Liberation of Bulgaria in the context of "Barakovo, Bulgaria"

The history of Ottoman Bulgaria spans nearly 500 years, beginning in the late 14th century, with the Ottoman conquest of smaller kingdoms from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire. In the late 19th century, Bulgaria was liberated from the Ottoman Empire, and by the early 20th century it was declared independent.

The brutal suppression of the Bulgarian April Uprising of 1876 and the public outcry it caused across Europe led to the Constantinople Conference, where the Great Powers tabled a joint proposal for the creation of two autonomous Bulgarian vilayets, largely corresponding to the ethnic boundaries drawn a decade earlier with the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate.

The medieval Bulgarian army was the primary military body of the First and the Second Bulgarian Empires, and some Puppet states of the former, like the Despotate of Dobruja. During the first decades after the foundation of the country, the army consisted of a Bulgar cavalry and a Slavic infantry. The core of the Bulgarian army was the heavy cavalry, which consisted of ca. 12,000 heavily armed riders. At its height in the 9th and 10th centuries, it was one of the most formidable military forces in Europe and was feared by its enemies. There are several documented cases of Byzantine commanders abandoning an invasion because of a reluctance to confront the Bulgarian army on its home territory.

The army was intrinsically linked to the very existence of the Bulgarian state. Its success under Tsar Simeon I the Great marked the creation of a wide-ranging empire, and its defeat in a prolonged war of attrition in the early 11th century meant the end of Bulgarian independence. When the Bulgarian state was reestablished in 1185, a series of capable emperors achieved a remarkable string of victories over the Byzantines and the Western Crusaders, but as the state and its army fragmented in the 13th and 14th centuries, it proved unable to halt the Ottoman advance, which resulted in the conquest of all of Bulgaria by 1396/1422. It would not be until 1878, with the Liberation of Bulgaria, that a Bulgarian military would be restored.

Dulovo (Bulgarian: Дулово [ˈduɫovo], Turkish: Akkadınlar, lit. "White women"; Romanian: Accadânlar) is a town in Silistra Province in northeastern Bulgaria, in the Ludogorie region. As the administrative centre of the homonymous Dulovo Municipality, it is the third largest town in the province after Silistra and Tutrakan. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 6,621.

Dulovo, then a village, was first mentioned in an Ottoman document of 1573 as "Akkadınlar", meaning "White Women". Even before the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, it had a mixed population of Bulgarians (settlers from the region of Preslav) and Turks, which is still reflected in the ethnic composition today. Following the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria was forced to cede it to Romania along with all of Southern Dobruja. It was also a district centre of Durostor County under Romanian rule. The village was given back to Bulgaria according to the Treaty of Craiova of 1940. In 1942, it acquired its present name (in honour of the early medieval Bulgarian Dulo clan, with the Bulgarian placename suffix –ovo). On 30 January 1960, Dulovo was granted town status.

Samuil (Bulgarian: Самуил [sɐmuˈiɫ]; Turkish: Işıklar) is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Razgrad Province, located in the geographic region of Ludogorie. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Samuil Municipality, which lies in the southeastern part of the Province. As of December 2009, the village has a population of 1,543 inhabitants.

Samuil lies among the Samuil Heights in the Ludogorie Plateau, near the second highest hill in the Danubian Plain (501 metres). The population consists of Bulgarians, Turks and Romani. The area was inhabited by the Getae and the Romans in Antiquity and by the Slavs and Bulgars in the Middle Ages. It was part of the First Bulgarian Empire and the Second Bulgarian Empire, but fell under Ottoman rule as early as 1388. The construction of Baron Hirsch's Rousse-Kaspichan-Varna railway line in 1867-1868 turned the small village of Ishiklar into a railway station of local importance, with the first settlers being Greek merchants and harvesters. After the Liberation of Bulgaria, many Bulgarians settled in the village, which was renamed to Gara Samuil ("Samuil Station") and then to Samuil in honour of the medieval tsar Samuil of Bulgaria.

Vasil Levski (Bulgarian: Васил Левски, spelled in old Bulgarian orthography as Василъ Львскій, pronounced [vɐˈsiɫ ˈlɛfski]), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (Васил Иванов Кунчев; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Levski founded the Internal Revolutionary Organisation, and sought to foment a nationwide uprising through a network of secret regional committees.

Born in the Sub-Balkan town of Karlovo to middle-class parents, Levski became an Orthodox monk before emigrating to join the two Bulgarian Legions in Serbia and other Bulgarian revolutionary groups. Abroad, he acquired the nickname Levski ("Lionlike"). After working as a teacher in Bulgarian lands, he propagated his views and developed the concept of his Bulgaria-based revolutionary organisation, an innovative idea that superseded the foreign-based detachment strategy of the past. In Romania, Levski helped institute the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, composed of Bulgarian expatriates. During his tours of Bulgaria, Levski established a wide network of insurrectionary committees. Ottoman authorities, however, captured him at an inn near Lovech and executed him by hanging in Sofia.

Lukovit (Bulgarian: Луковит [ˈɫukovit]) is a town in northern Bulgaria, part of Lovech Province. It is situated on both banks of the Zlatna Panega between the Danubian Plain and the foot of Stara Planina. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 9,630.

The town was first mentioned in Ottoman registers of 1430. In 1495, it had 47 households. Between 1683 and 1687, Lukovit was part of an Ottoman process of forceful Islamization, but was never completely converted as late as 1860 when it had 250 Muslim Bulgarian and 260 Eastern Orthodox households. After the Liberation of Bulgaria, all the Muslims left the town.