Totleben, Bulgaria
Encyclopedia
Totleben is a village in the Pleven
Pleven
Pleven is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality...

 region of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 (Pordim Municipality
Pordim Municipality
Pordim Municipality is a municipality in Pleven Province, Northern Bulgaria. It is named after its administrative centre - the town of Pordim....

), situated in the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 valley, on the left bank of the river Osam
Osam
The Osam is a river in northern Bulgaria. Its drainage basin is in between that of the river Vit to the west and the Yantra system to the east. The river has two main tributaries in its upper course: the Black Osam takes its source from the foot of Levski Peak in the Balkan Mountains, at an...

.

Geography

Located 25 km northeast of the city of Pleven
Pleven
Pleven is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality...

, next to the E83 highway Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

-Pleven
Pleven
Pleven is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality...

-Ruse
Ruse
A ruse is an action or plan which is intended to deceive someone. It may also refer to:*Ruse, a combination Rooster/Goose animal*Henrik Ruse , Dutch officer and fortification engineer*James Ruse , settler in Australia...

. The village is situated on a small creek that leads back to the land of Slavyanovo
Slavyanovo
Slavyanovo is a town in the Pleven Municipality of the Pleven Province. It lies in the Middle Danubian Plain, to the north-northeast of Pleven. As of December 2009, it has a population of 4,422 inhabitants and the mayor is Asen Bachev...

. Rich springs is his area. There are south-east - an important prerequisite for life, because this region is characterized by strong westerly winds. Totleben village and its lands are located in the basin of the river Osam
Osam
The Osam is a river in northern Bulgaria. Its drainage basin is in between that of the river Vit to the west and the Yantra system to the east. The river has two main tributaries in its upper course: the Black Osam takes its source from the foot of Levski Peak in the Balkan Mountains, at an...

. The terrain is flat, with fertile black soil.

History

The village is named after the famous Baltic German
Baltic German
The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...

 Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n military engineer general Eduard I. Totleben
Eduard Totleben
Eduard Ivanovich Totleben was a Baltic German military engineer and Imperial Russian Army general. He was in charge of fortification and sapping work during a number of important Russian military campaigns.-Early life:...

.

Favourable living conditions have attracted the attention of people from ancient times to testify that found the remains of dwellings, vessels, coins and other objects and building materials. It is assumed that they remained in villages, probably since the Thracian and Roman times around the village. A mile from the village there are remains of another village, where they found buildings balance of buildings and appliances, and pipes and residues drainage.This settlement was probably the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. Made findings suggest that this settlement was a fairly advanced culture. At the end of 17 century we reached the village about 500 houses. This can be judged that all the places where buildings have now found remains of houses from that time. In the legends we may consider that it was one of the largest villages in this region. Population lived in dugouts, covered with straw yards were surrounded by deep ditches. At the end of 17 in the following wars which leads Turkey with its neighbors, appears plague. Plague spreads rapidly and causes a large proportion of the population to leave the village, seeking salvation from a terrible disease. Plague took so large a scale that at the beginning of the epidemic burned their dead families with dugouts, and then only the trees that held the doors and they were buried under the rubble of the houses. Then no one takes care of the burial of the dead. The village is completely depopulated. For 12 years in the village without a single inhabitant. After 12 years the population starts once again to return to their home areas. In the early 18th century reached our village houses 15-17. Family then consisted of 50-60 people. The village was attacked several times by the hordes of Kardzhali, but was saving through ransom. By eradicating the population again kardzhaliystvoto returned to the old places. New settlers flooding, which increase the number of inhabitants. The first craftsman who grew up in the village is ancestor of today Boyadjievs - Ivancho grandfather who teaches craft in Lovech, dyed yarn spread in all villages of our region as long until the town of Nikopol.

Reportedly Vasil Levski
Vasil Levski
Vasil Levski, born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev, , is a Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule...

 repeatedly visited and stayed at home in the village of Ivancho "Bojadjiata" (Ivancho the Painter).

In 1870 Vasil Levski
Vasil Levski
Vasil Levski, born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev, , is a Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule...

 established a revolutionary committee in the village.

In 1939 in the village Totleben the beginning of a cooperative movement in Bulgaria was established, founding the first agricultural cooperative in Bulgaria - Labor cooperative farms (farms) "Rise". In September 2009 in the village Totleben marked the 70th anniversary of its founding.

Monuments

  • Monument of General Engineering Totleben E. I. (1960)
  • Memorial-ossuary of the dead Russian soldiers deployed in the village in two military hospital in Totleben village during the Russo-Turkish War 1878-1879
  • Monument to Russian-Bulgarian friendship (1979), epicting a Russian soldier and a Bulgarian girl

Education and Culture

In 1903 a Library/Cultural club - Chitalishte “Probuda”(Revival) in Totleben village was established by 19 citizens of the village (Founder Ivan D. Tanchev - chairman, Grigor Ivanov Boyadjiev - Vice-Chairman, Varbi Georgiev - clerk). In [1940] poetеsses Kalina Malina and Elissaveta Bagryana visited Totleben village and read their poems in the hall of the old Library/Cultural club “Probuda”, located at the place of the home for children and adolescents at school "St.St. Cyril and Methodius". The new building of the library is built and opened in 1958 (President Mladen Antonov, Mayor K. Blazhev). In 1962 the writer Nikolay Haytov
Nikolay Haytov
Nikolay Haytov was a Bulgarian fiction writer, playwright, patriot and publicist known for his publications and research regarding the life of Bulgarian revolutioner Vasil Levski....

 visited the village with the Pleven Theatre, which then played the first produced in Bulgaria piece of the writer. In 60–70 years of last century the Library/Cultural club - Chitalishte “Probuda” has been visited repeatedly with their performances Pleven Theatre, magician Fakira Miti and many others. To the library/Cultural club “Probuda” was established and operates an extensive library.

The Primary School "St.St. Cyril and Methodius". In 1960 a Social Home for Children and Teenagers to the School was established. It was the first similar social home in the Pleven region.

In 1962 the first in Bulgaria Primary Logopedic School (Language therapy School) with Boarding houses was established. It was opened until 2002. Now it is only a Social Home for children deprived of parental care. From 2006 the Foundation "Mladen and Maria Antonovi"http://www.mmafondation.eu is working for reviving of the former Logopedic School.

Base

Built and opened in 1980 the main building of the Primary Language Therapy (Logopedic) Boarding-School is one of the last built school buildings in the country. Its campus is a modern base – school complex with a specialized Logopedic children garden, two boarding-schools, and one-floor building for the elementary classes and the main three-floor-building of the former Logopedic Boarding-School. The Boarding-School sat in a wide, cozy building, built in an ecologically clear area with excellent communication with the main town Pleven and with the other centers in the region. The Primary Logopedic Boarding-School has an excellent base with cabinets for individual language therapy as well as geography, biology, chemistry, physics, foreign languages laboratories, imitative fine arts, cinema and sports hall, a rich library, mechanical and woodtuming workshops.

Social Activities

In 1960 the first in the Pleven region Social Home for children and teenageres was established to the Primary School "St.St. Cyril and Methodius".

In 1962 the Primary Logopedic Boarding-School in Totleben village was established. This Hall is also to Logopedic school in Totleben village. The two boarding houses to it in the building of the local municipal council, and built galleys and pensions. In the 80 years of last century, around 500 children with speech problems of the whole country and from poor and large families in the county are placed in three boarding and training in two schools in the village.
The successor of the Logopedic boarding school is the Home for children deprived of parental care (DDLRG) Mladen Antonov for children 3 to 18 years. The Social Home for children deprived of parental care is named after its founder Mladen Antonov (1929–1985), where about 120 children aged from 3 to 18 are being placed by the social legislation from Pleven region.

Cooperative movement

In 1939 the citizens of the village established the first Bulgarian agriculture cooperation "Vazhod" (Progress). First president of the agricultural cooperative is the agronomist Pantaley Angelov Konstantinov (25/06/1903 at Totleben - died after 1983).In September 2009 in Totleben village the 70th anniversary of the first Bulgarian agriculture cooperation "Vazhod" was celebrated.

Celebrations

Especially reputable holiday is St. George's Day (Bulg. Гергьовден -Gergiovden) as well as the next day - 7th of May, when is the traditional fair of the village.

Annual celebration the anniversary of general Eduard I. Totleben
Eduard Totleben
Eduard Ivanovich Totleben was a Baltic German military engineer and Imperial Russian Army general. He was in charge of fortification and sapping work during a number of important Russian military campaigns.-Early life:...

(8th May 1818 — 18th June 1884) in every first Saturday of May
  1. May 3, 2008 - Celebrating 190 years since the birth of General Totleben organized by the village mayor Ivan P. Ivanov, accompanied by a rich folklore program - Holiday "Merry Gergyovden
  2. May 2, 2009 - Celebrating 191 Anniversary of General Totleben organized by the village mayor Ivan P. Ivanov, accompanied by a rich folklore program (St. George Merry, 2009) and restoration of historic scenes from the Russian-Turkish war involving General Totleben
  3. May 1, 2010 - Celebrating 192 Anniversary of General Totleben organized by the village mayor Emil Gashev accompanied with rich folklore program, concert brass, old town songs and romances, and rock concert
  4. May 7, 2011 - forthcoming celebration of 193 anniversary of General Totleben organized by the mayor of the village Emil Gashev, which will be accompanied by a rich folklore show, rock concert - the group Vatican, Vasko Krypkata (Vasko the Patch) and others

Others

Club for Horse Riding named after general Totleben (1998), founded by Krasimir Antonov. Races have been performed in the village over several years.
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