The Presidential Library’s collections illustrate Russia's largest reformer Sergei Witte

June 29, 2019 marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Witte (1849–1915), an outstanding statesman, an innovator in the industrialization of the country based on the development of the financial sector and the railway network, the first chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia. Under his leadership, Russia carried out a series of social and economic reforms of a strategic nature, which markedly moved the country towards technical progress.

Born in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) in the family of a major official, Sergei Witte received an excellent home education, passed an external exam for a gymnasium course and entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University of Novorossiysk (Odessa), after which he earned the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences.

During the first period of his professional activity, Witte was a zealous monarchist, with one, however, fundamentally important reservation: “I still hold the conviction that the best form of government, especially for Russia, with foreigners reaching 35% of the total population, is an unlimited monarchy, but on one condition - when there is a hereditary Autocrat there, if not a genius, then a person with more than ordinary qualities. First of all, and most of all, a strong will and character are required of the autocrat, then a sublime nobility of feelings and thoughts, then mind and education, as well as upbringing”, - V. Vodovozov quotes a fragment from his Memoirs in his book “The Count Sergei Witte and Emperor Nicholas II".

Relations with the sovereign developed unevenly. Vodovozov writes: "His Majesty hardly tolerates people near him whom he reveres in his soul above himself in moral and mental respect, or those whose opinions differ from those of the palace camarilla". Witte, an independent by nature, experienced all this on himself and, accordingly, on the economic transformations he carried out.

An interesting psychological portrait of Witte was left by the lawyer A. F. Koni in his memoirs “Sergei Witte” (1925), which is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library. Koni's official activities provided him with the opportunity of repeated meetings with Witte and even working together. For the first time they met in 1876 in a commission established for the study of the railway case in Russia. Witte then insisted on establishing government control over railway tariffs in order to avoid abuses and insistently raised the issue of the redemption of railways by the state.

Subsequently, Witte summarized his vision of the subject in a number of articles in the journal “Engineer” and in his brochure “Principles of Railway Tariffs” published by him in 1883, which he set forth in the economic aspect.

Koni observed Witte when he was Minister of Finance, when the energetic Witte insisted on state support for the manufacturing industry and on the strong attraction of foreign capital to Russia. At the same time, he “pointed out the sad backwardness of our agriculture and argued that to raise it, it is necessary to raise the personality of the peasant and to give him the rights that all the subjects of the Emperor use.”

Here is a new meeting, described in Koni’s memoirs: “I met Witte in June 1903, living in the Sestroretsk resort. He came on horseback and walked, then speeding up, then slowing down, along a long covered gallery near the sea shore ... He kindly walked towards me, kept my hand in his and began to ask me how I live in the resort. I saw that these were merely mechanical phrases and that he was more likely due to circumstances to walk alongside, “stunned by the noise of an internal alarm””.

Only a month later, Koni learned that “from the most influential minister with broad creative activity, he became the chairman of the cabinet of ministers, i.e., a decorative dummy... The soul drama was that, having a tremendous impact on the course of Russia's internal life, causing a strong development of industry, introducing and consolidating the transition of the railway business into the hands of the state, establishing a number of higher technical schools, that is, fundamentally affecting the economic structure of the country and putting our budget and money circulation on solid ground, he did not find in himself the determination to abandon the “promotion”, which enabled many of his enemies to point to him as a mere career official”.

This “backlash” on career advancement so desired for many gave out in Sergei Witte a person of action, and not a job seeker and title. There was growing rejection of emperor voluntarism, which is evident from Witte's memoirs, quoted in Vodovozov’s book: “His insane policy led to the Japanese war and Tsushima, and the Japanese defeated not Russia, not our army, but his boyish management of 140 million by the people. He ravaged Russia”.

It is noteworthy that after the Russian-Japanese War (1904-1905), it was Witte who was ordered be the emperor to lead the Russian delegation at the negotiations with Japan in Portsmouth (USA).

August 23, 1905 the Portsmouth Peace was signed. The same year, the emperor elevated Witte to count dignity.

Returning to his homeland, according to Koni, Witte found “extreme development of revolutionary speeches, which made him understand that, apart from representative institutions considered to be a panacea, it is impossible to warn the state that threatens the collapse, and he, an autocratic self and a fan of autocracy, put his hand to elaboration of the manifesto of October 17, 1905 and the accompanying government explanations. <...> It was not he who opened the State Duma, but the leader of a much smaller caliber, Goremykin”.

The obituary on the occasion of the death of Sergei Witte "Count Sergei Witte" (1915) P. Struve concludes: "The figure of Witte stands at the turn of two eras of Russian history and belongs to both of them... Witte invested in matters of great historical significance not accidental a figure that had a lucky draw, but as a person marked by state vocation".