Revolutionary Rayna Knyaginya

Rayna (Raykya) Popgeorgieva Futekova-Dipcheva, known as Rayna Knyaginya, was a Bulgarian teacher and midwife born on 18 January 1856 in Panagyurishte. She became known for sewing the principal insurgent flag of the Panagyurishte Revolutionary District for the April Uprising. She flew it alongside Georgi Benkovski on the day the uprising was proclaimed.

During her school years, Rayna Futekova was chosen to continue her education at the Stara Zagora Girls' School. There she and a fellow pupil were selected as future teachers in the town. After the April Uprising, Rayna was captured by the Turks and endured severe suffering, including beatings, rape and mistreatment, before being released following intervention by European diplomats. She went to study in Moscow, where she graduated in medicine and became Bulgaria's first qualified midwife.

Rayna Knyaginya returned to Bulgaria and worked as a teacher in Tarnovo, after which she married and moved with her husband to Plovdiv. Her family later moved to Sofia, where Rayna adopted an orphan. Her husband died young, and Rayna continued working as a midwife, helping poor women free of charge.

As part of her service, Rayna Knyaginya sought funds and secured the construction of the Mother's Home maternity hospital in Sofia, today known as the National Centre of Transfusion Haematology. Despite health problems and caring for her children, she remained an active and useful member of society. Rayna Futekova died on 24 November 1942.

She is remembered both as an active participant in the April Uprising and as the first qualified Bulgarian midwife, who devoted her life to serving society and helping the poorest.