Revolutionary Tsoko Budin

Tsoko I. Budin was a Bulgarian merchant and revolutionary who played an active part in the April Uprising.

He was born in 1830 in Koprivshtitsa and was educated at the Saints Cyril and Methodius graded school, where he studied under Neofit Rilski and Nayden Gerov. Budin was a close collaborator of Vasil Levski and belonged to the revolutionary committee in Koprivshtitsa, founded in 1870. He assisted Todor Kableshkov in organising and carrying out the April Uprising.

At the Oborishte Assembly, Tsoko Budin was chosen to lead the detachment assigned to attack the bridge over the Arda River and set Adrianople on fire, but the mission could not be carried out. He was then appointed defender of Koprivshtitsa's rose gardens and made responsible for the security of Military Council meetings, warning of dangers.

During the April Uprising, Tsoko Budin commanded a detachment of 250 men. Towards the end of the struggle he was captured and confined in the Church of Saint Nicholas in Koprivshtitsa. Orcho Voyvoda, Pavel Bobekov, Mancho Manev and other insurgents from Panagyurishte came and freed him; some of them hid in the Balkan Mountains, while others remained in Koprivshtitsa.

On 1 May 1876 Tsoko Budin and sixty-three other insurgents were taken to Plovdiv, where he was imprisoned in Panayir Han and subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.