March 3: The National Holiday of Bulgaria and the Story of a Nation's Liberation скачать в хорошем качестве

March 3: The National Holiday of Bulgaria and the Story of a Nation's Liberation

March 3: The National Holiday of Bulgaria and the Story of a Nation's Liberation Every year on *March 3**, the streets of Bulgaria fill with flags, flowers, and the sounds of military brass bands. Children lay wreaths at monuments. Statesmen deliver solemn speeches. Citizens gather in public squares to honour the past. This is **Liberation Day* — the *National Holiday of Bulgaria* — and its roots reach back to one of the most dramatic chapters in European history. --- The History of March 3: A Nation Reborn To understand why March 3 holds such profound meaning, one must first look back nearly five centuries. Bulgaria fell under Ottoman rule during the fourteenth century, and for nearly 500 years, the Bulgarian state ceased to exist as an independent political entity. Language, culture, and the Orthodox Church kept the Bulgarian identity alive, but the nation itself was extinguished. By the nineteenth century, the Bulgarian national revival was gathering force. Uprisings in 1875 and 1876 — most notably the April Uprising of 1876 — were suppressed with great violence, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Bulgarian civilians. Reports of these atrocities reached the international press and provoked widespread outrage across Europe. It was against this backdrop that Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in April 1877, launching the **Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)**. The war was fought across the Balkans with ferocity. Bulgarian volunteers fought alongside Russian forces, and pivotal battles — including the defence of the Shipka Pass in the Balkan Mountains — turned the tide decisively in Russia's favour. By the beginning of 1878, Ottoman forces had been soundly defeated, and Russian troops stood at the outskirts of Constantinople.