Election of Ferdinand Coburg to the Bulgarian Throne in the Socio-Political and Scientific Discourse of the Russian Empire

The paper characterizes the reflections of Russian historians, journalists and publicists regarding the election of Ferdinand Coburg as Prince of Bulgaria. These reflections are part of the socio-political discourse of the Russian Empire in 1887–1917. The concept of “socio-political and scientific discourse” is understood by us as a complex of texts – articles, monographs, news reports, cartoons, journalism, as well as the result of social, political, international, cultural, pragmatic, cognitive and philosophical factors characteristic of the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The reflection of the election to the Bulgarian throne of Ferdinand Coburg in the socio-political and scientific discourse of Russia has not previously been the subject of specific historical research. The public interest of the Russian Empire in the election of Ferdinand to the Bulgarian throne in 1887 was determined by the great importance of this Balkan country in the geopolitical plans of the empire. The assessments of the Russian public of this event depended on its perception by the official Russian government. The autocratic government had a decisive influence on the opinion of intellectuals, and the imperial narrative, even after the 1905 Revolution, continued to largely determine the evaluative approaches of both liberal and conservative authors. We can trace the differences in the perception of the fact of the election of Coburg to the Bulgarian throne by representatives of the liberal and conservative trends