33. – Bulgaria according to Prince Tscherkassky (1877).

This map does not exist in original; it was drawn by Professor Ishirkoff on data and information given by Prince Tscherkassky (Civil-Governor of Bulgaria at the time of the Russian occupation) to the Russian Minister of war. In his report Tscherkassky asserts that the Bulgarian frontiers run as follows: "West – along the line approved by the Russian Emperor, Alexander II (this line – as declares the Russian Major-General Owssjani an his book: "The Russian administration of Bulgaria in the Years 1877-78-79. St. Petersburg, 1906, vol. 1", – included the towns Nisch, Kurschumlie, Lesskovetz, Pristina and Prisren); South: from Mount Pind along the river Bistrltza (Indje-Karassu) down to the Bay of Salonica. from there through the peninsula of Salonica (Halkidika) in the direction of the Aegean-sea, leaving the city of Salonica and the Beschik-sea inside of the Bulgarian frontiers; further on, along the coast towards the mouth of the river Maritza, and thence along the course of this river to that point, where the river Ergene flows in it; the frontier goes further along the course of the Ergene and its afflux, Tschorlu-Dere, to the ridge of the Strandja Planina and along its crest to Anasstasieffs-wall, called Constantinople-Terrltory; East: along the shores of the Black-sea; North: along the Danube.

We publish this map as a proof that Russia originally thought of giving to Bulgaria those frontiers which were approved by the emperor himself (at least those in the west), whereas the treaty of St. Stefano reduced them considerably. Servia received the towns Nisch, Kurschumlie, and Lesskovetz that had been already occupied by her, as a territorial indemnification for her partaking at the Russo-Turkish war; in this way Servia got at that time these Bulgarian towns and their surrounding districts, not because she had any ethnological or historical right upon them, but only on purely political considerations: – because Russia had to indemnify Servia for her partaking in the war, and because such compensations could not be given by Russia on the Kossovo-Pole without arming Austro-Hungaria against herself. As we shall see further down in our work, Servia succeeded at the Berlin Congress of 1878, with the aid of Austria-Hungary, in acquiring also the Bulgarian towns Vranja and Plrot as well as the surrounding country.