page_title: Petko Slaveykov
section_title: Cultural activity and Istanbul period
hierarchical_section_title: Petko Slaveykov / Biography / Cultural activity and Istanbul period
caption_attribution_description: Statue of Petko and Pencho Slaveykov, Sofia, Bulgaria.
context_page_description: Petko Rachov Slaveykov was Bulgarian poet, publicist, public figure and folklorist.
context_section_description: Slaveykov engaged in important cultural and educational activity and had collected 2263 folk songs, sayings and proverbs until 1847. Nikola Mihaylovski introduced him to the Russian poets and writers of the time. Since 1852, Slaveykov began to print his first books: Smesena kitka, Pesnopoyka, Basnenik. He wrote the poem Boyka voyvoda in 1853 influenced by the revolutionary events surrounding the Crimean War (1853-1856), as well as many revolutionary songs. After the unsuccessful Uprising of Dyado Nikola in Tarnovo in 1856, Slaveykov concentrated his efforts in the awakening of the national consciousness among Bulgarians. As a teacher in Targovishte he issued the satirical newspaper Gayda and after working in Varna for some time left for Istanbul, where he was invited in 1864 to edit a full Bulgarian translation of the Bible (in an east Bulgarian dialect) by the Bulgarian Bible Society. The entire translation was printed in Istanbul in 1871 and was of great importance for the establishment of the east Bulgarian vernacular as the common one.
  In Istanbul Slaveykov issued the newspapers Gayda (1863-1867) and Makedoniya (1866-1872) and the magazines Ruzhitsa (1871), Pchelitsa (1871), Chitalishte (1872-1873), Zvanchatiy glumcho (1872), as well as the newspapers Shutosh (1873-1874) and Kosturka (1874). He established himself as arguably the most famous Bulgarian writer in Istanbul in the time, issued more than 60 books, newspapers and magazines, both original and translated. He took part in the struggle for an autonomous Bulgarian church and later became a teacher in the newly established Bulgarian Exarchate. He was arrested for the article Dvete kasti i vlasti in the Makedoniya newspaper and accused of relations with the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee in Bucharest.
caption: Petko Slaveykov (right sculpture) and his son Pencho (left sculpture) as immortalized on Slaveykov Square in Sofia
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