site.btaBulgarians from Odessa Pay Homage to Writer Ivan Vazov

The Bulgarian community in Odessa paid homage to writer Ivan Vazov on July 9, his date of birth.

Flowers were laid at a commemorative plaque in Odessa on the occasion of his 173th birth anniversary. The plaque is installed in the central Sofiivska street, where Vazov used to live during his exile and where he started writing the first Bulgarian novel “Under the Yoke”.

Pupils from the Vasil Aprilov Bulgarian Sunday school recited poems by Vazov. Addresses were made by Ukrainian MP Anton Kisse and president of the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine and Dimitar Terzi, head of the Bulgarian centre.

Ivan Vazov arrived in Odessa on January 20, 1887 by sea. Initially he stayed at the Slavyanskaya hotel. In Odessa Vazov wrote 19 poems and began his novel “Under the yoke”. He left Odessa on March 5 1889.