site.btaAcademic Organizing Committee Set Up to Coordinate Initiatives on 150th Anniversary of April 1876 Uprising

An Academic Organizing Committee has been set up to coordinate the initiatives marking the 150th anniversary of the April 1876 Uprising. It was presented Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) President Evelina Slavcheva at an event in BAS Friday.

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.

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.

"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," the BAS President said at the presentation. She recalled that 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. 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.

BTA Director General Valchev announced that the April issue of BTA's LIK magazine, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising, will be presented on April 20 in the south-central town of Koprivshtitsa, together with a related BAS publication. The event will be connected online with 33 cities and will involve students. The issue will feature archival materials showing how anniversaries of the uprising have been commemorated since 1898, as well as coverage from BTA’s archives. Valchev also said a memorial plaque for Dobri Chintulov will be unveiled in Odesa on April 15 to mark 180 years since his birth, and that the 205th anniversary of Georgi Rakovski’s birth will be commemorated at the Bolhrad High School. BTA plans additional forums later in the year in Bucharest, Belgrade and Odesa, as well as in several Bulgarian cities linked to the April Uprising. "BTA is Bulgaria’s state news agency and serves as a natural platform for all events organized to mark the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising," Valchev said. 

BAS corresponding member Atanas Semov said that the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising is the most significant anniversary that Bulgaria has commemorated in the past half century, comparable only to the celebration of the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state, which took place in 1981. "With its active involvement in marking the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising, BAS confirms its role of more than a century and a half as one of the spiritual pillars of the nation," he added.

Academician Ivan Ilchev said that the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising should not be routine or bureaucratic, "nor should we focus only on ourselves, because it is just one link in a chain of many revolutionary uprisings during the second half of the 19th century". However, this does not diminish its significance; rather, it shows that Bulgarians were moving in step with the course of historical events, he added.

Academician Ivan Granitski noted that the celebration should not be mere formality. He stressed that a group of like-minded people decided to organize this committee in order to coordinate the many initiatives emerging in municipalities, creative unions, and universities.

During the event at BAS, the creation of a platform with a national calendar was announced. This calendar will be made visible and accessible to all organizers and participants in the events marking the anniversary. BAS Vice-President Prof. Emanuel Mutafov presented the initiatives planned so far in several segments: conferences, exhibitions, screenings of documentary films, presentations of special issues of the BTA magazine LIK and the Journal of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and lectures.

The main event planned by the Academic Initiative Committee is a ceremonial gathering dedicated to the April Uprising, which will take place on April 26 at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

During the discussion of the event calendar, proposals were made by the mayors of Panagyurishte and Apriltsi, Zhelyazko Gagov and Tihomir Kukenski, as well as by the chairperson of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, Silvia Georgieva, and the chairman of the Vasil Levski All-Bulgarian Committee, Vasil Vasilev.