Not every entry in this series gets to open with something light, and this is one of the heavy ones. On 31 July 1877, the city of Stara Zagora was overrun and burned during the war that eventually freed Bulgaria from five centuries of Ottoman rule, and one of the country's most treasured national relics was nearly lost on the same afternoon.
What happened on this day
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, the conflict Bulgarians still call the War of Liberation, had reached the Thracian town of Stara Zagora by late July. An Ottoman force of around 48,000 under Suleiman Hüsnü Pasha advanced on a much smaller Russian and Bulgarian defence, roughly 12,000 troops of General Joseph Gurko's advance detachment, fighting alongside the newly formed Bulgarian Opalchenie, the volunteer militia that was, for most of its members, the first time they had ever carried a rifle for their own country. Old-style Russian calendars of the period record the date as 19 July; convert that to the calendar Bulgaria uses today and it lands squarely on 31 July, so the date holds up cleanly.
In the middle of that fighting sat the Samara flag, a banner embroidered by nuns in Samara, Russia, and formally presented to the Opalchenie only ten weeks earlier, on 18 May 1877. At Stara Zagora its standard-bearers died one after another trying to keep it flying: the non-commissioned officers Anton Marchin and Avksentiy Tsimbalyuk, and the militiaman S. Minkov. When it looked likely to fall into Ottoman hands, Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Kalitin personally seized it and was killed getting it clear of the line, and a small group that included Toma Timofeev and Nikola Korchev fought hand to hand to bring it out of the collapsing city. Even measured against a war that produced plenty of grim afternoons, this was one of the worst.
The defence did not hold. Stara Zagora fell, and Ottoman troops together with Circassian irregulars killed an estimated 14,000 Bulgarians, many of them refugees who had fled into the city for safety, and burned it to the ground. The Bulgarian militia alone lost 572 men; Kalitin's own Russian battalion lost 210, more than a third of everyone in it. This was not a Bulgarian victory. It was a defeat inside a war Bulgaria would still go on to win, which is a harder story to tell than a straightforward triumph, and closer to what actually happened in most of 1877.
Why this matters for British expats
Stara Zagora is a good couple of hours south of Shumen, down on the Thracian plain, so there was never a battle on our own streets to point to. But Shumen has its own, quieter place in the same war: it was one of the Ottoman Empire's key northern fortress towns, and it held out for nearly a year after Stara Zagora burned, only capitulating to Russian forces on 22 June 1878. If you live here, you're living in a town that was still, technically, a war zone almost a full year after this particular disaster.
The cultural-literacy payoff is the flag itself. The Samara flag isn't a museum curiosity to Bulgarians, it's the physical object behind a story every schoolchild learns, and it sits behind glass in Sofia's National Museum of Military History to this day. Knowing the Kalitin story is a decent shortcut to understanding why Bulgaria takes its 3 March Liberation Day, and the monuments to the Opalchenie scattered around the country, as seriously as it does.
Sources and further reading
The battle's dates, forces and casualty figures here follow the Bulgarian Wikipedia entry on the Battle at Stara Zagora, the Samara flag detail draws on the Bulgarian Wikipedia entry on the Samara flag, and Shumen's own wartime timeline draws on the standard historical record for the town.
Frequently Asked Questions
What actually happened at Stara Zagora on 31 July 1877?
Ottoman forces under Suleiman Hüsnü Pasha overwhelmed a much smaller Russian and Bulgarian volunteer defence, burned the city and killed an estimated 14,000 civilians, most of them refugees sheltering there.
What is the Samara flag and why does it matter?
It was a banner embroidered by nuns in Samara, Russia, and given to the Bulgarian volunteer militia in May 1877. Several standard-bearers, including Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Kalitin, died at Stara Zagora protecting it from capture, and it is now a treasured national relic kept in Sofia.
Is today a public holiday in Bulgaria?
No. 31 July 2026 falls on an ordinary Friday, with no public holiday attached to it.
Was this a Bulgarian victory?
No. Stara Zagora fell to Ottoman forces that day and the city was destroyed. Bulgaria's eventual liberation came from the wider war, not this particular battle.
What was Shumen's role in this war?
Shumen was one of the Ottoman Empire's key fortress towns in the region and did not fall to Russian forces until 22 June 1878, nearly a year after the events at Stara Zagora.