Grigor Nachovich

Who was Grigor Nachovich?

Grigor Dimitrov Nachovich was a Bulgarian politician and diplomat. One of the early leaders of the Conservative Party and the country's first Minister of Finance, he served as a minister in a number of Bulgarian governments from the late 1879 to 1900, and was also mayor of Sofia in 1896–1897.

Nachovich was born in the Danubian town of Svishtov in central northern Bulgaria on 3 February [O.S. 22 January] 1845 to the family of a wealthy Bulgarian merchant. He studied at the Greek-language school in Svishtov, at a French-language college and at economy schools in Paris and Vienna. He graduated in political economy in Paris and returned to Svishtov to work as a merchant. In 1866, he headed the local revolutionary committee aimed at liberating Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.

After Filip Totyu's armed detachment invaded Bulgaria in 1867, Nachovich was forced to flee to Bucharest, Romania, fearing government persecution due to his involvement in the revolutionary movement. In Romania, Nachovich co-operated with the Band of Virtues, a Bulgarian expatriate organisation, and financed volunteer participation in the Belgrade-based Second Bulgarian Legion. In 1868, he settled in Vienna. In the capital of Austria–Hungary, he worked at the local branch of his father's trading company. He founded the literary society Progress and contributed to various French and German-language newspapers. During the Serbo-Turkish conflict in 1876, Nachovich aided Bulgarian volunteers who assisted the Serbian forces. For the course of the Russo-Turkish War two years later, Nachovich served at the Russian general staff.