Sergei
Witte was born in Tiflis, Georgia, on 29th June, 1849.
He attended university in Odessa where he specialized in mathematics.
After
graduating in 1870 he became involved in the railway industry. A successful
railway executive, Witte entered the Russian government in 1889 when
he was appointed as Director of the Department of Railway Affairs.
By
1893 he became Minister of Finance. Witte
combined his experience in the railway industry with a strong interest
in foreign policy. He encouraged the expansion of the Trans-Siberian
Railway and organized the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
Witte also played an important role in helping to increase the speed
of Russia's industrial development.
Witte
was much admired in Russia but he made some powerful enemies, including
Vyacheslav Plehve, Minister of the Interior.
In August, 1903, Plehve passed on documents to Nicholas
II
that Witte was part of a Jewish conspiracy. As a result Witte was
removed as Minister
of Finance.
In
June, 1905, Witte was asked to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese
War. The Tsar was pleased with his performance and was brought
into the government to help solve the industrial unrest that had followed
Bloody Sunday.
In
June, 1905, the Potemkin Mutiny took
place and industrial workers all over Russia went on strike. In October,
1905, the railwaymen went on strike which paralyzed the whole Russian
railway network. Later that month, Leon Trotsky
and other Mensheviks established the
St. Petersburg Soviet. Over the next few
weeks over 50 of these soviets were formed all over Russia.
Witte,
the new Chief Minister, advised Nicholas
II to make concessions.
He eventually agreed and published the October
Manifesto. This granted freedom of conscience, speech, meeting
and association. He also promised that in future people would not
be imprisoned without trial. Finally he announced that no law would
become operative without the approval of the State
Duma.
As
this was only a consultative body, many Russians felt that this reform
did not go far enough. Leon
Trotsky and other revolutionaries
denounced the plan. In December, 1905, Trotsky and the rest of the
executive committee of the St.
Petersburg Soviet were
arrested. Others followed and gradually Nicholas
II
and his government regained control of the situation.
Witte's
liberal policies had upset the conservatives in Russia and the Tsar
once again came under pressure to dismiss his Chief Minister. Nicholas
II,
who was beginning to have doubts about the reforms that had been introduced,
forced Witte to resign in April, 1906.
In
his retirement Witte wrote his memoirs and continued to express his
views on politics. In 1914 he opposed Russian entry into the First
World War and later favoured peace negotiations with the German
government. Sergei Witte died in Petrograd on 13th March, 1915.
(1)
Sergei Witte, letter to Nicholas II (22nd
October, 1905)
The present
movement for freedom is not of new birth. Its roots are imbedded in
centuries of Russian history. 'Freedom' must become the slogan of
the government. No other possibility for the salvation of the state
exists. The march of historical progress cannot be halted. The idea
of civil liberty will triumph if not through reform then by the path
of revolution.
The government
must be ready to proceed along constitutional lines. The government
must sincerely and openly strive for the well-being of the state and
not endeavour to protect this or that type of government. There is
no alternative. The government must either place itself at the head
of the movement which has gripped the country or it must relinquish
it to the elementary forces to tear it to pieces.
(2)
Nicholas II, diary entry on the issue of
the October
Manifesto (19th October, 1905)
Through all these horrible days, I constantly met Witte.
We very often met in the early morning to part only in the evening
when night fell. There were only two ways open; to find an energetic
soldier and crush the rebellion by sheer force. That would mean rivers
of blood, and in the end we would be where had started. The other
way out would be to give to the people their civil rights, freedom
of speech and press, also to have laws conformed by a State Duma -
that of course would be a constitution. Witte defends this very energetically.
Almost
everybody I had an opportunity of consulting, is of the same opinion.
Witte put it quite clearly to me that he would accept the Presidency
of the Council of Ministers only on the condition that his programme
was agreed to, and his actions not interfered with. We discussed it
for two days and in the end, invoking God's help I signed. This terrible
decision which nevertheless I took quite consciously. I had no one
to rely on except honest Trepov. There was no other way out but to
cross oneself and give what everyone was asking for.
(3)
Nicholas II, diary entry on Sergei Witte
(November, 1905)
As long as I live, I will never trust that man (Witte)
again with the smallest thing. I had quite enough of last year's experiment.
It is still like a nightmare to me.
(4)
Leon Trotsky,
Izvestia (3rd November, 1905)
We are given a Witte, but Trepov remains; we are given
a constitution, but absolutism remains. All is given and nothing is
given. The proletariat knows what it wants and what it doesn't want.
It doesn't want the police hooligan Trepov, nor the liberal mediator
Witte - neither the jaws of a wolf nor the tail of a fox. It doesn't
want Cossack whips wrapped up in a constitution.
(5)
Leon
Trotsky, History of The Russian Revolution (1933)
After Sipyagin
we saw the same position occupied by Plehve, then by Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky,
then Bulygin, then Witte. All of them, one after the other, arrived
with the firm intention of putting an end to sedition, restoring the
lost prestige of authority, maintaining the foundations of the state
- and every one of them, each in his own way, opened the floodgates
of revolution and was himself swept away by its current.
Sedition
grew as though according to a majestic plan, constantly expanding
its territory, reinforcing its positions and demolishing obstacle
after obstacle; while against the backdrop of this tremendous effort,
with its inner rhythm and its unconscious genius, appeared a series
of little mannequins of state power, issuing new laws, contracting
new debts, firing at workers, ruining peasants - and, as a result,
sinking the governmental authority which they sought to protect more
and more deeply into a bog of frantic impotence.
Plehve
was as powerless against sedition as his successor, but he was a terrible
scourge against the kingdom of liberal newspapermen and rural conspirators.
He loathed the revolution with the fierce loathing of a police detective
grown old in his profession, threatened by a bomb from around every
street corner; he pursued sedition with bloodshot eyes - but in vain.
Plehve was terrifying and loathsome as far as the liberals were concerned,
but against sedition he was no better and no worse than any of the
others. Of necessity, the movement of the masses ignored the limits
of what was allowed and what was forbidden: that being so, what did
it matter if those limits were a little narrower or a little wider?
Sipyagin
fell to a revolutionary's bullet. Plehve was torn to pieces by a bomb.
Svyatopolk-Mirsky was transformed into a political corpse on January
9. Bulygin was thrown out, like an old boot, by the October strikes.
Count Witte, utterly exhausted by workers' and soldiers' risings,
fell without glory, having stumbled on the threshold of the State
Duma which he himself had created.
(6)
Bernard Pares, a British academic, met
Sergei Witte several times before
his death in 1915.
Count Witte never swerved from his conviction, firstly,
that Russia must avoid the war at all costs, and secondly, that she
must work for economic friendship with France and Germany to counteract
the preponderance of England. Nicholas detested him, and now more
than ever; but on March 13th Witte died suddenly.
The other
formidable opponent still remained. Rasputin was opposed to the war
for reasons as good as Witte's. He was for peace between all nations
and between all religions. He claimed to have averted was both in
1909 and in 1912, and his claim was believed by others.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
