On January 6 2009, Bulgaria marks the 161st anniversary of the birth of Hristo Botev, a prominent revolutionary and publicist, renowned for his critical essays and insightful poetry, Bulgarian news agency Focus reported.

The commemoration will see a military honours ceremony at 1pm, with ceremonial laying of flowers and wreaths at the Hristo Botev memorial in the Borissovata Gradina in Sofia.

Vice President Angel Marin and Deputy Education Minister Kircho Atanasov were scheduled to attend along with other public figures, pupils from two high schools in Sofia bearing the name of Hristo Botev and representatives of various organisations.

Born in Kalofer in 1848 and brought up in the midst of the Bulgarian national revival, Botev was educated in Kalofer and later in Odessa, in today's Ukraine.

Influenced by the revolutionary rhetoric of Russian poets and intellectuals Alexander Herzen, Nikolai Chernishevski, and Nikolai Dobrolyubov, Botev then attempted to write his first stanzas of poetry, while his political views began to take shape.

Shortly after his return to Bulgaria in 1867, Botev was forced to leave for Romania because of his outspoken opposition to Ottoman rule. While living in exile there, he met other prominent Bulgarian patriots such as Vassil Levski and Lyuben Karavelov, whose views played a role in Botev's determination to devote his life to the liberation of his fatherland.

Gradually, the idea that only an armed insurgency against the oppressor would bring about freedom began to materialise in the formation of a guerrilla unit composed of Bulgarian emigres in Romania. Its action plan revolved around the expected uprising being organised through clandestine committees on Bulgarian territory.

When the ill-fated 1876 April Uprising in Bulgaria began, Botev disembarked at the head of a 205-strong guerrilla unit on the Danube shore near Kozloduy in north-west Bulgaria.

During clashes with Ottoman troops near Vola peak in the Vratsa region of the Stara Planina range, Botev was shot dead on June 2 1876.

Apart from his image as a selfless revolutionary, Botev has endured in history as a influential literary figure, having left one of the most patriotic and sentimentally-romantic poems reflecting on the life of poor and oppressed people, revolutionary struggle and unrequited love obstructed by patriotic duty.

Among some of his signature poetry works are To My Mother, Elegy, Struggle, and In the Tavern.