About the April uprising of 1876 and its heroes

Even though there are no significant manifestations of the national liberation movement in Burgas and the region, Bulgarians here also lived in a revolutionary atmosphere and were excited by the events. The photos of the 50th anniversary of the April Uprising, stored at the Collection of Burgas museum show how many people were involved in the procession. It is a sign that this peculiar impulse for liberation in 1876 is significant in the people's memory.

Although coexisted with a large population of Greeks, Turks, Armenians and more, the local Bulgarians did not stay away from revolutionary preparation for liberation. This is only natural due to the fact that through the Bulgarian Black Sea ports the secret correspondence and illegal agents from Odessa, from Central Europe and from Constantinople to Lozengrad, Odrin, Sliven, Yambol, Stara and Nova Zagora passed though. In addition, in the years 1868 - 1872, Levski's followers set up revolutionary committees in Karnobat and Aytos. The most active disseminators of Levski's ideas here locally were the priests pop Georgi in Burgas and pop Dimitar in Karnobat and three teachers: Sava Katrafilov, Stoyan Shivachev and Pencho Cherkovski. They were supported by other patriotic Bulgarians: Koicho Kehaya, Yani and Yassen Rusaliev and others. Ideas for arming troops from Russia and those prepared in our country, for stockpiling weapons and ammunition in small ports, were discussed, ideas that hold the Turkish authorities in high spirit and provoked numerous arrests and atrocities against the Bulgarian population.

The memory of the April Uprising, Burgas also connects with the names of Sava Katrafilov, Ivan Karageorgiev, Mito Angelakov, who are included in the company of Hristo Botev.

Sava Katrafilov, born in Elena, briefly taught in Burgas and Aytos, but his attention was given more to revolutionary activity. In Botev's detachment he became a member of the headquarters, and in the battle of Milin Stone was badly wounded and died from his wounds.
After the Liberation, Mito Angelakov moved to Burgas, worked as a construction contractor, participated in the construction of sewerage, street lighting, afforestation of the Sea Garden and others.

The strands of fate unknowingly intertwine and attach to Burgas another significant figure of the April Uprising - Rain Princess. Her second son Georgi Dipchev leaves remarkable traces in the life of our seaside town. He graduated from the Naval School in Varna, a participant in the First Balkan War, and later settled in Burgas. He worked as an inspector for steam boilers in Burgas, Yambol and Sliven districts, and in 1923 under his leadership and direct involvement in Burgas, the first training courses for firefighters and locomotive drivers were organized. Georgi Dipchev becomes the Director of the State Practical Mechanical Engineering School, opened on his own initiative, where he teaches until his retirement.

The Burgas History Museum holds valuable and very interesting books and documents related to the fight for national liberation and the April Uprising:
• Letter from Vasil Levski to Dimitar Trajkovich, in which the Apostle accuses Trajkovich of treason in committee matters;
• Letter from Dobri Chintulov, from 1871, to his fellow citizens of Sliven, discussing issues of the newly established Bulgarian exarchy;
• Minutes of a meeting of the BRCK, dated 1874, at which it was decided that Stefan Stambolov should take over the organization of the private committees in Bulgaria;
• "Biography of Hristo Botev" by Zahari Stoyanov, 1888.
• Notes on the Bulgarian Uprising by Zahari Stoyanov, 1884.
• "Biography of Vasil Levski" by Stoyan Zaimov, 1897.