It becomes a major task for all patriotic public figures and politicians on both sides of the Balkans. Already in the fall of 1878, there were the first attempts to change the unjust decisions of the Great Powers, but they were not successful. In the next few years, due to the political instability in the Principality and foreign political obstacles, the unionist movement did not develop. From the beginning of 1885, the situation changed. At the head of BTCRC in Plovdiv is Zahari Stoyanov, who develops energetic activity and with the help of Kosta Panitsa, Dimitar Rizov, Petar Zografski, Ivan Stoyanovich, Georgi Stranski, Prodan Tishkov-Chardafon and many other leaders of the case, manage to create the appropriate social and political attitude among the population that the moment for the unification of the two Bulgarias has arrived. A key role was also played by the agreement with the upcoming act of the Bulgarian ruler - Prince Alexander Battenberg.
Alexander I of Battenberg was Prince of Bulgaria from June 1879 to August 1886. He was born in 1857 and was the second son of the German Prince Alexander von Hesse-Darmstadt, whose sister was the wife of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. He received a military education and participated in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878. After the war, he was elected Bulgarian prince by the 1885st Grand National Assembly. In 1886, he accepted with a proclamation the Union of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. Overthrew in a coup in August 1893, abdicated and left the country. He died in November XNUMX in Austria-Hungary, and his remains were later buried in the Mausoleum in the center of Sofia.
BTCRC initially decided to announce the union action on September 15, but due to the riots that broke out at the beginning of the month and the tense situation, the date was moved to September 5-6. On the same night, units of the Plovdiv militia headed by Major Danail Nikolaev and other loyal officers, and supported by the armed Chetniks who had entered the city, overthrew the government of Governor-General Gavril Krastevich. Two days later the prince accepted the Union.unification'.
The end of the great work was the victory of the young Bulgarian army in the Serbian-Bulgarian war that broke out shortly after. In just a few weeks, our military units, commanded mainly by captains, made an almost unthinkable transition from the border with the Ottoman Empire to the positions at Slivnica, where they stopped the Serbian divisions, turned them to flight and pursued them beyond the borders of the Principality. The success in the war crowns the whole work of the Unification and is the first step towards the national unification of all Bulgarians in the lands that are specified in the treaty for the creation of San Stefano Bulgaria.
A large part of the photographs in the current virtual exhibition are stored in the NIM fund and are being shown for the first time.
