Forty days ago we lost a foremost patriot, biophysicist Dimitrina Aslanian, the author of the first and so far unique full history of Bulgaria in French that has been translated into Italian and English as well.

Following the end of her scientific career at Pierre and Marie Curie University, Dimitrina decided to write a short history of Bulgaria in French as a present to her son who had arrived to live in France at age 4. As a young man he moved to USA and had some difficulty reading history in Bulgarian. With the meticulousness typical of a scientific worker Mrs. Aslanian browsed into a huge body of historical literature. When she tried to summarize French writings about Bulgarian history she produced a thick manuscript that did not correspond to her original plan. Confronted with the absence of a full Bulgarian history in the French language and after she was encouraged by renowned Bulgarian historians, in 2003 Aslanian released the first and unique so far full Bulgarian history in the French language with the title Histoire de la Bulgarie de l'Antiquité à nos jours (History of Bulgaria, from Antiquity to Our Days).

Later on, jointly with her husband, IT engineer Raffy Aslanian, Dimitrina wrote in French a volume of biographical essays entitled Forgerons de l'histoire bulgare and highlighting renowned Bulgarian spiritual leaders of the 19 and 20 c. who fought for the liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule and for its emancipation in Europe.

Over the past decade Mrs. Aslanian was writing articles about the history of Bulgarian towns and about a few great Bulgarian writers that she published in the French-language journal Periodical Review of Life in Bulgaria released by writer Toncho Karabulkov. In all her work this worthy Bulgarian brainworker has been invariably led by great patriotism and tireless spiritual generosity. Hours before she suffered a brain stroke, the 91-year-old woman was writing her last article in French dedicated to short story writer Yordan Yovkov. 

English Daniela Konstantinova