Hristo Botev (December 25 1847 – May 20 /June 1 new style/ 1876) or Vassil Levski (July 18 1837 – February 19 1873)? Both leaders in the revolutionary fight for Bulgarian freedom from Ottoman rule, the men earn places as two of the most-lauded in this country’s recent history. Petar Kostadinov and Magdalena Rahn take a look into their lives, writings, myths and realities.
A product of the Plovdiv region, like Hristo Botev, Vassil Levski (ne Vassil Ivanov Kounchev) is called the Apostle of Freedom, the National Hero, the Deacon.
Karlovo, where he was born on July 18 1837, was a prosperous craft-industry centre. His father and mother Ivan Kounchev Ivanov and Gina Vassileva Karaivanova, had four other children in addition to Vassil: Hristo, Petar, Ana and Mariika.
When his father died in 1851, he had to leave school, as did his brothers, to care for the family.
At 21, following a year-long course preparatory course for priests, he took orders and the monastic name Ignatii at the Sopot monastery Sveti Spas. In 1861, due to the influence of Georgi Sava Rakovski, Levski dedicated himself entirely to simmering revolutionary ambitions, and left from serving the church. He spoke fluent Turkish, Greek and Armenian.
In 1862, he went to Serbia and enlisted as a volunteer in the Bulgarian legion raised by Rakovski. It was there that he received the name Levski, meaning lion-like, said to have been conferred on him by Rakovski for his bravery and quick-wittedness. From 1862 to 1868, he took part in almost all Bulgarian armed assaults against the Ottomans. He returned to Bulgaria from Romania by 1864, for on Easter Day that year, in the presence of his friends, he sheared off his hair, symbolising his break frommonastic orders. His then purpose in life was to serve as a fighter for freedom.
The rest of the 1860s were spent with him participating in revolutionary committees and military action. Serbian authorities arrested him and threw him in prison in Zajecar, after which he returned to Romania, and then went back to Zajecar.
From January to February 23 1869, he made his first tour round the country, with a second one from May 1 to September. During this latter, he instituted the first revolutionary committees in Bulgaria (Pleven, Lovech, Karlovo, Plovdiv, Perushtitsa, Sopot, Pazardjik). Later that year, he returned to Romania, where he stayed for 10 months. During this period, he also started keeping a diary (see http://ziezi.net/belezhnik for Levski’s diary online, in Bulgarian). Spending 1871 in Bulgaria, Levski wrote the statutes of the BRTsK (Central Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee), a Bucharest-based committee of which he was a part. The next year, he organised the first regional revolutionary committee in Golyam Izvor, followed by more so committees in the Stara Zagora and Sliven regions.
Arrested by the Turkish army on December 27 1972, Levski was interrogated during the first days of January, receiving the death sentence on January 14. Despite decisions by the committees in Stara Zagora and Chirpan to help him escape, his fate was sealed.
On February 6 1873, Levski was hanged in Sofia. Due to his secret burial – Ottoman authorities recognised his significance for the public – the site of his grave remains unknown.
What set Levski apart from the other revolutionaries of the period were his strategic mind and complete dedication to and belief in the cause of fighting to end Turkish rule. It is said that his ideas were on a par with the most radical ideas of the European bourgeois of the time. His actions determined the future governmental form of a free Bulgaria – a democratic republic. He saw an effective revolution taking place only with the armed upheaval of the whole Bulgarian population, meaning that organisation, planning, military training and independence from dependency on foreign powers were requisite.
