Origins of the Triple Alliance Author:Archibald Cary Coolidge Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PA NSLA VISM A ND THE BA LKA N PENINSULA 79 meted out to the Poles since the insurrection of 1863. Nevertheless, the Panslav- ists had their friends at court ... more »and in the official world of St. Petersburg, and were supported by a widespread national feeling. The Balkan Peninsula presented an obvious field for the activity of those zealous for the cause of Slavic welfare. Serbia and Montenegro had, indeed, won their liberties, but there were still several million Slavs groaning under the evils of Turkish misrule. It is no wonder that they found ardent sympathy in Russia, and that Panslavist organizations there not only sent them money for schools and for many other needs, but also encouraged their hopes of independence and aided them to plot and prepare for it. The authorities in St. Petersburg seem to have kept aloof from these activities, though they must have had some cognizance of them; but the able and not too scrupulous ambassador in Constantinople,Count Ignatiev, an ardent Panslavist, gave ground for English and Austrian accusations that the Russian embassy was a centre of conspiracy against the integrity of the Ottoman empire. In spite of this, Ignatiev had more influence with the Sultan than had any of his colleagues. The special object of Russian interest was the Bulgarians. They had reawakened to national consciousness later than had the Greeks and the Serbs, but now they were awake. Since the middle of the century there had been an active Bulgarian movement, not outwardly disloyal, yet, in the nature of things, concealing under its efforts for education and progress hopes for political emancipation. It had already achieved one notable success in 1870, when, thanks in part to Russian influence, the Sultan had been persuaded to consent to the establishment of a Bulg...« less