site.btaApril Uprising Merits to Be Commemorated with Dignity, Academy of Sciences President Says

An Academic Organizing Committee, set up to coordinate the initiatives marking the 150th anniversary of the April 1876 Uprising, was presented here on Friday.

"We believe that the memory of the April 1876 Uprising merits to be marked in a dignified manner, with broad, powerful, and resonant national participation," Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) President Evelina Slavcheva said at the presentation.

The struggle of the Bulgarian people against the five-century Ottoman rule and for national independence culminated in the uprising, which broke out on April 20 (New Style May 1), 1876. It was essentially an attempt at a bourgeois democratic revolution against the Ottoman feudal system, intended to clear the way for Bulgaria's capitalist development. The brutal suppression of the uprising made the Bulgarian question a European concern and led to the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War resulting in the restoration of Bulgaria's statehood.

At the end of 2025, on the initiative of the Assembly of Academicians and Corresponding Members, an Academic Initiative Committee was established to commemorate the anniversary with scientific conferences, lectures across the country, and scholarly publications, Slavcheva recalled. She explained that the initiators decided to assume responsibility to coordinate and consolidate the numerous yet fragmented preparations underway by local authorities, schools and chitalishte community centres.

"We need a dynamic platform including a national calendar of events commemorating the April Uprising. BAS will undertake to make this platform and calendar accessible," the head of the Academy said.

"Our task is to join forces for the setting up of a programme that will not only mark the anniversary but will also remind us of the values of freedom, solidarity, and national responsibility that we owe not only to our ancestors but also to the future generations of Bulgaria," Slavcheva commented.

Attending Friday's event were Academic Initiative Committee members Academicians Georgi Markov, Ivan Ilchev and Ivan Granitski, Corresponding Members Atanas Semov and Atanas Kostov, BAS Vice-President Prof. Emanuel Mutafov, the Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Bishop Gerasim of Melnik, officials representing the Administration of the President, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, representatives of the Vasil Levski All-Bulgarian Committee, the National Association of Municipalities, chitalishte community centres, mayors and scholars.