Amid air-raid sirens, the restored monument to Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev (1848-1876) was officially unveiled in the Ukrainian town of Izmail on Thursday. The event was part of the week-long celebrations of the Day of the Bessarabian Bulgarians, October 29.
The bust of Hristo Botev in Izmail was unveiled on March 20, 1978 and is the first monument to the Bulgarian poet and revolutionary in modern-day Ukraine. The unveiling coincided with the 100th anniversary of Bulgaria’s liberation from Ottoman rule. The bust was created by Izmail sculptor Mihail Nedopak.
Thursday’s unveiling of the restored monument was organized by the Sveta Sofia Izmail Bulgarian community, chaired by Nikolay Ivanov, and by the Izmail State University of Humanities, headed by Rector Yaroslav Kichuk. The monument stands in front of the university building.
Official guests at the event included Marina Denoy, Deputy Head of the Izmail District State Administration, Bulgarian Consul General in Odesa Svetoslav Ivanov, Anton Kisse, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament and President of the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine, Bulgarian Deputy Culture Minister Ashot Kazaryan, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, and Bulgarian folk singer Ilia Lukov.
Representatives of the town and local authorities, of the municipal council and mayors of Bulgarian villages in Izmail District took part in the flower-laying ceremony, together with faculty members and students from the Izmail State University of Humanities.
In her remarks, Marina Denoy stressed that Thursday’s event holds a deep spiritual significance for all Bessarabian Bulgarians, as well as for herself as a Bulgarian by descent, as it unites the memory of the struggle for freedom with the yearning for peace and unity. “For us, Bessarabian Bulgarians, it is deeply significant that our guests from Bulgaria have arrived at this time, despite the difficulties and the ongoing full-scale military aggression against Ukraine,” she said.
On behalf of Rodion Abashev, Chairperson of the Izmail District State Administration, Denoy thanked those who participated in restoring the monument, as well as those who preserve Bulgarian culture and traditions. “We thank the Armed Forces of Ukraine for defending the skies above us and giving us the opportunity to work, study and live,” she said.
A delegation from Dobrich, consisting of Mihail Stoev, Georgi Kazandzhiev, and Svetoslav Gochev, also attended the event in Izmail. For over thirty years, the Bulgarian community in Izmail has maintained friendly relations with the city of Dobrich, and the two cities are officially twinned. Gochev read out a congratulatory message from the Dobrich Scientific Council Chair to the Sveta Sofia Bulgarian community in Izmail and its chairman Nikolay Ivanov. The letter expresses sincere congratulations and gratitude to the Bulgarian community in Ukraine for its efforts to preserve the Bulgarian language, culture, and traditions.
Hristo Botev is closely associated with Odesa, Izmail, Bolhrad and Zadunaivka. In Izmail, Botev worked as a teacher from 1869 until the spring of 1871. Every year on January 6 and June 2, the dates of his birth and death, Bulgarian associations and organizations commemorate him with conferences and flower-laying ceremonies.
Since the resettlement of Bulgarian migrants to Bessarabia (today’s southern Ukraine) in the 19th century, a portion of them later settled in Izmail on the Danube River. According to the most recent official census in Ukraine, Bulgarians in Izmail are the third-largest ethnic group, numbering nearly 8,000 people, or around 10% of the town’s population.
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