THE NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE OF THE BALKAN PEOPLES AND THE CRIMEAN WAR

The article examines the stages of the national liberation struggle of the peoples of South-Eastern Europe against the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Empire supported the Christian population and helped the southern Slavs and the Greeks to get free from the Ottoman dependency. But Emperor Nicholas I opposed the revolution. The 1850s were marked by the strained political and economic relations between Russia, Turkey, Britain, France and other European States. The Bulgarian and the Greek bourgeoisie had moved from enlightment activity to the political one. Bulgarians, Serbs, Moldovans, Greeks joined the volunteers and defended national interests with the weapon in hands. During the Crimean war the Russian command created military units on the territory of the Danubian principalities. Volunteers fought on the Danube, in Moldavia and Wallachia, and the Crimea. They protected the borders, defended the bastions of Sevastopol. The subject of the research is the organization of volunteer groups, national and social composition of the groups. The role of volunteers was of an exclusive political significance. The number of volunteers in the ranks of Russian troops was insignificant. But the volunteers were guides of Russian policy in the Turkish lands. They represented the fighting core.