In the postindependence period the dominant literary figure was Ivan Vazov, whose influence on subsequent generations of writers has been tremendous. Known as the national poet and father of modern Bulgarian literature, Vazov was primarily a writer and not a crusader or revolutionary as were his predecessors. He was steeped in the great literature of Europe and Russia and used the Bulgarian setting and traditions to write about universal ideas. Vazov's greatest novel, _Under the Yoke_, describing Bulgarian life under the Turks, has been widely translated. Vazov and his contemporaries Yordan Yovkov and Pencho Slaveikov (son of Petko Slaveikov) sought to direct Bulgarian literature away from its confines of national politics and reform into a more general artistic and philosophical outlook. They were joined in this effort by the somewhat younger Elin Pelin, whose stories have also been widely translated. Although these writers continued to draw much of their inspiration from native scenery, folk themes, and village life, they were writers of universal quality and appeal. Later, rival literary groups, each with its journal, laid the basis for marked development in poetry, the short story, and the novel between the two world wars. No outstanding literary figure emerged, but writers continued to experiment with a variety of themes and forms. Realism had always been a strong theme in Bulgarian literature, and in the decade after 1944 the Communists sought to utilize this tradition in imposing Soviet-style Socialist Realism as the desired form of expression. Writers who conformed to the prescribed style were generously rewarded with stipends and special privileges that encouraged a volume of writing heretofore unknown. The novel became the main literary form as it lends itself particularly well to the prerequisites of the prescribed literary style. Nikola Vaptsarov and Khristo Smyrnenski have been singled out by the government as outstanding writers in the style of Socialist Realism. Most of the literature produced in the late 1940s and early 1950s has been classed at best as mediocre, even by Bulgarians themselves. Several works of that period, however, have been recognized as outstanding. The most acclaimed of these has been Dimitur Dimov's _Tobacco_, dealing with the revolutionary movement among tobacco workers before and during World War II. The novel was strongly condemned when first published in 1951 but, after the relaxation of cultural controls in the mid-1950s, it was hailed as the best novel since Vazov's _Under the Yoke_.