On March 27, 1886, Dobri Chintulov passed away
On March 27, 1886, in Sliven, the Revival poet and educator Dobri Chintulov passed away, leaving behind an unforgettable poetic legacy.
He was born in 1822 in Sliven to a family of artisans. From an early age, Dobri Chintulov showed great curiosity and studied successively in his hometown, in Tarnovo, in Bucharest, and finally in Odessa, where he graduated from the Odessa-Kherson Theological Seminary. After returning to Bulgaria, he taught in his hometown of Sliven for 8 years, and then became head teacher in Yambol until 1861. Ten years later, he was elected as a delegate from the Sliven Diocese to the First Bulgarian Church-People’s Council in Constantinople and participated in drafting the charter of the newly established Bulgarian Exarchate.
He was also a member of the first Bulgarian literary circle, alongside Nayden Gerov, Ivan Bogorov, Dimitar Mutev, Elena Muteva, and Botyo Petkov. He authored textbooks on rhetoric, literature, Russian, French, mathematics, and music theory, which were circulated as handwritten copies by teachers and students.
Dobri Chintulov left behind a small but valuable body of poetic work—his authorship of about 20 poems has been confirmed. During his lifetime, he published only three of his works in the “Tsarigradski Vestnik” in 1849, but among them we recognize some of the most famous Bulgarian poems, which also became renowned Renaissance songs: “Where Are You, My Faithful Folk Love?”, “The Wind Howls, the Balkans Moan,” and “Rise, Rise, Balkan Warrior.” His poems had a tremendous impact on young Bulgarians and contributed to the general patriotic and revolutionary upsurge during the National Revival.
Dobri Chintulov has gone down in history as one of the shining figures—symbols of the revolutionary fervor of the National Revival period—and today many Bulgarian schools and streets bear his name.
Text: Iva Stoyanova
