The second half of the 19th century was marked by radical changes in the international situation and in the internal set-up in the Ottoman Empire, which resulted in passing to a higher stage in the struggle of the Bulgarian people for national liberation. A new war broke out between Russia and Turkey in 1853, and since the previous Russo-Turkish war had brought about the liberation of Greece and Serbia, the Bulgarians cherished hopes that the hour of their freedom too had struck. The ideologist of the Bulgarian national revolution Georgi Stoikov Rakovski set up a'Secret Society' in Constantinople whose aim was to prepare the Bulgarian people for an uprising when the Russian troops entered the Bulgarian lands. Pavel Gramadov was sent to Macedonia to organize the uprising, Dimiter Petrovich – to North- Western Bulgaria, and Nikola Filipovski – tc the Turnovo district.

Ottoman Empire

This time, however, the development of the war proved unfavourable for Russia, for she was forced to fight not only Turkey, but a coalition including France, Britain and the Sardinian Kingdom. This venture, known as the Crimean War, ended in 1856 with Russia's defeat. In its wake Turkey practically became a semi-colony of the big Western capitalist states, which were interested in perpetuating the situation thus created, and made the preservation of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, called by everyone 'the sick man', the principal aim of their Balkan and Near East policy. A number of reforms were undertaken in order to mitigate the acute national contradictions rending the Empire. The most significant among them was the Hatihumayun, which proclaimed equal rights for all subjects of the Sultan, regardless of their nationality.

The Hatihumayun, like the majority of Ottoman reforms, was never applied. In some respects it even aggravated the plight of the Bulgarians for it provoked the rancour of the chauvinistic and fanatical Turks. In addition to all this, about 100,000 Tartars and Circassians, chased away from Russia after the Crimean War, were allowed to settle in the Bulgarian lands during the 1860s and 1870s. Brutal and embittered, they subjected the Bulgarian population to open pillage and numerous humiliations.

A sharp deterioration of the economic situa tion of the Bulgarian people was added to their national oppression. The influx of cheap and high-quality factory- made goods had a disastrous effect upon Bulgarian han-dicraft production. The permanent deficit in the state budget led to the imposition of new and heavier taxes, the collection of which was accompanied by monstrous abuse and coercion. In spite of the 15 foreign loans concluded in the course of 20 years, in 1875 the Sultan's government declared bankruptcy. The state was no longer in a position to pay its employees which led to unprecedented corruption.

 This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​