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The Russians, with an army of approximately 300,000 men and 1,200 pieces of ordinance, invaded Rumania, which had declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire on 21 May. In contrast the Turks had only 135,000 soldiers and roughly 450 cannons in their Balkan provinces, and the Russians expected an easy victory. The strategic aim of the Russian High Command was the city of Edirne (Adrianopolis). In June the Russians invaded Bulgaria, where the attack ran aground because the invaders had begun the siege of Plevna, although their way to Edirne lay open. Because of this prolonged delay, the Russians only reached Edirne on 19 January 1878. In October 1877 the Russians opened a second front in the Caucasus, forcing the Turkish army to withdraw to the fortresses of Kars and Erzerum. Kars fell to the enemy on 18 November 1877, and the position of the beleaguered Turks in Erzerum deteriorated by the week. However, the outcome of the war was really decided in Europe, when Russian troops appeared in front of the defensive lines at Istanbul on 31 January, and a truce was agreed. On 3 March 1878 the two empires signed the Peace of San Stefano, in which Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Rumania achieved independence. Nonetheless the Bulgarians' independence was withdrawn, under pressure from the Great Powers, at the Treaty of Berlin, signed on 13 June 1878. Their territory was reduced by half, the remaining fifty per cent being accorded only autonomous status under Russian supervision. The Serbs had to accept, by the terms of the same Treaty, the way in which Bosnia and Herzegovina, with their many Serb inhabitants, were annexed by Austro-Hungaria. Thus the seeds of further bloody conflicts were sown. |
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