A. Yu. Fomin. The Military Revolution in Turkey in the Reports of Russian Officers // Petersburg
Historical Journal, no. 2, 2026, pp. 134–145.

DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2026_2_134

Abstract:

The article examines reports by Russian officers on the political situation in the Ottoman Empire
during the political crisis that led to the Young Turk Revolution. During this period, in addition to the official military agent at the embassy in Constantinople, the Russian General Staff also received information about the situation in Turkey from Russian officers serving in Turkish Macedonia. These officers were part of an international mission to oversee reforms in the province, which had been initiated at the insistence of the great powers. Russian officers operating within Macedonia functioned as agents of Russian influence within the European portion of the Ottoman Empire. A primary aspect of their mission involved the collection of
intelligence regarding the prevailing circumstances in the region. In 1908, Colonel I. A. Holmsen, a military agent in Constantinople, and Russian officers in Macedonia, in connection with the aggravation of the internal political situation in Turkey, took a particular interest in the mood in the Turkish army and the activities of the Young Turk organisations.

Key words: Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Balkans, Macedonia, Young Turks, Young Turk Revolution,
Murzsteg Reforms, F. А. Shostak, N. A. Agura, I. A. Holmsen.

Author:

Fomin, Anton Yurevich — Candidate of Historical Sciences, Research Fellow at St. Petersburg
Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia).
E-mail: a.fomin1511@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-4118-6089

References:

Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü. Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902–1908. New York, Oxford
University press, 2001, 538 p.

Isaeva, O. N. Myurtsshtegskii opyt “umirotvoreniya” Makedonii [The Murzsteg Experience of “Pacifying” Macedonia. In Russ.]. In Grishina, R. P. (ed.). Makedoniya: problemy istorii i kul’tury. Moscow, 1999, pp. 75–100.

Kinyapina, N. S. (ed.). Vostochnyi vopros vo vneshnei politike Rossii. Konets XVIII — nachalo XX v. [The Eastern Question in Russian Foreign Policy. Late 18th — Early 20th Centuries. In Russ.]. Moscow, Nauka publ., 1978, 437 p.

Shpil’kova, V. I. Mladoturetskaya revolyutsiya 1908–1909 gg. [The Young Turk Revolution of 1908–1909. In Russ.]. Moscow, Nauka publ., 1977, 295 p.

Skvoznikov, A. N. Makedoniya v kontse XIX — nachale XX veka — yabloko razdora na Balkanakh
[Macedonia in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries — a Bone of Contention in the Balkans. In Russ.]. Samara, Samarskaya gumanitarnaya akademiya publ., 2010, 172 p.

Taki, V. Turetskie voiny Rossii: tsarskaya armiya i balkanskie narody v XIX stoletii [Russia’s Turkish Wars: The Tsarist Army and the Balkan Peoples in the 19th Century. In Russ.]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie publ., 2025, 376 p.

Turfan, M. Naim. Rise of the Young Turks. Politics, the Military and the Ottoman Collapse. London; New York, I. B. Tauris, 2000, 490 p.

Yaşar, M. Learning the Ropes: The Young Turk Perception of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Middle
Eastern Studies. 2014. Vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 114–128.

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