ARTICLES KONSTANTIN KOSEV (Sofia, Bulgaria)

ARTICLES KONSTANTIN KOSEV (Sofia, Bulgaria) The Uprising of April, 1876: The Summit of the Bulgarian National Revolution Having lost their state, the Bulgarian people had to live under the difficult conditions of Turkish despotism. Oppressed by religious and national dis- crimination, by the burdensome system of taxes, and by the incessant attempts at assimilation, they never became reconciled to their slave status. For many centuries, at the price of costly sacrifices, they fought to reconquer their right to freedom. The April, 1876, Uprising was the summit of the impressive armed .struggle of the Bulgarian people during the five-centuries long bondage. - : The transition from spontaneous resistance to an organized national- revolutionary movement on an all-Bulgarian scale is closely linked with the activity of Georgi Rakovski, who is rightly called the patriarch of the Bul- garian revolutionary movement. Thanks to his rich experiences in various revolutionary undertakings, Rakovski was able to achieve a wider and deeper understanding of the perspectives of the struggle for political liberation. In his work as a journalist, especially in the newspaper Dunavski libed (Dan- ubian Swan) and in his literary writings, such as the poem "Gorski putnik" (Forest Traveler), Rakovski indicated new plans for the future. His basic idea was that the separate activity of the khaidut (rebel-outlaw) detachments and local plots could not bring about the liberation of the country. That is why it was necessary to combine the forces of the whole nation in one united revolutionary torrent. Rakovski emphasized that only with resolute, organized, and purposeful actions of all the revolutionary forces in the country under the leadership of a common center would it be possible to infiiici decisive blows on the sultan's domination. The Bulgarian people would thus prove to the whole world their determination to defend the right to be free and independent. Only then could they hope to receive support from foreign powers. Rakovski believed that only a people who are strong, courageous, and dare to seek their rights with arms in hand deserve and receive sympathy, respect, and aid from others. With such views, he laid the beginning of the Bulgarian national revolutionary ideology. Believing in the necessity of organized revolutionary activity on a national scale, Rakovski commenced with great vigor to prop- agandize his ideas among the Bulgarians. Soon he was able to gather around 144 him many Bulgarian patriots. The first visible step was the formation of the Bulgarian Legion during 1861-62, which took an active part in the liberation of the Belgrade fortress in the conflict between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire. During this period, Rakovski prepared a "Plan for the Liberation of Bulgaria" in which he for- mulated the tactics of the chetnik (rebel) detachments. During 1866, he organized in Bucharest another emigre revolutionary organization known as the Supreme National Secret Citizens Directorate of Bulgaria. In the program of the organization, the Provisionary Law of the National Mountain Detach- ments of the summer of 1867, Rakovski further developed his idea of the chetnik tactics of struggle to be adopted by the Bulgarian national liberation movement. The main idea was to creat a rebel army, composed of many detachments under a single command. Such an army would free the Bulgarian . revolutionary movement from the tutelage of foreign powers, as well as from accidental circumstances. Rakovski believed that the transformation of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement into an emancipated and independent political force would be able, given propitious conditions in the evolution of the Eastern to an the Question, excercise influence' on course of events ' favorable to the aims and interests of the Bulgarian people Simultaneously with this organizational center, there were other political groupings among the Bulgarian emigres in Romania, Serbia, and Russia which made attempts to assume the leadership of the Bulgaiian national liberation movement. For example, Liuben Karavelov, the Bulgarian writer and revolutionary democrat, who also desired a common center for the Bulgarian revolutionary movement, founded in 1867 in Belgrade the so-called Bulgarian Committee. The aim of this Committee was to recruit and send into Bulgaria armed detachments under a common military command. During 1867, Karavelov's Committee was able to organize a sizable armed formation- the Zaichar detachments. In its ideological and political principles and its tactical plan, Karavelov's Bulgarian political group was similar to Rakovski's. Other political organizations with different orientations arose among the Bulgarian emigres. During the 1860's, politically active groups included the Odessa Bulgarian Board, under the leadership of N. M. Toshkov, and the Benevolent Society or the Committee of the "Old" in Bucharest, lead by the brothers Evlogi and Khristo Georgiev. These two organizations were akin in their political orientation, distinguishing themselves by their moderate conservative principles. They believed that the liberation of Bulgaria could be achieved only with the aid of Russia. That is why their main efforts were directed primarily toward an intensification of Russian support. The political activity of these groups was under the guardianship of Russian diplo- macy. During 1866 another political group was organized in Romania-the Bulgarian Secret Central Committee, under the leadership of Ivan Kasabov. The Committee was dominated by bourgeois-liberal activists who wanted to .

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