Hristo Botev
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Hristo Botev (Bulgarian: Христо Ботев) (January 6, 1848 – June 2, 1876), born Hristo Botyov Petkov (Bulgarian: Христо Ботйов Петков), was a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary.
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[edit] Early life
Botyov was born in Kalofer. His father, Botyo Petkov (1815 - 1869), was a teacher and one of the most significant figures of the late period of the Bulgarian National Revival, towards the end of the Ottoman rule. He had a strong influence on his son during the latter's youth.
In 1863, after completing his elementary education in Kalofer, Botev was sent by his father to a high school in Odessa. While there, he was deeply impressed by the work of the liberal Russian poets of the day. He left high school in 1865 and spent the next two years teaching in Odessa and Bessarabia. In the meantime he began creating his first poetic works and also established strong connections with the Russian revolutionary movement.
Botev returned to Kalofer at the beginning of 1867, where he temporarily replaced his ill father as a teacher. In May, during the festivities celebrating St. Cyril and Methodius (it was his father who first organised at the end of the school year such festivities which today correspond to Bulgaria's national holiday on 24 May), he made a public speech against the Turkish authorities and the wealthy Bulgarians (whom he alleged were collaborating with the Ottomans). Botev was pressed into leaving the town as a result. He initially decided he would return to Russia, but due to lack of money instead opted for Romania, at the time an asylum for many Bulgarian exiles.
[edit] Romanian exile
Greatly influenced by the Bulgarian revolutionaries who lived in Romania, Botiov led a life typical for any revolutionary. He was constantly deprived of means and even home. A remarkable moment in this period of his life was his close friendship with Vassil Levski. Both of them lived in an abandoned mill near Bucharest in indescribable poverty and destitution. However, their fighting spirit proved to be stronger than that. Later in his life, Botev would make a vivid, full of humor description of that situation.
From 1869 to 1871 Botiov worked again as a teacher in Bessarabia, keeping close relations with the Bulgarian revolutionary movement and its leaders. In June 1871 he became editor of the revolutionary emigrant newspaper "Word of the Bulgarian emigrants" (Duma na bulgarskite emigranti), where he began publishing his early poetic works. Imprisoned for some months, due to his close collaboration with the Russian revolutionaries, Botiov started working for the "Liberty" (Svoboda) newspaper, edited by the famous Bulgarian writer and revolutionary Lyuben Karavelov.
Their collaboration was prolific and did not only have a great influence on the emigrants, but gave also courage to the Bulgarian people to rise against the Ottomans . In 1873 he also edited the satiric newspaper "Alarm clock" (Budilnik), where he published a number of feuilletons, aimed at those wealthy Bulgarians, who did not take part in the revolutionary movement.
[edit] The struggle for Bulgarian independence
The struggle for Bulgarian independence was a difficult one. At the end of 1872 the Ottoman police captured Levski, who was at that time the undisputable leader of the Bulgarian insurgency. He had established an enormous net of revolutionary committees, supervised by the Bulgarian Central Revolutionary Committee (BCRC) in Romania, which had the task of preparing the Bulgarian revolutionaries for the future general uprising against the Ottoman rule. Levski was brought to trial, sentenced to death end hanged on 19.02.1873. His death was a significant blow to the morale of the revolutionary movement. In that difficult moment, Hristo Botiov stepped forward and persuaded his comrades to start preparations for an uprising earlier than planned. He was engaged in revolutionary activities of huge scale, developing Levski's ideas. At the same time he continued writing his poetry.
The BCRC was divided in two—the moderate revolutionaries, led by Lyuben Karavelov, thought that the people of Bulgaria were not yet ready for an uprising. Botiov and his supporters backed up the opposite idea. They intended to start an uprising in the first possible moment, in order to take advantage of the international situation (the mounting tension between the Ottoman empire on one side, and Serbia and Russia on the other), as well as the fact that the revolutionary net, established by Levski, was still relatively intact and could take an active part in the preparations. As a result, the BCRC was dissolved and a new committee was set up in Giurgiu, and the preparations for the uprising went on.
In 1875 Botiov published his poetic works in a book called "Songs and poems", together with another Bulgarian revolutionary poet (and future politician and statesman) Stefan Stambolov. Botiov's poetry reflects the sentiments of the poor people, filled with revolutionary ideas, struggling for their freedom against both foreign and domestic tyrants. His poetry is influenced mainly by the Russian revolutionaries and the figures of the Paris Commune. Under this influence, Botiov rose both as a poet and a revolutionary democrat. Many of his poems are imbued with bursting revolutionary spirit and determination, such as "My Prayer" ("Moyata molitva"), "At Farewell" ("Na proshtavane"), "Haiduti", "In The Mehana" ("V mehanata") or "Struggle" ("Borba"). Others are romantic and even elegiac. His political ideas were close to those of utopian Socialism and were synthesized in his "Symbol Of Belief" ("Simvol veruyu").
[edit] The April uprising
The uprising started in April 1876. The poorly armed rebels fought with great bravery and selflessness against regular Ottoman troops and the bashi-bazouks. The uprising was suppressed with extreme cruelty. Many thousands of men, women and children were slaughtered, thousands were sent to exile in Asia Minor, many more left their homes [Robert Seton-Watson, Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question: a study in diplomacy and party politics, (London: Macmillan, 1935), p58, "Bulgaria" in Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 22, 2006, from Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service[1]]. The tragedy ignited the public opinion all over the world.
In 1876, the British statesman William Ewart Gladstone published a pamphlet, Bulgarian Horrors and the Questions of the East, attacking the Disraeli government for its indifference to the brutal suppression of the Bulgarian rebellion in Ottoman Empire:
"Let the Turks now carry away their abuses, in the only possible manner, namely, by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and Yuzbachis, their Kaimakans and their Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province that they have desolated and profaned. This thorough riddance, this most blessed deliverance, is the only reparation we can make to those heaps and heaps of dead, the violated purity alike of matron and of maiden and of child; to the civilization which has been affronted and shamed; to the laws of God, or, if you like, of Allah; to the moral sense of mankind at large. There is not a criminal in an European jail, there is not a criminal in the South Sea Islands, whose indignation would not rise and over-boil at the recital of that which has been done, which has too late been examined, but which remains unavenged, which has left behind all the foul and all the fierce passions which produced it and which may again spring up in another murderous harvest from the soil soaked and reeking with blood and in the air tainted with every imaginable deed of crime and shame. That such things should be done once is a damning disgrace to the portion of our race which did them; that the door should be left open to the ever so barely possible repetition would spread that shame over the world."
The famous British poet Oscar Wilde dedicated his brilliant 6. Sonnet to the abominable massacre during the suppression of the rebellion (s. Massacre of the Christians in Bulgaria /Oscar Wilde/) [2]
Pictures showing piles of burned or slaughtered human bodies and articles on the Ottoman atrocities went around Europe causing tremendous indignation (s. "Bulgarian Horrors" in Encyclopedia Britannica 2006, Retrieved June 22, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service: [3]). Many cultural and political figures of the time such as Charles Darwin, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Hugo and many others rose in indignation at this execrable slaughtering.
Botiov watched the fatal events and decided to join his comrades in their struggle. For that mission he composed a 205-men-strong detachment of revolutionaries, only some of whom possessed military experience. Whilst Botev remained the voivod of the party, as military commander was chosen the revolutionary activist Nikola Voinovski (1849—1876), who had previously studied in the Nikolaev Military High-school and served as a lieutenant in the Russian army, thus possessing the necessary military training. Standard-bearer of the detachment was another famous revolutionary—Nikola Simov-Kuruto (1845—1876). In order to join the uprising, Botiov devised a plan to safely cross the Danube without letting the Romanian authorities know, fearing that they could stop him.
On May 16th 1876, disguised as gardeners, the members of the detachment boarded the Austro-Hungarian steamer Radetzky and, after a special signal, seized control of it. After that, Botiov presented the political motives of his act before the captain of the steamer, Dagobert Engländer, and the passengers. The noble cause and the civilized manners of the Bulgarian revolutionaries made a great impression on all the people that were present aboard the ship. Radetzky reached the Bulgarian coast near Kozlodui, where Botiov and his comrades bid the captain and the passengers farewell and disembarked on Bulgarian soil. The moment was full of drama, for the news of the suppressed uprising had already spread across all Europe and the people aboard the Radetzky had no illusions about what awaited Botiov and his comrades.
The detachment, with its standard in front, headed for the region of Vratza. The first news of the situation was dispiriting—the uprising was almost over everywhere, there were bashi-bozouks all over the region, no help was to be expected, so the detachment advanced to the Vratza mountains. In the morning of May 18th the detachment was surrounded by the Ottoman troops, but Botiov and Nikola Voinovski organised their comrades in time, took defensive positions and started repulsing the repeated Ottoman attacks. Both sides suffered heavy losses. The detachment, in particular, lost about 30 killed and wounded, among them the standard-bearer. When the night fell, the rebels, divided in several groups, broke through the enemy lines and continued their movement towards the mountains.
The next day passed without any signs of the enemy, but it became clear, that the detachment could not expect any help from other Bulgarian revolutionaries. In the morning of May 20th, the sentries of the detachment detected advancing bashi-bozouks and 5 battalions of regular Turkish troops. The men took immediately strong positions near mount Okoltchitza. The defense was divided in 2 sectors, commanded by Voinovski and Botiov. Soon 2 battalions of enemy regulars, led by Hassan Hairy bey, assaulted the positions of Voinovski, while the bashi-bozouks turned their attention to Botiov`s position. Voinovski's men, with concentrated fire, inflicted heavy losses on the advancing enemy and countered its attempts to encircle them. In their turn Botiov's men repelled several bashi-bozouk attacks and drove the enemy back with a furious counterattack. The fight died of its own and the Turks retreated to their camp. The detachment lost about 10 killed, the enemy—about 30. Many were wounded on both sides.
As the evening was approaching, Hristo Botiov decided to survey the enemy lines from a distance and right at that moment he was hit in the chest by a bullet. It was the 20th of May [1st of June new calendar]. The sudden death of Botiov doomed the detachment and in the following days it was routed. Only 15 men, led by Voinovski, reached the mountains, where they fell like heroes in furious fighting.
All his life, Botiov inspired his followers and comrades with his passion for liberty and rights and finally his turn had come to fulfill his oath and die for them. The inscription chiselled on the granite rock by which he was killed reads: "Your prophecy has come true—you live on!"
Nowadays, the air raid sirens throughout all Bulgaria are being switched on for a few minutes on every June 2, at exactly 12 o'clock. Bulgarians stand up to honour the ones who have fought and died for their country.
[edit] Honours
Botev Point and Botev Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica are named after Hristo Botev.
[edit] External links
- HristoBotev.com (Bulgarian)
- Works by Hristo Botev at Project Gutenberg
- June 2, 1876 Daily Bleed Calendar reference page
