LECTURE#14

Russia «on the Spilt Blood»: an outlook on the 20c. Alexander III: the reactionary rule & support of gentry. The introduction of the land captains (1889). Local government & educational anti-reforms. The national question. Russia’s cultural, economical, industrial & educational level in 1900’s, the urbanization process. Russia’s industrial revolution. Russian music, literature, theatre, art & science. The Russian revolutionary groups? anarchists & the philosophy of nihilism.

Alexander III
By Scott Malsom, from : http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/alexbio.html

Considered Russia''s last true autocrat, Alexander III was the epitome of what a Russian Tsar was supposed to be. Forceful, formidable, fiercely patriotic, and at 6'' 4" towered over his fellow countrymen. He was the embodiment of the fabled Russian bear. He came to power at a critical point in Imperial Russian history. The Industrial Revolution had finally come to Russia and capitalism was taking root. Foreign investment within the country was at an all time high. His Father, Alexander II was within hours of granting the country its first constitution. Ironically, Alexander III was not born heir to the Russian throne.

Born in St Petersburg on February 26, 1845 (old style), he was the second son of Alexander II, the "Tsar Liberator" who had freed the serfs. His older brother and heir to the throne, Nicholas, died in 1865. The young Grand Duke was greatly influenced by his tutor Constantine Petrovich Pobedonostsev who instilled into him conservative fundamentals of autocracy, Orthodoxy and nationalism that were required to govern the Russian Empire. Pobedonostsev believed that all opposition to the government be ruthlessly crushed and viewed liberal ideas as constitutions and free press as a threat to the state. It was also Pobedonostsev that taught Alexander III to be anti-Semitic and view the Jewish community of the Empire as "Christ Killers".

With the death of his brother, Alexander inherited more than just the title of Tsarevich. While on his deathbed, his brother Nicholas insisted that he also take his fiancé. In October 1866 Alexander married the Danish Princess Dagmar. After her conversion to Orthodoxy, she took the name of Maria Fedorovna. Together, Alexander III and Empress Maria had five children. Their first child, Nicholas, was born in 1868 and would be the last Tsar of Russia. Their second child, George, was born in 1871 followed by Xenia (1871), Michael (1878) and Olga (1882). George died at 27 of tuberculosis in 1899. Michael is sometimes considered ''Tsar for a day'', as Nicholas abdicated in his favor in 1917 before he, too, renounced the throne. The Bolsheviks murdered Michael six days before Nicholas and his family in July 1918. Xenia and Olga were able to escape Russia along with their mother during the Revolution.

The reign of Alexander III began in tragedy. On March 1, 1881, on the eve of the signing into law Russia''s first constitution, two assassins threw bombs at the Tsar''s carriage in St. Petersburg. Alexander II was mortally wounded and died shortly thereafter. Russia''s hopes for a constitution also died that day. One cannot fault Alexander''s reaction to his father''s death. His father, the Tsar Liberator, had freed the serfs, predating Lincoln''s Emancipation Proclamation by two years. One can only imagine the rage he, his wife and children felt as they watched the Tsar bleed and die in St Petersburg palace. This event would solidify the reactionary tone of his 13-year reign.

As a result of the assassination, Alexander III would not consider granting the constitution. He tightened censorship of the press and sent thousands of revolutionaries to Siberia. In his Accession Manifesto, he declared his intention to have "full faith in the justice and strength of the autocracy" that he had been entrusted with. Any liberal proposals in government were quickly dismissed. Alexander was determined to strengthen autocratic rule as a God given right. His reign is often referred to as the Age of Counter Reform.

To many westerners he appeared crude and not overly intelligent. Queen Victoria commented that she thought him as "a sovereign whom she does not look upon as a gentlemen". Indeed, he was not educated or prepared in his youth to be Emperor. But what he lacked in style he more than made up for in his conviction of his position, his love for his country, and an understanding of the importance he could play in shaping his country''s future. He possessed such a strong will as to rule the Russian Empire as absolute autocrat, to the point where the Empire stabilized and prospered, thus allowing capitalism to begin to take root. During his reign the autocracy stabilized and dissent was forced underground. He worked to strengthen and modernize Russia''s armed forces while avoiding armed conflict and improve Russia''s standing as a world power.

To his credit, as a husband and a father he was greatly successful. He was also good with kids and doted upon his daughters. He dressed simply and would wear his clothes until they were threadbare. His simplicity was also evident in his choice of living quarters. Though he lived in the large Gachina Palace, he chose to live in the renovated servants area. He was known as "The Peasants Tsar", and because of his size was always viewed as larger than life. He loved the simplicity of Russian life and had little taste for anything western.

In October 1888 the Imperial train derailed while the Tsar and his family were eating in the dining car. No one was seriously hurt, but the strong Alexander III lifted the roof of the car from the wreckage so that his family could escape. It was not known at the time, but the Tsar had suffered a severe bruise to his kidney that would contribute to his death 6 years later.

At the beginning of 1894 Alexander III was 49 years old. It was believed that he had, barring assassination, many years left to his reign. As the year progressed, his health deteriorated at an alarming rate. The best doctors of the time were called to help, but none were able to save the dying Emperor. Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov, Tsar of all the Russia''s, died of Nephritis on October 20, 1894 (OS) at the summer palace at Livadia in the Crimea. He was buried in the St. Peter & Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg, the last Tsar be so. He left behind an incomplete legacy, his work unfinished, and an heir unprepared to rule.

History tends to view Alexander III as a brutish despot. His only accomplishment being to strengthen his autocratic rule at the expense of the working class and peasantry. To his credit he stabilized the Russian government and maintained peace with his European and Asian neighbors. History is blessed with perfect hindsight. Alexander III, however, had no such luxury. He had no idea that the causes he cared for and the means at which he obtained them would cause the eventual destruction of the way of life and government he cherished so deeply. His canceling of the planned constitution set into motion events that would eventually take Russia to the brink of annihilation. The Tsar''s inability or unwillingness to prepare his son Nicholas at an early age to rule as absolute autocrat further exacerbated the future events that would sweep over his Empire. Finally, Alexander was hopelessly out of touch with the emerging realities of a modern industrialized Russia. Autocratic rule was established at a time in Russian history when the nation was illiterate, uneducated, and attacked from foreign powers on all sides. That time was no more. At a time when the Russian government should have begun adjusting itself to the changing realities of the 19th Century, Alexander instead clung to and strengthened the autocracy. This is his greatest failure. He was a loving father and devoted husband. There is no doubt that he loved his country and fully expected to answer to God as to his accountability as Tsar. History has made its judgment. Should we ever presume to know God''s?

Also check : http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/mainpage.html

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Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov or Alexander III (March 10, 1845 - November 1, 1894) was the Emperor (Tsar) of Russia from March 14, 1881 until his death on November 1, 1894.

Alexander III of Russia Principles
Alexander was the second son of Alexander II of Russia Alexander II and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. In natural disposition he bore little resemblance to his soft-hearted, liberal minded father, and still less to his refined, philosophic, sentimental, chivalrous, yet cunning grand-uncle Alexander I of Russia Alexander I, who coveted the title of "the first gentleman of Europe." With high culture, exquisite refinement and studied elegance he had no sympathy and never affected to have any. Indeed, he rather gloried in the idea of being of the same rough texture as the great majority of his subjects. His straightforward, abrupt manner savored sometimes of gruffness, while his direct, unadorned method of expressing himself harmonized well with his rough-hewn, immobile features and somewhat sluggish movements. His education was not fitted to soften these peculiarities.

Alexander III of Russia Rise to Power
During the first twenty years of his life he had no prospect of succeeding to the throne, because he had an elder brother, Nicholas, who seemed of a fairly robust constitution. Even when this elder brother showed symptoms of delicate health it was believed that his life might be indefinitely prolonged by proper care and attention, and precautions had been taken for the succession by his betrothal with Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Under these circumstances the greatest solicitude was devoted to the education of Nicholas as tsarevich, whereas Alexander received only the perfunctory and inadequate training of an ordinary grand-duke of that period, which did not go much beyond primary and secondary instruction, practical acquaintance with French, English and German, and a certain amount of military drill.

Alexander III of Russia Education
When he became heir-apparent by the death of his elder brother in 1865, he began to study the principles of law and administration under Professor Pobedonostsev, who did not succeed in awakening in his pupil a love of abstract studies or prolonged intellectual exertion, but who influenced the character of his reign by instilling into his mind the belief that zeal for Eastern Orthodoxy thought, as an essential factor of Russian patriotism, to be specially cultivated by every right-minded tsar.

On his deathbed, his elder brother had expressed a wish that his affianced bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor, and this wish was realized on November 9 1866. The union proved a most happy one and remained unclouded to the end. During those years when he was heir-apparent—1865 to 1881- he did not play a prominent part in public affairs, but he allowed it to become known that he had certain ideas of his own which did not coincide with the principles of the existing government.

Alexander III of Russia Foreign Relations
He deprecated what he considered undue foreign influence in general, and German influence in particular, and he longed to see the adoption of genuine national principles in all spheres of official activity, with a view to realizing his ideal of a homogeneous Russia—homogeneous in language, administration and religion. With such ideas and aspirations he could hardly remain permanently in cordial agreement with his father, who, though a good patriot according to his lights, had strong German sympathies, often used the German language in his private relations, occasionally ridiculed the exaggerations and eccentricities of the Slavophiles and based his foreign policy on the Prussian alliance.

The antagonism first appeared publicly during the Franco-Prussian War, when the tsar supported the cabinet of Berlin and the tsarevich did not conceal his sympathies with the French. It reappeared in an intermittent fashion during the years 1875–1879, when the Eastern question produced so much excitement in all ranks of Russian society. At first the tsarevich was more Slavophile than the government, but his phlegmatic nature preserved him from many of the exaggerations indulged in by others, and any of the prevalent popular illusions he may have imbibed were soon dispelled by personal observation in Bulgaria, where he commanded the left wing of the invading army.

The Bulgaria Bulgarians had been represented in St. Petersburg and Moscow not only as martyrs but also as saints, and a very little personal experience sufficed to correct the error. Like most of his brother officers he could not feel any very great affection for the "little brothers", as the Bulgarians were then commonly called, and he was constrained to admit that the Turks were by no means so black as they had been painted. He did not, however, scandalize the believers by any public expression of his opinions, and did not indeed make himself conspicuous in any way during the campaign. Never consulted on political questions, he confined himself to his military duties and fulfilled them in a conscientious and unobtrusive manner. After many mistakes and disappointments, the army reached Constantinople and the treaty of San Stefano was signed, but much that had been obtained by that important document had to be sacrificed at the congress of Berlin. Prince Otto von Bismarck failed to do what was confidently expected of him.

In return for the Russian support, which had enabled him to create the German empire, it was thought that he would help Russia to solve the Eastern question in accordance with her own interests, but to the surprise and indignation of the cabinet of St. Petersburg he confined himself to acting the part of "honest broker" at the congress, and shortly afterwards he ostentatiously contracted an alliance with Austria for the express purpose of counteracting Russian designs in Eastern Europe. The tsarevich could point to these results as confirming the views he had expressed during the Franco-Prussian War, and he drew from them the practical conclusion that for Russia the best thing to do was to recover as quickly as possible from her temporary exhaustion and to prepare for future contingencies by a radical scheme of military and naval reorganization. In accordance with this conviction, he suggested that certain reforms should be introduced.

Alexander III of Russia Anti-reforms
During the campaign in Bulgaria he had found by painful experience that grave disorders and gross corruption existed in the military administration, and after his return to St. Petersburg he had discovered that similar abuses existed in the naval department. For these abuses, several high-placed personages—among others two of the grand-dukes—were believed to be responsible, and he called his father''s attention to the subject. His representations were not favourably received. Alexander II had lost much of the reforming zeal which distinguished the first decade of his reign, and had no longer the energy required to undertake the task suggested to him. The consequence was that the relations between father and son became more strained. The latter must have felt that there would be no important reforms until he himself succeeded to the direction of affairs. That change was much nearer at hand than was commonly supposed. On the 13th of March 1881 Alexander II was assassinated by a band of Nihilists, Narodnaya Volya (People''s Will), and the autocratic power passed to the hands of his son.

In the last years of his reign, Alexander II had been much exercised by the spread of Nihilist doctrines and the increasing number of anarchist conspiracies, and for some time he had hesitated between strengthening the hands of the executive and making concessions to the widespread political aspirations of the educated classes. Finally he decided in favour of the latter course, and on the very day of his death he signed a ukaz, creating a number of consultative commissions which might have been easily transformed into an assembly of notables.

Following advice of his poltical mentor Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Alexander III determined to adopt the opposite policy. He at once cancelled the ukaz before it was published, and in the manifesto announcing his accession to the throne he let it be very clearly understood that he had no intention of limiting or weakening the autocratic power which he had inherited from his ancestors. Nor did he afterwards show any inclination to change his mind.

All the internal reforms which he initiated were intended to correct what he considered as the too liberal tendencies of the previous reign, so that he left behind him the reputation of a sovereign of the retrograde type. In his opinion Russia was to be saved from anarchical disorders and revolutionary agitation, not by the parliamentary institutions and so-called liberalism of western Europe, but by the three principles which the elder generation of the Slavophils systematically recommended—nationality, Eastern Orthodoxy and autocracy. His political ideal was a nation containing only one nationality, one language, one religion and one form of administration; and he did his utmost to prepare for the realization of this ideal by imposing the Russian language and Russian schools on his German, Polish and Finnish subjects, by fostering Eastern Orthodoxy at the expense of other confessions, by persecuting the Jews and by destroying the remnants of German, Polish and Swedish institutions in the outlying provinces.

In the other provinces he sought to counteract what he considered the excessive liberalism of his father''s reign. For this purpose he removed what little power had by zemstvo, an elective local administration resembling the county and parish councils in England, had and placed the autonomous administration of the peasant communes under the supervision of landed proprietors appointed by the government. At the same time he sought to strengthen and centralize the imperial administration, and to bring it more under his personal control.

In foreign affairs he was emphatically a man of peace, but not at all a partisan of the doctrine of peace at any price, and he followed the principle that the best means of averting war is to be well prepared for it. Though indignant at the conduct of Prince Bismarck towards Russia, he avoided an open rupture with Germany, and even revived for a time the Three Emperors'' Alliance.

It was only in the last years of his reign, when Mikhail Katkov had acquired a certain influence over him, that he adopted towards the cabinet of Berlin a more hostile attitude, and even then he confined himself to keeping a large quantity of troops near the German frontier, and establishing cordial relations with France. With regard to Bulgaria he exercised similar self-control. The efforts of Prince Alexander and afterwards of Stamboloff to destroy Russian influence in the principality excited his indignation, but he persistently vetoed all proposals to intervene by force of arms.

In 1887, once again the Peoples Will planned the murder of Tsar Alexander III. Among the conspirators captured were one Aleksandr Ulyanov. Ulyanov was sentenced to death and hanged on May 5th, 1887. Alexander Ulyanov was the brother of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who would later take the pseudonym Vladimir LeninV.I. Lenin.

In Central Asian affairs he followed the traditional policy of gradually extending Russian domination without provoking a conflict with the United Kingdom, and he never allowed the bellicose partisans of a forward policy to get out of hand. As a whole his reign cannot be regarded as one of the eventful periods of Russian history; but it must be admitted that under his hard unsympathetic rule the country made considerable progress. He died at Livadiya on the November 11st of November 1894. His eldest son, Grand Duke Alexander RomanovAlexander Alexandrovitch (May 26, 1867 – April 20, 1870) died in infancy. Alexander III was thus succeeded by his second son Nicholas II of Russia/.

From : http://www.infothis.com/find/Alexander_III_of_Russia

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Witte, Count Sergei Yulyevich , 1849–1915, Russian premier. A railway administrator, he became minister of communications (1892) and minister of finance (1892–1903). He introduced the gold standard, reformed finances, encouraged the development of Russian industries with the help of foreign capital, and opened up Siberia to large-scale colonization with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. These measures reduced the gap between the industrial development of Russia and that of Europe and also expanded the Russian industrial proletariat, which was concentrated in a few large cities. Witte was dismissed in 1903, probably because he opposed the aggressive policy of Czar Nicholas II in East Asia, but he was recalled in 1905 at the close of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5) to negotiate peace with Japan. He secured unexpectedly favorable terms for Russia in the Treaty of Portsmouth and was rewarded with the title of count. Returning to Russia during the Revolution of 1905 (see Russian Revolution), he was called on by the czar to draw up the manifesto of Oct., 1905, by which Nicholas II promised more liberal government under a duma, or legislative assembly. Appointed premier (Oct., 1905), Witte failed to gain liberal support against the Social Democrats and the reactionaries. He secured a loan from France and suppressed a workers'' uprising in Moscow (Dec., 1905–Jan., 1906). His resignation was accepted (Apr., 1906) by Nicholas II, who restored a more conservative regime. ________________________________

Pobyedonostzev, Konstantin Petrovich , 1827–1907, Russian public official and jurist. He was professor of civil law at Moscow when he attracted the attention of Czar Alexander II and was appointed (1865) tutor to the future Alexander III. As procurator of the holy synod (1880–1905), he became the champion of autocracy, orthodoxy, and Russian nationalism. He had great power and under his influence Alexander III opposed any limitation of autocratic powers, tightened censorship, attempted to suppress opposition opinion, persecuted religious nonconformists, and adopted a policy of Russification of all national minorities. Pobyedonostzev also supported Pan-Slavism and in his writings strongly attacked Western rationalism and liberalism. He tutored Nicholas II and was one of his most influential advisers until the Revolution of 1905. He wrote a three-volume work on Russian civil law. _________________________________

Loris-Melikov, Mikhail Tarielovich , 1826–88, Russian general and statesman, of Armenian descent. He was created count for his services in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and in 1880 was made minister of the interior by Alexander II. He promoted some liberal reforms, specifically in the educational system, and drafted a program to allow members of the zemstvos to play a minor advisory role in legislation. Alexander II approved this reform on the day he was assassinated (1881), but Alexander III voided the reform and dismissed its author. Loris-Melikov in his youth is portrayed in Leo Tolstoy''s Hadjii Murad. ___________________________________

Trans-Siberian Railroad, rail line, linking European Russia with the Pacific coast. Its construction began in 1891, on the initiative of Count S. Y. Witte, and was completed in 1905. The completion of the railroad greatly affected the history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and modern Russia by opening up Siberia to development.
The original line began at Chelyabinsk and ran generally east through Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Chita; it traversed Manchuria and reentered Russian territory before ending at Vladivostok. The Manchurian section of the line is known as the Chinese Eastern Railroad. The present Trans-Siberian RR branches off from the original line at Chita to follow, roughly, the Amur and Ussuri rivers and reaches Vladivostok by way of Khabarovsk; it lies entirely in Russian territory. The Moscow-Vladivostok run is 5,785 mi (9,310 km); the electrification of the entire line was only completed in 2002. The line carries both freight and passengers.
The Trans-Siberian RR now has several branch lines, notably the line connecting Omsk with Yekaterinburg. A branch to Ust-Kut connects with the Baykal-Amur Mainline (BAM). The railroad is also linked with the Turkistan-Siberia Railroad.

Triple Alliance and Triple Entente , two international combinations of states that dominated the diplomatic history of Western Europe from 1882 until they came into armed conflict in World War I. Formation of the Triple Alliance
In 1871 two new major states of Europe had been formed—the German Empire and the kingdom of Italy. The new German Empire, under the hand of Otto von Bismarck, was steered carefully, always with an eye upon France, for the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) had left France thirsting for revenge and for recovery of the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
Germany had allied itself with Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Three Emperors'' League, but Austria-Hungary and Russia were not the best of friends, partly because they were at odds over the Balkans and partly because Russia represented the Pan-Slavic movement, whose program threatened the very existence of Austria-Hungary. The Treaty of San Stefano (1878), following the Russo-Turkish War, furthered the cause of Pan-Slavism through the creation of a large Bulgarian state and offended Austria-Hungary as well as Great Britain. A European conference (1878; see Berlin, Congress of), called to revise the treaty, caused a sharp decline in the friendship between Russia on the one hand and Austria-Hungary and Germany on the other; Bismarck formed (1879) a secret defensive alliance—the Dual Alliance—with Austria-Hungary.

In 1882 Italy, angry at France chiefly because France had forestalled an Italian advance by occupying Tunis, signed another secret treaty, which bound it with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Thus was the Triple Alliance formed. It was periodically renewed until 1913. In 1882 Serbia joined the alliance, in effect, through a treaty with Austria-Hungary. Romania joined the group in 1883, and a powerful Central European bloc was created. Italy was from the first not so solidly bound to either of its allies as Germany and Austria-Hungary were to each other. Italy was in fact a rival of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans and particularly for control of the Adriatic; moreover, there remained unsettled territorial problems (see irredentism). The Triple Alliance, however, turned diplomatic history into new channels.

Formation of the Triple Entente
The Three Emperors'' League died a slow death, but in 1890 its day was over: Germany refused to renew its reinsurance treaty with Russia, and Russia in consequence sought a rapprochement with France. At the same time France, face to face with an increasingly powerful Germany and a hostile Central European combination, felt great need of an ally, and French diplomats began to make overtures to Russia for an agreement to counterbalance the Triple Alliance. French capital aided Russian projects, especially the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and friendly diplomatic visits were exchanged. In 1891 there was a definite understanding between the powers; this was strengthened by a military convention in 1893, and by 1894 the Dual Alliance between Russia and France was in existence. It was publicly acknowledged in 1895.
Meanwhile, the fall of Bismarck, after the accession of William II to the throne of the German Empire, was followed by the appearance of more adventurous foreign policies. Germany committed itself to colonial and commercial expansion. The German plan for a Baghdad Railway was viewed with alarm by the powers with interests in the Middle East. The German commercial rivalry with Great Britain not only brought direct trouble but nourished German desire for sea power and a large navy.

Great Britain, long in “splendid isolation” from the other European nations, was being propelled by its interests to make some move toward protective international alliance. There had been some efforts to achieve a Franco-German rapprochement, but these ultimately had no effect. In 1898 Théophile Delcassé took control of French foreign policy; he was opposed to Germany and hoped for a rapprochement with Great Britain, his object being the isolation of Germany. Friendship between Britain and France did not seem possible because of their traditional enmity and, more important, their colonial quarrels in Africa. Moreover, Great Britain and Germany were traditional friends, and the two countries were bound by dynastic and cultural ties. There had been and continued to be active expressions of Anglo-German amity, but Delcassé''s diplomacy, aided by the accession (1901) of Francophile Edward VII to the British throne, ultimately bore fruit. Although Great Britain and France had been on the verge of war over the Fashoda Incident in 1898, the matter was settled and the way opened for further agreements between the two powers. Though there was no alliance, the Entente Cordiale—a friendly understanding—was arrived at in 1904.

Colonial rivalries between Russia and Britain had in the late 19th cent. made those powers hostile; the field of contest was Asia—Turkish affairs, Persia, Afghanistan, China, and India. But after the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, and particularly after Sir Edward Grey gained influence in the British foreign office, Britain came to favor a friendly settlement. This was finally achieved in the Anglo-Russian entente of 1907. That agreement created the international group opposing the Triple Alliance—France, Great Britain, and Russia had formed the Triple Entente.

The Rising Storm
The two principal problems that caused outright conflict involved Morocco and the Balkans. The militarism of the chief countries of Europe was prompted by a growing sense of international hysteria, which was, in turn, increased by military preparations. The crisis in Morocco in 1905 almost precipitated war. More serious still were the Balkan crises brought about by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908, the Italo-Turkish War (1911–12), and the Balkan Wars (1912–13). The trouble between Austria and Serbia reached a peak after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in 1914, and World War I resulted.

Italy''s interests had long been more or less divorced from those of the Triple Alliance; as early as 1902 a Franco-Italian accord on North Africa had been reached in a secret treaty. With the outbreak of the war, both Italy and Romania refused to join the Central Powers. The Triple Alliance formally came to an end in 1914 when Italy issued a declaration of neutrality. After much secret negotiation, Italy in 1915 joined the Allies, and the next year Romania did likewise. Germany and Austria-Hungary gained new support in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and Bulgaria. The war ushered in a new diplomatic period, with new diplomatic alignments, and both the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente receded into history.