When von Mackensen congratulates your leadership and you inspire the Blitzkrieg tank tactics, you know you did something right as a military commander.
@@hristiyanhristov2480 At the Eastern Front? Not really. By way of comparison, German cavalry was largely dismounted in the West, but in the East they kept large mounted formations right up to the end of the war, occasionally intervening in the conflicts between the factions forming up for the Russian Civil War. Russian cavalry was also quite important on both sides, especially for raiding along the railroads that made up the principal supply lines during the war. So it's hardly surprising to see Bulgarian cavalry playing an important part; it certainly indicates that they were of a higher quality than what one would expect from the forces of such a young country, but effective cavalry was just effective when the distances involved were too big to allow the densities of troops and fires seen on the Western Front.
Borislav Romanov liberty , pace , independence for both country , becaus they fight for that a ne dead the out ancestor ane they,we and the we descendent deserv that.P.S.:and romanian fight agains turk in 1877 with russians and bulgarians.
The sad thing is, he is still outside of the history books in schools and pretty much an unknown person to the average Bulgarian. All thanks to the 40 years of communism and the inability of the consecutive ruling parties to modernise Bulgarian education. And I'm sure he is not the only one the general public is unaware of, that was once a hero.
All glory is fleeting - even the Romans knew that. Maj-Gen Hector MacDonald is largely forgotten in Scotland, for example, but he rose from private to general in a British army where it was extremely hard for even lower middle class people to aspire to officer status. MacDonald came from an impoverished Highland background. His distinguished career ended at the age of 50 in 1903, when he committed suicide in a Paris hotel - he had become entangled in a homosexual scandal. Other British generals may have had this kind of skeleton in their closets (Kitchener for example) but they came from aristocratic backgrounds and there was more willingness to cover up for them. MacDonald is remembered a little bit in the Highlands, I am aware of a Gaelic-language lament about him, but only 1% of the Scottish population understands Gaelic. Most Scots have never heard of him.
I can think of few pop history outlets that would even acknowledge Bulgaria's participation in the war and even fewer that would devote such time to such a relatively unknown figure. And that is why this channel is the best.
Floobs yeah its kinda sad because Bulgaria was a pretty relevant country, partially shaping europe and being as much influential on slavs as russia. Yet its rarely mentioned anywhere.
Well, according to Churchill himself, Bulgaria's involvement in WWI prolonged the war by two years, so I guess you could say that the country had somewhat of a relevant role in the conflict...
@@alexmilchev5395 Bulgarian culture is what shapped Russian culture initially - old bulgarian became the basis of church slavonic, and alphabet of course
Wow, an episode directly related to the history of my family too. Three of my grandfather's brothers fought in the cavalry of Ivan Kolev... and died. Everything comes at a price. And war is not only flowers and cheers for the heroes. It brings death. Mostly death. On one hand - I'm proud that the names of my relatives are written on a monument in Varna dedicated to war heroes. On the other hand, I'm sure my great grandmother would have preferred to see them alive, even without the honors. And their father, who was my great grandfather, was a general who commanded the regiment of the royal guards, which was mentioned in this episode as one of the regiments where Ivan Kolev served. Unfortunately, at that time, the commander of the royal guards was also responsible for the entire security of the king and the government and lead a unit that is kinda like a secret service. So, he did not even live to see the war - he was killed by people who wanted to attempt on the king. Well, the only fortunate thing is that after the death of his father and his 3 brothers, my grandfather was exempted from military service and thus stayed alive, so that my father, and later I myself could appear in this world.
Да живее обединена майка България!! Мизия,Тракия и Македония!! Моят прадядо е загинал в Балканската война при битката за Бунар-Хисар срещу Турците! Вечна слава на геройте дали живота си за нашата родина! 🇧🇬🦁🇧🇬🦁
Thanks there arent a lot of you who dont call us tatars mongols and other things. We (bulgarians) just want to unite because we speak similar language we will be vigger and stronger united.
I was born and raised in Dobrich, and I am currently writing this from Dobrich. Just wanted to say thank you to the people behind The Great War channel - I have been absorbing your videos for the past two weeks. It is nice to see a video dedicated to General Ivan Kolev. I attended the event at which Kolev's monument was unveiled earlier this year on July 29th.
Salute from Sofia, Bulgaria! My grandfather was commander of artillery regiment at that time...Lots of Bulgarian hostory was removed from books after Soviet Union invaded Bulgaria and installed peasant government which has power till this day...
Attila Rischt yeah its whats been happening in Bulgaria for a long time. People are uneducated even about people like Vasil Kunchev or Vasil Levski who is one of the most important Bulgarians in modern history and in my opinion the most important(basically the guy who is responsible for the liberation of Bulgaria). There are people who dont even know his real name or where he was born. Unfortunately a lot of the history books written by historians about bulgaria are very one sided, mostly because they are written by bulgarians or our neightbours. We need a channel like this one about Bulgaria, but we need to dig out the most neutral Bulgarian historians.
Read what you wrote originally mate. What you wrote makes it sound like you own The Great War UA-cam channel, alongside some others and you personally feel like this channel is the best of all the channels that you own. Instead of best, you should've used favourite.
With so many neighbours from the balkans here in stuttgart, germany, 1.,2.,3. generation, i'm very grateful for this concise insight into those defining moments of communal identity and self-esteem. As a history teacher it helps me to understand and tell about the well-deserved pride they take in their history. your channel is a big contribution for modern day teaching and i'm now ready to take up this patreon thing. cheers from germany
Wow, once again I learned a lot with your special bio episode on Ivan Kolev. For starters, I thought "Hey, it will be a boring bio about someone I don't care". Then I was truly impressed and very happy to learn a bit of knowledge about this Bulgarian General :-) . It's awesome how you are able to render such forgotten figures so vividly alive! KEEP THE GREAT WORK GOING!
Ha my grandfather had a Saber a handgun and a White Horse in WWI. The saber was only ceremonial, the gun was never used, but his trusty steed saved his life. By being shot and breaking his right arm rendering him unable to wield both his gun and his saber. I will forever cherish the sacrifice of that White Horse, because it is neither throw politics or heroics that I exist now, but by pure random luck that that horse dead body broke my grandfather's arm he was send back home to his family :)
Bulgaria was winning all battles during that era actually. He was one of many Bulgarian proud military men. Thank you for this video. Very correct, which is not often unfortunately. They study gen Kolev's tactics and way of genius utilization of the machine guns in the top military academies all over the world to this day.
@@deeznoots6241 I said "wining all battles". Not wars. A war can be lost without losing a battle. Or if you know so much, tell me which battles Bulgarians lost around that time. And what was their total number of battles. And you'll see they've hardly lost a battle.
@@iddi2278 they lost Kilkis-Lachanas to the Greeks and Bregalnica to the Serbians in the 2nd Balkan war. And that was a war with relatively few battles since the Romanian entry into the war made the war completely untenable. They lost the first battle of Catalca despite numerical supremacy against the ottomans in the first balkan war. They lost the battle of Dobra pole in the 1st world war. They did win most of their battles in this era but they lost a couple too, losing the 2nd Balkan war and the 1st world war largely due to the overall strategic situation being unfavourable in the first world war, and hilariously lopsided against Bulgaria in the 2nd Balkan war(entirely the Bulgarians fault) rather than their actual tactical ability in battle. As for ‘total number of battles during that time its hard to judge, not exactly a list out there of every Bulgarian battle in the 1910’s but just from wikipedia I’m seeing 10+ major battles.
@@deeznoots6241 One against many at once. WW1 shows best. Not a lost battle, but Germans lost the war, because of that they allies too. In WW1 Bulgarian army battle Brits, France, Serbia, Romania and Russia. They all were defeated. Bulgarian army entered Romanian capital and did a military march in symbol of dominance.
@@vencislavgynev8282 I literally said a battle they lost in ww1, the battle of Dobra Pole. Anyhows easy to beat Serbia when you backstab them, and easy to beat Romania when the Germans do most of the work(hardly many against one when the only offensives Bulgaria did were with Austrian and German armies alongside) Didn’t beat them in the 2nd Balkan war though did they?
Thank you Indy and crew. through this and other posts you've put up I've developed a great appreciation for the abilities of the bulgarians-a people i previously thought of as a speed bump for different empires in the region.
Hi indie! I realy like this video. I'm a Bulgarian and seeing this video just made me very happy because Bulgarian history is just ignored on the internet.
Best history channel on UA-cam. I am really glad you cover Bulgaria's part in WW1, Ivan Kolev is truly a person who inspires with his actions during the great war. Can't wait to see the next video!
That is a sad thing when history is being re-writing for the ideological reasons. And the complex relationship that Russia and Bulgaria has. I am thankful that this channel exist, and that this(how ugly war might be) is something that Bulgarians can be proud of :)
Well, there may be ideological reasons now to PROMOTE Kolev, as he, unusually for a Bulgarian commander, fought Russians, and Bulgaria is in a NATO whose relationship with Russia is tense and adversarial.
There is some propaganda going on here that is the opposite of the 'Russian liberated Bulgaria friends for ever'. But I don't want to see ignition of more hatred. There is enough blsht in Ukraine about this. The part of Kolev's quote that acknowledge the past (in which Russia played a major role of Bulgarian's liberation) has nothing to do with his acts during his command is one that should be honoured. I see Kolev something that a lot 'new' states can learn. You can remember and honour the past, while you go in to the future. Any ways. The Great War is good in showing how complex history is, and how we must be careful to choose to forget it.
In Dobruja Kolev also fought against Serbia. During Carpathian campaign of AH a lot of South Slavic soldiers mainly Serbs run to Russian side. Russian army eventually had made divisions of Czechoslovakian and Yugoslavian volunteers from POW camps. In Odessa two such divisions were given to Serbian Hi command. Serbian Officer from Salonika came via Britain, Norway, Sweden and Finland to the Russia. In 1916 those Serbian volunteer divisions were put under Russian command in Dobruja front fighting alongside with Romanians against Bulgarians, Germans and Turks. There were 3 battles for Dobric in which Serbian army unsuccessfully fought. So they been pull back to Odessa with rest of the Russian and Romanian forces. With Russian revolution most of volunteers decided to fight for Reds, others entered repatriation program. Officers wanted to return to Serbia and they done this via Korea, Japan, Indochina, India and Egypt because there was revolutionary war on Russian western borders and only way to Europe was through Far East.
Thanks for this great and inspiring episode! If there is any other Bulgarian personnel that you must cover, it is certainly General Vladimir Vazov. Although, you already noted him when describing the Macedonian front and The battle of Doiran in particular but his life is also an interesting one to hear about. Also disgraced by the communists and his family was embarassed and even tortured no matter that this is maybe one of the most important and famous surnames in modern Bulgarian history as his brother Ivan is one of the greatest poets.
This guy sounds most remarkable. His men must have loved serving under him. I wonder what would've happened had his health not failed when it did. Would he had changed history some more. Or would he not. Certainly an unknown. Great job.
Mr. Kolev studied in the first Bulgarian High School ever, opened by Romania on its territory (Bolgrad) because at that time Bulgaria was under Ottomans. A lot of Bulgarian revolutionaries were hosted and supported by Romania (Vasil Levski etc). Just to bring up facts that unite us, too; not just the exceptions (fighting).
@V V All the best to you guys, too! If we look at tradition, customs and genetics - we are pretty much the same people; we were latinized 2000 years ago, then we received slavic influence 1400 years ago (almost 100% south of Danube, from a linguistic point of view), plus turkish and other influences...
@V V The difference is: we pay taxes to the thieves in Bucharest, you pay taxes to thieves in Sofia :)) Down with the thieves and we'll build prosperous brother-states within E.U.!
It really happens not often that a episode of TGW comes up on which I know absolutely NOTHING about. Thanks for informing me about this forgotten hero.
Southern Dobruja was eventually returned to Romania after the war. It wasn't until 1940 that the land was given back to Bulgaria as specified in the Treaty of Craiova. It was the only fair treaty that the Nazis imposed onto Romania. Bulgaria and Romania swapped people (Romanians left Southern Dobruja and Bulgarians left Northern Dobruja) and that was the end of it. The issue was never raised again. Today there is no animosity between the two nations. They are quite neutral towards one another (with the exception of a mild football rivalry that started for no good reason).
120K Romanians had to leave Southern Dobrudja and only 60k Bulgarians from allover Romania(includinf Bucharest and Banat) were found for the Swap. It was not fair at all and it is visible now, the population density in Northern Dobrudja is twice as high as in the south. My greatgrandfather was expelled from there. Indeed we don’t want war with Bulgaria but it is both morally and politically dishonest to call the treaty fair. Additionally, the Military ocupation of our country by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey and the treatment of prisoners violated the 1889 Convention, tens of thousands of Romanians perished because of criminal treatment. If Bulgaria would have been content with the 1913 borders, many lives would have been spared : Romanians , Bulgarians, Russians and Bulgaria would have still have Alexandrupolis as their Aegean port. We are neutral towards Bulgarians because we consider that one can’t negotiate with them, as they don’t know what is to their own interest. Even economically, we Romanians consider that it almost imposible to strike a deal with Bulgarians, they will pull you down to drawn together with themselves.
@@the0quiet0man 120 000 (I'm not sure they were so many) who settled there in the last 20 years, mostly macedonian tsintsari! That 60k Bulgarians were only from Northern Dobrudja. People who have lived there for at least 1300 years! So fair... Bulgarians in Banat and many other regions in Romania are still there. As General Panteley Kiselov said to his soldiers before the attack of Tutrakan "The insulted honour of Bulgaria is calling for revenge!" So it's not just about interest. It was mostly about protecting our Honour. And we did! But maybe that is something you will never understand. Shame on you!
Very informative for many I believe , you should do a special for the Macedonian front and the battle of Doiran if possible , trully was one of the most difficult fronts with steep mountains above 2000 meters and another hero general Georgi Vazov , who came up with massive fortifications visible even today .
General Georgi Vazov was the hero of Odrin/Edirne, nowadays Turkey /, for his engineering seige tactics, whilst his younger brother General Vladimir Vazov was the Hero of the Doiran battle, destroying 2 'pure blood' british and 2 greek divisions for the loss of some 700 men, later honoured by his british adversary, General Milne in London 1934, with highest military sallute at Paddington Station. At that time General Vladimir Vazov was mayor of Sofia . Sadly, in 1945, the communists declared him monarchist general and he died in internment .
I was surprised you didn't mention Vladimir Vazov (Ivan Vazov's brother) who defeated the English in the battle of Doiran. I'm not huge on ww1 history but I thought it was a big deal, because the English invited Vazov in London in 1936 and threw a parade in his honor. Anyway nice surpirse with this episode. I'm Bulgarian if you couldn't tell already and am always happy when I see episode dedicated to our side of history. Have a like :P :)
Yes I saw that then and was surprised it was covered in 2 minutes. Don't get me wrong I deeply appreciate your videos, I just thought that it was going to be covered in an episode like this may be. I always pictured it like that ever since I discovered this channel. Maybe this battle isn't such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, this was very interesting, especially the bit at the end about changing history, it's great you're bringing light to stories like this one.
Illegitimate Fundamentalist Doiran was a series of battles, bot just the one. That's the point, Vazov held them there for a while. AlsoI agree, really interesting character, definetely deserves his own special.
1:22 This is awesome. Seeing the Sofia Military School on this Channel. I live next to it in my Great Grandfather's house, he built in 1917. The only difference now - it's in a forest, not in the open. As for General Kolev, Indy is absolutely right - he was erased from our history.
Greetings to all neighbours of Bulgaria, we have fought a lot before, we have shed eachother's blood, and we all have died heroes. No more! Respect to all of you Romanians, Serbs, Greeks, Turks, Macedonians!
Kolev's finest hour was at the battle at Dobrich when his 7000 cavalrymen faced the Russian 7th cavalry Cossack division counting 18000 cossacks, which were considered amongst the finest cavalrymen in the world. The cossacks suffered a crushing defeat despite outnumbering Bulgarians 2.5 to 1 Cossack's accounts on the battle states: "..We didn't expect them to accept the battle but Bulgarians charged at us like a packs of rabid dogs tearing through our ranks, a groups of 10s taking on squads of 40s..." Later Heinz Guderian will say that his tank division's quick flanking maneuvers and surprise attacks during the invasion of France were inspired by Kolev's cavalry tactics during the Great War.
Greetings from Bulgaria Indi! Great job for general Kolev episode! You even pronounced the Bulgarian names as close to the as they would be pronounced by native bulagarian speaker. Keep the good job.
hagamapama More by deep operations, I'd say, combined arms is less a tactic that a unit organisation. Deep operations are an evolution made during the 1920s and 1930s of the offensive tactics used during the Brusilov offensive but, knowing the potential of the tank as both as breakthrough and deep penetration weapon, it includes tanks as a main component. Combined arms is having both heavy and light armament in the same unit with cooperation between them, so it's more about organisation.
Romania only took southern dobrudja from Bulgaria.honestly it s one of the big mistakes in our history. even here a lot of politicians opposed the decision at the time and it proved to be wrong as we took it just because we could and not because it belonged to us.even then,majority of population was turkish and Bulgarian and Romanians were a minority in that area.
My school name is Jordan Jovkov and i was happy when u say this name... 5:30 He is writter who fights in WW1... You're the best. Me and my class watched ur video for Bulgaria in English lesson. Sorry for my broken english, Im not good in languages :D
Somebody said history is a set of lies everyone agrees on, or in some cases, doesn't agree on. I found a Turkish website saluting the 101st anniversary of Kut Al Amara. This was a British disaster and is poorly remembered in Britain for that reason. The huge death toll among the British prisoners and the non-Muslim Indians due to starvation and abuse after the surrender also makes it an awkward memory in Turkey, except for the more triumphalist type of Turkish nationalist. (That the German von der Goltz played a large role in the victory also tends to get edited out in Turkey, especially now that German-Turkish relations are rather poor). Another factor in Kolev's disappearance was his early death. Even Hotzendorf and so forth lived postwar for long enough to write some memoirs defending their record and keeping themselves in the public eye. Kolev never got the chance.
What an interesting character. Clearly before his time as mass motorization of the armies wasn't feasible at the point, but truly good ideas. (Lead me to read up a bit about him and Guderian). I wonder how many other people were lost to revisionist communist histories?
Pretty much huge portion of great men were erased from the Bulgarian history (after WW2) for decades due to being either bloody successfull against Russia, or just because they simply were great. The new Soviet-appointed illiterates in Bulgaria after '44 couldn't stand neither great individuals, nor the memories about them among the people.
You are welcome. I gave essentially the same information on General Kolev about a year ago. However Plamen successfully repeated some of my main points but gave a more chronological and balanced information than i. Maybe you can get him to give you the story of General Vazov on the Macedonian front (the last battle at the Doiran lake) and how a Bulgarian division defeated 7 British led divisions and the recognition given by the Brits to General Vazov after the war. You can make the video 10-15 minutes for the Doiran battle(s). After all Vazov is one of the few foreign generals that made a name for himself on the pages of the history of Great Britain. That general is one of the reasons why Churchill hated the Bulgarians so much and pushed for the bombardment of Sofia in WW2.
Great knowledge about Bulgarian history. Even as a Bulgarian myself I have to admit that I did not know much about General Kolev, although he is frequently mentioned. This is a great channel, very explanatory and I can listen to it while I work. Thanks!
![The Valley of Death - The Battles of Doiran - Sabaton History 115 [Official]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ywzx6c80UdY/mqdefault.jpg)
When von Mackensen congratulates your leadership and you inspire the Blitzkrieg tank tactics, you know you did something right as a military commander.
In the terrain where tanks and massive artillery trains where impossible to supply plus fronts where not all trenches cavalry makes sense.
@@PMMagro Easy to make the call now, 100+ years later. At the time it was deemed insanity.
@@hristiyanhristov2480 At the Eastern Front? Not really. By way of comparison, German cavalry was largely dismounted in the West, but in the East they kept large mounted formations right up to the end of the war, occasionally intervening in the conflicts between the factions forming up for the Russian Civil War. Russian cavalry was also quite important on both sides, especially for raiding along the railroads that made up the principal supply lines during the war. So it's hardly surprising to see Bulgarian cavalry playing an important part; it certainly indicates that they were of a higher quality than what one would expect from the forces of such a young country, but effective cavalry was just effective when the distances involved were too big to allow the densities of troops and fires seen on the Western Front.
@@LafayetteCCurtis
Bulgarians have the cavalry and fighting on horse back in their war culture. In early middle ages they( we) were horse nomads.
I am from Dobrudja and we don't forget our hero!!! Proud to be Bulgarian!!!
You mean,a Stolipinovian?!
@@falxus9962 where are you from?
@@gt4969,From Hungary.Why?
@@falxus9962 sorry what?
@@gt4969 I think you tagged the wrong guy
Receiving an iron cross from Mackensen. A truly remarkable achievement
Matheus Oliveira
Kolev's achievements greatly impressed Mackensen because he also was a cavalryman himself, nicknamed "The Last Hussar".
@TheDarkerKnight What do you mean? Nationality?
Kolev was a genius.
@TheDarkerKnight It's because Germany Must Perish, Lavon Affair, USS Liberty, etc.
@TheDarkerKnight are belonging to Hasbara or ADL,
or just a brainwashed moron!!???
Greeting from Romania , and respect for southern neighbor and brother.
Romanian Székely And greetings from the southern neighbor to the northern neighbor:)
Borislav Romanov liberty , pace , independence for both country , becaus they fight for that a ne dead the out ancestor ane they,we and the we descendent deserv that.P.S.:and romanian fight agains turk in 1877 with russians and bulgarians.
Romanian Székely So many mixed messages.
Romanian Székely love Romania from Bulgaria
Bulgarian IYI681 And I love and respect Bulgaria
Great episode. Glad he is at last being honoured by his homeland.
Thanks you for the episode, I learned something.
The sad thing is, he is still outside of the history books in schools and pretty much an unknown person to the average Bulgarian. All thanks to the 40 years of communism and the inability of the consecutive ruling parties to modernise Bulgarian education. And I'm sure he is not the only one the general public is unaware of, that was once a hero.
All glory is fleeting - even the Romans knew that.
Maj-Gen Hector MacDonald is largely forgotten in Scotland, for example, but he rose from private to general in a British army where it was extremely hard for even lower middle class people to aspire to officer status. MacDonald came from an impoverished Highland background. His distinguished career ended at the age of 50 in 1903, when he committed suicide in a Paris hotel - he had become entangled in a homosexual scandal. Other British generals may have had this kind of skeleton in their closets (Kitchener for example) but they came from aristocratic backgrounds and there was more willingness to cover up for them. MacDonald is remembered a little bit in the Highlands, I am aware of a Gaelic-language lament about him, but only 1% of the Scottish population understands Gaelic. Most Scots have never heard of him.
He was always honored by his homeland, the communists who basicly still rule the country are simply no Bulgarians or even people at all.
@@NikozBG The jewish Bolsheviks are still in charge in Bulgaria!
I can think of few pop history outlets that would even acknowledge Bulgaria's participation in the war and even fewer that would devote such time to such a relatively unknown figure.
And that is why this channel is the best.
Floobs
this channel taught me that Cossack is a sub nation
Floobs yeah its kinda sad because Bulgaria was a pretty relevant country, partially shaping europe and being as much influential on slavs as russia.
Yet its rarely mentioned anywhere.
Well, according to Churchill himself, Bulgaria's involvement in WWI prolonged the war by two years, so I guess you could say that the country had somewhat of a relevant role in the conflict...
sometimes the least unknown figures can be the most interesting
@@alexmilchev5395 Bulgarian culture is what shapped Russian culture initially - old bulgarian became the basis of church slavonic, and alphabet of course
Greetings from Bulgaria! Love and respect to everyone who respects us!
I am from Dobrich and my grandparents are from Northern Dobrogea. This video is very accurate of my hometown's greatest hero.
Wow, an episode directly related to the history of my family too. Three of my grandfather's brothers fought in the cavalry of Ivan Kolev... and died. Everything comes at a price. And war is not only flowers and cheers for the heroes. It brings death. Mostly death.
On one hand - I'm proud that the names of my relatives are written on a monument in Varna dedicated to war heroes. On the other hand, I'm sure my great grandmother would have preferred to see them alive, even without the honors.
And their father, who was my great grandfather, was a general who commanded the regiment of the royal guards, which was mentioned in this episode as one of the regiments where Ivan Kolev served. Unfortunately, at that time, the commander of the royal guards was also responsible for the entire security of the king and the government and lead a unit that is kinda like a secret service. So, he did not even live to see the war - he was killed by people who wanted to attempt on the king.
Well, the only fortunate thing is that after the death of his father and his 3 brothers, my grandfather was exempted from military service and thus stayed alive, so that my father, and later I myself could appear in this world.
Здраве на семейството ти! Винаги минавайки покрай паметникът, отделям по някоя мисъл за загиналите ни дядовци и за тези толкова ужасни времена!
Поклон и дано съумеем да опазим завета на героите!
Yours is a remarkable family story, thank you for sharing it!
Да живее обединена майка България!! Мизия,Тракия и Македония!! Моят прадядо е загинал в Балканската война при битката за Бунар-Хисар срещу Турците! Вечна слава на геройте дали живота си за нашата родина! 🇧🇬🦁🇧🇬🦁
greetings from Bessarabia :D
Greetings from Berlin.
greetings brother
Greetings to our slavic brothers
Greeting Bulgarian brother!
Здравей братко
Bulgaria, such a small country but a glorious military tradition.
this made me cry
@Vuk Uros don't hate your neighbour. Jesus Christ said "love your neighbour like yourself" !
@Vuk Uros татар.е.майка Ти
@Vuk Uros Dont annoy the lion if he can eat you
@@aleksk4151 the perfect words for me and my hungarian neighbour.
Heinz Guderian created his tank tactic studing from Kolev. He writes about it in Achting Panzer!
What a lie :):):)
What a truth :):):)
Great Bulgarian!
Ние ще се върнем.. И, тогава..
thanks for remembering Bulgaria's role , growing up in pakistan it was so hard to find sources on ww1.Grateful for your channel
Bulgaria was an underrated belligerent in WW1. Almost as badass as Germany.
Thats why it was called "The prussia of the Balkans"
From what I know, one of my great grandfathers was a cavalryman in Ivan Kolev's 1st cavalry divison.
Finally. Greeting from Bulgaria
Mr Carv *greetings
He is barely mentioned. Looks like the communists were successful, unfortunately.
Most people don't know about him I think. Our education is still not up to normal standards.
He isnt much heard of here to be honest
Sup
Българската армия, жънеше победи по бойните полета, а дипломация пълна нула,поклон пред всички български герой!❤
SLAVA ! POZDRAV OD MAKEDONIJA
Thanks there arent a lot of you who dont call us tatars mongols and other things. We (bulgarians) just want to unite because we speak similar language we will be vigger and stronger united.
@@kaloyanpalikov7734 Съединението прави силата!
Поздрави от България братко наш!! Няма омраза между нас,само уважение и почит! Един народ,две държави!
I was born and raised in Dobrich, and I am currently writing this from Dobrich. Just wanted to say thank you to the people behind The Great War channel - I have been absorbing your videos for the past two weeks. It is nice to see a video dedicated to General Ivan Kolev. I attended the event at which Kolev's monument was unveiled earlier this year on July 29th.
Salute from Sofia, Bulgaria! My grandfather was commander of artillery regiment at that time...Lots of Bulgarian hostory was removed from books after Soviet Union invaded Bulgaria and installed peasant government which has power till this day...
This is the truest comment, the communists edited almost all of our great history.
This was an excellent episode. A war hero that few people know about.
Attila Rischt yeah its whats been happening in Bulgaria for a long time. People are uneducated even about people like Vasil Kunchev or Vasil Levski who is one of the most important Bulgarians in modern history and in my opinion the most important(basically the guy who is responsible for the liberation of Bulgaria). There are people who dont even know his real name or where he was born.
Unfortunately a lot of the history books written by historians about bulgaria are very one sided, mostly because they are written by bulgarians or our neightbours.
We need a channel like this one about Bulgaria, but we need to dig out the most neutral Bulgarian historians.
pure garbage and half truth
@TheKolobur88 ..the " bulgarian truth"?..🤣🤣🤣🤣
Pretty big war achievements. Greetings to Bulgarians from Serbia!
Thanks for educating me for my own history better than my school teachers . Your videos are awesome. Greeting from Sofia, Bulgaria :)
This is by far my best channel
nice to see people own many channels
cleverslim T what channels
Sorry to hear that your other channels are not as good
BcroG11 what channels!?
Read what you wrote originally mate. What you wrote makes it sound like you own The Great War UA-cam channel, alongside some others and you personally feel like this channel is the best of all the channels that you own. Instead of best, you should've used favourite.
Great timing TGW crew! Today Bulgaria commemorates the 141st anniversary of the April uprising in 1876. Thank you for making this episode!
2 days ago was the 100st anniversary of the deth of ivan kolev
Who fought for your independence? Answer: the Russians and Romanians. The Turks surended to the Romanian army..LEARN SOME TRUE HISTORY
@@alexpaul6054 Oh yeah right so the Romanians fought at Shipka so the Russians would have a clear road to Constantinople.
Holy shit Bulgarians were badass! And you know if you inspired Heinz Guderian that you're something special.
With so many neighbours from the balkans here in stuttgart, germany, 1.,2.,3. generation, i'm very grateful for this concise insight into those defining moments of communal identity and self-esteem.
As a history teacher it helps me to understand and tell about the well-deserved pride they take in their history.
your channel is a big contribution for modern day teaching and i'm now ready to take up this patreon thing.
cheers from germany
СЛАВА на героите !!
Ние ше се върнем.. И, тогава...
Wow, once again I learned a lot with your special bio episode on Ivan Kolev. For starters, I thought "Hey, it will be a boring bio about someone I don't care". Then I was truly impressed and very happy to learn a bit of knowledge about this Bulgarian General :-) . It's awesome how you are able to render such forgotten figures so vividly alive! KEEP THE GREAT WORK GOING!
Ha my grandfather had a Saber a handgun and a White Horse in WWI. The saber was only ceremonial, the gun was never used, but his trusty steed saved his life. By being shot and breaking his right arm rendering him unable to wield both his gun and his saber. I will forever cherish the sacrifice of that White Horse, because it is neither throw politics or heroics that I exist now, but by pure random luck that that horse dead body broke my grandfather's arm he was send back home to his family :)
Bulgaria was winning all battles during that era actually. He was one of many Bulgarian proud military men. Thank you for this video. Very correct, which is not often unfortunately. They study gen Kolev's tactics and way of genius utilization of the machine guns in the top military academies all over the world to this day.
>during that era.
They literally lost a war just before the first world war started
@@deeznoots6241 I said "wining all battles". Not wars. A war can be lost without losing a battle. Or if you know so much, tell me which battles Bulgarians lost around that time. And what was their total number of battles. And you'll see they've hardly lost a battle.
@@iddi2278 they lost Kilkis-Lachanas to the Greeks and Bregalnica to the Serbians in the 2nd Balkan war. And that was a war with relatively few battles since the Romanian entry into the war made the war completely untenable. They lost the first battle of Catalca despite numerical supremacy against the ottomans in the first balkan war. They lost the battle of Dobra pole in the 1st world war.
They did win most of their battles in this era but they lost a couple too, losing the 2nd Balkan war and the 1st world war largely due to the overall strategic situation being unfavourable in the first world war, and hilariously lopsided against Bulgaria in the 2nd Balkan war(entirely the Bulgarians fault) rather than their actual tactical ability in battle.
As for ‘total number of battles during that time its hard to judge, not exactly a list out there of every Bulgarian battle in the 1910’s but just from wikipedia I’m seeing 10+ major battles.
@@deeznoots6241
One against many at once. WW1 shows best. Not a lost battle, but Germans lost the war, because of that they allies too. In WW1 Bulgarian army battle Brits, France, Serbia, Romania and Russia. They all were defeated. Bulgarian army entered Romanian capital and did a military march in symbol of dominance.
@@vencislavgynev8282 I literally said a battle they lost in ww1, the battle of Dobra Pole.
Anyhows easy to beat Serbia when you backstab them, and easy to beat Romania when the Germans do most of the work(hardly many against one when the only offensives Bulgaria did were with Austrian and German armies alongside)
Didn’t beat them in the 2nd Balkan war though did they?
When August von Mackensen complements someone, you know they must be good.
you should do a special on the battle of Dojran and General Vazov
VoodooChild there is, and accurate as it gets... amazing channel!!!
I really like the part about "edited history", sometimes heroes are made and forgotten by the circumstance or by those who are in power.
Greeting from Dobrich!
I'm surprised a foreigner is interested in the history of Bulgaria that much! Hat down to you!
Many thanks to the authors of this film and youtube channel for presenting objectively and truly the story of this Bulgarian hero!
Great video. I would love to see you cover general Vazov, the other highly successfull bulgarian general in WW1.
Bulgaria - Prussia of the Balkans
Thank you Indy and crew. through this and other posts you've put up I've developed a great appreciation for the abilities of the bulgarians-a people i previously thought of as a speed bump for different empires in the region.
They definitely paid a high price but they definitely knew how to fight. Which is unsurprising considering the history of the region.
In my town of Varna , one of the biggest/longest boulevard is named after General Kolev :)
Amazing video! The first foreign video about Bulgaria that is amazingly accurate! Tank you so much.
Hi indie! I realy like this video. I'm a Bulgarian and seeing this video just made me very happy because Bulgarian history is just ignored on the internet.
Best history channel on UA-cam. I am really glad you cover Bulgaria's part in WW1, Ivan Kolev is truly a person who inspires with his actions during the great war. Can't wait to see the next video!
When a youtube channel is more adequate in terms of history education than the Bulgarian Government of Education.
THganks for this video.
You are amazing. A lot of thanks to you and to mr. Plamen Ganew
Proud to be Bulgarian🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬
That is a sad thing when history is being re-writing for the ideological reasons. And the complex relationship that Russia and Bulgaria has. I am thankful that this channel exist, and that this(how ugly war might be) is something that Bulgarians can be proud of :)
Well, there may be ideological reasons now to PROMOTE Kolev, as he, unusually for a Bulgarian commander, fought Russians, and Bulgaria is in a NATO whose relationship with Russia is tense and adversarial.
There is some propaganda going on here that is the opposite of the 'Russian liberated Bulgaria friends for ever'. But I don't want to see ignition of more hatred. There is enough blsht in Ukraine about this. The part of Kolev's quote that acknowledge the past (in which Russia played a major role of Bulgarian's liberation) has nothing to do with his acts during his command is one that should be honoured.
I see Kolev something that a lot 'new' states can learn. You can remember and honour the past, while you go in to the future.
Any ways. The Great War is good in showing how complex history is, and how we must be careful to choose to forget it.
In Dobruja Kolev also fought against Serbia. During Carpathian campaign of AH a lot of South Slavic soldiers mainly Serbs run to Russian side. Russian army eventually had made divisions of Czechoslovakian and Yugoslavian volunteers from POW camps. In Odessa two such divisions were given to Serbian Hi command. Serbian Officer from Salonika came via Britain, Norway, Sweden and Finland to the Russia.
In 1916 those Serbian volunteer divisions were put under Russian command in Dobruja front fighting alongside with Romanians against Bulgarians, Germans and Turks. There were 3 battles for Dobric in which Serbian army unsuccessfully fought. So they been pull back to Odessa with rest of the Russian and Romanian forces.
With Russian revolution most of volunteers decided to fight for Reds, others entered repatriation program. Officers wanted to return to Serbia and they done this via Korea, Japan, Indochina, India and Egypt because there was revolutionary war on Russian western borders and only way to Europe was through Far East.
great warrior ! thank`s for clip !
Really well made episode mr. Neidell! Greetings from Bulgaria.
That was an AWESOME episode. I as a Bulgarian never knew about this man
Wow, this may have been the best episode I've seen yet. Keep up the great work, guys.....
Thank you!
Thanks for this great and inspiring episode! If there is any other Bulgarian personnel that you must cover, it is certainly General Vladimir Vazov. Although, you already noted him when describing the Macedonian front and The battle of Doiran in particular but his life is also an interesting one to hear about. Also disgraced by the communists and his family was embarassed and even tortured no matter that this is maybe one of the most important and famous surnames in modern Bulgarian history as his brother Ivan is one of the greatest poets.
Никой не е забравен,на никого не сме простили!
This guy sounds most remarkable. His men must have loved serving under him. I wonder what would've happened had his health not failed when it did. Would he had changed history some more. Or would he not. Certainly an unknown. Great job.
Mr. Kolev studied in the first Bulgarian High School ever, opened by Romania on its territory (Bolgrad) because at that time Bulgaria was under Ottomans. A lot of Bulgarian revolutionaries were hosted and supported by Romania (Vasil Levski etc). Just to bring up facts that unite us, too; not just the exceptions (fighting).
@V V All the best to you guys, too! If we look at tradition, customs and genetics - we are pretty much the same people; we were latinized 2000 years ago, then we received slavic influence 1400 years ago (almost 100% south of Danube, from a linguistic point of view), plus turkish and other influences...
@V V The difference is: we pay taxes to the thieves in Bucharest, you pay taxes to thieves in Sofia :))
Down with the thieves and we'll build prosperous brother-states within E.U.!
It really happens not often that a episode of TGW comes up on which I know absolutely NOTHING about. Thanks for informing me about this forgotten hero.
Every second of this video was worth watching and totally spot-on. General Ivan Kolev deserves the honours.
Happy 600k subs! Also greetings from Bulgaria
Southern Dobruja was eventually returned to Romania after the war. It wasn't until 1940 that the land was given back to Bulgaria as specified in the Treaty of Craiova. It was the only fair treaty that the Nazis imposed onto Romania. Bulgaria and Romania swapped people (Romanians left Southern Dobruja and Bulgarians left Northern Dobruja) and that was the end of it. The issue was never raised again. Today there is no animosity between the two nations. They are quite neutral towards one another (with the exception of a mild football rivalry that started for no good reason).
Summertime J More like the only thing during hitlers time , that didn't change after the war :D
120K Romanians had to leave Southern Dobrudja and only 60k Bulgarians from allover Romania(includinf Bucharest and Banat) were found for the Swap.
It was not fair at all and it is visible now, the population density in Northern Dobrudja is twice as high as in the south. My greatgrandfather was expelled from there. Indeed we don’t want war with Bulgaria but it is both morally and politically dishonest to call the treaty fair. Additionally, the Military ocupation of our country by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey and the treatment of prisoners violated the 1889 Convention, tens of thousands of Romanians perished because of criminal treatment.
If Bulgaria would have been content with the 1913 borders, many lives would have been spared : Romanians , Bulgarians, Russians and Bulgaria would have still have Alexandrupolis as their Aegean port.
We are neutral towards Bulgarians because we consider that one can’t negotiate with them, as they don’t know what is to their own interest.
Even economically, we Romanians consider that it almost imposible to strike a deal with Bulgarians, they will pull you down to drawn together with themselves.
@@the0quiet0man Nah we just don't deal with someone inferior to us
@@the0quiet0man 120 000 (I'm not sure they were so many) who settled there in the last 20 years, mostly macedonian tsintsari! That 60k Bulgarians were only from Northern Dobrudja. People who have lived there for at least 1300 years! So fair... Bulgarians in Banat and many other regions in Romania are still there. As General Panteley Kiselov said to his soldiers before the attack of Tutrakan "The insulted honour of Bulgaria is calling for revenge!" So it's not just about interest. It was mostly about protecting our Honour. And we did! But maybe that is something you will never understand. Shame on you!
@@the0quiet0man Not 120K, they were 70K and 50K of them were makedonian vlachs.
Glad he’s being remembered more now 🇧🇬
Very informative for many I believe , you should do a special for the Macedonian front and the battle of Doiran if possible , trully was one of the most difficult fronts with steep mountains above 2000 meters and another hero general Georgi Vazov , who came up with massive fortifications visible even today .
General Georgi Vazov was the hero of Odrin/Edirne, nowadays Turkey /, for his engineering seige tactics, whilst his younger brother General Vladimir Vazov was the Hero of the Doiran battle, destroying 2 'pure blood' british and 2 greek divisions for the loss of some 700 men, later honoured by his british adversary, General Milne in London 1934, with highest military sallute at Paddington Station. At that time General Vladimir Vazov was mayor of Sofia . Sadly, in 1945, the communists declared him monarchist general and he died in internment .
I was surprised you didn't mention Vladimir Vazov (Ivan Vazov's brother) who defeated the English in the battle of Doiran. I'm not huge on ww1 history but I thought it was a big deal, because the English invited Vazov in London in 1936 and threw a parade in his honor.
Anyway nice surpirse with this episode. I'm Bulgarian if you couldn't tell already and am always happy when I see episode dedicated to our side of history. Have a like :P :)
probably there will be an episode in the making in the Future. My Gut tells me...
+Illegitimate Fundamentalist we talked about him on Thursday
Yes I saw that then and was surprised it was covered in 2 minutes. Don't get me wrong I deeply appreciate your videos, I just thought that it was going to be covered in an episode like this may be. I always pictured it like that ever since I discovered this channel. Maybe this battle isn't such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, this was very interesting, especially the bit at the end about changing history, it's great you're bringing light to stories like this one.
The best channel ever.Thank you!
Illegitimate Fundamentalist Doiran was a series of battles, bot just the one. That's the point, Vazov held them there for a while. AlsoI agree, really interesting character, definetely deserves his own special.
1:22 This is awesome. Seeing the Sofia Military School on this Channel. I live next to it in my Great Grandfather's house, he built in 1917. The only difference now - it's in a forest, not in the open.
As for General Kolev, Indy is absolutely right - he was erased from our history.
While not usually talked about, he will never be forgotten. Thank you for the remainder. Best regards from Sofia.
I never knew this, well done. Was Kolev included in the round-up of world class moustaches?
He should be.
Greetings to all neighbours of Bulgaria, we have fought a lot before, we have shed eachother's blood, and we all have died heroes. No more! Respect to all of you Romanians, Serbs, Greeks, Turks, Macedonians!
This was an excellent episode. Thank you!
Dedicated cavalry man, modernized his country's cavalry force, carries machine guns and defeated the Russian cossacks, hmmm. Akiyama Yoshifuru of Bulgaria?
A remarkable Bulgarian general - talanted and competent.
Another fantastic episode.
Thank you!
Bravo ) Thank you for video
Slawa slawianskomu rodu
Да живее вечна България
You're the best WW1 history channel.
Kolev's finest hour was at the battle at Dobrich when his 7000 cavalrymen faced the Russian 7th cavalry Cossack division counting 18000 cossacks, which were considered amongst the finest cavalrymen in the world.
The cossacks suffered a crushing defeat despite outnumbering Bulgarians 2.5 to 1
Cossack's accounts on the battle states: "..We didn't expect them to accept the battle but Bulgarians charged at us like a packs of rabid dogs tearing through our ranks, a groups of 10s taking on squads of 40s..."
Later Heinz Guderian will say that his tank division's quick flanking maneuvers and surprise attacks during the invasion of France were inspired by Kolev's cavalry tactics during the Great War.
Respect from Serbia.
Thank you!
then u can have my respect too.
Izdali vas? 1885??
Respect but unfortunately Serbian voluntaries fought against Bulgarian in Dobruja.
Respect from Bulgaria. I wish Bulgaria and Serbia never had to fight, it is like brother fighting brother.
Greetings from Bulgaria Indi! Great job for general Kolev episode! You even pronounced the Bulgarian names as close to the as they would be pronounced by native bulagarian speaker. Keep the good job.
Well I learned something new about my country's history. Shame that this man was forgotten.
Blitzkrieg for ww1. thanks Kolev
Actually Blitzkrieg is an evolution from WW1 tactics.
And Blitzkrieg was ultimately beaten by Combined Arms -- another tactic evolved from WWI.
hagamapama what? Blitzkrieg is strategy that use combined arms.
hagamapama More by deep operations, I'd say, combined arms is less a tactic that a unit organisation. Deep operations are an evolution made during the 1920s and 1930s of the offensive tactics used during the Brusilov offensive but, knowing the potential of the tank as both as breakthrough and deep penetration weapon, it includes tanks as a main component. Combined arms is having both heavy and light armament in the same unit with cooperation between them, so it's more about organisation.
The German B-word is actually "Bewegungskrieg". Wienerschnitzel.
The Strong Bulgaria 🇧🇬 Respekt 💪🏻🦁🇧🇬
Incredible!
Който е Българин да хареса този коментар! Only Bulgarians can understand this.
И македонците също
Abe i Turcite tryabva da go xaresat, che mnogo ot tyax jiveyat v Dobrudjata.
Nah, pretty much all the Slavs should be able to understand. I won't like it on principle, I hate comments fishing for likes.
@@Philip-nd9jn македонци?имаш предвид българи, македонци не съществуват,не може вчера да си бил българин,а днес да си македонец.
@@JanYi2023 В България има толкова турци, колкото и ескимоси!
What an amazing story!!
Outstanding episode.
Awesome episode right here! Respect!
Ivan Kolev the liberator of Dobrugea!!!😞😞😞 He is real bulgarian!!!
Ние, пак ще се върнем.... И, тогава....
Greetings from Bulgaria! Ivan Kolev is definitely one of my favorite heroes.
Romania only took southern dobrudja from Bulgaria.honestly it s one of the big mistakes in our history. even here a lot of politicians opposed the decision at the time and it proved to be wrong as we took it just because we could and not because it belonged to us.even then,majority of population was turkish and Bulgarian and Romanians were a minority in that area.
Yes, that was very unfair. The romanian intervention decided Second balkan war and brought the biggest catastrophe in our new history.
This is not quite true
My school name is Jordan Jovkov and i was happy when u say this name... 5:30 He is writter who fights in WW1... You're the best. Me and my class watched ur video for Bulgaria in English lesson. Sorry for my broken english, Im not good in languages :D
Some of our famous writers and poets fought in WW1 like Smirnenski and Debelyanov.
Y V C H ,
Practice, practice, and practice, the best things in life, are what is worked for.
My German is terrible, but I try...
Thank you for telling this great man's story.
Wow. That is impressive
3:31 Great speech!
thank you for this episode its a shame i didnt know about Ivan Kolev, but they dont talk about stuff like this at school either
Somebody said history is a set of lies everyone agrees on, or in some cases, doesn't agree on.
I found a Turkish website saluting the 101st anniversary of Kut Al Amara. This was a British disaster and is poorly remembered in Britain for that reason. The huge death toll among the British prisoners and the non-Muslim Indians due to starvation and abuse after the surrender also makes it an awkward memory in Turkey, except for the more triumphalist type of Turkish nationalist. (That the German von der Goltz played a large role in the victory also tends to get edited out in Turkey, especially now that German-Turkish relations are rather poor).
Another factor in Kolev's disappearance was his early death. Even Hotzendorf and so forth lived postwar for long enough to write some memoirs defending their record and keeping themselves in the public eye. Kolev never got the chance.
Steve Kaczynski good point
Thanks 🇧🇬
splendid
What an interesting character. Clearly before his time as mass motorization of the armies wasn't feasible at the point, but truly good ideas.
(Lead me to read up a bit about him and Guderian).
I wonder how many other people were lost to revisionist communist histories?
Acularius Hristo Lukov and Dimitar Spisarevski, i can't remember others right now, but probably there are much of them
Thanks, I'll take a look into them. :)
Pretty much huge portion of great men were erased from the Bulgarian history (after WW2) for decades due to being either bloody successfull against Russia, or just because they simply were great. The new Soviet-appointed illiterates in Bulgaria after '44 couldn't stand neither great individuals, nor the memories about them among the people.
You are welcome. I gave essentially the same information on General Kolev about a year ago. However Plamen successfully repeated some of my main points but gave a more chronological and balanced information than i.
Maybe you can get him to give you the story of General Vazov on the Macedonian front (the last battle at the Doiran lake) and how a Bulgarian division defeated 7 British led divisions and the recognition given by the Brits to General Vazov after the war.
You can make the video 10-15 minutes for the Doiran battle(s). After all Vazov is one of the few foreign generals that made a name for himself on the pages of the history of Great Britain.
That general is one of the reasons why Churchill hated the Bulgarians so much and pushed for the bombardment of Sofia in WW2.
I use your material on Bulgaria during my literature classes....brilliant work keep it up
Great knowledge about Bulgarian history. Even as a Bulgarian myself I have to admit that I did not know much about General Kolev, although he is frequently mentioned. This is a great channel, very explanatory and I can listen to it while I work. Thanks!