On 30 June, the Second Balkan War began as Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Romania, while the Turks attacked the Bulgarians. The fighting lasted only ten days before the exhausted Bulgarians were forced to capitulate.

On 10 July, 500,000 Romanian troops led by Prince Charles crossed the Bulgarian frontier and occupied the southern Dobrudja as far south as Kavarna. At Bucharest an armistice was signed on 31 July between Romania, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria. Romanian retained the captured territory. The Treaty of Bucharest, signed on 10 August, ended the conflict. Romanian aviation saw its first effective use in war.

During June, Russia was becoming more industrialized, aided by large amounts of foreign capital flowing into the country. Struggling workers were already becoming radicalized.

During June, a Russian textile magnate with known links to Lenin provided funds to help him found the Bolshevik newspaper Iskra in Switzerland. Police reported that capitalists were trying to play the game from all sides. The Tsar paid no attention whatsoever to any of the important facts being revealed to him.

During August, a conference of French and Russian General Staffs was held in Paris. French General Joffre was stunned to learn the Russian War Ministry currently had over 200 million rubles (over 500 million gold francs) in unused credits.

On 14 November, the Fourth Duma reopened in St. Petersburg. During November, after heavy debates, the Bolsheviks broke from the Social Democratic Menshevik party and formed the Russian Social Democratic Workers' faction.

In December, the Russian government became furious after learning the Germans had announced that at the request of Turkey, German General Liman von Sanders would head a mission to help re-organize the Turkish Army.

On 31 December, Prime Minister V.N. Kokovtsov chaired a special secret conference to discuss the possible use of force against Turkey. It was attended by Foreign Minister Sazonov, the War and Naval Ministers and other military chiefs. They submitted a report to the Tsar, but nothing ever came of it.

The Year 1913

The Russian economy had seen bumper harvests in both 1912 and 1913. The population was growing by about three million people per year. Between the years 1890 and 1913, the industrial work force had expanded from two to five million workers.