Khristo Botev is considered the greatest poet in modern Bulgarian literature. Although he was also a gifted writer of journalistic prose, his literary fame is founded mainly upon some twenty superb poems. The rare combination of a powerful poetic talent, an extraordinary life, and a heroic death made him a national hero and a role model for future generations of Bulgarian poets.

Khristo Botev Petkov was born in the town of Kalofer on 25 December 1847 (6 January 1848 in the modern Gregorian calendar). His parents, Botyo Petkov, a Russian-educated schoolteacher and prominent local citizen, and Ivanka Drenkova, gave their firstborn son the name Khristo (a Bulgarian form for Christ) following the Bulgarian tradition of naming a child after the saint on whose feast day the baby was born. In 1863, after graduation from the Kalofer school, fifteen-year-old Khristo departed for Russia to complete his high-school education in Odessa. During the two years...