Граф Игнатиев и принципът за единство на православието
Count Ignatiev and the Principle of Unity of the Orthodoxy

Summary/Abstract: The article treats the attitude of Russia towards the Bulgaro-Greek church-national conflict in the time when Count Ignatiev is an ambassador of the tzar to the Sublime Porte (1864–1877). According to the traditional concepts, the Russian policy about the Eastern question is based on the so-called principle of unity of the orthodoxy which imposes the preservation of the entirety, prestige strength and internal peace of the patriarchate of Constantinople, because it is the base of the powerful Russian influence in the Levant. The author disputes the truth of this thesis citing arguments in favour of the statement that the Russian diplomacy and its representative Ignatiev are not striving to smooth the dispute between the Bulgarians and Greeks, but just the opposite — they seek to prolongate it as much as possible but without reaching extremes. The discord, not the peace in the patriarchate of Constantinople (at least in the 60’s – 70’s of the 19th century) provides for Russia the best possibilities for reaching its aims in the Eastern question. Because of this, if the statement that the principle of unity of the orthodoxy lies in the basis of the Russian Eastern policy, is still supported, their unity must be considered not as conditioned by the lack of contradictions but as a result of the struggle of antipodes.

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