Vera Mutafchieva


Vera Mutafchieva was a Bulgarian writer and historian.
Daughter of historian prof. Petar Mutafchiev and Nadia Triphonova, she was born in Sofia and was educated at Sofia University. Vera Mutafchieva obtained her PhD and DSci degrees at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. She was a senior researcher at various institutes of the BAS, and was elected vice-president of BAS. In 2004 she was elected a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her research focused on the Ottoman period on which she published dozens of studies in Bulgarian and European journals. Some of her monographies were published in the USA, Turkey and Greece.
Vera Mutafchieva is the author of historical novels which were translated into 11 languages. She was also script writer of the 1981 film Khan Asparuh and of 2 other films on contemporary subjects, as well as of the drama on the second Bulgarian Kingdom "The Road".
Vera Mutafchieva was awarded with numerous national prizes and with the International Herder Prize.
From 1997 to 1998, Mutafchieva was head of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. In 2008, it was revealed that she had collaborated with the secret police in communist Bulgaria. However, she is also known for her defence of women's rights in Bulgaria.
Mutafchieva died at the Lozenetz Hospital in Sofia at the age of 80. Her ashes were scattered in the Aegean sea near the Cape Sounion.