The “Children” of Socialism: The Shaping of Youth and the Building of a Socialist Society in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1944–1968)

Research Area 2: Norms and transgressions

This thesis aims to analyze the construction of socialist society in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria “through” (S. Maza) the issue of youth, from the coup d’état of September 9, 1944, which brought to power the Communist-led coalition of the Fatherland Front, until 1968. By historicizing the construction of the category of “youth,” it proposes to examine the evolution of the sociopolitical boundaries that governed the multiple meanings attached to the notion of “socialist society.” In doing so, she analyzes, in a process-oriented and situated manner, the transformation of the mechanisms of integration and exclusion within this society under construction, the principles according to which they were constituted, and the way in which different groups were thus reconfigured.

She develops a socio-historical methodology rooted in the “critical turn” of the Annales school, which seeks to move beyond the supposed dichotomy between ideology and practice, between representation and action, by proposing a practical history of categories. From a dual methodological perspective, she seeks to understand the co-construction between communist power and socialist society, which requires taking all historical actors “seriously.” Thus, the inquiry unfolds on three levels: first, it examines the construction of categories at the political level; then, their negotiation at the institutional level (high schools and universities) and the potential “controversies” arising from them; and finally, it explores how social trajectories and lived experiences were transformed by the evolution of governance practices. The cross-referencing of political sources (archives of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the Youth Union, biographies, police records) with archives from the Ministry of Public Education (reports, expulsions, documents relating to purges in high schools and universities) and interviews allows for a fresh perspective on socialist construction and the experiences of young people, with a particular emphasis on the issue of repression.

More broadly, the theis, which follows a traditional chronological framework (the postwar period, Stalinization, and de-Stalinization), examines the conceptions of society and social change produced by Bulgarian society and the socialist state through its population policy. The objectification and construction of different “generations,” as well as the production of homogeneous visions of youth, allow us to question the possibility of speaking of “socialist governmentality” but also to situate socialist policy within a longer-term local perspective linking youth and nation. The temporal boundaries allow for a comparison of the experiences of different cohorts (those born around the 1920s and those of the 1940s) against the backdrop of the growing institutionalization of “youth.”

CV

Education

• Depuis 2022 : Doctorante contractuelle (CNRS International) en histoire (EHESS)
• 2020- 2022 : Master histoire (EHESS, Paris). Thèse préparée sous la direction d’Alain Blum (EHESS/INED) et de Catherine Gousseff (CNRS/CERCEC).
• 2016-2020 : Double Licence histoire- histoire de l’art et archéologie (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Fellowships

• 2026 : dans le cadre de CARSI/Horizon Europe avec l’ONG Transitions. Association au CEFRES et à l’IMS de l’Université Charles.

Teaching Experience

• Septembre – Décembre 2025 – Chargée de cours : Histoire sociale et politique de la France au XXs. (L2, Université Paris-Nanterre) (48h).

Presentations (sélection)

• 19 janvier 2026 – Séminaire : « Empire russe, URSS, sociétés et territoires post-impériaux. Savoirs et pratiques de l’État » (CERCEC/EHESS). Présentation : « La genèse d’une société socialiste bulgare ? Penser, réguler et construire les nouvelles frontières sociales en sortie de guerre : le cas de la jeunesse (1944-1947).
• 22 janvier 2024 – Workshop “The Voices from Below in the Face of Repression and Arbitrary State Violence” (CEFRES, EHESS, Charles University, Czech Academy of Sciences). Workshop Paper: “Defending Values, Seeking Justice: Parent’s Petitions to the Minister of Popular Enlightenment as Voices from Below, Bulgaria (1944-1946)”
• 26 septembre 2024 : Table ronde à “Allez Savoir-Marseille » (EHESS). « Le temps de l’obéissance ? Adolescences européennes à l’épreuve des bouleversements du long XX^e siècle », avec Emma Papadacci (LIER-FYT) et Lucas Bouguereau (LIER-FYT). Table ronde animée par Julie Pagis (IRIS/CNRS).
• 5-6 Avril 2024 – Conference Moving Beyond the Centre-Periphery Dynamics: Central and Eastern Europe from the mid-19th century to the present”. Conference paper: “Managing Time, Creating Specialists: Socialist Modernization as seen through the Youth Brigade Movement in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1947-1950)”.

Organisation of academic sessions

• Co-organisatrice de la Conférence doctorale du CERCEC-CETOBaC, « Modernities Debated. Crossed perspectives from Russian, Soviet and Ottoman (post-)imperial spaces: Central and Eastern Europe, Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, Caucasus and Central Asia” 21 et 22 mai 2024.