Refugees, or guests of God : studies on the history of Balkan migrations in the 19th century - the case of Bulgaria and Serbia

The book presents key migrant processes in the Balkans in the 19th century, based on the example of Bulgaria and Serbia. The book has been divided into two parts. The first one concentrates on the Bulgarians migrating during the National Revival period, with a particular focus on forming of diasporas in Romanian and Russian territories and the exile during the Russo-Turkish wars. The second part discusses migration processes in the lands being under Serbians and Bulgarians’ rule (the latter originally divided into the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia) and migration policies of the Belgrade and Sofia authorities towards the Slavic (Bulgarian and Serbian), Muslim, and Greek people. The migration processes in the lands inhabited by the Bulgarians until 1878 were directly related to the Russo-Turkish wars and forming of diasporas that played a key role in the political life of the National Revival period (1762–1878). Each conflict between those great powers since the second part of the 18th century (in 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812, 1828–1829, 1853–1856, and finally 1877–1878) favoured migration movements. The last of the abovementioned wars led to a migration within eastern Balkans on an unprecedented scale, however, its main participants were Muslims. As a result, about half a million of Muslims left the Bulgarian lands and thousands of Christians arrived in their place from Macedonia and Thrace. After the establishment of the Bulgarian state migration processes gained a new momentum. First years of functioning of the new state in the Balkans were connected with a mass influx of the Bulgarians from the lands remaining under the Ottoman rule: Macedonia, Thrace, as well as from Austro-Hungary, Romania, and Russia, where Bulgarian communities were formed during previous centuries. At the same time representatives of other religious and ethnic groups, with Muslims and Greeks as first of them, left en masse the lands that remained under the Bulgarian rule. Migration processes in the territories inhabited by the Serbs took a different form during the discussed period, which was mainly due to an early - as for the region - beginning of forming of the Serbian statehood. During the Ottoman rule migrations of the Serbs were not only related to the inflow of Muslims (the most important process was undoubtedly Albanians settling in Kosovo), but also with emigration of the Serbs towards the north, into the Vojvodina region. The year of 1690 is considered a key date in the history of the Serbian nation, when the “Great Migration of the Serbs” took place, from Kosovo towards the lands overtaken by Austria at the time. In 1804–1815, two Serbian uprisings occurred which led to pogroms of Muslims, mass escapes from the Pashalik of Belgrade, and simultaneously to the inflow of the Slavs and Christians from various parts of the Balkans to the domain of Miloš Obrenović I. Similar processes on a significant scale were noted at the beginning of the 1830s, when Muslims were expelled from the Serbian rural areas and later from towns in the 1860s; their place was taken by the Serbs, incoming from the lands remaining in the Habsburg state and the Ottoman empire as well as from Montenegro affected by recurring hunger disasters. After the Berlin Congress new territories inhabited by Muslims were annexed to Serbia - an exodus of Muslims from that area occurred already during the “Great Eastern Crisis” (1875–1878). Originally, the taken areas (the former Sanjak of Niš) were subjected to an intensive colonisation, however, it was quickly abandoned. The authorities in Belgrade realised there was a lack of land to be colonised while the inflow of the Serbs from neighbouring countries had caused those areas to lose the national character - such was the case in Kosovo, among others