of group consciousness, since now belonging to the Orthodox community was
of little importance compared to belonging to a Western-oriented political and
cultural system. The Serbian people initially were composed almost entirely
of peasants however it was not long before the first signs of Civil Society
(traders, scholars, officers, civil servants) emerged, along with new challenges
and opportunities for development. That part of the Serbian nation which
remained within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire participated in the late
18 th and early 19th century in the process of nation building in the form of armed
resistance against Ottoman rule, giving birth to a military leadership which
sought to establish an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which
would form the nucleus of the Serbian nation-state. This region, which was
established in 1817 and became a principality, finally gained its independence
in 1878. However, the true territorial breakthrough came in 1912/13, during
the Balkan Wars, a series of conflicts which had enlarged the Serbian Kingdom
(since 1881) to include the ancient-Serbian Macedonian territories. However,
1918 and the end of the First World War was of ambivalent meaning to the
Serbian national idea: on the one hand, all Serbs were brought together under
(Serb) leadership, on the other hand, the supranational concept of the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia from the outset presented numerous challenges, including ethnic
pluralism and achieving political unity and equilibrium.
The development of a nation among the Bulgarians started from a more
advanced position vis-a-vis their Serbian and Rumanian neighbors insomuch
as those espousing Bulgarian ethnicity were not dispersed across Southeast
Europe but rather concentrated within the Ottoman Empire.^8 However, they
did not possess any unique institutions which could be claimed as Bulgarian,
in stark contrast to the Rumanians, who were by and large settled outside of
the Ottoman Empire or the Serbians, who had for several generations their
own Orthodox Patriarch (1557–1766). Only as a result of social oppression
by the Ottomans between the 18th and 19th century (analogous to the Serbs),
which was itself in response to the intensification of Russia’s commitment
in the Balkans were new perspectives sought. These efforts focused on the
Middle Ages and were led by the monk Otec Paisij amongst others. The thrust
of this research was the (ancient) Bulgarian Empire and the construction of a
new Bulgarian identity out of the historical precedents. Neither the fact that
a new Bulgarian state would require a class which could assume political
responsibility (cultivated via education of the populace) nor the attempt in
collaboration with the Ottoman government to construct an autonomous
Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Bulgarian Exarchate, 1870) were successful in
bringing about a Bulgarian state. Only repeated Russian military campaigns
created the necessary conditions. One of the results of the Berlin Congress
(1878) was a provisional, although not autonomous Bulgarian state (Principality)
and the creation of an autonomous region with Bulgarian majority (Eastern
Rumelia) on Ottoman soil. This compromise fulfilled neither the criteria for
independence nor signified any return to past glory for Bulgarians. Therefore,
it was only logical that soon afterwards (1885) the two territories were merged,
Harald Heppner