Georgi Benkovski

Who was Georgi Benkovski?

Georgi Benkovski was the pseudonym of Gavril Gruev Hlatev, a Bulgarian revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the Bulgarian anti-Ottoman April Uprising of 1876 and apostle of its 4th Revolutionary District.

Born around 1843 to the family of the small-time merchant and craftsman Gruyo Hlatev, Benkovski was a native of the bustling sub-Balkan town of Koprivshtitsa and had two sisters, Kuna and Vasilya. Due to his difficult childhood, Benkovski had two drop out of school after finishing third grade in order to be tutored as a tailor by his mother and make a living. Discontent with his job, he became a frieze dealer and left for Asia Minor together with a friend to sell their products with little success. For around ten years, Benkovski lived in various cities of the Orient, including Istanbul, İzmir and Alexandria, engaging in various professions. His later stories described his work as a bodyguard of the Persian consul, claiming his uniform was so beautiful people thought he was the consul himself. During his travels, Benkovski learned seven foreign languages vernacularly: Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Persian.