📅 ON THIS DAY IN BULGARIA, Wednesday 14 October
One academic article calls the Battle of Tutrakan "Romania's Grief, Bulgaria's Glory", which says it all about how two countries remember one Danube fortress. The general who took it in September 1916, Panteley Kiselov, died on this day in 1927.
What happened on this day
Kiselov was born in Svishtov in 1863, the son of a wealthy merchant, and entered the military school in Sofia in 1880. He saw his first fire defending the fortress of Vidin during the 1885 war with Serbia, fought through the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, and took over the 4th Preslav division in 1914. In September 1916, with Bulgaria at war with Romania, his division stormed Tutrakan: the attack on the main defensive line began on the 5th and the remaining Romanian troops surrendered on the 6th. English Wikipedia says he kept such independence in command that he even disobeyed Field Marshal Mackensen, and that even the Kaiser celebrated the win with champagne alongside Bulgarian envoys at German headquarters. Bulgarians call him the victor of Tutrakan.
He finished the war on the Macedonian Front and became general of the infantry, the army's highest rank, in 1919, when he was retired. From 1923 to 1926 he chaired the reserve officers' federation in Ruse. Bulgarian Wikipedia credits him with the idea for a memorial, the Military Grave of 1916, near the village of Shumentsi, although another page says the complex went up soon after the battle. At the end of 1926 he moved to Sofia to be near his son, a lawyer, and he died there on 14 October 1927 after a heart attack. In 1934 the village of Emirovo was renamed General Kiselovo in his honour.
Today's name days
Today is Petkovden (Петковден, pet-KOV-den), the feast of St Petka, and it brings a long name-day list: Petka (Петка, PET-ka) and Petko, from the saint Bulgarians call Sveta Petka Tarnovska, whose relics were brought to Veliko Tarnovo in 1238. Bulgarian Wikipedia calls her the chief protector of the Bulgarian people and state and patron of Tarnovo, Gabrovo and Troyan, and says Petka is the Bulgarian form of Paraskeva. Greet Petya, Petko, Petka, Petra, Petrana, Penko, Penka, Paraskev and Paraskeva with "честит имен ден" (chesh-TEET ee-MEN den), and see my name days guide for the rest. Anyone may call on a celebrant without warning, so bring something, and bring flowers in odd numbers.
Towns celebrating today
Nine places in our calendar mark Petkovden. Troyan has the saint as its patron. Novi Pazar lies in Shumen Province, in a hollow between the Shumen, Ludogorie and Provadiya plateaus, and gained an Ottoman mosque in 1763, a hammam in 1774 and a clock tower in 1826. Tran, 15 km from the Serbian border, recorded Bulgaria's lowest temperature, -38.3 °C, in January 1947. Nova Zagora sits on the Trakia motorway between Stara Zagora and Sliven, near the prehistoric site of Karanovo, and Sevlievo, called one of Bulgaria's wealthiest towns, is where Kolyu Ficheto built a stone bridge over the Rositsa. Breznik has a medieval church of St Petka and Valchedram a church of St Paraskeva, built in 1936; Kermen and Tvarditsa complete the list.
Why this matters for British expats
Two hooks. Tutrakan is the sort of battle a Bulgarian will bring up unprompted, and now you know both ends of the memory. Petkovden means a neighbour called Petko or Penka may have a houseful, which is worth knowing before you knock. Tran's cold record is worth a read of my weather guide before anyone tells you Bulgarian winters are mild, and if you live in Shumen, Novi Pazar in our own province is on the list.
Sources and further reading
The general's career comes from the Bulgarian Wikipedia entry on Panteley Kiselov and the English entry, and the saint from Bulgarian Wikipedia's page on Petka of Bulgaria. The town details come from English Wikipedia's pages on Novi Pazar, Tran and Troyan, and the name-day list from Nestful.