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As a result of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 the Bulgarian people gained its political independence and restored its state after nearly five centuries of foreign domination. The San Stefano Peace Treaty of 3 March 1878 outlined the boundaries of the liberated Bulgarian state which encompassed almost the entire ethnic territory of the Bulgarians south of the Danube. The Berlin Congress, which followed several months later, divided San Stefano Bulgaria into several parts – an independent Principality, a vassal region of Eastern Rumelia and a large part again under the rule of the Sultan. What is more, the Berlin Treaty placed the Principality of Bulgaria in an extremely difficult and unfavourable position regarding its ability to exercise independent foreign policy and maintain diplomatic relations with other countries. Article 1 of the Berlin Treaty defined Bulgaria as “an independent and tributary Principality under the sovereignty of His Majesty the Sultan”. Nothing specific was mentioned in the treaty concerning the right of the Principality to maintain diplomatic relations with other countries. Some of the Great Powers, however, referring to the above-mentioned text of the Treaty, denied Bulgaria the right to maintain independent diplomatic relations. This interpretation of the Berlin Treaty threatened the Principality of Bulgaria to be deprived of its own foreign policy and to be forced to cede this activity to the suzerain – the Turkish government.

At the time the European press followed closely the events on the Balkans, where the interests of the Great Powers intertwined, and recommended to Bulgaria to observe strictly the provisions of the Berlin Treaty. The Plovdiv newspaper Maritsa re-printed a Times article on the opening of the Constituent Assembly in Turnovo, which gave the Bulgarian deputies the following advice: “If the Bulgarians want to establish their status in the family of nations, they had better shown respect for the declared will of Europe.”

Having got into the political life of the country immediately after the Liberation, the Bulgarian intelligentsia, most of whom were graduates of European or Russian universities and higher schools, had no intention of going against the will of Europe but they were well aware that the first important step for a free country was its international legal recognition and the establishment of diplomatic relations with the other states, which would open new opportunities for the Principality of Bulgaria and would make it an equal member of the community of free and independent nations.

The Berlin Treaty, although it was created by the European powers, severely restricted the rights of the young state. The limited international legal position of the Principality also ensued from Article 3 of the Treaty, according to which the election of the first Bulgarian Prince was subject to approval by the Sublime Porte with the consent of the Great Powers. Other texts of the Berlin Treaty imposed restrictions on the international legal capacity and activity of the Principality. The trade and maritime agreements, for example, and all conventions and agreements previously concluded between the Turkish government and the Great Powers, which had not been terminated meanwhile, remained in force for the Principality of Bulgaria. Article 8 of the Berlin Treaty did not permit any amendments to these without the consent of the states party to the respective agreement. Article 9 obliged the Principality to take on part of the debts of the Ottoman Empire, presuming that the newly emerged Bulgarian state should be treated as an inheritor of all international debts of the Turkish state.

The Principality of Bulgaria had to start its foreign political activity in these complicated and unfavourable conditions for pursuing independent foreign policy. The first builders of the Bulgarian statehood after the Liberation, however, succeeded to overcome a number of the legal restrictions and with great tact and moderate actions to build quickly the first bridges of interstate relations. In these efforts they were substantially assisted by the Provisional Russian Government.

Already in 1878, in the administration of the Provisional Russian Government, headed by Prince Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov, an Office for general affairs and diplomatic relations was set up. Its main task was to maintain the relations of the Provisional Russian Government with the Turkish commissioner and the European consuls who, under Article 6 of the Berlin Treaty, had to control the work of the Russian administration. Major General Mikhail Domontovich was appointed head of the Office. Later, when it was time to dissolve the bodies of the Provisional Russian Government and pass on the power to the Bulgarian institutions, which had to be created after the adoption of the Constitution of the Principality of Bulgaria by the Constituent Assembly in Turnovo, the Office for general affairs and diplomatic relations was closed down and in its stead a Department for Foreign Affairs was set up on 25 May 1879. Several statutes to this effect were issued in May and on 9 June 1879 an order of the imperial commissioner was published which defined the tasks and powers of the department as follows:

1. The department, formed by the Diplomatic division of the former office of the imperial Russian commissioner, shall be called Department for Foreign Affairs.

2. All letters without exception from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies, as well as from these institutions of other countries shall go to this department; respectively, the replies to the said letters will come from the same department.

3. An exclusive obligation of this department shall be the political correspondence with all diplomatic agents of the Principality or the foreign agents residing in the Principality, and the international commissions.”

One of the tasks of this department was to prepare Bulgarians for future diplomatic work and international activity.

By transforming its Office for general affairs and diplomatic relations into a Department for Foreign Affairs, the Provisional Russian Government quickly reacted to the changed situation and laid the foundations of the future Bulgarian foreign ministry.

Trofim Pavlovich Yuzefovich, who was appointed head of the Department for Foreign Affairs, was well acquainted with the Bulgarians and the problems on the Balkans as from 1870 to 1878 he was successively Russian Consul in Tulcha and Thessalonike, and then he was appointed in the Office for general affairs and diplomatic relations set up by the Provisional Russian Government. In organising the activity of the Department, Yuzefovich was led by the understanding that the Principality of Bulgaria was entitled to its own foreign policy. In his letters of notification to the representatives of the European states and to the Turkish commissioner, he underlined that he was appointed “temporarily in charge of the foreign affairs of the Principality”. Special attention deserves the letter he received in reply from the representative of France J. Scheffer: “Please accept my congratulations and gratitude for the benevolent attitude you have always had to the French General Consulate.“ This letter of the French representative to Yuzefovich is considered to be one of the first recognitions of the existence of a foreign affairs institution in the Principality of Bulgaria. The Bulgarian deputies in the Constituent Assembly managed to pass texts in the basic law which negated some restrictions in the Berlin Treaty on the sovereignty and right to international activity of the Principality. This tendency can be seen even in the drafts. In the original draft of Organic Statutes, as well as in the Petersburg draft amended at the recommendation of Lukianov there is no text expressly stating the vassal position of the Principality to the Sublime Porte. In the original draft the Prince is given the right, as representative of the country in its foreign relations with other states, to conclude agreements with them and sign conventions with the authorisation of the National Assembly and “with the consent of the signatories of the Berlin Treaty”. In the amendment of Article 21 that followed, the last words concerning the consent of the Berlin Treaty signatories were deleted. However, taking into account the fact that the Prince, according to the Berlin Treaty, is a representative of a tributary, the Council working on the text of the Organic Statutes added a text to the effect that he cannot enter into agreements or sign conventions with foreign countries without the consent of the Sublime Porte. In order to avoid this provision too, that the conclusion of agreements between the Principality of Bulgaria and foreign countries is only possible with the consent of the Sublime Porte, a new amendment was made deleting “agreements” in the respective article and replacing it with “individual provisions and conventions”.