Georgi Benkovski - Bulgarian revolutionary

Born September 21, 1843 in the town of Koprivshtitsa.

Georgi Benkovski was one of the leaders of the 1876 Bulgarian April Uprising.

His real name was Gavril Gruev Hlutev.

In 1866 he left his home town and spent the next 10 years trading in Anatolia.

In 1875 the Bulgarian revolutionaries in Gurgevo started a feverish preparation for the April Uprising. Bulgaria was divided in four revolutionary districts. In January 1876 the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (BRCC) in Romania chose Panayot Volov as Chief Apostle of the fourth revolutionary district. Georgi Benkovski was appointed his deputy assistant. The two of them crossed the Danube River and the Balkan and headed for the town of Klissoura. Impressed by the intellectual capacity of Benkovski, Volov decided to give up his position of an Apostle to him. The April Uprising burst out on 20 April 1876. It was followed by days of joy and excitement. After the defeat of the Uprising Georgi Benkovski escaped to the Stara Planina Mountain with what was left of his detachment. That was how he met Neiu Krachunov, a shepherd from the Ostrilya neighborhood of the village of Cherni Vit. The shepherd concealed the rebels in a cave (today the Benkovska peshtera cave). Later on the detachment came upon Neiu Brusnenina who together with Vulio Stoilov, Mechkata (the Bear) by nickname, betrayed Benkovski and the rest of the rebels. A bloody drama occurred in the Kostina place on 25 May 1876. That was where and when Chieftain Georgi Benkovski was killed. He was decapitated. His head was first sent to the town of Teteven and then to Sofia. The body of Benkovski was buried by Maria Udrenova from the town of Teteven.

Today, the grateful generations gather in the Kostina place every year to commemorate this tragic date in the Bulgarian history and to reproduce the last moments from the life of the Chieftain.