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Heroic Weakness: Bulgarian man facing the death of the national ideal

Is it possible to conceive of the masculinity of war veterans as manifesting characteristics usually associated with women rather than men? Questioning the classical notion of war heroism and taking as a starting point an obituary published in 1899, this article traces the commemorative practices of honouring participants in the Bulgarian national movement of the nineteenth century. It demonstrates how the identity of the veterans was based on a complex mixture of the memory of heroic deeds during the war and the physically weakened condition of the soldiers in post-war Bulgaria. Highly praised and endowed with privileges in the first years after the Russian–Ottoman war (1877–78), by the end of the century, the ex-volunteers and ex-revolutionaries were perceived as grotesque public figures. The discourse in the veterans' journals emphasised the heroic weakness of the veterans in post-war Bulgaria as they struggled to survive with old war wounds and poor living conditions. The journals called for state assistance to look after them. Thus, the feminised image of weak survivors seeking protection was attached to the patriotic vision of the manly strength and courage of the soldier on the battlefield.