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In a letter to the newspaper "Nezavisimost" from 1874, the brothers Dimitar and Konstantin Miladinov are characterized as figures of national importance. Their names are placed alongside the names of Georgi Rakovski and Petko Slaveykov. Entire centuries and thousands of years will pass - the letter emphasizes - and their name will be pronounced with reverence in Bulgarian songs, Bulgarian fairy tales, and on the sedenki... Because "The Miladinovs are forerunners, and their followers are complements of that beginning, on which the first pages of the new Bulgarian church and civil freedom will be written..."1 Whether in this case we have a letter actually sent by an unknown patriot from Tarnovo, or whether it was also composed in the editorial office of "Nezavisimost" itself, cannot be established with certainty. However, one thing can be considered indisputable - that both Karavelov and Botev, as editors of the newspaper, at least agreed with the thoughts developed in the letter and, above all, with the assessment of the Miladinov brothers. And this is indicative enough. Moreover, these "forerunners" of the great struggle for national liberation were themselves clearly aware of the great historical task they had taken upon themselves. Therefore, they could not help but foresee the dangerous risks it posed to them as "tsarist enemies". That is why, when, before the bayonets of a numerous police convoy, he was brought to trial for the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Dimitar Miladinov did not doubt for a moment that he was being led to an open death. 3 And at the same time, it was not by chance that the younger brother made such a fervent patriotic confession to his noble patron Joseph Strossmayer: that "spreading enlightenment as much as possible and preparing the people for freedom" - he was ready to sacrifice, if necessary, himself, his blood and his life for his people. And they truly sacrificed them without hesitation, so that the hearts of grateful generations would live forever in the souls of the Navskis.

Nikola Traykov was one of our conscientious, hardworking and experienced translators from Greek and Modern Greek, a commentator and editor of archival materials from the figures of the Bulgarian Revival, although he sometimes got carried away and overloaded his notes on the documents with unnecessary details. In the second half of 1964, the publishing house of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences released his new, very valuable work on the Bulgarian Revivalists - "The Miladinovi Brothers, Correspondence, researched, commented on and edited by N. Traykov". The vast majority of these letters, scattered throughout various archives, were researched, translated and printed long ago in various periodicals and books, and used by all researchers of the Miladinovi brothers. Only 7 letters from D. Miladinov to Petar Sevastiyanov, 1 to Pavel Sevastiyanov and 1 from Konstantin Miladinov to Petar Sevastiyanov, although known for a long time, have been translated and printed for the first time in the present edition. That is why Veselin Traykov, who prepared the book for printing, and the responsible editors Acad. Iv. Snegarov and Prof. T. Vlahov, had to put in the title cover instead of the word and searched - collected. Now in the present new more complete edition of the letters, reviewed, clarified and updated in the Bulgarian translation, collected in one volume, they become more suitable for scientific research and will undoubtedly greatly facilitate future biographers of the Miladinov brothers. The letters from the rich, vast and very valuable archive of the Robevi brothers, also known and used, are now given clarified and in full translation. Attached to them are letters from other individuals in the same archive that relate to the tragic life of the two brothers in prison.