RUSSIA AND THE BALKAN WARS

APPROVED:

Maj
Major Professor

"l G Minor Professor

^yirejgl^or of the Departmet^r m. History

1 K^^^h-4

~i

Dean of the Graduate School

RUSSIA AND THE BALKAN WARS

THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of the

North Texas State University in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

By

William Conley Johnson, B. A.

Denton, Texas
January, 1969

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
iv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
.Chapter
I.
II.
III.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

RUSSIA AND THE FORMATION OF THE BALKAN ALLIANCE. . . .

21

RUSSIA AND THE EARLY MONTHS OF THE FIRST

BALKAN WAR

IV.

47

RUSSIA AND THE SCUTARI QUESTION

THE DENOUEMENT: THE SECOND BALKAN WAR

AND CONCLUSIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

67

V.

lit

87
102

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure
1.

Page
The Balkan Peninsula in 1912

iv

69

CHAPTER X

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This thesis is a study and evaluation of Russian foreign policy in

the Balkan Wars, 1912-13.

Its primary purpose is to seek out and define

the goals and aspirations of Russian diplomacy at this time and evaluate
them in terms of success or failure.

Recent books and articles in pro-

fessional publications have shown a renewed interest in the causes of

World War 1.^ An understanding of Russian diplomacy in the Balkan Wars
serves as a useful contribution to a further re-evaluation of the complex series of causes and events which came to a climax in 1914.

Russian

Near Eastern foreign policy before World War I had one general goal, revision of the Straits question, and three secondary considerations, Panslavism, Balkan nationalism, and Russian competition with Austria-Hungary
in the Balkans.
For many years the major aim of Russian foreign policy had been
to re-open the Straits question for a settlement more favorable to

^Recent materials on the World War I era include, Fritz Fischer,

Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York, 1967) ; Paul Guinn,
British Strategy and Politics, 1914 to 1918 (Oxford, 1965); Hugh SetonWat3on, The Russian Empire, 1801-1917 (New York, 1967); Jack J. Roth,
editor, World War I: A Turning Point in Modern History, Essays on the
Significance of the War (New York, 1967); and articles, William A. Renzi,
"Italy's Neutrality and Entrance into the Great War: A Re-examination,"
American Historical Review, LXXIII (June, 1968), 1414-1432; Gerard E.
Silberstein, "The Serbian Campaign of 1915: Its Diplomatic Background,"
ibid., (October, 1967), 51-69; other works more directly related to the
problem will be cited throughout the thesis.

Russian interests than the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1856), which
had prohibited warships from passing through the Straits.^ Without
egress for her navy, Russia could not protect a large merchant fleet on
the world's oceans.

Russian merchants could not compete successfully

on the international market without a fleet to distribute their products.

Besides protecting the fleet, the Russian navy could be more effective
as a diplomatic tool if the Straits were opened to Russia.

Russian

diplomacy needed a navy in the Mediterranean Sea to compete effectively

with Austria-Hungary, both diplomatically and economically.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Straits had begun to
be more important to Russian economic life than the Baltic Sea.

Russia's

most valuable export was now grain, and the nation required outlets
closer to the grain producing areas in the Ukraine.

In 1841, Russia,

along with Britain, Austria, Prussia, and France, signed the Straits
Convention, which agreed to the Turkish Sultan's intention to forbid
foreign warships from passing through the Straits while Turkey was at
peace.

Russian activities and religious demands on the Ottoman Empire

^Sidney Bradshaw Fay, The Origins of the World War, 2d ed., revised, 2 vols. (New York, 1966), I, 13; William L. Langer, "Russia,
the Straits Question and the Origins of the Balkan League, 1908-1912,"
Political Science Quarterly, XLIII (September, 1928), 359.
^A. J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918
(Oxford, 1954), p. 12; by the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi (1833), Turkey agreed to prohibit passage to any foreign vessels if Russia
should be at war, thus protecting the Russian Black Sea coasts,
J. A. R. Marriott, The Eastern Question; An Historical Study in
European Diplomacy, 2d ed., revised (Oxford, 1918), p. 236; cf.,
M. S. Anderson, The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (New York, 1966), p. 84.

in 1853-4 eventually led to the Crimean War.^

The Treaty of Paris (1856)

signed at the end of the war contained the "Black Sea Clauses" which
in effect neutralized the Black Sea.

Naval arsenals, dockyards, and

all warships were forbidden, but the sea was left open to all merchant
ships.

The "Black Sea Clauses" prevented Russia from making a "Russian

Lake" of the Black Sea.^

In 1870 Russia used the Franco-Prussian War as an opportunity to
abrogate the Black Sea Clauses of the Treaty of Paris, therefore coming
into conflict with Great Britain.

Because Czar Alexander II had sup-

ported the King of Prussia during the war, Bismarck smoothed the way
by calling a conference to discuss the English objections to Russia's
abrupt changes.

The British desired recognition of the principle that

international treaties could be revised only by the interested powers

and not on the initiative of a single power.

Russia finally agreed to

this principle, and the English agreed to dispense with the limitations
on naval armaments in the Black Sea as provided in the Treaty of Paris,
although the provision that only merchant ships could pass the Straits
was left unaltered.**
Even with the advantages inherent in the changes in the Treaty of
Paris, Russian naval strength in the Black Sea did not increase appreciably by the time of the Russo-Turkish War in 1876-8.

Russia and her

Balkan allies defeated the Turks and imposed on them the Treaty of

^Taylor, Struggle, pp. 50-62.

^Anderson, Question, p. 143; Taylor, Struggle, p. 85.
^William L Langer, European Alliances and A1ignments, 1871-1890,
2d ed. (New York, 1950), p. 11; Taylor, Struggle, pp. 215-216.

San Stefano (1878).

The salient features of the San Stefano Treaty were

the independence granted to Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, and the promised

reforms in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The most important point of the San Ste-

fano Treaty was the establishment of a large, independent Bulgaria.^

The only modification concerning the Straits provided that merchantmen
could pass through even in times of war.
The Russian independent treaty with the Ottoman Empire and the
subsequent changes in European Turkey were opposed by Great Britain,which
had interests in the Near East.

At this time, the Eastern question was

considered to be an exclusive concern of the Great Powers of Europe,

and, therefore, the terms of the peace could not be decided by Russia
alone.

The Russian Foreign Minister reluctantly agreed that the European

interests in the San Stefano Treaty could be examined and revised by

the Great Powers.

Those parts of the treaty outside general European

interests were to be left to the discretion of the Russians.^

Britain,

however, wanted all terms of the peace to be placed before the Great
Powers, along the lines of the principle of international treaties established in 1870.

Russia challenged the British principle but finally

capitulated to the British demands because of British ships entering

the Straits, internal weakness in Russia, and Russian isolation.^-
All of the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano came under the scrutiny of the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin, 1878.

The resulting

^Langer, Alliances, pp. 138-139; Anderson, Question, pp. 203-204.

Langer, Alliances, p. 138.
9

Anderson, Question, p. 200.

10

Ibid., p. 205.

Treaty of Berlin stands as evidence of the gradual decline in Russian

diplomatic leadership from the days of Czar Alexander and the "Holy
A l l i a n c e . M i l i t a r i l y , Russia had defeated the armies of the Ottoman
Empire, but the English collaborated with the Austrians to restrict
1)
Russian gains in the Balkans.

The final treaty provided for the divi-

sion of the San Stefano Bulgaria into three parts.

One part was re-

turned to the Ottoman Empire, and the other two, Bulgaria and Eastern
Roumelia, received their independence.

The division of Bulgaria repre-

sented the most important aspect of the Russian diplomatic defeat at

Berlin.

The treaty also provided for Austrian protection of Bosnia-

Herzegovina, insured the independence of the restricted Bulgaria and

tiny Montenegro, and at the same time insured the continued existence
of European Turkey.

Much to the chagrin of the Russians, the Turks were

left in complete control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits.13

After the Congress of Berlin, Russian ambitions in the Near East were
checked.
Russian foreign policy slowly shifted and began to concentrate on
the Far East, but by 1905, Russian Far Eastern policy received a severe
setback in the disastrous war against Japan.

In the treaty with Japan

made at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Russia, opposed by a British-Japanese

11

Ibid., pp. 216-217; Langer, Alliances, pp. 162-163; Taylor,

Struggle, p. 252.
12
Langer, Alliances, pp. 157-158.
^ F o r the French text of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), see W. N.
Medlicott, The Congress of Berlin and After; A Diplomatic History of
the Near Eastern Settlement, 1878-1880 (London, 1938), pp. 409-419.

combination, lost Port Arthur, her strong point in southern M a n c h u r i a . ^

The several military catastrophies of the Russo-Japanese War touched off
an internal revolt in Russia that further increased the pressure for a
15
diplomatic success to distract attention from internal dissension.
In 1906, Count Alexander Isvolsky took over as Russian Minister
of Foreign Affairs, and he made the Balkans and the Near East the most
important fields of Russian diplomatic activity.

Isvolsky, reaching for

personal honor as well as for Russian aggrandizement, began to press

for the re-opening of the Straits question.

He offered to support Austria-

Hungary in the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in return for Austrian

diplomatic support in reconsidering the Straits settlement.

Isvolsky

and Aerhenthal, the Austrian Foreign Minister, discussed the proposal at

16
Buchlau in September of 1908.

The following October Austria annexed

Bosnia-Herzegovina while Isvolsky traveled to the European capitals to

secure agreement of the Great Powers to re-open the Straits question.
Russian diplomacy suddenly faced a major crisis.

Isvolsky claimed, and

^ E d w a r d Grey, Twenty-five Years, 1892-1916, 2 vols. (New York,

1925), I, 54; Raymond James Sontag, European Diplomatic History, 18711932 (New York, 1933), p. 106.
^ D o n a l d Mackenzie Wallace, Russia (London, New York, etc., 1912),
pp. 695-702; Alexander Iswolsky, The Memoirs of Alexander Iswolsky,. . .
(London, 1920), edited and translated by Charles Louis Seeger, pp. 24-25.
^Bernadotte E. Schmitt, The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908-1909 (London, 1937), pp. 19-29, for a summary see pp. 244-245; for a short and
generally accurate account of the Bosnia-Herzegovina crisis based on
Schmitt, see L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans Since 1453 (New York, 1958),
pp. 530-531; Eugenii Nikolaevich de Schelking, Recollections of Russian
Diplomat, . . . (New York, 1918), pp. 173-174, 179; Roman Romanovich
Rosen, Forty Years of Diplomacy. 2 vols. (London, 1922), II, 49; N. V.
Tcharykow, Glimpses of High Politics Through War and Peace, 1855-1929
(London, 1931), pp. 269-270, 296.

Aerhenthal denied, that a verbal agreement had been reached at Buchlau,

but no stenographic record had been made.

Isvolsky maintained that after

the other Powers had consented to reconsidering the Straits question,

Austria would annex Bosnia-Herzegovina with Russian support, and, in
turn, Austria would support Russian interests at the conference on the
Straits question.

While Isvolsky was completing his canvass of the

other Powers, Austria suddenly annexed the contended areas, and, at the
same time, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria used the opportunity to declare
Bulgaria's total independence.*''
Isvolsky tried in vain to re-open the Straits question after the
annexation by withholding Russian recognition of the move; he hoped thereby to force Aerhenthal to carry out his part of the "bargain." Germany,
acting in favor of her alliance with Austria, presented an ultimatum to
the Russian Government demanding, in as amiable terms as possible, that
formal recognition be given to the annexation.

The weakness of the

Russian military machine, not yet rebuilt from the 1905 disaster, prevented a European war and by forcing the Russians to accept the fait
accompli, handed Isvolsky and Russian diplomacy another bitter defeat.*
Other than Austria's diplomatic victory over Russia,^ the results
of the annexation crisis were many.

Perhaps the most important result

17
Anatolii V. Nekludoff, Diplomatic Reminiscences Before and During
the World War, 1911-1917 (New York, 1920), translated by Alexandra
Paget, p. 14.
*Karl Max Lichnowsky, Heading for the Abyss: Reminiscences (New
York, 1928), translated by Sefton Delmer, p. 19; Austen Chamberlain,
Down the Years (London, 1935), pp. 62, 64.
^Luigi Albertini, The Origins of the War of 1914, 3 vols. (London,
1952), translated by Isabella M. Massey, I, 210.

was that the period of Russian-Austrian willingness to compromise in

Balkan affairs ended.

German support of Austria reinforced the division

of Europe into two factions, the German-dominated Triple Alliance and

90
the Russo-Franco-British Triple Entente.

Although Russian-Austrian

relations were permanently damaged, England and Russia drew closer.

Russo-Bulgarian relations were furthered by the formal recognition of
21
Bulgarian independence.

With the Russian diplomatic defeat, Isvolsky's position as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs became untenable.
appointing Serge Sazonov as Vice-Minister.

He sought support by

Sazonov had been Isvolsky's

secretary at the Holy See in Rome, but more important, Sazonov was married to the sister of Mme. Stolypin, wife of the President of the Ministerial Council.

Stolypin was at the height of his power in Russia,

and Isvolsky hoped to gain favor with him by appointing his brotherin-law to the Foreign Office.

Despite this ploy, Isvolsky resigned as

Foreign Minister in 1910 to accept the post of Ambassador to France.

His assistant, Sazonov, replaced him in the Foreign Ministry.

With

Isvolsky, Russian foreign policy had returned to the Near East and cast
off from the German wharf to swim ". . .openly in British Waters.

The

Anglo-Franco-Russo Entente took the place of the old Tri-Emperor Aliiance,"^

Isvolsky, at his new post in Paris, was generally treated with

^Nekludoff, Reminiscences, p. 22; Lichnowsky, Abyss, pp. 53, 142;

Taylor, Struggle, pp. 334-346.
^Nekludoff, Reminiscences, pp. 20-21.
2^de Schelking, Recollections, p. 185.
^Ibid., p. 184.

suspicion by his colleagues in the Paris diplomatic c o r p s . ^

In

St. Petersburg, Sazonov inherited and continued Isvolsky's foreign

policy.
From the constantly recurring failures of Russian diplomacy to gain
a revision of the Straits question over the past century, one major
lesson was learned by the Foreign Office.

Revision of the Straits agree-

ments could not be accomplished by direct diplomatic approaches.

subtle methods had to be discovered and tried.

More

By the time Sazonov took

office, Russian diplomats had come to realize that their goal in the
Near East could be accomplished only after Austria-Hungary was effectively eliminated as a competitor in the Balkan peninsula.

Austria-

Hungary sought to extend her territory and power eastward at the expense
of the Ottoman Empire.

Russia's interest in the Straits caused a natural

competition between the two powers, but it was negligible until the midnineteenth century.^

As the Balkan states sought their complete indepen-

dence from Turkey during the latter part of the nineteenth century, both
Russia and Austria-Hungary sought to extend their influence in the Balkans
by exploiting the nationalistic aspirations of the re-emerging states.
Nationalism in the Balkans contributed to the survival of the Balkan
states.

With the subjection of the Balkan peninsula to the Turks in

1453, the Sultan's domination submerged the national identities of the

Balkan states.

The practice of the Greek Orthodox religion, however, was

allowed to continue and was used by the Turks to control the Balkan peoples.

^Raymond Poincar^, The Memoirs of Raymond Poincar/, 1912 (London,

1926), translated by George Arthur, p. 145.
2

"*Hans Kohn, Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology (Notre Dame,

Indiana, 1953), pp. 50-60.

10
National identity slowly re-emerged first in Greece.
ture and language had virtually disappeared.

Greek litera-

Not until the latter part

of the eighteenth century, under the influence of Adamantios Korais

(1748-1833), Greek scholar and linguist, did Greek nationalism r e v i v e . ^
The resurrection of Greek national ideals received aid in the RussoTurkish War of 1768-74.

The Greeks gained commercial advantages from

the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774), which helped to expand their commercial independence of the Turkish government.^

In 1829, under the Treaty

of Adrianople, Greece gained independence, but many Greek persons were

OO
outside the boundaries of the new state.

Throughout the rest of the

nineteenth century and the early twentieth, Greek foreign policy aimed
9Q
at the incorporation of the irredentist territory.
Russian Balkan interest worked together with Serbian nationalism
to start the chain of events which led to Serbian independence.

In 1804,

Kara George led revolts against the Turk Janissaries and, with Russian
assistance, won some of Serbia's nationalistic goals.

With Napoleon's

attack on Russia, the Czar quickly signed the Treaty of Bucharest (1812)
with Turkey.

No longer distracted by Russia, the Turks turned their

attention to domestic troubles in Serbia.^

Kara George fled, and Milosh

^ W e s l e y M. Gewehr, The Rise of Nationalism in the Balkans, 18001930 (New York, 1931), p. 15.
^Ferdinand Schevill, The History of the Balkan Peninsula, from
the Earliest Times to the Present Day (New York, 1922), p. 329.
^ G e w e h r , Nationalism, p. 28.
^ F o r a short history of Greece from the 1830's to 1900, see, ibid.,
pp. 49-61; for Graecian irredentism, see, Stavrianos, Balkans, pp. .467482.
Schevill, History, pp. 318-321.

11
Obrenovich established a tacit peace until Russia freed herself from the
Napoleonic threat.

Obrenovich resumed the bid for nationalism and suc-

ceeded with the aid of the Russo-Turk War of 1828-9.

By the terms of

the Treaty of Adrianople (1829), Obrenovich became hereditary prince,

and Serbia received internal autonomy under a Russian protectorate.

31

Domestic tensions occupied Serbian politics for the rest of the nine-

32
teenth century.,
Because they were more dominated by the Greek influence than the
other Balkan states, the Bulgarians were the last nationality to arise
and assume national identity.

Eighteenth century Bulgarian histories

and a school founded in 1835 to teach the Bulgar language gave impetus

33
to the rise of national identity.

Turk atrocities in suppressing Bul-

garian nationalism attracted the attention of Europe and, in part, led

to the Russo-Turk War of 1877.

The Treaty of San Stefano (1878), nego-

tiated under Russian patronage, provided for a large Bulgaria.

The

Treaty of Berlin (1878) reduced the Bulgarian land mass but recognized
the independence of Bulgaria.

Alexander of Battenberg, nephew of the

*4/

Czar, received the crown as Prince of Bulgaria.

His German heritage

and dislike of Russia contributed greatly to an alienation between

Russia and Bulgaria that lasted from 1883 to 1896, during which time
Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia were joined. 3 5

31

After Alexander was forced

Stavrianos, Balkans, p. 250.

*^For a review of these problems, see, Gewehr, Nationalism, pp. 41-49.

33

Stavrianos, Balkans, pp. 370-371, Gewehr, Nationalism, pp. 33-34.

^ I b i d . , pp. 36-39; cf., Langer, Alliances, p. 138ff.

35Anderson, Question, pp. 277-279.

12
to abdicate, the two Slav countries were reconciled when Nicholas XX
recognized Ferdinand as Prince of Bulgaria after Ferdinand's son was
baptized into the Orthodox Church.
Montenegro was different from the other Balkan states in that the
Turks never conquered the small state.

Montenegro was ruled by a Prince-

Bishop until 1851, when he married and threw off the religious responsibility.

Nikola I received the throne in 1860, and Montenegro's indepen-

dence was recognized in the Treaty of Berlin (1878), from which she also
received the port of Antivari on the Adriatic Sea.

The Montenegrin

government became a constitutional monarchy in 1905, and Nikola assumed

the title of King in 1910."^

Although Russia did not figure prominently

in the development of modern Montenegro, the two countries had strong

ties of Slavic kinship.
A n important factor which influenced Russian foreign policy in the
Balkans was the religious, linguistic, and racial identifications between
the Russian and Balkan Slav peoples, known as Pan-slavism.
has been defined as

Pan-slavism

. . the historic tendency of the Slavic peoples

to manifest in any tangible way, whether cultural or political, their

consciousness of ethnic kinship."^

Russia, as the largest Slavic state,

considered herself to be the natural leader of Slavdom.

The idea of

Pan-slavism, however, is fairly modern, having been formulated in the

Tcharykow, Glimpses, p. 228; Gewehr, Nationalism, pp. 71-78.

^Mary E. Durham, "King Nikola of Montenegro," Contemporary Review,
CXIX (April, 1921), 471-478; Wadham Peacock, "Nicholas of Montenegro and
the Czardom of the Serbs," Nineteenth Century and After, LXXII (1912),
pp. 879-889.

38
Michael B. Petrovich, The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, 18561870 (New York, 1956), p. 3.

13
mid-nineteenth century.^9

Russian statesmen began using Pan-slav sympa-

thies in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century to further Russian

aims in diplomacy.
Soon after the turn of the century, Russian diplomats had come to
realize that the arrangement at the Straits could be revised and AustriaHungary checked at the same time if they could unite the Slavic peoples
of the Balkans under Russian patronage.

With Pan-slav sympathy, and by

playing upon the national aspirations of the Balkan states, Russia

could influence and control events in the peninsula in such a way as
to present Austria-Hungary with a solid front.

With the drang nach osten

stopped, Russia, with the support of her Balkan allies, could then work
to re-open the Straits question at the most convenient time.
The goals of this policy, to unite the Balkans, stop Austria-Hungary,
and revise the Straits agreement, were neither clearly defined nor carefully planned.

The four diplomats active in this period, Sazonov, Isvol-

sky, A. N. Nekludoff, Russian representative to Bulgaria, and N. Hartwig,

Russian representative to Serbia, often failed to fully co-operate with
each other, although in the final analysis they sought the same goals.
Each of the diplomats followed a policy of expediency designed to
win their respective points.

Isvolsky, who bore heavily the responsi-

bility for the Bosnian humiliation, sought revenge against Austria-

^Ibid., pp. 61-103; Kohn, Pan-Slavism, pp. 114-119, 157, 167-174;

Russian interest in the Pan-Slav movement did not have much basis in
economic factors, other than the need for a southern-east port for cereal
exports from the Ukraine; Russian trade in the Balkans before World War I
was negligible; her limited and strained capital prevented and reduced
financial support to the Balkan governments. See Ivo J. Lederer, "Russia
and the Balkans," Russian Foreign Policy: Essays in Historical Perspective, edited by Ivo J. Lederer (New Haven, London, 1962), pp. 425-426.

14

Hungary.

Hartwig and Nekludoff, in varying degrees, were Pan-slavists

who sought to promote the realization of Slavic unity and aspirations

generally, and specifically championed the countries of their respective
assignment as the best friend of Russia.

Looming behind the thoughts

and actions of all of these men was the silent hope of re-opening the
Straits question.
complicated.

Sazonov's problem at the foreign office was more

Hindered by ill health and lack of experience, and unduly

influenced by Isvolsky, Sazonov was sympathetic to the Pan-slav voices.

He tried to keep a precarious balance between the rival factions in the
Russian diplomatic corps while not antagonizing the Great Powers.
Sazonov proved to be inadequate for the task of directing Russian
foreign affairs.

His co-worker, Baron Taube described him as

Sickly by nature, finely sensitive and a little sentimental, nervy to the point of neurasthenia, Sazonov was the
type of the 'Slav feminine spirit" par excellence, openhanded and generous, but soft and vague, unceasingly
variable in his impressions and 'intuitions,' refractory
to all sustained effort of thought, incapable of pursuing
a train of reasoning to its logical conclusion. . . .
Moreover, after Iswolsky, Sazonov struck the observer
by his lack of experience and preparation for his task. . . .
His capacity for work was mediocre and, at the same time
his aplomb and self-confidence manifestly excessive.^
Other impressions of Sazonov found in memoirs generally agree with
Taube's assessment. 4 *

40

Taube, M., La politique russe d'avant-guerre (Paris, 1928) or Per

grossen Katastrophe entgegen (Leipzig, 1937), cited in Albertini, Origins, I, 367. The author or the translator does not give an exact reference for the quotation; Edward C. Thaden, Russia and the Balkan Alliance
of 1912 (University Park, Pennsylvania, 1965), p. 82, disagrees with Albertini over Sazonov's competency.
4

* d e Schelking, Recollections, p. 186; Rosen, Forty Years, pp. 8081; Paul N. Miliukov, Political Memoirs. 1905-1917. edited by Arthur P.
Mendel, translated by Carl Goldberg (Ann Arbor, 1967), p. 239; W . A .
Suchomlinov, Erinnerungen (Berlin, 1924), p, 288.

15

The first international incident of importance after Sazonov took

office was the Italo-Turk War.

Italy had long expressed an interest in

Tripoli and Cyrenaica, territories belonging to the Ottoman Empire.

By

the Racconigi agreement signed between Italy and Russia during Isvolsky's
tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1909, Italy and Russia promised
to "regard with benevolence " Russia's interests in the question of the
Straits and Italy's interests in Cyrenaica and Tripoli.^

By previous

agreements with France, Britain, and Austria-Hungary, Italy had been

promised a free hand in Tripoli after Morocco became a French protectorate, which it did in September, 1911.^
Relations between Italy and Turkey were gradually becoming strained
as Italy desired "compensations" in Tripoli for the French gains in
Morocco. Giovanni Giolitti, the Italian premier, later rationalized
that " . . . the only way to re-establish friendship between Turl ey and
ourselves and to render a harmonious policy of the Triple Alliance possible in the Balkans, was for us to occupy Tripoli."^

When Italy in-

formed Russia of her Tripolitan intentions, around the end of September,

Isvolsky, who spoke with Tittoni, Italian Ambassador to France, cautioned
them not to disrupt peace in the Balkans.^

Austria and Germany also

cautioned Italy against Balkan disturbances.^

^Sazonov to Benckendorf, 28 November, 1912, Friedrich Stieve, Per
Diplomatische Schriftwechsel Iswolskis, 1911-1914, 4 vols. (Berlin, 1924),
II, 363-364 (hereafter cited as Isvolsky); Fay, Origins, I, 407; Taylor,
Struggle, p. 463. All dates are given in New Style.
^Anderson, Question, p. 287; Taylor, Struggle, p. 472.
^Gipvanni Giolitti, Memoirs of My Life (London and Sydney, 1923),
pp. 251-252; Anderson, Question, pp. 287-288.
^Giolitti, Memoirs, p. 265; Isvolsky to Neratov, 26 September 1911,
Isvolsky, I, 134.
^Giolitti, Memoirs, pp. 267-268.

16

The apprehensions shared by the Great Powers over the possibility

that the Italo-Turk War might engender Balkan uprisings against the Ottomans were not without foundation.

Russia held limited influence in the

Balkans and could make a major contribution o keeping them calm after
Italy attacked Turkey.

Nekludoff expected Serbia to follow the Russian

lead unless Bulgaria moved into Macedonia, or rebellion broke out in

Kossovo, a town in the Sanjak of Novibazar--in which case Austria would
likely move in troops.^

On the other hand, any form of Austrian aggres-

sion in the Sanjak of Novibazar would be met with a Serbian retaliation.

If the war went badly for the Turks, the Christians of Kossovo might
rebel against the Moslem officials there, or the Turks might seek vengeance against Kossovo*s Christians.

In either case, Austria would move

into the Sanjak of Novibazar to protect the Roman Catholics, and Serbia
would then be forced to protect the Orthodox Catholics there as well
as her territorial interests in the area.

If Bulgaria used the Italo-

Turk War as a pretext for occupying the Bulgar sections of Macedonia,

Serbia could likewise be expected to take the Serbian areas of Macedonia,
Since some of the areas were mixed nationally, quarrels over right of
possession could lead to a war between the Serbs and Bulgars.

Bulgaria,

however, considered "the Tripoli question as lying outside her interests,

*

and that in the relations between Bulgaria and Turkey they entertained
48
no change."

Greece could be expected to remain neutral unless Turkey

^Hartwig to Foreign Office, 1 October 1911, Krassny Archiv, VIII,

17, as cited in Milos Boghitschewitsch, Die Auswartige Politik Serbiens,
1903-1914, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1929), II, 133-134 (hereafter cited as APS).
^8von Below-Saleske to the Foreign Office, 30 September 1911, Ludwig Bittner, Johannes Lepsius, A. M. Bartholdy, and Friedrich Thimme,
Die Grosse Politik der Europaischen Kabinett, 1871-1914, 40 vols, in 54.

17

provoked trouble or Bulgaria became involved in Macedonia, in which case,

49
Greece, like Serbia, would have to protect her interests there.

Rumania

was apprehensive about Bulgarian aspirations on their common frontier."*

Almost all of the Balkan states carried chips on their shoulders that
the Great Powers expected to see knocked off by some pretext generated
by the Italo-Turkish War.
The Powers did not expect Montenegro to cause trouble in the Balkans, since Russia had already demonstrated her nominal control over the
tiny kingdom.

In the military convention concluded in December, 1910,

between Russia and Montenegro, Russia had promised King Nikola a yearly
subsidy of 600,000 rubles, Russian officers to train his army, and arms
and ammunition.

Montenegro, in exchange, promised not to make other

alliances or wage war against a third power without the consent of the
Russian M o n a r c h y . ^

Russian control over the kingdom had been success-

fully demonstrated when, late in 1910 and early 1911, the Malissori
tribes in Northern Albania revolted against the Turkish administration.
(Berlin, 1922-27), XXXIII, 3-4 (hereafter cited as GP); I. E. Gueshoff,
The Balkan League (London, 1915), translated by Constantin C. Mincoff,
p. 12.
^ B r a u n to Foreign Office, 1 October 1911, Alfred Francis Pribram,
Heinrich Srbik, and Han Uebersberger, Osterreich-Ungarns Aussenpolitik
von der Bosnischen Krise 1908 bis sum Kreigsausbruch 1914; Diplomatische
Aktenstucke des ffisterreichisch-Ungarischen Ministeriums des ffussern,
9 vols. (Vienna, 1930), III, 374-375 (hereafter cited as 0-UA).
-^Czernin to Foreign Office, 1 October 1911, ibid., p. 375.
-''Edward C. Thaden, "Montenegro: Russia's Troublesome Ally, 19101912," Journal of Central European Affairs, XVIII (July, 1958), 112;
for a discussion of relations between Montenegro and the United States
in this period, see Richard D. Challener, "Montenegro and the United
States: A Balkan Fantasy," Journal of Central European Affairs, XVII
(October, 1957), 236-243.

18
King Nikola offered asylum to the rebels forced to flee from Albania.
The Porte wished to pursue the refugees into Montenegro, and Nikola re52
plied that such action would lead to armed conflict.

Turkey then

requested Russian influence to pressure Montenegro.

Russia complied,

threatening to withhold all financial support provided in the alliance

of 1910 unless Nikola co-operated with the Turks. After Nikola complied, the Malissori were returned to Albania and "relative calm" returned
53
to the Balkans.

If Montenegro tried to use the Italo-Turk War as a

pretext to cause trouble in Albania, Russia could be expected to again

assert pressure by threatening to withdraw financial support.
With the start of the Tripolitan War, 29 September 1911, Russian
diplomats were in a position to pursue the policy which had been developing for more than a half-century.

Constantinople and the open Straits

had been denied to the leaders of Slavdom since 1841.

Small gains had

been made by the Russian compromise with England in 1870, but Russia
had not been able to utilize her new freedom to build a fleet in the
Black Sea by the time of the Russo-Turk War (1876-8).

After the Con-

gress of Berlin (1878), Russia had not made any significant progress in
revising the Straits provisions in twenty-two years.

Russian foreign

policy slowly turned to the Far East to find aggrandizement.

After the debacle with Japan in 1905, Russian diplomats returned
the focus of diplomatic activity to the Straits question.
Thaden, "Montenegro," p. 114.

Isvolsky's

~^Ibid., pp. 117-118; M. Edith Durham, The Struggle for Scutari

(Turk, Slav, and Albanian) (London, 1914), pp. 15-40; after the 1911
Turk argument Nikola played off Russia against Austria-Hungary to get
money and political support; see Thaden, "Montenegro," pp. 119-120;
The Spectator, CVII1 (February 3, 1912), 178.

19

bitter humiliation in the Bosnia-Herzegovina crisis served to convince

Russian leaders that the provisions governing the Straits could not be
changed by a frontal revision.

They realized that Austria-Hungary opposed

Russian expansion to the Mediterranean and that she must be stopped in

her own moves towards Constantinople.

By capitalizing upon Russian acti-

vities in the Balkans during the nineteenth century, and exploiting Balkan nationalistic aspirations through ties of Slav brotherhood, Russian
diplomacy could set up a wall of allies between Austria-Hungary and Constantinople.

With the Dual Monarchy effectively eliminated as a com-

petitor in the Balkans and European Turkey in the Russian camp, a revision of the Straits settlement would be more than just a dream, it would
be a possibility.
The Russian-Montenegrin military convention of 1910 was a first step
along the path of the new policy.

The Italo-Turk War now presented an

opportunity to the foreign office at St. Petersburg.

By adroitly working

on Balkan nationalistic ambitions and the threat of a Turk reaction in

the Balkans to an Italian victory, Russian diplomats could hope to unite
the Balkan states under Russian patronage.

Once the Balkans were allied

and under Russia's leadership, Austria-Hungary would be checked, and

the Straits question could then be revised at the most propitious moment.
From January, 1912 until July, 1913, Russian diplomacy followed the
new policy.

In the short period, the policy, by turns, succeeded in

uniting the Balkans, and then it failed to maintain control.

The rising

nationalism of the Balkan states moved beyond the expectations and

abilities to control of the Russian foreign office.

By July, 1913,

20

Russian diplomacy had failed on all counts to maintain the influence in

the peninsula so necessary to the success of the new policy.

CHAPTER II

RUSSIA AND THE FORMATION OP THE BALKAN ALLIANCE

In the first five months of 1912, Russian diplomats encouraged

Serbia and Bulgaria in their efforts to form alliances against a third
power, as yet unnamed.

Before the major instrument had been signed,

Bulgaria and Greece were also moving to form an alliance like the one
being negotiated between Serbia and Bulgaria, although in this final
Graeco-Bulgarian treaty, Russia did not play as important a role as in
the Serbo-Bulgarian pact.

Continued unrest and Turkish atrocities in

the Balkans contributed to the inclusion of Mortenegro into the alliance

system contrary to Russian wishes and desires.

The intent of the al-

liance then changed from defensive to offensive with provisions for commencing hostilities.
The Great Powers, meanwhile, were active.

Austria, in what appeared

to be an attempt to counter the recent Russian gains in Balkan influence,

made a vague proposal with the object of maintaining the status quo in the
Balkans.

The proposal failed to produce results, and the Powers moved

directly to prevent the seemingly inevitable Balkan war.

Russia, unable

to exert decisive influence among the Balkan allies, joined the Great
Powers in attempts to prevent the war, but representations by the Powers
failed to dissuade the Balkan states from their determination against
Turkey.

With the events leading up to the opening shots, Russia fully

21

22

demonstrated her inability to exercise the control she thought she had so
recently established in the formation of the Balkan alliances.
A Balkan alliance between Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro
against Turkey had been considered in 1891 to adjust their respective
claims in Macedonia.''"

The idea was not carried to completion, and as

o

late as 1908, a Balkan confederation was considered unlikely.

Before

the Italo-Turk War, in the spring of 1911, the Bulgarian Foreign Office
under the leadership of Gueshoff, the new Foreign Minister, made an
attempt at a Bulgarian-Turkish agreement.

Thinly veiled threats from

Bulgaria and woeful inaction by the Porte doomed the move from the
3
first.

The anti-Christian and anti-Bulgar activities of the young Turks

in Macedonia and Thrace forced Bulgaria to turn to the other Balkan

states for allies, after the failure to come to an understanding with
the Porte.^

Early in September, 1911, Gueshoff, the Bulgarian minister,

and Milovanovitch, the Serbian minister, arranged to meet and discuss

preliminary steps for a Serbian-Bulgarian alliance."*
At the meeting held on October 11, 1911, Gueshoff and Milovanovitch
spoke about a defensive alliance against the Ottoman Empire and a
^Ellinor Flora Bosworth (Smith) Grogan, The Life of J. D. Bourchier
(London, 1926), p. 29.
^Langer, "Russia," pp. 326-327.
3
Gueshoff, Balkan League, pp. 3-4; text of letter sent to Naby Bey
by Assim Bey on Gueshoff's proposal for Turko-Bulgaro understanding, see
ibid., pp. 6-7.
^Ibid., pp. 8-9; Lampson to Grey, 12 December 1911, G. P. Gooch and
Harold Temperley, British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914,
12 vols. (London, 1933), IX, i, 520-521 (hereafter cited as BD); Grogan,
Bourchier, p. 134.
^Gueshoff, Balkan League, p. 10.

23

subsequent partition of Macedonia, Old Serbia, the reduction of European

Turkey, and they also speculated on the simultaneous crumbling of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire in the case of an Allied victory.

"Serbia will

get Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Roumania receives Transylvania, and

we shall then have no reasons for apprehending a Roumanian intervention

6
in our war against Turkey."

Both parties agreed that Russia should

arbitrate any disputed areas.''

The following November a committee on the establishment of under-

8
standing between the two countries met in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Because

of the mutual mistrust that had long existed between Serbia and Bulgaria,
the other powers did not expect a successful alliance.

Their forecast

seemed justified when by mid-January, 1912, the talks were deadlocked,

with Bulgaria seemingly leaning towards A u s t r i a . A f t e r a meeting of
the royalty of the two Balkan powers in Sofia, late in February, the
talks progressed f a s t e r . ^
6

Ibid., pp. 15, 17.

lbid., p. 17.

^Bax-Ironside to Grey, 14 November 1911, BD, IX, i, 515; Gueshoff,

Balkan League, pp. 23-33.
^Bax-Ironside to Grey, 14 November 1911, BD, IX, i, 515; see the
minute added to Lampson to Grey, 12 December 1911, ibid., p. 521.
^Barclay to Grey, 16 January 1912, ibid., pp. 533-534; BaxIronside to Arthur Nicolson, 31 January 1912, reports on Aerenthal's
suspicion of a Serbo-Bulgaro "rapprochement" in the works which is not
sufficient grounds for Hilovanovitch's assertion to Barclay that "Bulgaria seemed to be in Austria's pocket. .
ibid., pp. 537-538.
^Bax-Ironside, to Grey, 24 February 1912, ibid., pp. 550-551.

24

Two other factors may have influenced the progress of the talks.
The Italians, who had declared war against Turkey in September, 1911,*^
were bogged down in Libya without any sign of an immediate victory.

If

Italy grew tired of the long war and sued for peace with Turkey, the
opportunity would be lost to form a Balkan confederation while the Porte
was busy elsewhere.

The other factor which influenced the progress of

the Serb-Bulgarian talks was the Charykov "Kite."

When the Italo-Turkish

war erupted in 1911, Sazonov, too sick to attend his duties, turned the
foreign office over to his assistant, Neratov.

Charykov, Russian repre-

sentative at Constantinople, was encouraged by Isvolsky and Neratov to

open talks with the Porte concerning, among other things, passage of
neutral ships through the Straits during the war, a concession highly
desirable to Russian Black Sea trade.

Charykov then moved on his own,

but with tacit support from Isyolsky, to expand the scope of the talks
to a virtual re-opening of the Straits question. 1 3

Charykov's plan was

that Russia would become the guarantor of European Turkey and maintain
the status quo in the Balkans, in return for the Straits being opened
to Russian warships. 1 ^
Turkey, not willing to accept de facto dependence on Russia for
territorial integrity, rejected Charykov's plan. When Sazonov heard
of Charykov's unauthorized proposals, he recalled him and thus repudiated
12
von Below-Saleske to the Foreign Office, 30 September 1911, GP,
XXXIII, 3-4.
~~
13

Tcharykow, Glimpses, p. 227.

^Buchanan to Grey, 21 March, 1912, BD, IX, i, 559-61; Langer,

"Russia," p. 325; ibid., pp. 337-356; Taylor, Struggle, pp. 474-476.

25

the initiative of his errant ambassador.^

The failure of Charykov's

"Kite" affected the Serbo-Bulgarian negotiations and the conclusion

16
of their treaty to frustrate a possible Russian agreement with Turkey.
If Russia agreed to guarantee the status quo in the Balkans, the nationalistic aspirations of the Balkan states would be hindered.
The Russian ambassadors, Nicholas G. Hartwig in Belgrade and Anatolii V. Nekludoff in Sofia, by their sympathetic efforts with Sazonov's
approval, helped reduce the conflicts delaying the conclusion of the
Serbo-Bulgarian a l l i a n c e . ^

Hartwig's advice to and influence on the

Serbians helped smooth over difficulties between the two countries.

Hartwig was well liked and respected by the Serbs.

"Every morning his

study was beseiged by Serbian statesmen who came to get advice from

18
him. . . . "

Hartwig expressed two goals in his concept of Russian

Balkan policy--Russia should aid the Balkan states in their nationalistic ambitions and then get a firm foothold on the shores of the Bos19
porous at the entrance to the "Russian Lake."

In order for the Balkan

peoples to gain independence from Turkey, they would first have to cooperate with each other.
15
Buchanan to Grey, 21 March 1912, BD, IX, i, 559-561; for Charykov's somewhat different account of his activities, see Tcharykow,
Glimpses, pp. 239, 276; Poincard, Memoirs, p. 158.
Ifi
Gueshoff, Balkan League, p. 34.
17
Jftid., pp. 33-34; for longer biographical sketches of Hartwig
and Nekludoff, see Thaden, Balkan Alliance, pp. 65-70, 70-72, respectively.
^de Schelking, Recollections, pp. 241-242.
^Hartwig to Foreign Office, 5 November 1911, Krassny Archiv, VIII,
45ff, cited in APS, II, pp. 150-153; Lederer, Essays, p. 441.

26
Nekludoff, whose effectiveness in Bulgaria was eventually restricted
20
by a tacit feud with King Ferdinand,
St. Petersburg.

presented the Bulgarian view to

Hie Ambassador at Sofia was aware that because of the

Russo-Japanese War Russia did not have the military strength to act in
the Balkans should the Ottoman Empire finally crumble.

He gave encourage-

ment to the conversations which had resumed in February for a SerboBulgarian alliance which the Russian foreign office conceived to be aimed
at the third power but under the auspices and direction of the Russian
foreign office.

lie felt that Russia could control the Balkan states suf-

ficiently to prevent a premature breakup of the Turkish holdings before

Russia was strong enough to profit by i t . ^
By late February, the conversations were bogged down over minor

22
points of border settlements in spheres of influence.

Nekludoff says

in his memoirs
The demarcation of the boundary-line gave rise to endless
discussions; each elevation, each village, each stream
was bitterly disputed, and to solve the question they
sought now the interposition of the Russian Ministers,
now the topographical authority of our military a g e n t s . ^
The role of the two Russian ministers, as well as that of Colonel Romanovsky, Russian Military Attache to Sofia, as arbitrators cannot be

^Nekludoff, Reminiscences, pp. 91-92.

^ T h a d e n , Balkan Alliance, p. 71.
^ H a r t w i g to Foreign Office, 19 January 1912, Krassny Archiv, IX,
19, cited in APS, II, pp. 168-169; Nekludoff to Foreign Office, 30 January 1912, Krassny Archiv, IX, 21, cited in ibid., p. 169; Hartwig to
Foreign Office, 12 February 1912, Krassny Archiv, IX, p. 21, cited in
ibid., p. 170; Bax-Ironside to Arthur Nicolson, 26 February 1912, BD,
IX, i, 551-552.
^Nekludoff, Reminiscences, p. 53.

27

underestimated,^

On March 4, 1912, Nekludoff telegraphed that the Serbo-

Bulgar alliance was on the point of conclusion, and indeed a copy of the
treaty was signed by King Peter of Serbia and his foreign minister, Milovanovitch,with King Ferdinand of Bulgaria to sign later.^5

On the follow-

ing March 14, Nekludoff happily telegraphed St. Petersburg the good news
that
Yesterday Czar Ferdinand signed the Serbo-Bulgarian agreement and the secret arrangement observing the Macedonian
sphere of influences and the mutual intention of concluding
a Serbian-Bulgarian military convention. So the important
work begun by von Sementovsky and Hartwig happily becomes
completed.26
Although the negotiations were carried on in secret because such a treaty
against Turkey and Austria-Hungary " . . . did most certainly present certain dangers,"^ as Nekludoff remarked, Bax-Ironside, the British representative in Sofia, reported Ferdinand's signature the same day that Nekludoff

and the French Foreign Minister Poincarfi learned of the treaty.^

The agreements, subsequent annexes, and military conventions provided

for the usual diplomatic friendship between the two countries.

Provisions

2^lbid., p. 52; Gueshoff, Balkan League, pp. 33-34; Sazonov, Fateful Years, pp. 52-53.
25Nekludoff to Foreign Office, 4 March 1912, Krassny Archiv, IX,
22, cited in APS, II, 172 (No. 563); Nekludoff to Foreign Office, 4 March
1912, Krassny Archiv, IX, 22, cited in ibid. (No. 564).
26Nekludoff to Foreign Office, 14 March 1912, Krassny Archiv, IX,
22, cited in ibid., pp. 172-173.
27Nekludoff, Reminiscences, p. 54.
28sax-Ironside to Arthur Nicolson, 14 March 1912, BD, IX, i, 556;
Benckendorff to Foreign Office, 1 April 1912, Benno von Siebert, Graf
Benckendorffs Diplomatischer Schriftwechsel, 3 vols. (Berlin and Leipzig, 1928), II, 338 (hereafter cited as Benckendorff), cited in APS, II,
174.
29isvolsky to Foreign Office, 6 April 1912, Isvolsky, II, p. 79;
Sazonov, Fateful Years, p. 53.

28
were made for mutual defense against any move by Austria into the Sanjak
of Novibazar.

The most important part of the alliance provided that

Russia would act as arbitrator, with both countries accepting the Russian decision, if relations between one of the signatories and the Ottoman Empire became impossible and the two Balkan states could not reach
an agreement on what if any, action should be taken.

In any case, if

agreement were reached, Russia was to be notified before any action was
taken.^
Russian participation in the Serbo-Bulgarian alliance was not in conflict with the new policy adopted by the Foreign Office.

Bulgaria and

Greece, however, had begun negotiations for an alliance similar to the

Serbo-Bulgarian agreement without Russian encouragement.

The conversa-

tions began with the encouragement of the Times' (London) Balkan correspondent and mutual friend of Bulgaria and Greece, Mr. J. D. Bouchier."^
In a letter to the Bulgarian minister in spring 1911, Bourchier mentioned
on
the Greek interest in an agreement.
In September of the same year,
Bourchier received verbal authority to proceed from King Ferdinand and
Gueshoff.
33
ians.

Panas, the Greek Minister at Sofia, negotiated with the Bulgar-

The Greeks asked for a mutual alliance to counter the possibility

^For texts of the Serbo-Bulgarian Alliance, see Gueshoff, Balkan

League, pp. 112-127, Milos Bogitshevich, Causes of the War: An Examination into the Causes of the European War, with Special Reference to
Russia and Serbia (London, 1920), pp. 100-107; Ernst Christian Helmreich,
The Diplomacy of the Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 (Cambridge, 1938), pp. 54-56.
^Henry Wickham Steed, Through Thirty Years, 1892-1922, A Personal
Narrative, 2 vols. (London, 1924), I, 360-361; Gueshoff, Balkan League,
pp. 36-37.
32Ibid.
^Grogan, Bourchier, pp. 135-136.

29
0/
of Turkish aggression against either of the two countries.

After dis-

cussing the Greek offer with the King and Ministerial Council, Gueshoff
35
received permission to proceed towards a defensive treaty.

Because

Russia was interested in the Serbo-Bulgarian talks which were proceeding

at the same time, Gueshoff sought the Russian position concerning the
prospective agreement. At this point, Nekludoff exerted the only real
influence Russia exercised in the Graeco-Bulgarian treaty. Because of
the importance attached to the Bulgaro-Serbian negotiations by the Russian
Foreign Office, Nekludoff convinced the Bulgars that the talks with Greece
36
should be delayed until the completion of the alliance with Serbia.
After being discontinued in November, 1911, negotiations resumed
in February, 1912, and a first draft was presented the following April.
The Greek draft did not mention Macedonian and Thracian autonomy, a touchy
problem between the two countries because of racial mixing in the areas.
Neither did it mention ". . . those privileges which had been granted to
the Christian provinces of European Turkey by various international acts,
particularly Article 23 of the Treaty of Berlin."^

The reforms promised

in Article 23 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) would greatly encourage

national aspirations of the Balkan states, but the countries had not
been able to enact the reforms because of dilatory evasions by the Porte.
^ G u e s h o f f , Balkan League, pp. 37-38.
^Ibid.

p. 38.

3%elmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 74-75; Thaden, Balkan Alliance, pp. 100-

101.
^Gueshoff, Balkan League, p . 38; Medlicott, Congress of Berlin,
p. 413.

30

The preliminary treaty signed by Panas and Gueshoff on May 29, 1912,
did contain provisions for respecting Christian rights, but the Balkan
War started before an agreement could be reached on Macedonia and
Thrace.^

The treaty provided for mutual defense in case Turkey attacked

either of the signatories, except if the Greek claims in Crete provoked

the Turks.

Significantly, the Graeco-Bulgarian treaty did not provide

arrangements for Russian arbitration or notification of any planned action of the allies to the Russian government.

Thus, by the time of

the Graeco-Bulgarian treaty, Russia was already losing some measure of

control established in the Serbo-Bulgarian agreement and the RussianMontenegrin convention of 1910.
At the time that the Graeco-Bulgarian alliance had been concluded,
Montenegro had not been included.

Although Russia expected to control

the small kingdom, Sazonov had urged that Montenegro not be included in
the alliances^ because her views on attacking Turkey were well known.^
As early as June, 1911, the Russian minister to Montenegro, Arseniev,
reported that King Nikola seemed to be only waiting for a pretext to start

3Gueshoff, Balkan League, pp. 40, 138.

"^Ibid., pp. 137-140; Helmreich, Diplomacy, p. 76; Albertini, Origins, I, 355-356.
^Ibid., p. 55; Memorandum of Sazonov, 10 May 1912, Komissiia po
izdaniiu dokumentov, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia v epokhu imperializma,
1378-1917, 3 series, 10 vols, published (Moscow, 1931), 2nd series,
XIX, i, p. 878, edited by A. P. Bolshemenvikov, A. A. lerusalimskii,
A. A. Mogilevich, and F. A. Rotshtein (hereafter cited as MO), cited
in Thaden, "Montenegro," 124.
^M., "The Balkan League, History of its Formation," The Fortnightly Review, XCIX (March, 1913), pp. 435-436; Paget to Grey, 4 September 1912, BD, IX, i, pp. 676-677.

31
/ 0

a war with Turkey.

While the Serbo-Bulgarian talks had been in progress

in February, 1912, King Nikola. had expressed his opinion to the Czar
that if the Turks did not make the desired reforms in the Balkans, Russia
might unavoidably be drawn into a serious conflict by Pan-slav sympathies

43
in nRussia.
After the signing of the Graeco-Bulgarian alliance in May, 1912,
several minor incidents occurred which drew Montenegro into the alliance
system and pushed the Balkans closer to war.

Early in July, unfounded

rumors of possible Bulgarian action against Turkey caused some consternation in diplomatic circles.

Nekludoff had sent an "alarmist" telegram

to St. Petersburg on 8 July to warn of fresh movements in Bulgarian favoring military action against the Sultan because of the uprising of Albanian
tribes and a suspected Turkish military conspiracy.^

Nekludoff's tele-

gram, based on rumors, implied more of an emergency than what he later

agreed the situation w a r r a n t e d . ^

A few days after Nekludoffs telegram,

Austrian plans for mobilization maneuvers on the Serbian frontier caused

46
uneasiness and fear among the Balkan allies.

The independent tribes

in Northern Albania had again revolted against the Turkish rule.

Austria

used the threat of Balkan trouble to increase fortifications in the Sanjak

^ A r s e n i e v to Neratov, 16 June 1911, MO, 2nd Series, XVIII, i,
p. 108, cited in Thaden, "Montenegro," p. 116.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 24 February 1912, BD, IX, i, 548.
^ S a z o n o v to Benclcendorff, 8 July 1912, Benckendorff, II, 407, cited
in APS, II, 198; O'Beirne to Grey, 8 July 1912, BD, IX, i, p. 548.
45

Barclay to Grey, 11 July 1912, ibid., pp. 585-587.

^ G r e y to Paget, 15 July 1912, ibid., pp. 588-589; Paget to Grey,

16 July 1912, ibid., pp. 590-591.

32

of Novibazar and along the Serbian frontier.

The Sanjak of Novibazar was

a strip of territory separating Serbia and Montenegro.

Austria con-

sidered the area important because its continued existence prevented

the unification of Serbia and Montenegro into a Greater Serbia to hamper
Austrian eastward expansion.

The Serbs suspected that Austria planned

to annex the Sanjak of Novibazar and that the military maneuvers planned
for the fall of 1912 along the Serb frontier were an indirect threat to
Serbian existence. Austria, as believed in the British Foreign Office,
/ *7
could safely occupy the Sanjak only after defeating Serbia.
The danger of war with Turkey, however, took precedence in the Balkans during the late summer.

On 1 August 1912, two bombs exploded in

the market of Kochana in Macedonia, killing twelve people.

After calm

had been restored, Turkish soldiers and police stormed into the market,
and in the ensuing riot, 112 people were killed and more than 200 wounded,
48

most of whom were Bulgars.

The massacre incited Bulgarian opinion, and
Gueshoff requested the Porte to make an investigation, punish those re49
sponsible, and take steps to prevent future occurrences.

By mid-August

the Porte had promised to "give satisfaction" to the Bulgarian demands.^

47

Paget to Grey, 27 July 1912, ibid., p. 597.

^Reports vary as to the number of killed and wounded. See Barclay

to Grey, 10 August 1912, ibid., p. 603, Marling to Grey, 10 August 1912,
ibid., pp. 604-605, Colonel Lamouche, Quinze ans d'histoire balkanique
(Paris, 1928), p. 109, cited in Helmreich, Diplomacy, p. 37.
49
The Serb attitude was similar to the Bulgarians. See Emmerich
von Pfliigl (Belgrade) to the Foreign Office, 11 August 1912, 5-UA, IV,
331; Barclay to Grey, 10 August 1912, BD, IX, i, 603.
50'Barclay to Grey, 14 August 1912, ibid., pp. 609-610.

33

Three days after the Kochana incident, Montenegrin and Turkish troops
reportedly clashed on the border over haying rights on the frontier.

Turk

forces crossed the frontier, attacked the peasants cutting hay in the disputed area and built entrenchments on Montenegrin soil.

Montenegrin sol-

diers counterattacked, drove the Turks back, destroyed a fortress across

the border, and pursued the fleeing troops into Turkish territory for two
hours.

51

Moslems ransacked the village of Urzhanitza on 14-15 August.

S2
53

The next day twenty people were massacred near Treptshi in Montenegro.
The events of July and August, Serbo-Austrian tension in the Sanjak of
Novibazar, and the various border incidents contributed to pushing the
Balkan states into an offensive attitude towards Turkey, and out of the
control of Russian policy.
To include Montenegro in the system of alliances would necessarily
give the alliances an offensive character, a prospect not pleasing to
St. Petersburg.

Montenegro's belligerent attitude toward Turkey had

caused Sazonov to discourage Serbia and Bulgaria from extending the Balkan
alliances to include Montenegro.

If Montenegro joined the Balkan League,

the more or less peaceful character of the treaties supported by Russian

diplomacy would disappear, and war with Turkey would be almost inevitable.
In early June of 1912, Bulgarian and Montenegrin officials secretly met
in Vienna to discuss the possibility of including Montenegro in the alliance
system with a definite commitment to war with the Ottoman Empire.
-^de Salis to Grey, 9 August 1912, ibid., pp. 600-601.
-^The Times (London), 4 September 1912, p. 3.
53

d e Salis to Grey, 16 August 1912, BD, IX, i, 620.

The

34
talks were delayed by the Bulgarians until after the conclusion of the
Serbo-Bulgarian military convention in October.^
The border incidents in August returned the Balkan states to negotiating alliances with Montenegro as the deepening crisis moved further
out of Russian control.

In September, Montenegro concluded agreements

with Serbia and Bulgaria to begin a war against Turkey.

By mid-September,

the Montenegrin-Bulgarian talks which had begun in June at Vienna reached

a final statement of policy. Montenegro agreed to begin hostilities
against the Ottoman Empire before 1 October.

Bulgaria would join the war

within a month of Montenegro's action and would subsidize the effort with
a payment of 700,000 francs.

The purpose of the Bulgaro-Montenegro agree-

ment was to be communicated to Serbia.^

While Bulgaria and Montenegro

worked on the final draft, Nekludoff spoke with Gueshoff on 20 September.

When asked about the existence^of a Bulgarian-Montenegrin military convention, Gueshoff gave evasive answers.

Nekludoff, however, believed

that an agreement existed but could not say if it had been signed.
Because of the secret nature of the negotiations, the Russian Foreign
Office could not successfully counter the inclusion of Montenegro into
the alliance or prevent the war by withholding financial support as in
earlier years.
Montenegrin and Serbian representatives met in Lucerne, Switzerland,
late in September and by 3 October had concluded a military convention

"^Gueshoff, Balkan League, p. 41; Thaden, Balkan Alliance, p. 103.

-^Ibid., p. 106.
"^Nekludoff to Neratov, 20 September 1912, Benckendorff, II, p. 447,
cited in APS, II, 218.

35

which moved the date of attack up two weeks.

A simultaneous attack

against Turkey, operational areas for each army, and a mutual obligation
to face Austria if the contingency arose were parts of the agreement.
Article IV provided that hostilities should commence by 14 October with
57
provision for only one postponement.
As the summer continued and tensions in the Balkans increased, intervention by Russia and the Great Powers to maintain peace in the Balkans
was considered inevitable.

The Austrians set up artillery batteries to

58

command the entrance to the Morava River in Serbia.

By the end of July,

large troop concentrations on the Serbian frontier, news of Austrian

maneuvers planned for the fall near Serbia, information that the Serbs
on the Save River in Austria had been disarmed and Hungarian railways
had been ordered to keep rolling stock available for troop movements during
the harvest season made the Serbs tense and suspicious of Austrian designs
*
59
against Serbia.
The first "official" news of Austrian knowledge of the Serbo-Bulgarian
alliance came on 11 August in an article in the Neue Freie Presse of
Vienna.

The article softly criticized Russian involvement in the Balkans

60

because Austrian interests had not been consulted during negotiations.

57potapov to General Staff, 28 September 1912, MO, XX, ii, 669; ibid.,
p. 802; Hartwig to Neratov, 6 October 1912, ibid., p. 364, note 1, cited
in Thaden, Balkan Alliance, p. 107; Ernst C. Helmreich, "The SerbianMontenegrin Alliance of September 23/0ctober 6, 1912," Journal of Central
European Affairs, XIX (January, 1960), 411-415.
58Paget to Grey, 16 July 1912, BD, IX, i, 590.
-^Paget to Grey, 27 July 1912, ibid., p. 597.
^Cartwright to Grey, 12 August 1912, ibid., p. 607.

36

Five days later, the sixteenth, articles appeared in Vienna newspapers

about the expectation that Count Berchtold would call a conference of
the Great Powers to discuss and exchange views on Balkan problems.
The "Berchtold Initiative," in part, had already been taken on 13
August when telegrams to St. Petersburg, Berlin, London, Paris, Rome,
Constantinople, and Bucharest had been sent with instructions to com-

62
municate the proposal to the respective foreign ministries.
terms of the proposal were vague.

The.

Berchtold stated that the Vienna

cabinet wished to pursue a policy of peace and calm for the Balkans.

If

the other powers were of the same disposition, they should meet to exchange ideas on how to influence the Porte to extend the policy of decentralization in the Balkans.

Berchtold also suggested that the Powers

should impress upon the Balkan states how it would be in their favor to
leave the desired reforms in the hands of the Porte and avoid endanger-

63
ing peace in the Balkans.
The Russian reaction to the "Berchtold Initiative" was mixed.

The

Russian Ambassador at Vienna, Krupenski, expressed conviction that the

Austrian interest in preserving peace in the Balkans was an honest one.
A disturbance there might bring on a general war for which Austria was
not yet ready.

Krupenski was convinced that Austria harbored no aggres-

sive goals in the Balkans.

He was not as sure, however, that if Austrian

61

Spalajkovitch to PaSic, 30 July 1912, APS, I, 221-222; Cartwright

to Grey, 15 August 1912, J3D, IX, i, 618-619.
^Berchtold's proposal can be found in 0-UA, IV, 339-340, and in
APS, II, 202-203, with some minor changes in the text.
63
8-UA. IV, 340.

37

interests there were threatened, she would reject the temptation to protect
those interests in spite of her military w e a k n e s s . ^
In St. Petersburg Sazonov did not appear to be pleased by Berchtold' s initiative.
He said that he would have no objection to entering into
an exchange of views with the Powers, though he doubted
whether anything would come of it. . . . Anything, moreover, in the shape of collective representations would be
resented at Constantinople. Much, also, would depend on
what was meant by decentralisation. . . . If the Austrian
proposal contained nothing objectionable, he would be prepared to instruct the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople
to give friendly counsels in the name of his Government,
but not to take collective action.65
Other reactions were equally non-committal.

Bertie, the English

Ambassador at Paris, reported' the French press comments were " of a guarded
nature" as the real significance of Berchtold's proposal was not fully
understood.

Marling, British Ambassador at Constantinople reported

that in Turkey the Austrian initiative met with a vague amount of sus-

66
picion.

In general, the powers agreed to exchange views, but they with-

held further comment on the rest of the proposal until Berchtold suggested
specific measures for maintaining the status quo.
In a note dated 29 August 1912 and read at the respective ministeries
by 3 September, Berchtold expounded on his proposal.

The second note

called for maintaining the status quo, free elections in the Balkans, and
encouraging the Porte to consider extending privileges and reforms to all
^Krupenski to Neratov, 15 August 1912, Benckendorff, II, 432ff,
cited in APS, II, 205-206.
6 % e r a t o v to Vienna, 18 August 1912, Isvolsky, II, 228-229; Buchanan
to Grey, 16 August 1912, BD, IX, i, 621-622.
^ B e r t i e to Grey, 17 August 1912, ibid., 622-623; Marling to Grey,
19 August 1913, ibid., p. 624.

38
67
Balkan states.

The new proposal did not call for a formal conference

between the powers since they had objected to such a meeting in their
answers to the first proposal.

In short, Berchtold's second communica-

tion was no more definite than the first.

After making the usual diplo-

matic but noncommittal answers, England, France, and Russia informally

6o

agreed to discontinue further discussions of the Berchtold proposals.

The significance of the "Berchtold Initiative" is twofold.

The

first is that by making the proposals Berchtold threw a direct challenge

to Russian influence in the Balkans.

Sazonov resented the Austrian move

because he feared Austria might be wooing the Balkan states in an effort

69
to diminish the prestige Russia had won in the Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty.
Maioresco, the Rumanian Minister of Foreign Affairs called Berchtold's
move "clever and astute," and he implied that Austria lately had not been
in the forefront of European affairs.

Since the death of Aehrenthal,

Berchtold had done little to show strong leadership for Austrian foreign
policy.

The "Initiative" succeeded in returning Austria to the spotlight

and put "Berchtold's name

on everyone's l i p s . " ^

^ E r l a s s nach St. Petersburg, Berlin, London, Rom, und Paris, 29

August 1912, 8-UA, IV, 387-389j for an English explanation of the second
Berchtold proposal, see Grey to Cartwright, 10 September 1912, BD, IX,
i, 686-687.
^ S o m s s i c h to Berchtold, 3 September 1912, -UA, IV, 400; "he (jjazon o ^ replied to banalities with banalities," Buchanan to Grey, 6 September 1912, BD, IX,, i, 680; Bertie to Grey, 11 September 1912, ibid., p. 688;
The Times (London), 10 September 1912, p. 51; ibid., 25 September 1912, p. 5.
Buchanan to Grey, 22 August 1912, BD, IX, i, 634-635.
7 0 y a u g h a n to Grey, 21 A u g u s t 1912, ibid., pp. 633-634; "But t h e proposal came to nothing and was probably intended as a blind," Steed,
Thirty Years, I, 361.

39

The second significance of the Berchtold Initiative goes beyond the

earning of superficial status.

Berchtold*s step was important in relation

to Austrian future policies towards the Balkan states and the growing
tensions of the summer of 1912.

Since nothing constructive resulted from

the proposal, The Spectator commented:

Austria-Hungary, having put forward a proposal which is
probably too vague for any general agreement among the
Powers. . . will be able to say, if the Powers do fail
to agree, that she has done her best for the amenities
of Europe, and that now she is compelled by circumstances
to step alone into Turkey and do whatever she wishes. 7 ^
Turkey also feared that if the Great Powers did not act together along
the lines of the Berchtold proposal, Austria would act alone to protect
her i n t e r e s t s . i n d e p e n d e n t action by Austria against a Balkan state
might bring an equal answer from Russia that would bring on the dreaded
general war.
Russia, England, France, and Germany had not remained idle as the
war drew nearer.

Late in August, during the Berchtold proposal incident,

Sazonov had expressed an interest in exchanging views on the Balkan

situation among the Entente Powers alone in an effort to keep Austria
from acting alone. 7 3

Overtures were made, but the British were against

excluding Austria-Hungary and Germany from any talks. 7 ^

The Powers, led

by France and England, began to seek a common ground whereby presenting

71

T h e Spectator, CIX, 14 September 1912, 361; The Times (London),

2 September 1912, p. 5.
7^ibid,, 9 September 1912, p. 5.
73

Buchanan to Grey, 28 August 1912, BD, IX, i, 648-649.

^ G r e y to Bertie, 4 September 1912, ibid., pp. 675-676.

40

an united front, they could pressure the allies into preserving peace.
In mid-September Sazonov expressed his opinion that unless the Powers
intervened to gain some concessions from Turkey in line with the provisions of Article XXIII of the Treaty of Berlin, formal hostilities would
begin in the Balkans in the near future.^
As tensions mounted in the Balkans, the French Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Poincar^, made a proposal for a collective representation to.be
made by the Powers at the Balkan capitals if the situation worsened.
The French proposal was more definite than the Berchtold Initiative a
month earlier.

The collective powers were to ask the Balkans not to dis-

turb the status quo; to press the Porte for further concessions to the
Balkan demands; in case of war, the Balkan states could not expect to
retain any territorial gains.

Included in the proposal was a suggestion

for a naval demonstration by the Powers if none of the conditions were

met by the belligerents.^
By the end of September, only the Russian and English ambassadors
had received instructions to present the French ultimatum although the

^^Sazonov to Paris, Vienna, London, Berlin, Rome and Constantinople,

17 September 1912, Isvolsky, II, 253; Buchanan to Grey, 17 September
1912, BD, IX, i, 690-691.
^Isvolsky to Neratov, 22 September 1912, Isvolsky, II, 275; Bertie
to Grey, 22 September 1912, BD, IX, i, 702-703; Rosen, Forty Years, II,
82; cf. Poincar, Memoirs, pp. 268-276; in 1894 close relations between
Russia and France were established by the Franco-Russian Alliance, which
was a defensive pact against the German dominated Triple Alliance (1882),
Fay, Origins, I, 110-119; Franco-English relations improved after the
signing of Entente treaties in"1904, and Anglo-Russian relations improved
with treaties signed three years later, G. P. Gooch, Before the War, 2 vols.
(London, 1936), I, 34-51, 293-306.

41

77
other Powers had agreed to follow the French lead.

Since Poincare's

proposal needed the cooperation of all the Powers and since some of them
had demonstrated reluctance to state such a definite position, he suggested on 2 October that Russia and Austria-Hungary, as the two most interested Powers, put the proposals before Serbia and Bulgaria as mandato-

78
ries.

A text for the Russo-Austrian demarche was written and agreed

upon by 6 October.

79

The Balkan capitals received the note two days later,

80
the same day Montenegro declared war against the Ottoman Empire.
Rumors of a Russian partial mobilization appeared in the Times (London), of 1 October.

81

The rumor was confirmed two days later, but at

that time the Russians categorically denied that the "test mobilization"
in Poland was in any way connected with the Balkan situation.

82

Turkey,

convinced of an agreement between the Balkan states because of the simul-

83
taneous mobilizations, declared general mobilization on 1 October.

serious incident occurred between Turk and Montenegrin troops on the

^Grey to Barclay, 29 September 1912, BD, IX, i, 719; Barclay to
Grey, 30 September 1912, ibid., p. 721.
^ B e r t i e to Grey, 2 October 1912, ibid., p. 727.
^ G r e y to Bertie, 6 October 1912, ibid. t p. 782.
^ T h e Times (London), 8 October 1912, p. 6; ibid., 9 October 1912,
p. 5; ibid., p. 6.

^ I b i d . t 1 October 1912, p. 8.
^ S z i l a s s y (St. Petersburg) to the Foreign Office, 1 October 1912,
5-UA, IV, 513-514; The Times (London), 3 October 1912, p. 6; although
the Russian explanation was officially accepted in Vienna, it was still
felt that the Balkan states received unofficial encouragement from the
Russian attitude, ibid. 2 October 1912, p. 5.
^Wangenheim to the Foreign Office, 27 September 1912, GP, XXXIII,

121.

42

frontier on 5 October.

84

Two days later, the Montenegrin representative

left Constantinople, the Turkish representative at Cettinje received his

85
passport, and Montenegro declared war, 8 October 1912.
The events leading up to the declaration of war illustrate the confusion in Russian Balkan policy during August and September.

During the

Montenegrin-Turkish border crises of August and while the Powers pondered

the "Berchtold Initiative," Russia had counseled restraint at Cettinje,
but Russian soldiers were still in Montenegro, ostensibly to teach at

86
the cadet school which happened to be closed for summer vacation.

The

Bulgarians showed impatience over the delayed prosecution of the Turkish

army officers and men responsible for the Kochana massacre, and Grey coun87
seled patience in Sofia,
negro.

but the Balkan states began talks with Monte-

The Russian government also warned Bulgaria that if a war resulted

over the Kochana incident, Russia would give neither diplomatic nor military support but, on the contrary, Serbia and Bulgaria would be left alone
no
to face Austria and Roumania.
This step by Russia was obviously more
^ M a r y E. Durham, Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle (London, 1920), 226227; The Times (London), 7 October 1912, p. 5.
^ I b i d . , 9 October 1912, p. 5; Albertini, Origins, I, 377.
^ D a i l y report on a visit of the Russian representative, 9 August
1912, 0-UA, IV, 326; Durham, Struggle, p. 165; the possibility that Russian encouragement in the Balkans might get out of control received notice
at the British Foreign Office, Barclay to Grey, 30 August 1912, BD, IX,
i, 657-658.
^ G r e y to Barclay, 31 August 1912; ibid., pp. 661-662.
*

88

Personal note of Pasic on a representation made to him by Hartwig,

20 September 1912, APS, I, 232; Buchanan to Grey, 3 September 1912, BD,
IX, i, 670.

43

in the interest of world peace than the Balkan interest of full national
status,

Gueshoff pointed out the anomaly that if Russia interferred on

the side of Turkey, it would be the "death-knell" of Russian influence

OA

in the Balkans.

Russia had used her influence to unite the Balkan

states, and now she seemed to be trying to undo her successful efforts.
In the Northwest area of Albania, close to the Montenegrin border,
the Malissori tribes re-opened their revolt against Turkey in midQA

September, 1912.

On 21-22 September, Greek frontier forces were re-

inforced by heavy artillery, and the Bulgarian Army called off maneuvers
91
earlier than had been planned.

Two days later the Turks stopped a ship-

ment of ammunition bound for Serbia because of unfriendly Serbian speeches

calling for war against the Ottoman E m p i r e . ^

Mien presented with a

Serb protest, the Porte again used dilatory tactics by asking that the
protest be presented in writing.

The Serbian representative did not have

QO

authorization to make the protest in writing.

Before the issue could

be settled, the war broke out.

89

v o n Eckardt to Foreign Office, 16 September 1912, GP, XXXIII, 105,

the German representative thought that Russia could delay the war by
holding back the Montenegrin army subsidy; Barclay to Grey, 18 September
1912, BD, IX, i, 696.
9<>Thc Times (London), 19 September 1912, p. 5.
9^Ibid., 23 September 1912, p. 4.
92paget to Grey, 24 September 1912, BD, IX, i, 707-708.
^ G i e r s to Neratov, 30 September
in APS, II, 226; the Turk actions and
increasing bitterness in the Balkans,
1912, Benckendorff, II, 448, cited in

1912, Benckendorff t II, 449, cited

delays only contributed to the
Giers to Sazonov, 30 September
ibid., II, 227.

44

The Serbian protest also demanded an explanation for the calling out
94
of Turkish reserves in the Uskub and Mitrowitza districts.

The Turks

had also moved troops to the Bulgarian border, an action which caused
considerable apprehension in Sofia, especially when the Porte explained
that the troops were there to help the Bulgarian government calm agitation.^-*

Another bloody incident occurred on the Montenegrin frontier on

28 September.

No reason was given for the engagement, in which three

Turks and fifteen Montenegrins were killed.

96

Turkish maneuvers in the

Adrianople district was thought to have influenced the mobilization decla-

97
ration given to the Bulgarian army on 30 September.

Serbia ordered

general mobilization the same day,^ and Montenegro, after King Nikola
had given "assurances that he would be the last of the Balkan Sovereigns
to m o b i l i z e , " " followed suit on 1 O c t o b e r 1 ^ and declared war a week
later.
Spurred on by the Italo-Turk War and Russian encouragement, Bulgaria
and Serbia had allied themselves against a common enemy under the auspices
of the Czar.

The alliance had been extended to include Greece, but Russia

9^Ibid.; Hartwig to Neratov, 27 September 1912, Benckendorff, II,

447, cited in ibid., II, 222-223.
^ B a r c l a y to Grey, 27 September 1912, BD, IX, i, 716-717.
*

96lhe Times (London), 28 September 1912, p. 5.

9^lbid., 1 October 1912, p. 8; Barclay to Grey, 28 September 1912,
BD, IX, i, 718.
The Times (London), 1 October 1912, p. 8.
99de Salis to Grey, 1 October 1912, BD, IX, i, 723.
100

I b i d . (No. 763); The Times (London), 2 October 1912, p. 8.

45
had been able to exert only indirect influence, and Bulgaria and Greece
/

did not provide for Russian arbitration.

The summer of 1912 brought on

border incidents between the Balkan states and Turkey. Montenegro was
included into the Balkan League against the advice of the Russian Foreign
Office.

With the kingdom of the Black Mountain's adherence to the al-

liances, the intent of the pacts were changed from defensive to offensive,
with the Ottoman Empire named as the enemy.
In August and September, Russia and the Great Powers moved to prevent a Balkan war.

The Austrian proposal of August, because of its

vague stipulation, failed to bring about effective results.

When war

seemed imminent, Russia joined the Great Powers and acting with her Balkan rival, Austria-Hungary, as mandatories, failed to dissuade the allies
from fulfilling their commitments for war against Turkey.
Over the years Russian policy in the Balkans had changed from the
idea of a frontal revision of the Straits question to a more subtle approach.

By uniting the Balkan states and gaining other allies, Russia

hoped to some day revise the Straits agreement in a way more favorable to
her position as a great power.

The Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty of March, 1912,

brought the two former competitors together under Russian patronage.

The

new policy seemed to be well on its way to realization until the independent actions of the Balkan states showed that Russian influence in the
Balkans was illusory.

Russia obviously could not restrain the impatient

Balkan states, and if she did not support their claims, she ran the risk
of losing all semblance of influence.

If the Russian statesmen gave full

diplomatic support to the Balkan demand, they would find themselves in a

predicament similar to Isvolsky in 1909, and a general European war might
ensue.

46

In the months following the declaration of war, the Russian diplomats

desperately tried to resolve the dilemma of how to gain influence over
the Balkans and at the same time to retain the confidence of the other
Great Powers,

CHAPTER III

RUSSIA AND THE EARLY MONTHS OF THE FIRST BALKAN WAR

The opening of hostilities on 8 October 1912 by Montenegro signalled the beginning of the Balkan Wars and the demise of Russian influence in the Balkans.

Russian diplomats had encouraged a non-aggressive

alliance of the Balkan states under Russian patronage.

The four small

kingdoms of the Balkan peninsula had moved outside the limits of Russian
policy to attempt on their own a redress of wrongs, both real and imagined, inflicted on them by the Ottoman Empire through unfulfilled reform
measures provided for in the Treaty of Berlin, 1878.

With the irrevocable

allied decision to begin war against the Turks, Russian diplomacy faced
a clearly defined problem:

should the Balkan states be supported in

their struggle against Turkey and have Russia thereby risk incurring the
displeasure of the other Great Powers who wished to see the maintenance
of the status quo; or should Russia give full and undivided support to
the Great Powers, thereby losing all pretense of leadership over the
peoples of the Balkans and wrecking future possibilities of Balkan support to revise the Straits question?
In the months following the declaration of war, the allies unaided
by Russia won unexpected victories against the Turks and captured territory in excess of even their own optimistic plans of September.

Since

Russia and the Powers had to face a fait accompli revision of the territorial status quo, they agreed to call a conference to re-arrange the

47

48

boundaries of European Turkey and, in essence, limit the annexations of

the victorious Balkan states.
Russian diplomacy, between the opening of the first Balkan War,
October, 1912, and February, 1913, vacillated between support of the
Powers and support of the Balkan states.

Sazonov tried to preserve the

confidence of the Powers by urging the Balkan allies to accept concessions and the will of the Powers.

At the same time he supported all

claims of the victors and tried to maintain Russian influence by pushing

those claims to realization as the patron of the Balkans.

As Sazonov

swung between the allies and the Powers, he failed to gain any significant aims of the allies.

Once again the allies took matters into their

own hands and on 3 February 1913 broke the armistice in order to complete
their conquest of the Balkan Peninsula.
Serge Sazonov had heard the news of the declaration of war in October while in Berlin.

To the German Foreign Minister, Kiderlen-Wachter,

the Russian minister appeared visibly depressed at the news.''"

Earlier

that day Sazonov had expressed his hope for peace in the Balkans.

When

he had been criticized for the danger of Russian activities in the Balkans, he replied that Russia had made it explicitly clear that any Balkan

2
alliance would not have aggressive purposes.

The beginning of the war,

in spite of Balkan assurances, was not a total surprise to Sazonov and

the Russian Foreign Office.

In mid-September, he expressed apprehension

as to the immediate situation in the Balkans.

War, he thought, was only

Note of Kiderlen-Wachter, 9 October 1912, GP, XXXIII, p. 190.

Ibid.

49
deferred, and the Balkan rulers could not continue to go against the will

3
of their subjects.

The Powers could only hope to "localize" the war.

The same view appeared in the Times (London) of 4 October.^

The British

Foreign Office had received a note on 3 October from Buchanan in St. Petersburg explaining the views of Neratov, acting Foreign Minister while Sazonov was on a trip.
to move in five

Neratov expected Bulgaria and Serbia "would be ready

(sic] days time.""*

Buchanan's note was dated 3 October

1912, five days before Montenegro declared war.

Whether Neratov made an

accurate guess or actually knew the correct day the allies would commence
hostilities is unknown.

Sazonov probably did not know of the exact date

because he had been making diplomatic courtesy calls at European capitals,

and he had not been in direct personal contact with his Balkan representatives.^
During September, however, Sazonov had expressed his apprehensions
about the inevitability of the worsening situation, but he did not make
positive moves to ask the other Powers to join him in putting further
pressure on the Porte and the Balkan states.''

In the early days of Octo-

ber during the consideration of the Poincare proposal, Russia had been
one of the first to send instructions to her representative to join the
*^von Lucious to the Foreign Office, 14 September, 1912, GP, XXXIII,
p. 103.
^The Times (London), 4 October 1912, p. 6.
^Buchanan to Grey, 3 October 1912, BD, IX, i, p. 730.
^de Schelking, Recollections, p. 191.
^George Buchanan, Mjr Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memories,
2 Vols. (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1923), I, p. 122.

50

collective demarche at Cettinje and Belgrade.

Russia acted in good faith

with Austria as mandatories at Cettinje and Belgrade on 8 October.

tov, however, had qharge of the Foreign Office at this time.

Nera-

With the

information at his disposal, it is not outside the bounds of reason to

say that he knew of the inevitability of the war, if not the actual date
on which hostilities would commence.

Russia could safely join a collective

representation in the Balkan capitals.

If the war was inevitable, then

the allies would not be able to say that Russia had prevented them from
seeking their reforms from Turkey since France had suggested the step.
By joining the other Powers, Russia preserved their confidence.

Russia

could also join Austria as a mandatory of the other Powers because she
would appear as a better representative for protecting Balkan interests
than Austria whose hostility to Balkan expansion was well known.

Neratov

had very little to lose by acting with the Powers to prevent the war.
Yet Sazonov and Russian diplomacy have been accused of duplicity in
the activities prior to 8 October.

The chief criticism is that the Rus-

sian government did not think a Balkan war at that time was the most

8
favorable to all the Slavic nations.

For example, if the Allies should

lose the war it would certainly have an adverse effect on long-range

Russian plans to revise the Straits agreements.
Sazonov appeared to be more concerned with what Austria might do than
he was with the whole of Balkan policy.

At the Berlin meeting of 8 Octo-

ber, Sazonov expressed fears that Austria would move against Serbia should
there be a violation of territory in the Sanjak of Novibazar.
^Bogitshevich, Causes, pp. 38-39.

In such a

51

case, the Russian government could not withstand public opinion and would
Q

have to move in support of her Slavic brothers.

By the end of the evening, 8 October, Sazonov had illustrated the
ambivalence and confusion of the Russian policy in the Balkans.

The note

presented to the Balkan states that day by the Austrian and Russian emmisaries, acting as mandatories of the six Powers, showed the Russians in
league with the Powers, contrary to Balkan interests, and at the same
time acting as friend and protector of Slavic ambitions in the Balkans.
On the same day, Sazonov in person contradicted both implications of
the mandate note by his statements to Kiderlen-Wachter. Other instances
of the confusion in Russian policy and the dilemma of having to chose between the Powers and the Balkan allies occurred during the early months
of the war and the early peace negotiations at London.
Ten days after Montenegro began hostilities against the Ottoman Empire, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece joined Montenegro as co-belligerents.
The declarations of the Powers, made by Russia and Austria after the failure to unite in early October, showed that they were not likely to make
positive steps to prevent or stop the Balkan states from waging war.
Turkish army, in any case, would defeat the smaller Balkan allies.
9

The

Germany

Note of Kiderlen-Wachter, 9 October 1912, GP, XXXIII, p. 190.

^Albertini, I, p. 377, gives the impression that Serbia, Bulgaria

and Greece declared war first; Helmreich, p. 137, shows that the Turks
handed over passports and declared a state of war between Bulgaria, Serbia
and Turkey before the Serb and Bulgar representatives could present their
own declarations. Helmreich's account gives some credence to the statement in Nationalism and War in the Near East, by a diplomatist, George
Young, ed. (Oxford, 1915), p. 186, that the Turks ordered the Bulgarian
and Serbian legations to leave Turkey, and the statement in D. J. Cassavetti, Hellas and the Balkan Wars (London, 1914), p. 11, that Turkey
actually was "also thirsting for the fray."

52

and Austria would then be on the side of the victors in any negotiations,
while Russia, the only Entente power with major interests in the peninsula, would be alone in her support of the defeated allies.

11

Germany

did nothing to demand firm concessions in Constantinople, and the Porte

seemed encouraged by the continued presence of the German army cadre in

12
the Turk army.
The Balkan allies surprised Russia and the European capitals with
13
unexpected victories.

By the early part of November, the allies had,

in effect, driven the Turkish army out of European Turkey.

The Monte-

negrins were stopped at the fortress of Scutari,where they set up siege

operations.

The Greek army laid siege to the Jania fortress.

The Ser-

bians, who began to push to the Adriatic across Albania, had occupied
the Sanjak of Novibazar with Montenegro and part of Macedonia with the
Bulgarian army.
Macedonia.

Greece and Bulgaria captured Salonika and the rest of

Adrianople, Jania, and Scutari were completely cut off from

rescue by the Turkish army.

The Serbian and Bulgarian army pursued the

fleeing Turks to the Chatalja lines, the defense perimeter west of Constantinople, where they were bogged down by unusually heavy autumn r a i n s . ^
By mid-November the Balkan allies had changed the territorial status quo.
^Sazonov, Fateful Years, p. 65; Nekludoff, Reminiscences, p. 110;
von Bulow to Basserman, 28 February 1913, Bernhard von Biilow, Memoirs of
Prince Von Bulow, Geoffrey Dunlop, trans., (Boston, 1932), III, pp. 126127.
^Ibid., p. 127.
*

^Albertini, Origins, I, 377-379, has a brief account of the early

part of the war; Sazonov, Fateful Years, p. 70; Nekludoff, Reminiscences,
pp. 111-112.
14

Ibid., pp. 120, 114-115.

53

Soon after hostilities commenced, Sazonov outlined a "prohibited"

zone beyond which the allies were not to be allowed to stay.

The area

included the city of Adrianople, which was considered the key to the
15
defense of Constantinople.

If Adrianople fell to the allies, Sazonov

feared they would then have an unobstructed march into Constantinople.

Since that city had been the key to Russian diplomacy for nearly three
centuries, Sazonov could not allow any other state to have possession of
the Straits.
After the Balkan victory at Kirk-Kilise, 24 October, the Turks retreated beyond Adrianople deep into the Russian prohibited zone.

When

asked to remind the Bulgarian government of the restricted area, Nekludoff protested because of conflicts he anticipated with Bulgarian aspirations.

He saw the fall of Adrianople as a serious injury to German

1 fi

influence in Turkey and counselled rescinding the prohibitions.

With

the Bulgarian army already within the area, Sazonov accepted the advice
of his minister and withdrew his objections.

The Bulgars, meanwhile,

had pushed the Turks back to the Chatalja fortifications.

With Con-

stantinople again threatened, Sazonov declared that Russia would not remain idle if Bulgaria took the city."^

After several bloody attempts

to storm the defenses failed, Bulgaria, with her communicatiorts dangerously

extended, settled down to a holding action outside Constantinople.

When

^Sazonov to Benckendorff, 31 October 1912, Isvolsky, II, pp. 326327.

^Sazonov to Benckendorff, 31 October 1912, Isvolsky, II, pp. 326327; Sazonov to Paris, London, Berlin, etc., 2 November 1912, ibid.,
pp. 323-329; Nekludoff, Reminiscences, pp. 122-123, 125.
^Sazonov to Isvolsky, 4 November 1912, Isvolsky, II, p. 331.

54
Constantinople appeared to be safe from the Bulgarians, Sazonov agreed
that the new eastern frontier of Bulgaria would be a line Midia-Enos,
18
from the Black Sea across the peninsula to the Aegean.
After the allies bogged down in siege operations in mid-November,
they accepted a Turkish plea for an armistice, which was signed on 3 December.

Greece refrained from signing the armistice in order to be free to

prosecute the active siege of Jania; moreover, she hoped to win a victory
iq
at sea against Turkey.

By the time of the armistice the allies had

made large gains in European Turkey, but the fortresses of Adrianople,

Scutari, and Jania had repelled all allied assaults.
Before the cease-fire had been signed, a serious problem developed
over the Serbian conquest and demands for a littoral on the Adriatic Sea.
The idea of a Serb port on the Adriatic received support from Russia and
definite opposition from Austria.

In a long decree issued on 30 October,

Berchtold formally recognized that the status quo in the Balkans had been
disturbed, and the Triple Alliance powers should accept the change but
20
limit its extent along lines he suggested.
Among the Austrian sugges21
tions was one which totally denied Serbia the Adriatic outlet she desired.
Instead the Austrians proposed the creation of an independent and "viable"
22

Albania when peace negotiations began.

The independence of Albania

*%ekludoff, Reminiscences, p. 125.

^Albertini, Origins, I, p. 379.
20

Berchtold to Berlin, 30 October 1912, 0-UA, IV, p. 727; Cartwright

to Grey, 30 October 1912, BD, IX, ii, pp. 62-63; Buchanan to Grey, 30 October 1912, BD, IX, ii, p. 65.
2

*Berchtold to Berlin, 30 October 1912, (j-UA, IV, p. 728.

22

lbid.

55

would be impossible if Serbia received an outlet to the sea.

Any Serb

corridor would provide a temptation to the Serbs to expand their holdings and create another Balkan crisis.
While Austria was firming up her new position on territorial changes
in the Balkans, Sazonov moved his support to the side of the victorious
allies.

By 1 November, just two days after Berchtold's statement to Berlin,

Sazonov advocated changes in the Balkans in agreement with the desires

of the a l l i e s . ^

The next day he made known the changes he would support.

Turkey must keep Constantinople but Bulgaria might be allowed Adrianople

if the fortifications were demolished.

Sazonov stated that Serbia should

be given access to the Adriatic and Albania become an autonomous Turkish

province.24
Sazonov had placed his government almost in direct opposition to the
Austrian policy of 30 October.

Berchtold's independent Albania could not

be secure if Serbia had an Adriatic port.

Serbia, the Austrians sus-

pected, would probably seek to expand her littoral at Albania's expense.

An Albania without a major port would, in the Austrian opinion, be economically crippled.

Sazonov's autonomous Albania would remain dependent

on the Ottoman Empire for protection from the danger of Serbian expansion
of her littoral.

Austria's real worry was not another probable crisis

if Serbia got a port.

The Austrians suspected that a Serb port would

become a Russian port, and the fear existed that Italy and Serbia or
Russia and Serbia would work together to shut the Adriatic to Austria.
23crey to Buchanan, 1 November 1912, BD, IX, ii, pp. 74-75.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 2 November 1912, ibid., pp. 80-81.
^ F o r a discussion of the Austrian opposition to a Serb port, see
Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 209-212.

56

Berchtold communicated his proposal of 30 October to the other Powers

26
on 5 November.

Two days later, Serbia made a strong protest at Berlin

against the Austrian position.

Serbia argued that she needed the outlet

for her economic survival, and the partition of the Albanian part of
European Turkey to which the Balkan allies had agreed and which Serbia
assumed Russia had sanctioned provided that Serbia should receive the
contested littoral.

Serbia claimed the support of Bulgaria and Russia.

Serbia wanted to know if Austria opposed the partition of Albania, would

27
Germany support Austria if France remained neutral?
Both Serbia and
Bulgaria acted as if, in spite of all the warnings before the war, Russia
28
would not desert her Slav brothers.

Russian warnings refuted announced

Pan-slav sympathies, and the Serbs and Bulgars would not accept Russian
neutrality at face value.

The independent Serbian representations to

the German government illustrate that Russian encouragement during the

alliance negotiations had been misinterpreted by Serbia and had sent
that state outside the control of Russian statesmen.
The German answer to the Serbian demand announced complete support
of the Austrian program in the Balkans.

If Russia supported Serbia,

^ N o t e to Rome, 3 November 1912, o'-UA, IV, p. 763; Berchtold to London, St. Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin, 4 November 1912, ibid., p. 768;
Grey to Cartwright, 5 November 1912, BD, IX, i, pp. 102-103.
27

V o n Kiderlen to Vienna, 7 November 1912, GP, XXXIII, p. 289.

28
Sazonov to Paris, Vienna, London, Berlin, Rome and Constantinople,
17 September 1912, Isvolsky, II, 253; Popovich to Pasi<5, 8 October 1912,
APS, I, 245; Koschutitsch (St. Petersburg) to Pasi6, 10 October 1912,
APS, I, 246; Barclay to Grey, 9 September 1912, BD, IX, i, 684.

57
29
Germany would support Austria.

The Russian Foreign Office resented the

Serbian assumptions made in Berlin.

grade. ^

A verbal reprimand was sent to Bel-

Sazonov informed Serbia not to count on Russian support, but

privately he thought Russia would have to come to the aid of Serbia in

31
a war with Austria.

Sazonov toned down his advice to Belgrade and

even suggested that she would be wise to accept an Austrian proposal for
a commercial outlet instead of continuing to demand a littoral.

The

new conciliatory attitude from St. Petersburg may have been influenced
33
by the solidarity of the Triple Alliance behind the Austrian position,
the rash, independent actions of Serbia in the Berlin interview of 7 November, and the opening of the "Consular Affair" a few days later.

The

"Consular Affair" appeared to be a deliberate Serbian provocation of

Austria.

A /

Adding to Sazonov 1 s difficulties in the Serbian question, the

^ V o n Kiderlen Wachter to Vienna, 7 November 1912, GP, XXXIII, 289;

Von Kiderlen Wachter to Vienna, 7 November 1912, ibid., pp. 292-294;
Goschen to Grey, 7 November 1912, BD, IX r ii, 112-113; Rodd to Grey,
7 November 1912, ibid., p. 113.
"^Sazonov to Isvolsky, 9 November 1912, Isvolsky, II, 339-340;
Buchanan to Grey, 10 November 1912, BD, IX, ii, 131.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 13 November 1912, ibid. p. 149.
"Sazonov to Benckendorff, 27 November 1912, Benckendorff, II, 506,
cited in APS, II, 325-326; Buchanan to Grey, 14 November 1912, BD, IX,
ii, 154.
Buchanan to Nicolson, 14 November 1912, ibid., p. 157.
34

T h e Serbs presented formal complaints against Prochaska, the

Austrian Legate at Prizren, stating that he was involved in encouraging
the Turks, and the Consulate had been used for sniper firing, and requested his recall. Berchtold was unable to confirm the charge since
the Serbs were diliatory in re-opening communications until late November. The Serb delays aroused suspicion in the press and a war-scare
resulted (Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 213-215). The Serbian claim proved
to be false, and Austria demanded apologies and a full Serb military honor
guard to honor the Austrian flag. Serbia fulfilled the request and by
mid-January, 1913, the affair was closed (ibid., pp. 228-230).

58

Czar had instructed the Foreign Office, in late October, to use Russia's
full aid for all Balkan programs, short of war.*^
On 17 November, Buchanan reported that Sazonov had again taken up
36
the Serbian claims to a littoral.

The new position St. Petersburg ad-

vocated was a modification of old demands.

Sazonov, after having thought

it over, apparently decided to try for a compromise.

called for a Serb port at Valone.
would be split in half.

The old proposal

If Serbia received Valone, Albania

The new proposal that Serbia receive the northern

port of San Giovanni di Medua would not divide Albania and would leave
that country essentially united so that an autonomous or an independent
government could preserve the nationalistic ambitions supported by
Austria.

Sazonov's new position was, in effect a compromise of his ear-

lier position and a refutation of his advice to Serbia expressed on

14 November.

Sazonov's changed views were influenced by the "whole of

the nationalistic press," Rasputin's return to court, and the military

clique around the C z a r . ^
On 22 November Sazonov seemed to be softening again on his support
for Serbia.

An evasive answer by Grey to Benckendorff's request for

England's position should Austria attack Serbia had been communicated

39
to Sazonov on 14 November 1912.

The slow buildup of Austrian troops

35suchanan, Mission, I, p. 123.

^^Thurn to the Foreign Office, 21 November 1912, 'O-UA, IV, 967-998;
Buchanan to Grey, 17 November 1912, jBD, IX, ii, 162-163; Sazonov, Fateful Years, pp. 74, 78.
^Buchanan to Grey, 17 November 1912, J3D, IX, ii, p. 165.
"^Buchanan to Grey, 22 November 1912, ibid., p. 189.
Grey to Buchanan, 14 November 1912, ibid., pp. 154-155.

59

had added to the general tensions.

In October Russia had stopped demo-

bilizing troops whose terms of enlistment had expired during a trial

mobilization in Poland.

The result was an increase in the number of

Russian troops along the Austrian-Polish frontier and an increase in

the military expenditures.^

To meet the new threat, Austria called

out her reserves and moved troops to the Russian frontier.^

By the end

of November, Sazonov once again seemed to be waning in his support of the

Serbian claims.^

On 29 November Serbia slightly reduced her demands.^

The next day Sazonov was again working in agreement with the powers to
devise a commercial egress for Serbia other than a littoral on the Adriatic.^

As of the first of December, the Serbian claim for a littoral

no longer threatened war.

Sazonov had backed out of a potentially dan-

gerous situation, if not gracefully, at least not with the dishonor of

Isvolsky in 1909.
The real reasons for Sazonov's ambivalent attitude in the Serb littoral crisis remain unknown.

In his memoirs, Sazonov explains

In the beginning of November it became absolutely clear

that Serbia could be established in any port whatsoever
on the Adriatic only by force of arms--that is to say,

^Helmreich, Diplomacy, p. 158; Vladimir Nikolaevich Kokovtsov, Out

of My Past, the Memoirs of Count Kokovtsov, Laura Matveev, trans., H. H.
Fisher, ed. (Stanford, California, 1935, Hoover War Library Publications No. 6), pp. 339-340.
^Cartwright to Grey, 17 November 1912, BD, IX, ii, p. 164; Cartwright to Grey, 19 November 1912, ibid., p. 175; Cartwright to Grey, 26
November 1912, ibid., p. 205; de Garston to Grey, 27 November 1912, ibid.,
p. 213.
^Buchanan to Grey, 27 November 1912, ibid., pp. 215-217.
^Buchanan to Grey, 29 November 1912, ibid., p. 231,
^Buchanan to Grey, 30 November 1912, ibid., p. 233.

60

at the cost of a European war. . . , any idea of a European

war for the sake of a Serbian port on the Adriatic was out
of the questionneither we nor our Allies and friends entertained it. ^
Sazonov finally dropped the demand for a Serb littoral to prevent a general war.
The most significant result of the Russian failure to support the
Serbian claim in the face of Austrian opposition was the harm done to
Russian influence in the Balkans.

From the early part of November, when

Sazonov realized the true cost of supporting Serbia and began backing
off, Russian influence in the Balkans became negligible.

On the other

hand, by supporting Serbia and then backing down, Sazonov had decreased
Russian influence over the Great Powers.

Austria, having held out in

this one instance for a viable Albania, could now make more stringent
demands on the Balkan allies.

If she did not demand too much, that is--

return to the status quo-~Russia probably could not oppose her actions
with any hope for success, especially since England had expressed reluctance about being drawn into a Balkan conflict.

While Sazonov was begin-

ning to realize the futility and danger of supporting Serbia, the Balkan
armies were making their victory almost complete.
By the end of November, the allies had defeated the once mighty Ottoman Empire.

The Turks asked for and received an armistice which was

signed on 3 December.

The terms of the armistice provided that the com-

batants would hold their present positions, beseiged forts would not be
re-supplied, Turkey would lift all blockades and trade restrictions

^ S a z o n o v , Fateful Years, p. 82.

61
hindering the provisioning of Bulgarian troops, and peace negotiations
would begin in London by 13 December.
By November the Powers generally realized that a change of the status
quo was inevitable in the Balkans.

In early December they agreed to

hold a conference in London for the purpose of mediating the conflicts

of interests between Powers over changes demanded by the Balkan allies
who would re-arrange the conquered territory.^

The ambassadors in Lon-

don were designated as representatives to the conference.

They were

Benckendorff of Russia, Mensdorff of Austria, Lichnowsky of Germany,

Cambon of France, Imperiali of Italy, and the Foreign Minister of Great
Britain, Grey.

The ambassadors were entrusted with the responsibility

of mediating Austrian and Russian differences and arriving at a durable

peace for the Balkans.

The armistice provided that the belligerents

would begin talks on 13 December, but the allies and Turkey agreed to
begin their peace negotiations the same day as the Powers.
The two most important problems for the conference were the related
Serbian commercial access to the Adriatic and the creation of an autonomous Albania.

At their first meeting, 17 December, the Ambassadors

48

agreed to discuss the Albanian question first.

They quickly agreed

that Albania would be autonomous, neutral, and under the sovereignty of

the Sultan.

Albania would be bordered on the north by Montenegro and

on the south by Greece.

The general borders agreed upon automatically

^ 6 The terms of the armistice can be found in Helmreich, Diplomacy,

p.' 203.
^ F o r the various diplomatic maneuvering related to calling the
Conference, see, ibid., pp. 221-224.
48 Grey to Cartwright, 17 December 1912, BD, IX, ii, pp. 292-293.

62

excluded a Serbian littoral.

Austria, however, insisted that the Al-

banian and Montenegrin borders must remain as they were at the time of
49
the conference.

By the time the conference had opened, Montenegro had

not yet captured Scutari, and under the Austrian conditions, the city
would remain in the new Albania even if the Montenegrin siege succeeded.
Benckendorff raised a general objection to the Austrian demand, and the
subject was left to private discussion.

The Ambassadors quickly agreed

to find a means for Serbia to have commercial access to the Adriatic,

and the meeting ended.

In the first meeting of the Ambassadors' con-

ference, the two problems which had seemed most likely to disrupt European peace only a month before, autonomous Albania and a Serbian littoral, were amicably resolved by the Great Powers and not by the nations
most concerned.

Ironically, from the same meeting a problem arose which

in the next five months would be even more dangerous to continental

peacethe Scutari question.
The city of Scutari, at the southern end of Lake Scutari, had been
part of European Turkey before the outbreak of the First Balkan War.
Although the population was principally Moslem-Albanian, Montenegro desired the city for the fertile land around the lake.

If Montenegro in-

corporated Scutari into the kingdom, the fertile land would greatly
*

increase Montenegro's economy.

From the first day of the war Scutari

was Montenegro's most important military objective."*

By the time the

armistice had been signed, Montenegro had not been successful at Scutari.
49

Ibid., p. 293.

^ T h e Times (London), 9 October 1912, p. 6.

63

By the terms of the armistice, her troops could remain around the city,
while the garrison inside could neither be relieved nor re-provisioned.
Although Montenegro was fighting for possession of Scutari, Austria
demanded that the city should be in the new Albania.

Montenegro looked

to her Russian friends to oppose the Austrians.

Austria based her opposition to Montenegro receiving Scutari on the
grounds of the Albanian-Moslem population.

The loss of Scutari would

also be a serious blow to the Albanian economy.

At the first meeting

of the Ambassadors' conference, it became obvious that Austria firmly

objected to the Montenegrin claim and that "Russia would support the
Montenegrin claim in this respect.""'"''
At the second meeting on 18 December, the Scutari question was not
formally d i s c u s s e d . T w o days later the Ambassadors met again, and
as they had not received further instructions, they agreed to adjourn
the conference over the holiday season until 2 January.
From 20 December until the conference reconvened, Sazonov tried to
enlist support for the Montenegrin claims for Scutari and to convince
Austria to give in.
support.

The day after the adjournment Sazonov sought English

He argued that "it had not been easy for Russia to abandon Ser-

bia's claim for a port of her own, and now Austria was coming forward
with a fresh and unexpected demand."^

Grey agreed and expressed his

-''Grey to Cartwright, 17 December 1912, BD, IX, ii, pp. 292-293.

"^Lichnowsky to the Foreign Office, 18 December 1912, GP, XXXIV, i,
56-58; Grey to Cartwright, 18 December 1912, BD, IX, ii, 295-296.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 22 December 1912, ibid., pp. 310-311.

64

opinion to Germany, Austria, and Italy that since Russia had given way
on the Serbian littoral, it seemed only fair that Austria relinquish her
54
support of Scutari for Albania,

Sazonov, of course, welcomed the

55
British support.
Even with British support the Russian minister was unable to gain
any concessions from Austria, not even a reduction of the mobilized
Austrian troops.^

When the ambassadors met again, 2 January 1913, no

57

agreement had been reached on Scutari, and Albania was not discussed.
The conference agreed on the disposition of certain islands in the
58
Aegean, but the Montenegrin claims for Scutari remained unsatisfied.
During the rest of January, the representatives of the Powers carried on private conversations in which various compromises were suggested
and rejected.

Fertile lands along the banks of the Boyana River, a navi-

gable stream which drains Lake Scutari, and other compensations were
discussed, but no agreement was reached before the armistice ended and
59
the war resumed on 3 February.
54crey to Goschen, 18 December 1912, ibid., p. 296; Grey to Rodd, 19
December 1912, ibid., p. 299; Grey to Bertie, 19 December 1912, ibid.,
p. 300; Grey to Buchanan, 25 December 1912, ibid., p. 315.
-'-'Buchanan to Grey, 26 December 1912, ibid., p. 315.
5^See, Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 257-258, for a discussion of the
apprehension caused by the continued Austrian mobilization.
^Lichnowsky to the Foreign Office, 2 January 1913, GP, XXXIV, i,
111-112, 112-113; Grey to Cartwright, 2 January 1912, BD, IX, ii, 33433 6.
-^Grey to Buchanan, 3 January 1912, ibid., p. 348; Grey to Bertie,
3 January 1912, ibid., p. 349.
60crey to Cartwright, 7 January 1912, ibid., p. 371; Cartwright to
Grey, 8 January 1912, ibid., p. 374; Grey to Buchanan, 8 January 1912,
ibid., p. 375.

65

While these talks among the representative of the Great Powers were
going on, the peace talks between the Turks and Balkan allies had become
deadlocked over the possession of Adrianople.

Bulgaria claimed it, and

the Powers advised Turkey to cede the city; but the Porte refused to
comply because the siege had not yet been successful.
suspended peace talks on 6 January.

The Balkan allies

The Ambassadors' Conference drew up

a collective note urging the Turks to surrender Adrianople and conclude

the peace treaty.

After a coup d'etat on 23 January, a strong nation-

alistic group gained control of the Turkish government and firmly rejected the Powers' note.

The conference received that negative answer

60
on 30 January, and four days later hostilities resumed.
From the beginning of the war in October, 1912, until the resumption
of hostilities after the armistice in February, 1913, Russian foreign
policy in the Balkans suffered setbacks.

Unable to stop the allies from

proceeding with the war, the Russian Minister then tried to represent
the claims of the Balkan states after their victories made the maintenance
of the status quo impossible.

While advocating the Serbian littoral, Sazo-

nov showed indecision and ambivalence.

After bowing to the Austrian

determination to oppose the Serb littoral, even to the point of war,

Sazonov had lost the initiative in representing the Balkan states.
In the question of Scutari during the early days of the Ambassadors'
conference in London, Sazonov once again found himself facing Austrian
opposition.

After having deserted Serbia, the Russian Minister felt that

he had to stand firm in his support of the Montenegrin claim to Scutari.

^For a discussion of the Turkish-Balkan allies' peace talks, see,
Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 259-263, 267-269, 276-277.

66

Austria, encouraged by the diplomatic gain in November and the argument

that Scutari was Albanian, again refused to move from a clearly defined
position.

Austria and Russia could not agree on a compromise.

Sazonov

seemed again to be backing into a corner from which only a general war
would provide an exit without dishonor.

With the deadlock and end of

the peace negotiations, Montenegro began to put pressure on Scutari

and defy the demands of the Great Powers.

CHAPTER IV

RUSSIA AND THE SCUTARI QUESTION

\

The allies renewed their efforts to capture the cities of Adrianople,

Scutari, and Jania when the armistice ended on 3 February 1913.

They

hoped that further defeats inflicted on the Ottoman Empire would.make

the Porte more receptive to allied demands.

The allies thought that if

they actually captured the cities the Powers would be forced to award
them their prizes, rather than start a universal conflict.
By the time hostilities resumed, Serge Sazonov had lost all vestiges
of Russian influence over the actions of the Balkan states.

Participa-

tion in the formation of the Balkan Alliances was the peak of Russian
influence.

The 8 October 1912 joint declaration to the allies, the

prohibited zone, Russian failure to support successfully the bid for

the Serbian littoral, and, now, its uncertain support for the Albanian
border questions contributed to further diminishing of Russian influence.
The allies, on the other hand, had seen that when Russia attempted or
joined in attempts to frustrate Balkan aspirations, they had been able
to advance their cause by independent action.

Each success, the begin-

ning of the war in spite of Great Power demands, the victorious prosecution of the war against Turkey, Great Power agreement to accept alterations to the status quo, and Serbian possession of Durazzo on the Adriatic
pushed the allies to greater acts of arrogance and at the same time
further away from the sobering sounds of Russian influence.

67

68

In the months following the resumption of hostilities, the Scutari

question became a critical test of Great Power effectiveness, arid it
revealed the negative extent of Russian influence in the Balkans.

As

Montenegro continued the siege of Scutari in defiance of the Great Power

demands, tension mounted between the Entente powers and the Triple Alliance.

The uncertain factor was the Russian attitude should Austria

carry out her threats to forcibly remove the Montenegrins from the
Scutari area assigned to the future autonomous Albania.

With the fall

of Scutari, Sazonov made one more futile effort to reinstate Russia as

patron of the Balkans.

His moderate support for the fait accompli--

Montenegrin possession of Scutari--met with solid resistance from the

Powers.

In the face of a general war, Sazonov did not push the Monte-

negrin claims.

King Nikola of Montenegro finally turned the disputed

city over to an occupation force of the Great Powers.

While the Balkan allies pursued their military objectives against
the Ottoman Empire, the Ambassadors' Conference continued meeting in
London.

The most important question before the conferetce was the de-

limitation of the northern Albanian border.

After the November agree-

ment to reject the Serbian claim for an Adriatic port, the definite
border between Montenegro and Albania had been opened to negotiation.
Montenegro, still carrying out the siege against Scutari, demanded that
the border should be south of the disputed city.

Austria remained ada-

mant that Scutari would be included in the future Albania.

Serbia claimed Djakova, Dibra, Ipek and Prizrend, towns along the
proposed general line between Serbia and Albania.

Austria had already

given in on Ipek and Prizrend, but she had steadily refused to allow

69

:
f

Fig. 1--The Balkan Peninsula in 1912

70

Djakova or Dibra to go to Serbia.

Sazonov had given in on the Adriatic

port for Serbia and had, for the time being, only held reservations about
Scutari belonging to Albania.

He could not consider further concessions

to Austria until the allies received more compensation.

Berchtold, on

the other hand, felt that the concessions to Montenegro and Serbia in
the Sanjak of Novibazar prevented further surrender of Albanian territory.''"

With the two powers seemingly deadlocked, Grey made the first

suggestion for an international commission to establish ethnographical

and religious lines to aid the powers in deciding the border.

Since

Austria and Russia were only bargaining, the suggestion did not receive
favorable attention until a final
deadlock a few weeks later.
*

On 9 February, Sazonov had counseled the Serbs to be satisfied with

3
Ipek and Prizrend.

He did not think Serbia could expect to receive

Dibra and Djakova because the two cities had Albanian populations. 4
While despairing of Dibra and Djakova ever becoming Serbian, and Scutari
Montenegrin, Sazonov still had hoped the land between Scutari and the
lake would go to Montenegro."*
During the early part of February, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria
sent a personal letter to Czar Nicholas of Russia in an effort to ease
Austrian-Russian relations.

Prince Hohenlohe carried the letter to

St. Petersburg and held informal talks with Russian statesmen.

Because

*Grey to Buchanan, 6 February 1913, BD, IX, ii, 479.

2

Ibid.

^Popovich to Pai, 1 February 1913, APS, I, 293-294.

4

Ibid.

^Buchanan to Nicholson, 6 February 1913, BD, IX, ii, 479-480.

71

of the Prince's unofficial position as

courier and the lack of con-

cessions in the Emperor's letter, the mission did not directly influence
fr%

the Russian position.

After the Austrian move, Sazonov, at the sugges-

tion of the German Foreign Office and the German Ambassador at St. Petersburg, put forward new proposals for the Albanian border.^
Sazonov's change in his support of Serbian claims was not wholly
due to the influence of the German Foreign Office.

In an interview with

the Serbian representative in St. Petersburg, 9 February, Sazonov had

warned Serbia not to reject the boundary proposed by the Conference if
it did not contain Djakova and Dibra.

Serbia, he said, would be left

8

facing Austria alone unless she accepted the will of the powers.

On

the other hand, Pa2i6, Serbian Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign
Affairs, saw the problem of the two towns as a trial of strength between
9
Russia and her friends, and Austria and Germany.

He instructed Popo-

vich to reply "that there is no geographical border between Serbia and

Albania if Djakova and Dibra go to Albania, and that in the future no
peace could exist between the two s t a t e s . T h i s
influence at St. Petersburg.

threat had very little

Sazonov placed most of the blame for Serbian

% o r a discussion of the Hohenlohe mission, see Helmreich, Diplomacy,

pp. 280, 282-284; the text of Francis Joseph's letter can be found in
Francis Joseph I to Czar Nicholas II, 1 February 1913, B-UA, V, 620-621;
for an assessment of Hohenlohe's mission, see Buchanan to Grey, 19 February 1913, BD, IX,, ii, 508-509.
^von Jagow to Pourtales, 8 February 1913, GP, XXXIV, 330; Pourtales
to the Foreign Office, 10 February 1913, ibid., p. 351; George Macaulay,
Grey of Fallodon (Boston, 1937), 265; Buchanan to Grey, 8 February 1913,
BD, IX, ii, 483.
^Popovich to Pasic, 9 February 1913, APS, I, 294.
^Pasid to Popovich, 9 February 1913, ibid., 294-295.
10

Ibid.

72

problems on Pai6's actions.

If the Serbian minister were dismissed,

he reasoned, Austria might be pleased and negotiations might begin to

show favorable r e s u l t s . ^

On 14 February, Popovich cautioned Pasi6 that

further insistence on Djakova and Dibra at St. Petersburg might hinder

Serbian aspirations,

12

but the Prime Minister remained obstinate.

13

The

next day, Sazonov made his new proposal for delimitation of the Albanian
border.
Sazonov's new line proposed on 15 February, put Djakova, Dibra,
and the land between Montenegro and Scutari outside Albania,whereas
before he had insisted that Scutari be Montenegrin.

Scutari was definitely

within the Albania proposed by the Russian M i n i s t e r . ^

With the new

Russian proposals, Grey felt that if Austria would concede Djakova and
Dibra to Serbia, Russia would allow Tarabosh, the mountain overlooking
Scutari, and the plain of Luma around Scutari to be in Albania.

In short,

Russia was offering a compromise, and Grey thought Austria should make a
counter-offer.

If the two powers could not arrive at a workable agree-

ment on the basis of this new proposal, Grey again suggested an international commission to investigate the disputed regions.
The Russian suggestion of 15 February provoked further concessions
from Austria.

On 10 March, Count Mensdorff asked Grey to speak to the

^Popovich to Pasid, 13 February 1913, ibid., 298-299.

^ P o p o v i c h to Pali, 14 February 1913, i b i d . , 299-300.
13paget to Grey, 18 February 1913, BjD, IX, ii, 507; Paget to Grey,
20 February 1913, ibid., 513.
^Grey to Goschen, 15 February 1913, ibid.t 499; Grey to Buchanan,
15 February 1913, ibid., 501.
15

Ibid.

73

Russians and inquire if they would agree to allow an international commissio ; to decide the fate of Djakova in return for economic considerations if the area was not assigned to Albania, and if Russia would give
16
firm support to keep Montenegro out of Scutari.

The Russians replied

17
two days later.
Sazonov replied that if Djakova did not go to Albania, Russia would
consent to "energetic" pressure at Cettinje and Belgrade."''

He remained

vague when asked if Russia would insist that Scutari would remain Albanian
even if it fell to the Montenegrin a r m y . ^

The Russian minister had

already agreed in principle that Scutari should be included in the new

Albanian state.

By early March, even the Balkan allies knew they could

On

not expect Russian support in the Scutari question.

Sazonov's vague

official position on the Scutari question in answer to the Austrian

counter-proposal can be partially explained by the consideration that
the new Austrian conditions did not settle the Djakova problem in full
favor of the allies.

Since Djakova had not been fully ceded, Sazonov

21
held out his full support against Scutari going to Montenegro.
^Berchtold to Mensdorff, 8 March 1913, O-UA, V, 902; Grey to Cartwright, 10 March 1913, BD, IX, ii, 569; Mensdorff to Berchtold, 10 March
1913, (j-UA, V, 916.
^ 0 n the same day Grey received the Russian reply, 12 March, Berchtold expressed impatience with the Russian delay. The Austrian anxiety
over the two day "delay" seems out of proportion to the twenty-four
day lapse from Sazonov's concession until the Austrian counter-proposal;
Cartwright to Grey, 12 March 1913, _BD, IX, ii, 574.
^Buchanan to Grey, 12 March 1913, ibid., 575-576.
19

Ibid., 576.

^ P o p o v i c h to PaSic, 5 March 1913, APS, I, 308-309.

^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 19 M$rch 1913, BD, IX, ii, 605-606.

74

Count Mertsdorff expressed official disappointment to Grey that the

Russian reply did not go further in committing Russia to a more definite
position on the Scutari and Djakova problems.

22

The Austrians appeared

to be suspicious "that things were being deliberately delayed in order

23
to confront Austria with the 'fait accompli* of the fall of Scutari."
Dissatisfied with the Russian reaction and pressed by Serbian troops
being moved to join Montenegro at Scutari,^ the Austrian Foreign Office
passed on what was considered to be a final proposal.

Austria would not

25

go any further than to accept an international commission on Djakova.

If Scutari fell before the border was agreed upon, independent Austrian
action might start a general war.

Before Russia could make a reply to

the Austrian offer, Count Berchtold gave a startling resolution to the

crisis by rescinding Austrian demands that Djakova be Albanian.^
Austria capitulated to the Russians for their own reasons and not
because of superior diplomacy by Sazonov and his ambassadors.

Austria

had wanted Djakova and Scutari to be in Albania, while Russia could not
allow both cities to be kept from the allies.

Russia had surrendered the

Serbian littoral and, for the time being, Scutari.

Now it appeared

22

Mensdorff to Berchtold, 13 March 1913, O-UA, V, 945-946.

to Cartwright, 13 March 1913, BD, IX, ii, 581-582.

Grey

^ G r e y to Bertie, 15 March 1913, ibid., 588-589.

^Cartwright to Grey, 12 March 1913, ibid., p. 574.
^Berchtold to Mensdorff, 14 March 1913, O-UA, V, 995; Grey to
Buchanan, 15 March 1913, BD, IX, ii, 588.
^Berchtold to Mensdorff, 20 March 1913, o'-UA, V, 1014-1015; Grey
to Buchanan, 21 March 1913, BD, IX, ii, 608; Grey to Buchanan, 22 March
1913, ibid., p. 611j Grey, Twenty-five Years, I, 259.

75

that Austria had definitely given in on a disputed point under the steady
pressure of Russian opposition, but the concession was a diplomatic victory for Austria and not for Russia.

With the resumption of the Monte-

negrin siege, the prospect of Serbian troops reaching Scutari, and the
general apprehension that the city might fall at any time, Berchtold
considered it more important that the Powers come to a final agreement
on the northern Albanian border.

If Scutari fell before the powers

reached agreement, the Balkan allies, probably supported by Russia,

would be in a position to demand further territorial concessions.

By

making a dramatic concession at Djakova, Austria could force Russia to

show her true position.
If Russia accepted the Austrian line, she would be forced to join
the other Powers to prevent Montenegro from keeping Scutari.

On the

other hand, a Russian refusal would appear to Russia's friends to be in

bad faith since Berchtold had surrendered in full to the Russian demand;
therefore, Sazonov could not expect to find any support for additional
claims if Scutari fell.

If Russia rejected the Austrian offer, Austria

could easily justify independent action in the Balkans since diplomatic

means to solve the problem had been exhausted.

Sazonov, however, ac-

cepted the Austrian proposal that Djakova would belong to Serbia.

On

the other hand, he did not readily agree to the steps mentioned in the
27
proposal as to how the Powers should force Montenegro from Scutari.
The Powers immediately began discussions on steps available to them
whereby they might compel Montenegro to discontinue the siege, and if
^Buchanan to Grey, 22 March 1913, BD, IX, ii, 610-611.

76

the city fell, force King Nikola to respect their wishes on the fate of
Scutari.

The Ambassadors agreed to a collective demarche at Cettinje

and Belgrade.

Serbia and Montenegro were to be informed that the Powers

reserved the right to arrange the delimitation of the Albanian border.

Any action by the two states would not affect decisions.

28

The note of

29
the Powers was delivered on 28 March.
At the Ambassadors' Conference meeting the same day, before the
Montenegrin reply had been received, the ambassadors began preliminary
discussions for an international naval demonstration as the next step
30
in coercing Montenegro.

That same day, King Nikola formally rejected

the Powers' suggestion regarding S c u t a r i . T h r e e days later, the Ambassadors' Conference agreed to the international naval demonstration,
and issued orders for their ships to assemble at Corfu.^2

The French

government balked at joining such a naval demonstration against a Balkan

33
state unless Russia participated, but they sent a ship to Corfu.

The

French ship would be ordered to participate if all the powers took part
in the demonstration or if Russia did not join but authorized France to
^Lichnowsky to the Foreign Office, 19 March 1913, GP, XXXIV, ii,
526-527; Buchanan, Mission, I, 131.
^ G r e y to Paget, 20 March 1913, BD, XX, ii, 606; Paget to Grey, 28
March 1913, ibid., p. 621; Grey to Buchanan, 31 March 1913, ibid., p. 624.
30

Grey to Cartwright, 28 March 1913, ibid., p. 623.

"^Grey to Buchanan, 28 March 1913, ibid., p. 623; de Sal is to Grey,

1 April 1913, ibid., p. 630.
Grey to Buchanan, 31 March 1913, ibid., p. 625; Grey, Twentyfive Years, I, 261.
3 % r e y to Bertie, 28 March 1913, BD, IX, ii, 623-624; Bertie to
Grey, 1 April 1913, ibid.. p. 629; Bertie to Grey, 1 April 1913, ibid.,
p. 634.

77

act for her.

Russia did not maintain a full fleet in the Mediterranean

at this time, and the passage of war ships through the Straits was prohibited by international treaty.

If Russia could not and, for reasons

of Balkan p o l i c y , ^ would not participate, France would decline out of

loyalty to her ally.

If Russia did not give the required authorization,

Great Britain would naturally hesitate in joining the naval demonstration.

Grey explained the English position to Buchanan:
If we send ships alone with the Triple Alliance without
the participation of either France or Russia, while France
the ally of Russia with a ship already alongside ours at
Corfu refuses to proceed nothing will make public opinion
in France and Russia believe that we are working with France
and Russia and not with the Triple Alliance.^5
The success of the naval demonstration therefore depended entirely on
Russian actions.
While the French and English hesitated to commit themselves to full
participation, the Austrians had dispatched a ship to the Adriatic immediately after the Conference had decided on a naval demonstration.^

Sazo-

nov had expressed, through diplomatic channels, a desire that France and
37
England participate on behalf of Russia.

France, however, desired a

public announcement, and it was not until 3 April that Sazonov gave the
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 3 April 1913, ibid., p. 647.
^Grey to Buchanan, 3 April 1913, ibid., pp. 646-647; Grey to Buchanan, 1 April 1913, ibid., pp. 633-634; Grey to Bertie, 2 April 1913,
ibid., p. 639.
"^Berchtold to Mensdorff, 1 April 1913, 9-UA, VI, 4; Grey to Cartwright, 1 April 1913, &D, IX, ii, 635.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 2 April 1913, ibid., pp. 641-642; Popovich
to PaSid, 4 April 1913, APS, I, 314.

78

desired authorization to the Russian p r e s s . B y

the next day, when the

Ambassadors met again, instructions had been sent by all governments ex39
cept the Russians.
On 5 April, Admiral Burney, commander of the British naval forces
participating in the demonstration, reported that ships of the international fleet had assembled and a conference of the commanders had prepared a message to the Montenegrin government notifying them of the pur40
pose of the demonstration and advising them to accept the Powers' wish.
The Montenegrin answer on April 6 rejected the Naval note and accused
the Powers of violating their own principle of neutrality by interfering.^

The Powers then agreed to a blockade of the Montenegrin coast

as the next step, and after postponements caused by French delays in

sending instructions to her naval officer-in-command, the international
fleet blockaded the Port of Antivari on 10 A p r i l . ^
The importance of the foregoing incident does not directly involve
evidences of Russian hesitancy, but it does cast doubt upon French actions
in behalf of her Russian ally.

Sir Edward Grey and Arthur Nicolson held

France to be wholly responsible for the delays, while Berchtold accused

38]3uchanan to Grey, 3 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 646.
39;Lichnowsky to the Foreign Office, 4 April 1913, GP, XXXIV, ii,
614-615.
^ A d m i r a l t y to Foreign Office, 5 April 1913, ibid., p. 656.
41de Salis to Grey, 6 April 1913, ibid., p. 657.
^ 2 See footnote 2, ibid., p. 656; Admiralty to Foreign Office, 8
April 1913, ibid., pp. 662-663; de Salis to Grey, 10 April 1913, ibid.,
p. 669.

79

the French of "hiding behind R u s s i a . " ^

While the Powers organized the

blockade, a suspicious incident occurred that reflects unfavorably on

Russian actions in ;he diplomatic negotiations prior to April.

On 5 April

Buchanan reported to Grejr:

I asked what truth there was in the story that Montenegro
had just received a supply of Russian arms and ammunition.
His Excellency said that they were given as a present when
King Nicholas was here in the spring of last year, and
that, as when the war broke out they could not pass the
Dardanelles, the King had sent an agent to bring them overland to Salonica. This had been done months ago, but they
had only now been dispatched from that port.4-4
Although the Russian ship had started unloading on 1 April,^5 it is
practically impossible to say that Russia, through France, had stalled
the blockade until the supplies could be landed.

The timely arrival of

the arms is certainly not above suspicion, especially since the allies
had held Salonica since 8 November.

The supplies delivered to Monte-

negro did not materially affect the siege at Scutari, but the blockade
give Serbia an opportunity to withdraw her active support from Monte46
negro.
As early as 23 March, Sazonov had told Popovich that Serbia would
have to remove her troops from Scutari if the city fell.

He warned the

Serbs not to follow Montenegro's foolhardy leadership into Scutari because her actions did not represent the true interests of Slavdom.^
^ 3 Mensdorff to Berchtold, 6 April 1913, O-UA, VI, 52; Cartwright to
Grey, 7 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 658-659; Bertie to Grey, 2 April 1913,
ibid., 643.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 5 April 1913, ibid., p. 655; Kokovtsov, Memoirs,
pp. 357-359; Helmreich, Diplomacy, p. 311.
^ G i e s l to Berchtold, 2 April 1913, (j-UA, VI, p. 11.
^Cartwright to Nicolson, 11 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 679.
^ P o p o v i c h to PaSic, 24 March 1913, APS, I, 311-312.

80
With the naval demonstration at Antivari, Serbia had a ready-made excuse
AO
to gracefully withdraw further support from Montenegro.

On 9 April,

49
Serbia decided to send no more men to Scutari,

and the next day Serb

troops already at Scutari were ordered not to participate in operations

until further notice."*

The withdrawal of Serbian support did not signi-

ficantly alter the Montenegrin determination to capture Scutari, and

neither did the attempt by the Ambassadors 1 Conference to offer Nikola
a financial "loan" in return for stopping the siege.
Pecuniary compensation for Montenegro had been proposed by the
C1
Italian ambassadors to Vienna and London on 4 April.

Grey did not

think Parliament would vote the British part of the money, nor did he
think Berchtold should be asked to make further concessions to Montenegro.^

Berchtold expressed a negative attitude towards the Italian

53

proposal but kept an open mind for discussion.

At the Conference

meeting of 11 April, the question of a loan to Montenegro was formally

discussed.

Italy and France were asked to formulate a proposition in

case the issue of a loan would ever arise. 5 4

48

Before the Powers could

Paget to Grey, 12 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 681-682.

^ B e r t i e to Grey, 9 April 1913, ibid., p. 667.

-^Paget to Grey, 10 April 1913, ibid., p. 669.
51

Berchtold to Rome, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Cettinje, and

London, 5 April 1913, 0-UA, VI, 42-43; Grey to Rodd, 4 April 1913, BD,
IX, ii, 654.
**^Ibid.
53

Berchtold to Rome. . . .

54

Grey to Cartwright, 11 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 677-678.

5 April 1913* 0-UA, VI, 42-43.

81
organize financial compensation for Montenegro, news of the move leaked
out.

If Nikola knew of the proposed loan, he could not accept it without

55

appearing to submit to a bribe.

At the Ambassadors' meeting of 17

April, the Montenegrin position was restated with the added statement
that Montenegro declined any financial or monetary compensation from the
Powers.

The Ambassadors did not take the declaration at face value and
56

proceeded to try to float a LI,200,000 note for Montenegro.

A violent

article in the newspapers of Cettinje called the idea of the loan an insult, to the King and Montenegro.^
58
on 21 April,

The Powers agreed to offer the loan

but before any answer came from Montenegro, Scutari fell

to the Montenegrin army.

The fortress commanded by Essad Pasha surrendered without a fight
on 23 April 1913, following a bargain between King Nikola and the fort's
commander.

In return for Scutari, Essad Pasha could withdraw with his

troops, guns, colors, and supplies.

He would then proclaim himself

Prince of Albania, under the suzerainty of the Sultan, and recognize the
Montenegrin claims to Scutari.

In return, Montenegro would recognize

his claims to the throne in Albania.

This double agreement was designed

to give both rulers claim to legitimacy and give them a stronger hand
59
to win concessions from the Powers.
55cartwright to Grey, 14 April 1913, ibid., pp. 687-688.
-^Lichnowsky to the Foreign Office, 17 April 1913, GP, XXXIV, ii,
700-701.
57

de Salis to Grey, 20 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 704.

58crey to de Salis, 21 April 1913, ibid., p. 706; Grey to Bertie,

21 April 1913, ibid., p. 707.
59see the editor's note, ibid., p. 734; "The fall of Scutari had a
mixed effect on the Foreign Legations at Cettinge. France and Russia,

82

With the fall of Scutari, the Ambassadors' Conference met and quicker
sent instructions to Cettinje that the Montenegrin government should be
informed that the fall of the city did not in any way affect the decision of the Powers regarding the Northern delimitation of Albania, and
Montenegro should turn the city over to the Naval representatives of
60
the Powers.

The Powers required a prompt reply to their note.

The new situation at Scutari prompted Sazonov to make new proposals

for compensation for Montenegro.

More territory added to that already

prescribed by the Ambassadors' Conference might induce King Nikola to

desert Scutari.

To consider further compensation of territory to Monte-

negro in return for Scutari would reopen the already delimited North and
Northeastern Albanian border.

This would lead to further bickering; the

diplomats in the British Foreign Office would not consider reopening the
61
discussions. A
Sazonov wisely did not carry his request for further
compensation or Scutari becoming Montenegrin beyond 23 April.

The same

day, Austria proposed that the Great Powers should, without delay, carry
out positive steps to impress on Montenegro the full extent of the Powers'
decision.

Austria proposed that international detac hments could occupy

the Montenegrin seaport (Antivari) or the navy could make a bombardment

of the city.

If the Powers could not come to an agr eement on what steps

to take, Austria felt obligated to assume the responsibility of carrying

to whose willful retarding of events, King Nikola's coup was undoubtedly

due, rejoiced openly," Durham, Struggle, p. 279.
60

61

Grey to de Salis, 23 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 710.

Buchanan to Grey, 23 April 1913, ibid., p. 711; Bertie to Grey,

25 April 1913, ibid., p. 719.

83

out the international agreement and removing Montenegro from S c u t a r i . ^

Sazonov then faced a solid wall of resistance to further Montenegrin gains:
Britain would not consider new discussions, France would not cooperate,
and Austria did not even recognize the possibility.

Austria-Hungary was,

at this time, clearly the power in control.

Sazonov's apprehension of Austria's independent action, expressed
z: o
on 23 April,

was no idle fedr.

Cartwright at Vienna did not think

Austria was b l u f f i n g , ^ and Grey advised quick action by the Powers to

prevent Austria from acting a l o n e . ^

Sazonov agreed that all pacific

measures should be exhausted to induce Montenegro to surrender Scutari.

By additional territory or a financial compensation, Montenegro might be
persuaded to abandon Scutari.

If compensations were rejected by King

Nikola and force became necessary, Sazonov hoped that more Powers than
just Austria-Hungary would participate in the a c t i o n . ^
From 23 April until the Conference's collective note was delivered
at Cettinje, the Powers discussed possible coercive measures that would
probably be needed against Montenegro.

Grey did not think that British

^Berchtold to Berlin, Rome, London, Paris, St. Petersburg, and

Cettinje, 23 April 1913, O-UA, VI, 215-216; Communication from Count
Mensdorff, 23 April 19137 BD, IX, ii, 711-712.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 23 April 1913, ibid., p. 711; Sazonov, Fateful
Years, p. 75; Buchanan, Mission, I, 180; Durham, Struggle, p. 273.
^Cartwright to Nicolson, 25 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 721-723.
65crey to Buchanan, 24 April 1913, ibid., p. 714.
^ B u c h a n a n to Grey, 25 April 1913, ibid., pp. 719-720; de Schelking,
Recollections, pp. 237-238; Sazonov, Fateful Years, pp. 89-90.

84
public opinion would allow their participation in military actions.*^
Italy, likewise, could not join Austria without British or French participation.^^

France would not join without a Russian mandate, which for

reasons of public opinion, Russia could not give.*^

While Austria fumed

at the indecision exhibited by the other Great Powers and moved closer
to active independent intervention, Montenegro gave a negative reply to
the Powers' demand that she abandon Scutari.7

For the next few days,

a European war over Scutari seemed inevitable.

Austria was about to act

alone, and Russia could not be expected to remain idle in the event of
an Austrian invasion of Montenegro.
On 1 May the Montenegrin delegate in London transmitted an inquiry
from his government asking the British whether Montenegro would receive
71
territorial and financial compensation if she withdrew from Scutari.
Grey presented the Montenegrin offer to the Conference, and the Ambassadors agreed to answer the Montenegrin government on 3 May that
if the Montenegrin Gov 1 fprnment) evacuate Scutari, as
demanded by the Powers they will receive the financial
help which has already been under the consideration of
the Powers . . . But if they do not evacuate Scutari
they will certainly be expelled, by one method or another, and Montenegro must abandon the hope of subsequent
help from the 'Powers.'7^
6?Grey to Buchanan, 28 April 1913, BD, IX, ii, 725-726.
6%odd to Grey, 28 April 1913, ibid., p. 726.
69Ibid., see the attached minutes; Buchanan to Grey, 28 April 1913,
ibid., p. 725.
70de Salis to Grey, 30 April 1913, ibid., pp. 740-741.
73-Grey to Cartwright, 1 May 1913, ibid., pp. 749-750; Grey to Goschen, 1 May 1913, ibid., p. 746.
72

Ibid.; Grey to de Salis, 3 May 1913, ibid., p. 759.

85
The next day, Count de Salis reported from Cettinje that King Nikola
surrendered the fate of Scutari to the Powers,7"* and ten days later,
Scutari was turned over to them.^
Soon after the Montenegrin capitulation, the Preliminaries of London
were signed on 30 May 1913.

Turkey ceded all of Europe east of the line

Enos-Midia, and the delimitation of Albania was left to the Powers.

actions were the two most important points of the Preliminaries.

These

By the

Enos-Midia line, Bulgaria gained Adrianople and surrounding territory.

The Powers had already agreed to the delimitation of Albania.
The Scutari crisis had showed the ineffectiveness of Russian diplomacy in Balkan affairs in conjunction with the other powers.

In the

struggle with Austria over Djakova, Sazonov won a superficial diplomatic

victory.

By what appears to be clever maneuvering on the part of Berch-

told, Sazonov was forced to accept Djakova and close the Albanian delimitation question.

The full import of the Austrian move became obvious

when Scutari fell and Sazonov made requests for reconsideration.

England

would not consider further discussion, and Austria all but ignored the
Russian proposal.
Before and after the fall of Scutari, Russia failed to help the
Balkan Slavs and also damaged her prestige with the Powers.

Before the

capitulation, the suspicious incident of Russian arms arriving at Antivari

73de Salis to Grey, 4 May 1913, ibid.t p. 766; King Nikola has been
accused of using the Scutari crisis to influence the price fluctuations
on the Vienna Bourse and, by trading, to have made a private fortune in
stock speculation, Durham, Struggle, p. 272, Bogitshevich, Causes, p. 37,
Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, A Journey Through Yugoslavia,
(New York, 1944), p. 1052.
74

See the editor's note, BD, IX, ii, p. 786.

86

while France seemed to be "hiding behind Russia," certainly could not

have a favorable effect on the Powers' opinion of Russian sincerity.
It might have helped Balkan opinion at this time, but not much.

After

the fall of Scutari, Sazonov's renewed efforts to get more compensation

for Scutari met with displeasure towards Russian diplomacy.

With Rus-

sian diplomacy no longer able to help the Slavs, Montenegro abandoned

the need for a Great Power's patronage and dealt with the Conference by
herself.

By the end of the First Balkan War, Russian diplomacy had

demonstrated complete inadequacy to pursue a policy to a successful conclusion.

In the following summer of 1913, during the Second Balkan War*

Russia played a role of even less importance.

CHAPTER V

THE DENOUEMENT:

THE SECOND BALKAN WAR

AND CONCLUSIONS

The Treaty of London, 30 May 1913, officially ended the First Balkan
War.

By the steady Austrian opposition and threats, the last obstacle

to the end of the war, the Scutari crisis, had been resolved.

Resolute

action by Sir Edward Grey on 17 May forced the reluctant delegates to

quit pointless quibbling and sign the preliminaries.^-

English and

Austrian diplomacy had been instrumental in bringing the conflict to a

close, while Russian diplomacy consistently failed to serve either the
interests of the Balkans or the Great Powers' interests in general peace.
Since October, Russian diplomats had shown a steady decline in effectiveness in Balkan affairs.

After having been successful in uniting Serbia

and Bulgaria early in 1912, Russia had been unable to prevent them from
*

extending their defensive alliances to Greece and Montenegro and changing

them to offensive conventions and attacking Turkey.

Later at the London

Conference Russian diplomats were singularly unsuccessful in representing the allies at the conference table.
In the months following the Preliminaries of London, and during the
Second Balkan War, Russian diplomacy fully illustrated the bankruptcy of
its influence in Balkan affairs.

The Russians tried to prevent a new

^Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 330-331.

87

88
outbreak of war and when those efforts failed, they tried to bring about
an armistice but were unsuccessful.

Russian failures were in part re-

sponsible for the fall of the Bulgarian cabinet and the pro-Austrian
bias of the new cabinet.

When Turkey invaded Bulgaria and violated the

terms of the Treaty of London by re-capturing Adrianople from the Bulgars,

Russia was unable to summon the Great Powers to a decisive intervention
and return the city to Bulgaria.

In the Second Balkan War, Russian

diplomacy further illustrated the ineffectiveness in Balkan concerns

that had characterized its efforts in the First Balkan War.
After the Preliminaries of London had been signed, the Balkan allies
began in earnest to quarrel over the spoils of their victory.

The dis-

pute began when Serbia finally accepted the loss of the Adriatic littoral.
Bulgaria had not sent the military aid she promised to Serbia in Macedonia by the alliance treaty of 1912, while the Serbs had sent troops
to aid in the siege of Adrianople.

When Bulgaria requested more help

at Adrianople, Serbia consented and sent the needed artillery on 13 February 1913.

In return, Serbia asked that she receive indemnities other

than pecuniary.^

The British representative in Belgrade rightly sus-

pected that Serbia would make claims in Macedonia beyond the limits
defined in the Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty of 1912.4

Bulgaria, of course,

was not willing to relinquish any of her gains to compensate Serbia for
her contributions or her losses.

%ax-Ironside to Grey, 25 February 1913, BD, IX, ii, 534-535.

^Ibid., p. 535.
4

Ibid., p. 534.

89

On 22 February, Serbia made formal demands on Bulgaria for compensations in Macedonia for her losses in the littoral question and her
additional contributions to the war effort in excess of treaty provisions.-*

Bulgaria refused to answer the claims, and the dispute continued

quietly for the next few months.

In April, Sazonov reminded the two

countries of the alliance provision for Russian arbitration in case of

6
deadlock over territorial questions.

The Bulgarian and Serbian answers

re-affirmed the principle of arbitration, but evaded any direct commitment to accept the Russian offer if they could not settle their differences
without force.

Another quarrel, that between the Greeks and the Bulga-

rians over the possession of Salonica, was not under the protection of
prospective Russian arbitration.
Because of the Salonica dispute, the Greek and Serbian diplomats
began talks for an alliance against Bulgaria early in May.

After the

London Treaty had been signed, the Serb and Greek governments concluded
O

the anti-Bulgar alliances and conventions.

As conditions between the

allies were obviously becoming strained, Czar Nicholas, on 8 June, personally intervened by sending telegrams to the Serbian and Bulgarian

Pa2i6 to Spalajkovitsch, 22 February 1913, APS, X, 303.

fi

Gueshoff, Balkan League, p. 77; Buchanan to Grey, 1 May 1913, BP,

IX, ii, 747.
^Gueshoff, Balkan League, pp. 78-79.
O

Nekludoff, Reminiscences, pp. 162-163; for details of the SerbGreece alliances and conventions see Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 347349.

90

Kings urging them to seek Russian arbitration as provided in the alliance.^

Both Kings replied politely that they remained firm; Serbia sought treaty
revisions, and Bulgaria wanted all of Macedonia, but both recognized
the provisions for a r b i t r a t i o n . F i n d i n g a faint glimmer of hope in
the answers, Sazonov then proposed that the Prime Ministers of the Balkan
states meet in St. Petersburg to begin settling the differences between
them.^

Bulgaria, however, did not wish to negotiate until the allies

had demobilized, and then she wished to negotiate only within the limits
of the 1912 alliances.

Serbia, on the other hand, would not agree to

12
demobilization until all claims were settled.

Sazonov then made an

attempt to influence the Serbs by ordering Hartwig to get Serbia to make

concessions to'the Bulgarian demands and at least reduce the number of
13
troops still with the colors.
Bulgaria

moved on her own volition to counter Serbian demands to

revise the alliances.

Gueshoff resigned on 30 May 1913 and was replaced

14
by the more militant S. Danev.
The new minister firmly rejected the
^Balkanicus (Stojan Proti), The Aspirations of Bulgaria (London,
1915), pp. 44-45 has an English text of Nicholas 1 letter; O'Beirne to Grey,
12 June 1913, BD, IX, ii, 847-848; de Schelking, Recollections, p. 193;
George P. Gooch, Recent Revelations of European Diplomacy (New York,
1928), p. 115.
^ K i n g Peter of Serbia to Czar Nicholas of Russia, 11 June 1013,
APS, I, 337-339; Bax-Ironside to Grey, 11 June 1913, BD, IX, ii, 843;
Balkanicus, Aspirations, pp. 45-46; Sazonov, Fateful Years, p. 96; Nekludoff, Reminiscences, pp. 170-171.
^Isvolsky, III, 175-176.
^For a short discussion of the Serbo-Bulgarian demobilization problems, see Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 357-358.
13

Paget to Grey, 22 June 1913, BD, IX, ii, 859-860; Helmreich,

Diplomacy, p. 358.
l^Gueshoff, Balkan League, p. 91; Balkanicus, Aspirations, pp. 38-40.

91

idea of treaty revision and, for that reason, was thought to consider
war with Serbia as inevitable.

1S

At a crown council, held 22 June, the

Bulgars rashly demanded that Russia, if she planned to arbitrate, make

16
her decision within seven days.

The time limit was made because the

Bulgarian army was massed on the Serbian frontier and would be ready
to strike within ten days.-^

Sazonov's answer ignored the Bulgar ulti-

matum, and, when Danev responded with further threats, the Russian minis-

18
ter formally deserted Bulgaria for the time being.

Five days later,

Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece, and the Second Balkan War had
begun.^
Bulgaria was at war with her former allies, but with one important
difference.

In October, 1912, Rumanian neutrality had been bought by

Bulgaria for minor territorial compensations.^

After the Treaty of

London, but before Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece, Rumania had de21
clared that if Serbia were attacked, she would move against Bulgaria.
Rumania could not allow Bulgaria to reduce Serbia because a larger Bulgaria
^Ibid., pp. 42-43.
*
l^Danev to Bobchev (St. Petersburg), 22 June 1913, as cited in
ibid., p. 57.
17]?or General Savov's estimates on the readiness of the Bulgarian
army see ibid., pp. 49-51.
l^For the Russian reaction to the Bulgarian demands for arbitration
within seven days, see ibid., pp. 61-62, and Helmreich, Diplomacy,
pp. 360-361.
^ F o r a discussion of the events immediately preceeding the Second
Balkan War, see ibid., pp. 359-367.
^ONekludoff, Reminiscences, p. 153.
21
Furstenberg to Berchtold, 27 June 1913, g-UA, VI, 750; Barclay to
Grey, 19 June 1913, BD, IX, ii, 855.

92

would be a threat to Rumania.

Austrian efforts failed to prevent a

22
23
Rumanian-Bulgarian conflict,
and on 3 July, Rumania mobilized.

By

the time Rumania declared war, 10 August 1913, Bulgaria had already suffered severe losses of men and territory to the Greek and Serb armies.
Pummeled on several fronts, Bulgaria could only accept her defeat and
try to salvage what she could by appealing to the Powers for succor.
Less than ten days after she attacked Greece and Serbia, Bulgaria
appealed to Russia to act as mediator.

The next day, 9 July, Sazonov

had representations made at the Balkan capitals which stated that Russia
invited the Balkan governments to cease hostilities immediately and
sign an armistice.

The belligerents were to send representatives to

St. Petersburg to negotiate the final treaty with Russia serving as

mediator.^

Bulgaria immediately accepted the Russian invitation.^

Greece, suspecting that Bulgaria would use the armistice to re-group

26

her defenses, refused the mediation offer.

Serbia, for essentially

the same reasons, would not go to St. Petersburg.

Instead, Serbia in-

sisted that Bulgaria must sign the armistice and the final treaties
on the battlefield.27

Rumania asked for Bulgarian territory up to the

^For a discussion of Austrian efforts, see Helmreich, Diplomacy,

pp. 374-376.
^Barclay to Grey, 4 July 1913, BD, IX, ii, 885.
^Communication from Count Benckendorff, 10 July 1913, ibid.,
pp. 902-903.
^See the minute in ibid., p. 903.
^Elliot to Grey, 11 July 1913, ibid., p. 903.
27

Answer of the Serbian government to the Russian government on

their proposal for the conclusion of an armistice with Bulgaria, 20 July
1913, APS, I, 363.

93

line Turtukaia-Balchik before she would stop her advances into Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian government quickly authorized the concession, but Rumania
decided to continue the war until Serbia made peace with Bulgaria.^
With most of the combatants not willing to negotiate under Russian
patronage, Sazonov's intervention attempt failed to produce results.
Because Russia could not effect an armistice, Danev, who had sought
Russian mediation, resigned along with his cabinet on 15 July.

Radoslavov

became the new Bulgarian prince minister and Genadiev became foreign
29
minister.

The new cabinet turned to Austria for help.

In the days

that followed, Austria played an important role in bringing about a

cease-fire, 30 July, and the Treaty of Bucharest, 10 August 1913.
Bulgaria as yet had one other problem in which Russian diplomacy
would play a small role.

After the second conflict began Bulgaria agreed

to pull her troops back to the line Enos-Midia to answer Turkish demands
for that part of the peninsula left to her by the Treaty of London.
When the Turk army followed the retreating Bulgars, it did not stop at
the treaty line but continued west until it recaptured Adrianople.

Ig-

noring the insistent attitude adopted by the Powers, the Porte refused
30
t
to return the city to Bulgaria.
The Powers made a collective demarche
in Constantinople on 7 August 1913 demanding that the Sultan respect

^ P a g e t to Grey, 12 July 1913, BD, IX, ii, 906; Barclay to Grey,

15 July 1913, ibid., pp. 910-911; Helmreich, Diplomacy, p. 382.
^ F o r the details of the Danev cabinet resignation and the turn
to Austria, see ibid., footnote 13, p. 383, and pp. 383-386.
^^Wangenheim to the Foreign Office, 5 August 1913, GP, XXXVI,
i, 5.

94

the line of Enos-Midia as the western boundary of Turkey.

positively refused to evacuate the territory.

32

31

The Turks

Bulgaria, meanwhile,

demobilized her army under the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest and left
33
the Adrianople question in the hands of the Powers.
With Bulgaria surrendering her fate to the Powers, Sazonov sought
a way to enhance Russian diplomacy and help Bulgaria.

He even flirted

with the idea of acting with Austria to force Turkey to abandon Adrianople.^

But continued Turkish advances across the Maritza River caused

Sazonov, on 18 August, to informally request that the Entente Powers act

together, since the conference of Great Powers could not be effective
at Constantinople.

He suggested that the three friends, England, France,

3*5
and Russia, might recall their ambassadors from the Turkish capital. J
The Russian minister even went so far as to get permission from the
36
Czar to recall the Russian ambassador if necessary.

Buchanan reported

to the British Foreign Office that Sazonov had received an explanation

from the Grand Vizer in the afternoon of 20 August.

The Porte explained

that the entire incident was a misunderstanding and that Turkish troops
would be withdrawn across the Maritza.

Sazonov accepted the explanation

31
^For the general question of the Turkish recapture of Adrianople,
see Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 400-403.
^^Wangenheim to the Foreign Office, 7 August 1913, GP, XXXVI, i, 13.
^Zimmerman to Lichnowsky, 12 August 1913, ibid., pp. 21-22.
^^Bax-Ironside to Grey, 7 August 1913, BD, IX, ii, 963.
^Buchanan to Grey, 18 August 1913, ibid., pp. 987-988.
^^See the Post Script of Buchanan to Grey, 19 August 1913, ibid.,
p. 991.

95
and did not exercise the Czar's permission to break diplomatic relations
with the Ottoman Empire.^
Bulgaria was advised to accept the loss of Adrianople and immediately begin negotiations with her enemies for a peace treaty.

The

Balkan states concluded a series of treaties with Bulgaria in which

much of the territory she conquered in the first was was lost as a result
of the second conflict."***
In the Second Balkan War, Russian diplomacy completely demonstrated
its ineffectiveness.

Sazonov's efforts in April to invoke the provisions

for Russian mediation in the Serbo-Bulgarian alliance (1912) failed to

bring the two states together at the bargaining table.

Czar Nicholas'

personal intervention of 8 June offering Russian arbitration failed to

do more than show the very limited degree of influence Russia exercised
in the Balkans.

The arrogant Bulgarian demand that Russia make an arbi-

tration decision within seven days also shows the vacuity of Russian influence.

After the war started and Bulgaria asked Russia to intervene,

the other Balkan states, Serbia, Rumania, and Greece refused the Russian
representation.

The new Bulgarian cabinet, headed by Radoslavov turned

to Austria for support.

Finally, when Turkey drove Bulgaria out of

Adrianople, Russia and the Great Powers were unable to force the Porte
to return the city to Bulgaria by diplomatic means, and the Powers did
not have the unity necessary to exert a more positive form of coercion.

"^Buchanan to Grey, 20 August 1913, ibid., p. 992; the Turk intention

to withdraw troops across the Maritza was repeated to Grey by the Turk
Ambassador in London, Grey to Marling, 21 August 1913, ibid., p. 994.
"*The treaty signed at Bucharest, 10 August 1913, is in Documents
diplomatiques franpais, 1871-1914 (Paris, 1929-1959), 3rd Series, vol. VII,
641-645; Miliukov, Memoirs, p. 256; for a discussion of the treaties
between the Balkan states, see Helmreich, Diplomacy, pp. 407-408.

96

Sazonov's action of 20 August was a gesture of frustration.

Whereas,

before the weak results of the Powers' first demarche, he had wanted
Turkey to return Adrianople outright to Bulgaria, his threat to break
diplomatic relations at Constantinople was designed solely to get the
Turk army to stop their advances further into Bulgarian territory.

Russian

diplomacy had failed in the Second Balkan War to meet the goals of her
foreign policy.

Not only had Russia been unable to prevent the fratri-

cidal war, influence its cessation, or protect Bulgaria from being

stripped of her recent gains, Russia had lost her influence in Bulgaria
and prestige in the Balkans.

The Second Balkan War illustrated the

final stage of Russia's failure in the Balkans.

For many years prior to the Balkan Wars, Russia's foreign policy
had one major aim, which was to re-open the Straits question for a settlement more favorable than the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1856).

Russia

needed egress for her navy so she could fully participate in world affairs as was her right as a Great Power.

The Straits became more important

to Russia in the last half of the nineteenth century, but by 1880, she
had made very small gains in the quest for revision of the Straits question.

After an unsuccessful foray in the Far East, Russian diplomacy

returned to active concern for the Dardanelles in the first decade of

the twentieth century.
Alexander Isvolsky attempted, in 1908, another frontal revision of
the Straits provisions.

Not only was he rebuffed by the Powers, he suf-

fered a bitter humiliation for Russian diplomacy by the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

With Isvolsky's replacement by Sazonov, his

former secretary, Russian foreign policy began moving in a different

97

direction.

The lessons of Berlin (1878) and Buchlau (1908) had shown

Russian diplomats that open attempts to revise the Straits question were
pre-ordained to failure.

Austro-Hungarian interests in Constantinople

conflicted with the similar Russian goal, and any Russian success would
come only after the Dual Monarchy had been eliminated as a competitor.
Soon after the turn of the century, Russian diplomats had come to
realize that the Straits settlement could be revised and Austria's drang
nach osten checked if they could utilize Pan-slavic sympathy in the
Balkans to unite the Balkan states under Russian patronage.

With Pan-

slavism, and by capitalizing on the impatient nationalism in the Balkans, Russia could influence and control events in the peninsula to
prevent Austrian expansion.

Russia, with the support of her Balkan al-

lies, could then revise the Straits settlement at an advantageous time.

The immediate goals of this more subtle approach were neither clearly
defined nor carefully planned.

The Russian diplomatic corps often

failed to fully co-operate with each other, although they pursued the
same goals.
The outbreak of the Tripolitan War in autumn, 1911, threatened to
upset the status quo in the Balkans.

The Great Powers feared that the

Balkan states might use the war as a pretext to start their own war
with Turkey.

Explosive situations in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece could

easily provide justification, at least in the minds of the Balkan peoples,

for a war against the Ottoman Empire.

Montenegro was under Russia's

control by the terms of an earlier military convention and not expected

to cause trouble, although the Montenegrins seemed as eager for war as
the other Balkan states.

98

The Balkans remained calm the first few months of the Tripolitan
War, and Russian diplomacy pursued the new policy to unite the Balkan
Slavs under the patronage of the Czar.

Spurred on by the Italo-Turk

War and Russian sympathy, Bulgaria and Serbia allied themselves against
a common enemy under the auspicies of Russian mediation.

The new policy

seemed well on its way to realization until the independent actions of

the Balkan states showed the real measure of Russian influence.

The al-

liance was extended to include Greece, but Russia was able to exert only
indirect influence.

The Graeco-Bulgarian alliance did not provide for

Russian arbitration as did the Serbo-Bulgarian pact.

In the summer of 1912, border incidents occurred between the Balkan
states and Turkey.

Montenegro was included into the Balkan League con**

trary to the advice of the Russian Foreign Office.

With Montenegro's

adherence to the alliances, the Balkan allies named the Ottoman Empire
as the enemy and changed the treaties from defensive to offensive
agreements.
As tensions in the Balkans mounted during August and September,
Russia, realizing the dangers inherent in further encouragement to the
allies, joined the Great Powers' efforts to prevent a Balkan war.

The

Austrian proposal of August, the Berchtold Initiative, because of its

vague meanings, failed to bring results.

Russia joined her Balkan rival,

Austria-Hungary, to act as the Powers' mandatories to dissuade the allies

from fulfilling their commitments for war against Turkey.

The manda-

tories' representations failed, and with the opening of hostilities,

the new Russian policy to control the Balkans was well on its way to
failure.

In the months following the declaration of war, the Russian

99

diplomats tried to resolve the dilemma of regaining influence over the

Balkan states and retaining the confidence of the Great Powers.
The four small kingdoms of the Balkans had moved outside the limits
of Russian policy by declaring war against Turkey to redress wrongs.
The allies, unaided by Russia, won unexpected victories in excess of
their own expectations.

Russia and the Powers agreed to revise the

territorial status quo because of the Turk lpsses.

Russian diplomacy in

the next five months vacillated between suppqrt of the Powers' attempts
!

at concessions and support of the allies' claims.

In the Serbian claim to an Adriatic littoral, Russia changed sides
several times until finally she agreed to join the Powers and deny Serbia
a port.

In the Serbian question and in the Scutari problem that fol-

lowed, Russian aspirations in the Balkans onde again came up against

the rival hopes of the Austrians.

The Scutarji question was deadlocked

when the allies renewed their efforts against the Turks.

The Russian

failure to successfully support the Serbian iittoral, and now the uncertain support she had been showing at the Conference on the Northern
Albanian question prompted Montenegro to move on her own to settle the
Scutari question.
In the months following 3 February 1913, the Scutari problem became
i

a test of Great Power effectiveness and demonstrated the negative extent

of Russian influence in the Balkans.

As the Powers negotiated in Lon-

don, Austria was able to get Russia to agree to a final delimitation of

territory.

Since Russia had agreed to the border, she could not easily

ask for reconsideration if Scutari fell to Montenegro.

Russian partici-

pation in steps to aid Montenegro before the fall of Scutari did not

100
have the desired results on Balkan opinion and only negative influence
among the Great Powers.

With the fall of Scutari, Russia did make one

more futile attempt to reinstate Russia as patron of the Balkans.

Mod-

erate support for Montenegro's continued possession of Scutari was met

with a solid wall of resistance from the Powers.
Since Russia had agreed to the delimitation of Scutari within Albania and since the Powers were adamantly against reconsideration, she
had to join the Powers in removing the victorious army from the city.
The King of Montenegro, unaided by Russian patronage, dealt successfully
with the Powers and evacuated the city for other compensations.

By the

end of the First Balkan War, Russian diplomacy had shown itself completely inadequate in pursuing a policy to a successful conclusion.
In the months following the Treaty of London, 30 May 1913, and
during the Second Balkan War, Russian diplomacy further testified to
the bankruptcy of its influence in Balkan affairs.

The Russians failed

to prevent a new outbreak of war and could not bring about a quick armistice.

Russian failures were in part responsible for the fall of the Bul-

garian cabinet and the pro-Austrian bias of the new ministry.

When

Turkey re-captured Adrianople, Russia proved powerless to preserve the

city for Bulgaria.

In the Second Balkan War, Russia further demonstrated

the extent of the failure of the new policy.

The new policy needed Balkan friendship.

Russia sought that friend-

ship through her patronage in the Balkan League.

But the members of the

League had their own foreign policies, and when they tried to fulfill
their ambitions, they did so without Russia's aid or permission.

Russian

diplomacy failed to regain the friendship of the Balkan states by her

101
failures to successfully represent the Balkan demands to the Great Powers.
From the First Balkan War until the end of the Second, each crisis that
arose brought a further diminishment of Russian prestige in the Balkans.
By the end of the Second Balkan War, Russian influence in Balkan affairs was almost non-existent. Without Balkan influence, the new foreign policy, unite the Balkans under Russian patronage, stop AustriaHungary's eastward expansion, and then revise the Straits question, was
a failure.

The key to the success of the new approach was Balkan friend-

ship, and in September, 1913, Russia did not have the confidence of the
Balkan states.

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Lepsius, Johannes, A. M. Bartholdy and Friedrich Thimme, editors, Die
Grosse Politik der Europaischen Kabinett, 1871-1914, 40 volumes
in 54, Berlin, Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft fur Politik und Geschichte, 1927.
Lichnowsky, Karl Max, furst von, Heading for the Abyss: Reminiscences,
translated by Sefton Delmer, New York, Payson & Clarke, Ltd., 1928.
Miliukov, Paul N. Political Memoirs, 1905-1917, edited by Arthur P.
Mendel, translated by Carl Goldberg, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1967.
Nekludoff, Anatolii V., Diplomatic Reminiscences Before and During the
World War, 1911-1917, translated by Alexandra Paget, New York,
E. P. Dutton & Co., 1920.
Poincar, Raymond, The Memoirs of Raymond Poincare (1912), translated and
adapted by Sir George Arthur, London, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1926.
Rosen, Baron Roman Romanovich, Forty Years of Diplomacy, 2 volumes, London, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1922.
Sazonov, Sergei Dmitrievich, Fateful Years, 1909-1916:
of Serge Sazonov, London, J. Cape, 1928.

The Reminiscences

de Schelking, Eugenii Nikolaevich, Recollections of a Russian Diplomat:

the Suicide of Monarchies (William II and Nicholas II), New York,
The Macmillan Co., 1918.
Steed, Henry Wickham, Through Thirty Years, 1892-1922: A Personal Narrative, 2 volumes, London, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924.
Stieve, Friedrich, editor, Der Diplomatische Schriftwechse1 Iswolskis,
1911-1914, 4 volumes, Berlin, Deutsche Verlagsgessellschaft ftfr
Politik und Geschichte, 1924.
Suchomlinov, W. A., Erinnerungen, Berlin, Verlag Von Reimar Hobbing,
1924.
Tcharykow, N. V., Glimpses of High Politics Through War and Peace, 18551929, London, G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1931.

104

Von Bulow, Bernard, Furst, Memoirs of Prince Von Bulow, translated by

Geoffrey Dunlop, 4'volumes, Boston, Little Brown & Company, 1932.
Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, Russia, London, New York, etc., Cassell
and Company, Ltd., 1912.
Windischgraetz, Prince Ludwig, M^ Memoirs, translated by Constance Vesey,
Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1921.
Young, George, editor, Nationalism and War in the Near East, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1915.

Secondary
Albertini, Luigi, The Origins of the War of 1914, 3 volumes, translated
by Isabella M. Massey, London, Oxford University Press, 1952.
Anderson, Matthew S., The Eastern Question, 1774-1923: A Study in
International Relations, London, The Macmillan Co., 1966.
Bogitshevich, Milosh, Causes of the War: An Examination into the Causes
of the European War, with Special Reference to Russia and Serbia,
London, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1920.
Cassavetti, D. J., Hellas and the Balkan Wars, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1914.
Challener, Richard D., "Montenegro and The United States: A Balkan
Fantasy," Journal of Central European Affairs, XVII (October, 1957),
236-243.
Durham, Mary E., "King Nikola of Montenegro," Contemporary Review, CXIX
(April, 1921), 471-478.
. Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle, London, George Allen &
Unwin, Ltd., 1920.
Fay, Sidney Bradshaw, The Origins of the World War, 2 volumes, New York,
The Free Press, 1966.
Fischer, Fritz, Germany's Aims in the First World War, New York, W. W.
Norton & Co., Inc., 1967.
Geshkoff, Theodore I., Balkan Union: A Road to Peace in Southeastern
Europe, Morningside Heights, New York, Columbia University Press,
1940.
Gewehr, Wesley M., The Rise of Nationalism in the Balkans, 1800-1930,
New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1931.

105

Gooch, George Peabody, Recent Revelations of European Diplomacy, 3rd

edition, revised, New York, etc., Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd.,
19 28.
Grogan, Lady Ellinor Flora Bosworth (Smith), The Life of J. D. Bourchier, London, Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 1926.
Guinn, Paul, British Strategy and Politics, 1914-1918, Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1965.
Helmreich, Ernst Christian, The Diplomacy of the Balkan Wars, 1912-1913,
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1938.
, "The Serbian-Montenegrin Alliance of September 23/0ctober 6, 1912," Journal of Central European Affairs,
XIX (January, 1960), 411-415.
Kohn, Hans, Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, Notre Dame, Indiana,
University of Notre Dame Press, 1953.
Lafore, Lawrence, The Long Fuse: An Interpretation of the Origins of
World War J, Philadelphia' and New York, Lippincott Company, 1965.
Langer, William L., European Alliances and A1ignments, 1871-1890, 2nd
edition, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1950.
_, "Russia, The Straits Question and the Origins of
the Balkan League 1908-1912," Political Science Quarterly, XLIII
(1928), 321-363.
Lederer, Ivo J., editor, Russian Foreign Policy: Essays in Historical
Perspective, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, 1962.
"M.,""The Balkan League, History and Its Formation," Fortnightly Review,
XCIX (March, 1913), 430-440.
Marriott, J. A. R., The Eastern Question: An Historical Study in European Diplomacy, 2nd edition revised, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1918.
Medlicott, W. N., The Congress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History
of the Near Eastern Settlement, 1878-1880, London, Methuen & Co.,
Ltd., 1938.
Mosely, Philip E., "Russian Policy in 1911-12," Journal of Modern History,
XII, No. 1 (March, 1940), 69-87.
Nicholson, Harold, Sir Arthur Nicholson Bart., First Lord Carnock: A
Study in the Old Diplomacy, London, Constable and Co., Ltd., 1930.
Peacock, Wadham, "Nicholas of Montenegro and the Czardom of the Serbs,"
Nineteenth Century and After, LXXII (1912), 881-882.

106
Petrovich, Michael B., The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, 1856-1870,
New York, Columbia University Press, 1956.

Renzi, William A., "Italy's Neutrality and Entrance into the Great War:
A Re-examination," American Historical Review, LXXIII, No. 5
(June, 1968), 1414-1432.
Roth, Jack J., editor, World War I: A Turning Point in Modern I-Iistory,
Essays on the Significance of the War, New York, A. A. Knopf, 1967.
Schevill, Ferdinand, The History of the Balkan Peninsula, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922.
Schmitt, Bernadotte E., The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908-1909, Cambridge,
England, The University Press, 1937.
Seton-Watson, Hugh, The Russian Empire, 1801-1917, New York, Oxford
University Press, 1967.
Silberstein, Gerard E., "The Serbian Campaign of 1915: Its Diplomatic
Background," American Historical Review, LXXIII, No. 1 (October,
1967), 51-69.
Stavrianos, Lefton Stavros, The Balkans Since 1453, New York, Rinehart
& Company, Inc., 1958.
Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1954.
Thaden, Edward C., "Montenegro: Russia's Troublesome Ally, 1910-1912,"
Journal of Central European Affairs, XVIII (July, 1958), 111-134.
Trevelyan, George Macaulay, Grey of Fallodon: The Life and Letters of
Sir Edward Grey, afterwards Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1937.
West, Rebecca, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, A Journey Through Yugoslavia,
New York, The Viking Press, 1944.
Willis, Edward F., Prince Lichnowsky Ambassador of Peace: A Study of
Prewar Diplomacy, 1912-1914, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University
of California Press, 1942.