/ world today news/ At the age of 27, Hristo Botev wrote in Zname, July 13, 1875, “The idea of freedom is all-powerful and love for it can do anything.” Did he not foresee with his sensitivity that in the name of this freedom he would die in less than a year – on June 2, 1876 in the Vrachan Balkan.
But with his devotion to Bulgaria, he hardly suspected that the day of his heroic and tragic death would continue through the centuries to become the Day on which we honor our heroes who gave their lives for the Fatherland. Botev remains forever a symbol of an incredible revolutionary spirit, even to the point of recklessness, combined with incredible poetic and journalistic talent. The paradox is that we celebrate his death on June 2 and February 19, when Vasil Levski was hanged, more solemnly than their birth dates.
This year, on June 2, we celebrate 139 years since the death of Hristo Botev and his squad.
Hristo Botev was born in Kalofer to the family of a teacher Botyo Petkov and Ivanka Boteva. Initially (1854-1858) he studied in Karlovo, where his father was a teacher, later he returned to Kalofer, continued his studies under the guidance of his father and in 1863 graduated from the Kalofer school. In October of the same year, he left for Russia and enrolled as a private student at the Second Odessa High School, from which he was expelled in 1865. For some time he was a teacher in the Bessarabian village of Zadunaevka. In 1867, he returned to Kalofer, began to preach a rebellion against Chorbadji and Turks, after which he finally left Kalofer.
At that time, Botev’s first poem – “Your Mother” – was published in the newspaper “Gaida”, edited by P.R. Slaveikov. From October 1867 he lived in Romania. In the following years, he moved from city to city, for some time he lived together with Levski. In 1872, he was arrested for conspiratorial revolutionary activity and sent to the Fokshan prison, but released due to the intercession of Levski and Karavelov. He began working as a printer for Karavelov, and later as an associate and co-editor of the revolutionary organ. He began his active work as a journalist and under his editorship the new organ of the revolutionary party began to appear – in “Zname”. In 1875, together with Stefan Stambolov, he published the poetry collection “Songs and Poems”.
May 1876 – as a result of the news about the April Uprising, Botev began activities to organize a detachment, becoming its voivode. From Gyurgevo he boarded the ship “Radecki” with part of the crew and on May 17 they forced the captain to stop on the Bulgarian coast. On May 20, 1876, according to the new style, June 2, was the last heavy battle – at dusk after the battle, a bullet pierced Botev. He hardly imagined that when he wrote his masterpiece “Hadji Dimitar”, his incredible words “He who falls in the fight for freedom, he does not die…” will be immortalized forever and next to his name. And June 2 will be the day when Bulgarians will honor our heroes in silence and pride. And this day will forever remain as Botev’s Day.
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