Bacho Kiro ( bg, Бачо Киро) (7 July 1835 – 28 May 1876) was the nickname of Kiro Petrov Zanev (Киро Петров Занев), a

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

teacher, man of letters and revolutionary who took an active part in the

April Uprising The April Uprising ( bg, Априлско въстание, Aprilsko vastanie) was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876. The regular Ottoman Army and irregular bashi-bazouk units brutally su ...

. Bacho Kiro was born in what is today

Byala Cherkva Byala Cherkva ( bg, Бяла черква) is a town in Pavlikeni Municipality, Veliko Turnovo Province, Central-North Bulgaria. The settlement is located close to the town of Pavlikeni about 28 km away from the city of Veliko Tarnovo. Its ...

Veliko Tarnovo Province Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Област Велико Търново, Oblast Veliko Tǎrnovo) is a province in the middle of the northern part of Bulgaria. Its capital city, Veliko Tarnovo, is of historical significance as it is known as the capital of ...

(then called Gorni Turcheta), to the family of the herdsman Petar Zanev. After finishing the religious school in his village, he joined the Batoshevo Monastery as a

neophyte A neophyte is a recent Initiation, initiate or Religious conversion, convert to a subject or belief. Neophyte may also refer to: Science * Neophyte (botany), a plant species recently introduced to an area As a proper noun Arts and entertainme ...

. From 1852 on, he worked as a teacher in various villages, including Koevtsi, Musina, Mihaltsi, Vishovgrad and his native Byala Cherkva, where he lived and taught from 1857 to 1876 with some interruptions. Bacho Kiro also travelled around the Bulgarian lands by foot, calling for armed resistance against the Ottoman rule, and visited

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. Bacho Kiro established a number of cultural centres (''

chitalishta A ''chitalishte'' (, . Derives from the verb "чета" - "to read" or "читател" - "reader") is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building that fulfills several functions at once, such as a community centre, library, and a theat ...

''); in February 1872, he became the Byala Cherkva head of

Vasil Levski Vasil Levski ( bg, Васил Левски, spelled in old Bulgarian orthography as , ), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed th ...

Internal Revolutionary Organisation The Internal Revolutionary Organisation ( bg, Вътрешна революционна организация) or IRO was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian revolutionary organisation founded and built up by Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in the perio ...

. Upon the outbreak of the April Uprising in 1876, Bacho Kiro was among the uprising's leaders in the

Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...

district and a sub-

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

Father Hariton A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

's detachment. Bacho Kiro took part in the

Dryanovo Monastery The Dryanovo Monastery ( bg, Дряновски манастир, ''Dryanovski manastir'', ) is a functioning Bulgarian Orthodox monastery situated in the Andaka River Valley, in Bulgarka Nature Park in the central part of Bulgaria five kilometer ...

fightings, and although his detachment was routed by the Ottomans, he managed to escape. However, he was betrayed and captured by the Ottoman government. He was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

and hanged in Tarnovo. Before his execution, he held a passionate speech and did not ask for mercy. Bacho Kiro was the author of some travel notes and the

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

piece ''Poor Man Tancho''. The

Bacho Kiro cave The Bacho Kiro cave () is situated west of the town Dryanovo, Bulgaria, only away from the Dryanovo Monastery. It is embedded in the canyons of the Andaka and Dryanovo River. It was opened in 1890 and the first recreational visitors entered the ...

near

Dryanovo Dryanovo ( bg, Дряново, ) is a Bulgarian town situated at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains in Gabrovo Province; amphitheatrically along the two banks of Dryanovo River, a tributary to the Yantra River. The town is a centre of t ...

is named in his honour.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bacho Kiro 1835 births 1876 deaths People from Byala Cherkva Bulgarian revolutionaries Bulgarian educators April Uprising of 1876 People executed by the Ottoman Empire by hanging Executed Bulgarian people Eastern Orthodox monks 19th-century Bulgarian educators 19th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire