Posts on Facebook claim that Bulgaria paid 10 million gold rubles to Russia for occupation costs after the Liberation in 1878, BNT reports.
"On March 3, Bulgaria does not become free, Russia's allies get freedom - Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. And despite the lack of freedom (Bulgaria is a tributary principality, pays tribute to the sultan and is not present on the map of Europe), we are forced to pay Russia occupation costs for the war in the amount of 10 million gold rubles," one of them claimed.< /p>
A fact check shows that Bulgaria paid occupation costs to Russia in the amount of 10,618,250 paper rubles.
In issue two of the State Gazette from 1884, you can read a convention approved by Prince Alexander Battenberg and adopted by the National Assembly.
With it, the government of the Principality of Bulgaria acknowledges that it owes, according to the Treaty of Berlin, to the Russian Imperial Government 10,618,250 paper rubles and 43 kopecks for the "expenses of the occupation by the Imperial Russian troops".
"Bulgaria was restored in 1878 as a state, but it was a tributary principality that was vassal to the Sultan. That is, it is on the map, at least in its part that includes the Principality of Bulgaria, but it does not have the status of an independent state. It was like this until 1908, and indeed it was considered a tributary, because it paid an annual tax to the Sultan. Plus the condition that it does not have its own foreign policy, but even the first Bulgarian governments did not consider this fact", says Prof. Daniel Vachkov, director of the Institute of History at the BAS.
According to him, Bulgaria is burdened with such a payment and we must say that it was quite large for the time. Considering that we are talking about the nascent public finances of a very recently restored country, where the whole system is not complete, to pay a debt, a debt that was set at quite a large amount for that time.
According to the Convention, 400 thousand rubles should be paid in 1883, then for twelve years from 1884 to 1895 800 thousand rubles, and in 1896 - 618 thousand rubles. The Russian government refuses interest.
According to BNB data, the over 10 million paper rubles owed amount to a debt of 27 million golden levs or francs. At that time, the lev was tied to the French franc.
The sum owed includes nine months' subsistence for over 50,000 troops. The money must be returned in levs or francs. According to the Berlin Treaty, Russian troops were supposed to remain on the territory of the Principality of Bulgaria until the establishment of a national army to maintain order and security in the country.
From a table of data of the BNB, the payments on the Russian occupation debt can be seen. The largest were over BGN 8 million in 1890 and 1902. In 1912, the Principality paid off the debt.
The data from the table are contained in the "History of Bulgaria's External Public Debt 1878 - 1990" published by the BNB.