Lyuben Stoychev Karavelov ( bg, Любен Стойчев Каравелов) (c. 1834 – 21 January 1879) was a
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
n writer and an important figure of the
Bulgarian National Revival
The Bulgarian National Revival ( bg, Българско национално възраждане, ''Balgarsko natsionalno vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and tr, Bulgar ulus canlanması) sometimes called the Bu ...
.
Karavelov was born in
Koprivshtitsa. He began his education in a
church school
A Christian school is a school run on Christian principles or by a Christian organization.
The nature of Christian schools varies enormously from country to country, according to the religious, educational, and political cultures. In some countr ...
, but in 1850 he moved to the school of
Nayden Gerov
Nayden Gerov ( bg, Найден Геров), born Nayden Gerov Hadzhidobrevich ( bg, Найден Геров Хаджидобревич) February 23, 1823, Koprivshtitsa – October 9, 1900, Plovdiv) was a Bulgarian linguist, folklorist, writer ...
in
Plovdiv. He was then sent by his father to study in a Greek school for two years, before transferring to a Bulgarian school, where he also studied
Russian literature. He moved to
Odrin for an apprenticeship, but he soon came back to Koprivshtitsa and was sent to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
in 1856. There he developed a strong interest in politics and the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
. At the same time, he studied the culture and
ethnography of the region.
In 1857, Karavelov enrolled in the Faculty of History and Philology at the
University of Moscow
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
, where he fell under the influence of Russian revolutionary democrats, was placed under police surveillance in 1859, and took part in student riots in 1861. With a group of other young Bulgarian student radicals, he published a journal and started writing poetry and long short stories in Bulgarian, and scholarly publications on Bulgarian ethnography and journalism in Russian. In 1867 he went to
Belgrade as a correspondent for Russian newspapers and started publishing prose and journalism in Serbian. There he married
Natalija Petrović, a Serbian activist and writer. In 1868 he was forced to move to
Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, because of his contacts with the Serb opposition (led by
Svetozar Marković
Svetozar Marković ( sr-Cyrl, Светозар Марковић, ; 9 September 1846 – 26 February 1875) was a Serbian political activist, literary critic and socialist philosopher. He developed an activistic anthropological philosophy wit ...
. Karavelov was arrested and spent time in a
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
prison for alleged participation in a conspiracy. In 1869 he settled in
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 ...
, intending to start his own newspaper and to cooperate with the newly founded ''Bulgarian Scholarly Society'' (the future
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).
At his first newspaper ''Svoboda'' (''Freedom'') in Bucharest (1869–1873), he worked and became friends with poet and revolutionary
Hristo Botev
Hristo Botev ( bg, Христо Ботев, ), born Hristo Botyov Petkov (Христо Ботьов Петков; – ), was a Bulgarian revolutionary and poet. Botev is considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and nationa ...
who devoted a poem to him. In 1870, Karavelov was elected chairman of the
Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, where he worked with
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 t ...
, the leader of the
Internal Revolutionary Organization
The Internal Revolutionary Organisation ( bg, Вътрешна революционна организация) or IRO was a Bulgarian revolutionary organisation founded and built up by Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in the period between 1 ...
; he shared Levski's ideas of a democratic republic as the goal of the national revolution. Karavelov admired the political system of
Switzerland (which he believed was a good model for the ethnically diverse Balkans) and the United States; he praised the American public education system, as well as the emancipated (in his opinion) status of American women.
In 1873–1874, Karavelov and Botev published a second newspaper, ''Nezavisimost'' (''Independence''). Although Karavelov, the older of the two, was the recognized master, both of them were very good professional journalists, setting high standards for Bulgarian language and literature. (Sometimes it was hard to know who exactly authored the many unsigned materials.) Following the capture and execution of Levski in 1873, though, the disheartened Karavelov gradually abandoned his revolutionary zeal, attracting Botev's severe criticism, and started publishing a new ''Znanie'' (''Knowledge'') journal and popular science books.
Karavelov died in
Rousse
Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse, Russe; bg, Русе ) is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, approximately south of ...
in 1879, soon after the
liberation of Bulgaria
The Liberation of Bulgaria is the historical process as a result of the Bulgarian Revival. In Bulgarian historiography, the liberation of Bulgaria refers to those events of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) that led to the re-establishme ...
.
Karavelov's works include the short novels ''Old Time Bulgarians'' ( bg, „Българи от старо време“; , and ''Mommy's Boy'' ( bg, „Мамино детенце“; ), considered among the first original Bulgarian novels. His younger brother
Petko was a prominent figure in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
's political life in the late nineteenth century.
Notes
References
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External link
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Karavelov, Lyuben
1830s births
1879 deaths
People from Koprivshtitsa
Bulgarian writers
Bulgarian revolutionaries
19th-century Bulgarian people
Bulgarian women's rights activists