Georgi Benkovski

Georgi Benkovski (Bulgarian: Георги Бенковски) (1843 – 12 May 1876) was the pseudonym of Gavril Gruev Hlatev (Гаврил Груев Хлътев), a Bulgarian revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the Bulgarian anti-Ottoman April Uprising of 1876 and apostle of its 4th Revolutionary District.

Born around 1843 to the family of the small-time merchant and craftsman Gruyo Hlatev, Benkovski was a native of the bustling sub-Balkan town of Koprivshtitsa and had two sisters, Kuna and Vasilya. Due to his difficult childhood, Benkovski had to drop out of school after finishing third grade in order to be trained as a tailor by his mother and make a living. Discontent with his job, he became a frieze dealer and left for Asia Minor together with a friend to sell their products, with little success. For some ten years Benkovski lived in various cities of the Orient, including Istanbul (Tsarigrad), İzmir (Smyrna) and Alexandria, engaging in various professions. His later stories describe his work as a bodyguard of the Persian consul, claiming his uniform was so beautiful people thought he was the consul himself. During his travels, Benkovski learned seven foreign languages to the level of basic competency: Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Persian.

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