The April Uprising of 1876 in which the heroism of the Bulgarians reached its summit. Hristo Botev also took part in the uprising after crossing from Walachia with a detachment of 120 revolutionaries on the Austro-Hungarian boat Radetzki. The uprising was brutally crushed by the Turkish regular army and bashibazouk (Turkish irregular) bands. Some 29 thousand Bulgarians perished in the unequal struggle.

The April Uprising was the best organized mass armed popular action against the oppressor in the last quarter of the 19th century, after the Paris Commune. At this time in Western Europe the process of the creation of national states and the extension of the democratic rights in them had, generally speaking, come to a close. On the one side stood the independent countries, colonies and semi-dependent regions. The working class in Western Europe had made the first steps towards becomming aclass in its own right. The bourgeoisie had passed its zenith and its revolutionary substance in the major capitalist countries was wearing out. In this intervening period, by force of objective circumstances, as a result of the uneven development of capitalism as a world system, the centre of the world revolutionary movement gradually moved from Western Europe to the East. It is from here that the great significance of the Bulgarian national liberation movement of the '70s and its peak - the April Uprising - derives. One nation daringly appeared on the European political scene with the motto 'Freedom or a heroic death', challenging the rest of the world, putting to the test all adherents of liberalism and the opponents of the increasing conservatism among the ruling circles of the European bourgeoisie. And the impact was really surprising: over 3,000 publications in the European press voiced support for the insurgent Bulgarians. In this situation the governments of the Great Powers were in no position to overtly maintain the status quo as regards 'the sick man', the Ottoman empire. This created a congenial political situation and made Possible a more decisive intervention on the part of Russia.

The Constantinople Conference, called at the end of 1876 and the beginning of 1877 under the pressure of Russia, attended by delegates from Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Turkey, worked out a draft-plan for the creation of an autonomous Bulgarian province, which incorporated the lands between the Danube and the Balkan Range, part of Thrace and the whole of Macedonia. With the assistance of Great Britain, the Porte rejected the draft in full. The Conference failed to reach any definite decision. Its convocation, however, proved that all Great Powers recognized the urgency of the Bulgarian national issue. Soon afterwards Russia declared war on Turkey on April 12, 1877 opening two fronts - in Caucasus and in the Balkans. This major event was also connected with Bulgaria's liberation from ottoman domination.