The First Russian-Language Monograph on General R. D. Radko-Dmitriev

Потрашков С. В. Радко Димитриев – судьба русофила. – М.: Издательство «Кучково поле»: Ретроспектива, 2025. – 320 с. – ISBN: 978-5-6047858-6-7.

Abstract

This review examines a new book by S. V. Potrashkov, Doctor of Historical Sciences and specialist in Bulgarian history, titled Radko Dimitriev: The Fate of a Russophile (Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole and Retrospektiva, 2025). The work represents the first Russian-language monograph on the renowned Bulgarian-Russian General R. D. Radko-Dmitriev (1859–1918) — a man of complex and dramatic fate, a patriot of both Russia and Bulgaria, and a veteran of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885), the Balkan Wars, and World War I. Drawing on Russian and Bulgarian sources, primarily from the Russian State Military Historical Archive and the State Military Historical Archive of Bulgaria, the author reconstructs the subject’s biography against the broad backdrop of the two nations’ histories. The study utilizes the general’s service records, contemporaries’ memoirs, correspondence, and other primary materials. Particular attention is paid to little-known pages of Radko-Dmitriev’s early life and the formation of his Russophile views.

Received: 12.12.2025.

Citation
Ganin A. V. The First Russian-Language Monograph on General R. D. Radko-Dmitriev // Slavic Almanac. 2026. No 1–2. P. 475–485 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2026.1-2.26