Revolutionary Mihail Grekov

Mihail Georgiev Grekov was a national revolutionary and publicist, and the son of Gencho Voivode.

He was born on 23 May 1847 in the village of Dermendere in the Odesa region. He received a scholarship from Todor Minkov’s South Slavic Boarding School and went to the city of Nikolaev to study there in 1864.

After a brief period at school in Russia, he joined the detachment of Nikola Voyvodov and Tsvyatko Pavlovich. Following the detachment’s defeat, he joined the Second Bulgarian Legion in Belgrade.

He returned to Bulgaria and worked as a teacher in Sliven, actively participating in the national liberation struggle and chairing the Sliven Local Revolutionary Committee. He later moved to Ruse, where he joined the activities of the Ruse Local Revolutionary Committee. In August 1874, he was sent as its representative to the General Assembly in Bucharest.

Mihail Grekov took part in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) as a volunteer in the 14th Army Corps under Lieutenant-General Apollon Zimmerman.

After the Liberation, he held a number of administrative posts in Sliven, Plovdiv and Sofia.

Towards the end of the century, he began writing his memoirs of the national liberation movement before the Russo-Turkish War. His memoirs, „Как ние освобождавахме България“, were published in a complete two-volume edition in 1990.

Mihail Grekov also devoted himself to journalism, writing articles and essays, primarily on the national liberation and revolutionary struggles, the Liberation and Unification, and against the Russophobic policies of many people. He contributed to newspapers and magazines including „Ден“, „Мир“, „Балканска трибуна“, „Реч“, „Сливен“, „Летописи“, „Наука“, „Наблюдател“, „Българска сбирка“ and „Илюстрация-Светлина“.

His personal archive is held in fonds 250K at the Central State Archives and comprises 328 archival units dating from 1855 to 1921.