Hristo Botev was born on January 6, 1848 in Kalofer to the family of Botyo Petkov and Ivanka Boteva. From 1854 to 1858, he studied in Karlovo, where his father was a teacher. Later, he returned to Kalofer, continued his studies with his father, and in June 1863, he graduated from the Kalofer three-grade school. In October of the same year, with the help of Naiden Gerov, he left for Russia and enrolled as a private student at the Second Odessa Gymnasium.
This is recalled by the regional library "Lyuben Karavelov" - Ruse.
There he became acquainted with Russian literature and came under the strong influence of Alexander Herzen, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Dobrolyubov, etc. It was then that he made his first poetic attempts. In September 1865 he was expelled from high school due to lack of interest in the curriculum, but at the same time he read many books and accumulated knowledge. At that time he became associated with Russian revolutionary circles. In October and December 1866 he was a teacher in the Bessarabian village of Zadunaevka.
Due to his father's illness, in January 1867 he had to return to Kalofer.
At that time, on April 15, in the newspaper „Gayda“, edited by Petko R. Slaveykov, the first poem by Hristo Botev — „Maytse si“ was published. Because of the passionate speech he delivered on May 11 in honor of the Slavic enlighteners, the brothers Cyril and Methodius, he was forced to leave Kalofer and in October 1867 arrived in Romania, living in Bucharest, Braila, Alexandria, Izmail and Galati. He worked in Braila as a typesetter for Dimitar Panichkov, where the newspaper “Dunavska zora“ was printed.
Falling into the midst of the Bulgarian revolutionary emigration, he became close to Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha.
In the summer of 1868, Botev enrolled in Zhelyo Voivoda's detachment.
It was then that he wrote his poem “Na prohovane“. For various reasons, the detachment disintegrated and did not cross the Danube. In September of the same year, he entered the Bucharest Medical School, but due to lack of funds, he was soon forced to part with it.
Fall into an extremely difficult situation, Botev spent the winter in a deserted windmill near the city.
Here he lived with Vasil Levski
and remained impressed by the Apostle's ability to overcome the deprivations to which he was also exposed at that time. In February 1869, he entered as a teacher in Alexandria, and in August of the same year he went as a teacher to Izmail, where he taught until May 1871. In the following years, he moved and lived in various cities. In Galati, he established contact with the Russian revolutionary N. F. Meledin and through him maintained ties with the revolutionary circles in Odessa. At the end of April 1871 Botev was detained for two months in the Focsani prison (in connection with the disclosure of the activities of N. F. Meledin) and after his release he settled back in Bucharest.
On June 10, 1871, he published his first newspaper "Word of the Bulgarian Emigrants". In October of the same year, he participated in the annual meeting of the Bulgarian Literary Society. In April 1872, he was arrested for conspiratorial revolutionary activity and was again sent to the Focsani prison, but was released due to the intercession of Levski and Karavelov. He began working as a printer for Lyuben Karavelov.
He published his materials in the newspaper "Svoboda", which changed its name to "Nezavisimost", and later Botev worked as a collaborator and co-editor of the revolutionary organ. On May 1, 1873, he published the satirical newspaper "Budilnik". The following year, he became a teacher at the Bulgarian school in Bucharest. He began his active work as a journalist and under his editorship, the new organ of the revolutionary party, the "Zname" newspaper (December 8, 1874), began to be published. In 1875, he published the translations "On the Slavic Origin of the Danube Bulgarians" by D. Ilovaiski and "Kremucius Kord" by N. Kostomarov.
In September of the same year, together with Stefan Stambolov, he published the poetry collection "Songs and Poems by Botyova and Stambolova" and "Wall Calendar for 1876" with the poem "The Hanging of Vasil Levski". On May 5, he published the newspaper “New Bulgaria“, and after the blow dealt to the Internal Revolutionary Organization, after the hanging of Vasil Levski and Karavelov's hesitations, Hristo Botev took over the leadership of the BRCC.
Shortly after the outbreak of the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1875.
The BRCC under Botev's leadership began preparing for an uprising in Bulgaria as well. For this purpose, Botev was sent to Russia to collect funds and weapons for the uprising and to bring back the voivode Philip Totyu from there. The premature outbreak of the uprising and its failure led to serious disagreements in the BRCC. As a result, at the end of 1875, Botev resigned, but did not give up his revolutionary activities. After the establishment of the Gjurgovski Revolutionary Committee, Botev also established contact with its members.
In May 1876, he began editing his last newspaper, “Nova Bulgaria“, of which he managed to publish only one issue.
In May 1876, following the news of the April Uprising, Botev began organizing a detachment and became its commander. From Giurgiu, he boarded the ship “Radetzky“ with part of the detachment on May 16, and one day later, they forced Captain Dagobert Englender to stop on the Bulgarian coast. From Kozloduy, Botev's detachment headed for the Balkans, passing through a dozen villages. However, very few Bulgarians joined the Chetniks, despite initial expectations. The detachment fought several battles with the pursuing Ottoman troops.
On June 2, 1876, the last heavy battle took place — in the evening after the battle, a bullet pierces Botev.
MY PRAYER
Christ Botev
„Blessed is our God...“
Oh, my God, righteous God!
Not you, who are in heaven,
but you, who are in me, God -
me in the heart and soul...
Not you, whom the
monks and priests
and whom the
Orthodox light candles for cattle;
not you, who made
from clay man and woman,
and left man
a slave to be on earth;
not you, who anointed
kings, popes, patriarchs,
and abandoned
my poor brothers in trouble;
not you, who teaches the slave
to suffer and pray
and feeds him until the grave
only with naked hopes;
not you, God, of liars,
of dishonorable tyrants,
not you, idol of the fools,
of the enemies of man!
And you, God, of reason,
protector of slaves,
whose day the nations will soon celebrate!
Inspire everyone, oh God!
a living love for freedom -
so that everyone can
fight the enemies of the people.
Support my hand too,
so that when the slave rises,
in the ranks of the struggle
I too may find my grave!
Do not let the
vigorous heart abroad grow cold,
and my voice pass
quietly as through a desert!...