The History of the Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand of Coburg’s Visits to Russia at the Late 19th Century in the Right Official Press

Abstract

This article, for the first time in domestic and foreign historiography, examines the coverage by the domestic press of the visits of the Bulgarian prince Ferdinand of Coburg to Russia at the end of the 19th century. After the death of Alexander III, Bulgaria began to take steps in order to restore relations with Russia. Personal diplomacy was of great importance in such situations. After the baptism of Prince Boris into the Orthodox faith, the first visit to St. Petersburg of the Bulgarian prince Ferdinand I took place. The main feature of the coverage of this visit in the press was that many publications had to rebuild their attitude towards yesterday's "false prince" and cover the arrival of Ferdinand of Coburg in the pages of their publications, taking into account the changed political realities. The first visit was followed by an invitation to the coronation of Nicholas II in Moscow in May 1896. The arrival in Russia in July 1898 of the Bulgarian prince with his wife Maria Luisa and the heir to the Bulgarian throne, the godson of Nicholas II, Prince Boris, became the apotheosis of these visits. Therefore, by the end of the 19th century, it seemed that an idyll had begun in Russian-Bulgarian relations. The article examines the very course of the visits, the main participants, as well to the Bulgarian prince (in particular on the basis of the diary entries of Nicholas II).