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140 years ago Bulgaria’s foremost national hero Vasil Levski was hanged in Sofia. Every year on 19 February the Bulgarian nation pays homage to the great man with a lot of love and pain. His political activity was the peak of the national liberation struggles against the Turkish rule in this country that went on for five centuries. For his work he was called the Apostle of Freedom and is universally loved in Bulgaria.

Vasil Kountchev (Levski) was born in 1837 in the town of Karlovo at the foot of the Central Balkan Range to a family of a petty craftsman. He received schooling in his hometown. His father died when he was 14, and because the family was poor, he was made a neophyte by his uncle Vassilius, a priest. Levski continued his studies in the southern cities of Stara Zagora and Plovdiv. In 1858 Levski took the monastic vows with the name Ignatius. On the next year he was ordained as deacon. In 1861 he was influenced by the freedom-loving ideas of another great Bulgarian, Georgi Rakovski.

It was then that he decided to dedicate his life to the revolutionary struggle for the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turks. The first step was to join the ranks of the First Bulgarian Legion summoned by Rakovski in Belgrade. The Bulgarian volunteers joined the battles of Serbian patriots against a Turkish garrison. For his great physical skill and bravery the young man was dubbed Levski meaning like a lion in Bulgarian. Later Vasil Levski abandoned monastic life. He joined the Second Bulgarian Legion but this made it clear to him that any military units organized outside Bulgaria and meant to start an uprising in the Bulgarian lands would hardly be successful. He embarked on a tour of Bulgaria and set up clandestine committees in many towns and villages. He proceeded into uniting them into an Internal Revolutionary Organization.

Here is more about the role of Vasil Levski in the national-liberation struggles of Bulgarians in 19 c. from Prof. Doyno Doynov, Chairman of the Vasil Levski Nationwide Bulgarian Committee:

“Levski was aware of one important point, notably, that freedom was only possible after the awakening of the nation for active political life and for liberation struggles. Of course, I cannot diminish the role of the Great Powers. Without their involvement, it would have been impossible for Bulgaria or any other Balkan country to restore statehood. The greatness of Levski is in that he found and developed the tool, namely, the Internal Revolutionary Organization, through which the nation began its struggles for liberation.”

The lifetime work of Vasil Levski had its worthy followers after his untimely death. In 1876 the April Uprising broke out. The rebellion was crushed with horrible atrocities, 30,000 Bulgarians died in it and many towns and villages were reduced to ashes. The suffering of Bulgarians immediately drew the attention of the world community. Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Ivan Turgenev and many other intellectuals spoke up in support of the Bulgarian people. This speeded up the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War in which Bulgaria was liberated from Turkish rule.

“I should like to point out that Levski’s work was the basis of the April Uprising,” Prof. Doyno Doynov says further. “Most of the rebellion’s leaders had taken part in his clandestine committees. Besides, when the apostles of the revolutionary regions began to organize the population for the uprising, they did not have to set up committees but only to resume the ones founded by Levski. The statutes developed by Levski, was at the heart of the April Uprising. The apostles who led the nation in 1876 did not have to build a new bridge; they only stepped on the bridge erected by Vasil Levski.”

The ideas of the Apostle of Freedom have not lost their relevance today. We often quote Levski but it seems we sometimes fail to read between the lines of his messages, Prof. Doynov admits. Levski wants us to be tolerant and respect equality in both our freedoms and duties. Here is what he wrote in the Draft Statutes of the Workers for the Liberation of the Bulgarian Nation: “By way of a general revolution the current despotic-tyrannical state system shall be transformed and replaced with a democratic republic. This same place where power dominates shall see the rise of a temple of truth and upright freedom. The oppression of Turkish landlords shall make way to consensus, fraternity and perfect equality among all nationalities. Bulgarians, Turks, Jews etc. shall be equal in every sense, regardless of faith, nationality, citizenship or any other. Everyone shall be answerable to a general law that shall be developed by majority of all nations.

“This is a bequest that we should always have in mind. It is precious because Levski back at that time had democratic ideas similar to the ideas of the European Enlightenment. The emergence of nation states and the promotion of freedom both personal and national, represent the core of Vasil Levski’s ideas that are immune to the passage of time. These are the most humane ideas of the 19 c. that found their follow-up in Bulgaria’s post-liberation history and are alive to the present day. I believe that the humane ideas of the Apostle of Freedom Vasil Levski are an eternal platform and that his messages come across in a most powerful way even today”, concludes Prof. Doyno Doynov, Chairman of the Vasil Levski Nationwide Bulgarian Committee.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

(The audio feature contains Hristo Botev's poem "The Hanging of Vasil Levski" written in 1876. The English translation is of Peter Tempest.)