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Ivan Vazov was a Bulgarian poet, novelist and playwright. He was born in Sopot, a town situated in the Rose valley of Bulgaria.

The date of Vazov's birth is indisputable, although the poet didn't know it exactly. His mother, Suba, was neighbour of Mintcho Vazov's, who liked her beforehand. Ivan Vazov inherited series of human virtues from his father. His mother excessively influenced his development.

After finishing the primary school in Sopot, Mintcho sent his son to Kalofer, appointing him assistant teacher. After the years of exams in Kalofer, the young teacher returned to Sopot in his father's grocery to help him with his work. The next year his father sent him to Plovdiv to Naiden Gerov's school. There Vazov made his first steps as a poet.

He returned in Sopot and was sent again to Olteniţa in Romania lately to study trade. But Vazov didn't show a keen interest in trade. He was immersed in his poet world. Soon he left Oltenita and went to Brăila where he met Hristo Botev, a Bulgarian revolutionary and poet. From Brăila he went to Galaţi to his uncle. There he met Botev again.

In 1874 he joined the struggle for his country's liberation, and had to flee after the unsuccessful April uprising of 1876.

Vazov started writing his famous poems with Botev and some immigrants. After his stay in Galatsi he went to Istanbul. Arriving back to Bulgaria with the help of his father he started teaching. Vazov's next stay is in Svistov where he became a civil servant.

Vazov's 1893 novel Under the Yoke, which depicts the Ottoman oppression of Bulgaria, is the most famous piece of classic Bulgarian literature. Later in his life Vazov was a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of newly independent Bulgaria.