Revolutionary Dimitar Pashkov

Dimitar Pashkov was a Bulgarian national revolutionary and statesman, born in 1840 in the village of Sopot in the Lovech district, into a priest's family. He studied at various educational establishments, including Troyan Monastery, in Lovech under Manol Lazarov, and in Sopot in the Karlovo district under Yurdan Nenov. After completing his education, he worked as a teacher in various places, including Teteven, Sopot and Lovech.

He changed his professional direction and turned to trade. He participated in establishing Lovech's Nauka community cultural centre and became a member of the Lovech Local Revolutionary Committee, founded at Vasil Levski's initiative.

At the time of the Arabakonak robbery, organised by Dimitar Obshti, he was arrested together with Marin Poplukanov, Father Lukan Lilov and Velichka Hashnova. After approximately twenty days in custody in Lovech, the three were transferred to Sofia for questioning. Pashkov was subsequently interrogated by an extraordinary investigative commission and sentenced to permanent exile in Diyarbakır by the Sofia court martial in 1873, together with Marin Popukanov, although they did not admit the charges and rejected Turkish justice.

After serving the three-year sentence, Dimitar Pashkov managed to escape from exile in 1876 together with Marin Poplukanov and Georgi Minchev. During the Russo-Turkish War (1877 – 1878), he lived in Bucharest, where he helped support the Imperial Russian Army.

After the Liberation, he returned to Lovech, where he held a number of public and state offices. He was a member of the Permanent District Commission and chairman of the Lovech District Council. He also served as a deputy in several national assemblies, including the Constituent Assembly (1879), the Third Grand National Assembly (1886 – 1887), and the Fifth (1887 – 1889), Sixth (1890 – 1893), Seventh (1893) and Thirteenth (1903 – 1907) Ordinary National Assemblies. He was also an active member of the People's Liberal Party, the Stambolovists.