After working as a teacher in Bulgarian lands, he propagated his views and developed the concept of his Bulgaria-based revolutionary organisation, an innovative idea that superseded the foreign-based detachment strategy of the past.

There was less support for an organized revolt among the peasantry and the wealthier merchants and traders, who feared that Ottoman reprisals would jeopardize economic stability and widespread rural land ownership.

[15] Levski's parents, Ivan Kunchev and Gina Kuncheva (née Karaivanova), came from a family of clergy and craftsmen and were members of the emerging Bulgarian middle class.

[18] Fellow revolutionary Panayot Hitov later described the adult Levski as being of medium height and having an agile, wiry appearance—with light, greyish-blue eyes, blond hair, and a small moustache.

The only differences are that Karavelov claimed Levski was tall rather than of medium height, while Furnadzhiev noted that his moustache was light brown and his eyes appeared hazel.

[22] On 7 December 1858, he became an Orthodox monk in the Sopot monastery[23] under the religious name Ignatius (Игнатий, Ignatiy) and was promoted in 1859 to hierodeacon,[5][24] which later inspired one of Levski's informal nicknames, The Deacon (Дякона, Dyakona).

His uncle Basil reported him as a rebel to the Ottoman authorities, and Levski was imprisoned in Plovdiv for three months, but released due to the help of the doctor R. Petrov and the Russian vice-consul Nayden Gerov.

[35] From May 1864 until March 1866, he worked as a teacher in Voynyagovo near Karlovo; while there, he supported and gave shelter to persecuted Bulgarians and organised patriotic groups among the population.

Two revolutionary bands led by Panayot Hitov and Filip Totyu had been inciting the Bulgarian diaspora community in Romania to invade Bulgaria and organise anti-Ottoman resistance.

On 11 December 1868, he travelled by steamship from Turnu Măgurele to Istanbul, the starting point of a trek that lasted until 24 February 1869, when Levski returned to Romania.

During this canvassing and reconnaissance mission, Levski is thought to have visited Plovdiv, Perushtitsa, Karlovo, Sopot, Kazanlak, Sliven, Tarnovo, Lovech, Pleven and Nikopol, establishing links with local patriots.

Vasil Levski travelled to Nikopol, Pleven, Karlovo, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Perushtitsa, Stara Zagora, Chirpan, Sliven, Lovech, Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Sevlievo and Tryavna.

He was in contact with revolutionary writer and journalist Lyuben Karavelov, whose participation in the foundation of the Bulgarian Literary Society Levski approved in writing.

[49] In disagreement over planning,[21] Levski departed from Bucharest in the spring of 1870 and began to put into action his concept of an internal revolutionary network.

[34] Despite insufficient documentation of Levski's activities in 1870, it is known that he spent a year and a half establishing a wide network of secret committees in Bulgarian cities and villages.

The network, the Internal Revolutionary Organisation (IRO), was centred around the Lovech Central Committee,[50] also called "BRCC in Bulgaria" or the "provisional government".

Revolutionary committees were also established in some parts of Macedonia, Dobruja and Strandzha and around the more peripheral urban centres Kyustendil, Vratsa and Vidin.

[21] Individuals obtained IRO membership in secrecy: the initiation ritual involved a formal oath of allegiance over the Gospel or a Christian cross, a gun and a knife; treason was punishable by death, and secret police monitored each member's activities.

[5] Although Levski himself headed the organisation, he shared administrative responsibilities with assistants such as monk-turned-revolutionary Matey Preobrazhenski, the adventurous Dimitar Obshti, and the young Angel Kanchev.

Persecuted by the Ottoman authorities who offered 500 Turkish liras for his death and 1000 for his capture, Levski resorted to disguises to evade arrest during his travels.

[56] In the autumn of 1871, Levski and Angel Kanchev published the Instruction of the Workers for the Liberation of the Bulgarian People,[24] a BRCC draft statute containing ideological, organisational and penal sections.

At the assembly, the delegates approved a programme and a statute, elected Lyuben Karavelov as the organisation's leader and authorised Levski as the BRCC executive body's only legitimate representative in the Bulgarian lands.

The lack of funds, however, precipitated the organisation into a crisis, and Levski's solitary judgements on important strategic and tactical matters were increasingly questioned.

Starting with the writings of Lyuben Karavelov, it was widely accepted that a priest named Krastyo Nikiforov betrayed Levski to the police.

[68] Nevertheless, five years after Levski's hanging, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 secured the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in the wake of the April Uprising of 1876.

The Treaty of San Stefano of 3 March 1878 established the Bulgarian state as an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria under de jure Ottoman suzerainty.

[24][52] Levski's theory resulted from the repeated failures to implement Rakovski's ideas effectively, such as the use of foreign-based armed detachments (чети, cheti) to provoke a general revolt.

[68] Levski envisioned Bulgaria as a democratic republic,[5][71] occasionally finding common ground with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,[72] and largely reflecting the liberal ideas of the French Revolution and contemporary Western society.

It is time, by a single deed, to achieve what our French brothers have been seeking..."[4] Levski held that all religious and ethnic groups in a free Bulgaria—whether Bulgarians, Turks, Jews or others—should enjoy equal rights.

"[22][47][76] In a liberated Bulgaria, he did not envision himself as a national leader or a high-ranking official: "We yearn to see a free fatherland, and [then] one could even order me to graze the ducks, isn't that right?