October 14, 1870 — The Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee Publishes Its First Programme
The Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee published its first programme in the newspaper Svoboda (Liberty). The text set out the committee’s central purpose: the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule through both peaceful means and armed struggle. It also reflected Lyuben Karavelov’s federalist ideas, including a Danubian federation in which participating states would enjoy equal rights. The programme mattered because it turned revolutionary feeling into a political platform. It showed that the Bulgarian liberation movement was not only a network of committees and activists, but also a movement debating future statehood, citizenship, and relations with neighbouring peoples. In the years before the April Uprising and the Russo-Turkish War, such documents helped give ideological shape to the struggle for national independence.
October 14, 1969 — Construction Begins on Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant
Ground was broken for the construction of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, Bulgaria’s first nuclear power facility. The project became one of the largest industrial and energy undertakings of the socialist period, designed to supply electricity for a rapidly industrializing economy. Built on the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria, Kozloduy later became central to the country’s energy system and to debates over technology, safety, sovereignty, and European integration. Its construction reflected the ambitions of the period: large-scale infrastructure, close cooperation with the Soviet bloc, and a belief that nuclear power symbolized modernity. Decades later, Kozloduy remained strategically important, while several older reactors became part of complex negotiations around Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union.
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