raharris1973
Well-known member
Which party was *primarily* responsible for long periods of bad Russo-Bulgarian government relations in the 1880s & 1890s?
The Russians? Or the Bulgarians?
The Russo-Bulgarian bad relations, when they occurred in the 1880s, were a surprise to all the great powers, compared with what they expected during and immediately after the Russo-Turkish war and the Congress of Berlin that set up Bulgaria's borders. Russia assumed relations with Bulgaria would be great and accordingly pushed for a very big Bulgaria when pushing terms on the Turks at San Stefano. Austria and Britain also assumed relations would be great, to the extent Bulgaria would simply be a puppet or satellite of Russia, and hence they rejected the Big Bulgaria of the San Stefano map and insisted on holding Bulgaria down to a smaller size. After the Congress of Berlin set up a small Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, the expectations of St. Petersburg, Vienna, and London, and probably even Sofia and Constantinople, ended up confounded, with a significant Russo-Bulgarian falling out and rise of tensions.
Thinking about causes and responsibility, and throwing guesses out there, maybe it was the Russians, for being too bossy and picky and micromanaging of the Bulgarians, expecting them to be perpetually grateful for Russia's crucial role in defeating the Turks and liberating Bulgaria from Turkish rule, who provoked unbearable resentment and tension with the Bulgarian government?
Or maybe the Bulgarian government, newly free, had a hypersensitivity problem and orneriness that made it feel compelled to be insulting to its erstwhile Russian patrons, to prove 'you're not the boss of me' to demonstrate its authority domestically and internationally?
Which side was more responsible?
In breaking it down to relevant personalities, since countries don't actually have a personality or make decisions, for Russia the relevant personalities would have been the Tsar's Alexander II and Alexander III, and their advisors and Ministers. For Bulgaria, the relevant personalities would have been the Knyaz (Prince) Alexander of Battenberg, and later from 1886 Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and their various Prime Ministers, one of the most important in these formative years being Stefan Stambolov who was also briefly regent during an interregnum.
The Russians? Or the Bulgarians?
The Russo-Bulgarian bad relations, when they occurred in the 1880s, were a surprise to all the great powers, compared with what they expected during and immediately after the Russo-Turkish war and the Congress of Berlin that set up Bulgaria's borders. Russia assumed relations with Bulgaria would be great and accordingly pushed for a very big Bulgaria when pushing terms on the Turks at San Stefano. Austria and Britain also assumed relations would be great, to the extent Bulgaria would simply be a puppet or satellite of Russia, and hence they rejected the Big Bulgaria of the San Stefano map and insisted on holding Bulgaria down to a smaller size. After the Congress of Berlin set up a small Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, the expectations of St. Petersburg, Vienna, and London, and probably even Sofia and Constantinople, ended up confounded, with a significant Russo-Bulgarian falling out and rise of tensions.
Thinking about causes and responsibility, and throwing guesses out there, maybe it was the Russians, for being too bossy and picky and micromanaging of the Bulgarians, expecting them to be perpetually grateful for Russia's crucial role in defeating the Turks and liberating Bulgaria from Turkish rule, who provoked unbearable resentment and tension with the Bulgarian government?
Or maybe the Bulgarian government, newly free, had a hypersensitivity problem and orneriness that made it feel compelled to be insulting to its erstwhile Russian patrons, to prove 'you're not the boss of me' to demonstrate its authority domestically and internationally?
Which side was more responsible?
In breaking it down to relevant personalities, since countries don't actually have a personality or make decisions, for Russia the relevant personalities would have been the Tsar's Alexander II and Alexander III, and their advisors and Ministers. For Bulgaria, the relevant personalities would have been the Knyaz (Prince) Alexander of Battenberg, and later from 1886 Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and their various Prime Ministers, one of the most important in these formative years being Stefan Stambolov who was also briefly regent during an interregnum.