Българската държава и Съюзът на българските конституционни клубове в Османската империя (1908-1909)
The Bulgarian State and the League of the Bulgarian Constitutional Clubs in the Ottoman Empire (1908–1909)

Summary/Abstract: The League of the Bulgarian constitutional clubs (LBCC) which existed in the period 1908–1909 was the most popular legal Bulgarian organization in the Ottoman Empire in the time of the Young Turk’s revolution and the following constitutional-parliamentary regime. The founding and activity of the League are fully studied in our historiography, but its connections with the Bulgarian state, especially in material aspect are not studied enough till now. The article aims to explain the actual parameters of the support given by Bulgarian government to LBCC. Studied are the difficulties around the negotiations between the executive body of LBCC and the government of Bulgaria, as well as the disputes between the both parties regarding the total size of the club’s annual subsidy. Considerable attention is devoted to the mechanisms by which the transfer of the funds was performed. Having in mind the circumstances of the contacts between the Central bureau of LBCC, the Bulgarian government and Ferdinand the article studies also the complex relationships formed between the governing body of the League and the activists of the Internal Macedonian- Adrianople organization. These circumstances, together with the considerably less (in comparison with the hoped for from the members) governmental funds, additionally worsened the situation of the legal organization. However, notwithstanding these unfavorable factors, the crucial importance for the decline of the activities of the Bulgarian constitutional clubs was the increasingly diminishing possibilities for a real political activity in the Ottoman Empire.

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