Russia and the Liberation of Bulgaria

Abstract

One hundred years have passed since the Bulgarian people were liberated from five centuries of Ottoman domination. This was achieved as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, at the cost of the lives of 200,000 Russian troops. The liberation was prepared for by the growing friendship of these fraternal peoples, brought about by the actions of Russian troops during prior wars with Turkey, which had been conducted on Bulgarian territory. Also of importance were the long-standing ties between these peoples, which had never been broken, and sympathy and support for the cause of liberation of the Bulgarians on the part of broad strata of Russian society. L. I. Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, and A. N. Kosygin, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, in their message to the leaders of Bulgaria on the hundredth anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke stated: In marking the glorious anni...