It was said that the heroes of the April Uprising came to life for the first time under the pen of Zahari Stoyanov. There is one woman among the male characters. She is theirs, and our princess, Raina's princess. It sews the bayrak of the Panagyur rebels.
The whole of Panagyurishte gathers to watch the consecration of the rebel flag. Several armed men of Georgi Benkovski's "Hurricane Company" take off the velvet flag and pass it on to pop Gruyu Banski and the rest of the 10-15 priests, "all dressed in church garments, with crosses, gospels and candles" . The leader of the troupe is the great Benkovski, on his right is Kricheo Bayraktar, and on the left is "Rayka (Raina) Pop Georgiev, from the hands of which the velvet flag came out." After the ceremony, Raina sewed the thick silk tassels of the flag. The banner reads "Freedom or Death." This inscription will adorn the Bulgarian Chetnik banners decades later. In the famous folk song about Todor Alexandrov and his comrades ("Something I ask you, grandma"), the grandmother testifies to the agate about the flag of the company: "And the banner says, ago, 'Death or freedom!'
Zakhari Stoyanov describes the 22 April 1876 events as follows:
"The flag, instead of being trusted to be worn by the already appointed Bayraktor, Krycho Samokhodov, gave it to Raika Popova, thinking that this could give a better impression on the one hand and, on the other, that her patriotic work had to be rewarded as well. Two rebels were not too late to bring in a pitch-black horse, which made the young bayrakactress or rather the Bulgarian queen available, as she was later dubbed the ridiculer of the Turkish effendi. While she was standing on the horse without the flag, she was something of a cartoon with her short dress, but when she was handed the gorgeous flag, she suddenly appeared in her greatness as a true heroine.
- Long live the young bayonet! Shouted the animated crowd.
Several people held the horse of the Bulgarian queen.
At one time the heavy procession to the so-called Pazardzhik road rose (…) After the clergy, Rayka Popova followed with a bayrak, with a dozen guardians of the banner with bare knives in her hand. Next to her were the singers who were blunt to sing a rebellious march, then the headquarters, the rebels, ordered two by two, and then the crowd. Benkovski was walking to the side, sitting on a nut, standing on his hind legs. "
At that time Raina Popgeorgieva Futekova was an 20-year-old girl. She is a teacher in Panagyurishte. Her father, Georgi Futekov, is a priest, and her mother, Nona Nalbantska, is a patriotic woman. Among the apostles of Bulgarian freedom she is the only apostle (woman - apostle). In her Autobiography, Raina Princess gives her perspective on the memorable event of 22 April:
"On the second day of freedom, the flag was completed. Then, at the request of the citizens, I had to take it in my hands, girdle my sword and revolver and sit on an elected horse to go through the whole city and tell the people gathered on the streets that the five-century-old Turkish yoke had been rejected forever. It was the most solemn day of our momentary freedom. White-haired elders, along with young children, walked everywhere after me, singing favorite folk songs. Women, girls and old men threw so many fragrant and colorful bouquets at us that the whole time was laid with them like a magnificent carpet. The cries of "Hooray!" And "Live!" Had no end. This solemn procession continued into the evening. "
What is the fate of the "Bulgarian princess" after the defeat of the uprising? Very soon after the flag was sanctified, "the drunkenness of one people" ends. It is the order of bashobozuk's mockery of the civilian population. It turns out that the five-century-old Turkish yoke has not been rejected forever. The reality is too harsh for the young Raina Popgeorgieva. The Turks kill her father. Together with her mother, they bury him in the yard of their home. Raina was abducted by bashobozuki. Subsequently, she was subjected to great insults and torture in Turkish prisons. Her interrogation with the Turkish governor (Mudurin) was praised by the people:
"Come on, shouted the Turkish pasha from Panagyurishte: Who sewed the flag? Who gave him the sign? Death or freedom? Which ears flag? Who gave him the sign? Death or freedom? Neither slaughter her nor hang her, bring her to me alive. Let me ask her, ask and ask: Who sewed the flag? Which ears flag? Who gave him the sign? Death or freedom! Come on, Raina Popgeorgieva from Panagyurishte shouted: You will kill me, you will hang me. My name is Raina Popgeorgieva. I sewed the flag, I put the sign to him: "Death or freedom"… I am Raina Popgeorgieva. "
She was released from prison with the assistance of Naiden Gerov. Genius McGuhan (Bulgaria's defender of the world) testified that she had come out of prison with "heart broken" and "utterly ruined health". And for the Mudurin ("Turkish Pasha" from the folk song), McGuhan learned that he was "the most hateful barbarian he has never met elsewhere." From the stay of Raina Popgeorgieva in prison a folk song ("Rain in a prison") has been stored:
Where was heard, saw / girl in jail sitting,
as Raina sat / for up to three days and three months.
Rainchin's Turk said: / - Raike le, jailer le,
Are you sick or not? / Go, Raike, you don't go
Turkish queen to become? / Rayki's eyes dry,
tear they do not penetrate, / Raikini's mouth of stone,
they don't think a word.
After leaving prison, Raina went to study in Russia. He returns as the first Bulgarian midwife to graduate. At the invitation of Metropolitan Kliment (Vasil Drumev) settled in Veliko Turnovo, where he lived for three years (1879 - 1882). Then he returned to his native Panagyurishte. She is involved in cultural activities - she participates in the girls' Kitka and the Nadezhda Women's Society in her hometown. He is married to Vasil Dipchev, with whom they have five sons. After 1898, they moved to Sofia, where, after her husband's death, Raina practiced obstetrics to raise five sons and an adopted orphan herself - a girl. In the celebration of the 25 anniversary of the April Uprising of the Rainbow Princess, great tribute was paid. She is called Bulgarian National Heroine ("Hero"). In a speech by teacher Catherine Baltova, she is compared to Jean d'Arc. The modest Bulgarian princess is perplexed: “Thank you very much, but it is strange to me why I am looking for such a royal welcome. I have not done a feat, I have not done a miracle. I have fulfilled only one humble debt of a Bulgarian and a Panagyurishte. "
All three of Raina Popgeorgieva's three great sons - Ivan, Georgi and Vladimir - are military and participate in the wars for national unification. The mother's heart is broken with anxiety and suffering and humiliation in the Turkish prisons. This is one of the reasons for her premature demise on 29 on July 1917.
There are personalities that every Bulgarian has heard of and knows something good about. That's because these personalities have become a symbol of national pride. They are part of an authentic myth of the greatness of the Bulgarian nation. This myth cannot be "defeated", which is the purpose pursued by modern "myth fighters" ("hunters of myths"). Because "the false myth is replaced not with scientific theses, but with a true myth." And the opposite is true - no scientific theses will "defeat" the true myth when it is already created and established. The truth (the true myth) is that the heroes of the April Uprising will live forever, untainted by blasphemies and "scientific" interpretations of their own. They will be part of the Bulgarian family memory as long as we have it.
As long as there are Bulgarians, there will be a memory of the first Bulgarian princess of the free Fatherland - Rain Princess.
