This year Bulgaria celebrates the 135th anniversary of its liberation from five centuries of Ottoman rule. On National Day, 3 March, back in 1878 a treaty was signed in San Stefano not far from Istanbul to end the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War and created the prospect for the restoration of Bulgarian statehood. That great day came in the wake of close to 100 years of national-liberation struggles in the Bulgarian lands. Liberation had become possible in the context of a fresh crisis in South-eastern Europe. In the summer of 1875 an uprising broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Bulgarian revolutionaries decided that this created a good opportunity for Bulgaria and a rebellion stood good chances of success. Radio Bulgaria’s Veneta Pavlova talked to Prof. Iliya Todev, Director of the Institute for Historical Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

“They decided that an uprising had no alternative in the solution of the Bulgarian Question and in the restoration of the Bulgarian statehood. For a start, a decision was made for a rebellion in the region of Stara Zagora. It broke out in September 1875 but failed to achieve any relevant scale as it was not prepared well enough. Despite that failure the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee started work on a new uprising, in 1876. And indeed, the April Uprising was much bigger in scale. Unfortunately, the rebels did not win on the battle ground as they could not possibly overturn a powerful empire but in the end the rebellion achieved its goals.”

Bulgarian Rebels by V. Antonov

Amid unheard of atrocities against Bulgarians, the April Uprising was a success as it attracted European public opinion, and eventually led to the War of Liberation.

The April Uprising made the Eastern Crisis to peak. Following the cruel crushing of the rebellion by the Turks, it became central to this crisis. Leading intellectuals such as Victor Hugo in France, Dostoyevsky and Turgenev in Russia and Garibaldi in Italy spoke up in favour of the Bulgarian victims and the Bulgarian cause. The Great Powers had to make some important steps. All these developments led to the Russo-Turkish War, a war of liberation for Bulgaria. However, the Great Powers failed to reach any consensus over the military solution of the Eastern Question.

"Back at that time, Germany led by Prince Bismarck was the main beneficiary from the worsening of the Eastern Crisis”, Prof. Todev goes on to say. „After Bismarck had defeated France once, he was eager to do that again and so he needed an auspicious context. Above all, he sought to engage Russia in the solution of the Eastern Question. Russia, in turn, subscribed to the view that the equilibrium in Europe would be hurt without a strong France. In the meantime, Austria-Hungary was keen on a revision of the status-quo claiming a stronger influence in the Balkans. So, though not unconditionally, it too backed the German stance.”

"The position of Britain was quite interesting”, Iliya Todev continues. „Britain opposed any change in the status quo. It was then ruled by the conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli. He was adamantly against Russia’s war in the Balkans. However, his opponents, the liberals led by Gladstone, embarked on an extensive campaign that has remained in history with the term ‘Bulgarian Agitation’. Following the barbaric crushing of the April Uprising the British Liberals vocally confronted Disraeli’s policy that was protective of Turkey. In this way the strongest ally of the Ottoman Empire, namely British conservatism, was actually neutralized.”

Two decades after the fiasco in the Crimean War, Russia did fear a new powerful alliance of the Great Powers rising against it. Besides, it did not feel well prepared for a major military conflict. The Russian society was divided. The opponents of the war did not want Russia to wage a war at that moment when the country was facing economic trouble, the army was amid reforms and its rearmament was still underway. However, the sentiments of the Slavo-philes favouring a liberation war were much stronger.

"Emperor Alexander II was a sensitive man; he knew a lot about Bulgarians and their past and present. However, he very much feared the Crimean Syndrome”, Prof, Todev explains. „Prince Gorchakov, Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was a most influential figure in Russian politics. He subscribed to a peaceful solution, to conferences and to European diplomacy. The czarina however, advocated the war.”

Crossing the Balkan Range by Tsvyatko Dochev

In late 1876 and early 1877 a conference was held in Istanbul of the Great Powers’ ambassadors. Central to the conference was the Eastern Crisis. However, the Sublime Porte (the Turkish Government) refused to comply with its resolutions for certain territorial changes and for the creation of autonomous provinces. A document was signed in London in March 1877 known as the London Protocol – a last-ditch diplomatic attempt to influence the Ottoman Empire. However it was abortive too. In this way Russia was given a carte blanche by the Great Powers to act, and Tsar Alexander II issued a manifesto declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. The manifesto was released on 24 February 1877. As the war unfolded there were great examples of valour, as well as many victims. The most important battles were waged in Stara Zagora and Shipka, Southern Bulgaria. The siege of the Northern town of Pleven was crucial for the war’s outcome.

“Eventually, Russia won a brilliant victory on the battlefield. Pleven was taken and this success was followed by the passage of the Balkan Range in severe winter conditions – a most admirable military operation’, the historian remarks. “The important battles that followed were crowned with Russian victories too. And in fact, Turkey had to face a debacle. What saved it from this rout was the intervention by Britain, and in part by a hesitant Austria-Hungary.”

The Bulgarians joined enthusiastically the war of liberation – with the celebrated volunteer corps that became part of the Russian army, with many detachments in the enemy’s rear, with reconnaissance and medical aid. Everywhere the population supported the Russian army with food and shelter.

Correspondents of European newspapers arrived to make reports from the theatre of war.

“At the start, the European media were dominated by a positive attitudes towards the war aged by Russia, as it had been driven by a humanitarian cause that had originated in the wake of the April Uprising”, Iliya Todev specifies. “When however, it became apparent that Russia was about to deal a deadly blow on Turkey, and that it could reach out and conquer Istanbul and the Dardanelles, some old fears were awake – that the European equilibrium might be broken.”

“Britain sent its fleet to the Sea of Marmora and warned that should the Russians take Istanbul it would declare war on Russia, i.e., the Crimean Alliance that Russia and the emperor himself dreaded so much was looming once again. So this forced Russia into the signature of the San Stefano Peace Treaty which was preliminary, meaning inconclusive and open for revision.”

All this led to the Congress of Berlin of the Great Powers. At the congress the San Stefano Treaty was subject to a radical revision. Northern Bulgaria and the region of Sofia were made into the Principality of Bulgaria. The territory to the south of the Balkan Range was made into the province of Eastern Rumelia, an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire. The ethnic Bulgarian lands in Macedonia and Aegean Thrace were returned to the Turkish sultan. The unification of Bulgarians in a single independent state soon emerged as a foremost national ideal. The Unification of Northern with Southern Bulgaria was conducted in 1885, seven years after the end of the Russo-Turkish War. In the century that followed Bulgaria joined a few wars to serve its ideal. This was a story of successes, of failures and even tragedies. However, it is an indisputable fact that the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 paved the road to the European development of the country. A year later it already had its parliament and a democratic constitution. The administration in the capital and across the land emerged. The construction of factories, roads and railroads took off, agriculture was modernized and conditions were created for fast progress in public education and culture in line with European values and trends.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova