In "Under the Yoke" Ivan Vazov has brought to life the entire cosmos of Bulgarian people, has formulated its philosophical and everyday-life views not clad in words by anyone before him, describing the relations between enslaved and enslavers: "Enslaved peoples have their own philosophy that reconciles them with the life as it is... A people enslaved, though without hope, never commits suicide: it eats, drinks and makes children, it makes its time pass in merriment". Of course, this suggestion refers to "little" peoples, the "big" ones simply never fall under slavery...
Essentially, by describing the numerous merry meetings and conversations, the feasts that various social groups organise, the ring dances, the working-bees and the folk songs Vazov has shown us that milieu in which the everyday life run and in which the sturdy, constructive optimism of the Bulgarian spirit ripened, grew luxuriantly and dominated...
Although the novel presents a specific historical moment along with a national story, "Under the Yoke" expresses in fact the pathos of the struggle for freedom that had pervaded the nation, that had transformed the temporary into eternal, the national into something common to all mankind. It is no wonder then that this novel-epopee proved to be the most popular work of Bulgarian literature abroad. Especially in countries whose historical fate was similar to Bulgarian one...
