Editing Dimitar Blagoev

{{short description|Bulgarian political leader and philosopher (1856–1924)}}
{{family name hatnote|Blagoev|Nikolov|lang=Bulgarian}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Dimitar Blagoev
| image              = Dblagoev.jpg
| native_name        = {{Nobold|Димитър Благоев}}
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=yes|1856|06|14}}
| birth_place        = [[Zagorichani]], [[Ottoman Empire]] (present-day [[Vasileiada]], [[Greece]])
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1924|05|07|1856|06|14}}
| death_place        = [[Sofia]], [[Bulgaria]]
| occupation         = [[Politician]]
| alma_mater         = [[Saint Petersburg State University|SPbU]]
| party              = [[Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party]]<br>[[Bulgarian Communist Party]]
| spouse             = [[Vela Blagoeva]]
}}
'''Dimitar Blagoev Nikolov''' ({{Langx|bg|Димитър Благоев Николов}}, {{langx|mk|Димитар Благоев Николов}}; 14 June 1856 – 7 May 1924) was a Bulgarian political leader and philosopher. He was the founder of the Bulgarian [[left-wing]] political movement and of the first [[social-democratic]] party in the [[Balkans]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=24vomqj_LZIC&q=blagoev+&pg=PA178 ''The Dissemination of Economic Ideas''], Heinz D. Kurz, Keith Tribe, Tamotsu Nishizawa, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011, {{ISBN|0857935577}}, pp. 178-179.</ref> the Marxist ''[[Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (1891)|Bulgarian Social Democratic Party]]''. Blagoev was also an important figure in the early history of Russian Marxism, and later founded and led the [[Bulgarian Communist Party]]. He was a prominent proponent of ideas for the establishment of a [[Balkan Federation]]. He is usually regarded and self-identified as a [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]],<ref> Chris Kostov (2010) Contested Ethnic Identity. The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996; Peter Lang, {{ISBN|9783034301961}}, p. 78.</ref><ref>In Short Notes on My Life Dimitar Blagoev gave the following information about his native village: ''I was born in the well-known Macedonian village of Zagorichane, Kostour district. It is a large, pure Bulgarian village, situated at the foothills of the southern spurs of the large mountain massif of Vich and on the brink of a large valley, stretching to the south of the village.'' in D. Blagoev, Works, vol. 19, Sofia, 1963, pp. 353-356; the original is in Bulgarian. (Dimitar Kosev, Mihail Voynov,
Documents and Materials on the History of the Bulgarian People (1969) Publishing House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, p. 431.)</ref> and occasionally as a [[Macedonian Slav]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1jSg3lxgSy8C&q=blagoev&pg=PR2 ''Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia''], Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, {{ISBN|0810855658}}, p. 28.</ref><ref name="Ivanovski"/>

==Biography==

===Early years and education===
Blagoev was born in the village of [[Zagorichani]] in the region of [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]] (today Vasiliada in [[Agioi Anargyroi, Kastoria]], [[Greece]]), at that time part of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HmNpl0wNa8AC&pg=PA98 Biographical dictionary of European labor leaders], A. T. Lane, {{ISBN|0-313-26456-2}}, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, {{ISBN|0-313-29899-8}}, pp. 98-99.</ref> In his youth he was influenced by the atmosphere of the [[Bulgarian National Revival]]. In his memoirs written in 1922, Blagoev mentions that he was born in a pure Bulgarian village, receiving his national idea by Bulgarian agitators and as a result he was educated in nationalist spirit.<ref>Dimitar Blagoev, Short notes from my life, 1926, [http://www.novovreme.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3937&Itemid=66 p.1]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=aJ9lqe2_o_4C&dq=dimitur+blagoev+bulgarian+in+his++memoires&pg=PA45 ''Entangled Paths Towards Modernity: Contextualizing Socialism and Nationalism in the Balkans''], Augusta Dimou, Central European University Press, 2009, {{ISBN|9639776386}}, p. 45.</ref> He learned consequently in [[Bulgarian Exarchate]]'s schools in [[Istanbul]] (1873–1874), [[Adrianople]] (1874–1875), [[Gabrovo]] (1875–1876) and [[Stara Zagora]] (1876–1877). As a student in Gabrovo he supported the cause of the [[April uprising]], and participated on its preparation. During the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War]], he supported the activity of the [[opalchentsi]] and the Imperial Russian Army.<ref>[http://liternet.bg/publish19/s_vasileva/istoricheskite.htm София Василева, © Електронно списание LiterNet, 10.10.2006, № 10 (83) Историческите стенописи в старозагорската църква "Св. Димитър".]</ref> Later he studied at the [[Odessa]] Realschule from 1878 to 1880. 

In autumn 1880, Blagoev enrolled in [[Saint Petersburg University]]. In the Imperial capital, he was originally influenced by the populist ideas of [[Pyotr Lavrov|Lavrov]] those of the French anarchist [[Proudhon]]. But by the autumn of 1883, reading the first volume of [[Das Kapital]], by [[Karl Marx]], and works by the German socialist [[Ferdinand Lassalle|Lassalle]], and pamphlet ''Socialism and the Political Struggle'' written by the exiled Russian Marxist [[Georgi Plekhanov]] had converted him to Marxism. In 1884, he formed the first Marxist group to operate within Russia, which was known as the Blagoev Group. In 1885, the group produced a newspaper, "''Rabochii''" (Worker), Russia's first Marxist publication. Also in 1885, it aligned with Plekhanov's [[Emancipation of Labour]] Group, based in Switzerland.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Shmidt |editor1-first=O.Yu.|editor2-last=Bukharin|editor2-first=N.I.|display-editors=etal|title=Большая цоветская энциклопедия Volume 6 |date=1927 |location=Moscow |pages=456–7}}</ref> 

In 1883, Blagoev met and married the teacher, writer, and women's activist [[Vela Blagoeva]] (née Victoria Atanasova Zhivkova) with whom he would have four children: [[Stela Blagoeva|Stela]], Natalia, Vladimir and Dimitur.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=de Haan|editor1-first=Francisca|editor2-last=Daskalova|editor2-first=Krasimira|editor3-last=Loutfi|editor3-first=Anna|title=''Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries''|last1=Daskalova|first1=Krassimira|chapter=Blagoeva, Vela (1858–1921)|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict0000unse_u3f7/page/62|year=2006|publisher=Central European University Press|location=Budapest, Hungary|isbn=978-963-7326-39-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict0000unse_u3f7/page/62 62–65]|chapter-url-access=registration|via=[[Project MUSE]]}}</ref>

===Return to Bulgaria===

Blagoev was arrested on 1 March 1885, and extradited to [[Principality of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], settled in [[Sofia]] and began to propagate socialist ideas. In July 1891, on his initiative, the social democratic circles of [[Veliko Tarnovo]], [[Gabrovo]], [[Sliven]], [[Stara Zagora]], [[Kazanlak]] and other cities united to form the ''Bulgarian Social Democratic Party'' (BSDP). The [[marxist]] nucleus of the BSDP was opposed by a group, who were essentially opposed to making the social democratic movement into a party. In 1893 this group, led by [[Yanko Sakazov]], founded a [[Reformism|reformist]] organization, the ''Bulgarian Social Democratic Union''. In 1894, Blagoev’s supporters agreed to unite with the Unionists in the interests of working class unity and took the name [[Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party]]. He was a founder and became the leader of its left wing, which split from the BSDWP in 1903 to found the [[Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists)]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyofbalkans0000jela/page/138 ''History of the Balkans: Twentieth century''], Joint Committee on Eastern Europe publication series, Barbara Jelavich, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-27459-1}}, p. 138.</ref> Blagoev was also activist of the Plovdiv Macedonian-Adrianople Committee, and its chairman from 1897. In 1898 [[Gotse Delchev]] made attempt to convince him to lead the [[Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee]], but he refused. Under his guidance the foundations of the class trade-union movement was laid in 1904. From 1897 to 1923 Blagoev directed the publication of the party’s theoretical organ, the journal ''Novo vreme'', which published more than 500 of his articles. Meanwhile, he worked as teacher in different cities in Bulgaria. In 1905, Blagoev translated into Bulgarian the first volume of ''[[Das Kapital]]'' and a number of other works by Marx. Blagoev’s book ''From the History of Socialism in Bulgaria'' was published in 1906 and it has initiated Bulgarian Marxist historiography. He led the delegations of narrow socialists at the [[Balkan]] socialist conferences in [[Belgrade]] (1910) and [[Bucharest]] (1915).

===Wartime activities and stance===

He was against foreign intervention by the Great Powers in [[Southeast Europe]], believed in a [[Balkan Federative Republic]] and opposed Bulgaria's military engagements in the [[Second Balkan War]] and [[First World War]]. A deputy to the [[National Assembly (Bulgaria)|National Assembly of Bulgaria]], Blagoev voted in October 1914, along with the rest of the faction of narrow socialists, against war credits. During [[World War I]] as deputy Blagoev exposed "the war’s [[imperialist]] nature and the ''traitorous role'' of the [[Second International]]". Blagoev hailed the [[October Revolution|Russian October Revolution]] and propagandized for the ideas of the [[Bolsheviks]]. Under his leadership the Narrow Socialist party broke with the [[Second International]]. In a speech before the Bulgarian National Assembly in 1917, Blagoev called himself "[[Macedonian Slav]]".<ref name="Ivanovski">Орде Иваноски. „Искажување на Димитар Благоев за народността на Македонците пред Бугарскиот парламент во 1917“ (Современост, Скопје), Јануари 1967.</ref><ref>Библ. Николова В., Куманов М., Кратък исторически справочник, т. III, София 1983.</ref> In a Declaration against the [[Treaty of Neuilly]], read by Dimiter Blagoev in the Bulgarian National Assembly in 1919 he protested against the partition of the Bulgarian land and nation and promoted the ideas of the Bulgarian Soviet Socialist Republic, as a part of a Balkan Federal Soviet Socialist Republic, as the only political solution able to assure freedom of [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]], [[Thrace]] and [[Dobruja]] and as a counterweight of Bulgarian nationalism.<ref>[http://www.promacedonia.org/en/ban/pww1.html#11 Declaration of the Bulgarian Communist Party against the Neuilly Peace Treaty, read by Dimiter Blagoev in the National Assembly.]</ref>

===Later years and death===

Blagoev led the Narrow Socialists into the [[Communist International]] in 1919, and the party changed its name to the [[Bulgarian Communist Party]]. However, during this period Blagoev and the party as a whole did not completely adopt Bolshevik positions on the basic questions. This determined the party’s policies during the [[Radomir Rebellion]] of 1918 and the [[1923 Bulgarian coup d'état|military coup of 9 June 1923]] when the party adopted a position of neutrality. He was also an opponent of the failed [[September Uprising]], believing that conditions were not ripe for a revolution in [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] at that time.

Blagoev was also author of a number of research essays on questions of Marxist philosophy, political economy, history, esthetics, and Bulgarian literature. He died in [[Sofia]], Bulgaria.

==Honours==
* The city of Gorna Dzhumaya in today's [[Blagoevgrad Province]] in [[Bulgaria]] was renamed after him, [[Blagoevgrad]].
* The village of [[Blahoyeve, Ivanivka Raion|Blahoyeve]] in [[Odessa Oblast]] was renamed in 1923 after him (formerly Velikiy Buyalyk).
* The settlement of [[Blagoyevo]] in the [[Komi Republic]] of Russia also bears Dimitar Blagoev's name.
* The [[Buzludzha Monument]] on the peak of [[Buzludzha]] was built by the Bulgarian communist regime to commemorate the 1891 founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. It was opened in 1981.<ref>John D. Bell (1986), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NHqOAAAAMAA The Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov]'', [[Hoover Institution Press]], p22</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Димитър Благоев 2850283868 aa5a6a1550 o.jpg|Monument in Blagoevgrad
Image:Blagoev table Odessa.JPG|Memorial plaque in Odessa
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/184-articles/articles-of-rh0803/5653-iii-bulgarian-socialism-and-the-macedonian-national-liberation-movement-1903-08 Dimitûr Blagoev, ''On the Macedonian Question''], June 1905, in Andreja Živković and Dragan Plavšić (eds), "The Balkan Socialist Tradition and the Balkan Federation 1871-1915", "Revolutionary History", London, 2003.
* [http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/184-articles/articles-of-rh0803/5654-iv-the-revolution-in-turkey-and-the-balkan-federation Dimitûr Blagoev, ''The Revolution in Turkey and Social Democracy''], 1908.
* [http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/184-articles/articles-of-rh0803/5656-vi-the-balkan-federation-and-balkan-social-democracy Dimitûr Blagoev, ''Political Prospects''], June 1909.
* [http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/184-articles/articles-of-rh0803/5656-vi-the-balkan-federation-and-balkan-social-democracy Dimitûr Blagoev, ''The Balkan Conference and the Balkan Federation''], December 1911.

{{commons category|Dimitar Blagoev}}
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[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Kastoria]]
[[Category:Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia]]
[[Category:Macedonian Bulgarians]]
[[Category:Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party politicians]]
[[Category:Bulgarian Communist Party politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the National Assembly (Bulgaria)]]
[[Category:Bulgarian Marxists]]
[[Category:Balkan federalists]]
[[Category:Modern history of the Blagoevgrad Province]]
[[Category:Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:People extradited from Russia]]
[[Category:People extradited to Bulgaria]]
[[Category:People from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century Bulgarian philosophers]]
[[Category:Marxist theorists]]
[[Category:20th-century Bulgarian educators]]
[[Category:19th-century Bulgarian educators]]
[[Category:Saint Petersburg State University alumni]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Bulgaria]]