Богоров

In connection with the celebration of the 550th anniversary of the Leipzig University "Karl Marx", we were interested, among other things, in those prominent personalities who were its students. We also came across the fact that the distinguished figure of the Bulgarian revival Ivan Andreev Bogorov was a student at the University of Leipzig and we tried to get to know his activities and his life in more detail. In the material available to us on the issue that interested us the most - Bogorov's activities in Leipzig - very little is written. Only Veliko Yordanov gives some data about Bogorov in Leipzig in his book "Leipzig and the Bulgarians". We tried to find more material about Bogorov's stay in our city. But apart from the data from the register of the University of Leipzig, we could not find any other materials about him. The most important event in this period of the life of the famous enlightener is the publication of the first Bulgarian newspaper. Bogorov, who was born in 1818, had already established a reputation as a tireless fighter for the cultural progress of his people by the time he came to Leipzig, as a teacher, folklorist, and publisher of textbooks for Bulgarian schools. He was even known in scientific circles in Germany. This is evidenced by an article in the Slavic magazine Jahrbücher für slawische Literatur, Kunst und Wissenschaft on the occasion of the publication of the first issue of the newspaper "Bulgarian Eagle". In this article, Bogorov introduced himself as the author of a collection of Bulgarian folk songs and proverbs and as the translator of a geography textbook. Bogorov's most important work from the time before his stay in Leipzig was undoubtedly the publication of "First Bulgarian Grammar" in 1844 in Bucharest, with which he dealt a strong blow to the representatives of the conservative "Slavonic-Bulgarian school". Bogorov's stay in Bucharest turned out to be connected with his arrival in Leipzig. In Bucharest, he had connections with Bulgarian merchants, who probably had permanent trade relations with Leipzig as a result of a visit to the Leipzig Fair. They promised him material support and advised him to continue his education at the University of Leipzig. To determine the time when Bogorov arrived in Leipzig, we can judge from two facts that are known to us. The first is the year of the publication of his grammar. It was published in 1844 in Bucharest. In this regard, Bogorov writes in his autobiography that he personally ordered the grammar to be printed. (.... . so after leaving Veta Zagora I went to Bucharest, where I had a booklet called "First Bulgarian Grammar" printed). He used the money collected from the sale of the grammar for his trip to Leipzig. From this we can conclude that Bogorov must have stayed in Bucharest for a relatively long time after the publication of the grammar. The second fact we can rely on is an invoice from the printing house Breitkopf und Hertel, found by Veliko Yordanov, which was issued for the printing of the first issue of "Bulgarian Eagle" and bears the date April 5, 1846.