Father and son Kyurkchievs – 60 years in the service of Bulgaria
In 2025, 140 years will be celebrated since the Serbo-Bulgarian War, 110 years since Bulgaria entered World War I, and 80 years since the end of World War II. Father and son Kyurkchievs – General Grigor Petrov KYURKCHIEV and his son, medical colonel Velichko Grigorov KYURKCHIEV – took part in all these wars for the unification of the Bulgarian lands.
The Kyurkchiev family is from the town of Prilep, Macedonia, where the future general was born in October 1865. He later studied at a high school in Kyustendil, and in 1882 he entered the Military School in Sofia. Not yet graduated, Cadet Kyurkchiev participated in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885, fought bravely at Slivnitsa, Dragoman and Pirot, was awarded the Soldier’s Cross “For Bravery”, 3rd degree and received his first officer rank – Second Lieutenant. In the following years, Grigor Kyurkchiev grew in his career, served in various regiments and at the beginning of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 he was already a Lieutenant Colonel, a Company Commander in the 3rd Infantry Bdinsky Regiment. With his company, he fought in the heaviest battles of the Bulgarian army in the war – at Lozengrad and the Lyuleburgas-Bunarhisar line, where he showed skillful command and with his bravery was an example for the soldiers and officers he led. In June 1913 he already commanded the 65th Infantry Regiment, with which he actively participated in the battles of the Second Balkan War.
At the beginning of the Bulgarian participation in the First World War, Colonel Kyurkchiev was entrusted with the command of the 2nd Brigade of the 11th Macedonian Division. With his personal example, he again drew his subordinates into battle, was always on the front line and fearlessly led the actions of the brigade. Just a few weeks after the start of the fighting of the Bulgarian armies, an event occurred that will forever remain in the annals of our military history. In November 1915, during the fighting near the village of Dolno Chichevo, Macedonia, Colonel Kyurkchiev was seriously wounded by an enemy shell and due to complications, his right leg had to be amputated above the knee. Despite his wounding, Colonel Kyurkchiev refused to be transferred to the reserve and returned to the front again! This unique case of a seriously wounded commander, who, despite his situation, continues to fulfill his military duty to the Fatherland, shows what kind of character and moral qualities Grigor Kyurkchiev possesses. It is no coincidence that he was defined by his comrades at the front as the “Bravest Warrior” of Bulgaria. Colonel Kyurkchiev continued to command the brigade and lead it until the end of hostilities in 1918, when he was already a Major General.
After demobilization, Major General Kyurkchiev was the chairman of the Liquidation Commission for several years and at the same time was the honorary chairman of the organizations of the Macedonian brotherhoods and of the disabled from the wars in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, his life path was cut short in 1925. The general was one of those killed in the St. Nedelya Church Bombing on April 16 of the same year.
His son Velichko Kyurkchiev was born in 1895 in Shumen. From an early age he was a volunteer for the Red Cross during the wars of 1912-1913, and during the First World War he was his father’s adjutant at the front. He was close to him when he was wounded in November 1915 by an enemy shell. Velichko was also wounded, suffered hearing damage and had difficulty hearing for the rest of his life. However, he remained with his father on the front line until the end of the war. After its end, he went to study medicine in Germany, where he later specialized in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery, mainly related to injuries during military operations. He returned to Bulgaria in February 1925, where he actively worked in his specialty and at the same time continued to cooperate with the Bulgarian Red Cross. At the end of 1925, Velichko Kyurkchiev began working at the General Army Military Hospital in Sofia, which during the years of World War II was called the General Army Hospital, and today bears the name of the Military Medical Academy. Velichko Kyurkchiev worked at the hospital until the end of 1949, for years he was part of the management, serving as the head of the dental department. In the most difficult period of the war, during the bombings of Sofia in 1943-1944, Medical Colonel Velichko Kyurkchiev was one of the few doctors who were not evacuated to the countryside, but remained to work in the capital, fulfilling his professional duty to his patients. At the end of 1944 and the first months of 1945, he continued to treat wounded soldiers, being equally attentive to both Bulgarian wounded and foreign ones, regardless of which army and nation they belonged to. After 1949, Velichko Kyurkchiev had a private practice in Sofia for many years and continued to treat patients until the last days of his life. He died in Sofia in 1986.
For these 60 years of service, between 1885 and 1945, father and son Kyurkchievs showed that for them, duty to the Fatherland, the honor of the epaulette and patriotism were not just phrases, but a way of life, and with their deeds they will remain forever in Bulgarian military history.
The collection EPIC OF THE BULGARIAN WAR, volume 1, published in 1926, contains the testament of Major General Grigor Kyurkchiev to the Bulgarian Army:
„My covenant to the army is to preserve and preserve the traditions of its martial past, traditions sanctified by the blood of dear victims. The spirit of these victims hovers and will hover over the young generation, it will also revive the ideals for which ideals their brothers, fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers perished in dungeons, dungeons, laid their bones in fields, valleys, and desolate mountains. It will also revive the military virtues – obedience, self-denial, the invincible spirit, so necessary for the army, which, even after the misfortune experienced, is still the one (the army) that supports and will support the hopes of the people, that a day will come when a ray of light will fall on our land enslaved by sorrow.”
The team of the Bulgarian History Museum once again thanks Mrs. Antonia Kyurkchieva-Damstra, granddaughter of Colonel Velichko Kyurkchiev, for the donated photographs, documents and personal belongings of her glorious predecessors.
