The first task after the emancipation was to reconstruct the country on the lines of a modern European state, and to infuse new life into it after so many centuries of Turkish misrule. Education was represented solely by the priests and the schoolmasters, who had laboured for the enlightenment of the people even before the emancipation. Of course, there were a few Bulgarians who possessed a European education, and had graduated at European universities, and upon these devolved the task of solving the problems of the newly-created state. There were however so few of them that, at the beginning, many men of culture were imported from other Slav countries, chiefly from Russia, Croatia and Bohemia. The military administration was entrusted to Russia, who established garrisons of her own in Bulgaria and undertook to create the Bulgarian army. Considering the transitionary stage of the country at the time, it was inevitable that the Russian military authorities should obtain considerable influence over the civil administration also, and that Bulgarian affairs fell under Russian influence from the very beginning. Prince Alexander of Battenberg, the first Bulgarian ruler, came to the throne under similar conditions as King Carol to the throne of Roumania. He was confronted with a super-human task, and Bulgarian history can never deny the great service he rendered the country. He came with a definite mission and set to work with the greatest possible zeal. He devoted his attention chiefly to the education of the people and to the army, and he found his most energetic ally in the people themselves. The prompt efficiency of the school system would have done credit to many a more modern state. The Bulgarians are intelligent, persevering, and fond of learning, and popular education made immense strides. At the present day the percentage of adult Bulgarians who cannot read and write is exceedingly small compared to most other countries—it is 2-1/2 per cent. of the adult population. The national system of compulsory education affected the very poorest peasants as well as the better classes. Before the foundation of secondary schools in the country large numbers of young men were sent to foreign secondary schools and universities, and every year yielded its quota of well-equipped youths capable of providing the motive power for the machinery of the State. Similar purposeful energy characterized the military organization, with the intention of forming an independent, purely Bulgarian army. For, in spite of his great admiration for Russia and the Tsar Liberator, Prince Alexander felt that dependence upon Russia—more especially a military dependence—would render his country a vassal _de facto_ of Russia, no less than it was _de jure_ already the vassal of Turkey. He therefore strove to render the Russian military administration superfluous in Bulgaria by building up an efficient home army.