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.