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For more than fifty years Ivan Vazov was the most prominent figure in Bulgarian literature after the liberation. He was a citizen- poet who considered the social mission of literature an organic part of the nation's life and fate. He wrote his most compelling works to glorify Bulgaria's national reawakening and to articulate the ideals of the past, lest they be forgotten by postliberation society.

His view of the Bulgarian national character had an enormous impact on his people, and to this day his works remain an invaluable treasure of Bulgarian cultural history. Vazov is considered the patriarch of Bulgarian literature because he provided the highest standards for future generations of writers, who would seek in his verse a solution to their doubts and a confirmation of their ideas. Vazov was, in fact, the founder of all the literary genres employed in modern Bulgarian literature. His wide-ranging works are a brilliant manifestation of his artistic creativity.

Ivan Minchov Vazov (June 27, September 22, 1921) was a Bulgarian poet, novelist and play writer. He was born in Sopot, a town in the Rose Valley of Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire). The exact date of Vazov's birth is disputed. His parents, Saba and Mincho Vazovi, both had a lot of influence on the young poet.

After finishing primary school in Sopot, Mincho sent his son to Kalofer, appointing him assistant teacher. Having done his final exams in Kalofer, the young teacher returned to Sopot to help in his father's grocery. The next year his father sent him to Plovdiv to Naiden Gerov's school. There Vazov made his first steps as a poet.

He returned to Sopot and then went to Olteniţa in Romania to study trade despite his lack of interest in it. He was immersed in literature. Soon he left Olteniţza and went to Br ă ila where he met Hristo Botev, a Bulgarian revolutionary and poet. From Br ă ila he went to Galaţi to his uncle where he met Botev again.

In 1874 he joined the struggle for his country's independence from the Ottoman Empire. He returned to Sopot in 1875 where he became a member of the local revolutionary committee. After the failure of the April Uprising of 1876, he had to flee the country, going back to Galaţi, where most of the surviving revolutionaries were exiled. There he was appointed a secretary of the committee.

Vazov was probably heavily influenced by Hristo Botev, who was the ideological leader of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement. He started writing his famous poems with Botev and some other Bulgarian emigrants in Romania. In 1876 he published his first work, Priaporetz and Gusla, followed by "Bulgaria's Sorrows" in 1877

He became the editor of the political reviews "Science" and "Dawn." He was, however, forced into exile once again, this time to Odessa, because of the persecution of the russophile political faction. Bulgaria regained its independence in 1878 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War, and Vazov wrote the famous Epic of the Forgotten. R e t u r n i n g t o B u l g a r i a w i t h t h e h e l p o f h i s m o t h e r S u b a V a z o v a, h e s t a r t e d t e a c h i n g.

Vazov's next stay was in Svishtov, where he became a civil servant. He moved to Sofia in 1889 where he started publishing the review Dennitsa. Vazov's 1893 novel Under the Yoke, which depicts the Ottoman oppression of Bulgaria, is the most famous piece of classic Bulgarian literature and has been translated into over 30 languages.

Later in his life Vazov was a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of newly independent Bulgaria. All his novels, plays, and poems were praised for expressing sympathy for the common people. On October 2, 1920, he was honored by a national jubilee celebrating his completion of fifty years of creative work. He died of a heart attack in Sofia on September 22, 1921.

Later in his life Vazov was a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of newly independent Bulgaria. All his novels, plays, and poems were praised for expressing sympathy for the common people.

On October 2, 1920, he was honored by a national jubilee celebrating his completion of fifty years of creative work. He died of a heart attack in Sofia on September 22, 1921.

Some of the other famous works by Vazov include the novels New Country (1894), Under Our Heaven (1900), The Empress of Kazalar (1902),songs of Macedonia (1914), It Will Not Perish (1920) and the plays Vagabonds (1894), Bori slav (1909) and Ivaylo (1911).

Honours The Bulgarian Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia is named after him. Vazov Point and Vazov Rock on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica are named after Ivan Vazov. A park near St. Sofia Church in Sofia features the city's best-known monument to Vazov. Vazovova street in Bratislava, Slovakia.

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