Drinov, Marin

Drinov, Marin [Дрінов, Марін], b 2 November 1838 in Panagiurishte, Bulgaria, d 13 March 1906 in Kharkiv. Bulgarian Slavist and political leader. Drinov completed his studies in Kyiv and Moscow. In 1873 he was appointed professor of Slavic studies at Kharkiv University. In 1877 he was elected secretary and in 1890 president of the Kharkiv Historical-Philological Society. For a brief period (1878–9) Drinov served as the minister of education for Bulgaria. Drinov trained a number of historians who were graduates of Kharkiv University, and he laid the foundations of Bulgarian history and modern Bulgarian orthography. His principal works are Zaselenie Balkanskogo poluostrova slavianami (The Settlement of the Balkan Peninsula by the Slavs, 1873) and Iuzhnye slaviane i Vizantiia v X v. (The Southern Slavs and Byzantium in the 10th Century, 1876).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]