Georgi Rakovski

From New World Encyclopedia


File:GSRakovski.jpg
Portrait of Georgi Sava Rakovski

Georgi Sava Rakovski (Георги Сава Раковски) (1821 – 9 October 1867), born Sabi Stoykov Popovich (Съби Стойков Попович), was a 19th-century Bulgarian revolutionary and writer and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival and the resistance against Ottoman rule. From his based in Serbia, he formed the Bulgarian Legion and worked to encourage all of the Slavic peoples to claim their independence. He inspired the April uprising of 1867, which itself encouraged Russia to prosecute her own ambitions against the Ottomans in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-8, which resulted in Bulgaria's freedom after 500 years of Ottoman rule. Although the principlaity that followed from this intervention, ratifed by the Berlin Conference (1878) did not include the whole of pre-Ottoman Bulgaria, the rest of this territory was ceded in 1903. Rakovski was a pivotal figure in the revival of Bulgarian identity, and can righly be considered a founder of the modern state.

Biography

Early life

The child of a wealthy and patriotic family, Rakovski attended monastery schools in Kotel and in Karlovo, and in 1837, went to study in the Greek Orthodox College in Istanbul. However, from an early age he dreamt of a Bulgaria free from what, at the time, was referred to as the "Turkish yoke" and in 1841 he was convicted to death for his involvement in revolutionary plans against the Turks. A a Greek friend helped him escape to France. A year-and-a-half later, he returned to Kotel, only to be arrested again in 1845. Sent to Istanbul for seven years of solitary confinement, he was released in May 1848.

He decided to remain in Istanbul, where he worked as a lawyer and tradesman, and took part in campaigns for a Bulgarian national church. Nationalist thinking was on the rise throuhgout Europre, inspired by the French Revolution. In Germany and Italy, people wanted to re-unify their states, to create modern nation-states. Rakovski was soon arrested agin, this time due to his creation of a secret society of Bulgarians to assist the Russians in the Crimean War. While being deported to Istanbul, he escaped, and gathered together a group of rebels.

Literary work

Between 1854 and 1860, Rakovski spent his time writing, publishing reviews, and avoiding arrest.

His best-known work, Gorski Patnik (translated as A Traveller in the Woods or Forest Wanderer), he penned during the Crimean War (1853-56) while hiding from Turkish authorities near Kotel. Considered one of the first Bulgarian literary poems, it was not actually published until 1857. The published version differed from the first version, in that it had a clearer plot and improved style.

The plot concerns a Bulgarian man who recruits a rebel group to mutiny against the Turks. Rakosvki aim in writing this was to awaken the people's spirit to the fight for freedom and to take revenge on the Turks for their cruelty. The novel opens with the main character admiring the beauty of nature on the Bosporus. A preoccupation with national problems and lack of freedom clouds his mind, and he encourages others to join him in a revolt. As the insurgents travel toward Bulgaria, the reader takes in their courage and trials of the journey. The work is said to “unite all the ideology, hopes and beliefs” of the Bulgarian people in their brave fight against the yoke.

Rakovski left Gorski Patnik incomplete. Written in archaic language it was difficult to read but still had a great influence in society.

Revolutionary work

In 1861, Rakovski relocated to Serbia, deciding that it was easier to organize resistance in bulgaria from outide. There, he organised a Bulgarian legion, and traveled throughout Europe recruiting support for his country’s cause. While his radical views often met opposition from more moderate minds, his writings incited youth to go rebel the Turks. It was in this year that he wrote his Plan for the Liberation of Bulgaria.

According to the initial plan, in case of war between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire, the Legion would cross the border and enter the Bulgarian lands, where it would instigate an uprising among the population.

In order to sustain direct contact with the Serbian government, the so-called Provisional Bulgarian Command was established on the initiative of Rakovski. Six hundred young people responded to his appeal to create the Legion, many of them emigrants and refugees in Romania. Among them were Vasil Levski, Stefan Karadzha, Vasil Drumev and other figures that later came into national prominence.

The support of the Legion was entirely taken care of by the Serbian government. The members had to go through some military training so as to be able to participate in the future uprising.

The First Bulgarian Legion (Първа българска легия) was established in 1862 by Georgi Sava Rakovski in agreement with the Serbian government. According to the initial plan, in case of war between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire, the Legion would cross the border and enter the Bulgarian lands, where it would instigate an uprising among the population.

In order to sustain direct contact with the Serbian government, the so-called Provisional Bulgarian Command was established on the initiative of Rakovski. Six hundred young people responded to his appeal to create the Legion, many of them emigrants and refugees in Romania. Among them were Vasil Levski, Stefan Karadzha, Vasil Drumev and other figures that later came into national prominence.

The support of the Legion was entirely taken care of by the Serbian government. The members had to go through some military training so as to be able to participate in the future uprising. However, at the request of the Serbian authorities due to pressure from the Ottoman Empire, the Legion was disbanded on 21 September 1862 and the participants were expelled from Belgrade.

Second Bulgarian Legion

The Second Bulgarian Legion (Втора българска легия) was founded in 1867, as relations between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire once again worsened and the Serbian authorities began preparing for war. This was used by the Band of Virtues (Добродетелна дружина), who concluded an agreement with Serbia to establish a Bulgarian military school in Belgrade to instruct military leaders for a future uprising in Bulgaria.

This time the expenditures were paid by Russia, increasingly interested in extending her role in the Balkans. The volunteers was trained by Serbian officers. The surviving rebels from the bands of Panayot Hitov and Filip Totyu joined the Legion, as well as young people from Bulgarian and the Bulgarian diaspora in Romania.

However, since the expected war between the two countries never broke out due to the Ottoman authorities' engagement with the suppresion of the Great Cretan Uprising and reluctance to further complicate its relations with Serbia. Meanwhile the government of Jovan Ristić, which opted for reconciliation with the Ottomans, came into office in Serbia. The Second Bulgarian Legion became redundant to the Serbians as a result of this. It was disbanded in April 1868 despite the opposition of the Russian diplomats, its members being expelled from Serbia.

The April uprising

In conformity with the decisions taken at Oborishte, the local committee attacked the headquarters of the Ottoman police in the town and proclaimed the insurrection two weeks in advance. Within several days, the rebellion spread to the whole Sredna Gora and to a number of towns and villages in the northwestern Rhodopes. The insurrection broke out in the other revolutionary districts, as well, though on a much smaller scale. The areas of Gabrovo, Tryavna, and Pavlikeni also revolted in force, as well as several villages north and south of Sliven and near Berovo (in the present-day Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

The reaction of the Ottoman authorities was quick and ruthless. Detachments of regular and irregular Ottoman troops (bashi-bazouks) were mobilised and attacked the first insurgent towns as early as 25 April. By the middle of May, the insurrection was completely suppressed; one of the last sparks of resistance was poet Hristo Botev's attempt to come to the rebels' rescue with a detachment of Bulgarian political emigrees resident in Romania, ending with the unit's rout (and Botev's death). As no records were kept at the time, it is impossible to know exactly how many people were killed during and after the suppression of the uprising. The figure ranges from around 3,000 [1] to at least 15,000[2], with the latter being the generally accepted figure. Some 80 villages and towns were burned and destroyed and 200 others were plundered.[citation needed] The atrocities which accompanied the suppression of the insurrection reached its peak in the northern Rhodopes. Nearly the whole population (9,000) of the town of Batak including women and children was slaughtered, beheaded or burned alive by Ottoman irregulars who left piles of dead bodies around the town square and church.[3]


The organisers of the uprising did not realistically expect to overthrow the Ottoman oppression but had the goal of drawing attention to the plight of the Bulgarians and placing Bulgaria on the political agenda of the Great Powers. [citation needed]

According to Jelavich, "the April Uprising, which became the major event in later Bulgarian nationalist mythology, was a complete failure as a revolution". However, the swift and brutal suppression ordered by the Sultan — already engaged by a serious insurgency of Orthodox Christians in Bosnia — caused news of atrocities (the "Bulgarian Horrors" in the words of Gladstone) committed by Ottoman irregulars to spread and resulted in an enormous public outcry in Europe. The pictures of burned or slaughtered human bodies and the articles on the Ottoman atrocities went round all European newspapers and the atrocities were condemned by a number of leading European political and cultural figures, including William Gladstone, Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi.

The tumult caused by the uprising led to the Conference of Constantinople in 1876 and the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, which was concluded by the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878, followed in July that year by the Treaty of Berlin.

After the Serbs dissolved his Bulgarian legion, he moved to Bucharest and organised a small group of revolutionary fighters, called cheti, to instigate unrest in Bulgaria, thus motivating the population to fight the Ottomans.

Led by Hadzhi Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha, 120 chetnitsi entered Bulgaria 1868 and fought their way to Stara Planina before being surrounded by the Ottomans. True to their ideals, none surrendered, and thus all died.

This group of Rakovski's was the first group of armed Bulgarians to rise up against the Turks. Creator of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement, poet, writer, journalist, Georgi Rakovski died of tuberculosis in Bucharest in October 1867.

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