The Bulgarian government is as unstable as it had been in its first year, Alexander having left behind a three-man regency headed by Stefan Stambolov.

A Russian-educated liberal, Stambolov becomes prime minister in 1887 and ceases tailoring Bulgarian policy to Russian requirements.

The tsar's special representative in Bulgaria returns to Russia after failing to block a subranie called to nominate a new prince.

Russo-Bulgarian relations will remain chilly for the next ten years, and this break will further destabilize Bulgarian politics and society.

Stambolov brutally suppresses an army uprising in 1887 and begins seven years of iron control that often bypass the country's democratic institutions but bring unprecedented stability to Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a Catholic German prince, accepts the Bulgarian throne in August 1887.

A new Bulgarian state is born in 1878 despite strong dissatisfaction with the frontiers imposed by the European powers, and despite early political uncertainty, the first thirty-four years of modern Bulgaria will in many ways be its most prosperous and productive.

A constituent assembly is duly convened in Turnovo in 1879.

Partly elected and partly appointed, the assembly of two hundred and thirty splits into conservative and liberal factions similar to those that had existed before independence

The liberals advocate  continuing the alliance of peasants and intelligentsia that had formed the independence movement, to be symbolized in a single parliamentary chamber; the conservatives argue that the Bulgarian peasant class is not ready for political responsibility, and therefore it should be represented in a second chamber with limited powers.

The framework for the Turnovo constitution is a draft submitted by the Russian occupation authorities, based on the constitutions of Serbia and Romania.

As the assembly revises this document, the liberal view prevails; a one-chamber parliament or subranie will be elected by universal male suffrage.

Between the annual fall ses-sions of the subranie, the country will be run jointly by the monarch and a council of ministers responsible to parliament.

The liberals who dominate the assembly incorporate many of their revolutionary ideals into what becomes one of the most liberal constitutions of its time.

The final act of the Turnovo assembly is the election of Alexander of Battenburg, a young German nobleman who had joined the Russians in the war of 1877, to be the first prince of modern Bulgaria.

Alexander opposes the liberal wing in Bulgaria and the Turnovo constitution from the beginning of his reign.

After two years of conflict with the liberal council of ministers headed by Dragan Tsankov, Alexander receives Russian backing to replace Tsankov.

When the Russian Tsar Alexander II is assassinated, Russian policy changes to allow a grand national assembly to consider the constitutional changes desired by Prince Alexander.

The assassination spurs conservatism in Russia, and the Bulgarian liberals have alarmed the Russians by refusing foreign economic aid in the early 1880s.

To the dismay of the liberals, Russia intervenes in the election of the constitutional subranie, frightening voters into electing a group that passes the entire package of amendments.

Liberal influence is sharply reduced by amendments limiting the power of the subranie, but, because the conservative approach to governing Bulgaria has little popular support, Alexander makes a series of compromises with liberal positions between 1881 and 1885.

The Turnovo constitution is essentially restored by agreement between Tsankov and the conservatives in 1883, and the constitutional issue is resolved.

In only the first two years of Bulgaria's existence, two parliaments and seven cabinets have been dissolved, but more stable times lie ahead.

The most important issue of this period is Bulgaria's changing relationship with Russia.

Bulgarian hostility towards the Russian army, refusal to build a strategic railway for the Russians through Bulgaria, and poor relations between Prince Alexander and Tsar Alexander III of Russia all contribute to increasing alienation.

Because conservative Russia now fears unrest in the Balkans, Karavelov tries to appease the tsar by quelling the uprisings that continue in Macedonia.

Radical factions in Bulgaria are persuaded to lower their goals from annexation of Macedonia and Thrace to a union between Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.

When a bloodless coup achieves this union in 1885, however, Russia demands the ouster of Prince Alexander and withdraws all Russian officers from the Bulgarian army.

Greece and Serbia see their interests threatened, and the latter declares war on Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian army wins a brilliant victory over Serbia, with no Russian aid, at the Battle of Slivnitsa.

Although the victory is a source of great national pride for Bulgaria, Russia continues to withhold recognition of the union with Eastern Rumelia until Prince Alexander abdicates.

Finally, Russian-trained Bulgarian army officers depose the prince in August 1886.

Russian troops occupy all of Bulgaria and reach Constantinople in eight months.

At this high point of its influence on Balkan affairs, Russia dictates the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878.

This treaty provides for an autonomous Bulgarian state (under Russian protection) almost as extensive as the First Bulgarian Empire, bordering the Black and Aegean seas, but Britain and Austria-Hungary, believing that the new state will extend Russian influence too far into the Balkans, exerts strong diplomatic pressure that reshapes the Treaty of San Stefano four months later into the Treaty of Berlin.

The new Bulgaria will be about one-third the size of that prescribed by the Treaty of San Stefano; Macedonia and Thrace, south of the Balkans, will revert to complete Ottoman control.

The province of Eastern Rumelia will remain under Turkish rule, but with a Christian governor.

The Treaty of Berlin reduces to nine months the two years of Russian occupation of Bulgaria agreed to in the the Treaty of San Stefano.

Both treaties provide or an assembly of Bulgarian notables to write a constitution for their new country.

The assembly will also elect a prince who is not a member of a major European ruling house and who will recognize the authority of the Ottoman sultan.

In cases of civil disruption, the sultan retains the right to intervene with armed force.

The final provisions for Bulgarian liberation fall far short of the goals of the national liberation movement.

Large populations of Bulgarians remain outside the new nation in Macedonia, Eastern Rumelia, and Thrace, causing resentment that endures well into the next century. (Bulgarians still celebrate the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano rather than the Treaty of Berlin as their national independence day.)

In late 1878, a provisional Bulgarian government and armed uprisings has already surfaced in the Kresna and Razlog regions of Macedonia.

These uprisings are quelled swiftly by the Turks with British support.

During the next twenty-five years, large numbers of Bulgarians will flee Macedonia into the new Bulgaria, and will secret liberation societies appear in Macedonia and Thrace.

One such group, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO),will continue terrorist activities in the Balkans into the 1930s.

The final provisions for Bulgarian liberation had fallen far short of the goals of the national liberation movement.

Large populations of Bulgarians remain outside the new nation in Macedonia, Eastern Rumelia, and Thrace, causing resentment that will endure well into the next century. (Bulgarians still celebrate the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano rather than the Treaty of Berlin as their national independence day.)

In late 1878, a provisional Bulgarian government and armed uprisings surfaces in the Kresna and Razlog regions of Macedonia.

The Turks, with British support, swiftly quell these uprisings.