48 Balkan and East European insurrections Ruthenians Neither group had any autonomous rights or guarantees of free cultural development A part of the Croats and all the Slovenes, together with the Czechs, the Poles, and the Ukrainians of Galicia, and some Romanians, remained under the Austrian part of the monarchy They were disappointed by the fact that, unlike Hungary, the other areas of the kingdom only received provincial autonomy, with equal rights for all languages in local administration, the courts, and the schools Even the Poles had to give up claims for a real national self-government Particularly opposed to the 1867 settlement were the Czechs Under these conditions, the leadership of the Czech national movement passed from the moderate Old Czechs to the radical Young Czechs BULGARIAN NATIONALISM During the 1870s another Balkan crisis was approaching in connection with the Bulgarian independence movement When the Turks repressed a revolt in 1876 in Bulgaria, Russia again intervened and made an agreement with Austria and Hungary The Balkan Peninsula was divided into autonomous states, and both Austria and Hungary were promised some rewards in Bosnia-Herzegovina The conflict ended in a complete victory for Russia, allied with all Balkan nations In the Peace Treaty of San Stefano, signed on March 3, 1878, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro were declared fully independent, and a large Bulgarian state was created The borders, however, conflicted with the aspirations of other Balkan peoples Alarmed at this extension of Russia’s influence, European leaders met to discuss boundaries at an international congress held in Berlin, where the Peace of San Stefano was completely revised The disappointment felt by the Bulgarians convinced them that Russia was their only protector Serbia and Romania became independent principalities In Bulgaria, Alexander of Battenberg, the nephew of the Russian czar, was chosen as prince There was a strong movement for real independence, both in the principality and in the Turkish province of Eastern Rumelia These incompatible policies led to inevitable clashes in which Alexander proved unpredictable The union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria was finally achieved in 1885 Battenberg’s replacement by Ferdinand of SaxeCoburg in 1887 strengthened German and AustroHungarian influence in Bulgaria In the 1878 Berlin Congress, Austria was granted the provisional right to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina That acquisition introduced almost million Orthodox and Muslims into the Habsburg realm This was a blow to Serbia, which had hoped to gain these provinces with their predominantly Serbian population Nevertheless, after 1878 Serbia pursued a pro-Austrian policy under Obrenovich, who proclaimed himself king of Serbia in 1882 When he declared war on Bulgaria in 1885 after Bulgaria’s occupation of Eastern Rumelia, Serbia was defeated After securing Thessaly from Turkey in 1881, Greece fought another war against the Ottoman Empire in 1897 that only brought minor remedies regarding the Thessalian frontier ONGOING NATIONALISTIC CONFLICT It was not until the 1905 revolution that Europe realized the importance of nationalism within the Russian Empire Before that crisis, the dissatisfaction of the nonRussian minorities did not appear be serious In the czarist empire, the Russian majority seemed immense because the Ukrainians and the White Russians were not official nationalities However, the larger non-Russian ethnic groups made steady progress in their national consciousness The Byelorussians, the Ukrainians, and other nationalities formed a belt of foreign elements along Russia’s western frontier Russia kept even the most developed nationalities under strict control Even the Poles had to postpone their hopes for liberation, focusing instead on economic and social progress In the Baltic, the Estonians and the Latvians emerged in opposition to Russification Landmark events in the rise of Estonian nationalism included the compilation of the national epic (Kalevipoeg, published 1857–61) and a later collection of popular traditions Similarly, the Latvians created their own epic (Lacplesis) and started a collection of popular songs The Lithuanian national renaissance was different because a medieval tradition of independence could be evoked A new tendency arose that disregarded the tradition of the former Polish-Lithuanian Union and based Lithuanian nationalism on ethnic and linguistic grounds Writing in the Lithuanian language was making progress despite restrictions imposed by the Russian government Lithuania’s nationalism, however, carried no clearly expressed political aim Discouraged by Russia’s imperialism, many Slavs looked with hope to the Habsburg monarchy, where the problem of nationalities was continually discussed in an entirely different spirit from that in the czarist empire The nationalities of Austria and Hungary were divided into two groups—nations that were living entirely within the monarchy and those with smaller fragments in other nations As for the latter, an additional distinction should be made between minorities attracted by an