May 29 brings together one of the most dramatic episodes of the liberation movement with a painful moment from the final months of communist rule.
May 29, 1876 — Hristo Botev’s Band Lands at Kozloduy
On May 29, 1876, the 200-member band led by poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev landed from the Radetsky steamer at Kozloduy on the Danube. The men had boarded the vessel in exile and forced the captain to put them ashore on Bulgarian soil.
From Kozloduy, the band headed towards the Balkan Mountains to support the April Uprising. Its journey was brief and tragic: the fighters were soon defeated and Botev was killed. Even so, the episode entered Bulgarian memory as a symbol of self-sacrifice. It brought together poetry, revolutionary organization and the readiness to take armed action when the uprising needed support.
The Radetsky steamer remains inseparable from the story. It became an image of the journey from exile towards the homeland and of the decision to head for the mountains despite the risks.
May 29, 1989 — Zhivkov Says Ethnic Turks Are Free to Emigrate
On May 29, 1989, communist leader Todor Zhivkov stated that Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks were free to emigrate to Turkey. The statement followed years of forced assimilation, officially known as the “Revival Process.”
The declaration triggered a mass exodus known as the “Big Excursion.” Hundreds of thousands of people left or tried to leave Bulgaria. The event remains a painful part of the country’s recent history and shows the human consequences of policies aimed at changing identity and limiting a community’s right to determine its own name and belonging.
Two different stories of movement therefore meet on May 29. Botev’s band travelled towards Bulgaria in the name of an uprising; decades later, Bulgarian Turks were forced to leave their homes as a result of state policy.
