Marin Drinov



Professor Marin Stoyanov Drinov (Марин Стоянов Дринов, known in Russia as Марин Степанович Дринов) (1838-13 March 1906) was a Bulgarian historian and philologist from the National Revival period who lived and worked in Russia through most of his life. He was one of the originators of Bulgarian historiography and a founding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (then the Bulgarian Literary Society), as well as its first chairman.

Drinov was born in Panagyurishte in 1838. He left for Russia in 1858 to continue his education. He studied history and philology in Kiev and at the Moscow State University, travelled and worked in Austria and Italy between 1865 and 1871. In 1869, he became one of the cofounders and an active member of the Bulgarian Literary Society. Drinov achieved a master's degree and became a reader of Slavistics at Kharkiv University, beginning to work as a regular professor in the end of 1876.

During the period of Russian government of Bulgaria (1878-1879) Drinov was Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Spiritual Affairs. Taking an active part in the organization of the newly liberated Bulgarian state, Marin Drinov is known as one of the authors of the Tarnovo Constitution, the person to have proposed Sofia instead of Tarnovo (favoured by Austrian diplomats) for the new Bulgarian capital, and the person to have introduced the standardized 32-letter edition of Cyrillic that was used in Bulgaria until the orthographic reform of 1945.

Drinov lived in Kharkiv after 1881, continuing his scientific and educational activities until the end of his life. He died in the town in 1906 after a long fight with tuberculosis.