On March 27, 1893, Tonka Tikhova Obretenova (Grandma Tonka) died. She is a Bulgarian heroine.
She joined the organized national liberation struggle. She provided serious organizational, moral and financial assistance to the Ruse Private Revolutionary Committee. Companion and confidant of Vasil Levski. Her home was a safe haven and organizational center for revolutionary activists.
Her children also joined the struggle. Petar Obretenov and Angel Obretenov were Chetniks in the detachment of Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha.
Grandma Tonka buried and managed to preserve the skull of Stefan Karadzha. Her sons Angel, Petar, Nikola and Georgi participated in various detachments and were killed or sent into prolonged exile.
Her younger daughter, Anastasia (Sia), was married to the revolutionary, writer and publicist Zahari Stoyanov. Grandma Tonka gave birth to seven children - five boys and two girls, and all of them later actively participated in the Bulgarian national liberation movement. Despite her difficult life - the death of her husband Tiho Obretenov and the care of her numerous children, she never for a moment allowed herself to be alienated from national affairs. From 1867, her son Petar Obretenov joined the Bulgarian Legion in Belgrade, and in 1868 together with his older brother Angel, he was among the participants in the detachment of Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha.
Petar Obretenov died in an action of the detachment, and Angel was captured and sentenced to exile in Asia Minor. One of the most tragic, but also the most worthy actions of Baba Tonka, who personifies the almost imperceptible, but important presence of Bulgarian women in the liberation struggles, is also connected with the fate of the Chetniks. Thanks to her, the remains of the rebels hanged by the authorities were buried in a Christian manner, and the skull of Karadzha was hidden and became a national relic. Zahariy Stoyanov notes that in 1878 her sons and their comrades returned from exile, and she greeted them with this sacred object from the past epic times. In 1875 The preparations for the Stara Zagora Uprising were already underway and another of Baba Tonka's sons - Georgi Obretenov - joined the fight.
Despite the heavy blows, Tonka Obretenov's family continued to be at the heart of the liberation struggles of the late 1860s and early 1870s. Nikola Obretenov, together with Toma Kardzhiev, Georgi Nikolov and others, were the core of the lively revolutionary and educational activities in the Ruse community center "Zora". Nikola Obretenov was a central figure in the revolutionary committee created there in the fall of 1871, and Baba Tonka's house became the main hiding place and distribution center for revolutionary activities in the region.
In addition to Tonka Obretenov's sons, her daughter Petrana also joined the national liberation war. When the preparations for the April Uprising began, almost all correspondence from the interior with the Gjurgovski Committee passed through the house and through the hands of Baba Tonka. In the uprising, she made another sacrifice - her son Georgi died in the detachment of Stoil Voivode. Her other son - Nikola, was among Botev's chetniks. After the detachment's defeat, he was captured and sentenced to exile in Asia Minor. Thus, in less than eight years, four of Tonka Obretenova's five sons gave their youth or their lives for Bulgarian freedom.
In history, however, Baba Tonka remains with the words: "I lost four sons. Two are not alive, and the others are half-alive. But if I had four more, I would still make them carry the Bulgarian flag with the golden lev".
She died on March 27, 1893. A small village in the municipality of Popovo, Targovishte region, was renamed after her in 1934. The mathematical high school in the city of Ruse was also named after her. A bay on the Antarctic island of Livingston also bears the name of the Bulgarian revolutionary. Grandma Tonka is the prototype of the vase character from "Nemily-Nedragi" - Grandma Tonka.