M. A. Osorgin – Correspondent of the Russian Vedomosti in Bulgaria in 1912

In the autumn of 1912, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire – the First Balkan War broke out. This caused a great resonance in Russia, and many newspapers and magazines sent their correspondents to the peninsula. One of them was the famous writer Mikhail Osorgin, an employee of the Russian Vedomosti newspaper. Already in September 1912, through Serbia, he arrived in Bulgaria, where he intended to witness historical events on a global scale. However, the reality turned out to be different – strict censorship restrictions placed journalists in an information vacuum. Osorgin was with his colleagues in several frontline cities, but he saw the front once. The work examines the writer's movements around the peninsula, provides details of everyday life, and demonstrates the writer's views on the war. The article is based on two sources that were first introduced into scientific circulation – Osorgin's articles and telegrams published in Russian Vedomosti in 1912, as well as the writer's archival personal diary, which he kept during the trip. They are complemented by later memoirs and articles in the journal Bulletin of Europe of that time. Such a set of diverse sources made it possible to reveal the degree of the author's frankness in his publications, as well as for the first time accurately trace the trip and correct the shortcomings of his predecessors, who relied only on Osorgin's fictionalized memoirs. Of particular importance is the fact that this diary is the only discovered document of its kind, created by a Russian correspondent in Bulgaria during the First Balkan War. Using the example of Osorgin's trip, one can trace the real working conditions of press representatives who actively influenced public sentiment in Russia in the autumn of 1912.