On June 19, 1868 – Lyuben Karavelov was arrested in Novi Sad. Austria-Hungary detained the prominent writer at the request of Serbia in connection with the murder of Prince Mihail Obrenović III.
We recall that at that time Novi Sad was in Austria-Hungary.
In Novi Sad, Lyuben Karavelov created the “Bulgarian Committee“, with which he set himself the task of organizing Bulgarian emigrants in Serbia in view of the upcoming liberation struggle. During the wave of repressions after the murder of Prince Mihail Obrenović, he was arrested together with the prominent Serbian public figure Vladimir Jovanović. The two were imprisoned together for months, with Karavelov being released on January 4, 1869 due to lack of evidence of the accusation.
In early May 1869, he settled in Bucharest.
In the Romanian capital, the leaders of the Virtuous Company tried to attract him as editor of their organ, the newspaper “Fatherland“, but they failed.
Gradually, Karavelov established close contacts with the Bulgarian revolutionary emigration in Wallachia and for a short time became one of its leading figures.
In the autumn of 1869, he was among the initiators of the creation of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Communist Party, and after its foundation, he took over the editing of its printed organ, the newspaper “Freedom“. He enthusiastically accepted the idea of creating a Bulgarian Literary Society, which after liberation grew into the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
At the first General Assembly of the Bulgarian Literary Society, held in April-May 1872, the prominent Koprivshtitsa native was elected its chairman.
After the capture and hanging of Vasil Levski, Karavelov made great efforts to continue his work.
On February 25, 1873, instead of the newspaper “Svoboda“ Karavelov began editing the newspaper “Nezavisimost“, and at the General Assembly of the Bulgarian Literary Society convened in May 1873, he was again elected chairman of the committee.
When the Serbian-Turkish War broke out in the autumn of 1876 Karavelov took an active part in organizing volunteer detachments of Bulgarian emigrants, and during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 he provided valuable assistance to the Russian military command.
In the summer of 1878, our prominent revolutionary returned to the liberated Fatherland and settled in the old capital of Tarnovo, but a few months later he moved to live in Ruse.
He died on January 21, 1879 from tuberculosis.