Opalchentsi () were

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n voluntary army units, who took part in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The people in these units were called ''opalchenets-pobornik'' (опълченец-поборник) roughly meaning "folk-" or "regiment-combatant". The Bulgarian voluntary army units for the Russo-Turkish War were gathered after the

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Grand Du ...

, announcing the War. The meeting point of the Bulgarian volunteers in Russia was the city of

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

. The Bulgarian Opalchentsi were given the

Samara flag The Samara Flag (, ''Samarsko zname'', , ''Samarskoye znamya'') is a historical military symbol of the Bulgarian Army. History The flag was woven by local nuns and given to the Bulgarian volunteers during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 b ...

bearing the images of the Holy Mother and

Saints Cyril and Methodius Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are ...

(the flag is kept in the National Museum of Military History in Sofia). The Opalchentsi took an active part in the

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and Fourth Battle of Shipka Pass and after the end of the war went on to form Bulgaria's

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

Structure

Major General

Nikolai Stoletov Nikolai Grigorevich Stoletov (; – ) was a general in the Imperial Russian and Bulgarian armies. He was the brother of physicist Aleksandr Stoletov. Stoletov was born in Vladimir and attended the Vladimir Gymnasium (grammar school) and the Ph ...

was appointed Chief of the Bulgarian Militia, with his chief of staff being Colonel Efim Rinkiewicz. Other staff officers were also appointed - Colonel Engelhart, Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor De Preradovic and others. The command staff consisted of 136 officers, among which were Bulgarian officers and non-commissioned officers in the Russian Army: *Lieutenant-Colonel Konstantin Kesyakov, *Captain Raicho Nikolov, *Lieutenants Peter Alexiev, Delev, Petko Stoyanov, Konstantin Shivarov,

Atanas Uzunov Atanas Uzunov (, born 10 November 1955) is a retired Bulgarian football referee. Born in the city of Plovdiv, his career started in 1979 and ended in the year 2000. During that time he was the first official for 189 matches (current record) in ...

, Dimitar Filov,

Danail Nikolaev Danail Tsonev Nikolaev (; 30 December 1852 – 29 August 1942) was a Bulgarian officer and Minister of War on the eve of the Balkan wars. He was the first person to attain the highest rank in the Bulgarian military, General of the infantry. He w ...

, Stefan Lyubomski, *Sub-lieutenants Stefan Kissov, Avram Gudzhev, Olympiy Panov and Costa Panitsa. Friendly doctors were appointed, including the Bulgarians Konstantin Bonev, Sava Mirkov, Konstantin Vesenkov, Andrei Bogdanov, Ivan Panov, Yakov Petkovich. The militias were trained by Russian officers. They were armed with the

Chassepot The Chassepot (pronounced ; ), officially known as , was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It replaced an assortment of muzzleloading ...

rifle, which was bought by the Ministry of Defense and the Moscow Slavic Committee. In terms of numbers and structure, the militia was comparable to a reinforced wartime infantry division. It consisted of 3 militia brigades, each consisting of 2 militia "druzhina" (the equivalent of a battalion) of 5 companies each. Later on, 6 more independent detachments formed later are included. The Bulgarian militia units were commanded by: *1st Militia Brigade, commanded by Colonel Korsakov, *2nd Militia Brigade, commanded by Colonel Leonid Vyazemski, *3rd Militia Brigade, commanded by Colonel Mikhail Tolstoy. Other independent detachments were: *7th Militia druzhina, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Tizenkhausen, *8th Militia druzhina, commanded by Staff-captain Merchanski, *9th Militia druzhina, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Lvov, *10th Militia druzhina, commanded by Major Dorshlung, *11th Militia druzhina, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Gasparevski, *12th Militia druzhina, commanded by Major Kornilovech.

Honours

One of the poems in

Ivan Vazov Ivan Minchov Vazov (; – 22 September 1921) was a Bulgarian poet, novelist, and playwright, often referred to as "the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature". He was born in Sopot, a town in the Rose Valley of Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Em ...

's ''

Epic of the Forgotten Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

'', namely " Opalchentsite na Shipka", is dedicated to them.

Opalchenie Peak Opalchenie Peak (, ) is the peak rising to at the south extremity of the ice-covered Vinson Plateau, Sentinel Range in the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It is of low topographic prominence, just , with parent summit Fukushima Peak (). The ...

Vinson Massif Vinson Massif () is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is long and wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located ab ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, is named after the Bulgarian Volunteer Force in the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War and the

Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps The Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps (, ; MAVC) was a volunteer corps of the Bulgarian Army during the Balkan Wars. It was formed on 23 September 1912 and consisted of Bulgarian volunteers from Macedonia and Thrace, regions still under ...

in the 1912–1913

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

.Opalchenie Peak.
SCAR

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about th ...

Notes

References

* С. Кисьов. ''„Българското опълчение в Освободителната руско-турска война 1877–1878 г.“'' {{Great Eastern Crisis Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Military history of Bulgaria Military units and formations of Bulgaria Battle of Shipka Pass

Structure

Honours

See also

Notes

References