April 20, 1876 - the April Uprising broke out

The April Uprising broke out on April 20, 1876. It was a very well organized mass armed popular action against the opressors. In November 1875, a group of young Bulgarian revolutionaries gathered in the Romanian town of Gyurgevo. They established the so-called Gyurgevo Revolutionary Committee, which decided to start the organization of a big uprising in Bulgaria in the spring of 1876. The most important part was to prepare a united plan for the uprising. The country was divided into four districts, headed by famous revolutionaries – Stefan Stambolov, Il. Dragostinov, St. Zaimov, Panayot Volov, etc. In the end of December, the apostles and their supporters left for Bulgaria. On April 14 a meeting was convened in the region of Oborishte near Panagyurishte, on which a decision was made the uprising would start on May 1. However, the Turkish police uncovered some committees and were about to destroy the whole organization. The apostles decided to act immediately, and the uprising started ahead of schedule – on April 20. The April Uprising was a short one. It ended unsuccessfully being crushed unmercifully by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of men , women and children were cruelly killed, dozens of towns and villages burnt and many districts plundered. The torments and violence gave rise to a protesting movement in the world which became the reason the Bulgarian question to be placed with the utmost insistence on the international political scene.