A conference was held in Burgas dedicated to Alexander Georgiev – Kodjakafalia

A conference entitled “Patriotism and Charity – The Benefactor of Burgas” was held today in the “Peyo K. Yavorov” Regional Library in Burgas on the occasion of the commemoration in 2023 of the 110th anniversary of the death of Alexander Georgiev – the Kodjakafalia in Burgas. Organizers of the event are the Municipality of Burgas and the Regional History Museum – Burgas. Students from “Alexander Georgiev – Kodjakafaliya” primary school and “Petko Rosen” primary school took part in the conference, who gave detailed presentations about the history and life of the famous Burgas benefactor. They presented information about some of his most significant works, as well as his qualities as a merchant, entrepreneur and donor. In some of the presentations, the students showed archival footage of some of his properties juxtaposed with photos of their modern appearance. “Thank you for opening the framework of a topic that deserves its modern readings and interpretations – the topic of donation and meaningful charity, because we often talk about it, but we forget to address the roots of this unique phenomenon,” said the deputy mayor for culture , tourism and sports of Burgas Municipality Diana Savateva. “Every year on National Awakening Day, each one of us tries to define awakening, and I guess everyone has their own definition. The most important thing is that awakening can exist in every single person. You don’t have to be a teacher, a writer, an artist or a clergyman. You can have an awakening flame in your heart, regardless of what you do. The point is to realize it, ignite it and drag people after you,” added Savateva.
“110 years since Kodjakafaliya left Burgas is not that long. We can say that there are people whose grandfathers were friends of Kodjakafaliya. I have heard vivid legends about him and I can assure you that your fellow citizen lived so modestly and so thrifty that, if we can compare him with anyone in modern times, it is Grandpa Dobri from the village of Bailovo, with the only difference that one earns from benefits, and the other is an investor and manager, as we would call him today, from the rank of today’s Warren Buffett, George Soros and so on,” said Bishop Ierothei of Agathopol, vicar of the Metropolitan of Sliven.
He shared with the audience a part of a recently discovered testament of Alexander Georegiev – Kojakafalia, citing his following maxims: “If you think like everyone else, you don’t think well”, “If your breakfast costs more than two eggs, you won’t miss” or “Learn to look naive. Gather knowledge from everyone. If you don’t know how to listen, even the village idiot will teach you things that books don’t know.” Among the speakers at the conference were also Danka Georgieva, director of the State Archives – Burgas, the historian Georgi Drakaliev, historiographer and artist Mitko Ivanov, associate professor Nikolay Atanasov, representative of the “History and Philosophy” department from “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov” University. , archpriest Dr. Steliyan Kunev, chairman of the church board of the church “St. George the Victorious” in the village of Zidarovo. Guests of the event were also Petar Parushev, head of the Culture Department at the Municipality of Burgas, representatives and students of the Burgas Free University, the University “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov”, the National Academy of Arts – Burgas branch, the Faculty of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Ruska Ahmakova and Alexander Ahmakov, relatives of Alexander Georgiev, Mihail Nenov, director of the OU “Alexander Georgiev – Kodjakafaliyata”, as well as representatives of publishing houses and the local writing community. Alexander Georgiev, known by the nickname Kodjakafaliyata, is a Bulgarian entrepreneur , born in 1890 in the village of Zidarovo, near Burgas. He died on 15 July 1913 there again. He is popular as one of the biggest donors in the history of Burgas, who with his broad charity helps the development of the city. In Burgas he built several inns, shops and factories. Accumulates enormous wealth. He donated 25 million gold leva to help more than 600 poor families, Bulgarian refugees from the Ottoman Empire. He also donates a lot of funds to hospitals and other institutions. Shortly before he died, he bequeathed most of his wealth to Burgas.
An elementary school and one of the exhibition halls in the Cultural Center “Sea Casino” in Burgas are named after him. In the autumn of 2022, a new full-length monument to him was opened in the city, with the author being the Burgas sculptor Radostin Damaskov. The monument is located next to the school bearing his name, which was previously an orphanage also named after the benefactor.