ABSTRACT
The Balkan campaign against a presumed inferior Ottoman Empire had been unexpectedly costly and difficult. The post-Crimean reforms were far from having cured the nation's grave deficiencies in supply and transport, in army organization and command. The experience of the war of 1877-78 none the less created both inside and outside the government a heightened awareness of the domestic dimensions of foreign affairs. The monopoly of policy formulation and execution vested in the autocrat and his foreign minister was unable either to impose unity of purpose and action on their agents or to endow them with enough skill and tact to preserve Russia's position of dominance in the one Balkan state where it seemed secure. The 1894 alliance with France became the cornerstone of Russia's military and foreign policy and saved her from isolation.
