Hristo Botev (Kalofer 1848 – Vratsa 1876), was born into a teaching family and schooled at home and in Tărnovo. He continued his education in Odessa, but resigned from the school in 1865 and returned to his birthplace in 1867, where he took over the teaching position of his father and started to publish poetry in Petko Slavejkov’s journal Gajda. A public speech critical of the Ottoman government drove him into exile.

In Bucharest and, later, Brăila, Botev became friends with Vasil Levski and joined Ljuben Karavelov’s Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (BRCC). Botev edited and contributed to several journals, including the BRCC’s Zname (“The flag”), as well as Duma na bulgarskite emigranti (“A word for Bulgarian emigrants”), Svoboda (“Liberty”), and the satirical Budilnik (“The alarm clock”). In 1875 he published his politically-themed Songs and poems, together with Stefan Stambolov, which often invoke figures of the Paris Commune and Russian revolutionaries.

During the April Uprising of 1876 Botev organized a detachment of armed volunteers and crossed the Danube in mid-May; he was killed in action four days later. In 1885 a committee was founded to commemorate the anniversary of his death; a monument was erected in Vratsa, which both contributed to Botev’s canonicity and to the cultural legitimation of the newly-created Bulgarian state.