Holidays in Bulgaria - Vasil Levski Day

Among the holidays in Bulgaria, the day of February 19, dedicated to the national hero-liberator Vasil Levski, stands out Like many revolutionaries, Vasil became famous under a pseudonym Levsky is a nickname given to the hero by his friends for his lion's courage in battles with Turkish troops According to another version, Vasil was given the nickname back in his school years, when, after arguing with fellow villagers, the boy jumped over a deep ravine At birth, the full name of the future “apostle of freedom” sounded like Vasil Ivanov Kunchev He was born into a simple peasant family, but received a school education, after which he entered a theological seminary and became a monk under the name Ignatius Despite his successes in the spiritual field, Father Ignatius, at the age of 24, devoted his activities to the revolutionary movement and left the monastery He joins the first Bulgarian legion and fights the Turks in Serbia, then acts in the territories of Romania and Bulgaria, calling on the people to resist Turkish oppression Levsky gradually comes to the conclusion that the people of Bulgaria should rely only on their own strength, without expecting help from Serbia and Bulgarian emigrants Vasil, having become a prominent figure in the Bulgarian Revolutionary Congress, visits the most remote places of the country, where he tirelessly promotes revolutionary sentiments, simultaneously arming the rebels from the people For a long time, Levsky, thanks to conspiracy and the ability to transform, managed to elude the Turkish authorities But at the end of 1872, during one of the operations, the brave revolutionary was captured by the police After identification, the arrested man was transported to Sofia for a judicial investigation, at which the native Kunchiv was sentenced to death by hanging Without waiting for the shameful execution, Vasil smashed his head against the walls of his prison cell The sentence was nevertheless carried out, and the body of the already dead Levsky was hanged on February 18, 1873 During the trial, Vasil did not give out any information about the participants in the Bulgarian liberation movement The only thing he expressed to his accusers was the prophecy that after his death hundreds of avengers would come Bulgaria was liberated at the end of the 19th century, when the troops of the Slav brothers from Orthodox Russia entered the struggle for freedom of the Balkans