/ world today news/ We celebrate 139 years of the heroic battles on the Shipka peak in Staroplanina, which went down in history as the Shipka epic. Hundreds of Bulgarians climb the historic peak every year to pay tribute to the heroes who died for the freedom of Bulgaria.
The defense of the Shipchen Pass was one of the most heroic and decisive battles during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation in 1877-1878. The battles that took place from 09/21 to 13/26 August 1877 between the defenders of the pass and the Turkish army enter Bulgarian history under the name of the Shipchen epic.
The task of the small Russian-Bulgarian detachment under the command of Gen. N.G. Stoletov, numbering about 7,500 men, was to stop Suleiman Pasha’s numerically superior army /about 27,000 men and a reserve of 10,000/, not to allow it to cross the Balkans and join the Turkish units in North-Eastern Bulgaria in aid of the army of Osman Pasha besieged in Pleven. Battles for Shipka began on August 9/21, 1877.
In the course of six days, Bulgarians and Russians with fire and bayonet repel the continuous attacks of the Turkish camps. The most difficult and decisive for the defense is the third day – August 11/23, when the Turks are increasingly tightening the ring around the defenders, and ammunition is running low. In the afternoon, Süleyman Pasha threw all his reserves into action against the center of the defense.
At this most critical moment, when it seemed that Shipka would fall, the first reinforcements sent by Gen. Radetsky. During the night, all the companies of the 16th rifle battalion arrived and after a fierce battle the Turks retreated. Shipka is saved!
Fighting continued for the next three days, but the pass was now firmly in the hands of the Russian army. the defense of Shipka continued in the autumn and winter of 1877. This period goes down in history as the “Winter Shipka Stand”. Despite the cold and the fog, despite the snowstorms and blizzards, the defenders of Shipka heroically defend the pass. For those days filled with courage and self-sacrifice, the telegraph reports with the short phrase: “Everything is calm in Shipka”.
Russian soldiers and Bulgarian militia turn the pass into an impregnable fortress, “into a closed door for the advance of the Turks towards Northern Bulgaria and an open door for the victorious march of the Russian army towards Constantinople”, in the words of Gen. Radetsky.
After the fall of Pleven (November 29/December 10, 1977), the Russian troops crossed the Balkans in extremely harsh winter conditions and captured the Turkish army of Veisel Pasha in the Sheinovo fortified camp on December 28, 1877/January 9, 1878. The victory at Shipka- Sheynovo is a worthy end to the Shipchen epic.
The victims that the Russian regiments and the Bulgarian squads gave in Shipka and in the field of Sheynovo were about 11,000 – killed, wounded and missing without a trace, and over 9,000 people were frozen and sick during the Winter Shipka Stand.
The cornerstone of the Freedom Monument was laid on August 26, 1922. The monument was completed in 1930. On August 26, 1934, the monument on Mount Saint Nicholas was inaugurated by Tsar Boris III. The monument is 31.5 meters high and 890 steps lead to it. A bronze lion stands proudly above the central entrance – a symbol of Bulgarian statehood. On the other three sides are written the names of Shipka, Sheynovo and Stara Zagora – the battlefields reminding of the feat of the Bulgarian militiamen.
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