Leonid Erihonov

The name of Hristo Botev became widely known in Russia in connection with the April Uprising. The Russian press in June-July 1876 repeatedly mentioned the name of Hristo Botev in numerous correspondences dedicated to the Bulgarian uprising as one of the prominent figures of the liberation movement in Bulgaria. Naturally, there were also significant exaggerations and inaccuracies in the newspaper reports, which are explained not only by ignorance, but also by the desire to present Bulgarian events to Russian society in a certain light. These newspaper notes are interesting insofar as they contain information about the revolutionary poet.

The nature of the Enlightenment must be clarified, as this will allow a more correct understanding of the ideological and political struggle in Bulgaria in the 1860s and 1870s. Scholars who have studied the Bulgarian Enlightenment in the period in question (Jacques Nathan, Mikhail Dimitrov) note the following features: 1. The Enlightenment is a reactionary ideology of the wealthy merchants and artisans; 2. It is opposed to the ideology of the revolutionaries; 3. The ideas of the Enlightenment are opposed to the views of the Russian revolutionary democrats. Mikhail Dimitrov points out that "after the Crimean War, the Enlightenment was adopted by the entire bourgeois class in our country". 1. In the national struggles during this period (the 1860s and 1870s, L. E.) they played a demobilizing role. 2 "It is characteristic of the Enlightenment as an ideological trend that it preferred the path of evolution to revolution, 3 In one of his last works, Mich. Dimitrov comes to the conclusion: "the Enlightenment lent a hand to Turkophilism, it was an ideology for the fight against the revolutionary movement and became a common weapon of all bourgeois political trends before the Liberation, on both sides of the Danube. 4 In the above conclusions, M. Dimitrov puts an equal sign between the Enlightenment, evolutionism and Turkophilism. Jacques Nathan in his book "The Bulgarian Revival" also speaks of the opposition between the Enlightenment and revolutionaries. "While - writes Jacques Nathan - the enlighteners and churchmen expressed the interests of the wealthy elite of the Bulgarian people, the revolutionaries were the exponents of the interests of the declining guilds, the vast majority of the peasants and a part of the emerging bourgeois class (the liberal part)" 5 Analyzing Karavelov's worldview, Jacques Nathan and Mich. Dimitrov oppose him to Rakovski and Botev - as an enlightener of revolutionaries. Grozy Grozev in "History of Bulgarian Philosophy" distinguishes two directions of public thought in Bulgaria in the 60s-70s of the 19th century, opposing each other - the revolutionary and the enlightened.

K. Zhinzifov (1839 - 1877) spent half of his life, almost 19 years, in Russia. In Macedonia, under the influence of D. Miladinov and his personal participation in the struggle for his native language and school, he developed into an ardent patriot of his enslaved fatherland. Such Zhinzifov remained until the end of his life. After his arrival in Russia, Zhinzifov, like many other representatives of Slavic youth, was taken under the protection of the Slavic Committee and became one of its graduates. He became close to the Slavophiles (I. S. Aksakov, N. A. Popov, P. I. Bartenev) and entered their ideological circle. Of the Bulgarians who received education in the 1950s-1970s in Russia, K. Zhinzifov was the most orthodox like-minded person and associate of I. S. Aksakov. In 1861, Zhinzifov began collaborating with I. S. Aksakov's newspaper "Den" (1861-1865), then continued in the newspapers "Moskva" and "Moskvich" (1867-1868). After Aksakov's publications ceased to be published, Zhinzifov participated in the organs close to the editor of "Den" - "Moskovskiye Vedomosti", "Sovremennaya letopis" and "Pravoslavnoe obozrenie". The Bulgarian publicist was a close person in the Aksakov household. He treated I. S. Aksakov with extreme respect, as an exceptionally noble, good and honest man", 1 In one of his letters, Zhinzifov wrote: The house of Aksakov and the house of Bartenev will remain forever in my memory, wherever my fate takes me. "2 It was probably not pleasant to make a remark to you about the exam in more than one glass of wine, but Zhinzifov perceived Aksakov's words as from a close and playful person and therefore shared with Bartenev:,, Ivan Sergeevich gave me quiet and calm instruction and suggestion about the way of my life 3