Hajduk Rada Barachkina

Rada Barachkina, known as Boyka Voyvoda, was a legendary Bulgarian female hajduk whose story Petko Slaveykov celebrated in his poem Boyka, a Bulgarian Woman Soldier as early as 1852.

She came from the village of Cholakova Mahala near Ledenik. At just twelve years old she saved a child from drowning, and at eighteen she rescued an elderly woman from a fire. Boyka was exceptionally beautiful, so much so that the agha of the village of Kachitsa wanted her as his wife. Instead, however, she sought out the hajduk leader Valchan Voyvoda and became a hajduk herself.

From 1810 to 1820 Boyka Voyvoda led her detachment in the Tarnovo, Dryanovo and Gabrovo districts, protecting the population from kardzhali raiders, Turks and wealthy notables. She also took part in the struggle against the raids of kardzhali and daali bandits and in the conflicts between beys and ayans at the time.

One well-known story about Boyka Voyvoda recounts how, aged only nineteen, she disarmed three young Turks with a single cudgel after they came to her home to drink rakia. After she drove them away, one decided to attack her, but Boyka defeated them with her cudgel. This incident turned her into a legend and made her known throughout the Balkan Peninsula