Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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_Army and Navy._--The organization of the military forces of the
principality was undertaken by Russian officers, who for a period of six
years (1879-1885) occupied all the higher posts in the army. In Eastern
Rumelia during the same period the "militia" was instructed by foreign
officers; after the union it was merged in the Bulgarian army. The present
organization is based on the law of the 1st of January 1904. The army
consists of: (1) the active or field army (_deistvuyushta armia_), divided
into (i.) the active army, (ii.) the active army reserve; (2) the reserve
army (_reservna armia_); (3) the _opltchenie_ or militia; the two former
may operate outside the kingdom, the latter only within the frontier for
purposes of defence. In time of peace the active army (i.) alone is on a
permanent footing.

The peace strength in 1905 was 2500 officers, 48,200 men and 8000 horses,
the active army being composed of 9 divisions of infantry, each of 4
regiments, 5 regiments of cavalry together with 12 squadrons attached to
the infantry divisions, 9 regiments of artillery each of 3 groups of 3
batteries, together with 2 groups of mountain artillery, each of 3
batteries, and 3 battalions of siege artillery; 9 battalions of engineers
with 1 railway and balloon section and 1 bridging section. At the same date
the army was locally distributed in nine divisional areas with headquarters
at Sofia, Philippopolis, Sliven, Shumla, Rustchuk, Vratza, Plevna,
Stara-Zagora and Dupnitza, the divisional area being subdivided into four
districts, from each of which one regiment of four battalions was recruited
and completed with reservists. In case of mobilization each of the nine
areas would furnish 20,106 men (16,000 infantry, 1200 artillery, 1000
engineers, 300 divisional cavalry and 1606 transport and hospital services,
&c.). The war strength thus amounted to 180,954 of the active army and its
reserve, exclusive of the five regiments of cavalry. In addition the 36
districts each furnished 3 battalions of the reserve army and one battalion
of opltchenie, or 144,000 infantry, which with the cavalry regiments (3000
men) and the reserves of artillery, engineers, divisional cavalry, &c.
(about 10,000), would bring the grand total in time of war to about 338,000
officers and men with 18,000 horses. The men of the reserve battalions are
drafted into the active army as occasion requires, but the militia serves
as a separate force. Military service is obligatory, but Moslems may claim
exemption on payment of L20; the age of recruitment in time of peace is
nineteen, in time of war eighteen. Each conscript serves two years in the
infantry and subsequently eight years in the active reserve, or three years
in the other corps and six years in the active reserve; he is then liable
to seven years' service in the reserve army and finally passes into the
opltchenie. The Bulgarian peasant makes an admirable soldier--courageous,
obedient, persevering, and inured to hardship; the officers are painstaking
and devoted to their duties. The active army and reserve, with the
exception of the engineer regiments, are furnished with the .315"
Mannlicher magazine rifle, the engineer and militia with the Berdan; the
artillery in 1905 mainly consisted of 8.7- and 7.5-cm. Krupp guns (field)
and 6.5 cm. Krupp (mountain), 12 cm. Krupp and 15 cm. Creuzot (Schneider)
howitzers, 15 cm. Krupp and 12 cm. Creuzot siege guns, and 7.5 cm. Creuzot
quick-firing guns; total of all description, 1154. Defensive works were
constructed at various strategical points near the frontier and elsewhere,
and at Varna and Burgas. The naval force consisted of a flotilla stationed
at Rustchuk and Varna, where a canal connects Lake Devno with the sea. It
was composed in 1905 of 1 prince's yacht, 1 armoured cruiser, 3 gunboats, 3
torpedo boats and 10 other small vessels, with a complement of 107 officers
and 1231 men.

_Religion._--The Orthodox Bulgarian National Church claims to be an
indivisible member of the Eastern Orthodox communion, and asserts historic
continuity with the autocephalous Bulgarian church of the middle ages. It
was, however, declared schismatic by the Greek patriarch of Constantinople
in 1872, although differing in no point of doctrine from the Greek Church.
The Exarch, or supreme head of the Bulgarian Church, resides at
Constantinople; he enjoys the title of "Beatitude" (_negovo Blazhenstvo_),
receives an annual subvention of about L6000 from the kingdom, and
exercises jurisdiction over the Bulgarian hierarchy in all parts of the
Ottoman empire. The exarch is elected by the Bulgarian episcopate, the Holy
Synod, and a general assembly (_obshti sbor_), in which the laity is
represented; their choice, before the declaration of Bulgarian
independence, was subject to the sultan's approval. The occupant of the
dignity is titular metropolitan of a Bulgarian diocese. The organization of
the church within the principality was regulated [v.04 p.0779] by statute
in 1883. There are eleven eparchies or dioceses in the country, each
administered by a metropolitan with a diocesan council; one diocese has
also a suffragan bishop. Church government is vested in the Holy Synod,
consisting of four metropolitans, which assembles once a year. The laity
take part in the election of metropolitans and parish priests, only the
"black clergy," or monks, being eligible for the episcopate. All
ecclesiastical appointments are subject to the approval of the government.
There are 2106 parishes (_eporii_) in the kingdom with 9 archimandrites,
1936 parish priests and 21 deacons, 78 monasteries with 184 monks, and 12
convents with 346 nuns. The celebrated monastery of Rila possesses a vast
estate in the Rilska Planina; its abbot or _hegumen_ owns no spiritual
superior but the exarch. Ecclesiastical affairs are under the control of
the minister of public worship; the clergy of all denominations are paid by
the state, being free, however, to accept fees for baptisms, marriages,
burials, the administering of oaths, &c. The census of January 1901 gives
3,019,999 persons of the Orthodox faith (including 66,635 Patriarchist
Greeks), 643,300 Mahommedans, 33,663 Jews, 28,569 Catholics, 13,809
Gregorian Armenians, 4524 Protestants and 419 whose religion is not stated.
The Greek Orthodox community has four metropolitans dependent on the
patriarchate. The Mahommedan community is rapidly diminishing; it is
organized under 16 muftis who with their assistants receive a subvention
from the government. The Catholics, who have two bishops, are for the most
part the descendants of the medieval Paulicians; they are especially
numerous in the neighbourhood of Philippopolis and Sistova. The Armenians
have one bishop. The Protestants are mostly Methodists; since 1857 Bulgaria
has been a special field of activity for American Methodist missionaries,
who have established an important school at Samakov. The Berlin Treaty
(Art. V.) forbade religious disabilities in regard to the enjoyment of
civil and political rights, and guaranteed the free exercise of all
religions.

_Education._--No educational system existed in many of the rural districts
before 1878; the peasantry was sunk in ignorance, and the older generation
remained totally illiterate. In the towns the schools were under the
superintendence of the Greek clergy, and Greek was the language of
instruction. The first Bulgarian school was opened at Gabrovo in 1835 by
the patriots Aprilov and Neophyt Rilski. After the Crimean War, Bulgarian
schools began to appear in the villages of the Balkans and the
south-eastern districts. The children of the wealthier class were generally
educated abroad. The American institution of Robert College on the Bosporus
rendered an invaluable service to the newly created state by providing it
with a number of well-educated young men fitted for positions of
responsibility. In 1878, after the liberation of the country, there were
1658 schools in the towns and villages. Primary education was declared
obligatory from the first, but the scarcity of properly qualified teachers
and the lack of all requisites proved serious impediments to educational
organization. The government has made great efforts and incurred heavy
expenditure for the spread of education; the satisfactory results obtained
are largely due to the keen desire for learning which exists among the
people. The present educational system dates from 1891. Almost all the
villages now possess "national" (_narodni_) primary schools, maintained by
the communes with the aid of a state subvention and supervised by
departmental and district inspectors. The state also assists a large number
of Turkish primary schools. The penalties for non-attendance are not very
rigidly enforced, and it has been found necessary to close the schools in
the rural districts during the summer, the children being required for
labour in the fields.

The age for primary instruction is six to ten years; in 1890, 47.01% of the
boys and 16.11% of the girls attended the primary schools; in 1898, 85% of
the boys and 40% of the girls. In 1904 there were 4344 primary schools, of
which 3060 were "national," or communal, and 1284 denominational (Turkish,
Greek, Jewish, &c.), attended by 340,668 pupils, representing a proportion
of 9.1 per hundred inhabitants. In addition to the primary schools, 40
infant schools for children of 3 to 6 years of age were attended by 2707
pupils. In 1888 only 327,766 persons, or 11% of the population, were
literate; in 1893 the proportion rose to 19.88%; in 1901 to 23.9%.

In the system of secondary education the distinction between the classical
and "real" or special course of study is maintained as in most European
countries; in 1904 there were 175 secondary schools and 18 gymnasia (10 for
boys and 8 for girls). In addition to these there are 6 technical and 3
agricultural schools; 5 of pedagogy, 1 theological, 1 commercial, 1 of
forestry, 1 of design, 1 for surgeons' assistants, and a large military
school at Sofia. Government aid is given to students of limited means, both
for secondary education and the completion of their studies abroad. The
university of Sofia, formerly known as the "high school," was reorganized
in 1904; it comprises 3 faculties (philology, mathematics and law), and
possesses a staff of 17 professors and 25 lecturers. The number of students
in 1905 was 943.

POLITICAL HISTORY

The ancient Thraco-Illyrian race which inhabited the district between the
Danube and the Aegean was expelled, or more probably absorbed, by the great
Slavonic immigration which took place at various intervals between the end
of the 3rd century after Christ and the beginning of the 6th. The numerous
tumuli which are found in all parts of the country (see Herodotus v. 8) and
some stone tablets with bas-reliefs remain as monuments of the aboriginal
population; and certain structural peculiarities, which are common to the
Bulgarian and Rumanian languages, may conceivably be traced to the
influence of the primitive Illyrian speech, now probably represented by the
Albanian. The Slavs, an agricultural people, were governed, even in those
remote times, by the democratic local institutions to which they are still
attached; they possessed no national leaders or central organization, and
their only political unit was the _pleme_, or tribe. They were considerably
influenced by contact with Roman civilization. It was reserved for a
foreign race, altogether distinct in origin, religion and customs, to give
unity and coherence to the scattered Slavonic groups, and to weld them into
a compact and powerful state which for some centuries played an important
part in the history of eastern Europe and threatened the existence of the
Byzantine empire.

_The Bulgars._--The Bulgars, a Turanian race akin to the Tatars, Huns,
Avars, Petchenegs and Finns, made their appearance on the banks of the
Pruth in the latter part of the 7th century. They were a horde of wild
horsemen, fierce and barbarous, practising polygamy, and governed
despotically by their _khans_ (chiefs) and _boyars_ or _bolyars_ (nobles).
Their original abode was the tract between the Ural mountains and the
Volga, where the kingdom of Great (or Black) Bolgary existed down to the
13th century. In 679, under their khan Asparukh (or Isperikh), they crossed
the Danube, and, after subjugating the Slavonic population of Moesia,
advanced to the gates of Constantinople and Salonica. The East Roman
emperors were compelled to cede to them the province of Moesia and to pay
them an annual tribute. The invading horde was not numerous, and during the
next two centuries it became gradually merged in the Slavonic population.
Like the Franks in Gaul the Bulgars gave their name and a political
organization to the more civilized race which they conquered, but adopted
its language, customs and local institutions. Not a trace of the Ugrian or
Finnish element is to be found in the Bulgarian speech. This complete
assimilation of a conquering race may be illustrated by many parallels.

_Early Dynasties._--The history of the early Bulgarian dynasties is little
else than a record of continuous conflicts with the Byzantine emperors. The
tribute first imposed on the Greeks by Asparukh was again exacted by Kardam
(791-797) and Krum (802-815), a sovereign noted alike for his cruelty and
his military and political capacity. Under his rule the Bulgarian realm
extended from the Carpathians to the neighbourhood of Adrianople; Serdica
(the present Sofia) was taken, and the valley of the Struma conquered.
Preslav, the Bulgarian capital, was attacked and burned by the emperor
Nicephorus, but the Greek army on its return was annihilated in one of the
Balkan passes; the emperor was slain, and his skull was converted by Krum
into a goblet. The reign of Boris (852-884) is memorable [v.04 p.0780] for
the introduction of Christianity into Bulgaria. Two monks of Salonica, SS.
Cyril and Methodius, are generally reverenced as the national apostles; the
scene of their labours, however, was among the Slavs of Moravia, and the
Bulgars were evangelized by their disciples. Boris, finding himself
surrounded by Christian states, decided from political motives to abandon
paganism. He was baptized in 864, the emperor Michael III. acting as his
sponsor. It was at this time that the controversies broke out which ended
in the schism between the Churches of the East and West. Boris long wavered
between Constantinople and Rome, but the refusal of the pope to recognize
an autocephalous Bulgarian church determined him to offer his allegiance to
the Greek patriarch. The decision was fraught with momentous consequences
for the future of the race. The nation altered its religion in obedience to
its sovereign, and some of the boyars who resisted the change paid with
their lives for their fidelity to the ancient belief. The independence of
the Bulgarian church was recognized by the patriarchate, a fact much dwelt
upon in recent controversies. The Bulgarian primates subsequently received
the title of patriarch; their see was transferred from Preslav to Sofia,
Voden and Prespa successively, and finally to Ochrida.

_The First Empire._--The national power reached its zenith under Simeon
(893-927), a monarch distinguished in the arts of war and peace. In his
reign, says Gibbon, "Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilized powers of
the earth." His dominions extended from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, and
from the borders of Thessaly to the Save and the Carpathians. Having become
the most powerful monarch in eastern Europe, Simeon assumed the style of
"Emperor and Autocrat of all the Bulgars and Greeks" (_tsar i samodrzhetz
vsem Blgarom i Grkom_), a title which was recognized by Pope Formosus.
During the latter years of his reign, which were spent in peace, his people
made great progress in civilization, literature nourished, and Preslav,
according to contemporary chroniclers, rivalled Constantinople in
magnificence. After the death of Simeon the Bulgarian power declined owing
to internal dissensions; the land was distracted by the Bogomil heresy (see
BOGOMILS), and a separate or western empire, including Albania and
Macedonia, was founded at Ochrida by Shishman, a boyar from Trnovo. A
notable event took place in 967, when the Russians, under Sviatoslav, made
their first appearance in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian tsar, Boris II., with the
aid of the emperor John Zimisces, expelled the invaders, but the Greeks
took advantage of their victory to dethrone Boris, and the first Bulgarian
empire thus came to an end after an existence of three centuries. The
empire at Ochrida, however, rose to considerable importance under Samuel,
the son of Shishman (976-1014), who conquered the greater part of the
Peninsula, and ruled from the Danube to the Morea. After a series of
campaigns this redoubtable warrior was defeated at Belasitza by the emperor
Basil II., surnamed Bulgaroktonos, who put out the eyes of 15,000 prisoners
taken in the fight, and sent them into the camp of his adversary. The
Bulgarian tsar was so overpowered by the spectacle that he died of grief. A
few years later his dynasty finally disappeared, and for more than a
century and a half (1018-1186) the Bulgarian race remained subject to the
Byzantine emperors.

_The Second Empire._--In 1186, after a general insurrection of Vlachs and
Bulgars under the brothers Ivan and Peter Asen of Trnovo, who claimed
descent from the dynasty of the Shishmanovtzi, the nation recovered its
independence, and Ivan Asen assumed the title of "Tsar of the Bulgars and
Greeks." The seat of the second, or "Bulgaro-Vlach" empire was at Trnovo,
which the Bulgarians regard as the historic capital of their race. Kaloyan,
the third of the Asen monarchs, extended his dominions to Belgrade, Nish
and Skopie (Uskub); he acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the pope,
and received the royal crown from a papal legate. The greatest of all
Bulgarian rulers was Ivan Asen II. (1218-1241), a man of humane and
enlightened character. After a series of victorious campaigns he
established his sway over Albania, Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace, and
governed his wide dominions with justice, wisdom and moderation. In his
time the nation attained a prosperity hitherto unknown: commerce, the arts
and literature flourished; Trnovo, the capital, was enlarged and
embellished; and great numbers of churches and monasteries were founded or
endowed. The dynasty of the Asens became extinct in 1257, and a period of
decadence began. Two other dynasties, both of Kuman origin, followed--the
Terterovtzi, who ruled at Trnovo, and the Shishmanovtzi, who founded an
independent state at Vidin, but afterwards reigned in the national capital.
Eventually, on the 28th June 1330, a day commemorated with sorrow in
Bulgaria, Tsar Michael Shishman was defeated and slain by the Servians,
under Stephen Urosh III., at the battle of Velbuzhd (Kiustendil). Bulgaria,
though still retaining its native rulers, now became subject to Servia, and
formed part of the short-lived empire of Stephen Dushan (1331-1355). The
Servian hegemony vanished after the death of Dushan, and the Christian
races of the Peninsula, distracted by the quarrels of their petty princes,
fell an easy prey to the advancing might of the Moslem invader.

_The Turkish Conquest._--In 1340 the Turks had begun to ravage the valley
of the Maritza; in 1362 they captured Philippopolis, and in 1382 Sofia. In
1366 Ivan Shishman III., the last Bulgarian tsar, was compelled to declare
himself the vassal of the sultan Murad I., and to send his sister to the
harem of the conqueror. In 1389 the rout of the Servians, Bosnians and
Croats on the famous field of Kossovo decided the fate of the Peninsula.
Shortly afterwards Ivan Shishman was attacked by the Turks; and Trnovo,
after a siege of three months, was captured, sacked and burnt in 1393. The
fate of the last Bulgarian sovereign is unknown: the national legend
represents him as perishing in a battle near Samakov. Vidin, where Ivan's
brother, Strazhimir, had established himself, was taken in 1396, and with
its fall the last remnant of Bulgarian independence disappeared.

The five centuries of Turkish rule (1396-1878) form a dark epoch in
Bulgarian history. The invaders carried fire and sword through the land;
towns, villages and monasteries were sacked and destroyed, and whole
districts were converted into desolate wastes. The inhabitants of the
plains fled to the mountains, where they founded new settlements. Many of
the nobles embraced the creed of Islam, and were liberally rewarded for
their apostasy; others, together with numbers of the priests and people,
took refuge across the Danube. All the regions formerly ruled by the
Bulgarian tsars, including Macedonia and Thrace, were placed under the
administration of a governor-general, styled the beylerbey of Rum-ili,
residing at Sofia; Bulgaria proper was divided into the sanjaks of Sofia,
Nikopolis, Vidin, Silistria and Kiustendil. Only a small proportion of the
people followed the example of the boyars in abandoning Christianity; the
conversion of the isolated communities now represented by the Pomaks took
place at various intervals during the next three centuries. A new kind of
feudal system replaced that of the boyars, and fiefs or _spahiliks_ were
conferred on the Ottoman chiefs and the renegade Bulgarian nobles. The
Christian population was subjected to heavy imposts, the principal being
the _haratch_, or capitation-tax, paid to the imperial treasury, and the
tithe on agricultural produce, which was collected by the feudal lord.
Among the most cruel forms of oppression was the requisitioning of young
boys between the ages of ten and twelve, who were sent to Constantinople as
recruits for the corps of janissaries. Notwithstanding the horrors which
attended the Ottoman conquest, the condition of the peasantry during the
first three centuries of Turkish government was scarcely worse than it had
been under the tyrannical rule of the boyars. The contemptuous indifference
with which the Turks regarded the Christian _rayas_ was not altogether to
the disadvantage of the subject race. Military service was not exacted from
the Christians, no systematic effort was made to extinguish either their
religion or their language, and within certain limits they were allowed to
retain their ancient local administration and the jurisdiction of their
clergy in regard to inheritances and family affairs. At the time of the
conquest certain towns and villages, known as the _voinitchki sela_,
obtained important privileges which were not infringed till the 18th
century; on condition of [v.04 p.0781] furnishing contingents to the
Turkish army or grooms for the sultan's horses they obtained exemption from
most of the taxes and complete self-government under their _voivodi_ or
chiefs. Some of them, such as Koprivshtitza in the Sredna Gora, attained
great prosperity, which has somewhat declined since the establishment of
the principality. While the Ottoman power was at its height the lot of the
subject-races was far less intolerable than during the period of decadence,
which began with the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683. Their rights and
privileges were respected, the law was enforced, commerce prospered, good
roads were constructed, and the great caravans of the Ragusan merchants
traversed the country. Down to the end of the 18th century there appears to
have been only one serious attempt at revolt--that occasioned by the
advance of Prince Sigismund Bathory into Walachia in 1595. A kind of
guerilla warfare was, however, maintained in the mountains by the
_kaiduti_, or outlaws, whose exploits, like those of the Greek _klepkts_,
have been highly idealized in the popular folk-lore. As the power of the
sultans declined anarchy spread through the Peninsula. In the earlier
decades of the 18th century the Bulgarians suffered terribly from the
ravages of the Turkish armies passing through the land during the wars with
Austria. Towards its close their condition became even worse owing to the
horrors perpetrated by the Krjalis, or troops of disbanded soldiers and
desperadoes, who, in defiance of the Turkish authorities, roamed through
the country, supporting themselves by plunder and committing every
conceivable atrocity. After the peace of Belgrade (1737), by which Austria
lost her conquests in the Peninsula, the Servians and Bulgarians began to
look to Russia for deliverance, their hopes being encouraged by the treaty
of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774), which foreshadowed the claim of Russia to
protect the Orthodox Christians in the Turkish empire. In 1794 Pasvanoglu,
one of the chiefs of the Krjalis, established himself as an independent
sovereign at Vidin, putting to flight three large Turkish armies which were
despatched against him. This adventurer possessed many remarkable
qualities. He adorned Vidin with handsome buildings, maintained order,
levied taxes and issued a separate coinage. He died in 1807. The memoirs of
Sofronii, bishop of Vratza, present a vivid picture of the condition of
Bulgaria at this time. "My diocese," he writes, "was laid desolate; the
villages disappeared--they had been burnt by the Krjalis and Pasvan's
brigands; the inhabitants were scattered far and wide over Walachia and
other lands."

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