To Shipka with Appreciation
The Russian Centre and the Students' Council of Varna Free University "Chernorizets Hrabar" organized a march to Shipka on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the Liberation of Bulgaria.
The patriotic programme started on the bus. The students spoke of the heavy fighting during the Russian-Turkish Liberation War in every town on the route. Stefan Daskalov, 3rd year student of Law and President of the Students' Council, commemorated memorable historical events in the liberated city of Varna, Sali Lyubenov, 2nd year student of National Security Protection gave an account of the town of Shumen, the 4th year student Vivian Doncheva told about Targovishte, Miglena Dimitrova, Methodist of the Russian Centre related about Lovech and Aleksander Ivanov, 3rd year student of Psychology gave account for the siege of the town of Pleven.
Russian students at VFU also participated in the march. They felt how Bulgarians pay tribute
to the memory of their ancestors who died for the liberation of the brotherly Slavic Orthodox Bulgarian peoples. The Russian students at VFU read the poems by famous Russian poets dedicated to the battles at Shipka and Pleven. Nikita Zubyashvili, 3rd year student of Information Technology, read a poem by Nikolay Pereligin dedicated to the brave Russian soldiers. This song in the years of the Russian-Turkish War was sung in the schools in Russia.
Andrey Gavrilenko, master’s degree student and scholarship holder of the Vladimir State University, chose a poem by A. Pianov "At Shipka", and Nikita Potapov, 3rd year student of International Relations and Law read a work by A. Pozdnyakov "In Place of Skobelev Monument in Moscow". Lyalya Ignatchenko, 3rd year student, told about the painting-triptych by Vasiliy Vereshtagin "At Shipka Everything is Calm".
All the way, the students sang Bulgarian patriotic and Russian popular songs. A special songbook was prepared by the Russian Centre and given to the participants.
They also visited the famous Pleven Panorama Museum, created in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Liberation of Pleven from Ottoman domination. The panorama museum is one of the nearly 200 monuments built by the inhabitants of Pleven in memory of the Russian soldiers and Bulgarian volunteers. The Director of the Pleven Panorama Museum welcomed the group of Varna Free University respectfully and thanked the students for their patriotism and preservation of the historical memory. The guide explained how the fighting took place near Pleven, where the troops were deployed, how the plan for the siege of the city had arisen, how Osman pasha surrendered to the Russian tsar Alexander II.
In anticipation of the long way to the summit, the students Ivan Ivanov and Stefan Daskalov describe the facts of the battles at Shipka with inspiration and illustrated them with verses of Ivan Vazov's "The Volunteers at Shipka!".
Every step to Shipka is full of meaning and gratitude. The feeling is, as the poet Damyan Damyanov writes, "Not to the top, to myself I’m climbing."
The students laid a wreath on behalf of Varna Free University and theRusskiy Mir Foundation. With a minute's silence and bowed heads, the thousands killed for the freedom of Bulgaria were honoured. Everyone felt the truth in the words of the Russian Patriarch Kirilthat “Shipka was a sacred place to preserve for the next generations the history of the heroic feat that combined in one and forever Bulgarian and Russian blood.”
For the ninth consecutive year, the march to Shipka, organized by the Russian Centre of VFU with the support of the Vice President of the University Assoc. Prof. Krasimir Nedyalkov, brought together many people. In the jubilee 2018, the Students' Council of VFU became a co-organizer of the event and contributed to the battle spirit and patriotic mood of the participants.
