No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
In the summer of 1892 the Bulgarian newspaper Svoboda (Freedom) published a large number of highly incriminating documents purporting to expose Russian policy in the Balkans, especially in Bulgaria, in the crucial decade of the eighteen-eighties. Subsequently, these and additional documents appeared in book form in the Russian language under the title Okkupacionnyj Fond (The Occupation Fund). In 1893 the collection was republished in Berlin in French translation by R. Leonoff and entitled, Documents secrets de la politique russe en orient, 1881–1890. The documents dealt primarily with the conspiratorial tactics employed by Russian representatives in the Balkans to carry through Russian foreign policy aims. Many episodes were covered, as, for example, the Russian role in the Bosnia-Hercegovina revolt of 1881–1882; the efforts to overthrow Alexander of Battenberg in 1884–1885; General Kaul'bar's mission of 1886, which sought to prevent the election of a successor to Alexander of Battenberg; the Russian plans for the occupation of Bulgarian ports in 1887; and the Novikov plot of 1887–1888, which aimed at the overthrow of Ferdinand of Coburg.
1 After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 Bulgaria was required to pay Russia the expenses incurred by the latter power in the occupation and administration of the liberated lands. Subsequently, the Bulgarians claimed that the money paid to Russia remained in Bulgaria and was used by Russian representatives to carry on intrigues and plots against the Bulgarian State. Hence, with intentional irony the Bulgars labeled the documents Okkupacionnyj Fond.
2 Sumner, B. H., Russia and the Balkans, 1870–1880 (Oxford, 1937), p. 570 Google Scholar, n. 1, cites a German edition of the documents entitled Geheime Dokumente der russischen Orient-Politik, 1881–1880, Leonow, R., ed. (Berlin, 1893).Google Scholar
3 Stefan Stambolov i novejšata ni istorija (Sofia, 1909), pp. 666–67.Google Scholar
4 iStroitelite na suvremenenna Bulgarija (Sofia, 1911), I, 195 Google Scholar, n. 1. Radev believed that Jakobson had composed some of the documents from memory where he lacked the originals.
5 Diplomatična istorija na Bulgarija, 1886-1915: Velikite duržavi i Bulgarija, 1886–1887 (Sofia, 1928), I, 209.Google Scholar
6 Itočnijat vupros i Bulgarija, 1818–1890 (Sofia, 1929), p. 302, n. 2.Google Scholar
7 (Munich and Berlin, 1939).
8 Diplomatija i voiny carskoj Rossii v XIX stoletii (Moscow, 1924), p. 346, n. 1.Google Scholar
9 “Russkaja revoljucionnaja èmigracija sredi Bolgar,” Katorga i ssylka, LXIV (1930), 108.Google Scholar
10 No attempt has been made in this paper to mention all the writers who have made use of the documents.
11 Accounts of the Panica episode are found in Ivan Panaëtov, Russia, velikite silt i Bulgarskijat vupros sled izbora na Knjaz’ Ferdinanda, 1888–1896 (Sofia, 1941), pp. 147, 148; Hans Roger Madol, Ferdinand of Coburg (London, 1933), p. 55; Hulme Beaman, A., M. Stamboloff (London, 1895), p. 159.Google Scholar
12 See Lamzdorf, V. N., Dnevnik 1891-1892 (Moscow, 1934), pp. 74–80 Google Scholar, and Pavlovič, P., ed., Avantjury russkogo carizma v Bolgarii (Moscow, 1935), pp. 110–17.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., pp. 118-28.
14 Marinov, , op. cit., pp. 665–66Google Scholar states that Jakobson met Stambolov secretly as early as 1889, when the former was still in the Russian service.
15 Great Britain, Public Record Office, Political Despatches, O'Conor to Salisbury, F.O. 7/4301, No. 17 (Sofia, February 22, 1890). Hereafter cited as F.O.
16 Marinov, op. cit., pp. 665–66; Lowther to Salisbury, F.O. 78/4444, No. 122, secret (Sofia, August 17, 1892), plus enclosure A. G. Brophy to E. C. Blech, No. 18, secret (Varna, August 11, 1892); O'Conor to Salisbury, F.O. 78/4377, No. 36, secret (Sofia, April 13, 1891).
17 A. Q. Brophy to E. C. Blech, No. 18, secret (Varna, August 11, 1892), enclosed in Lowther to Salisbury, F.O. 78/4444. No. 122, secret (Sofia, August 17, 1892).
18 Lowther to Salisbury, F.O. 78/4444, No. 121, confidential (Sofia, August 16, 1892).
19 Ibid., No. 124 (Sofia, August 25, 1892).
20 Ibid., No. 131, confidential (Sofia, September 12, 1892); Marinov, , op. cit., p. 666 Google Scholar.
21 Morier to Salisbury, F.O. 181/709(2), No. 173 (St. Petersburg, August 3, 1892).
22 Lamzdorf, , op. cit., p. 389 Google Scholar, n. 1; Times (London), July 28, 1892, p. 5. However, N. K. Giers, the Russian foreign minister, in a conversation with the Austrian foreign minister, Gustav Kalnoky, “die Echtheit einiger don veroffentlichen Schrijtstucke nicht angezweifelt hat,” but stated that “die meisten Schriftstilcke seien aber gefalscht,” Reuss to Caprivi, No. 117 (Vienna, May 1, 1893). Lepsius, Johannes, et al., Die Grosse Politik der Europaischen Kabinette, 1871–1914 (Berlin, 1924), VII, 435.Google Scholar
23 Howard to Salisbury, F.O. 65/1421, No. 185 (St. Petersburg, August 17, 1892). A. P. Rosebery, the British foreign secretary, wrote on the despatch, “A curious spark of light on the genuineness of these documents.”
24 S.Skazkin, Konec avstro-russko-germanskogo sojuza (Moscow, 1938), I.
25 Skazkin, . op. cit., p. 295.Google Scholar
26 Lamzdorf, , op. cit., p. 355.Google Scholar
27 Skazkin, , op. cit., p. 295 Google Scholar; Lamzdorf, , op. cit., p. 355.Google Scholar
28 Avantjury russkogo carizma v Bolgarii (Moscow, 1935).Google Scholar
29 In December, 1892, the Bulgarian national assembly granted Bulgarian citizenship to Jakobson, Lowther to Rosebery, F.O. 78/4444, No. 179 (Sofia, December 13, 1892).
30 Leonoff, , op. cit., p. vi.Google Scholar