Georgi Rakovski

Georgi Rakovski
Bulgarian revolutionary and writer
Born	1821 (1821) Kotel, Bulgaria (at this time Ottoman empire)
Died	9 October 1867(1867-10-09) (aged 45–46) Bucharest, Romania

Georgi Stoykov Rakovski (Bulgarian: Георги Стойков Раковски) (1821 – 9 October 1867), known also Georgi Sava Rakovski (Bulgarian: Георги Сава Раковски), born Sabi Stoykov Popovich (Bulgarian: Съби Стойков Попович), was a 19th-century Bulgarian revolutionary, freemason, writer and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival and resistance against Ottoman rule.

Born in Kotel to a wealthy and patriotic family, he attended monastery schools in his hometown and in Karlovo, and in 1837, went to study in the Greek Orthodox College in Istanbul. In 1841, he was sentenced to death whilst involved in revolutionary plans against the Turks, but thanks to a Greek friend, managed to escape to France. A year-and-a-half later, he returned to Kotel, only to be arrested again in 1845. Sent to Istanbul for seven years of solitary confinement, he was released in May 1848.

He decided to remain in Istanbul, where he worked as a lawyer and tradesman, and took part in campaigns for a Bulgarian national church. Rakovski was soon arrested once more, this time due to his creation of a secret society of Bulgarians to assist the Russians in the Crimean War. While being deported to Istanbul, he escaped, and gathered together a group of rebels. In June 1854, he was transferred to Bulgaria.

Between 1854 and 1860, Rakovski spent his time writing, publishing reviews, and avoiding arrest.

He penned his best-known work, Gorski Patnik (translated as A Traveller in the Woods or Forest Wanderer), while hiding from Turkish authorities near Kotel during the Crimean War (1853–56). Considered one of the first Bulgarian literary poems, it was not actually published until 1857. The published version differed from the first version, in that it had a clearer plot and improved style.