Nikola Hristov Gabrovski - NP, lawyer, one of the founders of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party - was born on September 6, 1864 in Veliko Tarnovo.
Nikola Gabrovski remains forever connected with Veliko Tarnovo not only because he was born and died there, but because he left his heart there. He left home early to return enriched with knowledge, inspired by ideas for a just society. His native Turnov proved too narrow for his capacities, for the scale of his national public work, yet he never broke away from it.
Nikola Gabrowski was born into a family of craftsmen. He completed his primary education in his hometown and high school in Russia. He completed his higher education - law and social sciences - in Geneva. As a schoolboy in Russia and as a student in Switzerland, he befriended revolutionary-minded Russian youth. All this fascinated the young Gabrowski and, returning to his homeland, he set about spreading these ideas.
After his return to Bulgaria, he worked as a judge in Tarnovo, Sofia and Pazardzhik. He was a teacher in Sliven and Plovdiv. In 1889 he published the pamphlet "The Moral Task of the Intelligentsia". At the beginning of the same year Nikola Gabrovski founded in Sofia the "New Life" Society, to which he opened a free evening school for workers, and in 1890 he was one of the organizers of the scholarly "Development" Society in Sliven.
At the beginning of 1891 he met Dimitar Blagoev. This meeting played a decisive role in his ideological strengthening. He was one of Blagoev's closest associates at the beginning of the socialist movement in Bulgaria. He took part in the preparation of the social and literary collection Novo Vremya. In April of the same year, in Gabrovsky's vineyard, the so-called Tarnovo gathering was held, at which Blagoev and Gabrovsky outlined and justified their proposal to establish a social democratic party. Participates in the Buzludzha Congress, at which the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party is founded.
With his political activity Nikola Gabrovski occupies a prominent place in the ranks of the Party. Already as a student he attended the First Congress. He was then elected a member of the General Council of the Party.
He published in the first socialist newspapers "Worker" and "Naroden Glas", and collaborated with the magazines "Novoe Societies" and "Contemporary Thought". In his hometown he published the newspapers "Osvobozhdenie" and "Izvobozhdenie Pravda".
Sources:
Gabrowski, Nikola. Selected works - Sofia, 2008, pp. 5-28.
Immortal Names 1902-1945 : Album. - Sofia, 1969, pp. 25-26.
