Germany has experienced a period of unmitigated…

Alexander opposes the liberal wing in Bulgaria and the Turnovo constitution from the beginning of his reign.

After two years of conflict with the liberal council of ministers headed by Dragan Tsankov, Alexander receives Russian backing to replace Tsankov.

When the Russian Tsar Alexander II is assassinated, Russian policy changes to allow a grand national assembly to consider the constitutional changes desired by Prince Alexander.

The assassination spurs conservatism in Russia, and the Bulgarian liberals have alarmed the Russians by refusing foreign economic aid in the early 1880s.

To the dismay of the liberals, Russia intervenes in the election of the constitutional subranie, frightening voters into electing a group that passes the entire package of amendments.

Liberal influence is sharply reduced by amendments limiting the power of the subranie, but, because the conservative approach to governing Bulgaria has little popular support, Alexander makes a series of compromises with liberal positions between 1881 and 1885.

The Turnovo constitution is essentially restored by agreement between Tsankov and the conservatives in 1883, and the constitutional issue is resolved.

In only the first two years of Bulgaria's existence, two parliaments and seven cabinets have been dissolved, but more stable times lie ahead.

The Bulgarian government is as unstable as it had been in its first year, Alexander having left behind a three-man regency headed by Stefan Stambolov.

A Russian-educated liberal, Stambolov becomes prime minister in 1887 and ceases tailoring Bulgarian policy to Russian requirements.

The tsar's special representative in Bulgaria returns to Russia after failing to block a subranie called to nominate a new prince.

Russo-Bulgarian relations will remain chilly for the next ten years, and this break will further destabilize Bulgarian politics and society.

Stambolov brutally suppresses an army uprising in 1887 and begins seven years of iron control that often bypass the country's democratic institutions but bring unprecedented stability to Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a Catholic German prince, accepts the Bulgarian throne in August 1887.

The Bulgarian army wins a brilliant victory over Serbia, with no Russian aid, at the Battle of Slivnitsa.

Although the victory is a source of great national pride for Bulgaria, Russia continues to withhold recognition of the union with Eastern Rumelia until Prince Alexander abdicates.

Finally, Russian-trained Bulgarian army officers depose the prince in August 1886.

The most important issue of this period is Bulgaria's changing relationship with Russia.

Bulgarian hostility towards the Russian army, refusal to build a strategic railway for the Russians through Bulgaria, and poor relations between Prince Alexander and Tsar Alexander III of Russia all contribute to increasing alienation.

Because conservative Russia now fears unrest in the Balkans, Karavelov tries to appease the tsar by quelling the uprisings that continue in Macedonia.

Radical factions in Bulgaria are persuaded to lower their goals from annexation of Macedonia and Thrace to a union between Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.

When a bloodless coup achieves this union in 1885, however, Russia demands the ouster of Prince Alexander and withdraws all Russian officers from the Bulgarian army.

Greece and Serbia see their interests threatened, and the latter declares war on Bulgaria.

A constituent assembly is duly convened in Turnovo in 1879.

Partly elected and partly appointed, the assembly of two hundred and thirty splits into conservative and liberal factions similar to those that had existed before independence

The liberals advocate  continuing the alliance of peasants and intelligentsia that had formed the independence movement, to be symbolized in a single parliamentary chamber; the conservatives argue that the Bulgarian peasant class is not ready for political responsibility, and therefore it should be represented in a second chamber with limited powers.

The framework for the Turnovo constitution is a draft submitted by the Russian occupation authorities, based on the constitutions of Serbia and Romania.

As the assembly revises this document, the liberal view prevails; a one-chamber parliament or subranie will be elected by universal male suffrage.

Between the annual fall ses-sions of the subranie, the country will be run jointly by the monarch and a council of ministers responsible to parliament.

The liberals who dominate the assembly incorporate many of their revolutionary ideals into what becomes one of the most liberal constitutions of its time.

The final act of the Turnovo assembly is the election of Alexander of Battenburg, a young German nobleman who had joined the Russians in the war of 1877, to be the first prince of modern Bulgaria.

...the other at Turnovo.

The Treaty of Berlin had also stipulated that Bulgaria would elect an assembly of notables to meet at Turnovo to prepare a constitution and to choose a prince who would be confirmed by the powers.

By the time the constituent assembly of two hundred and thirty duly convenes in Turnovo in February 1879, conservative and liberal political tendencies have emerged and rapidly coalesced into parties.

The liberals advocate continuing the alliance of peasants and intelligentsia that had formed the independence movement, to be symbolized in a single parliamentary chamber; the conservatives argue that the Bulgarian peasant class is not ready for political responsibility, and therefore it should be represented in a second chamber with limited powers.

The framework for the Turnovo constitution is a draft submitted by the Russian occupation authorities, based on the constitutions of Serbia and Romania.

As the assembly revises this document, the liberal view prevails; a one-chamber parliament or subranie will be elected by universal male suffrage.

Between the annual fall sessions of the subranie, the country will be run jointly by the monarch and a council of ministers responsible to parliament.

Bulgaria’s Liberal Party, under Dragan Kiriakov Tsankov, Liuben Karavelov, and Petko Slaveikov, dominates the assembly and incorporates many of their revolutionary ideals into what becomes one of the most liberal constitutions of its time.

It provides for a single National Assembly elected by universal male suffrage, guarantees of civil rights, and strict limits on the power of the monarch.

The final act of the Turnovo assembly is the election of Alexander of Battenberg, a young German nobleman and nephew of the Russian tsar, who had joined the Russians in the war of 1877, to be the first prince of modern Bulgaria.

The democratic character of the constitution and sympathies of Liberal Party political leaders are at variance with the views of Bulgaria's first prince, Alexander of Battenberg, and with those of the Russian advisers who play a large role in his court.

From the beginning of his reign, Alexander opposes the liberal wing in Bulgaria and the Turnovo constitution.

He attempts to reconstruct Sofia's municipal council in 1879 and is told that not even the Turks would have dared to do that.

Bulgaria's independence from the Ottoman Empire brings drastic economic and social changes to the country at the end of the nineteenth century.

Industrialization proceeds rapidly (thirty-six major factories had opened between 1878 and 1887), and a new class of industrial labor forms from displaced artisans and agricultural workers.

Harsh working conditions lead the urban poor to the cause of socialism, and in 1891 the Social Democratic Party is formed. (Later transformation of one of its factions into the Bulgarian Communist Party will make this organization the oldest communist party in the world.)

Town-centered trade and the guild structure are swept away by an influx of West European commerce to which Bulgaria had been opened by the terms of the Treaty of Berlin.