimira Daskalova in her entries on the life of Bulgarian women's activists and social reformers, Dimitrina Ivanova and Vera Zlatareva, in Francisca de Haan, Krassimira Daskalova & Anna Loufti (Eds) (2006) A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms. Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries (Budapest and New York: CEU Press), pp. 183–184, 620–622; and, correspondingly, (2004) The Women's Movement in Bulgaria in a Life Story, Women's History Review, 13, pp. 91–102.

As early as 1920, at the International Women's Council Congress in Norway, and at the Eighth Congress of the Women's Union for Suffrage Rights in Geneva (restated at their Ninth Congress in Rome, 1923), the two international organisations had demanded the abolition of dual standards towards children worldwide, and raised the necessity to have all children's right to their father's name and maintenance acknowledged. I would like to thank Dr Krassimira Daskalova, Sofia University ‘St Kliment Ohridski, for kindly drawing my attention to the discourse on law and children outside wedlock in Bulgarian feminists’ publications. For further details, see Dimitrana Ivanova (1920) Resoliutsiite na Kongresa na Mezhdunarodnia Zhenski Suiuz [Resolutions of the Congress of the International Women's Council], Zhenski Glas [Women's Voice], 7, pp. 2–3; (1923) Sudbata na Nezakonnite Detsa [The plight of illegitimate children], Zhenski Glas, 12, pp. 2–3; (1923) Zhenski Glas, 18, pp. 1–3; (1923) Resoliutsiite na Rimskiia Mezhdunaroden Kongres za Izbornite Prava na Zhenite [Resolutions of the International Congress in Rome, regarding women's suffrage], Zhenski Glas, 19–20, pp. 2–3.

Zlatarski, ‘Turseneto na Bashtata’, p. 399.

Angelov, ‘Po Zakonoproekta za Izvunbrachnite Detsa’, pp. 235–236.

Zlatarski, ‘Turseneto na Bashtata’, p. 401.

See the debates of the XXIX and XXV National Assemblies on Bulgaria's declining birth numbers, as well as the writings of Slavcho Zagorov and Dimitur Mishaikov on the ‘collapsing’ fertility trend, in Svetla Baloutzova (2005) State Legislation on Family and Social Policy in Bulgaria, 1918–1944 (Unpublished Ph.D. University of Cambridge), pp. 132–170. However, the presence of some minor ultra-right-wing voices, inspired by central European eugenic anxieties, should also be acknowledged. For the impact of German and Austrian ideas of social engineering on certain Bulgarian intellectual circles, see Christian Promitzer (2007) Taking Care of the National Body: eugenic visions in interwar Bulgaria, 1905–1940, in Marius Turda & Paul J. Weindling (Eds) Blood and Homeland: eugenics and racial nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940 (Budapest and New York: Central European Press, 2007), pp. 223–252.

The Neuilly Peace Treaty of 1919, following Bulgaria's defeat in the First World War, deprived the country of a total of 90,000 square kilometres of her strategic territories (Macedonia, Southern Dobrudzha, a large part of Western Bulgaria and a tract of territory in the south-west).

Ivan Elenkov (1998) Rodno i Diasno [Native and rightist] (Sofia: LIK), pp. 31–32.

Richard Crampton (1983) Bulgaria, 1878–1918 (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, New York), 1983, pp. 513–514.

Baloutzova, State Legislation on Family and Social Policy in Bulgaria, pp. 55–109.

Krassimira Daskalova (1998) Bulgarskite Zheni v Sotsialnite Dvizheniia, Zakoni i Diskursi 1840–1940 [Bulgarian women in social movements, laws and discourses 1840s–1940s], in Krassimira Daskalova (Ed.) (1998) Ot Siankata na Istoriiata: zhenite v bulgarskoto obshtestvo i kultura (Sbornik ot tekstove) [From the shadow of history: women in Bulgarian society and culture (a reader)] (Sofia: Bulgarska grupa po izsledvaniia na istoriiata na zhenite i pola), p. 36; Elenkov, ‘Vuvedenie I’, pp. 23–24.

Nikolai Poppetrov (1999) Opiti za Dirizhirane na Kulturata v Bulgaria, 1934–1944 [Attempts to channel culture in Bulgaria, 1934–1944], in Iskra Baeva (Ed.) Moderna Bulgaria: sbornik istoricheski izsledvania v chest na 65-godishninata na profesor Dr Velichko Georgiev i akademik Ilcho Dimitrov [Modern Bulgaria: a collection of historical studies in honour of the sixty-fifth anniversary of Professor Dr Velichko Georgiev and Academician Ilcho Dimitrov] (Sofia: Universitetsko izdatelstvo ‘Sv Kliment Okhridski’), pp. 182–202; Daskalova, ‘Bulgarskite Zheni’, pp. 34–36.

Vladimir Migev (1977) Utvurzhdavane na Monarcho-fashistkata Diktatura v Bulgaria 1934–1936 [The consolidation of monarcho-fascism in Bulgaria 1934–1936] (Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN), p. 48.

Daskalova,' Bulgarskite Zheni', p. 35.

Damian Dimov, Traditsiata kato Osnova na Obrazovanieto [Tradition as the foundation of education], F. 178, op. 5, a.e. 162, pp. 81–83 (Central National Archives, Sofia, Radio Sofia broadcast on 23 September 1941).

Fani Popova-Mutafova, Po Novi Putishta [On new paths], in Krassimira Daskalova (Ed.), Ot Siankata na Istoriata, pp. 381–382; Daskalova, ‘Bulgarskite Zheni’, p. 37.

Naredba-zakon za Zadulzheniata za Izdruzhka [Decree for compulsory support], Durzhaven Vestnik [State Gazette], 271 (7 December 1937), pp. 4738–4739.

Liuba Todorova, Semeistvoto kato Ognishte na Natsionalna Mosht [The family as the hearth of national power], F. 178, op. 5, a.e. 162, pp. 16–17 (Central National Archives, Sofia, Radio Sofia broadcast in 1937, date missing); Rada Golemanova, Noviat Put na Semeistvoto [The family's new path], F 178, op. 5, a.e. 132, pp. 1–6 (Central National Archives, Sofia Radio Sofia broadcast in 1937, date missing); Fani Popova-Mutafova, Idei, Nasoki, Vuzpitanie, Novi Dni, Predstoiashti Zadachi [Ideas, directions, new times, forthcoming duties]; Kakvo Zhenata e Spechelila i Kakvo Tia e Zagubila sus Svoiata Ematsipatsia [What women gained and lost with their emancipation], in Daskalova (Ed.), Ot Siankata na Istoriata, pp. 385, 373. For an analytical study of Fani Popova-Mutafova, the most prominent of Bulgaria's few historical fiction writers, see Krassimira Daskalova (2002) A Life in History (Fani Popova-Mutafova), Gender and History, 14, pp. 321–339.

Golemanova, ‘Noviat Put na Semeistvoto’, p. 4; Botio Shanov, Greshkite na Bashtata i Maikata pri Vuzpitanieto na Detsata [Parental mistakes in child raising], F. 178, op. 5, a.e. 17, p. 72 (Central National Archives, Sofia, Radio Sofia broadcast on 5 September 1941).

Shanov, ‘Greshkite na Bashtata i Maikata’, p. 72.

Minutes of the XXV Ordinary National Assembly, II Regular Session, 8 Meeting (12 November 1940), p. 162.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Zakon za Izvunbrachnite Detsa i za Usinoviavaneto [The Law for Children Born outside Wedlock and for Adoption] (Sofia, 1940), pp. 18–19.

Minutes of the XXV Ordinary National Assembly, II Regular Session, 8 Meeting (12 November 1940), p. 169.

Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Svetla Baloutzova

Svetla Baloutzova combines a lecturing position in historical demography at Sofia University ‘St Kliment Ohridski’ with the Editor's duties at the Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia. She graduated in History and English Philology from the Central European University, Budapest, and Sofia University ‘St Kliment Ohridski’, and completed her doctoral thesis on state legislation on social and family policy in interwar Bulgaria, 1918–1944, at the University of Cambridge, UK (2005).