Revolutionary Nikola Belovezhdov

Nikola Iliev Belovezhdov was a Bulgarian national revolutionary, teacher, community cultural activist and public figure, born in Koprivshtitsa on 25 October 1856.

Belovezhdov completed the Plovdiv Graded School and became a teacher in his hometown at just seventeen. He associated with other Koprivshtitsa insurgents, including Todor Kableshkov and Nayden Popstoyanov, and swore an oath as a conspirator in the Koprivshtitsa Local Revolutionary Committee.

When the April Uprising broke out in 1876, Belovezhdov donned insurgent clothing and took command of a detachment of about eighty men. He was elected secretary of the Military Revolutionary Council and became one of the chief assistants to the uprising's leaders, Todor Kableshkov and Panayot Volov. After the Turks captured him, he was sentenced to death and exiled to Rhodes, where he remained until the Liberation.

On returning to Bulgaria, Belovezhdov devoted himself to education. He taught at various schools, including in Sofia, where he organised the establishment of the SS Cyril and Methodius School. Besides teaching, he published a reader, methodological guidance and lectures in Учителски Вестник (Teachers' Newspaper). He also edited the monthly illustrated children's magazine Звездица (Little Star), which played an important role in educating Bulgarian children.

As a public figure, Belovezhdov was secretary of the Slavyanska Beseda community cultural centre in Sofia and one of the founders and chairmen of the Teachers' Mutual Aid Fund. He also participated in the April Epic and devoted his book Първата пушка за Априлското въстание (The First Rifle of the April Uprising) to the subject.

Nikola Belovezhdov died on 4 November 1930 and is honoured as a distinguished figure of the April Uprising and the National Revival era. Streets in Koprivshtitsa and Sofia's Lyulin 4 district, as well as Sofia's 108th Secondary School, are named after him.