His poetry is a prime example of the literature of the Bulgarian National Revival, though he is considered to be ahead of his contemporaries in his political, philosophical, and aesthetic views.

Botev tried to send his son to study in the Russian Empire with the help of Nayden Gerov, but was only allowed to attend the Second Grammar School as a volunteer.

When it became apparent that Botev was failing the gymnasium's third grade and was expelled for "carelessness," his scholarship was cancelled and he was given a lump sum to travel back to Bulgaria.

[6] His father's backstory is that he was a teacher in Odessa and one of the most significant figures of the late period of the Bulgarian National Revival towards the end of the Ottoman occupation.

A little later, a new school was built in Kalofer and the family rented a house from Genko Filov, where Botev spent the first years of his life.

In 1858, Botyo Petkov accused the administration of the Karlovo municipality of embezzling money that had been bequeathed to the school and then returned to Kalofer.

This was only possible in Autumn 1863, when Hristo Botev received a scholarship from the Russian government and travelled via Plovdiv and Constantinople to Odessa, where he arrived on 14 November.

[14] From the moment he entered high school, Botev found it difficult to fit in - he constantly complained about the strict discipline,[15] which included corporal punishment, but at the same time he was often absent from lessons, got into fights with classmates and treated most of his teachers with arrogance.

Despite his father's insistent letters and Nikola Toshkov's attempts to influence him, he neglected school and alienated the Bulgarians in Odessa with his eccentric behaviour, many of whose representatives restricted their contacts with him.

According to his classmate Kiro Tuleshkov, Botev was already working on his poem "Mother" in the summer of 1864, consulting Grigorovich, and sent it to Petko Slaveykov in Constantinople even then.

[17] When it became apparent in September 1865 that Botev was failing the gymnasium's third grade and was expelled for "carelessness," his scholarship was cancelled, and he was given a lump sum to travel back to Bulgaria.

During the May 11 observance of the Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, Botev delivered an impromptu speech criticising the national movement's moderation, which at the time was primarily focused on the creation of an independent church.

There, he quickly made contact with Bulgarian émigrés, including Hadzhi Dimitar and several members of the cheta that Filip Totyu and Panayot Hitov had formed that previous year.

[22] For some time he lived in an abandoned mill near Bucharest with Vasil Levski,[23] the eventual leader of the Bulgarian Secret Resistance Committees, and the two of them initially became close friends.

In 1873 he also edited the satiric newspaper "Alarm clock" (Budilnik), where he published a number of feuilletons, aimed at those wealthy Bulgarians who did not take part in the revolutionary movement.

[26] With Levski's death the BRCC split into two factions: Botev and his supporters, including Stefan Stambolov and Panayot Hitov backed the idea that preparations should be started for an immediate uprising, while the moderate revolutionaries, led by Lyuben Karavelov, thought that it was too early for such actions.

[27] Botev intended to start an uprising at the first possible moment, to take advantage of the international situation (the mounting tension between the Ottoman Empire on one side, and Serbia and Russia on the other), and because the revolutionary network, established by Levski, was still relatively intact and could take an active part in the preparations.

The rebels, disguised as gardeners,[29] boarded in groups at the Romanian ports of Zimnicea, Turnu Măgurele, Corabia, Bechet the Austro-Hungarian passenger steamship Radetzky.

[30][31] When the last group boarded at Bechet the rebels retrieved their concealed weapons and seized control of the ship (this incident was later commemorated in a popular poem and song[32]).

[29] In 1875 Botev published his poetic works in a book called "Songs and Poems", together with his close associate Bulgarian revolutionary poet and future politician and statesman, Stefan Stambolov.

Botev's poetry reflected the sentiments of the poor people, filled with revolutionary ideas, struggling for their freedom against both foreign and domestic tyrants.

Many of his poems are imbued with revolutionary zeal and determination, such as My Prayer ("Moyata molitva"), At Farewell ("Na proshtavane"), Hajduks ("Haiduti"), In the Tavern ("V mehanata"), and Struggle ("Borba").

[35] Some of the most prominent Bulgarians in the history of the newly independent country, such as Stefan Stambolov and Zahari Stoyanov, devoted much attention to Botev and his deeds for Bulgaria.