One of the most successful and respected Bulgarian immigrants in Chicago, Hamid Rusev, has died, BG VOICE reported, citing his relatives.
Hamid Rusev fled 60 years ago from the communist regime in Bulgaria together with Shefket Chapadjiev, with whom they share a long-standing friendship.
In Chicago, the two became the main pillars around which the image of our little Bulgaria in big America was built.
For years, Hamid welcomed generations of Bulgarian emigrants to Chicago, where he created the first Bulgarian restaurant “Rodopa”.
For many years he was the publisher and sponsor of the newspaper “Bulgaria”.
His love for his homeland was transferred to the many Bulgarian emigrants whom he helped. In 2022, he received an award from the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad.
Hamid Rusev has a remarkable destiny. Together with Chapadzhiev, back in 1964, they left by ship from the port of Piraeus for America on April 24th, Shefket’s birthday, and arrived 11 days later on May 5th, when it was the birthday of Hamid.
And they, like many of our current immigrants in Chicago, have not had it easy. They went through a lot of hardships, they worked for $1.24 an hour, they didn’t know the language, they didn’t have money, they didn’t have cars, they walked two hours to work in the bitter Chicago winter blizzards, and lo and behold, yet somehow, they haven’t given up. They believed in themselves and overcame the obstacles.
Their life has been very thorny and bitter. They have succeeded at the cost of many difficulties and many privations and yet they have not only not forgotten their national identity. No matter how much they helped every Bulgarian or Bulgarian organization in Chicago who was in need.
His story is like a movie. They met Shefket Chapadjiev in high school. They went to school together, in the evening they went to the restaurant together to drink plum brandy. They started making plans to escape to America. Hamid told about the village where he was born, which is one or two kilometers from the border, but to get there they needed an open letter. This failed the first escape attempt and they did not succeed until three years after the barracks.
We suffered a lot from the regime in Bulgaria. My father was imprisoned in Belene in 1946, Hamid said.
I remember that after my father was put in jail, in the summer of that year, one night after midnight, they started knocking on the door of our house. My mother did not answer, but those who knocked on our door called a neighbor to speak to my mother. She recognized him, opened the door, and then about a dozen soldiers burst into our house. We were told to get dressed and leave the house immediately. I remember leaving home without shoes. They took us to the school, where we spent the night. The next day, as they were repairing the road to our village and the trucks could not reach us, they made us walk a few kilometers to the village of Mogilitsa. After we reached the village, a Molotovka truck came, they made us all get on it. Inside the truck they made us sit in the middle of the body and then we saw in every corner a soldier with a machine gun aimed at us, were the words of Hamid Rusev.
In recent years, Hamid, as everyone in Chicago called him, had been battling complications from a stroke and had been in the hospital for several months.
Hamid Rusev was 85 years old. His remains will be laid to rest next to his wife in Chicago.
In September, there will be a memorial service in memory of the remarkable Bulgarian. He is survived by a son and a nephew who live in Chicago.
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