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Georgi Benkovski () (c. 1843 – 12 May 1876) was the pseudonym of Gavril Gruev Hlatev (Гаврил Груев Хлътев), a revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the Bulgarian anti-Ottoman Empire April Uprising of 1876 and apostle of its 4th Revolutionary District.
Benkovski became involved in the revolutionary activities of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee after meeting Stoyan Zaimov in Bucharest, Romania; he was also introduced to Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev's revolutionary and democracy ideas. In the summer of 1875, he joined a group of revolutionaries intending to set Constantinople on fire and assassinate sultan Abdülaziz.
He was given the French passport of a Polish people émigré, Anton Benkowski, whose family name he adopted as a pseudonym; he later changed his first name to Georgi. The Pole was an anti- revolutionary who had attempted to assassinate the Russian governor of Warsaw and had to serve a life sentence on Sakhalin. Anton Benkowski managed to flee to Japan, where he acquired a passport and from where he fled to the Ottoman Empire. In Diyarbakır, the Pole met Zaimov and traded his France passport for five and the assistance to acquire an Turkish passport.
Benkovski was initially selected as Panayot Volov's assistant in the organization of the 4th Revolutionary District of the April Uprising, but due to his fervour and leadership qualities Volov conceded the position of head apostle to Benkovski voluntarily. Thanks to Benkovski's work, the insurrectional preparations developed best in this district.
When the April Uprising broke out prematurely in Koprivshtitsa on , Benkovski was in nearby Panagyurishte along with most other apostles. Upon hearing that fighting has broken out in Koprivshtitsa, Benkovski formed an over-200-strong detachment and went to assist the insurrectionists. His detachment was known as "The Flying Band" (Хвърковата чета, Hvarkovata cheta) because it toured the entire region tirelessly, mobilizing many insurgents and playing an important part in the fighting. The band was even joined by six Croats from Dalmatia and the Germans Albrecht, all workers at the Belovo railway station. One of the Croats, Stephen the Dalmatian, went to become the band's final standard-bearer. One woman also joined the band: Maria Ivanova-Sutić, the Bulgarian wife of a Croatian railway worker.
In the wake of the uprising's suppression, Benkovski and the surviving members of the band (Stephen the Dalmatian, Zahari Stoyanov and priest Kiril) headed to the Teteven Balkan Mountains. On , the band's location was betrayed by a local shepherd and the revolutionaries were by an Ottoman search party. Benkovski was shot dead in the Kostina area near Ribaritsa while crossing a river bridge. He was subsequently decapitation; his head was sent to Botevgrad and then to Sofia. The events were documented by Zahari Stoyanov and published in his Memoirs of the Bulgarian Uprisings; the author was the only one of the four who managed to escape.
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