The Russians settled down to a long winter siege, and it was months later when Osman Pasha finally yielded to starvation and surrendered. The Russian force pressed forward, and in 1878 camped under the walls of Constantinople.
The unfrozen sea was in sight. A treaty was made with Turkey at San Stefano only to be torn to pieces at the dictation of Bismarck and Disraeli at the Congress of the powers at Berlin. The result of it all was that Russia practically got nothing as the reward of blood and treasure squandered in this last attempt to expel the Turk from Europe. The arrangement of the Balkan States then made still exist. Bulgaria was divided, the southern portion being formed into the province of Eastern Roumelia, with a Christian Governor to be appointed by the Porte. Austria acquired a Protectorate over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia and Montenegro remained independent, while Macedonia and Albania were still left to the tender mercies of the Turk.
Russia was more fortunate, however, in Asia, gaining considerably in area of possessions, pressing her conquests up to the very frontier of Afghanistan, to the disgust of the Court of St. James. In fact, the cry, "The Russians at the gates of Heart," almost became a slogan of battle, and Great Britain and Russia for years thereafter trembled upon the brink of war.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
