Първият опит за откриване на руско консулство в българските земи – във Варна или в Силистра?
The First Attempt for Opening of a Russian Consulate in the Bulgarian Lands – in Varna or in Silistra?

Summary/Abstract: During the last years, in history literature an opinion is imposed that the first attempt for opening of a Russian consulate in the Bulgarian lands is made in Varna in 1784. The analysis of the included in scientific circulation documental information however gives reason to correct such a statement. The first more serious projects for opening of Russian consulates in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman empire are from the 40’s of the 18th c, but they are not realized. After 1774, the political situation changes in advantage of Russia. The peace treaty of Kjuchuk Kainardza gives a new proportion of the powers in the European South-East, which allows the Russian diplomacy to make a revaluation of the till by then attempts for a lasting penetration in the Ottoman empire. At first, the new ideas for opening of an official agency in the Bulgarian lands are laid in front of the Sublime Porte principally, without concretization of the exact place of being of the future consulate. In 1780, in correspondence with the achieved preliminary agreements an official declaration is handed to the government in Constantinople by the Russian ambassador, pointing Silistra for a residence of the Russian consuls. The Porte categorically refuses to discuss the question of the real opening of a Russian consulate in the town. The taken steps lately from the Russian diplomacy do not lead to a change in the position of the Sublime Porte and the refusal itself is cleverly argumentated with the fact that the European countries have not consulates in Varna. Thus, without success ends the second attempt of Russia to open its own official agency in the Bulgarian lands.

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