July 22 left two very different marks on Bulgaria’s history — one military, born out of liberation, the other personal, etched into the world’s highest peaks.
July 22, 1878 — Bulgaria’s Armed Forces Are Born
Twelve battalions of opalchentsi — the volunteer militiamen who had fought alongside Russian forces during the Liberation War — were formally organized into the new Bulgarian Armed Forces. Under the freshly adopted Tarnovo Constitution, all men between the ages of 21 and 40 became eligible for military service.
Within just a few years the young army was reorganized into full infantry and cavalry brigades, laying the foundation for a force that would fight — and win — its first war as an independent nation against Serbia in 1885.
July 22, 2017 — A Bulgarian Mountaineering Milestone
Mountaineer Boyan Petrov summited Gasherbrum II (8,035 m) in Pakistan, becoming the first Bulgarian to scale nine of the world’s eight-thousander peaks, all without supplementary oxygen. Remarkably, Petrov made the climb just eleven months after being severely injured in a car accident, and despite living with diabetes and having survived cancer.
He would summit a tenth peak, Dhaulagiri, later that same year, before going missing in 2018 while attempting Shishapangma — a final chapter that made his achievements all the more poignant.
Keep exploring what happened on this week in Bulgarian history: July 21 | July 23 | July 24. For more on the country behind the dates, visit our Bulgaria travel guides and the Bulgaria From Above series.
