EACH country has its national poets. They are people who were not only good at writing but also at exposing the depths of their fellow countrymen's souls. When celebrating their greatest moments, such as Liberation Day on March 3, Bulgarians remember the one and only person that used poetry and prose to tell the world of the Bulgarian soul, and the Bulgarian struggle to become a nation - Ivan Vazov.

After the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 and the restoration of its state independence, the new state began developing its culture in entirely new conditions. During the first decades of freedom, Bulgarian governments were anxious to help the country out of the Orient and its backwardness, which stimulated the multifarious influences of modern European culture. The "European shift" affected all cultural spheres - education, science, literature and art. In a number of cases the cultural accomplishments outstripped even the modernisation of the state itself or its economy.

Literature has always had a leading position in the Bulgarian cultural environment. Literary life was marked by the existence of two conflicting trends containing the main ideological leanings, which sprung up after the liberation. The first one, supported by the literary circle around Vazov, tried to pave the way for Bulgarian literature along the lines of critical realism in conjunction with folklore. The second trend was represented by the circle of the Misul (Thought) magazine, co-edited by Kiril Krustev, a literary critic and Pencho Slaveikov, another Bulgarian poet. And here we meet the master.

Vazov was born in 1850 in the town of Sopot, situated in the beautiful Valley of the Roses, one of the most poetic sites the country has. Some people believe that it was one of the influences on the future great poet and novelist. The other was the struggle to overthrow Ottoman rule, which had for five centuries strangled the Bulgarian nation and limited its development.

Vazov also inherited a series of special virtues from his father, Mincho Vazov, who was a trader and a true Bulgarian, bearing the spirit of the Bulgarian people that had inhabited these lands for so many centuries. His mother also strongly influenced his development.

After finishing school in Sopot, Vazov was sent to Kalofer, another town bearing the spirit of the Bulgarian revival, and was appointed assistant teacher. After the years of exams in Kalofer, the young teacher returned to Sopot to his father's grocery to help him with his work. But, thirsty for more education and further development, the next year Vazov went to Plovdiv to continue his education.

In Plovdiv, Vazov made his first steps as a poet. By his father's wish he went to Oltinitsa, a university town in Romania to study trade. But his soul was not keen to explore the secrets of the economy. He was immersed in his world of poetry. Soon he left Oltinitsa and went to Braila where he met Hristo Botev. Hardly anything else in this world could have had a greater influence on Vazov than the revolutionary spirit of Botev, who was the moral father of the Bulgarian liberation struggle.

Later, he himself took part in the process of liberation and after the Bulgarian state was revived from the ruins of Ottoman rule, he was regarded as one of the most prominent figures in the country.

For more than 50 years, Ivan Vazov was the most highly regarded figure in Bulgarian literature. He was a citizen-poet who considered the social mission of literature an organic part of the nation's life and fate. He wrote his most compelling works to glory Bulgaria's national reawakening and to articulate the ideas of the past, lest they be forgotten by post-liberation society.

His view of the Bulgarian national character had an enormous impact, and to this day his works remain an invaluable treasure of Bulgarian cultural history. Vazov is considered the patriarch of Bulgarian literature because he provided the highest standards for future generations of writers, who would seek in his verse a solution to their doubts and a confirmation of their ideas.

Vazov was in fact the founder of all the literary genres employed by modern Bulgarian literature. His wide-ranging works are a brilliant manifestation of his artistic creativity. Partly because of his love of his homeland, its freedom and its nature, and his ability to incorporate into his works Bulgaria's traditions, history, morality, and national spirit, Vazov has come to be regarded as Bulgaria's national poet.

Vazov's Pod Igoto (Under the Yoke) enjoys the status of Bulgaria's national novel. Set against the background of the tragic April Uprising in 1876, it is an extended examination of Bulgarian character and the national awakening. From his poems, the most significant are collected in the Epopee to the Forgotten, true songs for the greatest Bulgarians in history.