Petko Rachov Slaveykov (17 November 1827 – 1 July 1895) was a noted nineteenth-century Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n poet, publicist, public figure and folklorist.

Early years and educational activity

Slaveykov was born in Tarnovo to the family of the coppersmith Racho. His mother, Penka, died during the birth but miraculously, he survived. In the village of his mother, Vishovgrad, Petko saw nightingales (slavey in Bulgarian), which impressed him so much that he decided to change his family name to Slaveykov.

Slaveykov studied consecutively in Tarnovo, Dryanovo

Dryanovo

The town of Dryanovo is situated at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains in Gabrovo Province, Bulgaria, amphitheatrically along the two banks of Dryanovo River, a tributary to the Yantra River. The town is a centre of the homonymous Dryanovo Municipality, which is composed of 62 villages,...

, Tryavna

Tryavna

Tryavna is a town in central Bulgaria, situated in the north slopes of the Balkan range, on the Tryavna river valley, near Gabrovo. It is famous for its textile industry and typical National Revival architecture, featuring 140 cultural monuments, museums and expositions...

 and the Transfiguration Monastery

Transfiguration Monastery

The Transfiguration Monastery or the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration of God is an Eastern Orthodox monastery located in the Dervent gorge of the Yantra River. It lies near the village of Samovodene, seven kilometres north of Veliko Tarnovo, in central northern Bulgaria...

, and also self-educated himself by reading books in the monastery libraries near Tarnovo. He also read the noted Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya

Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya

Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya is a book by Bulgarian scholar and clergyman Saint Paisius of Hilendar...

by Paisius of Hilendar

Paisius of Hilendar

Saint Paisius of Hilendar or Paisiy Hilendarski was a Bulgarian clergyman and a key Bulgarian National Revival figure. He is most famous for being the author of Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya, the second modern Bulgarian history after the work of Petar Bogdan Bakshev from 1667, “History of Bulgaria”...

, and later studied in Svishtov

Svishtov

Svishtov is a town in northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province on the right bank of the Danube river opposite the Romanian town of Zimnicea. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Svishtov Municipality...

 (under Emanuil Vaskidovich

Emanuil Vaskidovich

Emanuil Vaskidovich was a Bulgarian National Revival enlightener, the founder of the first secular school in the Bulgarian lands.Vaskidovich was born under the name Manolaki Vaskidi in the city of Melnik. He studied at the Greek school in his hometown and at the Greek high school on Chios island....

), extended his knowledge of Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and got acquainted with the works of Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

an and Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

n literature.

Slaveykov became a teacher in his home town in 1843, but was expelled for the famous satirical poem Tarnovo became famous for renowned Greek bishops, and consecutively taught in various towns, including Vidin

Vidin

Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Serbia and Romania, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin...

, Vratsa

Vratsa

Vratsa is a city in northwestern Bulgaria, at the foothills of the Balkan Mountains. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Vratsa Province. As of February 2011, the town has a population of 60,482 inhabitants....

, Pleven

Pleven

Pleven is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality...

, Berkovitsa

Berkovitsa

Berkovitsa is a town and ski resort in northwestern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Berkovitsa Municipality, Montana Province and is close to the town of Varshets...

, Lyaskovets

Lyaskovets

Lyaskovets is a town in central northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province, 10 km northeast of Veliko Tarnovo, 2 km southeast of Gorna Oryahovitsa and 5 km south of the Yantra River, north of the Balkan Mountains. Its name comes from the word leska or leshnik , because...

, Byala and Elena

Elena, Bulgaria

Elena is a Bulgarian town in the central Stara Planina mountain in Veliko Tarnovo Province, located 42 km away to southeast from the city of Veliko Tarnovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Elena Municipality. The area is a popular mountain resort also known for the typical...

. He taught according to the Bell-Lancaster method

Bell-Lancaster method

The Monitorial System was an education method that became popular on a global scale during the early 19th century. This method was also known as "mutual instruction" or the "Bell-Lancaster method" after the British educators Dr Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster who both independently developed it...

 and meanwhile continued to educate himself. Slaveykov worked as a teacher in the first class school in Elena and named it Daskalolivnitsata ("the Teacher Moulder").

Cultural activity and Istanbul period

Slaveykov engaged in important cultural and educational activity and had collected 2263 folk songs, sayings and proverbs until 1847. Nikola Mihaylovski introduced him to the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n poets and writers of the time. Since 1852, Slaveykov began to print his first books: Smesena kitka, Pesnopoyka, Basnenik. He wrote the poem Boyka voyvoda in 1853 influenced by the revolutionary events surrounding the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 (1853-1856), as well as many revolutionary songs. After the unsuccessful Uprising of Dyado Nikola in Tarnovo in 1856, Slaveykov concentrated his efforts in the awakening of the national consciousness among Bulgarians. As a teacher in Targovishte

Targovishte

Targovishte is a city in Bulgaria, capital of Targovishte Province. It is situated at the northern foot of the low mountain of Preslav on both banks of the Vrana River. The town is 335 km away to the north-east from the capital Sofia and about 125 km to the west from the city of Varna...

 he issued the satirical newspaper Gayda and after working in Varna

Varna

Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...

 for some time left for Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, where he was invited in 1864 to edit a full Bulgarian translation of the Bible

Slavic translations of the Bible

This article deals with the history of translation of the Bible into Slavic languages, beginning in the second half of the 9th century....

 (in an east Bulgarian dialect) by the Bulgarian Bible Society. The entire translation was printed in Istanbul in 1871 and was of great importance for the establishment of the east Bulgarian vernacular as the common one.

In Istanbul Slaveykov issued the newspapers Gayda

Gayda

Gayda was a Bulgarian language newspaper edited and published by Petko Slaveykov in the 19th century in Istanbul.The newspaper was established in 1863 and was stopped from printing in 1867....

(1863-1867) and Makedoniya

Makedoniya (newspaper)

Makedonia was a Bulgarian newspaper edited and published by Petko Slaveykov in Istanbul with aim to help the foundation of an independent Bulgarian Church...

(1866-1872) and the magazines Ruzhitsa (1871), Pchelitsa (1871), Chitalishte (1872-1873), Zvanchatiy glumcho (1872), as well as the newspapers Shutosh (1873-1874) and Kosturka (1874). He established himself as arguably the most famous Bulgarian writer in Istanbul in the time, issued more than 60 books, newspapers and magazines, both original and translated. He took part in the struggle for an autonomous Bulgarian church and later became a teacher in the newly-established Bulgarian Exarchate

Bulgarian Exarchate

The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953....

. He was arrested for the article Dvete kasti i vlasti in the Makedoniya newspaper and accused of relations with the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee

Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee

The Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee or BRCK was a Bulgarian revolutionary organisation founded in 1869 among the Bulgarian emigrant circles in Romania. The decisive influence for the establishment of the committee was exerted by the Svoboda newspaper which Lyuben Karavelov began to...

 in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

.

Revolutionary and political activity

In 1873 Slaveykov created the well-known poem Izvorat na Belonogata ("The Spring of the White-Legged") and founded the Bulgarian high school in Odrin (Edirne) in 1874, where he countered the Greek influence over the Bulgarians. Later a teacher in Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, and a nationally important economic center. Located in Southern Bulgaria, it is the administrative capital of the homonymous Stara Zagora Province...

, Slaveykov wrote revolutionary poems and was enchained and imprisoned after the April Uprising

April Uprising

The April Uprising was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876, which indirectly resulted in the re-establishment of Bulgaria as an autonomous nation in 1878...

. During the fire in Stara Zagora he lost his manuscripts and the 15,000 collected folk sayings. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 he drew closer together with the Russian forces, led the detachment of General Mikhail Skobelev

Mikhail Skobelev

Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Dressed in white uniform and mounted on a white horse, and always in the thickest of the fray, he was known and adored by his soldiers as the "White...

 through the Balkan Mountains

Balkan Mountains

The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...

, witnessed the Battle of Shipka and accompanied the army to San Stefano

Yesilköy

Yeşilköy is a neighborhood of the Bakırköy municipality of Istanbul, Turkey.It is located along the Marmara Sea about 11 kilometers west of Istanbul's historic city center...

 near Istanbul.

After the Liberation of Bulgaria

Liberation of Bulgaria

In Bulgarian historiography, the term Liberation of Bulgaria is used to denote the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of Bulgarian state with the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, after the complete conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which...

 of Ottoman rule in 1878 Slaveykov struggled for a democratic constitution together with Petko Karavelov

Petko Karavelov

Petko Karavelov was a leading Bulgarian liberal politician who served as Prime Minister on four occasions....

 as a deputy in the first Grand National Assembly

National Assembly of Bulgaria

The National Assembly of Bulgaria is the unicameral parliament and body of the legislative of the Republic of Bulgaria.The National Assembly of Bulgaria was established in 1879 with the Constitution of Bulgaria.-Ordinary National Assembly:...

, became the Chairman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria

Chairman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria

The Chairperson of the National Assembly of Bulgaria presides the Bulgarian Parliament...

 in 1880, Minister of the Enlightenment and the Internal Affairs (1880-1881), issued the newspapers Osten (1879), Tselokupna Balgariya (1879), Nezavisimost (1880-1883), Tarnovska konstitutsiya (1884), Istina (1886), Sofiyski dnevnik (1886) and Pravda (1888).

Because of his pronouncedly democratic ideas and his participation in the political struggles he was arrested, forbidden to teach and his pension was reduced. Deeply embittered, he died on 1 July 1895 in Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

.

Slaveykov had a total of eight children, among whom the politicians Ivan Slaveykov and Hristo Slaveykov, the publicist Racho Slaveykov and the fellow poet Pencho Slaveykov

Pencho Slaveykov

Pencho Petkov Slaveykov was a noted Bulgarian poet and one of the participants in the Misal circle. He was the youngest son of the writer Petko Slaveykov....

.

Works

Both in his original and imitative works Slaveykov further developed the Bulgarian language. He wrote patriotic songs and poems, love and landscape lyric poetry under the influence of Russian poets Aleksandr Pushkin

Aleksandr Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature....

, Afanasy Fet

Afanasy Fet

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet , was a Russian poet regarded as one of the finest lyricists in Russian literature.-Origins:...

 and Nikolay Karamzin. Parts of his historical patriotic poems likely influenced by Paisius' Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya have been preserved: Krumiada, Kralev Marko, Samuilka. He issued two collections of folk songs, in 1860 and 1868, and restored the collected proverbs, numbering 17,000. Besides being a poet, writer and journalist, Slaveykov also left his mark on the Bulgarian literature

Bulgarian literature

Bulgarian literature is literature written by Bulgarians or residents of Bulgaria, or written in the Bulgarian language; usually the latter is the defining feature...

 as a translator, philologist, folklorist, the originator of Bulgarian children's literature and author of textbooks. He also worked in the spheres of geography, history and biography. He printed Balgarski pritchi, poslovitsi i harakterni dumi, researched the Bulgarian customs, ritual system, demonology and psychology, and wrote under many pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

s.

Honour

Slaveykov Peak

Slaveykov Peak

Slaveykov Peak is the sharp peak rising to 1760 m in Imeon Range on Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The feature is situated 2 km southwest of the summit Mount Foster, to which it is linked by Zavet Saddle, 1.12 km north-northeast of Neofit Peak, 2.4 km...

 in Imeon Range

Imeon Range

Imeon Range is a mountain range occupying the interior of Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Extending 30 km in southwest-northeast direction between Cape James and Cape Smith, and 6.8 km wide...

 on Smith Island

Smith Island (South Shetland Islands)

Smith Island is long and wide, lying west of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands of the British Antarctic Territory. Surface area ....

 in the South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

, Antarctica is named for Petko Slaveykov.