150th birth anniversary of Ekaterina Karavelova

published on 10/20/10 10:03 AM

Photo: archive

Ekaterina Karavelova, one of the most remarkable Bulgarian women at the end of 19 and the first half of 20 c., was born on 21 October 1860. Endowed with valor, determination and a talent to write, her legacy is impressive. Ekaterina was born in the City of Rousse on the Danube. She was orphaned at the green age of 10 and was taken to Russia by influential family relations. There the young girl lived in the house of Gen. Lermontov and his wife, an aristocrat from St. Petersburg. Eight years later she graduated school with flying colors, and was back to her hometown Rousse in 1878, just a few months prior to Bulgaria’s Liberation from five century of Ottoman rule.

“Ekaterina was like a small island floating in a sea of people strongly attached to traditional, patriarchal ways”, Dr. Tsvetana Kyoseva, author of the book The First Ladies of Royal Bulgaria. The book portrays the wives of the prime ministers who served during the Third Bulgarian Kingdom (1879-1946), says. One of the features is dedicated to Ekaterina Karavelova.

“She had her schooling in Russia, but she benefited mostly from living in an aristocratic family. This trained her manners and tactfulness, as well as the experience to handle difficult situations.”

In Rousse Ekaterina worked as a teacher with remarkable success. Two years after returning from Russia she married Petko Karavelov whom she knew from her Moscow period. Seventeen years her senior, he was among the star politicians of modern Bulgaria, and served four terms as prime minister on the turbulent post-liberation political scene. Petko Karavelov was well-known for his broad knowledge and honesty, coupled with his celebrated absent-mindedness. Gradually Ekaterina grew into his indispensable assistant and into a shadow stateswoman of sorts, Dr. Kyoseva says.

“Seeing her husband’s absent-mindedness, Ekaterina Karavelova accompanied him everywhere. She acted as his personal secretary, taking notes during meetings, as well as writing reports. There is a legend that when in the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war when Serbian King Milan approached Sofia, the government panicked. Ekaterina however went out in the street and took a cab to make it clear there is no need to panic. I would describe her as a female Bismarck able to concentrate brilliantly and to handle various predicaments.”

During the Balkan wars (1912-1913) Ekaterina Karavelova served as Chief Nurse at the Military School. During World War I she took care of the wounded and the sick. As the war neared its end, she left for Russia to look for support among influential military circles there, after Bulgaria had ended up among the losers in the conflict. In 1919 on behalf of the Bulgarian Women’s Union she mailed a protest to the Great Powers against the humiliating for Bulgaria clauses of the Neuilly Treaty. Ekaterina Karavelova was chairperson of the Bulgarian section at the International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom. During World War II she contributed into the cause of saving Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews from the concentration camps. As Tsvetana Kyoseva writes, on 25 May 1943, the home of 83-year-old Ekaterina Karavelova was visited by Rabbi Hananel and two women. They asked her to hand a letter to King Boris III demanding the suspension of the Jews’ deportation from Bulgaria. She signed the letter, and immediately went out into the night to take it to Princess Evdokia, the king’s sister.

“In the aftermath of 9 September 1944, when the communist regime took over in Bulgaria, Ekaterina Karavelova was asked – similar to many members of the old bourgeoisie – to sign a declaration of loyalty. She refused to do so, and never accepted the new regime. Despite that, the then-communist PM Georgi Dimitrov ordered a stately funeral for her in the courtyard of the Sts. Cyril, Methodius and Their Five Disciples Church where her husband had been buried too.”

Ekaterina Karavelova’s private life was fairly tragic. She gave birth to three daughters, and lost all three of them. The story of her third daughter Lora and of her marriage to great Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov has become the basis of a few books and films. Rocked by fiery passion the two lovers committed suicide within a short interval of time. While writing her book on Ekaterina Karavelova, Dr. Tsvetana Kyoseva has relied on her wonderfully written memoirs, on various materials in the then-press and on surveys written by famous Bulgarian scholars. She has discovered some very interesting materials in the National Library as well.

English version Daniela Konstantinova

По публикацията работи: Veneta Pavlova

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150th birth anniversary of Ekaterina Karavelova

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