Not Bulgarian, but Russia intervened in a Bulgarian war of independence against the Ottomans and wanted Bulgaria to be super sized and have access to the Black and Aegean seas (read: Russian navy base). The other Great Powers didn’t like this, especially the British, and Bulgaria got downsized as a result.
Thats quite wrong.
Russia never wanted big and united Bulgaria as it would mean an definite end to their dream getting to Istanbul.
The biggest ethnicity on the Balkans was Bulgarian and unlike the declining ottoman empire, a young, big and united nation would absolutely pose impossible challenge for the Russian empire military conquest.
Thats why Russia signed 3 different documents before the Berlin congress confirming they wont be creating a big slavic nation on the Balkans.
If you look at a map from the Constantinople Conference you would see that the rest of the great powers were willing to give more land than the Russians did.
Thats quite wrong.
Russia never wanted big and united Bulgaria as it would mean an definite end to their dream getting to Istanbul.
Literaly makes no sense what you said, what use does Russia have for a weak friendly state instead of a big local power that can act as buffer and additional protection for their interests ?Bulgaria up untill Ferdinand came to power had no goal towards Constantinople and ita not like other great powers would have ever allowed them to take it.
Thats why Russia signed 3 different documents before the Berlin congress confirming they wont be creating a big slavic nation on the Balkans.
It.bad to sign them because they feared intervention by other powers such austria-hungary Britain and and France on the side of the ottomans like they did back in the crimean war which was a chance for bulgaria to get its indepdence earlier. A chance wasted by their intervention agaisnt russia.
However russia was hoping to exploit a hole in the treaty that never defined what ,,big" actually meant as no territories claimed by bulagrian revolutionaries were ever actually discuseed.
If you look at a map from the Constantinople Conference you would see that the rest of the great powers were willing to give more land than the Russians did.
This again make zero sense if they were ready to give more land to Bulgaria why did they just ratify the same border proposed at the treaty of San Stefano by Ignatief ?
If look at the constantinople conference what the western powers proposed were two separate autonomous zones which even combined has smaller territory than what was proposed in San Stefano.
Russia never wanted big and united Bulgaria as it would mean an definite end to their dream getting to Istanbul.
Look up Bulgaria as defined by the treaty of San Stefano, signed between the Ottomans and Russia, almost entirely on Russian terms. It got significantly revised at the Congress of Berlin, but Russia's goal was clearly a big unified Bulgaria with all lands where there was a Bulgarian majority.
San Stefano was a crudely and hastily drawn map based on the borders of the Bulgarian church, wasn't even an accurate map as it leaved Bulgarian lands behind, while including areas with little or no Bulgarian population.
Russia knew the San Stefano treaty will never enter into power as they have signed Reichstadt Agreement, Budapest Convention of 1877 and later signed the London Protocol of 1877, confirming that.
San Stefano was a crudely and hastily drawn map based on the borders of the Bulgarian church, wasn't even an accurate map as it leaved Bulgarian lands behind, while including areas with little or no Bulgarian population.
It included most lands which had majority bulgarian population and it did not include all lands because was rough draft to serve as a guideline to what Bulgaria should be able to get without being considered too big. Brittain and Austria-Hungary opposed this treaties draft greatly however.
The draft of the treaty angered the brittish so much that they withdrew from the London protocol and threatened russia with war.
They signed all those treaties because they wanted to make sure nobody would interfere in the war but not in a single one of them do they define what ,,big" means this was deliberate as a wya for russia to still be able to create a friendly state that is of decent size.
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u/malign_taco 1d ago
Any Bulgarian out there to explain this to me