[4] In 1841, he was sentenced to death whilst involved in revolutionary plans against the Turks, but thanks to a Greek friend,he managed to escape to Marseille.

He decided to remain in Istanbul, where he worked as a lawyer and tradesman, and took part in campaigns for a Bulgarian national church.

Rakovski was soon arrested once more, this time due to his creation of a secret society of Bulgarians to assist the Russians in the Crimean War.

In his article in it Rakovski cited all his sources in original for he could speak more than 9 languages and was the first European who translated the old vedic texts in Bulgarian.

His wide interests and profound knowledge made him a really versatile rennaissane personality of the Bulgarian National Revival Movement in the mid 19th century.

He penned his best-known work, Gorski Patnik (translated as A Traveller in the Woods or Forest Wanderer), while hiding from Turkish authorities near the bulgarian city of Kotel during the Crimean War (1853–56).

Rakovski's aim in writing this was to awaken the people's spirit to fight for freedom and to take revenge on the Turks for their cruelty.

1861 saw him organizing a Bulgarian legion in Belgrade, where he met voivode Đuro Matanović to negotiate a simultaneous rebellion in Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Albania, and travelling through Europe recruiting support for his country's cause.

[9] Led by the belief that Ottoman power could be brought down only with armed action, he began organizing small groups of revolutionary fighters, called cheti.

Led by Hadzhi Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha, 120 chetnitsi entered Bulgaria in 1868 and fought their way to Stara Planina before being surrounded by the Ottomans.