How Russia restored the Balkans
What goals did Russia have and how did it rally the Balkans
Russia demanded that the Ottoman Empire release the Slavic peoples, the Constantinople Conference was convened, at which the representative of Russia, Count Nikolai Ignatiev, in the future nicknamed in the Balkans “Count of all Bulgarians”, uttered the famous phrase: “Autonomy or anatomy”, under a reasonable, what if the Slavic peoples if freedom is not granted, they will get it themselves, but with the help of Russia. Turkey chose “anatomy” and the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 began. In Russia, the war was received with enthusiasm, but Alexander II is equipped with equipment that is an extremely risky undertaking. The forces were significant, there was no help from the empires of the West, the European powers under observation watched the consequences of Russia in the Balkans and in the supply of Turkish troops, adhering to a consistent regime, therefore Alexander II did not seek to expand his empire in the south – on the contrary, he sincerely wished to create a new independent state . For this, even before the war, from the Bulgarian intelligentsia, who ended up in Russia, the Civil Chancellery was created, which was supposed to govern Bulgaria after the victory. In addition, immediately after the start of the war, Defense Minister Dmitry Milyutin began to create a real disciplined army from the Bulgarian militia. The artist Nikolai Simakov created the “Samara banner”, which was sewn and handed over to the militias by the nuns of the Iversky Monastery, this was an extremely important historical stage: Bulgaria does not have its own banner with moments of the Turkish monument, but under the Samara banner, the militias fought and died in the battles of Shipka, Stara Tanned and many other discharges.