Revolutionary Prokopi Dyankov

Prokopi Popaleksiev Dyankov was born on 19 February 1851 in Svishtov and participated in Botev's detachment, a Bulgarian revolutionary group active during the April Uprising of 1876.

Prokopi Dyankov first attended the class school in Svishtov, then continued his education at the Mykolaiv Secondary School in Russia, where he studied until 1871. During this period, while in Odesa, he met Hristo Botev. After completing school, he worked as a teacher in Svishtov and Pavlikeni.

In 1875, Prokopi Dyankov emigrated to Romania, where he met Hristo Botev again and became actively involved in the national liberation struggle. He became a squad leader in Hristo Botev's detachment and boarded the steamer "Radetzky" on 16 May 1876, when the detachment departed from the landing stage at Bechet. After the detachment was defeated, Prokopi Dyankov wandered through the Balkan Mountains and found refuge in a cave. However, the shepherd boy he sent for food betrayed him, and he was arrested.

Prokopi Dyankov was among the defendants at the first Ruse trial, where he was sentenced to lifelong penal servitude in the fortress of Akia, in present-day Israel. After the Liberation from Ottoman rule, Prokopi Dyankov lived in various towns, including Sofia, Vratsa, Troyan and Pleven. After the First World War, he worked as an assistant tax collector for Pleven Municipality. Prokopi Dyankov also participated in the commission seeking to establish the exact place where Hristo Botev died.

In 1922, Prokopi Dyankov became an honorary member of the Union of Reserve Non-Commissioned Officers in Bulgaria. He married Parashkevitsa Berkova, with whom he had seven children. Prokopi Popaleksiev Dyankov died on 22 July 1927 in Pleven.