site.btaMay 29, 1876: Detachment, Led by Poet, Freedom Fighter Botev, Gets Off Radetzky Ship at Kozloduy to Help Liberate Bulgaria

Hristo Botev is one of the brightest figures in Bulgarian history, a freedom fighter who dedicated his life to Bulgaria’s liberation from Ottoman rule. Botev was also a publicist and poet with works recited by heart by many to this day.

In the winter of 1875-1876, the Bulgarian emigrants in Walachia began preparations for an uprising, to be staged in late spring. In February 1876, Botev started raising money, weapons and volunteers for an armed group which would cross the Danube and join the uprising.

Bulgarians rebelled against the Ottomans on April 20. However, just one of the four revolutionary regions rose – the one south of the Balkan Range. There were some activities in the Tarnovo area, but the regions around Sliven and Vratsa did not act. A couple of weeks later, the Ottomans crushed the April Uprising with great brutality, prompting headlines, as newspapers around Europe wrote about the cruelty.

Botev was not dissuaded. He had 205 men and a plan - to disguise themselves as gardeners heading for seasonal work in Central Europe, embark from different ports onto the Austrian-Hungarian steamboat Radetzky, hijack it and force it to bring them across the Danube. On Bulgarian soil, they would continue to Vratsa to unite with the rebels.

On May 28, Botev boarded the Radetzky at Giurgiu, and seized it the next day without violence. He dispatched telegrams to European newspapers, saying he was on a patriotic mission. Then he and his men disembarked on Bulgarian soil, near Kozloduy.

At first it all went according to plan, but soon the rebels were spotted by the Ottomans, and had to fight before they ever reached Vratsa. Only eight local men from the villages they passed through joined them. Vratsa itself was quiet, without any sign of an uprising.

By the time Botev arrived in Vratsa, the few men who had turned up to fight in the uprising, had already been arrested. The town fearfully awaited Ottoman reprisals.

After a battle at the Milin Kamak peak with heavy losses, the rebels who were left escaped and headed for the western Balkan Range.

On June 2, they fought again, at the Okolchitsa Peak. Botev was among those killed. Few of the rebels managed to escape.

Botev became an icon of the revolutionary movement soon afterwards. Ivan Vazov wrote a poem about the hijacking of the Radetzky that same year. The Quiet White Danube is still sung today, as a military march.

After the Bulgarian state was restored in 1878, Botev became a major icon in the pantheon of Bulgarian heroes. "He, who falls in fight for freedom, lives forevermore," is his most famed line.