Ivan Vazov’s Grave

The tomb of the renowned Bulgarian writer Ivan Vazov is situated in the garden behind the Church of St. Constantine and Helena in the heart of Sofia. It has remained untouched since 1921, when Vazov was buried with tremendous pomp and circumstance by the whole Bulgarian population. The monument is a big Vitos stone from the Morens, transported expressly to attest to the writer’s deep affection for Bulgaria’s landscape.

The precise date of Vazov’s birth is debatable. Saba and Mincho Vazov, his parents, had a strong effect on the young poet.

Mincho sent Ivan to Kalofer after he completed elementary school in Sopot, assigning him[clarification required] assistant teacher. After finishing his final examinations in Kalofer, the young instructor returned to Sopot to work at his father’s grocery store. The next year, his father sent him to Naiden Gerov’s school in Plovdiv. Vazov took his initial steps as a poet there.

He returned to Sopot only to depart for Oltenița, Romania, where his father wanted him to work as an apprentice and learn trade at his uncle’s. Ivan Vazov had zero interest in the trade profession. He was instead engrossed in reading. Soon after, he escaped his uncle’s home and travelled to Brăila, where he met Hristo Botev, a Bulgarian revolutionary and poet, and lived with the Bulgarian exiled revolutionaries.

In 1874, he became involved in the fight for his country’s freedom from the Ottoman Empire. In 1875, he returned to Sopot and joined the local revolutionary committee. Following the collapse of the April Uprising of 1876, he was forced to depart the nation, returning to Galaţi, where the majority of the surviving revolutionaries were deported. He was selected as the committee’s secretary there.

Botev, the intellectual head of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement, had most likely a major influence on Vazov. He began penning his renowned poetry in Romania alongside Botev and a few other Bulgarian exiles. Priaporetz and Gusla, his debut book, was published in 1876, followed by “Bulgaria’s Sorrows” in 1877.

As a consequence of the Russo-Turkish War, Bulgaria recovered its independence in 1878, and Vazov composed the classic Epic of the Forgotten. He went on to become the editor of the political magazines Science and Dawn. However, because to the persecution of the russophile political movement, he was driven into exile once again, this time to Odessa. He began teaching after returning to Bulgaria with the assistance of his mother, Suba Vazova. Vazov moved on to Svishtov, where he worked as a public servant.

In 1889, he relocated to Sofia and began publishing the review Dennitsa.

The most renowned work of traditional Bulgarian literature is Vazov’s 1888 book Under the Yoke, which recounts Ottoman tyranny of Bulgaria and has been translated into over 30 languages.

Vazov thereafter became a prominent and well-respected figure in the social and cultural life of newly independent Bulgaria. He passed away on September 22, 1921.