Stanislas Saint Clair

Stanislas Graham Bower Saint Clair, calling himself Hidayet pasha was a British agent and an Ottoman military officer. He is most notable for a 1878 Muslim insurgence he organized in the Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria. The insurgence planned to attack Bulgarian civilians and Russian forces in order to claim back territories ceded to Bulgaria under the Treaty of San Stefano. The insurgence was defeated by the Russian army and Captain Petko Voyvoda's detachment.

Stanislas Saint Clair was born in 1835 in his grandfather's mansion, now a quarter of Vilnius, Lithuania. His father, Alexander Saint Clair was a former military officer from the British colonial army in India and a Scottish nobleman. His mother, Belagie Kossakowski, was Polish. His maternal grandfather was count Joseph Kosakowski. His grandmother's name was Luisa Pototska. His maternal uncle was Napoleon's adjutant during his ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812. As of 1855 Saint Clair's family did not own the Lithuanian mansion anymore. Based on one version it was sold while based on another it was confiscated by Russian imperial authorities as retaliation for treacherous activity. This possible event, along with Saint Clair's partially Polish origins, raised a strongly Russophobe sentiment in him which he extended to Bulgarians for no known reason.

Being the son of a military officer, Saint Clair joined the British army and participated in the Crimean war. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1859. After the war, in 1862 he started work as a clerk in the British counselate in Burgas, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Two years later, he became a British consul in Varna. He purchased an estate (a chiflik) in Akdere, intending to settle in the Ottoman Empire. Around this time he started calling himself Hidayet pasha ("the Guided General") thus claiming a military rank (pasha is the Ottoman equivalent of a general) that was never assigned to him. Around this time Saint Clair co-authored a book with Charles Brophy titled "A Residence in Bulgaria. Notes on the resources and the administration of Turkey", published in 1869 in London. The book contains a negative portrayal of Bulgarians.

Upon the start of the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) he formally left British military service and volunteered as an officer in the Turkish army under Suleiman pasha's command. His adjutant was the Englishman John Paget and his deputy - the Pole Konrad bey. After the retreat of the Turkish army from Sofia and their defeat at Plovdiv, Ottoman troops scattered towards the Rhodope mountains and Istanbul. Saint Clair retreated with Suleyman pasha and found himself in the vicinity of Kardzhali. The Russian victory in the war meant he would lose his estate and this probably was part of the reasons why Saint Clair decided to seek revenge.

After the Ottoman empire's capitulation in the war, he conspired with several Turkish army deserters to start a Muslim insurgence in the Rhodope mountains. Their propaganda efforts aimed to scare Turkish villagers with the rising "rule of the infidels" and make them believe there would soon be retributions for the massacres of Christians during the April uprising in Bulgaria. The anti-Bulgarian and anti-Russian nature of Saint Clair's activities soon found the implicit support of the Ottoman and the British empires, both of them hoping to revise the Treaty of San Stefano on terms favourable to Turkey.

The insurgence led by Saint Clair started in mid-1878 and affected an area in the Middle Rhodopes. The insurgents were first met at the village of Plevun where they were held back by Captain Petko Voyvoda's 9-men detachment. Russian reinforcements soon arrived and the insurgents dispersed, quickly abandoning their cause.

After the Treaty of Berlin, the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia was created and Saint Clair applied for the post of Governor General. After he learned he was not considered for the post, he retired from political affairs and left for the family estate in Belgium without achieving the purpose of his ill-fated "insurgency".

Saint Clair died in Malmedy, Belgium, in 1887.

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