Tsarist Russia and Balkan Nationalism

Tsarist Russia and Balkan Nationalism: Russian Influence in the Internal Affairs of Bulgaria and Serbia, 1879–1886 by Charles Jelavich examines the volatile relationship between Russian imperial policy and the rising nationalist movements of the Balkans in the wake of the Congress of Berlin. Anchored in the sharp observation of Bulgarian writer Liuben Karavelov—that liberators would be embraced but rulers opposed—Jelavich traces how Russian ambitions for influence repeatedly clashed with Bulgarian independence, while winning more consistent sympathy in Serbia, where hostility toward Austria-Hungary created openings for Russian diplomacy. The book reveals how tsarist officials navigated a region rife with intrigue, competing great-power interests, and nationalist resistance, and how Russia’s strategies in the Balkans were shaped less by Slavic solidarity than by the hard calculations of great-power politics.

Drawing on extensive unpublished archival sources from Britain and Austria as well as the private correspondence of Russian foreign minister N. K. Giers, Jelavich reconstructs in detail the tense negotiations, shifting alliances, and moments of open crisis that defined Russo-Balkan relations in the 1880s. He situates events such as the drafting of the Bulgarian constitution, the Serbo-Bulgarian War, and the abduction of Prince Alexander of Battenberg within a wider European context, where the limits of Russian power were set as much by the resistance of small nations as by the vigilance of rival empires. At once a tightly focused study of Balkan diplomacy and a broader meditation on the dynamics of empire and nationalism, Tsarist Russia and Balkan Nationalism illuminates how fragile alliances, competing identities, and external pressures created enduring patterns in Eastern European politics. This book will appeal to historians of Russia, the Balkans, and international relations seeking to understand how nineteenth-century struggles over influence continue to shape the region’s political landscape.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1958.