The treaty of San Stefano

Today (3 March), 138 years ago in San Stefano a town near to Istanbul, was signed the treaty of San Stefano which officially re-established the Bulgarian kingdom after 480 years of absence from the European political map. The treaty is the culmination of 1 and half war between Russian empire (which considered itself as a protector of the Slavs in the border of Ottoman empire) and Ottoman empire. Sometimes the war is described by some historians as “a war between the one eyed and the blind one”. The two most infarct battles were siege of Pleven and battle of Shipka pass. The war is a direct result of the April Uprising (which was brutally crushed by the Ottomans) organized by BSRO (Bulgarian Secret Revolutionary Organization) and the following failure of Istanbul conference. The wish of some of the Great power of that time to preserve the entireness (for politico-geographical and exploitation purpose) of the Ottoman empire came to direct clash with increasing national revival of Balkan nations and created so called “Eastern question”. The treaty was later revised by the treaty of Berlin. The last one is a precondition for two more wars (at least), one of which is the WWI (well may be if there was not such a treaty, the “great minds” of that time would find another reason, but this is other topic). Although several significant inaccuracies the treaty of San Stefano re-established Bulgaria in borders dreamed by our society into following years and became a national fix idea, which later played a very bad joke and put Bulgaria twice on losing side, forcing it even to accept alliance with the former hateful oppressors - Ottomans…