Levski – the Apostle of Freedom

For generations of Bulgarians the name of Vassil Levski is a synonym of the Apostle of Freedom. He was the ideologist and the organizer of the Bulgarian National Revolution.

He was born as Vassil Ivanov Kunchev on July 18, 1837 in the town of Karlovo, central Bulgaria and history will forever remember him as Levski.  His contemporaries described him as smart, handsome and a natural leader. His life led him through series of trials and his feats turned into legends as early as during his life time Vassil Levski was hanged by the Turkish authorities before he turned 36. Despite his youth, he had managed to create a huge network of revolutionary committees in the territories populated by Bulgarians.

His reputation was such that he managed to recruit for his cause the most successful and best-educated Bulgarians – like teachers and church servants and also traders and affluent farmers.  His legacy and the ideology he preached positioned the Apostle among the greatest men of Europe.

Levski toured Bulgaria and in person persuaded the Bulgarians they could win their freedom by standing against the powerful Ottoman Empire.
Life hardships started early for him, as his father died when he was 14 and he and his two brothers had to start taking care of the family. Kunchev became a novice with his uncle, Archimandrite Hajji Vassilii who was a taxidiotis (a traveling monk who collected the church tax and donations) of the Monastery of Hilanadarion on the Mount of Athos for the Bulgarian towns of Karlovo and Stara Zagora.  On December 7, 1858 Vassil took the monastic vows and the name of Igantii in the monastery of St Spass near Sopot. In the following year of 1859 the Metropolitan of Plovdiv, Paissii ordained him for a hierodeacon.

Monastic life proved too limiting for the spirit of the young clergyman.  At that time the news was spreading about the formation of a legion – a Bulgarian military formation which was intended to take part in the growing more and more likely war between Serbia and Turkey and then enter Bulgaria and kindle the beginning of its liberation. 
In 1861 hierodeacon Ignatii gave up monasticism and the scenario of leading an easy and secured life or even of a fine career in the church hierarchy and left for Belgrade, Serbia.  There he was accepted in the First Bulgarian Legion, headed by Georgi S. Rakovski.  He met not only experienced guerilla leaders like Panayot Hitov, Filip Totyu and Ilyo Malashevski but also with future legendary revolutionary and commander, Stefan Karadja. 

In Belgrade Vassil Ivan Kunchev became Levski – by the name of which his figure and deeds are known to every Bulgarian. According to the legend, once Rakovski personally inspected the physical exercises of the legionnaires and ordered them to jump over a wide pit. Almost everybody else failed but the volunteer from Karlovo vaulted like a lion over the pit. Then reportedly, astounded Rakovski exclaimed: “But it is a lion’s jump! (levski in the Bulgarian spoken at that time meant lion-like). By the evening everybody knew the blond youth as Levski, a name history will forever remember him by.

Before long Vassil proved that apart from lion’s strength and bravery he was also quite resourceful.  When the long-awaited conflict between Serbia and Turkish garrison in Belgrade finally set off, the Legion attacked one of the gates to the fortress – Varosh kapia. It was heavily guarded and the legionnaires gave a lot of unnecessary victims. Levski suggested that the tower should be set on fire. The Turks soon afterwards surrendered for fear of being burnt alive.

However, a real war between Turkey and Serbia did not come to pass and the Serbian government disbanded the Legion at the demand of the Ottoman government. The volunteers scattered. For a while Levski went in for guerrilla fighting with the band of Ilyo Voyvoda. In 1863 he returned to Bulgaria.
Few people know that the future Apostle of Freedom worked as a teacher for two years – between 1865 and 1866 in the village of Voyniagovo, near Karlovo and then between 1866 and 1867 in Enikyoy, northern Dobrudja.  Apart from teaching reading and writing he led patriotic propaganda among his pupils and their families.  As a result of his preaching, the leaders of the local communities dismissed him from his teaching post.
In 1867 Vassil Levski crossed the Danube and completely devoted himself to the revolution.  In the summer of the same year he entered the band of Panayot Volov as flag bearer and after the band returned to Serbia he entered the Second Bulgarian Legion of Rakovski (1867 to 1868). After the Legion was disbanded Levski made an attempt to enter Bulgaria ahead of a band of armed men and prepare the people for an uprising but he was arrested by the Serbian authorities and sent in jail. When freed, Levski immigrated to Romania.
After the failure of the emigrant armed detachment tactics Levski gets the idea that for the successful outcome of the fight for national liberation the center of the revolutionary organization should be moved to Bulgaria and it should establish a network of regional revolutionary committees. From December 11, 1868 to February 1869 Vassil Levski made his first research tour around Bulgaria. On May 1, 1869 he started his second tour during which he founded the regional revolutionary committees. On August 26, 1869 via the Danube town of Rouse he went back to Romania. At his meetings with members of the Bulgarian revolutionary committee in Romania Levski insisted on moving the center of the revolutionary organization to Bulgaria but his idea met no support. At the end of 1869 Levski took part in the establishing of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (BRCK) in Bucharest (Romania) and together with Lyuben Karavelov headed the democratic wing of the new committee. Levski left Romania and concentrated on establishing the network of regional revolutionary committees. At the end of 1870 the town of Lovech (northern Bulgaria) was chosen as center of the “Provisional Government in Bulgaria”.
During his tours in Bulgaria Levski revealed his talent to persuade and organize the people. He was a master in disguise and changing his personality. In their memoirs his associates write that sometimes he changed his personalities up to three times daily and thus managed to escape the most thorough raids of the Ottoman police. Levski spoke Turkish language very well, which helped him to travel disguised as an Ottoman with the respective identification document and even sometimes moved in the company of the mounted police patrols looking for him.
In establishing the internal network of committees Levski applied conspiracy methods such as a secret mail service.
Special messengers were carrying letters reading on common matters as the real content was written in invisible ink or in coded words. Vassil Levski established also a secret police. Its task was to watch for Ottoman spies and to punish the traitors of the people’s work. Levski believed the liberation of Bulgaria is a nation-wide movement that should include members of all strata of Bulgarian society.
In 1871 the revolutionaries Dimitar Obshti and Angel Kanchev arrive to Bulgaria to assist Levski in his work.
In the end June 1872 Levski began to reorganize the Internal Revolutionary Organization. A couple of months later – on September 22, 1872 Dimitar Obshti attacked and robbed the Ottoman post service in Arabaconak passage in Stara Planina to provide means for the needs of the revolutionary organization. Levski was against the robbery, as he knew well an attack against the state service would provoke strict police actions and mass arrests. However, priest Krastyu Nikiforov – secretary-treasurer of the Internal Revolutionary Organization was the only one to support Levski’s opinion. 
The future events proved Levski to be right – Dimitar Obshti and the rest participants in the robbery were caught and the confessions made by Obshti damaged seriously the organization. BRCK in Romania and its head Lyuben Karavelov ordered Levski to start the uprising immediately but Vassil Levski disobeyed the order because he believed neither the organization nor the people are ready. To save the established network Levski decided to go to the town of Lovech and to take the organization’s archives.
On December 1872 Vassil Levski was captured by the Ottoman police. For many years it was believed that priest Krastuy betrayed Levski. Today, although unofficially, Bulgarian historians suspect it was another priest from the town of Lovech – Marin Lukanov who gave Levski away.
However, there are no documents proving the guilt of either of them. Because of that more and more scholars think the capturing of Vassil Levski at the Kukrina inn near Lovech was a coincidence or a consequence of the tightened police measures.
The Ottoman court sentenced Levski to death by hanging. And on February 1873 he was executed in Sofia surroundings – today’s Sofia down-town.
In 1895 in the presence of prince Ferdinand and the government the monument of Vassil Levski was unveiled.