Една инициатива на ТЦБК за материално подпомагане на българското националноосвободително движение (1867-1868 г.)
An Initiative of the Clandestine Central Bulgarian Committee for Assisting the Bulgarian National Liberation Movement (1867-1868)

Summary/Abstract: On January 8, 1868 the newspaper “Narodnost” carried an appeal for collecting funds to help the Bulgarians who had come in Romania after the passing of the detachments of P. Hitov and F. Totyu in 1867 and the repressions of Midhat Pasha over the Bulgarian population. This article presents the initiative of the Clandestine Central Bulgarian Committee and its newspaper “Narodnost”. Similar campaigns of the Slav charity committees in aid of other fighting Balkan peoples after the Crimean War are examined. Space is given also to an initiative in the Russian periodical press after the middle of 1867, launched specially in favour of the suffering Bulgarians. In connection with that the view is substantiated that the appeal in “Narodnost” was influenced by this initiative in the Russian press, mostly in the Slavophil mouthpiece, the newspaper “Moskva”. Numerous similar points are discovered, the most important being that officially the subscriptions were announced with a charity goal, but the idea was with the collected funds to help the national liberation struggles. The progress of the initiative and its results are followed up. Since chronologically it coincided with the period of crisis in the Clandestine Central Bulgarian Committee, the processes in the committee are also surveyed. We have categorical and clear information about funds donated by the Russian newspapers “Moskva” and “Moskovskie Vedomosti” and also by Kiprian’s Monastery. From the collected funds aid was provided to Bulgarians who had taken part in the Second Bulgarian Legion. Part of them, joined the detachments recruited in the spring of 1868. In this way, although indirectly, the funds from the subscription announced in “Narodnost” helped the Bulgarian revolutionary movement. Of all the attempts of the Clandestine Central Bulgarian Committee to ensure material assistance for the liberation struggle of the compatriots, this action yielded the best results. In this sense it is assumed that it constituted a positive attempt for securing funds for the Bulgarian national liberation movement.

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