Revolutionary Georgi Angeliev

Georgi Petrov Angeliev was a Bulgarian revolutionary who participated in the April Uprising in 1876 and was one of its leaders in the northern Rhodope Mountains.

Born on 10 March 1832 in the village of Radilovo in the Pazardzhik district, he completed the village church school and engaged in farming and timber trading. In 1857 he joined Beyko Voyvoda's detachment and roamed the Rhodope Mountains for more than three years. After the detachment disbanded, he did not return to his native village but left Bulgaria for Wallachia in 1863, settling successively in Brăila, Galați and Bucharest.

Around 1864, with the help of the Bulgarian merchants Evlogi and Hristo Georgiev and the support of the Russian vice-consul in Plovdiv, Nayden Gerov, Georgi Angeliev returned to Radilovo and resumed timber trading. During one of his journeys to the Chirpan district, he met Vasil Levski and founded the Radilovo Local Revolutionary Committee of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation.

In March 1876 Georgi Benkovski and Panayot Volov, whom Georgi Angeliev already knew, arrived in Radilovo. They revived the revolutionary committee, and Georgi Angeliev was again elected chairman and a representative to the Oborishte Assembly. Through Benkovski's appointment, he became voivode of the insurgents from the villages along the southern bank of the Maritsa River. He was tasked with gathering the civilian population in Bratsigovo when the uprising was proclaimed.

On 26 April 1876, under Georgi Angeliev's leadership, the villagers of Radilovo set out for Bratsigovo. On the way they encountered Ottoman irregulars and fought a battle, killing fourteen Turks without Bulgarian losses. Georgi Angeliev received a slight wound to his right arm. In Bratsigovo the insurgents built fortifications, but Turkish troops were sent against them and began an artillery bombardment. The insurgents broke through the blockade and hid in the mountains for about six months. He then secretly travelled to Plovdiv and appeared before the British consul Calvert, describing his comrades' suffering and asking for an amnesty from the Ottoman authorities. The consul received the Radilovo rebels, who were pardoned. As the chief organiser of the uprising, Georgi Angeliev remained in the British consulate until the declaration of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.