Stefan Stambolov

Stefan Stambolov was born on February 12, 1854, in Veliko Tarnovo. An active revolutionary who took part in the Stara Zagora and April Uprisings, Stambolov became President of the National Assembly at age thirty. In 1886, following the pro-Russian coup against Prince Alexander of Battenberg, Stambolov organized a counter-coup, saving the state from foreign annexation.

As Prime Minister, Stambolov governed with an iron hand, modernizing infrastructure, building state railways and ports, and securing Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as monarch. On July 15, 1895, he was brutally ambushed by pro-Russian assassins in the center of Sofia, dying of sabre wounds three days later.