It's a classic of Bulgarian literature, penned by one of the country's greatest bards.
I Am A Bulgarian by Ivan Vazov, a 19th-century literary luminary, has been a staple of the educational curriculum in Bulgaria for years, recited annually by schoolchildren in classrooms across the country.
But now, according to a blast of unsubstantiated reports, Bulgaria wants to change that, and it's all part of a plot, so the argument goes, to placate migrants and undermine the Balkan nation's traditions and culture.
Bulgarian officials have stressed that no such plans exist, but that hasn't stopped the disinformation from spreading on social media and elsewhere in the country of nearly 7 million, much of it fanned by Kremlin-friendly websites and public figures.
It was the mention of the poem in an opinion piece -- written by journalist and sociologist Svetlana Encheva and published by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service earlier this month -- that appeared to be the spark that lit the fake-news flame. Encheva's January 4 article -- titled Demographic Crisis? Migrant Crisis? What Does The Fear Of Losing Identity Lead To? -- examined Bulgaria's shrinking population and asked whether migrants might be part of the answer.
Encheva said she was shocked by how her words were twisted and distorted.
"It would never occur to me to propose such a thing," Encheva told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service when asked whether she supported the idea of doing away with the recital of the poem.
I Am A Bulgarian was written by Vazov after World War I, in either 1919 or 1920. Besides being a poet, Vazov was also a novelist and even served as minister of education.
Bulgaria has long proven prone to pro-Kremlin disinformation campaigns, with the country traditionally scoring low in the EU's annual Media Literacy index. Experts fault Sofia for doing too little to address this.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bulgaria suffered some of the EU's highest death rates amid low inoculation rates. Spreading disinformation on social media, anti-vaxxers fueled much of the skepticism toward vaccines and other public health measures taken to address the crisis.
A Disinformation Campaign Is Born
On January 11, an article written by Nedyalko Nedyalkov -- titled Shocking, Radio Free Europe Demands A Ban Of 'I Am A Bulgarian'! -- was published on PIK, a website run by the author that is stocked with extremist material, earning it not only opprobrium from media monitors but fines from Bulgarian courts, including for posting libelous content.
A day later, on January 12, the disinformation metastasized further. Bnews, a right-wing website run by Nikolay Barekov, piled on with its own news item, titled: [Radio] Free Europe: Remove Ivan Vazov's 'I Am Bulgarian' From Textbooks So It Doesn't Interfere With The Children Of 100,000 New Migrants.
Barekov wears many hats, being described as a former journalist, former TV host, politician, and businessman. Since 2014, he has been at the helm of the populist Bulgaria Without Censorship, which was later rebranded as Reload Bulgaria, a rightist populist party. One of the party's key financial backers was Tsvetan Vassilev, the former owner of the bankrupt KTB bank, who is now reported to be living in Belgrade. Serbia has refused to extradite Barekov to Bulgaria, where he faces accusations of corruption during his time at the bank.
The news item later appeared on multiple Facebook groups, many Kremlin-friendly, including United Nationalists, Russia Is Invincible, and Bulgarians Love Russia, giving the disinformation even more traction.
At no time and in any form has there been any discussion of a change to the study of the poem I Am A Bulgarian by Ivan Vazov."-- Bulgaria's Education and Science Ministry
Meanwhile, on January 13, the PIK website published another item by Nedyalkov, this one with even bolder false claims. It reads: "Everything Bulgarian is under the knife! Before that, it was everything Russian. That was a rehearsal. And this is not about ideology or geopolitics but about a religious crusade against Orthodox Christianity."
The fake news spread not only on traditionally pro-Russian websites, according to Nikola Tulechki, a data analyst and member of a Bulgarian media monitoring group, factcheck.bg, but also on so-called "mushroom" sites. These websites, media experts say, are created in bulk with the sole aim of seeding disinformation and fake news.
'Mushroom Sites'
Almost 400 such "mushroom" sites are spreading Russian propaganda in Bulgaria, according to a study released in June 2023 by the Sofia-based Human and Social Studies Foundation, which investigates Russian online propaganda.
In her article, Encheva discusses how immigration could help solve Bulgaria's demographic crisis. Encheva does mention the poem I Am A Bulgarian, but only to argue that merely teaching it to immigrants will do little to integrate them into society.
"There is no way for the children of 100,000 immigrants to feel like a full part of Bulgarian society if they are obliged to learn I Am A Bulgarian without the education system thinking that they, too, could teach Bulgarian children something and enrich their lives," Encheva said.
This is the sole reference to the poem in the text. There is no suggestion, let alone demand, to drop the poem from school curriculums.
As the disinformation spread, politicians began reacting to the fabricated news.
Ivan Geshev, dismissed from his post as prosecutor-general amid long-standing suspicions of corruption at home and abroad, was among those not only repeating the fake news but also echoing other false reports that recently went viral in Bulgaria that Sofia had allegedly agreed with Brussels to allow in thousands of migrants in exchange for being allowed to partially join Europe's visa-free Schengen Area from March. There is no evidence to support this claim.
Kostadin Kostadinov, the pro-Russia leader of the Revival party, didn't miss the chance not only to spread the disinformation but to add, falsely, that it was all part of a U.S. effort "to destroy Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people," he wrote on Facebook on January 13.
Two days later, Kostandinov published a video on Facebook with his baseless claims of a U.S. plot against Bulgaria, citing the removal of Soviet war monuments in Sofia, Varna, and Plovdiv, as well as the visit of Defense Minister Todor Tagarev to the United States as proof.
"Dear compatriots, a war is being waged against us…. The aim is for us Bulgarians to simply be destroyed as a people," he said.
Kornelia Ninova, the leader of the pro-Russia Bulgarian Socialist Party, was among the more prominent public figures to express outrage at the nonexistent plan to ban I Am A Bulgarian.
On January 16, the Union of Bulgarian Writers, a conservative organization dating to the communist era and largely eschewed today by younger writers, issued a statement that repeated false claims that RFE/RL had called for the poem to be dropped from the school curriculum.
Because of the volume of such remarks and rebukes, the Council of Ministers, the top executive body of the Bulgarian government, issued a point-by-point rebuttal on January 16 to the false claims raised by the disinformation campaign.
The Education and Science Ministry was also moved to issue an official statement, saying that "at no time and in any form has there been any discussion of a change to the study of the poem I Am A Bulgarian by Ivan Vazov."
Encheva noted that up until the PIK website issued its fake news report, discussion of her January 4 opinion piece was conducted in a "civilized" tone, even by those critical of her views.
Even media monitor Tulechki, a seasoned fact-checker, was surprised by how quickly the narrative around the article morphed into something more sinister.
"Almost immediately, a parallel narrative was spun that this is almost a future state policy -- that Vazov's poem will be banned in schools."
