Hristo Botev (1848-1876)

[Sergius]

An artist as well as a national revolutionary.

Hristo Botev – a great Bulgarian poet and revolutionary

On 2 June Bulgaria pays homage to Hristo Botev, a foremost Bulgarian national hero. On this day at 12 o’clock sharp the wailing sirens across the country remind Bulgarians of him and of thousands of national heroes who sacrificed their lives for the Fatherland.

The poet was born on 6 January 1848 in the town of Kalofer at the foot of the Balkan Range. His father was the highly respected teacher Botio Petkov. In 1863 young Hristo left for Odessa, Ukraine, to study there. The years spent in that country had a crucial formative impact on his views, as he came under the influence of ideas upheld by Polish revolutionaries and Russian democrats. In 1867 Botev was back to Kalofer and took up teaching. On 11 May on the occasion of the Day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the creators of the Slavonic script, he delivered an ardent speech which enchanted young people, but nurtured hostility in the minds of conservative Kalofer community leaders, who feared reaction from the Turkish authorities. After that incident Botev went into exile joining the circles of the Bulgarian revolutionary emigration in Rumania, who plotted ways of liberating their native land from the 5-century long Turkish rule. There he published a few newspapers and stood out as a poet of genius and an exceptional journalist. More importantly, he emerged as a charismatic leader of the Bulgarian national liberation movement.



His fiery articles and pamphlets have not lost their freshness of language and relevance over time. He wrote the total of 20 poems, but they were enough to single him out as the greatest Bulgarian poet ever, and among the best in Europe. Botev’s stanza from his ballad Hadji Dimitar has served as an example of a flawless poetic image of nature in world poetry. It goes like this:

The moon comes out and day grows dim,

on heaven’s vault the stars now throng,

the forest rustles, quiet stirs the wind,

the mountains sing an outlaw song.

Another verse from that masterpiece has been written with golden letters in one of the Sorbonne halls.

Poetry however, was not his priority. Bulgaria’s freedom was the goal of his life. In 1875 when the Bosnian Uprising broke out, Hristo Botev wrote that Bulgaria should no longer stand aside from developments surrounding the Eastern Question. In the spring of 1876, which saw the culmination point of the struggles of the Bulgarian nation against the 5-century long Ottoman rule, Botev joined the April Uprising. He did that at a stage when it was already clear that the rising would be crushed with unheard-of atrocities. The rebels had to face fanatic Turkish troops armed with up-to-date weapons. The heroism of Bulgarians during the tragic events in the 1876 attracted the attention of the European press. Hristo Botev was aware of the great importance of this strong western response. He organized a squad of 200 brave Bulgarians who planned to enter Bulgaria from Rumania, and became their commander, Voivoda. Before embarking on the fateful journey, Botev sent out telegrams to two of Europe’s most influential newspapers, Journal de Geneve and La Republique Francaise. In the text he expounded his mission, as commander of the detachment. The rebels traveled along the Danube with the Austrian ship Radecki whose captain was forced to stop the vessel near Kozlodui. On 17 May the insurgents kissed their native land. Following several days of heroic battles on May 20, or June 2, New Style, the rebels took hold of the hills just under Vola Peak in the western Balkan Range. On that same night a bullet from the enemy took Botev’s life while he was discussing tactics with his people. Botev’s sacrifice became a headline story in the European press. A few articles provided coverage of the April Uprising through the prism of the Radecki Affair. That was the great poet’s contribution into the political success of the April Uprising. Despite its tragic outcome, it ultimately led to the Russo-Turkish war in 1877/1878 and Bulgaria’s liberation.

Written by Denitsa Manova

English version Daniela Konstantinova

[source]