A New Book about Russian Volunteers on the Balkans at 1876

Кочукова О. В., Кочуков С. А. В Сербию из Саратова. Русские добровольцы в борьбе за национальную свободу южных славян (1876). Документальная монография. – М.: Политическая энциклопедия, 2023. – 296 с.

Abstract

Monograph by Saratov historians O. V. Kochukova and S. A. Kochukov is dedicated to the Russian volunteers’ participation in the Balkan events of 1876. The ideas of Slavic brotherhood and Slavic reciprocity, which were widespread in the Russian Empire in the 1860s and 1870s, acquired special significance in 1876, in the wake of public support to the South Slavs uprisings. These sentiments had a significant influence on the political decisions that resulted in the subsequent Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The authors focus on travel descriptions, notes, archives and publications by volunteers from the Saratov province (the most significant ones were published as part of this monograph with extensive authors’ comments). The research part of the book analyzes the characteristics of the social content of the Russian volunteer movement, their worldview and perception of the Slavic Orthodox “brothers”. Considerable space is devoted to ethnocultural images and stereotypes of South Slavs. The authors examine Soviet and Russian historiography of the Balkan and Eastern issues in Russian imperial politics of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries and the anthropological approaches of latest researchers, who analyze the experience of Russian participants in the Balkan wars of the 1870s. in the context of historical verification of the ideals of Slavic brotherhood.

Received: 22.01.2024.

Citation
Leskinen M. V. A New Book about Russian Volunteers on the Balkans at 1876 // Slavic Almanac. 2024. No 3–4. P. 500–509 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2024.3-4.26