Abstract:

The results revealed by the Balkan Wars on Bulgaria led Bulgaria to set up new strategies. In particular, Bulgaria, which did not get the support it wanted from Russia during the Second Balkan War, was cautious against its policies in the First World War. As a result of the Turkish-Bulgar relations based on mutual interests, the Ottoman State wanted to draw Bulgaria as a ally to its side. While Bulgaria is trying to implement its neutrality policy in this process, it has been pushed by the Opposition and Alliance Blocks to be in its own rows. As a result, Bulgaria decided to enter the First World War in the lines of the Ottoman State and declared war on Serbia. At the end of the First World War, Bulgaria, which was forced to sit on the table with the opposition states, withdrawn from the war with a treaty signed. Russia, which entered the front of the First World War, intended to keep the fronts it fought as narrow as possible. Therefore, just before the war, as the Ottoman State was trying to continue its neutrality, it also developed various policies to keep Bulgaria neutral in the war. The entry of Bulgaria into the war on the edges of the Ottoman State meant the establishment of a ground connection between the Ottoman State and its allies. Russia, which saw that such a development would be a destruction for itself, made long efforts to keep Bulgaria neutral or to enter the war on the Russian lines. This initiative was the subject of communications between the Russian Foreign Ministry and its diplomatic missions in Istanbul and Sofia. In this study, the efforts of Russia to keep Bulgaria away from the Alliance Block during World War I will be attempted to reveal on the basis of Russian diplomatic documents.

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