Stoyko Dimov House

*** p.75

Trade, markets, shop network, fairs, exhibitions. The development of trade in Tutrakan is stimulated by the more intensive development of agriculture and cattle breeding. The existing port on the Danube in 1879 allows to maintain and establish lasting trade relations with other cities on the Bulgarian Danube coast, as well as foreign trade contacts with many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1880 the city maintained foreign trade relations with 17 countries. Tutrakan, with its port, concentrates its import and export trade on an area far beyond its environs. The city is home to large exporters of wheat, corn, beans and other agricultural products. In the active seasons there is a long line of porters, who loaded the huge barges at that time.

In the first days of 1880, in a letter from 26 Tutrakan merchants to a Sofia newspaper, it was confidently and authoritatively stated that the main trade of the town was grain. In comparison, this trade in Tutrakan “surpasses many other cities, which is common knowledge, especially at a time when the barges are being filled” 139. Trade at the port in the following years was lively “and by the shore there were constantly anchored barges, in which day and night porters with sacks on their backs poured the golden grain.” Kazasov.D.

Trade and credit in Tutrakan engaged a small percentage of economically active people, but their role was very large, as the main levers through which urban capital imposes its dominance over not only urban but also agriculture. In 1900 the urban inhabitants employed in trade and credit were 835 people, which makes 9.4% of the town’s population, and in 1910 they were respectively 1027 or 9.8%. The increase was due to economic progress and good profits from trade. The port town was a place to supply goods not only to local traders, but also to many of their colleagues from South Dobrudja and Ludogorie.

In 1886 began more regular imports and exports of goods. Imports consisted mainly of industrial and groceries, such as rock salt, sugar, coffee, alcohol, coal, oil (gas for lighting), mineral oils and others. Exports were mainly occupied by agricultural products – wheat, rye, barley, corn, tobacco, marinated and salted fish, hides and more. The annual turnover for imports and exports in 1886 amounted to BGN 1,166,432, and in 1912 it increased to a total of BGN 10,325,820. By 1913 the annual export of cereals reached 25,000-30,000 tons, and only until the summer of 1913 the export amounted to 28 648 tons of food, and the turnover, consisting of imports and exports was worth 7 711 807 BGN. Exports usually exceeded more than 10 times imports. A similar ratio was observed in the other cities of South Dobrudzha, where international trade takes place. This proportion had a favorable effect on the overall economic life in the Tutrakan district. The increase in the commercial importance of Tutrakan was also traced by the trade turnover carried out through its customs for the individual years. The increasing volume of trade is illustrated by the data on the volume of imports and exports through the customs in Tutrakan and its value.

Imports and exports through the customs of the town of Tutrakan for five years BGN 145 000

Years             Import     Export

1896-1900           695       8 230

1903-1907           702     11 716

1908-1912        1 746     19 912

The largest quantities of exports fall on cereals.

Data from 1895 give an idea of ​​the type of goods that are subject to import-export trade, as well as their cost. During this year were exported: wheat, including red variety, for BGN 1,604,254 thousand, rye for BGN 378,849 thousand, corn for BGN 108,152 thousand and yellow cheese BGN 10,370 thousand. respectively imported: European softwood, processed and unprocessed for BGN 13,891 thousand, sugar for BGN 8,847 thousand, raw coffee for BGN 5,022 thousand, processed hides and skins for BGN 2,925 thousand, cotton fabrics BGN 2,472 thousand, clothes “ready-made upper all kinds”, for BGN 992 thousand and wood oil for BGN 649 thousand.

In 1897, 39 pieces (types) of goods with a total weight of 2,714,944 kg worth BGN 205,848 were imported through the Tutrakan customs, and 79 pieces of goods weighing 12,857,872 kg worth BGN 1,373,467 were exported. In 1898, 30 goods weighing 42,196,753 kg worth BGN 1,190,053 were imported, and 56 goods weighing 15,716,286 kg, worth BGN 1,889,094, were exported.

 It is noteworthy that a great variety of goods is maintained. 26 large traders from Tutrakan are engaged in foreign trade. Among them are Angel Arnaudov, Dimo ​​Georgiev and others who have their own companies and at the same time are representatives of foreign offices in the town.

*** p. 79

On January 19, 1896, the mayor of the Tutrakan municipality addressed in writing Dimitar Teodorov, Mr. Baynov, Stoyko Dimov, Ivan Georgiev, Dragan Kamarashev, Stoyan Kulev, Todor Ganev, Marin Slavov,

145 The table is based on data from: Popov, K. Cit. cit., p. 369; Todorov, P. Cit.

cit., p.18.

146 Bulgarian Almanac for 1897. S., 1897, pp. 138, 141.

147 Documents on the History of Tutrakan…, p. 100.

148 Zmeev, R. Tutrakan. S., 1987, pp. 61.

79

Nikola Draganov, Kalin Lyubenov and other prominent Tutrakan merchants and entrepreneurs, asking for their opinion on the measures that need to be taken to “give a boost to domestic and foreign trade” and declining crafts. The certain decline in the last few peaceful years of the period under consideration was due to the boycott of the Ottoman Empire, due to the declaration of independence of Bulgaria and the preparations for the Balkan War, affecting the overall economic life of the country. With the growth of the urban population, domestic trade developed significantly and the store network increased. There were dozens of “shops” in the city after the Liberation, found in the mentioned newspaper article of the Tutrakan merchants, written at the very beginning of 1880, it is understood that in case of big waters about twenty shops are filled ”. The sale of consumer goods is primarily in the hands of Bulgarian traders, and the price level is relatively stable. According to D. Kazasov, at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century.

Tutrakans consume bread bought from the bakeries, always fresh and at a price of 20 cents for white and 10 cents for black. Here it is interesting to mention that of the total amount of bread that the population of Tutrakan district eats by its kind was divided into a percentage of: 20% – made from pure wheat; 10% – mixed of 25 parts wheat, 30 rye, 30 barley and 15 corn; 30% – mixed of 60 parts corn and 40 wheat, which is consumed by Romanians; 40% – mixed with 60 parts wheat and 40 rye. All types of bread were made from locally produced cereals.

***p. 82

The large turnover of urban trade is made by many merchants, manufacturers and grocers. More famous and long-term traders of manufactory, food, colonial, iron goods, agricultural tools and machines, timber, etc. are: Hadji Ivan Dimitrov, Ivan Georgiev, Stoyan Kulev, Georgi Polidi, Mehmed Karabeigerliev, Yordan Rashev, Ahmed Sarachoglu, St. and Iv. Popovi, L. Lazarov, Dobri Enev, Iko Dishliev, Chaim Bali, Dragan Kamarashev and others. Traders of cereals – cereals are: Dimitar Teodorov, Sherban Dimitrov, Isak Kapon, Angel Pikov, Stoyko Dimov, Ali Karahasanov, Chaim Aftalion, Boroolu, Dimo ​​Georgiev, Petar Keremedchiev, Mr. Baynov, Rusi Tonev and others, and flour traders – flours or floured are: Angel Pikov and sons, Iv. M. Pasatov, Ahmed Sarachoglu, Mutish Mustafov, Georgi Polidi, Petar Bozev, Ivan Takov and others. From these groups of merchants formed the wealthiest stratum of the trade guild and the Tutrakan society, which handle the largest capital.

Documents on the history of Tutrakan…, pp. 51, 68, 82-83, 99-100, 144-145, 221-224.

Ivanova, D. Cit. cf., p. 177 ..

*** p.86-87 History of Tutrakan

Local moneylenders and traders on green Stefan Bebis, N. Musinov, D. Dochev, Stoyko Dimov, P. Draganov, Rusi Tonev, Isak Kamon, Dimo ​​Georgiev, Chaim Aftalion and others are the ones who rob the poor farmers of the town and the villages. Together with them, traders on green and moneylenders from Haskovo buy wheat “on green”. Petar Keremidchiev, who, in addition to being a large owner of agricultural land, is also known as a moneylender, distributing loans on enslaving terms and with illegal speculation. Those who fall into its “predatory paws” are the most brutally exploited and robbed. They are like debtors and installments, forced to work for him from “stars to stars”. P. Radev from the village of Staro Selo is also a well-known moneylender and important person in the village, granting loans at an interest rate of 50%. From the same village and rich moneylender, engaged in usury, is Veliko Kotsanov, who is also the largest cattle breeder in the Tutrakan region. In 1911, Angel N. Pikov and his sons, who also developed a commercial activity, officially declared themselves as moneylenders. Farmers in poverty and misery in the Tutrakan region, accompanied in most cases by great ignorance in the families, when they cannot repay their debts on time, lose their property. They are confiscated from usurers by orders of the magistrate’s court and sold at public auctions. The pages of sporadically published local newspapers are filled with announcements of bailiffs for the sale of land and other property seized in court by indebted borrowers. The fate of the landless and the deprived of property follows basically two paths – staying as ratai in the farms or settling in the city by joining the thickening ranks of employees.

*** p. 520 History of Tutrakan p.2

Completion of the permanent accommodation of the migrants and settlement of the land problem. As a result of the active activity of the Commissariat for Accommodation of Migrants in South Dobrudja, headed by At. Uzunov and the assistance of the local and district authorities and various services, the reception and accommodation of the settlers who came by the end of 1940 ended according to the expected results.

Since January 24, 1941, as the head of the Commission for Dobrudzha established on that date, Tsanko Karakunev has had the main task to complete the permanent accommodation of the settlers and to settle the problem of land ownership. With the arrival of the settlers in May-June 1941, conditions were created for settling the land problem. After collecting additional information and specifying the estimates for the number of available dwellings and the size of the Bulgarian state lands, partial relocations of relocated families from one settlement to another are carried out in the different settlements in other to gather families. Despite these shifts, many issues remain unresolved for objective reasons. There are differences between the size and quality of the land, as well as the assessment of the covered properties owned by a relocated rural family in Northern Dobrudja, and the natural compensation received upon its placement in South Dobrudzha. When settling the accounts in the Tutrakan district, 575 people (families) must receive BGN 4,310,936 from the Bulgarian state, and 393 people owe the state BGN 1,437,821. It is evident that the Bulgarian state is in debt of BGN 2,873,115, which means that the migrants have left much better houses with outbuildings (despite lowering the ratings, for which there are complaints of migrants to the Bulgarian authorities) than they have received. The lack of a sufficient number of houses was also a problem in the autumn of 1941 – a solution was sought as the one on whom it was built, he worked for free, and the civilians mobilised all able-bodied migrants in the village and locals with cattle and carts received a minimum wage . The settlement of the land problem is complicated by the well-founded urgent demands of the South Dobrudzha landowners to return to them the entire amount of land expropriated by the Romanian state, because in fact the Bulgarian state also expropriates their lands. Various committees are formed, which unite in the Committee of Farmers of Southern Dobrudzha, which repeatedly makes this basic request. There are many small and landless farmers, most of whom are without or with little land also due to the legislation in force in Romania (when a Bulgarian sells land, the only buyer is the Romanian state, the so-called law on succession, the process of hereditary divisions also has a grounding effect).

In February-March 1941, under the leadership of Ts. Karakunev, a team of specialists from the Department of Land, Resettlement and Measures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed a concept, which, after consultations, was approved by the Council of Ministers on March 22. each peasant-landowner receives an equal in size of the land left by him, if possible in type and quality (fields, vineyards, etc.); b) to the owners – South Dobrudzha residents, who have retained their Bulgarian citizenship, including as emigrants, 2/3 of their sequestered lands are returned, and the remaining third is paid BGN 1,500 per decare in bonds with a 20-year maturity (there are reports of sequestered properties of the inhabitants of Tutrakan Ig. Chernev, D. Gazurkov, D. Abadjiev); c) South Dobrudzha residents – landowners to whom 1/3 of their lands have been expropriated, the return of one third is combined with grounding of the landless and landless (the former with 5 ha, and the latter with land up to 5 ha – the type of land tenure under the Labor Act land ownership – in this way they receive an hour or all of the third taken away from them), and if the wrong third remains – the compensation is generally in bonds. Ts. Karakunev justifies this decision with the need to eliminate the dissatisfaction and “to create relatively viable farms”. By the end of 1941, 2/3 of the necessary works on the distribution of lands in the various settlements had been carried out, and most of the finishing works had been carried out in 1942. On July 20, 1942, a special law was adopted, with which all that is done is legitimized.

From the available rather contradictory information, the following relatively accurate facts can be pointed out regarding the settlement of the land problem in Tutrakan and Tutrakan district.

The state land fund of arable land in Tutrakan district, as noted, amounts to 31,149 ha. They are distributed: to 1851 migrant families – 15,107 ha, to 2,453 landless and landless locals (460 are landless, 1993 landless, of which 3/4 have less than 2 ha) – 7218 ha, for the return of 2/3 of Bulgarians – 2738 ha, for schools -3910 ha, for churches -2848 ha, for community centers -1545 ha, for dining rooms – 378 ha, for increasing the measures – 49 , 5 ha, for state needs – 1439 ha and free state lands – 3553 ha40. In connection with other information, it can be established that in the town of Tutrakan during the years under review agriculture is the main livelihood of about 4000 people, ie about 59.0% of the population.

The data from the census of January 21, 1941, which were processed in the General Directorate of Statistics, regarding the groups of arable landowners in Tutrakan district show that 77.3% of all with up to 5 ha had 42.5% of the land; from 5 to 10 ha – 17.7% with 33.7%; from 10 to 20 ha – 4.2% with 15.0%; from 20 to 50 ha – 0.8% with 4.9% and only one land tenure with 495 ha (probably of the Tutrakan residents Dimcho St. Dimov and Petar Keremedchiev in the village of Tarnovtsi).

After the settlement of the land problem, although unresolved issues remain, the relative share of landowners on land up to 5 ha decreases to 60.8% / by 16.5% /, and to landowners from 5.1 to 10 ha inclusive increases at 36.1% (with 18.4%). This shows that for the Dobrudzha scale a typical small-scale land tenure is established.

After 1941, when the land leased by the state remained very small, and the lands of public funds cultivated by tenants and the lands leased by private owners were not many, the said structure of land tenure was almost entirely covered by the structure of land use. This is confirmed by the fact – in the agricultural year 1945/1946, when there were 7994 agricultural holdings in Tutrakan district, 7528 holdings (94.2%) were cultivated by each owner by his owner with the help of his family members.

*** p.554 the same source

4.5. Social problems. Development of the crisis

Along with the difficulties of an urban nature, aggravated by natural disasters to the extreme, public life in Tutrakan is in constant tension and of an acute social problem. As during the wars and many years after that, poverty spread in all villages and towns of Bulgaria – during the period under review and the vast majority of the population of Tutrakan lived in great poverty. For contemporaries who visited the city or temporarily resided in it, this poverty made a very strong impression and seemed to take shape as a generalising characteristic – “so many people with worn and patched clothes are rarely seen in one place”; fishermen’s clothes are said to have as many patches as carp scales; born in Tutrakan, but settled in Ruse writer Dobri Nemirov, after visiting the town shares his impressions in the newspaper “Napredak” – the town has remained “with all its primacy, poverty and antiquity”, etc. Of course, there is a small number of richer families. As such are pointed out: Drandarovi – Stoyan and Nikola, wholesalers of wine, alcohol, beverages, cereals and hardware. Nikola Keremedchiev is the owner of an alcoholic beverage store, a restaurant with the Danube Hotel and a cinema; there is a small diesel power plant (since 1934), with electricity used by its restaurant and hotel, the Municipality, the court, T. Atanasov’s restaurant, Gabrovski’s bookstore and part of the street lighting on the main street. Yordan Keremedchiev has a hardware store. Large landowners of pre-lease properties (note: Sdr. Transmariska – perekende – a person who owns agricultural property in a settlement but does not live there), purchased before the Balkan War, are Peter Keremedchiev and Dimcho St. Dimov. After the expropriations under the agrarian reform and the law for the third, D. Dimov is the owner of a well-arranged farm in the village of Tarnovtsi with 169 ha of arable land; P. Keremedchiev has 323 ha. They and their heirs owned these properties during the years of World War II. The Bakardzhievs and others are also pointed out as richer. Existing sources in connection with this problem allow 87 Arhivelor naţionale, Bucureşti, Fond Reforma agrara, Judeţul Durostor, dosar 6 (1925 – 1934), f. 1-380 – the whole dossier is for the two “moshii” (farms); Boychev, P. The Old Tutrakan, p. 77, doc. №84; Documents. Ch. 4, №№ 68, 110; TDDA – Silistra, f. 134k, op.1, a.e. 2, pp. 202 – 213; Tutrakan. Stories and ethnic memory, p. 74. to make several findings. Half of the inhabitants of Tutrakan are farmers, and the majority of them have an average of 5-6 ha of arable land. With the average norms of profitability from the monocultural extensive agriculture practiced in South Dobrudzha and very insufficient agro-technical improvements, these owners rightly belong to the group of poor peasants. The artisan class, with a few exceptions, as mentioned, consists of poor people who, if they have orders, work in their unhygienic workshops “from dark to dark”. The great river – the Danube – provides a livelihood for many residents of Tutrakan, but there is no information about any rich professional fisherman.Many of the migrants – former city dwellers, small traders and craftsmen – do not find employment and increase the number of unemployed. Add to that the increase in hidden unemployment in the villages, the so-called agrarian overpopulation, which, despite its reduction due to military mobilisations, remains too large – all this creates tension in the public life of Tutrakan.