Abstract

The review presents Dr Mariana Krasteva’s book (compiler and author of the preface) titled “Bulgarian Navy in the First World War in the Focal Point of the Photographers” and published by the National Museum of Military History in 2020. The book consists of a preface and six parts dealing with the following subjects: “Ships and Crews”, “Mine Danger”, “The First Bulgarian Submarine”, “Naval Aviation”, “The Danube and Aegean Sea Fleet” and “On the Shore”. The publication has 136 pages in total and is in a bilingual format (Bulgarian and English). Its lavishly illustrated album tells the visual story of the Bulgarian Naval Fleet’s participation in the First World War through photographs of faces, ships, events and situations taken from the Naval Museum and the National Museum of Military History archives. The album shows the fleet’s complete transformation from a mere afterthought into a true branch of the army. Unlike the Balkan Wars (1912 – 1913), when the fleet only consisted of warships and coastal artillery, it now had naval aviation, a submarine and marine troops, as well as next generation equipment, including mines, searchlights and radios. Careful selection of sources, reasonable balance between subjects and unobtrusive presentation of wartime contrasts – those are just some of the merits of the study, which can proudly claim to be the first serious piece of research on this topic.