KULTUR IN BULGARIA
The tragedy of the second Balkan war had bitten deep into the hearts of
most Bulgarians. As I have already related, the terrible disaster which
that war brought upon Bulgaria produced a controversy which only died
down when the Bulgarian Army was once more mobilized to fight for the
Turk against the nation which liberated Bulgaria from Turkish bondage.
In the course of that controversy the argument was elaborated that by
the Treaty of Bucarest Bulgaria had liquidated its old debt to Russia,
and was free to turn and rend its whilom benefactor upon the first
favourable occasion. As Nikoff, one of the foremost controversialists,
put it:
“In 1878 Russia liberated 3,000,000 of our population after having shed
the blood of 150,000 of her sons. In the year 1913 Bulgaria liberated,
at great sacrifices also, 3,000,000 of her population in Macedonia and
Thrace, which Russia took and distributed among her new protégés,
Rumania, Serbia and Greece. And to-day Bulgaria and Russia are quits.
We have paid all our debt to Russia. To-day we can say: We have secured
our own liberty by our own arms.”
The argument is an ingenious one, but it quite overlooks the point that
the Bulgarian Czar, and not Russia, was the instrument of Bulgaria’s
undoing. But the Bulgarians desired to free themselves not only from
the obligation for their liberty, but from the claims of kinship with
Russia. And here German Kultur came to their aid by an elaborate
demonstration that they were not Slavs at all, but a predominant
semi-Teutonic and Tartar race which had organized the meek Slavs of 500
years ago into a victorious nation, and had persisted long after the
Slav race that lived with them had perished.
For Slav unity this new Bulgarian school therefore proposed to
substitute the theory of German Kultur. As Dr. Ghenadieff writes,
“Slavism is a fatal barrier to our national power and enthusiasm. It is
high time that we emerge from that error and discontinue preaching that
falsehood.”
And Dr. Petroff, of the Bulgarian University, writes, “At this moment
the culturally degenerated and outcast France has, in her struggle
against the powerful German Kultur, barbaric and idiotic Russia for her
ally.”
And the most celebrated of Bulgarian poets, the Tartaro-Bulgar Kyril
Christoff, sings a song of vengeance against Ferdinand’s France—
When—after our deeds—envy gathered
Five enemies before our doors;
When, one after another, the enemies plundered us,
And the sacred deed was reduced to ashes—
Soulless and sold, O France, thou wast the first
To calumniate our martyred people!
Before our pain thy heart was not moved—
But thou didst spit in the face of the Crucifix!
Such a state of mind, of course, was diligently fostered in Bulgaria by
Austrians and Germans alike. Soon there were accounts from credible
sources of the massing in Bulgaria of huge stores of German munitions,
and even of German uniforms. Some of these munitions were undoubtedly
intended for the beleaguered Turk, and Bulgaria became notorious for
the ease with which these warlike stores could be smuggled through a
neutral country. Indeed, so openly was the passage made that the word
smuggled is wildly inappropriate.
At this period Bulgaria entertained a new guest, Prince Henry of Reuss.
He had not always been as friendly to his brother-in-law, the Czar of
Bulgaria, as that potentate considered compatible with his own dignity
and peculiar merits. But now he had to complain of no lack of
friendliness on the part of the Lutheran Prince, or of his royal master
who had dispatched him to Sofia.
The Germans at this period were good customers of Bulgaria. The wheat
crop had been a bountiful one, and never had the Bulgarian farmers
received such prices for their harvest. They found that a European war
spelled prosperity for them, though there were signs that the garnering
of the wheat would be followed by one of those grim harvests with which
Bulgaria has recently been only too familiar.
Then German officers appeared in the streets of Sofia in increasing
numbers. They were discernible everywhere, though they made as little
display as possible of their uniforms; and when a German officer
appears in civil garb there must be some deep reason for the
self-denial.
The other signs of German Kultur in Bulgaria were the persistent
anti-Russian campaigns carried on by the chief newspapers, especially
the Government organs.
“If our national duty demands that we should join ourselves to the
enemies of the Russian policy,” wrote Dr. Ghenadieff, “it would be
criminal and treasonable were we to hesitate to do so because of a
souvenir of our liberation, or if, following the example of the
Bohemians, Poles, Croatians, and other pure-blooded Slavs, we delayed
too long before turning our arms against the Russians.... May an end be
finally put to the question of Bulgarian gratitude to Russia.”
Thus the corruption of Bulgaria went on. German money, German officers,
and German arms were poured into the country. The sufferings of Poland,
devastated as the result of its fidelity to Russia, were magnified in
the Bulgarian Press, and the moral for Bulgarians was emphasized with
daily increasing vehemence.
Ferdinand’s part in these proceedings was a characteristic one. He
undertook to conceal from the Powers of the Entente the treachery that
was preparing, and of which he was the chief instigator. At this
period—the middle of August, 1915—he wrote to a correspondent in Paris,
through his political secretary Dobrovitch:—
“The Russians have recently sustained serious defeats, but I am not of
opinion that these will affect the general situation. They now require
time to recuperate, and then, I hope, they will be able to resume the
offensive.
“Bulgaria maintains its neutrality. Will it continue to do so? I think
not. But in any case Bulgaria will not move until Greece and Rumania
have done so. The catastrophes of the last war have taught us to be
prudent, and not to trust to promises.
“I have conveyed your messages to His Majesty the King, who has been
much touched by them, and has charged me to convey his appreciation.”
That letter was written a month after the treaty with Germany had been
signed. In the middle of July the French Minister at Sofia was secretly
informed that Ferdinand had gone on a visit to Berlin. He at once
attempted to get into touch with the King, and was informed that he was
not very well, and was resting at his Vrana estate. He made persistent
attempts to communicate with Ferdinand by telephone, a method always
possible when Ferdinand was professing to be more French than the
French themselves. His every attempt was met with the reply that His
Majesty was indisposed and could not answer the calls.
Photographs have since been obtained which prove beyond all doubt that
Ferdinand was at that time in Berlin, where he had gone to confirm with
the Kaiser the hard and fast arrangement which had been effected
through the agency of the Prince of Reuss.
And now the German officers swarmed openly in the streets of Sofia and
took up their quarters at the Bulgarian war office. The meaning of the
signs and portents could not be mistaken by anybody but a simpleton. It
was common knowledge throughout Bulgaria that their Czar was about to
throw in his lot with the Huns.
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FERDINAND AND THE FARMER
“_It is a policy which will compromise your own dynasty, and may cost
you your head._”—STAMBULIVSKI, A BULGARIAN FARMER.
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