Stefan Stambolov and the Emergence of Modern Bulgaria, 1870-1895
Stefan Stambolov and the Emergence of Modern Bulgaria, 1870-1895

Author: Duncan M. Perry

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780822313137

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Little known in the United States but increasingly important in the affairs of southeastern Europe, Bulgaria is a land with a stormy history. No less stormy is the story of Stefan Stambolov, who ruled the country during some of its most turbulent years. Duncan M. Perry's biography of Stambolov, the first in English in the twentieth century, illuminates the life, motives, and personality of this major figure. Perry begins with Bulgaria in the tumultuous years immediately following its founding in 1878. After the ousting of the country's first prince, Stambolov enters the stage as the fiery young lawyer who restored him to the throne. Although the prince promptly abdicated, Stambolov stepped into the breach and led the nation during the interregnum. Perry traces this patriotic politician's transformation into an authoritarian prime minister. He shows how Stambolov stabilized the Bulgarian economy and brought relative security to the land--but not without cost to himself and his regime. Perry depicts a man whose promotion of Bulgaria's independence exacted its price in individual rights, a ruler whose assassination in 1895 was the cause of both rejoicing and sorrow. Stambolov thus emerges from these pages as a complex historical figure, an authoritarian ruler who protected his country's liberty at the cost of the people's freedom and whose dictatorial policies set Bulgaria upon a course of stability and modernization. An afterword compares the Bulgarian liberation era of Stambolov with the communist-era dictator, Todor Zhikov, analyzing similarities and differences.

Containing Balkan Nationalism
Containing Balkan Nationalism

Author: Denis Vovchenko

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-07-18

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0190612916

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Containing Balkan Nationalism focuses on the implications of the Bulgarian national movement that developed in the context of Ottoman modernization and of European imperialism in the Near East. The movement aimed to achieve the status of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox church, removing ethnic Bulgarians from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This independent church status meant legal and cultural autonomy within the Islamic structure of the Ottoman Empire, which recognized religious minorities rather than ethnic ones. Denis Vovchenko shows how Russian policymakers, intellectuals, and prelates worked together with the Ottoman government, Balkan and other diplomats, and rival churches, to contain and defuse ethnic conflict among Ottoman Christians through the promotion of supraethnic religious institutions and identities. The envisioned arrangements were often inspired by modern visions of a political and cultural union of Orthodox Slavs and Greeks. Whether realized or not, they demonstrated the strength and flexibility of supranational identities and institutions on the eve of the First World War. The book encourages contemporary analysts and policymakers to explore the potential of such traditional loyalties to defuse current ethnic tensions and serve as organic alternatives to generic models of power-sharing and federation.

Entangled Paths Toward Modernity
Entangled Paths Toward Modernity

Author: Augusta Dimou

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2009-05-10

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 6155211671

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The book is a study in comparative intellectual history and discusses how socialist ideology emerged as an option of political modernity in the Balkans of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.Focusing on how technologies of ideological transfer and adaptation work, the book examines the introduction and contextualization of international socialist paradigms in the Southeast European periphery. At its core is the presentation of three case studies (Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece), intertwined at times through similar, but also divergent paths. Each case aspires to tell a different and yet complementary story with respect to the issue of modernity and socialism. The book analyses the introduction of socialism against the background and in conjunction to other prominent options of political modernity such as nationalism, liberalism and agrarianism.

How Russia Lost Bulgaria, 1878–1886
How Russia Lost Bulgaria, 1878–1886

Author: Mikhail S. Rekun

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2018-11-23

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1498559646

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How Russia Lost Bulgaria looks at the rapid breakdown in Russo-Bulgarian relations in the years following the Russian liberation of Bulgaria in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. Initially, the Russian Empire and the Principality of Bulgaria were close allies, bound together by sentiment, by geopolitical reality, and by strong administrative links – the Bulgarian Minister of War was a Russian general on detached duty from the Imperial Army, to pick just one example. Yet by 1886, only eight years later, relations degenerated to such a point that a Russian-backed coup overthrew the Bulgarian monarch. The two countries would cut diplomatic relations for years. How Russia Lost Bulgaria argues that the behavior of Russian military and diplomatic agents in Bulgaria caused this rapid turnabout. These agents acted in a tactless, obnoxious fashion that offended the pride and sensibilities of both local Bulgarian politicians and of the German-born, Russian-appointed Prince Alexander von Battenberg. Having a Russian Consul-General refer to the leader of Bulgaria’s majority party as an “unwashed, uncombed, country bumpkin” did not improve relations, certainly. But to write off Russia’s agents in Bulgaria as bunglers and imbeciles is neither accurate nor intellectually satisfying. Underlying their actions is the fact that the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was a weak and disorganized institution, and it failed to either develop a coherent policy approach to relations with Bulgaria, or to force its agents to carry out an approach once it was developed. Left to their own devices, Russian agents in Bulgaria fell back on their own ideas of how to advance the Russian Empire’s position, and in so doing they drove Russia’s relationship with a vital client state straight into the ground.

The Routledge History of East Central Europe Since 1700
The Routledge History of East Central Europe Since 1700

Author: Irina Livezeanu

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-03-16

Total Pages: 539

ISBN-13: 1351863436

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"Covers territory from Russia in the east to Germany and Austria in the west, exploring the origins and evolution of modernity in this region"--Provided by the publisher.

Bulgaria
Bulgaria

Author: Vesselin Dimitrov

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1135136777

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The communist regime in Bulgaria was perhaps the most stable in Eastern Europe and its demise was brought about only by the general collapse of the Soviet bloc. In the light of this, what is surprising about the country's transitions to democracy and a market economy is not that it has been uneven but that it has proceeded without fundamental disruptions and is now showing some signs of consolidation. The two-party system that emerged from the round-table negotiations in 1990 has survived remarkably intact although the parties within it have undergone considerable transformations. The institutions of democracy have often been misused but have shown their ability to survive in crisis situations. After a dismal record of macroeconomic mismanagement, the establishment of a currency board has brought stability to the country's economy, and the long-delayed structural reform is finally off the ground. Having survived the trials of transition, Bulgaria is now faced with the more difficult task of adapting its political and economic institutions to the requirements of future EU membership.

Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria
Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria

Author: Raymond Detrez

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-12-18

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 1442241802

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Bulgaria is a country of extraordinary beauty, with high, wild mountains and gentle valleys, and with picturesque cities and idyllic villages. It’s bordered by Romania, Serbia Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. After many years of communist rule, Bulgaria adopted a democratic constitution and began the process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption, and crime. The country joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Bulgaria.

Nineteenth Century Local Governance in Ottoman Bulgaria
Nineteenth Century Local Governance in Ottoman Bulgaria

Author: M. Safa Saracoglu

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2018-04-13

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1474431011

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This book provides a detailed exploration of the way in which administrative and judicial offices and practices provided an essential space for politics in 19th-century Bulgaria, securing local inhabitants' participation with Ottoman imperial governance.

Eastern Europe [3 volumes]
Eastern Europe [3 volumes]

Author: Richard Frucht

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2004-12-22

Total Pages: 951

ISBN-13: 1576078019

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A contemporary analysis of the people, cultures, and society within the regions that make up Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture sheds light on modern-day life in the 16 nations comprising Eastern Europe. Going beyond the history and politics already well documented in other works, this unique three-volume series explores the social and cultural aspects of a region often ignored in books and curricula on Western civilization. The volumes are organized by geographic proximity and commonality in historical development, allowing the countries to be both studied individually and juxtaposed against others in the region. The first volume covers the northern tier of states, the second looks at lands that were once part of the Hapsburg empire, and the third examines the Balkan states. Each chapter profiles a single country—its geography, history, political development, economy, and culture—and gives readers a glimpse of the challenges that lie ahead. Vignettes on various topics of interest illuminate the unique character of each country.

Balkan Smoke
Balkan Smoke

Author: Mary C. Neuburger

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2012-10-05

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 080146594X

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In Balkan Smoke, Mary Neuburger leads readers along the Bulgarian-Ottoman caravan routes and into the coffeehouses of Istanbul and Sofia. She reveals how a remote country was drawn into global economic networks through tobacco production and consumption and in the process became modern. In writing the life of tobacco in Bulgaria from the late Ottoman period through the years of Communist rule, Neuburger gives us much more than the cultural history of a commodity; she provides a fresh perspective on the genesis of modern Bulgaria itself. The tobacco trade comes to shape most of Bulgaria's international relations; it drew Bulgaria into its fateful alliance with Nazi Germany and in the postwar period Bulgaria was the primary supplier of smokes (the famed Bulgarian Gold) for the USSR and its satellites. By the late 1960s Bulgaria was the number one exporter of tobacco in the world, with roughly one eighth of its population involved in production. Through the pages of this book we visit the places where tobacco is grown and meet the merchants, the workers, and the peasant growers, most of whom are Muslim by the postwar period. Along the way, we learn how smoking and anti-smoking impulses influenced perceptions of luxury and necessity, questions of novelty, imitation, value, taste, and gender-based respectability. While the scope is often global, Neuburger also explores the politics of tobacco within Bulgaria. Among the book's surprises are the ways in which conflicts over the tobacco industry (and smoking) help to clarify the forbidding quagmire of Bulgarian politics.