The women who touched the most gentle soul strings of genius Bulgarian poet Hristo Botev are described as remarkable and spiritual. They are not only beautiful and erudite, but are also devoted to high ideals. Who were these women and why they remained in the shadow of one of Bulgaria’s greatest poets? We learn some details about his wife Veneta from the scarce biographical data kept until nowadays. We listened for many years that the genius Bulgarian poet and revolutionary was so obsessed by the idea for Bulgaria’s liberation from the Ottoman Rule, that there was no place for a woman in his heart. According to researchers and analysts, this is proven by the poem To My First Love where the Bulgarian poet tells his wife that he cannot think of love while his people are still suffering. However, if we look deeper into Hristo Botev’s works we would find love in all its dimensions. That is why publisher Plamen Totev reissued the book of poetry of his favorite Bulgarian poet, in order to reveal the love that inspired him to write every single verse:

We named the book To My First Love just like Hristo Botev’s popular poem. We published in this book all his poems and tell the readers why they were written. We also included papers of Ludmila Gabrovska where we provide details about the women he loved. We tried to show Hristo Botev as a person who had his emotions as well. We also clarify the circumstances that made him write these poems.

In Plamen Totev’s words, none of Hristo Botev’s biography books reveals the female characters that filled the poet with inspiration and emphasizes their importance to the cultural development of Bulgaria. Ludmila Gabrovska uses authentic historical sources in her new collection to build with particular precision and documentary accuracy the characters which left a permanent mark in Hristo Botve’s heart:

We show Hristo Botev in a different light as a man who loved and who was inspired by love. Ludmila Gabrovska managed to find little known facts and details. The book is wonderful and very interesting. The colored illustrations are based on paintings of the remarkable contemporary Bulgarian artist Ralitsa Dencheva. It contains many authentic photos of the women the great Bulgarian poet loved. Readers cannot only see how these women looked, but also trace their point of intersection with the poet Hristo Botev. Three women left a trace in Botev’s life. The first one is teacher Parashkeva Shushulova who studied in Russia. She was extremely intelligent and erudite person and perhaps these were the qualities that attracted Botev’s interest the most. They met in Russia for the first time. Their second meeting was in Botev’s home town of Kalofer where Parashkeva worked as a teacher. People often saw them together, which was not well-accepted in a patriarchal society. This relationship made people wonder whether the poem To My First Love was dedicated to Paraskeva Sushulova or Botev’s next beloved woman Maria Goranova also known as Mina?

According to some contemporary versions, this poem was dedicated to Mina, because she was the woman with the wonderful voice mentioned in the poem itself. Mina studied in Prague and although she could have had a brilliant music career abroad she preferred to return to Bulgaria, because she believed that her mission was to contribute to the Bulgarian education and the emancipation of women in her motherland, which sounded quite outrageous in the second half of the 19^th century. Botev’s third woman was Veneta. She was an exceptionally strong woman who left her first husband despite the habits that existed in the Bulgarian society at that time. Veneta took her child and went to Romania where she later met Hristo Botev. She accepted his ideas and fully supported him in his deeds. This is perhaps the character come true in Botev’s popular poem, Plamen Totev points out and adds:

In fact we tried to look beyond Botev’s standard image, so that people perceive him as a person of flesh and blood. We are not looking for any sensation, but want to follow the logical events only. This is not an ordinary collection of facts, but is rather a story of the loves of his life.

English version Kostadin Atanasov