During an event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising, Evelina Slavcheva, President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), asserted that the April Uprising of 1876 marks the definitive start of the Bulgarian national revolution, a point she called for to be established in global historiography. Speaking at the All-Bulgarian Solemn Assembly, the BAS President emphasized the Academy’s commitment to preserving national memory as the oldest institution of modern Bulgaria. Slavcheva stated that the Academy accepted the responsibility to unify the efforts of the scientific community, civic groups, local authorities, and state institutions under the banner of national memory.
She characterized the 1876 events as the crucial beginning of the Bulgarian national revolution, aligning with the view of historian Prof. Nikolay Genchev, who defined the revolt as a radical act of state-building. According to this perspective, the uprising continued during the Russo-Turkish War, involving Bulgarian volunteers.
Slavcheva noted that the conflict was viewed not solely as an imperial struggle for the Bosphorus, but significantly as a response to the massacres of April 1876, which, she argued, led to the reappearance of the Bulgarian state on the European map. She highlighted the deep connection between the BAS and the legacy of the uprising, pointing out that members of the Bulgarian Literary Society—the BAS’s predecessor—were direct participants in the events. The President also acknowledged prominent chroniclers of the uprising, including Stoyan Zaimov and Zahari Stoyanov, emphasizing that the path to freedom was built through both intellectual effort and action.
Slavcheva concluded by urging contemporary Bulgarian historians to adopt the intellectual framework of Nikolay Genchev, advocating for the recognition of the April Uprising as the legitimate commencement of the Bulgarian national revolution in world scholarship.
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It is important that the historical weight of the April Uprising is recognized as the definitive start of the revolution.