Historical Memory of Tatars in Bulgaria and in Lithuania – Comparative Aspects

Abstract

The article is part of a larger study from which only some theses are presented here. The theoretical framework of the study is grounded in the concept of historical memory which is understood as a generalised image of the knowledge of the past, made up of many interacting ideas conceived as information, functions and processes of representation, constructiveness, updating. The historical memories of the Tatars in Bulgaria and in Lithuania are being recognised as an important component of the particular historical heritage of the respective regions. The present analysis identifies their contribution in building the regional cultural specificity since the former migrants not only incorporated themselves into the host society, but they also left their mark in the local memory. In this way, they helped change the cultural landscape by incorporating themselves into the cultural specificity of the given space. That is why the studied areas could be thought of as historically formed cultural regions and, more precisely, multicultural regions in whose construction the historical memory of/for the other is involved.