f Western European trade. The Bulgarians, although their
motives were also pragmatic, felt a deep sense of kinship with the
Russian people. The Russians, like the Bulgarians, were Slavs. Their
religion was identical. Even their language was similar. Thus, they
sensed a commonality not only of interests but also of cultures.

The precursor to the liberation in 1878 was an unsuccessful uprising in
1876. The Bulgarians, at this point, were ill prepared for war,
politically and strategically. Thousands of Bulgarians were killed in
April of that year. Soon thereafter Turkish reprisals followed. Fifteen
thousand Bulgarians were massacred in Plovdiv alone. The savagery of
these reprisals was so brutal that Western public leaders spoke out in
protest. The governments of the West, however, fearing an increased
Russian penetration in the area, refused to act against the Turks.

Although the revolution of 1876 had met with failure, it had succeeded
in loosening the Turkish grip on the country and in increasing the
feeling of the Russians that the time to attack was imminent. Finally,
after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, the Russians invaded Bulgaria,
liquidating the Turkish army by March 1878. In these battles for
Bulgarian liberation, the Russians lost over 200,000 lives, a sacrifice
the Bulgarians never failed to recognize.

The results of 1878 were mixed, and the outcome of the original peace
treaty was reversed within five months of its signing. Bulgaria became
an autonomous tributary of the Turkish sultan; complete independence was
not established until 1908. The original peace treaty, the Treaty of San
Stefano, signed on March 3, 1878, granted Bulgaria additional
territories, including Thrace and the much-valued Macedonia. This treaty
was reversed, primarily because of Western fear of Russian encroachment,
by the Congress of Berlin; the Treaty of Berlin, signed on July 13,
1878, unlike the Treaty of San Stefano, delimited Bulgarian territories.
The Bulgarians were forced to give Thrace and Macedonia back to the
Turks. Bulgaria itself was carved into two separate entities: the
principality of Bulgaria, including northern Bulgaria and Sofia, and
eastern Rumelia, or southern Bulgaria.

LIBERATION AND ITS AFTERMATH

Although the 1877-78 war freed Bulgaria from Turkish rule, the outcome
of the Congress of Berlin once again denied to Bulgaria the land that it
perceived to be rightfully Bulgarian, thus setting the tone for an