Russia's Balkan Entanglements, 1806-1914

Book excerpt: In the century between 1806 and 1914 tsarist Russia was drawn into five wars due to its deep involvement, based on treaty rights and established traditions, in Balkan affairs. This book examines the reason for the Russian involvement in the Balkan peninsula and attempts to explain at least partially the connection that drew the Russian government into entanglements that were not only dangerous to its great power interests, but that were difficult to control. The wars, waged at a high human and economic cost, limited the resources that could be spent on internal development and, in particular when they ended in defeat, led to domestic unrest and after 1856 and 1917 to drastic internal change.