2-nd June

Hristo Botev

If you are in Bulgaria on 2-nd June around noon, you are probably puzzled why there is “Alarm” sound in the air and everyone stopped their activity and stood still for one minute.

It’s the day of Hristo Botev and the struggle of the Bulgarians against the Turkish presence on the Balkans.

Hristo Botev is one of the Bulgarian national heroes.

He is born on 25-th December 1847 (January 6 in new style) in the city of Kalofer in a family of a teacher. (parents Botyo Petkoff and Ivanka Boteva). He studies in a school in the city of Karlovo as a kid, under his father’s supervision but later returns to his city of birth where he graduates. Later he goes in Russia and applies as a private pupil in the Odessa gymnasium and serves for few years as a teacher in a village’s school in Zadunayevka,

At 1867 he returns in Kalofer and starts to prepare a rebellion against the rich and the Turks. During his stay in Bulgaria, local newspaper called Gayda (a kind of music pipe) publishes his verses and espеcially “Thy mother” (“Майце си”).

From october 1867 he starts living in Romania, working in the city of Braila as an metranpist for the newspaper “Danube Sunrise” *(Дунавска Зора) Lies few years in prison for conspiration but released because of applied appeal and help from his comrades Levski and Karavelov (other Bulgarian revolutionaries).

May 1876 starts the April Uprising in Bulgaria, which is quickly overwhelmed by Turkish army, but when Botev heard about it – He started preparations for entering Bulgaria with an army of revolutionaries. They abducted a ship called Radetzky and forced the captain to land and embark on Bulgarian shores on 17-th may.

The battle is futile and Hristo Botev dies on 2-nd of June.