Sergei Witte | |
|---|---|
| Сергей Витте | |
 Witte in the early 1880s | |
| 1st Prime Minister of the Russian Empire | |
| In office 19 October 1905 – 22 April 1906 | |
| Monarch | Nicholas II |
| Preceded by | Himself as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers |
| Succeeded by | Ivan Goremykin |
| Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Russian Empire | |
| In office 16 August 1903 – 21 April 1906 | |
| Monarch | Nicholas II |
| Preceded by | Ivan Durnovo |
| Succeeded by | Himself as Prime Minister |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 30 August 1892 – 16 August 1903 | |
| Monarchs | Alexander III Nicholas II |
| Preceded by | Ivan Vyshnegradsky |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Pleske |
| Minister of Transport | |
| In office 15 February 1892 – 30 August 1892 | |
| Monarch | Alexander III |
| Preceded by | Adolf Gibbenet |
| Succeeded by | Apollon Krivoshein |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sergei Yulyevich Witte (1849-06-29)29 June 1849 |
| Died | 13 March 1915(1915-03-13) (aged 65) Petrograd, Russian Empire |
| Cause of death | Brain tumor |
| Resting place | Alexander Nevsky Monastery,Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Alma mater | Novorossiysk University |
| Signature |  |
CountSergei Yulyevich Witte (Russian:Сергей Юльевич Витте,romanized: Sergey Yulyevich Vitte,IPA:[sʲɪrˈɡʲejˈjʉlʲjɪvʲɪtɕˈvʲitːɛ];[1] 29 June [O.S. 17 June] 1849 – 13 March [O.S. 28 February] 1915), also known asSergius Witte, was a Russian statesman who served as the firstprime minister of theRussian Empire, replacing the emperor ashead of government. Neither liberal nor conservative, he attracted foreign capital to boostRussia's industrialization. Witte's strategy was to avoid the danger of wars.[2]
Witte served under the final twoemperors of Russia,Alexander III (r. 1881–1894) andNicholas II (r. 1894–1917).[3] During theRusso-Turkish War (1877–78), he had risen to a position in which he controlled all the traffic passing to the front along the lines of theOdessa Railways. Asfinance minister from 1892–1903, Witte presided over extensiveindustrialization and achieved government monopoly control over an expanded system of railroad lines.
Following months of civil unrest and outbreaks of violence in what became known as the1905 Russian Revolution, Witte framed theOctober Manifesto and the accompanying government communication to establishconstitutional government. However, he was not convinced it would solve Russia's problems with theTsarist autocracy. On 20 October 1905 Witte was appointed as the first chairman of theCouncil of Ministers (effectively prime minister). Assisted by his Council, he designed Russia's firstconstitution. But within a few months Witte fell into disgrace as a reformer because of continuing court opposition to these changes. He resigned before theFirst Duma assembled on 10 May [O.S. 27 April] 1906. Witte was fully confident that he had resolved the main problem: providing political stability to the regime,[citation needed] but according to him, the "peasant problem" would further determine the character of the Duma's activity.[4]
He is widely considered to have been one of the key figures in Russian politics at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.[5]Orlando Figes has described Witte as the 'great reforming finance minister of the 1890s',[6] 'one of Nicholas's most enlightened ministers',[7] and as the architect of Russia's new parliamentary order in 1905.[8]
Witte's father, Julius Christoph Heinrich Georg Witte, was from aLutheranBaltic German family.[9] He converted toRussian Orthodoxy upon his marriage with Yekaterina Fadeyeva. His father was made a member of theknighthood inPskov but moved as a civil servant toSaratov andTiflis (present-day Tbilisi,Georgia). Sergei was raised on the estate of his mother's parents.[10] His grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of theCaucasus, and his grandmother wasPrincess Helene Dolgoruki. Sergei had two brothers (Alexander and Boris) and two sisters (Olga and Sophia).[11][12]Helena Blavatsky, noted as a mystic, was their first cousin. Witte studied at a Tiflis gymnasium, but he took more interest in music, fencing and riding than in academics. He finished Gymnasium I inKishinev[13] and began studying Physico-Mathematical Sciences at theNovorossiysk University inOdessa in 1866 and graduated at the top of his class in 1870.[14] After completing his studies he devoted some time to journalism in close relations with theSlavophiles andMikhail Katkov.[15]
Witte had initially planned to pursue a career in academia with the intention of becoming a professor in theoretical mathematics. His relatives took a dim view of that career path, as it was considered unsuitable for a noble or aristocrat at the time. He was instead persuaded byPrince Vladimir PavlovichMachabelov, Minister of Ways and Communication, to pursue a career in theRussian railroads. At the direction of the count, Witte undertook six months of training in a variety of positions on theOdessa Railways to gain a practical understanding ofRussian railways operations. At the end of that period, he was appointed as chief of the traffic office.[16]
After a wreck on the Odessa Railways in late 1875 cost many lives, Witte was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison. However, while he was still contesting the case in court, Witte directed the Odessa Railways and achieved extraordinary efforts towards the transport of troops and war materials in theRusso-Turkish War and attracted the attention of Grand DukeNicholas Nikolaevich, who commuted his prison sentence to two weeks. Witte had devised a novel system of double-shift operations in his efforts to overcome delays on the railways.[17]
In 1879, Witte accepted a post inSt. Petersburg, where he would meet his future wife. He moved toKiev the following year. In 1883, he published a paper on "Principles of Railway Tariffs for Cargo Transportation" in which he also discussed social issues and the role of the monarchy. Witte gained popularity in the government. In 1886, he was appointed manager of the privately heldSouthwestern Railways, based in Kiev, and was noted for increasing its efficiency and profitability. Around then, he met TsarAlexander III, but he conflicted with the tsar's aides by warning of the danger in their practice of using two powerful freight locomotives to achieve high speeds for the royal train. His warnings were proven in the October 1888Borki train disaster, Witte was then appointed as Director of State Railways.
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Witte worked in railroad management for 20 years after he had begun as a ticket clerk.[6] He caught the attention of Finance MinisterIvan Vyshnegradsky, who appointed him as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry,[15] where he served from 1889 to 1891. During that period, he oversaw an ambitious program of railway construction. Until then, less than one fourth of the small railway systems were under direct state control, but Witte set about expanding the rail lines and getting the railway service under control as a state monopoly. Witte also obtained the right to assign employees based on their performance or merit, rather than for patronage for political or familial connections. In 1889, he published a paper, "National Savings and Friedrich List", which cited the economic theories ofFriedrich List and justified the need for a strong domestic industry, to be protected from foreign competition bycustoms barriers.
A new customs law for Russia was passed in 1891, spurring an increase in industrialization by the turn of the 20th century. While Witte worked to achieve industrialization, he also fought for practical education. He said that railways operated by the state would be useless "unless it does its utmost for spreading technical education..."[18]
Tsar Alexander III appointed Witte in 1892 as acting Minister of Ways and Communications.[14] That gave him both control of the railroads in Russia and the authority to impose a reform on the tariffs charged. "Russian railroads gradually became perhaps the most economically operated railroads of the world".[19] Profits were high: over 100 million gold rubles a year to the government (exact amount unknown because of accounting defects).
In 1892 Witte became acquainted with Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich in a theater.[11] Witte began to seek her favour, urging her to divorce her gambling husband and marry him. The marriage was a scandal not only because Matilda was a divorcee but also because she was a converted Jew. That cost Witte many of his connections with the upper nobility, but the tsar protected him.
In August 1892, Witte was appointed to the post of Minister of Finance, which he held for the next eleven years, and he nearly doubled the revenues of the empire.[15] (Until 1905 matters pertaining to industry and commerce were within the province of the Ministry of Finance.) During his tenure, he greatly accelerated the construction of theTrans-Siberian Railway. He also emphasized creation of an educational system to train personnel for industry, in particular, the establishment of new "commercial" schools. He was known for appointing subordinates by their academic credentials or merit, rather than because of patronage political connections. In 1894, he concluded a 10-year commercial treaty with theGerman Empire on favorable terms for Russia. When Alexander III died, he told his son on his deathbed to listen well to Witte, his most capable minister.
In 1895, on a crusade against the evils of drunkenness, Witte established astate monopoly on alcohol,[15] which became a major source of revenue for the Russian government. In 1896, he concluded theLi–Lobanov Treaty withLi Hongzhang of theQing dynasty. One of the rights secured for Russia was the construction of theChinese Eastern Railway acrossnortheast China, which greatly shortened the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway to its projected eastern terminus atVladivostok. However, following theTriple Intervention, Witte strongly opposed the Russian occupation ofLiaodong Peninsula and the construction of the naval base atPort Arthur in theRussia–Qing Convention of 1898.
In 1896, Witte undertook a majorcurrency reform to place theRussian ruble on thegold standard. That resulted in increased investment activity and an increase in the inflow of foreign capital. Witte also enacted a law in 1897 limiting working hours in enterprises, and in 1898 reformed commercial and industrial taxes.[20] In 1899 thePetrograd Polytechnical Institute was founded on his initiative.
In summer 1898, he addressed a memorandum to the Tsar[21] calling for an agricultural conference on the reform of the peasant community. This resulted in three years of talks about laws to abolish collective responsibility and facilitate the resettlement of farmers onto lands on the outskirts of the empire. Many of his ideas were later adopted byPyotr Stolypin. In 1902 Witte's supporter,Dmitry Sipyagin, the Minister of Home Affairs, was assassinated. In an attempt to keep up the modernization of the Russian economy, Witte called and oversaw the Special Conference on the Needs of the Rural Industry. The conference was to provide recommendations for future reforms and compile the data to justify those reforms. By 1900 the growth in the manufacturing industry had been four times faster than in the preceding five-year period and six times faster than in the decade before that. External trade in industrial goods was equal to that ofBelgium.[22] In 1904, theUnion of Liberation was formed, which demanded economic and political reform.
Witte controlled East Asian policy in the 1890s. His goal was peaceful expansion of trade withJapan andChina. Japan, with its greatly expanded and modernized military, easily defeated the antiquated Chinese forces in theFirst Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Russia had to confront collaborating with Japan with which relations had been fairly good for some years or acting as protector of China against Japan. Witte chose the second policy, and in 1894, Russia, Germany andFrance forced Japan to soften the peace terms that it had imposed on China. Japan was forced to cede theLiaodong Peninsula andPort Arthur back to China (both territories were located in south-western Manchuria, a Chinese province).
The new Russian role angered Tokyo, which decided Russia was the main enemy in its quest to controlManchuria,Korea and China. Witte underestimated Japan's growing economic and military power and exaggerated Russia's military prowess. Russia concluded an alliance with China (in 1896 by theLi–Lobanov Treaty), which led in 1898 to Russian occupation and administration (by its own personnel and police) of the entire Liaodong Peninsula. Russia also fortified the ice-free Port Arthur and completed the Russian-ownedChinese Eastern Railway, which was to cross northern Manchuria from west to east and linkSiberia with Vladivostok. In 1899, theBoxer Rebellion broke out, and the Chinese attacked all foreigners. A large coalition of the major Western powers and Japan sent armed forces to relieve their diplomatic missions inPeking. The Russian government used that as an opportunity to bring a substantialarmy into Manchuria. As a consequence, by 1900 Manchuria was a fully incorporated outpost of the Russian Empire, and Japan prepared to fight Russia.[23]
Witte, in a memorandum, tried to turn the reports of thezemstvo presidents into a condemnation of the Home Office.[24] In a political conflict on land reform,Vyacheslav von Plehve accused him of being part of a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy.[25] According toVasily Gurko, Witte had dominated the irresolute tsar, and his opponents decided that was the moment to get rid of him.
Witte was appointed on 16 August 1903 (O.S.) as chairman of theCommittee of Ministers, a position he held until October 1905.[14] While officially a promotion, the post had no real power. Witte's removal from the influential post of Minister of Finance was engineered under the pressure of the landed gentry and his political enemies within the government and at the court. But historiansNicholas V. Riasanovsky and Robert K. Massie say that Witte's opposition to Russian designs onKorea resulted in his resigning from the government in 1903.[26][27]
Witte was brought back into the governmental decision-making process to help deal with growing civil unrest. Confronted with increasing opposition and, after consulting with Witte and PrinceSviatopolk-Mirsky, the tsar issued a reformukase on December 25, 1904 with vague promises.[28] After theBloody Sunday riots of 1905, Witte supplied 500 rubles, the equivalent of 250 dollars, toFather Gapon in order for the leader of the demonstration to leave the country.[29] Witte recommended that the government issue a manifesto related to the people's demands.[30] Schemes of reform would be elaborated byIvan Goremykin and a committee consisting of elected representatives of thezemstva and municipal councils under the presidency of Witte. On 3 March the tsar condemned the revolutionaries. The government issued a strongly worded prohibition of any further agitation in favor of a constitution.[31] By spring a new political system was beginning to form in Russia. A petition campaign was conducted seeking a wide variety of proposed changes, such as ending the war with Japan, which lasted from February to July 1905. In June mutiny broke out on theRussian battleship Potemkin.
The tsar called upon Witte to negotiate an end to theRusso-Japanese War.[14] He was sent to the United States for the talks, as the Russian emperor's plenipotentiary titled "his Secretary of State and President of the Committee of Ministers of the Emperor of Russia," along with BaronRoman Rosen, Master of the Imperial Court of Russia.[32] The peace talks were held inPortsmouth, New Hampshire.
Witte is credited with negotiating brilliantly on Russia's behalf during theTreaty of Portsmouth discussions. Russia lost little in the final settlement.[14] But the loss of the war with Japan is believed to have marked the beginning of the end of Imperial Russia. For his efforts, he was made aCount (Russian:граф,romanized: graf).[11][33]
After that diplomatic success, Witte wrote to the tsar stressing the urgent need for political reforms at home. He was dissatisfied with proposals byAlexander Bulygin, the successor of Sviatopolk-Mirsky. Even figures like Mikhail Osipovich Menshikov andVladimir Meshchersky agreed. A 6 August (O.S.) manifesto created aDuma as a consultative body only. Elections of its representatives would not be direct but be held in four stages, and qualifications for class and property would exclude much of the intelligentsia and all of the working classes fromsuffrage. The proposal was greeted by numerous protests and strikes across the country, which became known as theRussian Revolution of 1905.
Witte described the regime's usual "incompetence and obstinacy" in response to the crisis of 1904–1905 as a "mixture of cowardice, blindness and stupidity".[34]
On 8 January 1905, Witte andSviatopolk-Mirsky had been approached by a delegation of intellectuals led byMaxim Gorky, who begged them to negotiate with demonstrators. After the government's postings of warnings of 'resolute measures' against street gatherings led byFather Gapon, they worried about violent confrontation, which did take place. They were unsuccessful as the government had believed they could control Fr. Gapon.[35] Leaving his visiting cards with Witte and Mirsky, Gorky was arrested, along with the other members of the deputations.[36]
In later 1905 Witte was approached by the tsar's advisers, in an effort to save the country from complete collapse, and on 9 October 1905, he went to theWinter Palace for a meeting. Here he told the tsar 'with brutal frankness' that the country was on the verge of a catastrophic revolution, which he said 'would sweep away a thousand years of history'. He presented the tsar with two choices: either appoint a military dictator, or agree to broad and major reforms. In a memorandum arguing for a manifesto, Witte outlined the reforms needed to appease the masses.
He argued for the following reforms: creation of a legislative parliament (Imperial Duma) elected via a democratic franchise; granting of civil liberties; establishing a cabinet government and a 'constitutional order'.[37] Those demands, which basically comprised the political programme of theLiberation Movement, were an attempt to isolate the political Left by pacifying the liberals.[37] Witte emphasised that repression would be only a temporary solution to the problem and a risky one because he believed that the armed forces, whose loyalty was now in question, could collapse if they were to be used against the masses.[37] Most of the military advisers to the tsar agreed with Witte, as did theGovernor of Saint Petersburg,Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov, who wielded considerable influence at court. Only when Nicholas II's cousin Grand DukeNicholas threatened to shoot himself if he did not agree to Witte's demands, following the tsar's request for him to accept appointment as dictator, would the tsar agree. He was embarrassed to have been forced by a former "railway clerk", a man who was a bureaucrat and "businessman," to relinquish his autocratic rule.[37][nb 1] Witte later said that the tsar's court were ready to use the Manifesto as a temporary concession, and later return to autocracy "when the revolutionary tide subsided".[38]
In October Witte was charged with the task of assembling the nation's first cabinet government, and he offered the liberals several portfolios: Ministry of Agriculture toIvan Shipov; Ministry of Trade and Industry toAlexander Guchkov;Ministry of Justice toAnatoly Koni and theMinistry of Education toEvgenii Troubetzkoy.Pavel Milyukov and PrinceGeorgy Lvov were also offered ministerial posts. None of those liberals agreed to join the government, though. Witte had to form his cabinet from 'tsarist bureaucrats and appointees lacking public confidence'. TheKadets doubted that Witte could deliver on the promises made by the tsar in October, knowing the tsar's staunch opposition to reform.[39]
Witte argued that the Tsarist regime could be saved from a revolution only by the transformation of Russia to a 'modern industrial society', in which 'personal and public initiatives' were encouraged by arechtsstaat who guaranteed civil liberties.[6]
In the two weeks following theOctober Manifesto, severalpogroms took place against Jews, especially inSt. Petersburg andOdessa. Witte ordered an official investigation, where it was revealed that the police in the former city had organised, armed and gavevodka to the anti-Semitic crowds, and even participated in the attacks. Witte demanded the prosecution of the chief of police in St. Petersburg, who was involved in the printing of anti-Semitic pamphlets, but the tsar intervened and protected him.[40] Witte believed that anti-Semitism was 'considered fashionable' among the elite.[41] In the aftermath of theKishinev pogrom in 1903, Witte had said that if Jews 'comprise about fifty percent of the membership in the revolutionary parties', it was 'the fault of our government. The Jews are too oppressed'.[42]
Milyukov once confronted Witte to ask why he would not commit himself to a constitution. Witte replied that he could not 'because the Tsar does not wish it'.[43] Witte was worried that the court was only using him, as had emerged in talks with members of the Kadet Party.[43]
After his skillful diplomacy Witte was appointed as Chairman of the newCouncil of Ministers, the equivalent of Prime Minister, and formedSergei Witte's Cabinet, not belonging to any party, as there were none. No longer was the tsar the head of the government. "Immediately upon my nomination as President of the Imperial Council I made it clear that theProcurator of theMost Holy SynodKonstantin Pobedonostsev, could not remain in office, for he definitely represented the past."[44] He was replaced by Prince Alexey D. Obolensky. Trepov andAlexander Bulygin were dismissed and, after many discussions,Pyotr Nikolayevich Durnovo was appointed asMinister of Interior on 1 January 1906; his appointment is considered one of the greatest errors Witte made during his administration.
According to Harold Williams: "That government was almost paralyzed from the beginning. Witte acted immediately by urging the release of political prisoners and the lifting ofcensorship laws."[45]Alexander Guchkov andDmitry Shipov refused to work with the reactionary Durnovo and to support the government. On 26 October (O.S.), the tsar appointed Trepov as Master of the Palace without consulting Witte, and had daily contact with the emperor; his influence at court was paramount. "In addition mass violence broke out in the days following the issuance of the October Manifesto. The major source of the unrest was unrelated to the October Manifesto. It took the form of attacks by gangs in the cities on the Jews. In general, the authorities ignored the attacks.[45]
On 8 November, the sailors in Kronstadt mutinied. The same month, the border provinces were clearly taking advantage of the weakening of Central Russia to show their teeth. Witte later wrote in hisMemoirs about the empire's ethnic minorities:
The dominating element of the Empire, the Russians, fall into three distinct ethnic branches: the Great, the Little, and the White Russians, and 35 per cent, of the population is non-Russian. It is impossible to rule such a country and ignore the national aspirations of its varied non-Russian national groups, which largely make up the population of the Great Empire. The policy of converting all Russian subjects into "true Russians" is not the ideal which will weld all the heterogeneous elements of the Empire into one body politic. It might be better for us Russians, I concede, if Russia were a nationally uniform country and not a heterogeneous Empire. To achieve that goal there is but one way, namely to give up our border provinces, for these will never put up with the policy of ruthlessRussification. But that measure our ruler will, of course, never consider.[46]
On 10 November,Russian Poland was placed undermartial law.
Witte's position was not well established. The Liberals remained obdurate and refused to be cajoled. TheAll-Russian Peasant Union[clarification needed] asked the Russian people to refuse to make redemption payments to the government and withdraw their deposits from banks that might be subject to government action.[47] He promised an eight-hour working day and tried to secure vital loans from France to keep the government from bankruptcy.[17]
Witte sent his envoy to theRothschild bank; they responded that
"they would willingly render full assistance to the loan, but that they would not be in a position to do so until the Russian Government had enacted legal measures tending to improve the conditions of the Jews in Russia. As I deemed it beneath our dignity to connect the solution of our Jewish question with the loan, I decided to give up my intention of securing the participation of the Rothschilds."[48]
On 24 November by Imperial decree provisional regulations on the censorship of magazines and newspaper was released.[49]
On 16 DecemberTrotsky and the rest of the executive committee of theSt. Petersburg Soviet were arrested.[25] The Minister of AgricultureNikolai Kutler resigned in February 1906; Witte refused to appointAlexander Krivoshein. In the next few weeks, changes and additions to theRussian Constitution of 1906 were made, so that the emperor was confirmed as the dictator of foreign policies and the supreme commander of thearmy andnavy. The ministers remained responsible solely to Nicholas II, not to the Duma. The "peasant question" orland reforms was a hot issue; the influence of the "Duma of Public Anger" had to be limited, according to Goremykin and Dmitri Trepov. TheBolsheviks boycotted the coming election. When Witte discovered that Nicholas never intended to honour those concessions, he resigned as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The position and influence of General Trepov, Grand Duke Nicholas, theBlack Hundreds, and overwhelming victories by theKadets in the1906 Russian legislative election, forced Witte on 14th to resign, which was announced 22 April 1906 (O.S.).
Witte confessed toAlexander Polovtsov in April 1906 that the success of the repressions in the wake of theMoscow uprising in 1905 had resulted in his losing all influence over the tsar. Despite Witte's protests,Durnovo was allowed to 'carry out a brutal and excessive, and often totally unjustified, series of repressive measures.'[50]
In 1906, Father Gapon returned to Russia from exile and supported Witte's government.[51] On 30 April 1905 Witte proposed the Law of Religious Toleration, followed by the edict of 30 October 1906 giving legal status to schismatics and sectarians of theRussian Orthodox Church (ROC), the established state church.[52] Witte argued that ending discrimination against religious rivals of the Orthodox Church 'would not harm the church, provided it embraced the reforms that would revive its religious life'. Although the Church's 'senior hierarchs' may for some time have played with the thought of self-government, Witte's demand that it would come at the cost of religious toleration 'guaranteed to drive them back into the arms of reaction'.[53] Witte had made that demand (self-government in exchange for religious toleration) in the hope of 'wooing' the important commercial groups of the ethnic minorities of Jewish and Old Believer communities.[53]
According toDmitry Filosofov, Witte was the only talented person in the government, but he brought many troubles to Russia. He destroyed the autocracy not from the outside like revolutionaries but from the inside. Witte failed to retain the confidence of the emperor but continued in Russian politics as a member of theState Council but he was never again appointed to an administrative role in the government. He was ostracized by the Russian establishment. In January 1907 a bomb was found planted in his home. The investigatorPavel Alexandrovich Alexandrov proved that theOkhrana, the tsarist secret police, had been involved.[54][55] During the winter season, Witte lived inBiarritz and started writing hisMemoirs,[56] but he returned to St Petersburg in 1908.
During theJuly Crisis in 1914,Grigori Rasputin, and Witte desperately urged the Tsar to avoid the conflict and warned that Europe faced calamity if Russia became involved. The advice went unheeded. French AmbassadorMaurice Paléologue complained[clarification needed] to Minister of Foreign AffairsSergey Sazonov.
Witte died in February 1915 at his home in St. Petersburg; his quick death was attributed tomeningitis or abrain tumor. His third-class[clarification needed] funeral was held at theAlexander Nevsky Lavra. On the black granite slab, in addition to the usual dates of birth and death, another date was carved: 17 October, 1905, the date he presented the Manifesto. Witte had no children, but he had adopted his wife's by her first marriage. According toEdvard Radzinsky, Witte asked in vain for the title ofCount to be given to his grandson, L. K. Naryshkin (1905-1963).
Witte's reputation was burnished in the West after his secret memoirs were published in translation in 1921. They had been completed in 1912 and kept in a bank inBayonne, France. He had left orders that they could not be published during the lifetimes of him and his contemporaries. The ambassador in France,Vasily Maklakov, received them from his widow. The original manuscript of his memoirs are now held inColumbia University Library's Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture.[3]
The Sergei Witte University of Moscow, with campuses in Ryazan, Krasnodar and Nizhny Novgorod is named in his honour (a private institution accredited by theMinistry of Science and Higher Education (Russia) in 1997)
Siam:Grand Cross of the White Elephant,1889
Emirate of Bukhara:
France: Grand Cross of theLegion of Honour,January 1894[58]
German Empire:
Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of theImperial Order of Leopold,1894; in Diamonds,1897
Kingdom of Serbia:
Belgium: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Leopold,1894
Denmark:Grand Cross of the Dannebrog,6 April 1895[60]
Qing dynasty:Order of the Double Dragon, Class I Grade III,1896
Ethiopian Empire:Grand Cross of the Star of Ethiopia,1896
Kingdom of Greece:Officer of the Redeemer,1896; Grand Cross,1898
Sweden-Norway: Commander Grand Cross of theOrder of Vasa,1897
Principality of Bulgaria:Grand Cross of St. Alexander,1898
Kingdom of Romania:Grand Cross of the Star of Romania,1898
Persian Empire:
Kingdom of Portugal: Grand Cross of theMilitary Order of Christ,1900
Ottoman Empire:Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class in Diamonds,1901
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Adolf Gibbenet | Transport Minister February 1892 – August 1892 | Succeeded by Apollon Krivoshein |
| Preceded by | Finance Minister 1892–1903 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Committee of Ministers 1903–1905 | Succeeded by Himself as Prime Minister |
| Preceded by Himself as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers | Prime Minister of Russia 2 November 1905 – 5 May 1906 | Succeeded by |
