Google Honors 150th Anniversary of Bulgarian Satire Writer Aleko

Google has honored the 150th anniversary of loved Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov with a so-called 'doodle' on its Google.bg start page.

The Google image depicts Aleko, sitting in a railway compartment together with his perhaps most famous literary character, Bay Ganyо.

Bay Ganyо is famous for portraying naturalistically the somewhat nastier sides of the Bulgarian psyche - high self-esteem, combined with base manners and an egoistic drive for personal gain and political power.

Aleko Konstantinov was born in the Danube town of Svishtov on January 13, 1863 in the family of a wealthy merchang.

He studied law in Russia and after coming back to Bulgaria worked in turns as judge, prosecutor, lawyer and law professor.

Konstantinov published widely a string of satirical short stories and novellas, as well as travel writing of special importance for Bulgarian literature.

He is also the founder of the hiking movement in Bulgaria, when in 1895 he organized a mass climb of the Cherni Vrah peak on Vitosha Mountain nearby Sofia, laying the foundation of the Bulgarian Tourist Union.

Konstantinov died young, killed at age 34 on May 23, 1897 in an assassination attempt directed against Bulgarian politician Mihail Takev.

Although he lived a less than well-off life, and was subjected to reviling due to his exposing of corruption in Bulgarian life, Aleko retained his humor and optimism, for which he was dubbed Shtastlivetsa, or The Happy One in Bulgarian.