Tsarist Russia 711The Expansion of the Russian Empire
Following defeat in the Crimean War and as stipulated by the Peace of Paris
(1856), Russia relinquished Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bessarabia and had
to accept the neutrality of the Black Sea, further frustrating imperial
designs in southeastern Europe (see Map 18.2). Russia now confronted
nationalist movements among peoples within the empire. After two years of
public demonstrations, an uprising in Poland occurred in 1863. Rebels pro
claimed a “national government” before being crushed by Russian troops.
Tsar Alexander II cracked down, ordering the confiscation of some Polish
lands as punishment for participating in the revolt, closing most monaster
ies, and not permitting the creation of zemstvos (elected councils) or juries
in law courts, reforms he had applied to Russia. Poland was transformed
into a province with all illusions of autonomy ended. Poles felt the effect of
the repression even in Prussia, where the government forbade the sale of
lands to Poles or Catholics (priests had been among the insurgents). In the
Ukraine, Polish national consciousness helped inspire emerging Ukrainian
identity. In response, in 1863 the state forbade the publication of non
fiction works in the Ukrainian language.
In the Ottoman Balkans, Russian troops intervened on behalf of Bulgari
ans, who were fellow Slavs. The rising of pan-Slavism as an ideology was
increasingly apparent. Pan-Slavism enthuastically proclaimed that all Slavs
were in the same family. In Herzegovina, peasants had rebelled against
Ottoman tax collectors and soldiers. In the subsequent Russo-Turkish
War (1877—1878), a Russian army drove toward Constantinople. Austro
Hungarian forces and the British navy readied to prevent the Russians from
reaching the Dardanelles strait. Defeat forced the Ottoman Empire to sign
the Treaty of San Stefano (1878) with Russia. Then the other powers called
for an international conference to discuss the matter. German Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck presided at the Congress of Berlin (1878). Bulgaria
became a principality, but remained a vassal state of the sultan of Turkey. At
Disraeli's insistence, the Congress of Berlin reduced the size of Bulgaria.
Greece received Thessaly, which it had claimed, thus moving the Greek
border to the edge of Macedonia, claimed by Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece.
There were then few Bulgarian nationalists, despite the fact that Bulgaria
received its own Orthodox Church in 1870; not many decades earlier most
educated people there had considered themselves Greek. The fact that Rus
sia would clearly dominate Bulgaria—Russians held key government posts—
and the rising mood of Pan-Slavism (a movement aimed at promoting the
interests and unity of all Slavs) in the Balkans alarmed Austria-Hungary and
Britain. The Congress of Berlin also recognized Serbia, Montenegro, and
Romania as independent states, further reducing Ottoman territory in
Europe. Russia received a small part of Bessarabia, which allowed it to
control the mouth of the Danube River. But Russian Pan-Slavs, in particu
lar, believed themselves aggrieved by Britain and betrayed by Bismarck’s