Berlin, Congress of

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BERLIN, CONGRESS OF

The diplomatic conclusion to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and postwar crisis.

Before the war, Russian diplomats promised Austria-Hungary that no "large, compact Slavic or other state" would result from the expected reorganization of the Balkans, and that Russia would allow Austrian occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and prevent Montenegro from acquiring a seaport in return for Russia's reacquisition of Southern Bessarabia and annexation of Batum (Reichstadt, July 1876; Budapest, April 1877). Russian councils, however, were divided. Court factions and generals backed the more ambitious ambassador to Istanbul, Nikolai P. Ignatiev, over Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov and Russia's cautious envoys in Vienna and London, Yevgeny Novikov and Peter Shuvalov.

The initial bilateral Treaty of San Stefano, forced upon Istanbul in March 1878, followed Ignatiev's line. It stipulated a large Bulgaria with an Aegean coast and an indefinite occupation by fifty thousand Russian troops until the Bulgarians established their own army. In addition, it called for an enlarged Montenegro with the three small Adriatic ports she had occupied; a less enlarged Serbia with most of the Sanjak of Novi Bazar divided between the two Serbian states; and the Russian acquisition of Batum and most of Turkish Armenia east of Erzerum down to Bayazid, as well as Southern Bessarabia, in place of most of the huge indemnity assessed at 1.4 billion rubles.

As the Turks expected, both the British, who had already sent a naval squadron inside the Sea of Marmora, and the Austro-Hungarians objected, as did the Serbians and Romanians, who felt cheated. Russia's weak financial situation (the ruble had fallen 40%) rendered war with Britain unthinkable, so Gorchakov agreed with the Austro-Hungarian proposal for a Berlin congress under Otto von Bismarck's leadership to settle outstanding issues. Shuvalov worked out the essential compromises in London before the congress met, and joined Pavel P. Oubril, the ambassador to Berlin, and the now senile Gorchakov as Russia's delegates there.

The congress was a resounding success for the British led by Benjamin Disraeli, whose threats to leave ("waiting train" tactics) forced a division of Bulgaria intro three parts—only the northern one being truly autonomous under Russian tutelage with far fewer Russia troops there—and made Russia limit its acquisitions in Asiatic Turkey, while he stood by London's separate arrangements with Istanbul regarding the Straits and Cyprus. Shuvalov did salvage the port of Varna for autonomous Bulgaria and one Adriatic port for Montenegro, as well as Southern Bessarabia, Kars, Ardahan, and Batum (nominally an open port) for Russia.

The Treaty of Berlin, signed by Britain, France, and Germany, as well as Russia, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary, achieved a tenuous Balkan peace lasting thirty-four years, but left Serbian and Russian nationalists seething—a catalyst for the secret Austro-German Dual Alliance of 1879 and mounting German distrust of Russia. Russia and Austria-Hungary dared agree on the latter's eventual annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina only by a secret agreement (1881), which caused a storm when implemented in 1908. The southern Balkan settlement collapsed in 1885, when Bulgarians on their own, in defiance of the Russians, united the southern third with the north.

See also: balkan wars; gorchakov, alexander mikhailovich; russo-turkish wars; san stefano, treaty of