Today, my dear reader of FACTS, we will take you back to the bloody suppression of the April Uprising. Heroism and betrayal mark this great epic. On May 12, 1876, Georgi Benkovski was killed in an ambush in the Teteven Balkan. At least that is how history, described in Zahari Stoyanov's “Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings”, remembers him. If we delve into the annals of history, we will see that he lived both in Istanbul, the heart of the empire, and in its main trading centers. Georgi Benkovski spoke seven languages fluently.
Georgi Benkovski was born in Koprivshtitsa on September 21, 1843. In the church register he is recorded as Gavril Gruev Hlatev. He has two sisters – Kuna and Vasilya. He had a difficult childhood, his father Gruyu Hlatev, a small and honest merchant, died in 1848 and this forced Gavril to study only until the 3rd grade at the Koprivshtë Primary School, and then his mother sent him to learn a trade – carpentry. Later, dissatisfied with this perspective, he became an apprentice to an abadji, then separated from his master and took up trade on his own.
He toured the large markets in Constantinople and south across Anatolia. He was very successful, earned and spent a lot, but experienced sudden changes. According to his own words to Zahari Stoyanov, a person must be able to lie in order to be a successful merchant. For ten years he lived in different places in the Orient – Smyrna, Constantinople, Anatolia, Alexandria, working all sorts of things. For a year he was a sailor to the Persian consul and wore such a nice uniform that people mistook him for the consul himself. He spoke seven languages - Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Persian. Taking the name Georgi Benkovski, he actively participated in the actions taken by the Bulgarian revolutionary emigration to organize the unsuccessful Stara Zagora Uprising (1875) with the burning of Constantinople and the self-sacrificing April Uprising, which only in the IV revolutionary district led by him truly broke out, and its cruel suppression led to the declaration of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation.
During the declaration of the April Uprising, on April 20, 1876 in Koprivshtitsa, Benkovski was in Panagyurishte together with most of the other apostles. When he learned that fighting was already taking place in Koprivshtitsa, he declared an uprising in Panagyurishte, and then quickly formed a detachment and set out to raise the surrounding villages. The roving detachment, with which he tirelessly toured the entire region and managed to mobilize and motivate many insurgents, played a central role in the military operations of the uprising. The detachment even included six Croats from Dalmatia and one German who worked at the railway station in Belovo. One of them, Stefan-Dalmatinetsa, was their last bayraktar.
After the brutal suppression of the rebellion in the Panagyurishte region, Benkovski and the detachment headed for the Teteven Balkans, where on May 12, after betrayal by Grandpa Valyo, he fell into the Kostina River, pierced by the bullet of the Bash Poteryadzhiat Rüzgyar Hadji Ahmed Agha. His head was sent to Botevgrad, and then to Sofia. These events were documented by Zahari Stoyanov in “Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings“. The author himself miraculously survived their organized ambush.
Here is what Zahari Stoyanov himself says about Georgi Benkovski:
....
Our benefactor and Benkovski had already set foot on the opposite bank, and the three of us with Fr. Kirill and Stefa were still on the bridge. Everyone was silent. Only I opened my mouth, seeing that there were many signs on the right side of the river that showed that the bridge had been rebuilt, to draw my comrades' attention to this, to see if they also thought the same way about this matter.
- You should know that we are not on the Plovdiv bridge over the Maritsa, but in the Teteven Balkan on the Kostinya River - Benkovski replied, turning back. That was his farewell... Those were his last words!...
Whether or not he had finished his last word, Uncle Valyu, our benefactor, the devoted grandfather Valyu, whom we called father, I saw that he was crawling on the ground like a four-legged animal, and went to hide behind a fallen tree. I myself could not remember at once what the matter was, and it is unlikely that my comrades could remember either. While I was getting ready to ask why the old man was dragging himself along the ground, my mouth became tight, my tongue dried up in my throat. About twenty or more rifles from both sides of the river thundered above us from four sides and the bullets buzzed around us like bees!...
- Wurun! Tutun! Dane bre! Basson! etc... - were the voices that accompanied the first thunders! ...
For now, I am not in a position to tell you more details about the fate of my comrades. The terrible picture so suddenly struck me completely, I lost my mind, my reason, my courage, and everything human!... I will not boast to you that I grabbed my rifle or that I took a position to defend myself. No! I did nothing, I did not see and did not hear what my three comrades who were walking ahead did. And who was I going to fight? With the wind and the noise? Not a person was visible, not a rifle, not a devil. It seemed to me that all this was a dream. Until ten minutes ago, you could hear about the 12 banners, about the departure of all the puppets towards Sofia, about the cannon thunder of grandfather Ivan - and the voices of "vurun" and "tutun" - all this is more than godless, all this makes one freeze in place!
As soon as the first guns cracked and the rude voices roared, a thick cloud of gunpowder smoke filled the empty space above the river. It is clear that I remained frozen on the bridge for a few seconds. I only remember that when Benkovski, trembling, with outstretched arms, appeared through the clouds of smoke, and then twisted on one side and collapsed to the ground on his eyes, I was startled, but I could not think of what to do. Benkovski was holding one of his revolvers in his hand ... I know nothing more, so let me at least tell you my story.
... I finally came to my senses only when I plunged into the raging waters of the river. Whether I threw myself from the bridge into the river on purpose or fell unconscious - I am also not in a position to say.....
.... Needless to say, Benkovski is a saint both in Panagyurishte and in Teteven, where he fell. The population assures that at night, on Saturdays and other more famous holidays, a lamp burns at the place where he was killed. After the murder, his mortal remains were collected by a pious old woman, Grandma Udrenitsa, who buried them in the tomb of the church of "St. All Saints". She did all this secretly, because the government, of course, punished those pious people who paid any kind of homage to the remains of his sworn enemies. In addition, in the village of In Shipkovo lived a certain grandfather Boro, or Bero, who was busy going around and watching which old woman lit candles for the rebels and wrote their names in the liturgy. He would go and hand over all such people to the Turks.
And Benkovski's head, as readers will see later, was cut off and taken to Teteven, Orhaniye, and from there to Sofia. Priest Hristo Pavlov was called by the Turkish government to take and bury this head, which he did on Saint Kostadin (May 21). So, after nine days the head of the Bulgarian voivode was buried. It was placed in a horse bag, it had already decomposed, and the priest buried it with the bag together in the presence of a Muslim and Nikolcho the gravedigger, who dug the hole with the trowel (which carpenters use to smear) and buried it. This happened in Sofia. Benkovski's head is buried in the new cemetery, near the city on the western side, on the right side of the road, as you go to Knyazhevo, at the place called Halkali Kapusi. The body - in Teteven, and the head - in Sofia!...