Revolutionary Spas Ginov

Spas Ivanov Ginov was a Bulgarian merchant, National Revival figure and revolutionary whose tragic fate unfolded in Perushtitsa during the suppression of the April Uprising.

He was born in 1848 in Perushtitsa into a family of wealthy merchants. He took over the trading business and quickly earned respect among the population and the Turkish authorities. With a freedom-loving spirit and fiery temperament, Spas Ginov embraced the idea of liberating the Bulgarians from Ottoman rule. He became secretary-treasurer of the second local secret revolutionary committee, revived by Georgi Benkovski in February 1876. Ginov allocated substantial funds to purchasing gunpowder and weapons for the uprising and, together with Vasil Sokolski, represented Perushtitsa at the National Assembly in Oborishte.

Spas Ginov was among the last 127 defenders of the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, where the Bulgarians in Perushtitsa fortified themselves. On 1 May 1876 he performed an unprecedented tragic deed: he killed himself along with five of his six children, his pregnant wife, two sisters and a niece. This desperate act was undertaken to avoid abuse and forced conversion to Islam if they fell alive into the hands of the Turkish army and Ottoman irregulars. Another Bulgarian revolutionary, Kocho Chestimenski, carried out a similar deed.

Spas Ginov is commemorated, and streets have been named after him. He was posthumously awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Perushtitsa.