1885 is the year crowned by one of the most significant events in Bulgaria’s history – the reunification of Northern with Southern Bulgaria. It was made possible seven years after the country’s liberation from Ottoman domination.

On 3 March, 1878, the signing of the San Stefano peace treaty put an end to the Russo-Turkish war that was for Bulgaria a war of liberation. By force of the treaty, the territory of the now revived Bulgarian state included lands populated mostly by Bulgarians. Yet several months later, the Berlin Congress of the Great Powers revised this treaty and the country was torn asunder. The territory locked in by the Balkan range and the Danube, along with the region of Sofia became the Principality of Bulgaria. The lands to the South of the Balkan range were given the status of an autonomous entity, part of the Ottoman Empire, by the name of Eastern Rumelia. Macedonia and Eastern (Edirne) Thrace were handed back to the Sultan. At the close of the 1870s and the beginning of the 1880s reunification of the free Principality with Eastern Rumelia had become a national cause. Prince Alexander Battenberg and Prime Minister Petko Karavelov were the two men who helped obtain reunification by political means.

The Bulgarian National Radio Golden Fund audio archives feature an interview with academician Hristo Hritsov from the time he was director of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Institute of History:

“At the time of the reunification, these people rallied together as tight as a fist. Prime Minister Petko Karavelov – a very level-headed politician, Prince Battenberg who was behind the 1881coup d'état and abolished the constitution, with abdication hanging over his head was to become the mouthpiece of the national interest. To tell you the truth – it hurts to see how the memory of this man is not honoured, even though it deserves to be. If it hadn’t been for his spearheading the reunification of Bulgaria there would have been many more difficulties along the way. We never paid our respects to him, because he was a prince. The reunification was a concerted effort.”

We should not forget the role of the fighters from the national liberation struggles. The Bulgarian clandestine central revolutionary committee was set up in Plovdiv in February 1885, with chair writer and journalist Zahari Stoyanov, a participant in the struggles. Several months later he started publishing a newspaper called Borba (Struggle). Though it only had a run of 15 copies Borba was an important source of information for the people of Eastern Rumelia. The revolutionaries used it to proclaim their struggle for “genuine freedom and independence for the country called Bulgaria, resorting to every kind of weapon as we see fit.” The newspaper was to play a key role in the preparations for reunification.

On the early morning of September 6 the governor of Eastern Rumelia Gavril Krustevich was ousted and a provisional government formed comprising representatives of the political forces, of the army as well as revolutionaries. It is interesting to note that in the seven years from the country’s liberation until the reunification, a class of numerous civil servants, officers and citizens was formed who sacrificed their welfare for the national cause.

Even though the city of Plovdiv played a crucial role in the struggle for national reunification, it was only one hundred years later that a monument to the Reunification was erected there. In the BNR Golden Fund audio archives we find a recording from its inauguration ceremony on 6 September 1985. The voice belongs to Todor Zhivkov, chairman of the State Council and Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party:

“Comrades, with much emotion I am fulfilling the assignment of the State Council of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria to inaugurate here, in the ancient city of Plovdiv, a monument commemorating the centennial anniversary of the reunification of the Principality of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia. This monument is an expression of gratitude to all those who laid down their lives for the triumph of the reunification, with enormous patriotic ardor. Eternal glory to all Bulgarian heroes who, with word and sword, made the reunification possible.”

If we take a look back to 1885 and reread the pages of history now, we may once again take note of the fact that Petko Karavelov, Prince Alexander Battenberg and the members of the revolutionary committee held different views on the reunification. Yet this never stood in the way of their rallying for this national ideal without seeking benefit for themselves and without any rivalry.

English version: Milena Daynova