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Writer's pictureEric D. Halsey

186 Return to Resistance

Interethnic violence rocks a Bulgarian city, former members of the MRO decide they've had enough with the Young Turks and reform the organization. Meanwhile, Ferdinand orchestrates a new government in Sofia to lay the groundwork for a shift in Bulgaria's foreign policy.


Major Characters in this Episode

Yane Sandanski

Tsar Ferdinand Jovo Kovanovich

Pancho Dorev

Alexander Malinov

Ivan Gueshov


Timeline for this Episode

  • 1910 Feb 28th - The “Ruse blood wedding” sees dozens of deaths and injuries in fighting between Bulgarians and Turks.

  • 1910 Mar 7-15th - Ferdinand and the prime minister visit Constantinople. Improvement of relations with The Gate.

  • 1910 Apr 12th - Changes in voting law limits administrative pressure on voters.

  • 1910 Apr 22nd-24th - The first assembly of the literary magazine Българаска Матица (formed in 1909) in Thessaloniki.

  • 1910 April - The MP Pancho Dorev makes an attempt to form a progressive constitutional party in the Ottoman parliament, based on the union of the Bulgarian constitutional clubs.

  • 1910 May 4th - Founding conference for the National Bulgarian Macedonia-Odrin Revolutionary Organisation (БНМОРО) in Sofia.

  • 1910 May 22nd - Bulgarian MPs in the Ottoman parliament protest the settlement of Muslim refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bulgarian villages in the Skopje region.

  • 1910 June 22nd - Founding of a common and independent union of the church brotherhoods in Sofia, which refuses its dependency on the Saint Synod.

  • 1910 June 24th-27th - Second preparatory Slavic assembly in Sofia, dominated by the Russophile circles in the National and Progressive-Liberal parties.

  • 1910 June - Forceful disarmed of the activists in the Bulgarian Freedom movement by the Turkish government, which forces the activists to go into hiding and continue their work illegally.

  • 1910 July 7th - First assembly of the general synod of bishops of the Bulgarian Exarchy after the Freeing. They vote for services to be held in Bulgarian alongside Slavonic, but services held during the week of passion are to be held only in Bulgarian. Other changes.

  • 1910 July - First Bulgarian (Ferdinand) flies on a plane - 17 minute flight over Brussels.

  • 1910 Aug 13th - БРСДП and the Serbian Social-Democratic party file a joint memorandum in the International Socialist bureau against the young Turkish regime.

  • 1910 Nov 18th - Pancho Dorev back at it again with an action in the Ottoman parliament, asking for the lifting of the schism on the Exarchy and recognition of the excellency of the Patriarch. Unsuccessful; god loves a trier.

  • 1910 Dec 31st - Official national census.

  • 1910 Throughout the year - The Hali market hall is built.

  • 1910, a parliamentary inquiry finds evidence of corruption by former PM Gudev

  • 1910, Bulgarian-Russian negotiations on renewing secret military protocol

  • 1911 Feb 11th - The proportional electoral system is introduced through a law in the Plovdiv and Tarnovo electoral regions.

  • 1911 Feb - General assembly for the the Skopje and Bitolya districts of БНМОРО, approved by activists from the former Supreme committee. ВМРО is founded.

  • 1911 Mar 7th - A law, changing the constitution, is promulgated. This change foresees the creation of a Ministry of trade, industry, and labour, a Ministry of agriculture and national properties, Ministry of public buildings, roads, and improvement, and a Ministry of railroads, posts and telegraphs, and the tsar title is legalised for the Bulgarian monarch, among other changes.

  • 1911 Mar 16th - Coalition government of the national party and the progressive liberal party.

  • 1911 Mar 18th - The Bulgarian central cooperative bank opens for business.

  • 1911 Apr 26th - The Gate affirms the new composition of the Exarchy council, based on the elections from Spring of the same year.

  • 1911 May - Knyaz Boris and knyaz Cyril Preslavski visit Istanbul, where they’re given audience by the sultan and the Universal Patriarch.

  • 1911 June 5th - Elections for the fifth Supreme National Assembly, won by the ruling coalition.

  • 1911 June 9th-July 9th - The fifth SNA makes changes to the constitution.

  • 1911 June 12th - The Ottoman party is founded in Bitolya based on the Bulgarian national-federative party.

  • 1911 Aug 13th - First Bulgarian plane is flown over Sofia. An aircraft department of the army is formed, constituting of a single plane.

  • 1911 Sept 4th - Fifteenth General assembly elections, won by the ruling national and progressive liberal parties.


A postcard showing the couple who's love affair triggered the bloody events in Ruse.
A postcard showing the couple who's love affair triggered the bloody events in Ruse.

A gathering after the "blood wedding" showing the coffins of the dead.
A gathering after the "blood wedding" showing the coffins of the dead.

The funeral procession in Ruse after the events.
The funeral procession in Ruse after the events.

The first page of the rules for the newly formed ВНМОРО.
The first page of the rules for the newly formed ВНМОРО.

Tsar Ferdinand becoming the first reigning monarch to ride in an airplane.
Tsar Ferdinand becoming the first reigning monarch to ride in an airplane.

A New York Times front page piece on the flight.
A New York Times front page piece on the flight.

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