On the occasion of the birthday of Hristo Botev, we the volunteers of YDCMA visited and honoured the great figure of the Bulgarian national hero. To show our respect and gratitude to the revolutionary we bought some flowers and left them on his statue, located in Rosarium Park, Kazanlak, as the locals usually do on this day, the day of his birth. Below you can read a short biography about this national hero: The Bulgarian poet Hristo Botev was born in Kalofer, Bulgaria, on 6 January 1848. His parents were Boty Petkov and Ivanka Boteva, and he was one of 8 children. Botev was educated at the Odessa Russian gymnasium (1863-1865). It was around this time that he was exposed to the revolutionaries of the Polish Uprising of 1863. At that time, Bulgaria had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire for over five hundred years, and he was inspired by the Polish rebels. After those years, Botev returned to Bulgaria in January 1867, but he was forced to flee the country shortly thereafter due to pressure from the Turkish authorities. Then he traveled to Romania, where he was actively participating in the revolutionary movement in Bulgaria. He began publishing a newspaper aimed at the Bulgarian expatriate community in 1871. Botev was also engaged in the organization of papers and other literature promoting Bulgarian freedom and independence. In 1974, these activities led him to become a member of the Central Revolutionary Committee. At that point, he was aware of Marxism and opposed the continuation of Turkish rule in Bulgaria. His ideas were utopian socialists, and he spoke out against the role of the Church in the status quo in Bulgaria. In 1875, Hristo Botev saw the revolution as the only way to achieve his means and formed the Bulgarian Revolutionary Movement. An uprising took place in Bulgaria in 1876, which became known as the April Uprising. He organized and was part of a group of insurgents who went to Bulgaria to fight, but he died in the Vol Mountain battle on 2 June 1876. Hristo Botev was one of the biggest heroes in Bulgaria and the day of his death marked as a day of national mourning. About his facet as a writer, Botev has written twenty-six poems and is considered Bulgaria’s first modern poet, as well as the most significant of them. In his private life, Botev had a wife, Veneta, a daughter, Ivanka, and a stepson, Dimitar. His widow lived on until February 27, 1819. In his honour, there is a city in Bulgaria named Botevgrad. There are also many schools and sports grounds in the country with his name. Every year at noon on 2 June, sirens of air raids sound across Bulgaria in remembrance of Hristo Botev.

Sayan Sarkar