Vassil Levsky - "The Apostle of Freedom"

"The Apostle of Freedom", and also adjudged "the greatest Bulgarian who ever lived", are titles which take some living up to - but rest assured, the reputation of Vassil Ivanov Kunchev Levsky is secure for all time. Universally revered in his homeland as the founder of the Bulgarian nation, this handsome young patriot gave his life for his people - and in so doing established himself as the archetypal romantic hero. Ottoman Oppression When Vassil Levsky was born in the prosperous manufacturing town of Karlovo in the year 1837, Bulgaria was a subject province of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and had been so for half a millennium. Indeed, the whole of the Balkans was a region in thrall to the harsh Ottomans. Turkey-in-Europe, as the area was then known, bitterly resented being dominated by the non-European. Muslim Turks, but felt powerless to throw off the Ottoman tyranny. As Vassil grew up, he formed strong views about freedom and Bulgaria's right to be a nation. He took one of the very few courses open to a Bulgarian patriot of the time - he took holy orders in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 1862, at the age of 25, he heard of a "Bulgarian Legion", a military unit of volunteers which was conducting a guerilla war against the Turks in nearby Serbia. And so the young priest ran away to enlist in the Legion. Warrior-Patriot Throughout the 1860's, Levsky fought in campaign after campaign on Serbian soil, striving to cast off Turkish oppression. Brave military action by a small band of dedicated patriots was admirable, but Vassil could see that it was never, on its own, going to achieve his cherished goal of driving the Turks back across the Bosphorus and out of Europe. A new approach was needed. But what? Pondering hard, Vassil came to the conclusion that only a mass rising of the whole Bulgarian people would bring freedom. Somehow, he would have to educate and radicalise an entire society, instilling in the people a clear idea of their national identity, and convincing them that independence was an achievable aspiration. Vassil had proved himself a Bulgarian hero on the battlefield, and his personal standing was high - but how to galvanise the peasants and town-dwellers? How should he set about the seemingly insuperable task of building a popular revolution from scratch? Visionary The form of nation which Levsky envisaged for his people, after throwing out the Ottomans, was an enlightened democracy, embodying the principles of the French Revolution. There would be a Charter guaranteeing the citizens' rights. Freedom of expression and association were, for him, principles which went hand in hand with the idea of the new Bulgaria. We must remember that he was building this political creed at precisely the moment in history when Italy and Germany were forging their own nationhood, and Karl Marx was sitting in the British Museum, writing "Das Kapital". There can be no doubt that Levsky was at the cutting edge of European political thought. His method of spreading the new creed was simple. He toured his homeland, visiting each and every town and village. He preached the message of pride in the nation, and the dream of independence - the right of the Bulgarian people to forge their own destiny. All he asked of the local community was that the people form a revolutionary committee, and make contact with other local villages. Between 1869 and 1872 he crossed and re-crossed Bulgaria, building this network of revolutionary nerve centres. He then set up a secret "Bulgarian Government" in the town of Lovech, in order to co-ordinate the burgeoning nationalist movement, a popular phenomenon which he had created single-handedly. A Glorious Death Vassil Levsky was 36 years old in February 1873, the month he went to the gallows. It came about, ironically, because he was trying to delay the revolution, that very eventuality to which he had dedicated his life's work. One of the Bulgarian "action groups" (today we would term them terrorist cells) bungled a raid on a Turkish post office. A military strike which had been intended as a money-raiser for the Bulgarian cause had the effect of provoking a security clampdown by the Turkish authorities. Levsky's companions all wanted to launch the revolution immediately, to take advantage of the crisis, but Levsky knew that the Bulgarian people were not quite ready for wholesale armed struggle: to challenge the Ottomans openly, now, would bring down on Bulgaria a pointless bloodbath. He did everything in his considerable power to forestall the rising. Taking possession of the secret papers of the "Bulgarian Government", lest they fall into the hands of the Turks, Vassil had the misfortune to be stopped and searched by a contingent of Ottoman police. There could be only one outcome. He would be executed. And so the Apostle of Freedom gave his life for the cause. The revolution for which he strove so hard, and liberation from the Turks, came a mere five years after his death.