Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
In the later half of the nineteenth century Western European powers and the Ottoman Empire continued to be threatened by Russian intentions in the Balkans. Russia persisted in its effort to dominate the Balkan Peninsula. In 1875 Orthodox risings in Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia against their Turkish oppressor generated the sparks that ignited the next war between Russia and Turkey. After two years of diplomatic negotiations conducted to the cacophony of rifle fire and cannon, and failure of an international conference at Constantinople, the Russians declared war on Turkey.
Russian forces crossed the Danube and besieged the Ottoman held fortress of Plevna, on the Danubian Plain north of the Balkan range. A contingent of the Russian army bypassed the fortress and joined a large number of Bulgarian volunteers to hold the Shipka Pass against great odds, thus preventing Turkish reinforcements from surging north to reinforce Plevna. The Battle of Shipka Pass(58) was bloody. Bulgarian volunteers ran out of ammunition and resorted to throwing stones and body parts of their dead comrades at the Turks before stopping them with bayonets and knives.
When Plevna fell, Russians stormed south through the Balkan range achieving a rout of Turkish forces and the near capture of Constantinople. On 3 March 1878, within view of the minarets of the City, the belligerents signed the Treaty of San Stefano which recreated 'Big Bulgaria,' a Bulgarian state equal to that that had existed in medieval times, reaching the Aegean and making impossible Ottoman control of Albania by land. Russia had finally positioned itself to dominate the Balkans. The people of Bulgaria still celebrate 3 March as the date of their liberation and formation of the modern Bulgarian State.
"Big Bulgaria," created under the Treaty of San Stefano,(59) was bordered by the Danube on the north and the Black Sea on the east, and incorporated all of historically identified Macedonia. "Big Bulgaria" would have extended south to include the city of Kastoria and the village of Mavrovo (more in Chapter Two).
In 1879, wishing to strengthen an already dominant position in the Balkans, Russia's Tsar Alexander II nominated a favorite nephew, German Prince Alexander of Battenberg, to the executive, princely position in the new state. The young Prince came to a strife ridden government still trying to organize itself.
Jealous and concerned about possible Russian dominance in Eastern Europe, Britain and Austria reacted against the Tsar's ambitions with the support of France, Italy and Germany. They applied great diplomatic pressure on Russia. Isolated and fearful of another Crimean catastrophe, Russia relented. The result three years later in 1881 at the Congress of Berlin were agreements that thwarted Russian plans and changed the borders.
The agreement split Bulgaria into three parts, one of which was a new, smaller Bulgarian State under Prince Alexander. Split off from 'Big Bulgaria' was a region still subject to the Ottoman state and occupied by Turkish forces, but headed by a Christian governor: Eastern Roumelia.(60) It was located south of the Bulgarian State between the Balkan and Rhodope mountains and extended to the Black Sea. The treaty also gave the Ottomans territory in European Thrace, Macedonia and Albania.
The geopolitical interests of Russia and Britain reversed when Eastern Roumelia united with Bulgaria in 1885-86. Russia's Tsar Alexander III, who became Tsar on Alexander II's assassination, unlike his predecessor detested Bulgaria's Prince. The Tsar's antipathy toward Prince Alexander was based in part on his refusal to make Bulgaria a vassal state of Russia. And the Tsar had been against Roumelia joining with Bulgaria to create an even greater land barrier to any Russian drive toward the Bosphorus. The British, on the other hand, concerned that the Russians might still attempt an advance in the Balkans, were pleased that Roumelia joined Bulgaria.
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