Their plans fortunately coincided with the interests of the Balkan people who were in dire need of a powerful ally, capable of breaking the military might of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of Bulgarian patriots took part in the resistance struggles of Serbs and Greeks, as well as in the wars waged by Russia against Turkey. Scores of thousands of Bulgarians were forced to emigrate in the wake of every Russian military campaign on the Balkans, particularly the one of 1829, in order to save themselves from reprisals. Most of those refugees settled in Russia.

Bulgarian officer serving

During the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-1829, Georgi Mamarchev, a Bulgarian officer serving in the Russian army, made an attempt to organize a general uprising in Bulgaria, but his attempt failed. The preparations for a mass uprising continued, however, and in 1835 an armed uprising, known under the name of Velcho's Conspiracy, broke out in Turnovo under the leadership of Velcho the Glazier and Captain Grandfather Nikola. During the same year a spontaneous peasant revolt broke out in North- Western Bulgaria, caused by the refusal of the local authorities to apply the agrarian reform and by their ar-bitrary actions. This revolt was followed by three uprisings in succession in the same region — in 1836, 1841 and 1850.

The one in 1850 was particularly massive. It was preceded by a secret general meeting of delegates from four districts, which specified the aims of the struggle, the date of the up-rising and the way in which they were to proceed. The rebel detachments, led by Tsolo Todorov, Ivan Koulin, Petko Marinov, Purvan Vurbanov, Captain Krustyu and others, numbered a total of some 20,000 men. They blocked the numerous Turkish garrisons in Vidin, Lom and Belogradchik and established control over the villages in the region. The insurgents were routed by the regular troops which were not late in arriving, but the government of the Sultan was forced to take measures for curbing the arbitrariness of the local authorities and beys.

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