The Georgi Sava Rakovski Bolhrad High School (, Bolhrads'ka himnaziya im. H.S. Rakovs'koho; , Bolgradska gimnazia „Georgi Sava Rakovski“) is a public school in Bolhrad, Odesa Oblast, southwestern Ukraine; though formally designated a gymnasium (high school), it currently provides classes for students aged 6 to 18. It was established on 10 June 1858, in what was then the Principality of Moldavia, at the request of Bessarabian Bulgarian and Gagauz communities, and was thus the oldest high school of the Bulgarian National Revival; to this day, it remains central to the expression of Bulgarian culture in Ukraine. Originally, it was self-sustaining and had a supervisory sole over various primary schools in southern Bessarabia, with funds provided by its ownership of several lakes and fisheries just north of the Danube Delta—including Yalpuh and Kuhurlui. Its current name, granted in 1999, honors a Bulgarian intellectual leader and political activist, Georgi Sava Rakovski, who was personally involved in the gymnasium's establishment.
The school, along with all of southern Bessarabia, was integrated with the Principality of Romania from 1859 to 1878, and was exposed to Romanianization attempts; its regional monopoly on Bulgarian education was also questioned by the Russian Empire, which provided for rival institutions in Comrat and Mykolaiv. The institution preserved its core mission and its autonomy into the 1870s, when its students actively fought during the Liberation of Bulgaria. Immediately after, Bolhrad itself was annexed by Russia, and folded into the Bessarabia Governorate. The regime of Tsarist autocracy closed down its printing press, phased out its ethnic privileges, and, in 1884, renamed it after Alexander III. The gymnasium was not stripped of its estates, which it preserved into the interwar period, when Bessarabia was united with Romania. The Greater Romanian regimes tried but failed to confiscate the lakes; they also resumed centralizing policies, and insisted for the admittance of non-Bulgarian students—though the school continued to be staffed by ethnic-minority professors, they had their political loyalties subjected to public scrutiny. Under Romanian rule, the institution was known as a lyceum, and, from 1932, was renamed after Carol II.
During World War II, Bessarabia was taken over by the Soviet Union: first with an occupation in 1940–1941, and then, more definitively, with annexation by the Ukrainian SSR (from 1944). It was a regular gymnasium in the Soviet education system, though Bulgarian contributions were still recognized. The dissolution of the Soviet Union turned it into a regular Ukrainian public school, and later into one with an officially recognized Bulgarian focus—one which was also celebrated in Bulgaria, which offers its alumni a number of state scholarships. Since 2010, the high school's name has been lent to Bolgrad Glacier in Sentinel Range, Antarctica.
History Russian project and Moldavian establishment The Russo-Turkish Wars of the late 18th and early 19th century prompted many Bulgarians to leave the Ottoman Empire, which had occupied Bulgaria for centuries, settling in the southern domains of the Russian Empire—and specifically in the Governorate of Bessarabia. These Bessarabian Bulgarians, together with Gagauz people, founded 64 villages in Bessarabia, as well as the cities of Bolhrad and Comrat. As early as 1832, Ukrainian Slavist Yuriy Venelin had suggested that Bolhrad become a centre of Bulgarian culture and education in the Russian Empire; however, the idea was not put into practice at the time. In the 1840s, Governor Pavel Kiselyov obtained the establishment of Bulgarian primary schools throughout the region, and also created a school for land surveyors in Bolhrad. All these were closed down under his successor, Ivan Arandarenko.
After the Crimean War (1853–1856), southern Bessarabia (including Bolhrad) was returned to the Principality of Moldavia, a Romanian-speaking autonomous realm inside the Ottoman domain. Immediately after, Teodor Balș, as Moldavia's Caimacam (Ottoman-appointed regent), made formal pledges that he would uphold the Bulgarians' cultural rights, describing them as victims of Tsarist autocracy; this project was left interrupted by his death. He was succeeded in 1857 by Nicolae Vogoride, who was himself Bulgarian by origin. Bulgarian activist Georgi Sava Rakovski personally lobbied in front of Vogoride for a Bulgarian printing press to be tolerated on Moldavian territory, and was also involved in the high school's opening—by assisting a Bolhrad delegation which submitted its plea to the Caimacam in January 1858. Rakovski was called upon by the other school patrons to help organize the promised institution, but he was prevented from staying in Moldavia by the Sublime Porte and the Austrian Empire, both of which regarded him as a rebel and fugitive.
The work to establish the school fell on a gathering of village assemblies, or obști, which voted in favor of free education for all scions of colonial families. On 10 June 1858 in Iași, the Caimacam granted trust committee members Nikola Parushev and Panayot Grekov a charter permitting the establishment. The charter outlined the goals which the school's establishment set, as well as some basic rules. The high school was open to all colonists, so long as they were of Eastern Orthodox confession. Graduating from the Bolhrad High School would require a total of seven years of education, the first three of which were regarded as progymnasium, or junior high school. Latin, Bulgarian and Romanian were part of the curriculum. Some classes were offered in Church Slavonic and French.
The school had a historical distinction as a major contributor to the Bulgarian National Revival. Its creation as the foremost Bulgarian school in either Moldavia or Wallachia contributed to the immigration of Bulgarians, which for the first time included a sizable cohort of trained teachers—even if, overall, most immigrants favored Bucharest and Brăila. Though located outside Bulgaria, Bolhrad's gymnasium is also remembered as the first institution of its level to offer education to Bulgarians. The institution remained financially independent from state and church, as it relied on income from rents. Owning some 3,500 hectares and a number of punts, as well as three eateries, it had been transferred property over several lakes with fishing grounds—Beleu, Cahul, Cartal, Cugurlui, Ialpug—and also owned one half of Catlabuga and one tenth of Chitai. Traditionally, this sizable estate was curated by a triumvirate of epitropi (trustees). They were selected for three-year terms by 74 delegates of the rural communities (with two delegates per village). 27 "colonies" in Bessarabia were staffed by alumni and subject to the gymnasium's own inspectorate. The school's first director was Sava Radulov of Panagyurishte, succeeded in 1860–1864 by physician Georgi Mirkovich of Sliven.
First Romanian period In 1859, Bolhrad and Moldavia had been absorbed by the larger Principality of Romania, with Bucharest as its capital. Voted in as Domnitor, Alexandru Ioan Cuza visited the school in September of that year. In November, Cuza's main ally, Mihai Kogălniceanu, received a letter signed by several Bulgarian burghers, requesting his support for the establishment of a printing press that would serve the needs of the school. From 1860, Cuza's regime began revoking ethnic privileges. Dissatisfaction exploded into violent clashes, and also registered protest by some of the Bulgarian villages, whose inhabitants packed up for Taurida Governorate, joining the Crimean Bulgarians. Over the next three years, Cuza alternated between heavy-handed Romanian nationalism and appreciation for the Bulgarians' input: he looked into a proposal made by Nathanael Boykikev, who wanted the gymnasium to operate as a theological seminary, but also made sure that Nathanael himself would be prevented from becoming the school's headmaster, since he was a "Russophile".
The greater part of Bessarabia, which was under uninterrupted Russian rule during those decades, also inherited a Bulgarian community, which experienced its own struggle for educational autonomy. A "Central Bulgarian School" was established by the Russians at Comrat in 1862. Though its use of the native language was restricted, and it was prevented from owning any property to its name, it was considered superior to Bolhrad's slightly older institution. A "South Slavic Boarding School", established in Mykolaiv by Todor Minkov, also tried to compete with Vogoride's project—and had five Bolhrad natives listed as its students. In his private correspondence with the Russian authorities, Minkov alleged that Bolhrad's school was mediocre, and a sure victim of Romanianization attempts. In contrast, Czech historian Konstantin Jireček argued in 1879 that Bolhrad's was one of the three top Bulgarian institutions of learning, alongside the Gabrovo School and Plovdiv Gymnasium.
Still known to the new authorities and the public as a "Bulgarian school" (Scóla bulgară de la Bolgrad, modernized: Școala bulgară de la Bolgrad), Bolhrad's gymnasium was able to assert its status on the basis of Vogoride's charter. It could set up its own printing press in 1860 or 1861—making Bolhrad one of the largest Bulgarian publishing centers, with its books distributed throughout Rumelia. The epitropi, who purchased the printing presses from Prague, also paid for a multilingual book-and-magazine collection. In 1863, the school had begun ordering other supplies from abroad. As the newspapers reported in December of that year, there was a miscommunication: the board ordered "instruments", and expected to receive scientific tools, but was sent instead musical instruments. The requested objects, including a complete weather station, were received some time after, and continued to be fully functional into the 2020s. Around 1870, the student body formed a cultural club (Subuzhdane) and theatrical society. These in effect promoted Bulgarian nationalism, and had ties with the Bucharest-based Learned Society. Students also published a periodical, called Obsht Trud ("Communal Effort").
Cuza's successor as Domnitor was Carol of Hohenzollern, who also toured the region, and visited the school, in November 1866. The faculty was made up of 13 teachers in 1870, of whom a maximum of four were Romanian (with examples such as A. Sacco, A. Sculetti, and V. Zotta), while all the others were Bulgarian. Scholar Elena Siupiur reports that, in 1875–1882, only two teachers were Romanian, as compared to 19 Bulgarians and 6 Russians (the school also employed one member each from the communities of Poles, Italians, and Czechs). Noted Bulgarian teachers of that time included historian Dimitar Agura, who had studied under Titu Maiorescu, and mathematics professor Hristo Belchev—a Bolhrad native who eventually served as the Bulgarian Minister of Finance. Petar Vulpe, a graduate the gymnasium itself, and of Novorossiya University, who had opted for a career in Romania, taught natural science down to 1878—a colleague of engineers Alexandar Fitov, Ivan Marinov and G. Velev, all of whom lectured in other hard sciences. Vasil Beron, who served for a while as headmaster, was also titular professor of natural science, and V. Kristev provided courses in business education; Sava Berov was for long a music educator.