Georgi Rakovski assembles the first armed group…

Georgi Rakovski assembles the first armed group of Bulgarians having the avowed goal of achieving independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1862.

Rakovski, well-educated and experienced in the 1841 uprising and the drive for ecclesiastical independence, envisions a federal republic including all Balkan nations except Greece.

His fighters are to stir a full-scale national uprising after crossing into Bulgaria from assembly points in Romania and Serbia, but the Serbs, who had supported the Bulgarians while they were useful in opposing the Turks, disband the Bulgarian legions in Serbia when they no longer serve that purpose.

Although Rakovski dies in 1867 without achieving Bulgarian independence, he unites the emigre intelligentsia, and the presence of his army influences Turkish recognition of the Bulgarian church in 1870.