Who was Aleko Konstantinov?

Aleko Konstantinov was a Bulgarian writer, best known for his character Bay Ganyo, one of the most popular characters in Bulgarian fiction. He was born in Svishtov in 1863 to an affluent trader. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the Odessa University and graduated in 1885. He worked as a jurist in Sofia before embarking on a writing career. His first novel Bay Ganyo describes the travels through Western Europe of an itinerant peddler of rose oil and rugs. Though impertinent and clumsy, the nevertheless ingenious Bay Ganyo has been seen as a mirror for a modernizing Bulgaria. At the beginning of the novel Bay Ganyo is seen mainly as trading rose oil while at the end he is portrayed as a political man. His prototype is the Karlovo tradesman Ganyo Somov. Aleko was a cosmopolitan. He was the first Bulgarian to write about his visits to Western Europe and America. He visited the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1889, Prague in 1891 and Chicago in 1893. He described his travels in his most famous book "To Chicago and Back" providing the Bulgarian readers with a portrait of the Western world. Hе was assassinated on 23 May 1897 near Radilovo while traveling to Peshtera. It is supposed that he was targeted because of his critical essays, exposing the hidden insidious intentions of the rulers of his day. Aleko initiated the tourist movement in Bulgaria. He was the initiator of the first organized climbing of Black Peak of Vitosha in August 1894.