Editing Bulgarians (section)

==History==
{{See also|Nationalism in the Middle Ages|Byzantine commonwealth|Rum Millet}}
{{Bulgarians}}
[[File:05 633 Book illustrations of Historical description of the clothes and weapons of Russian troops.jpg|thumb|upright|Officers from Bulgarian [[hussar]] regiment in Russia (1776–1783)]]
Although contemporary Bulgaria is a young nation state, its traces go back to The First Bulgarian Empire which was founded in 681 as a Slav-Bulgar state.<ref name= "Giatzidis"/> After the adoption of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] in 864 it became one of the cultural centres of Slavic Europe. Its leading cultural position was consolidated with the invention of the [[Cyrillic script]] in its capital [[Preslav]] at the eve of the 10th century.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC&pg=PR1 |title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks |first=Florin |last=Curta |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |pages=221–222 |access-date=2015-02-11|isbn=9780521815390}}</ref> The development of [[Old Church Slavonic]] literacy in the country during the 10th century, had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the [[South Slavs]] into neighbouring cultures. Also, it stimulated the development of a Bulgarian national identity, that was far from modern nationalism but it helped Bulgaria to survive as a distinct entity through the centuries.<ref name= "Giatzidis">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUVgsK_GfxYC&pg=PA11 |title=An Introduction to Post-Communist Bulgaria: Political, Economic and Social Transformations |first=Emil |last=Giatzidis |publisher=Manchester University Press |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780719060953 |year=2002 |pages=10-11|archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115223028/https://books.google.com/books?id=MUVgsK_GfxYC&pg=PA11 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C&q=Thus+by+Peter%27s+reign+the+Bulgar+and+Slavic+elements+had+merged+to+form+a+Slavic |title=The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century |first=John V. A. Jr. |last=Fine |publisher=University of Michigan |year=1991 |page=165 |via=Books.google.bg |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=978-0472081493 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201444/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C&q=Thus+by+Peter%27s+reign+the+Bulgar+and+Slavic+elements+had+merged+to+form+a+Slavic#v=snippet&q=Thus%20by%20Peter's%20reign%20the%20Bulgar%20and%20Slavic%20elements%20had%20merged%20to%20form%20a%20Slavic&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Poulton2000">{{cite book|last=Poulton|first=Hugh|title=Who are the Macedonians?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppbuavUZKEwC&pg=PA19|edition=2nd|year=2000|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=978-1-85065-534-3|pages=19–20}}</ref> A symbiosis was carried out between the numerically weak Bulgars and the numerous Slavic tribes in that broad area from the Danube to the north, to the [[Aegean Sea]] to the south, and from the [[Adriatic Sea]] to the west, to the [[Black Sea]] to the east, who accepted the common [[demonym]] "''Bulgarians''".<ref>{{cite book |author=Vassil Karloukovski |url=http://www.kroraina.com/macedon/mik_6_1.html |title=Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) |isbn=978-9989756078 |page=72 |publisher=Kroraina.com |access-date=2015-02-11 |year=1996 |archive-date=15 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915012207/http://www.kroraina.com/macedon/mik_6_1.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1018, Bulgaria lost its independence and remained a Byzantine subject until 1185, when the [[Second Bulgarian Empire]] was created.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANdbpi1WAIQC&q=bulgaria+ceased+to+exist+1018&pg=PA364 |title=East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500 |first=Jean W. |last=Sedlar |publisher=University of Washington Press |page=364 |year=1994 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780295800646 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201444/https://books.google.com/books?id=ANdbpi1WAIQC&q=bulgaria+ceased+to+exist+1018&pg=PA364 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, at the end of the 14th century, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] conquered the whole of Bulgaria.<ref name="Ottoman rule" /> Under the Ottoman system, Christians were considered an inferior class of people. Thus, Bulgarians, like other Christians, were subjected to heavy taxes and a small portion of the Bulgarian populace experienced partial or complete Islamisation.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQsB_AghBKkC&pg=PA8 |title=Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahası – Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670–1730 |first=Anton |last=Minkov |publisher=BRILL |year=2004 |page=193 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=978-9004135765 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201444/https://books.google.com/books?id=zQsB_AghBKkC&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Orthodox Christians were included in a specific ethno-religious community called ''[[Rum Millet]]''. To the common people, belonging to this Orthodox commonwealth became more important than their ethnic origins.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htMUx8qlWCMC&pg=PA47 |title=Europe and the Historical Legacies in the Balkans |first1=Raymond |last1=Detrez |first2=Barbara |last2=Segaert |first3=Peter |last3=Lang |page=36 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9789052013749 |year=2008 |publisher=Peter Lang |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201445/https://books.google.com/books?id=htMUx8qlWCMC&pg=PA47#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> This community became both, basic form of social organization and source of identity for all the ethnic groups inside it.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=082osLxyBDgC&pg=PA17 |title=Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History: Selected Articles and Essays |first=Kemal H. |last=Karpat |publisher=Brill |year=2002 |page=17 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=978-9004121010 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201446/https://books.google.com/books?id=082osLxyBDgC&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In this way, ethnonyms were rarely used and between the 15th and 19th centuries, most of the local people gradually began to identify themselves simply as ''Christians''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7oAUeUVtc58C&pg=PA276 ''Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity''], Disciplinary and Regional Perspectives, Joshua A. Fishman, Ofelia García, Oxford University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|0195374924}}, p. 276: "There were almost no remnants of a Bulgarian ethnic identity; the population defined itself as Christians, according to the Ottoman system of millets, that is, communities of religious beliefs. The first attempts to define a Bulgarian ethnicity started at the beginning of the 19th century."</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Roudometof |first1=Victor |last2=Robertson |first2=Roland |title=Nationalism, globalization, and orthodoxy: the social origins of ethnic conflict in the Balkans |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2001 |pages=68–71 |isbn=978-0313319495 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9p_m7oXQ00C&q=rum+millet+identity&pg=PA68 |access-date=16 October 2020 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201446/https://books.google.com/books?id=I9p_m7oXQ00C&q=rum+millet+identity&pg=PA68 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the public-spirited clergy in some isolated monasteries still kept the distinct Bulgarian identity alive,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ULXk_ofPSgC&pg=PA219 |title=Margins and Marginality: Marginalia and Colophons in South Slavic Manuscripts During the Ottoman Period, 1393–1878 |first=Tatiana Nikolaeva |last=Nikolova-Houston |pages=202–206 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780549650751 |year=2008 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and this helped it to survive predominantly in rural, remote areas.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofmo00cram |url-access=registration |title=Modern Bulgaria |first=R. J. |last=Crampton |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |page=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofmo00cram/page/8 8] |access-date=2015-02-11|isbn=9780521273237}}</ref> Despite the process of ethno-religious fusion among the Orthodox Christians, strong nationalist sentiments persisted into the [[Roman Catholicism in Bulgaria|Catholic community]] in the northwestern part of the country.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jR98-Ata0CkC&pg=PA260 |title=Religion and Power in Europe: Conflict and Convergence |first=Joaquim |last=Carvalho |publisher=Edizioni Plus |page=261 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9788884924643 |year=2007 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201741/https://books.google.com/books?id=jR98-Ata0CkC&pg=PA260#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> At that time, a process of partial Hellenization occurred among the intelligentsia and the urban population, as a result of the higher status of the Greek culture and the [[Greek Orthodox Church]] among the Balkan Christians. During the second half of the 18th century, the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] in [[Western Europe]] provided influence for the initiation of the [[National awakening of Bulgaria]] in 1762.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8lPyP6iE1YC&pg=PR4 |title=A Comparative Study of Post-Ottoman Political Influences on Bulgarian National Identity Construction and Conflict |first=Spencer S. |last=Stith |pages=22–23 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780549683957 |year=2008 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Some Bulgarians supported the Russian Army when they crossed the Danube in the middle of the 18th century. Russia worked to convince them to settle in areas recently conquered by it, especially in [[Bessarabia]]. As a consequence, many Bulgarian refugees settled there, and later they formed two military regiments, as part of the Russian military colonization of the area in 1759–1763.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Vladimir |last1=Milchev |title=Два хусарски полка с българско участие в системата на държавната военна колонизация в Южна Украйна (1759-1762/63 г.) |trans-title=Two Hussar Regiments with Bulgarian Participation in the System of the State Military Colonization in Southern Ukraine (1759-1762/63) |language=bg |journal=Исторически преглед |year=2002 |issue=5–6 |pages=154–65 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=113707 |access-date=22 November 2016 |archive-date=31 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201231081650/https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=113707 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Bulgarian national movement===
{{See also|Bulgarian Millet|Macedonian Bulgarians}}
During the [[Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812)|Russo-Turkish Wars of 1806–1812]] and [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829)|1828–1829]] Bulgarian emigrants formed the [[Bulgarian Land Army (1810-1812)|Bulgarian Countrymen's Army]] and joined the [[Imperial Russian Army|Russian Army]], hoping Russia would bring Bulgarian liberation, but its imperial interests were focused then on [[Greece]] and [[Wallachia]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBYriPYyfUoC&pg=PA137 |title=Establishment of the Balkan National States: 1804–1918 |first1=Charles |last1=Jelavich |first2=Barbara |last2=Jelavich |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=1977 |page=128 |access-date=2015-02-11 |isbn=9780295803609 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201742/https://books.google.com/books?id=LBYriPYyfUoC&pg=PA137#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire]] led to a struggle for cultural and religious autonomy of the Bulgarian people. The Bulgarians wanted to have their own schools and liturgy in Bulgarian, and they needed an independent ecclesiastical organisation. Discontent with the supremacy of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the struggle started to flare up in several Bulgarian dioceses in the 1820s.

It was not until the 1850s when the Bulgarians initiated a purposeful struggle against the [[Patriarchate of Constantinople]]. The struggle between the Bulgarians and the Greek [[Phanariotes]] intensified throughout the 1860s. In 1861 the [[Holy See|Vatican]] and the Ottoman government recognized a separate [[Bulgarian Uniat Church]]. As the Greek clerics were ousted from most Bulgarian bishoprics at the end of the decade, significant areas had been seceded from the Patriarchate's control. This movement restored the distinct Bulgarian national consciousness among the common people and led to the recognition of the [[Bulgarian millet]] in 1870 by the Ottomans. As result, two armed struggle movements started to develop as late as the beginning of the 1870s: the [[Internal Revolutionary Organisation]] and the [[Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee]]. Their armed struggle reached its peak with the [[April Uprising]] which broke out in 1876. It resulted in the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–78)|Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)]], and led to the [[Liberation of Bulgaria|foundation of the third Bulgarian state]] after the [[Treaty of San Stefano]]. The issue of [[Bulgarian nationalism]] gained greater significance, following the [[Congress of Berlin]] which took back the Macedonia and [[Adrianople Vilayet|Adrianople]] regions, returning them under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Also an autonomous Ottoman province, called [[Eastern Rumelia]] was created in [[Northern Thrace]]. As a consequence, the Bulgarian national movement proclaimed as its aim the inclusion of most of [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]], [[Thrace]] and [[Moesia]] under Greater Bulgaria.

Eastern Rumelia was annexed to Bulgaria in 1885 through bloodless revolution. During the early 1890s, two pro-Bulgarian revolutionary organizations were founded: the [[Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization]] and the [[Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee]]. In 1903 they participated in the unsuccessful [[Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising]] against the Ottomans in Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilayet. [[Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia|Macedonian Slavs]] were identified then predominantly as Bulgarians, and significant Bulgarophile sentiments endured up among them until the end of the Second World War.<ref>Up until the early 20th century and beyond, the international community viewed Macedonians as regional variety of Bulgarians, i.e. Western Bulgarians.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-7TgkO8utHIC&q=Nationalism+and+Territory:+Constructing+Group+Identity+in+Southeastern+Europe,+Geographical+perspectives+on+the+human+past+:+Europe:+Current+Events,+George+W.+White,+Rowman+%26+Littlefield,+2000, ''Nationalism and Territory: Constructing Group Identity in Southeastern Europe, Geographical perspectives on the human past : Europe: Current Events''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230507150132/https://books.google.com/books?id=-7TgkO8utHIC&q=Nationalism+and+Territory:+Constructing+Group+Identity+in+Southeastern+Europe,+Geographical+perspectives+on+the+human+past+:+Europe:+Current+Events,+George+W.+White,+Rowman+&+Littlefield,+2000, |date=7 May 2023 }}, George W. White, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, {{ISBN|0847698092}}, p. 236.</ref><ref>"Most of the Slavophone inhabitants in all parts of divided Macedonia, perhaps a million and a half in all – had a Bulgarian national consciousness at the beginning of the Occupation; and most Bulgarians, whether they supported the Communists, VMRO, or the collaborating government, assumed that all Macedonia would fall to Bulgaria after the WWII. Tito was determined that this should not happen. "{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhNG-62oEcQC&pg=PA67 |title=The struggle for Greece, 1941–1949 |first=Christopher Montague |last=Woodhouse |publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-85065-492-6 |page=67 |access-date=14 November 2015 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201736/https://books.google.com/books?id=bhNG-62oEcQC&pg=PA67 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, most of the Macedonian Slavs did not develop a clear national identity at all, any expression of national identity among the majority was purely superficial and was imposed by the nationalist [[Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia#National antagonisms|educational and religious propaganda]] or by [[Macedonian Struggle|terrorism]].<ref>"At the end of the WWI there were very few historians or ethnographers, who claimed that a separate Macedonian nation existed... Of those Slavs who had developed some sense of national identity, the majority probably considered themselves to be Bulgarians, although they were aware of differences between themselves and the inhabitants of Bulgaria... The question as of whether a Macedonian nation actually existed in the 1940s when a Communist Yugoslavia decided to recognize one is difficult to answer. Some observers argue that even at this time it was doubtful whether the Slavs from Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians." {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmesOn_HhfEC&pg=PA58 |title=The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world |first=Loring M. |last=Danforth |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-691-04356-2 |pages=58–66 |access-date=14 November 2015 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201744/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmesOn_HhfEC&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>During the 20th century, Slavo-Macedonian national feeling has shifted. At the beginning of the 20th century, Slavic patriots in Macedonia felt a strong attachment to Macedonia as a multi-ethnic homeland. They imagined a Macedonian community uniting themselves with non-Slavic Macedonians... Most of these Macedonian Slavs also saw themselves as Bulgarians. By the middle of the 20th. century, however Macedonian patriots began to see Macedonian and Bulgarian loyalties as mutually exclusive. Regional Macedonian nationalism had become ethnic Macedonian nationalism... This transformation shows that the content of collective loyalties can shift.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RveDmHbIv8C&pg=PA147 |title=Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe, Ethnologia Balkanica Series |first1=Klaus |last1=Roth |first2=Ulf |last2=Brunnbauer |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |year=2010 |isbn=978-3825813871 |pages=127-129}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaufman |first1=Stuart J. |title=Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war |year=2001 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8014-8736-1 |page=193 |quote=The key fact about Macedonian nationalism is that it is new: in the early twentieth century, Macedonian villagers defined their identity religiously—they were either "Bulgarian," "Serbian," or "Greek" depending on the affiliation of the village priest. While ''Bulgarian'' was most common affiliation then, mistreatment by occupying Bulgarian troops during WWII cured most Macedonians from their pro-Bulgarian sympathies, leaving them embracing the new Macedonian identity promoted by the Tito regime after the war.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Rae | first1 = Heather | title = State identities and the homogenisation of peoples | year = 2002 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | isbn = 0-521-79708-X | page =274}}</ref>

In the early 20th century the control over Macedonia became a key point of contention between Bulgaria, Greece, and [[Serbia]], who fought the First Balkan War of [[First Balkan War|(1912–1913)]] and the Second Balkan War of [[Second Balkan War|(1913)]]. The area was further fought over during the World War I [[Bulgaria during World War I|(1915–1918)]] and the World War II [[Military history of Bulgaria during World War II|(1941–1944)]].