BALKAN REALPOLITIK LESSON: “WEEKLY REVIEW” IN 1876

Abstract

The article presents little-known articles on the Balkan War of 1875–1878 published in Przegląd Tygodniowy, a magazine of the young Warsaw intelligentsia promoting positivism and social and civilizational reforms. The second war in Europe in a short time (after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871) became an intellectual challenge for the generation of reformers. The Russian Empire appeared in it as a force bringing freedom to the Balkan nations, forcing various Polish political and intellectual circles to opt for Russia, which defended the slogans of Pan-Slavism, or for Turkey, which was called the “sick state of Europe”. The short-term support of Russia by the editors of Przegląd Tygodniowy turned out to be a painful lesson for the positivists in realpolitik, geopolitics, ethnopolitics, responsibility for one’s word, strategic analysis and domestic policy.