The Peace Treaty of San Stefano, 3 March 1878

The Peace Treaty signed on February 19 (March 3), 1878 in the town of San Stefano by Count N. Ignatiev and Al. Neliudov, for Russia, and Safed Pasha and Saadulah Bey, for Turkey, put an end to the Russo-Turkish war, 1877–1878. Today, March 3 is Bulgaria’s National Day as the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano marks the beginning of the Third Bulgarian State. The treaty is referred to as “preliminary” in order to comply with the decisions of the Paris Peace Treaty of 30 March 1856, enacting that all problems in this part of the world be addressed with the participation of the Great Powers.

Therefore, during the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano the relations between the states in the region and those having interests related to the Eastern Question are underlined by the principles and standards of international law laid down at the Vienna Congress in 1814–1815, which define the status and powers of each state depending on weather it is a Great Power or not. The Third Bulgarian State, the Principality of Bulgaria, formed on parts of European territory ruled for ages by Turkey, receives international recognition on April 16, 1879, with the protocol of the Great Powers for the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. On the same day, the Turnovo Constitution is adopted.

This final result is reached after a whole series of international acts and activities, the Treaty of San Stefano being one of them. The re-establishment of the Bulgarian state after almost five hundred years of Ottoman rule is directly connected with the overall development of the Eastern Question and the related positions of the Great Powers. The Agreement between Austro-Hungary and Russia, signed in Reichstadt on July 8, 1876, initiates joint political actions against Turkey and defines the conditions for the arrangement of its territories on the Balkan Peninsula in the event of war. At the Constantinople Conference, held from 23 December 1876 to 20 January 1877, the Great Powers put immense pressure on Turkey demanding that Turkey make the concessions that would reduce the empire to a small power in accordance with the international legal standards of the Vienna Congress. During the conference in Budapest on January 15, 1877, between Russia and Austro-Hungary, a new convention is concluded, which revises and supplements the accords of Reichstadt. This convention lists the express conditions for the division of the Turkish legacy in the event of war between Russia and Turkey.

After the utter defeat of the Turkish armed forces the war is ended when Turkey signs its capitulation in Adrianople on January 31, 1878. Only three days later, on February 4, 1878, Austro-Hungary quickly makes a proposal to Germany and Great Britain for the convocation of a conference in Vienna, where Russia and Turkey would sign a treaty.

Following consultations with Bismarck, on February 8, 1878, Austro-Hungary changes the venue for the congress and suggests that the congress be held in Berlin instead of Vienna. Some weeks after the Austro-Hungarian initiative, on February 19 (March 3) Russia and Turkey sign the peace treaty in San Stefano. Article 26 of the Treaty expressly names it “preliminary”, which presupposes its verification. The final treaty between Russia and Turkey is actually singed in Constantinople on February 8, 1879, where the Treaty of San Stefano is again referred to as “preliminary”.
On March 16, 1878, the Treaty of San Stefano is ratified. Thus, the required 15-day term for its ratification is observed and it becomes effective.

The provisions concerning Bulgaria are contained in Articles 6 to 11 and in Art.19. According to them a new autonomous but vassal state is created with borders encompassing, with small exceptions, almost all European territories of Turkey inhabited by Bulgarians.

By virtue of this treaty, as a country newly emerged on the political map of Europe as a result of an international treaty, Bulgaria is entitled to some rights including to request recognition by states other than those who were parties to the Treaty of San Stefano, and to have international trade relations and representative trade offices. Bulgaria is granted the right to conclude trade, financial and administrative-legal contracts after obtaining the consent and approval of the suzerain Turkey and the trustee Russia during the transition period, also to have its own army and police.

The Treaty of San Stefano, at the same time, imposes some obligations and restrictions on Bulgaria. The first of them is the requirement that the country has the institute of monarchy. Then, it is obliged to pay annual tax to Turkey, the amount of which is to be additionally determined by the Great Powers. The country also undertakes Turkey’s engagements in respect of the railways built by Turkey but now remaining on Bulgarian territory. Bulgaria should allow Turkey to use in both directions curtain roads for transportation of its troops, ammunition and provisions to and from its provinces with which Turkey was not directly connected. The Muslims who left Bulgaria were given the right to unconditional possession and use of the real and personal estate they had left in the country. And finally, Bulgaria was obliged to destroy all fortresses along the Danube bank.

The Treaty of San Stefano actually follows to a great extent the preliminary agreements between Russia and Austro-Hungary, most of which are fulfilled:

Montenegro and Serbia are recognized as independent states and are both used to form a buffer zone separating the spheres of influence of Russia and Austro-Hungary. The Danube regime and the European Danube Commission are preserved. Raised is the question for resolving the Black Sea problem and the regime of the Straits. Russia retrieves parts of Bessarabia that were taken from her with the Treaty of Paris in 1856. However, the Treaty of San Stefano leaves some agreements (between Russia and Austro-Hungary) unfulfilled and others tackles in a way that had not been agreed upon. The creation of a large Bulgarian state has not been agreed upon between the two countries. The Treaty does not raise the issue of establishing two separate independent Bulgarian states, as was discussed at the Constantinople Conference. Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed by Austria, and Epirus, Thessaly and the island of Crete were not handed over to Greece.
As a result, soon are initiated intensive diplomatic actions for the convocation of a peace conference intended to sort out the controversial issues left between Russia and Austro-Hungary. The latter succeeds with the intermediation of Germany and Great Britain in materializing all agreements it made in its favor with Russia. Great Britain, in exchange for supporting Austro-Hungary and Turkey, receives Cyprus as important and strategic base in the Mediterranean.

The Bulgarians, at first puzzled as to why the Treaty of San Stefano takes away the town of Nis from them and hands it over to Serbia (as a compensation for it’s participation in the war) and why some regions from the most southern parts of Macedonia and Thrace are left to Turkey, deluged the Great Powers with letters of protest. These angry letters were sent on behalf of the population living in these areas and were signed and bore the stamps of the local municipalities. Nevertheless, after the Berlin Congress in 1878, the Bulgarians saw their country reduced to the small Principality of Bulgaria and the greater part of their fellow Bulgarians left again under the rule of the Sultan.

The decisions of the Berlin Congress in respect of Bulgaria, are very close to those of the Treaty of San Stefano with one exception, they severely violated the nation’s integrity. The Constantinople Conference envisaged the creation of two independent and sovereign Bulgarian states, but the Berlin Congress fragmented the Bulgarian ethnic territory into four parts, where only one of them received autonomy as a vassal Principality of Bulgaria.

As a young people, newly resurrected for political freedom, the Bulgarians cannot for a long time believe and resign themselves to the fact that in international relations when territorial issues are being decided the historical past of the territory is not considered and the ethnic principle in such cases matters only if it does not harm the interests of the Great Powers. In the years to come, the ideals of generations of Bulgarians would be measured by the tremendous efforts to correct this historic injustice, which would turn into the primary root cause for the country’s participation in several bloody wars that brought national catastrophes instead of the realization of the national ideals.

The euphoria of the victorious course of the war, that spelled forthcoming liberation for the Bulgarians, prevented them from seeing in time a worrying symptom which emerged in the protocols of the Adrianople capitulation of January 31, 1878. Clause 2 of item 5 of the document recognises as co-fighting with the Russian forces the armies of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro. The Bulgarian army however, is not mentioned there despite the fact that as early as April 29, 1877, the Bulgarian Volunteer Force (Opalchenie) was created, comprising six volunteer corps, all together the size of a large division, which took part in military actions from day one and were in the midst of the bloodiest battles. The Volunteer Force, its role for the successful outcome of the war no-one questions, is not invited as a co-fighting army to attend the signing of the capitulation, for which these Bulgarian soldiers who displayed an incredible heroism and suffered huge loss of life were entitled to.
There is yet another reason for recognizing Bulgaria as co-fighting force under the Treaty of San Stefano – the recognition by the Great Powers during the Constantinople Conference of Bulgaria’s right as an insurrected country after the April uprising (1876). The failure to invite Bulgaria as a co-fighting country to the Treaty deprives her of the right to participate, even as a non-voting member, in the deciding of its future in the final peace treaty.

Despite the fact that some of the provisions of the Peace Treaty of San Stefano relating to Bulgaria and its territorial arrangement are not consequently confirmed in the final peace treaty, its great importance as an international legal fact is indisputable. On the one hand, it sets the beginning of the Third Bulgarian State after almost five hundred years since the fall of the Second Bulgarian State under Ottoman rule. On the other hand, Russia and Turkey legitimize the ethnic boundaries of the Bulgarian people which are very close to those from the time of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which have previously been recognized by the Great Powers during the Constantinople Conference, and by Romania, Serbia and Montenegro with the signing of the Adrianople capitulation as countries co-fighting with Russia.

Stoyan Raichevsky