Revolutionary Ivanka Gorova

Ivanka Kancheva Angelova, Gorova after marriage, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and courier of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee. She was the sister of the well-known revolutionary Angel Kanchev and the daughter of Kancho Angelov and Gana Pandurska. She was born in 1856 in Tryavna, and her family later moved to Ruse.

Ivanka Gorova was an educated woman and teacher who married Dimitar Gorov, a prominent businessman and political emigrant who financed Bulgarian revolutionaries. They lived mainly in Giurgiu and were actively involved in the Giurgiu Revolutionary Committee's activities.

Ivanka was her husband's associate and assisted Baba Tonka Obretenova in transporting revolutionary materials and correspondence from Wallachia to Bulgaria and back.

In July 1876 Ivanka, together with her husband and sister, joined Hristo Botev's detachment, accompanying it to Banat. There they handed the detachment farewell letters and other important documents hidden in their hair before Botev and his companions set out on their campaign. These documents were of critical importance to the revolutionary struggle.

After the War of Liberation was declared, the Gorov family sold their property in Romania to finance the struggle for Bulgaria's liberation. After difficult wartime experiences, Ivanka Gorova died in 1877 and was solemnly buried in the Church of Saint George in Tryavna. A street in her native town was named in her honour.