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History and Religion
Published on April 20, 2007 at 7:42 AM BG
Updated on April 24, 2007 at 6:08 PM BG
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The April Uprising of 1876

The most active preparation for the uprising took place in the Plovdiv region where Georgi Benkovski emerged as its leader due to remarkable organizational skills. Following a resolution of the Giurgiu Committee the leaders of the Plovdiv region summoned on 14 April 1876 an assembly in the locality of Oborishte with the purpose of discussing the preparations for the uprising and to set the date of its start. Unfortunately, a traitor present at the assembly reported about its decisions to the Turkish authorities, and the latter took urgent measures. On 19 April a police unit from Plovdiv arrived in Koprivshtitsa to arrest the local revolutionary committee. Its leader Todor Kableshkov and his friends decided to attack the Turkish Konak (Town Hall). In the skirmish that broke out some of the Turkish gendarmes were killed and the rest fled. This happened on 20 April and gave the uprising its start. Todor Kableshkov circulated a letter to the leaders of the revolutionary committee in the fourth region. The famous “Bloody Letter” was symbolically sealed with the blood of one of the killed Turkish gendarmes and urged Bulgarians to join the rising. When the letter reached Benkovski in the town of Panagyurishte, he proclaimed the start of the uprising and headed to the Sredna Gora villages at the helm of a revolutionary cavalry unit, nicknamed The Flying Detachment. The uprising gradually spread to the villages along the western slopes of Sredna Gora, the valley of the river Maritsa and the foot of the Rhodopes.
The rebellion spread quickly enough to scare the Turkish authorities. The Sublime Port (the Ottoman Government) made urgent measures to quell it. The Turks sent to the region of the rising troops supported by bashibazouk (mercenary irregulars). Though not properly armed, the Bulgarian insurgents repelled the adversary despite its overwhelming numerical superiority.
After an unequal battle, the defenders of the town of Klisoura were defeated.On 26 April the hordes of Tossun Bei entered the town and reduced it to ashes. On 30 April Panagyurishte fell too. Lovely Koprivshtitsa risked major fire and destruction, but was saved after the local Bulgarian leaders provided a king’s ransom to the Turks. In this way the uprising in the Sredna Gora region was ultimately crushed. Battles continued at the foot of the southern mountain of the Rhodopes. On 30 April the bashibazouk besieged the town of Bratsigovo. A reinforcement of regular troops arrived on 5 May. The local Bulgarian notables however sought compromise with the Turks, started negotiations with them and arrested insurgents lead by Vassil Petleshkov. On the way to Plovdiv, the hero from Bratsigovo committed suicide. May 2 triggered the tragedy of Batak. The local insurgents besieged by the regular troops of Ahmed Aga Barutanliyata were defeated. The enemy entered the town for an outrageous massacre. During the atrocities the Turks killed more than 3000 civilians including women and children for just three days. The population of Perushtitsa put up a very strong resistance. In the end however, the Turks encircled the insurgents who found refuge in the local church. The Turkish troops then opened artillery fire on the church. The resistance of the locals was crushed. As the news of the uprising reached Tarnovo, that region was all at sea. Part of the leaders of revolutionary committees had been intercepted. In spite of the difficulties, a revolutionary detachment was constituted in the region’s villagers, lead by priest Hariton. Its military commander was Petar Parmakov. It included famous patriots like Bacho Kiro and Hristo Karaminkov. On 29 April the detachment retreated to the Dryanovo Monastery and engaged in 9 days of incessant battles with the enemy. On 7 May the monastery was destroyed by artillery fire and the insurgents made an attempt at breaking the siege. Many of them died in combat and those who were arrested were tried in court. The uprising’s flames spread to the Gabrovo and Sevlievo regions. In the Sliven region the rising lacked in scope. Rebels from the towns of Sliven and Yambol joined the detachment of Stoil Voivoda. That detachment was defeated in May”.
One of the most heroic pages in the history of the April Uprising was the feat of the revolutionaries-émigrés whose detachment was lead by young poet of genius Hristo Botev. The insurgents hijacked the Radecki Ship and crossed the Danube near Kozlodui. On its way to the Balkan Range the detachment waged a series of heavy battles. In one of them poet Hristo Botev died. At the end of May and in early June the April Uprising was crushed across Bulgaria. More than 30,000 men, women and children died in atrocities for only one month. Hundreds of villages and towns were reduced to ashes or destroyed. Thousands of rebels were jailed or exiled. Despite its failure the April Uprising was a key milestone in Bulgarian history. It was an expression of the steadfast will of the Bulgarian nation to earn its freedom through armed struggle and to overthrow the 5-century long Turkish yoke. The just cause and sacrifice of the oppressed Bulgarians met with immediate response and compassion across democratic Europe. The democratic world launched a major campaign in support of the Bulgarian aspirations. The April Uprising raised the Bulgarian Issue in international affairs and pointed to the urgent need for its radical solution. This chain of events resulted in the convocation of the Tsarigrad Conference of the Great Powers in 1876-1877 and to the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 in which Bulgaria was finally liberated and its statehood restored after 5 centuries of Ottoman rule.

Written by Konstantin Subchev
English version Daniela Konstantinova

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Monument to the "Bloody Letter" at the place, where it was written, with the text of the letter insribed on it, in Koprivshtitza

Photo: snimka.bg

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