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Then articles appeared in St Petersburg and Moscow journals proclaiming a modern crusade. Excited intellectuals explained why Russians had a duty to liberate the poor Balkan Slavs from material want and spiritual oppression, and the public was stirred to action. Money and consignments of humanitarian aid were soon on their way to Serbia and to Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire, as well as to Bosnia and Montenegro. Though the authorities kept quiet about it, arms and volunteers — some released from the army for the purpose — went too. In the spring of 1876 a rebellion duly broke out in Bulgaria. It was suppressed, occasioning protests in Russia and in England, where W. E. Gladstone fulminated about Turkish atrocities - although atrocities had been perpetrated by both sides. Then Russia joined in to help the beleaguered Serbs, making common cause with Austria for the last time, and in the spring of 1877 a Russian army marched south to the Danube. It was joined by troops from Romania (which, though not Slav, was Orthodox). The key Turkish fortifications at Pleven were eventually taken after heavy fighting. The Turks organized anti-Russian uprisings in the Caucasus and landed troops there, but early in the following January Russian forces took Sofia and Plovdiv and, in conjunction with Austrian forces, seized the Shipka Pass. Edirne fell without resistance. The road to Constantinople was open — and by 31 January 1878 an armistice brought the fighting to an end.

By the Treaty of San Stefano, signed in March 1878, a new state, Bulgaria, which included most of Macedonia, came into existence. Russia, to which it owed its existence, had made another friend and gained another client, to join Romania, Serbia and Greece. But the Powers, especially Britain, thought the new Bulgaria too large, as was Russia’s power in the Balkans. Bismarck agreed to host an international congress in Berlin, at which, by agreement, Bulgaria was much reduced, the rest being returned to the Turks, although eastern Rumelia was to have some autonomy under a Christian governor. This reduced Russia’s sphere of influence in the Balkans, but in return it was allowed to add Kars and Batum to its empire in the Caucasus. Russian statesmen were satisfied, though popular opinion, by now committed to pan-Slavism, was outraged.

The shame of defeat in the Crimean War had been exorcised; but Russia was no longer the predominant power in Europe. That place now belonged to Germany, conqueror of Austria and France. In the wake of the Congress of Berlin, Austria allied itself with Germany. So did Romania, and eventually even Serbia and Bulgaria. Thwarted in the Balkans, Russia turned its attentions back towards Asia.

The spotlight fell first on Central Asia, and on railway-building. The first Russian railway boom had petered out, but in 1879 army engineers started work on a strategic line from Krasnovodsk on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, opposite Baku, along the Persian frontier, and into Central Asia. By 1886 it had gone through Ashkhabad to reach the oasis of Merv. Two years later it had been extended to Bukhara and Samarkand. From Tashkent the line diverged, one branch going north, the other to Kokand and Andijan in the shadow of the Tien Shan mountains. It brought rail transportation within range of the Irkeshtan Pass and, beyond it, Kashgar in Chinese Xinjiang. In 1885 Russian troops defeated Afghan forces at Pendjeh on the Afghan border. Russia was established on the road to Kabul and the Khyber Pass. Within ten years its forces were confronting the British in the Pamirs. This prompted Anglo-Russian negotiations which resulted in the demarcation of spheres of influence. By 1898 the Russians had pushed a branch line from the Trans-Siberian Railway up to Kushk on the Afghan frontier. ¹⁸

But the simultaneous extension of Russia’s influence into Persia was hardly less impressive. In 1879 the Shah asked Russia to organize a Persian Cossack brigade and send in officers and NCOs. They were to provide the only disciplined troops in the country, and were to be used early in the twentieth century to suppress the Shah’s own obstreperous Majlis. By that time Britain had agreed that Russia should exercise a dominant influence in northern Persia, and have a commercial outlet on the Persian Gulf, where Russian warships were soon to appear. ¹⁹