The April uprising in 1876 was the peak of the national liberation movement against the Ottoman rule which lasted for 5 centuries in Bulgaria. It burst out on April 20(old style), or May 2(new style). It was organized by the Gurgevo (Giurgiu) Revolutionary Committee, established in Romania by Bulgarian combatants. This committee continued the holy deed of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee, founded by the Bulgarian Apostle of freedom Vasil Levski who died 3 years before the uprising.

There are several theses in the scientific literature regarding the purposes of this uprising, says in an interview for RB associate professor Plamen Mitev, dean of the History Department of Saint Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. The most popular thesis says that the apostles from the Gurgevo Revolutionary Committee aimed to prepare a nation-wide uprising, because they believed that the Bulgarian political issue could be solved during the deepening Eastern crisis. According to historians though, it is not quite clear whether the revolutionaries believed in the positive outcome of this uprising. There are many documentary evidences which say that some of the apostles did not believe to a full extent that the Bulgarians could achieve a military victory over the Ottoman government on their own. They rather believed that this uprising would attract the attention of the Great Powers in Europe and would make Europe to interfere and help them solve the Eastern crisis”, says associate professor Mitev and adds:

“The initial plan of the Bulgarian apostles did not envisage the setting of a fixed date for the uprising. They discussed in the Romanian town of Gurgevo (Giurgiu)  several possible dates, April 18, May1, May 11 which gave the opportunity for the district governors to decide what date was suitable for them to initiate separate military actions. However, the apostles in Gurgevo (Giurgiu) foresaw another possibility. The Bulgarian emigrants were aware of the plans of Belgrade to start serious military actions against Turkey in support of the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some of the participants in the meetings of the Gurgevo (Giurgiu) Committee decided that the Bulgarian uprising had to come into line with the start of the military actions in Serbia. At the initiative of one of the apostles from this committee Stefan Stambolov, the Bulgarian representative Georgi Zhivkov was sent to Belgrade in the spring of 1876 to co-ordinate the Bulgarian action with the ones of the Serbian government. However, a betrayal led to the preliminary outbreak of the April uprising. The war in Serbia and Montenegro started in June 1976, or two months after the April uprising.”

The betrayal was done by Nenko Terziyski form the village of Bladevo. He took part in the meeting in the mountain locality Oborishte, summoned by the Gurgevo (Giurgiu) Revolutionary Committee. After the meeting Terziyski informed the Turkish authorities who quickly took measures and arrested the initiator of the uprising in the Fourth revolutionary district. Thus, the April uprising was declared earlier. There is another thesis in the scientific literature which was brought forward by Professor Hristo Gandev, says associate professor Mitev. It says that the Turkish authorities were interested in the early outbreak of the uprising, because they believed that it could be crushed easier this way. This thesis is based on evidence that even before the betrayal made by Nenko Terziyski, the Ottoman authorities knew about the preparation of an uprising on the Bulgarian lands and instead of taking measures to suppress it, they chose another type of action. They sent a small group of Turskih zaptiehs to arrest Apostle Todor Kableshkov, knowing that he had the authority to declare the outbreak of the uprising in cases of emergency. Thus, the Ottomans disorganized the revolutionary forces and they were easily destroyed by the regular Turkish army with the help of the Turkish bashi-bazouk army, says Plamen Mitev.

According to the plan, developed by the Gurgevo(Giurgiu) Revolutionary Committee, the Bulgarian lands were divided into four revolutionary districts for the needs of the national uprising: Tarnovo district, Sliven district, Vratsa district and Plovidv district (which main office was in the town of Panagyurishte). The Fourth district or the so called Panagyurishte district was the most active one in the preparation of the national uprising. This is proved by the huge work done by the apostles from this region who managed to restore the whole network created earlier from Vasil Levski. Moreover, new committees were founded at the places where there were none. A preliminary technical preparation of the male population was done, new plans for the future military actions were developed and the stores were filled with food products and ammunition. Several scenarios for helping the citizens were created in order to avoid casualties. The military propaganda was carried out in a perfect manner. The popular phrase “Turkey will fall” started to circulate in public. People were also told that when the uprising outbreaks, the Bulgarians will be helped by Russia and Serbia. These methods worked extremely well in the Fourth Panagyurishte district, where the majority of the population rose against the oppressor, says associate professor Mitev and adds:

“Unfortunately the situation in the other Bulgarian districts was different. There was a conflict between the apostles in the Second Sliven district regarding the military tactics. Some of them stood behind the idea for a mass uprising in the villages. Others such as Apostle Stoil Voivode envisaged rebel’s tactics. The uprising in the First Tarnovo revolutionary district was carried out through several rebel’s detachments-the ones of Priest Hariton, Tsanko Dustabanov, Yonko Karagyozov, Hristo Patrev and others. Thanks to the wonderful writing style of Zahari Stoyanov, we know more about the rebellion in the Fourth district. However, we do not have sufficient information about the one in the Sevlievo region, around the villages of Batoshevo, Kruvenik, Novo Selo, where there was a real mass uprising of the local population. People even talked about a Novoselska Republic which lasted for several days during the uprising. The weakest revolt was registered in the Third revolutionary district, where the apostles failed to coordinate their actions with the emigrants who wanted to take part in the rebellion and when the detachment of the great Bulgarian revolutionist Hristo Botev crossed the lands of Northwestern Bulgaria, the local functionaries from Vratsa region could not help his detachment and the uprising in this region failed”, says Plamen Mitev.

The early uprising was covered in blood. Over 30 000 Bulgarians were killed. Many renowned Bulgarian intellectuals and politicians stood in support of this rebellion.

“In the summer of 1876, there was a huge international reaction. Many debates in the National Assemblies of the European countries were held. The European people organized demonstrations where they stood in support of the Bulgarian people”, associate professor Mitev went on to say. In England for example the situation in Bulgaria was used by the opposition powers to attack the ruling conservative party led by Disraeli. One of its leader-Gladstone wrote one of the most influential pamphlets against the policy of supporting the High Gate (The Turkish Empire). His famous brochure called “slaughter lessons” helped the promotion of the Bulgarian cause and made the European community to put pressure over the governments of the European Great Powers to interfere in the resolving of the Eastern issue. Thus, gradually, the idea for summoning an ambassadorial conference in Istanbul which had to resolve the crisis in a peaceful manner was born”, concludes Plamen Mitev.

However, Turkey refused to execute the decisions for territorial changes, taken at this conference. This led to the Russo-Turkish war in 1877-1878 when Bulgaria was liberated from the 5 century yoke.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov