BULGARIAN REVIVALS

Prepared by: Maria Kuneva

 Paìsiy Hilendàrski

• Saint Paisius of Hilendar or Paìsiy Hilendàrski

(1722–1773) was a Bulgarian clergyman and a
key Bulgarian National Revival figure. He is most
famous for being the author of Istoriya
Slavyanobolgarskaya, the second modern
Bulgarian history after the work of Petar Bogdan
Bakshev from 1667, "History of Bulgaria". Most
Bulgarians were taught that he was the
forefather of the Bulgarian National Revival.
• Paisius was born in Bansko. He established himself
in the Chilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in
1745, where he was later a hieromonk and deputy-
abbot. Collecting materials for two years through
hard work and even visiting the Habsburg
Monarchy, he completed his Istoriya
Slavyanobolgarskaya in 1762 at the Zograf
Monastery. The book was the first attempt to write
a complete history of Bulgaria and attempted to
awake and strengthen Bulgarian national
consciousnesses.
 Lyuben Karavelov
Lyuben Stoychev Karavelov (c. 1834 – 21 January 1879)
was a Bulgarian writer and an important figure of the
Bulgarian National Revival.Karavelov was born in
Koprivshtitsa. He began his education in a church
school, but in 1850 he moved to the school of Nayden
Gerov in Plovdiv. He was then sent by his father to study
in a Greek school for two years, before transferring to a
Bulgarian school, where he also studied Russian
literature. He moved to Odrin for an apprenticeship, but
he soon came back to Koprivshtitsa and was sent to
Constantinople in 1856. There he developed a strong
interest in politics and the Crimean War. At the same
time, he studied the culture and ethnography of the
region.
In 1857, Karavelov enrolled in the Faculty of History and
Philology at the University of Moscow, where he fell under the
influence of Russian revolutionary democrats, was placed under
police surveillance in 1859, and took part in student riots in
1861. With a group of other young Bulgarian student radicals,
he published a journal and started writing poetry and long
short stories in Bulgarian, and scholarly publications on
Bulgarian ethnography and journalism in Russian. In 1867 he
went to Belgrade as a correspondent for Russian newspapers
and started publishing prose and journalism in Serbian. 1869 he
settled in Bucharest, intending to start his own newspaper and
to cooperate with the newly founded Bulgarian Scholarly
Society (the future Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).
At his first newspaper Svoboda (Freedom) in Bucharest
(1869–1873), he worked and became friends with poet
and revolutionary Hristo Botev who devoted a poem to
him. In 1870, Karavelov was elected chairman of the
Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, where he
worked with Vasil Levski, the leader of the Internal
Revolutionary Organization; he shared Levski's ideas of
a democratic republic as the goal of the national
revolution. Karavelov admired the political system of
Switzerland (which he believed was a good model for
the ethnically diverse Balkans) and the United States;
he praised the American public education system, as
well as the emancipated (in his opinion) status of
American women.
In 1873–1874, Karavelov and Botev published a
second newspaper, Nezavisimost (Independence).
Although Karavelov, the older of the two, was the
recognized master, both of them were very good
professional journalists, setting high standards for
Bulgarian language and literature. (Sometimes it
was hard to know who exactly authored the many
unsigned materials.) Following the capture and
execution of Levski in 1873, though, the
disheartened Karavelov gradually abandoned his
revolutionary zeal, attracting Botev's severe
criticism, and started publishing a new Znanie
(Knowledge) journal and popular science books.
Karavelov died in Rousse in 1879, soon
after the liberation of Bulgaria.
Karavelov's works include the short
novels Old Time Bulgarians and
Mommy's Boy considered among the
first original Bulgarian novels. His
younger brother Petko was a prominent
figure in Bulgaria's political life in the
late nineteenth century.
Todor Kableshkov
• Todor Kableshkov (13 January 1851 – 16
June 1876) was a 19th-century Bulgarian
revolutionary and one of the leaders of the
April Uprising.
• Born in Koprivshtitsa in a wealthy family, he
studied in his hometown and then in Plovdiv
between 1864 and 1867 and founded the
Zora enlightenment society in 1867. He
continued his education in Galatasaray High
School in Istanbul, but was forced to return
to Koprivshtitsa because of illness. He
worked in Edirne as a telegraph operator in
1873 and was then a station master near
Pazardzhik, where he engaged in cultural
and educational activities.
Kableshkov returned to Koprvishtitsa in the
beginning of 1876 and committed himself to
revolutionary work. He was assigned the head of
the local revolutionary committee in Koprishtitsa
and deputy-apostle of the Panagyurishte
revolutionary district. He was the first to proclaim
the April Uprising on 20 April 1876 and is the
author of the famous Bloody Letter to the
Panagyurishte revolutionary district. Kableshkov
was the head of the military council in
Koprivshtitsa and led a cheta (band, detachment)
together with Panayot Volov, with which he went
round the nearby villages.
After the uprising was suppressed by
the Ottoman authorities, Kableshkov
fled in the interior of Stara Planina with
a small group. He was captured near
Troyan and was afterwards tortured in
the Lovech and Veliko Tarnovo prisons.
Todor Kableshkov eventually
committed suicide in the Gabrovo
police office at the age of 25.
Todor Kableshkov is remembered as one of
the most courageous Bulgarian
revolutionaries especially considering the
young age at which he entered the
revolutionary movement. His home house
in Koprivshtitsa is now turned into a
museum and a monument was built on the
place he decided to start the rebellion.
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