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VASIL LEVSKI
Born on the 06.07.1837 in the town of Karlovo, Central Bulgaria.
Died on the 19.02.1873 in Sofia.
Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Founding the Internal Revolutionary Organisation, Levski sought to foment a nationwide uprising through a network of secret regional committees. Levski looked beyond the act of liberation: he envisioned a “pure and sacred” Bulgarian republic of ethnic and religious equality.
Vasil Ivanov Kunchev - Levski, was born in Karlovo in 1837. He became an Orthodox monk in the Sopot monastery under the religious name Ignatius and was promoted in 1859 to hierodeacon, which later inspired one of Levski’s informal nicknames, The Deacon.
Inspired by Georgi Sava Rakovski's revolutionary ideas, Levski left for the Serbian capital Belgrade during the spring of 1862. In Belgrade, Rakovski had been assembling the First Bulgarian Legion, a military detachment formed by Bulgarian volunteers and revolutionary workers seeking the overthrow of Ottoman rule. Between 1862 and 1868 Levski participated in almost all Bulgarian armed assaults against the Ottoman Empire.
The revolutionary theory which took form in Vasil Levski’s mind towards the end of the 60s, turned out to be a leap forward for the Bulgarian liberation movement. Levski viewed the national liberation revolution as a concomitant armed upheaval of the whole Bulgarian population in the Ottoman Empire. It followed that this uprising had to be well-prepared in advance, with all adequate military training and proper coordination on the part of an internal revolutionary organization branching out into conspiracy formations in each living area. In more practical terms, in 1869 Levski addressed himself to the task of setting up local organisations. By the middle of 1872 he had scoured the Bulgarian lands with the dedication of an apostle, and succeeded in establishing a strong network of secret conspiracy formations in hundreds of Bulgarian towns and villages.
Unfortunately, he fell in the hands of the Turkish authorities who put him on trial and sentenced him to death by hanging. Levski was sent to the gallows in Sofia in February 1873. The verdict was carried out on 18 February 1873 in Sofia, where the Monument to Vasil Levski now stands. The location of Levski’s grave is uncertain.
Und HIER die Praesentation ueber den Bulgarischen Held Vasil Levski.
Çà êîíòàêò/fuer Kontakt:helden_und_heilige@abv.bg