The Opening of the Monument to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich in 1914 and One of the Last Bulgarian Attempts to Return Russian Sympathies

Abstract

This article considers the attempt of the Bulgarian envoy in St. Petersburg, R. Dimitriev, to improve the attitude of Russian society to Bulgaria. The occasion was the unveiling of a monument dedicated to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder, who commanded the Russian army in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The monument depicted flag bearers modelled on real individuals. R. Dimitriev proposed to send a Bulgarian flag bearer, and with him a delegation of representatives of the country. However, the Serbs, Romanians, and Montenegrins did the same. Nicholas II granted an audience to all the Balkan delegations and all the participants of the delegations were awarded Russian orders. In his report to Sofi a, R. Dimitriev presented everything in a winning tone and reported that the foundations had been laid to combat Serbian and Greek propaganda in Russia. However, the order of the ceremonies assigned Bulgaria a place after Romania and Serbia, which clearly indicated Russian priorities and put an end to attempts to raise the issue of revising the Bucharest Treaty of 1913. In addition, in the public space, the celebrations in connection with the unveiling of the monument were replaced by the celebration of the birth of Prince of the Imperial Blood Vsevolod Ioannovich, whose baptism was attended by his uncle, Serbian heir to the throne Alexander, as well as Prime Minister N. Pašić. World War I, which soon followed, finally ended the possibility of changing the Russian image of Bulgaria for the better, and the revolution of 1917 led to the demolition of the monument to Nikolai Nikolaevich.