Living in Two Worlds: Bulgarian Czechs in the Village of Voyvodovo

The book at hand, Living in Two Worlds - Bulgarian Czechs in the Village of Voyvodovo, explores the Czech Protestant community that once lived in the north-western region of Bulgaria in the first half of the XX century. The authors examine various aspects of this vibrant Czech community in Bulgaria, such as their religiosity, kinship, language, and architecture, thus providing valuable insight into the nature of this rather unique group.

The book shows how the Czech village of Voyvodovo, founded in 1900 by migrants from the village of Svatá Helena (in what is today Romanian Banat), developed into a rather distinct cultural and religious community totaling about seven hundred members. The Voyvodovo Czechs differed from their Bulgarian Orthodox neighbors not only in their religious practices and language but also in terms of architecture, food and clothing, as well as in their strict Protestant ethics, which prohibited, with the exception of religious songs, all music and dancing. Voyvodovans were renowned for their religious fervor as well as for their farming technology and administration of communal matters. They were admired by the local population and the state administration, which described the village as "exemplary".

The shortage of available land triggered several migratory waves out of the village; the two main ones being to the Argentinian province of Chaco in 1928, and to the village of Belintsi in north-eastern Bulgarian in 1935. Eventually, the Czech-speaking Protestant community of Voyvodovo ceased to exist altogether as a consequence of the post-World War II resettlement of most of its members to former Czechoslovakia, arranged under interstate agreements. The Voyvodovo Czechs settled in several villages and towns along the Southern Moravian border and started their "second life" as Czechoslovak citizens.

The book Living in Two Worlds - Bulgarian Czechs in the Village of Voyvodovo is based on research carried out since the late 1990s both in Southern Moravia, among the former Voyvodovo Czechs, and in Bulgaria, among their former Bulgarian neighbors. The book brings forth a comprehensive picture of this historical Czech minority in Bulgaria and illustrates the transformation of the identity of the people who lived in two worlds yet did not really belong to either.