Boris Kotov

• Occupation: Research Fellow
• Affiliation: Institute of World History, RAS
  
• Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

The article examines the attitude of the leading Russian media of the early XX century to the policy of Austria-Hungary during the two Balkan wars of 1912-1913, which extremely aggravated the international situation and put Russia and Austria-Hungary on the brink of war because of the struggle for influence on the countries of the Balkan region. It is stated that the policy of Austria-Hungary attracted the attention of Russian society throughout the Balkan crisis of 1912-1913, during which there was a noticeable increase in anti-Austrian sentiments in Russia. The Habsburg Empire, which opposed the Balkan Union, first of all Serbia and Montenegro, and sought by the creation of Albania to limit the conquest of these two Orthodox Slavic States, was perceived in Russia as the main enemy of the Slavs. The collapse of the Balkan Union and the beginning of the Interallied war in the summer of 1913 were perceived in Russia as the highest achievement of Austrian diplomacy. However, in assessing the results of this war, the Russian public was not so unanimous. Along with allegations about the complete triumph of Austria-Hungary, the press often expressed the opinion that, after the collapse of the Balkan alliance, the Habsburg empire won the Pyrrhic victory: instead of the hegemony of Bulgaria, the Austrians received in the Balkans strengthened Serbia, instead of the Union of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, which dreamed of in Vienna, there was a block of Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Romania, directed against both Bulgarian revanchism and Austrian expansionism. The analysis of the press allows to conclude that during the Balkan crisis of 1912-1913 the image of the Austrian enemy was firmly established in the perception of Russian society. The image of treacherous and hostile not only to Russia, but to the entire Slavs of the Habsburg Empire, which began to form in the middle of the XIX century under the influence of Vienna's behavior during the Crimean war, during the two Balkan wars became dominant in most leading Russian publications.