1892 with Yu Witte Minister of Finance. Brief biography of Count Sergei Witte

Witte's reforms of 1892-1903 were carried out in Russia with the aim of eliminating the lag between industry and Western countries. Scientists often call these reforms industrialization Tsarist Russia. Their specificity was that the reforms covered all the main spheres of the state’s life, allowing the economy to make a colossal leap. That is why today the term “golden decade” of Russian industry is used.

Witte's reforms are characterized by the following measures:

• Increased tax revenues. Tax revenues increased by about 50%, but we are not talking about direct taxes, but about indirect taxes. Indirect taxes This is the imposition of additional taxes on the sale of goods and services, which fall on the seller and are paid to the state.
• Introduction of the wine monopoly in 1895. The sale of alcoholic beverages was declared a state monopoly, and this revenue item alone accounted for 28% of the budget Russian Empire. In money terms, this translates to approximately 500 million rubles per year.
• Gold backing of the Russian ruble. In 1897 S.Yu. Witte carried out a monetary reform, backing the ruble with gold. Banknotes were freely exchanged for gold bars, as a result of which the Russian economy and its currency became interesting for investment.
• Accelerated construction railways. They built approximately 2.7 thousand km of railway per year. This may seem like an insignificant aspect of the reform, but at that time it was very important for the state. Suffice it to say that in the war with Japan, one of the key factors in Russia's defeat was insufficient railway equipment, which made it difficult for troops to move and move.
• Since 1899, restrictions on the import of foreign capital and the export of capital from Russia have been lifted.
• In 1891, customs tariffs on the import of products were increased. This was a forced step that helped support local producers. It is thanks to this that potential was created within the country.

Brief table of reforms

Preparation of reforms

Until 1892, Sergei Yulievich Witte served as Minister of Railways. In 1892, he moved to the post of Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire. At that time, it was the Minister of Finance who determined the entire economic policy of the country. Witte adhered to the ideas of a comprehensive transformation of the country's economy. His opponent was Plehve, who promoted the classical path of development. Alexander 3, realizing that at the current stage the economy needs real reforms and transformations, sided with Witte, appointing him Minister of Finance, thereby completely entrusting this man with the formation of the country's economy.

The main task economic reforms the end of the 19th century was that within 10 years Russia would catch up Western countries, and also strengthened in the markets of the Near, Middle and Far East.

Currency reform and investment

Today people often talk about the phenomenal economic indicators achieved by Stalin’s five-year plans, but their essence was almost completely borrowed from Witte’s reforms. The only difference was that in the USSR new enterprises did not become private property. Sergei Yulievich envisioned industrializing the country in 10 years or five years. The finances of the Russian Empire at that time were in a deplorable state. The main problem was high inflation, which was generated by payments to landowners, as well as continuous wars.

To solve this problem, the Witte currency reform was carried out in 1897. The essence of this reform can be briefly described as follows: the Russian ruble was now backed by gold, or a gold standard was introduced. Thanks to this, investor confidence in the Russian ruble has increased. The state issued only the amount of money that was actually backed by gold. The banknote could be exchanged for gold at any time.

The results of Witte's monetary reform appeared very quickly. Already in 1898, significant amounts of capital began to be invested in Russia. Moreover, this capital was mainly foreign. Largely thanks to this capital, large-scale construction of railways throughout the country became possible. The Trans-Siberian Railway and the Chinese-Eastern Railway were built precisely thanks to Witte’s reforms, and with foreign capital.

Inflow of foreign capital

One of the effects of the monetary reform of Witte and his economic policy there was an influx of foreign capital into Russia. The total amount of investment in Russian industry amounted to 2.3 billion rubles. The main countries that invested in the Russian economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries:

• France – 732 million
• UK – 507 million
• Germany – 442 million
• Belgium – 382 million
• USA – 178 million

There were both positives and negatives about foreign capital. The industry, built with Western money, was completely controlled by foreign owners who were interested in profit, but in no way in developing Russia. The state, of course, controlled these enterprises, but operational decisions everything was accepted locally. A striking example of what this leads to is the Lena execution. Today this topic is being speculated on in order to blame Nicholas 2 for the harsh working conditions of the workers, but in fact the enterprise was completely controlled by English industrialists, and it was their actions that led to the rebellion and execution of people in Russia.

Evaluation of reforms

In Russian society, Witte's reforms were perceived negatively by all people. The main critic of the current economic policy was Nicholas 2, who called the Minister of Finance a “Republican.” The result was a paradoxical situation. Representatives of the autocracy did not like Witte, calling him a republican or a person who supported an anti-Russian position, and the revolutionaries did not like Witte because he supported the autocracy. Which of these people was right? It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally, but it was Sergei Yulievich’s reforms that strengthened the positions of industrialists and capitalists in Russia. And this, in turn, was one of the reasons for the collapse of the Russian Empire.

Nevertheless, thanks to the measures taken, Russia in total industrial production came in 5th place in the world.

Results of economic policy S.Yu. Witte

• The number of industrial enterprises has increased significantly. Just across the country it was about 40%. For example, in the Donbass there were 2 metallurgical plants, and during the reform period 15 more were built. Of these 15, 13 plants were built by foreigners.
• Production increased: oil by 2.9 times, cast iron by 3.7 times, steam locomotives by 10 times, steel by 7.2 times.
• In terms of industrial growth rates, Russia has taken first place in the world.

The main emphasis was on the development of heavy industry by reducing the share of light industry. One of the problems was that the main industries were built in cities or within city limits. This created conditions under which the proletariat began to settle in industrial centers. The resettlement of people from the village to the city began, and it was these people who later played their role in the revolution.

WITTE, SERGEY YULIEVICH(1849–1915) - an outstanding Russian statesman and reformer.

Born on June 17 (29), 1849 in Tiflis in the family of the director of the department of state property in the Caucasus. Witte's paternal ancestors, Germans, moved to the Baltic states from Holland in the 17th century. Through his mother - the daughter of a member of the main administration of the governor in the Caucasus - Witte's pedigree was traced back to the descendants of the Dolgoruky princes. S.Yu. Witte’s cousin on this line was H.P. Blavatsky, the founder of theosophical teaching. The boy grew up in the family of his maternal grandfather and received the usual monarchical upbringing for noble families.

In the 1860s he was a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Novorossiysk University in Odessa. He studied at the expense of the Caucasian governorship, since after the death of his father the family was in need, he was fond of the theory of infinitesimal quantities in mathematics, but due to the lack of funds to continue his studies, after university he was enrolled in the department of the railway traffic service in the office of the Governor General of Odessa. There he worked as a ticket cashier, controller, traffic inspector, freight service clerk, assistant driver, assistant and station manager, and thoroughly knew the commercial side of the railway business.

In the early 1870s, under the patronage of the Minister of Railways, Count Bobrinsky, S.Yu. Witte was appointed head of the Odessa Railway traffic office. During the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878, he distinguished himself by organizing the transportation of troops to the theater of military operations, for which he received the position of head of the operational department of the South-Western Railways. In Petersburg. Here he proved himself to be an excellent analyst in the commission of Count E.T. Baranov to study the railway business in Russia, amazing everyone with his excellent memory. Book published by S.Yu. Witte in 1883 Railway principles tariffs for cargo transportation brought him fame in the circles of the Russian bourgeoisie.

By political views S.Yu. Witte then sympathized with late Slavophilism, wrote for I.S. Aksakov’s newspaper “Rus”, and collaborated with the Odessa Slavic Benevolent Society. But - according to his admission - in those young years he preferred the “society of actresses” to politics.

After the events of March 1, 1881, he put forward the idea of ​​​​creating a secret organization to protect the sovereign and fight terrorists using their own methods. The idea was embodied by the monarchists who created the “Holy Squad” in St. Petersburg, and S.Yu. Witte himself received the task of organizing an assassination attempt on one of the populists in Paris. He did not become a terrorist, the society was dissolved, but Witte’s stay in it demonstrated his loyal feelings to the royal family.

Witte's new promotion was helped by an incident - a derailment due to the speeding of the Tsar's train in Borki on the South-Western Railway. October 17, 1888. Before this, Witte had repeatedly warned the Minister of Railways about the possible consequences of excess speed by the drivers of the royal trains. In the report to Alexander III in connection with the incident in Borki, they remembered the warnings of S.Yu. Witte. The Tsar appointed him to the newly approved post of Director of the Department of Railway Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, promoting him from titular to actual state councilor.

The 40-year-old director of the department wanted to be noticed: soon after his appointment, he substantiated in practice the need to regulate railway tariffs. In February 1892 - having overcome intrigues against him in the transport and financial departments - S.Yu. Witte was appointed to the post of Minister of Railways, and six months later (due to the resignation of I.A. Vyshnegradsky due to illness) he became a Privy Councilor, an honorary member Academy of Sciences and Minister of Finance of Russia. Under his ministry, S.Yu. Witte created the State Press Agency for the first time in the history of Russia (1902).

S.Yu. Witte held the post of Minister of Finance until August 1903, guided by the theoretical heritage of his predecessors - N.H. Bunge, I.A. Vyshnegradsky. His economic views were greatly influenced by the works of the German economist F. List, the analysis of which is devoted to the work of S. Yu. Witte The National Economy of Friedrich List.

Having set the goal of bringing Russia into the category of advanced industrial powers, catching up with the developed countries of Europe, and taking a strong position in the markets of the East, S.Yu. Witte developed conceptual and tactical approaches to the problem of forming market relations and creating an independent national economy. To accelerate the industrialization of the country and accumulate domestic resources, he put forward the task of actively attracting foreign capital, substantiated the need for customs protection of industry from competitors, and promotion of exports. During his tenure as Minister of Finance, no less than 3 billion rubles were attracted to Russia. foreign capital. An important step towards strengthening the Russian domestic market was the introduction of a protectionist tariff in 1891 and the conclusion of customs agreements with Germany in 1894 and 1904.

He considered the most important mechanism in implementing the internal restructuring of the country to be unlimited government intervention - a set of financial, credit and tax measures, including limiting the issuing activities of the State Bank, conversion loans abroad, etc. The initiator of the monetary reform of 1897, he achieved stabilization of the ruble, introduced gold circulation , ensuring the absolute stability of the gold ruble until 1914.

A way to enrich the Russian treasury was the introduction of a wine monopoly (the tax farming system - on the initiative of S.Yu. Witte - was replaced by excise taxes on each degree), which became one of the foundations of the budget of Tsarist Russia and provided up to a quarter of all revenues to the treasury.

S.Yu. Witte also associated the modernization of the country's economy with the rapid development of transport communications. Having started his activities as Minister of Finance, he took over 29 thousand miles of railways, but after leaving this post, he left 54 ​​thousand miles (70% of them were state-owned). On his initiative, the Trans-Siberian Railway (1891–1901) was built, along which passengers saw the inscription on cut down rocks: “Forward to the Pacific Ocean!” As the road was built, new cities arose (Novonikolaevsk, now Novosibirsk); ships were built for merchant shipping along the Northern Sea Route (icebreaker Ermak).

Having a university education and understanding the importance of science for an economic breakthrough, S.Yu. Witte invited D.I. Mendeleev to head the Chamber of Weights and Measures, and was the initiator of the opening of new universities - 3 polytechnic institutes, 73 commercial and many other educational institutions.

Witte was recognized in business circles in the West as one of the creators of the Russian commercial and industrial world. His dizzying career aroused envy among the Russian bureaucracy. High-society Petersburg could not come to terms with the “provincial upstart”, his straightforwardness and demeanor. Attacks on the successful Minister of Finance were intensified by the fact of his marriage to a Jewish woman, M. Lisanevich (née Nurok), who was divorced from her husband after a scandalous financial incident. Emperor Alexander III himself became the minister's defender. The conversations died down, but Witte’s wife was not accepted either at court or in high society. Conversations in high society influenced Witte's relations with the royal court, and Nicholas II, who replaced Alexandra III at the head of state, more than once thought about removing Witte from the post of Minister of Finance, accused by ill-wishers of republicanism.

In left-wing circles, Witte was credited with the desire to curtail the rights of the people in favor of an autocratic state. Liberals believed that his program distracted society from socio-economic and cultural-political reforms. There was even talk about imposing “state socialism” on him. In reality, this supporter of a strong Russia had a very cool attitude towards socialist ideas and believed that Marxists were “strong in denial and terribly weak in creation.”

Landowners reproached Witte for his attempt to revise agrarian policy, seeing in it a desire to ruin them in favor of the peasants. He also sought a transition to bourgeois methods of management through the expansion of market relations, the purchasing power of the domestic market, and the transition from communal to private land ownership. The law abolishing mutual responsibility in the community, adopted back in 1899, was the first step of the reformer minister towards agrarian reform; Another such step was the creation - with the support of the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin - of the “Special Meeting on the needs of the agricultural industry” (1902). The “Special Meeting” set the task of “reviving personal property in the countryside” and thus anticipated many of the ideas and actions of P.A. Stolypin. To implement the program outlined by the “Special Meeting,” 82 provincial and 536 district noble committees were created, which collected answers from “experts” in agrarian affairs (landowners, zemstvos, etc.) and were called upon to analyze them and answer the question of whether rural community.

The agrarian question became the arena of confrontation between S.Yu. Witte and the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Plehve, who replaced D.S. Sipyagin. The tsar himself was on the side of V.K. Plehve, but the Ministry of Finance in 1903 was experiencing difficulties. The economic crisis slowed down the development of industry, reduced the influx of foreign capital, and upset the budget balance. Russia's expansion in the East brought the war with Japan closer. The committees created by the “Special Meeting” became centers of liberal opposition to the government, advocating the voluntary transition of peasants from communal land ownership to household ownership. In the summer of 1903, general workers' strikes temporarily paralyzed the life of ten large cities in southern Russia.

Ultimately, V.K. Pleve managed to “frame” S.Yu. Witte, blaming him for the instability in the country. In August 1903, the successful Minister of Finance was offered an “honorable resignation.” He was removed from office and granted the post of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. All programs were left behind, including the “Special Meeting”. Its work was curtailed, and on March 30, 1905 the Tsar closed it. However, the “Special Meeting” revealed the reasons for the stagnation of agriculture and the plight of the peasants, identifying possible directions for future agrarian reform, which slowed down the development of the revolution of 1905–1907.

As Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, S.Yu. Witte continued to implement the program to consolidate Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. Even earlier, he sought to counteract Japan’s aggressive policy in the Far East, pursuing a course of rapprochement with China and Korea. With his participation, an agreement was concluded with China on the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. on the territory of Manchuria. The war with Japan, he believed, would require large funds that the country needed for other needs. But his position was sharply at odds with the course of the “small victorious war” of the Tsar’s Secretary of State A.M. Bezobrazov, which was supported by the naval and military ministers, and Nicholas II himself.

S.Yu. Witte did a lot to protect the monarchy. Having shown himself to be a categorical opponent of the expansion of zemstvo institutions, as “not corresponding to the autocratic system,” he insisted that from the decree of December 12, 1904. On plans for improving the state order The clause on the participation of elected representatives in the State Council was crossed out. This earned him the temporary favor of the king. He argued to Nicholas II that if the Committee of Ministers had been vested with real power, then such a turn of events as “Bloody Sunday” would have been impossible. At the end of January 1905, the tsar instructed S.Yu. Witte to organize a meeting of ministers on “measures necessary to calm the country.”

Witte hoped to transform the meeting into a government of the “Western European model,” but this caused another tsarist disfavor. And only at the end of May 1905, in connection with the urgent need to end the war with Japan as soon as possible, the Tsar again called on Witte as an extraordinary ambassador to conduct difficult peace negotiations. On August 23, 1905, he signed the Treaty of Portsmouth with Japan. From the hopelessly lost war, S.Yu. Witte the diplomat (with the active participation of American President T. Roosevelt as a mediator) managed to extract the maximum possible, for which he was awarded the title of count. (Ill-wishers in high society nicknamed S.Yu. Witte Count “Polus-Sakhalinsky”, accusing him of ceding the southern part of Sakhalin to Japan).

In the context of the growing revolution in the fall of 1905, S.Yu. Witte managed to convince Nicholas II that he had no choice but to establish either a dictatorship or a constitutional monarchy in Russia. Insisting on the need to create a “strong government” headed by himself, S.Yu. Witte ensured that - after painful hesitation - the tsar signed the Manifesto on October 17 On improving public order. This step saved the autocracy from collapse. On October 19, the tsar also signed a decree on reforming the Council of Ministers headed by S.Yu. Witte, which had a program of liberal reforms that he had previously drawn up together with A.D. Obolensky and N.I. Vuich and set out in a note to Nicholas II at the beginning October.

Having become the head of the Russian government, S.Yu. Witte reached the pinnacle of his career. Demonstrating amazing flexibility and remaining a firm guardian of autocracy, he made preparations for the convening State Duma. The government led by him drew up a project Basic laws, implementing the freedoms proclaimed on October 17, dealt with issues of restructuring peasant land ownership.

At the same time, in the fight against the development of revolutionary sentiments, the Witte government showed firmness and even harshness, introducing a state of emergency in areas covered by the revolutionary movement, resorting to courts-martial and the death penalty. To stabilize the internal situation, Witte secured large European loans, which were used to suppress the revolution.

Recession revolutionary movement predetermined the elimination of the first Russian prime minister. The tsar no longer needed him and on April 14, 1906 he was forced to submit his resignation. The end of his career was brightened up by a special rescript from the Tsar, who awarded him the Order of Alexander Nevsky with diamonds.

Until the end of his days, Witte remained chairman of the Finance Committee of the State Council and often spoke in the press. In 1912 he completed his Memories, which remain to this day a valuable eyewitness testimony to the turbulent events of the early 20th century. Last years S.Yu. Witte spent his life in St. Petersburg and abroad. At the beginning of 1914, he predicted that Russia’s entry into the war would end in the collapse of the autocracy; he was ready to take on a peacekeeping mission in negotiations with the Germans, but he was already mortally ill.

He died on February 28 (March 13), 1915. His funeral was modest, there were no official ceremonies. His office was sealed and his papers were confiscated. Witte's death caused widespread resonance. The newspapers were full of headlines: In memory of a big man, Great Reformer… Witte’s activities were contradictory, combining a commitment to unlimited autocracy and an understanding of the need for reforms that undermined its foundations. But the meaning of S.Yu. Witte’s life was service to the Motherland, this was recognized by both his like-minded people and his ill-wishers. Foreign historians call S.Yu. Witte “a champion of state capitalism.”

Works of S.Yu. Witte: Memories. In 3 vols. M., 1960; Memories. In 2 vols. St. Petersburg, 2003.

Irina Pushkareva

Among the major statesmen of Russia, it is difficult to find a personality as extraordinary, bright, as ambiguous, contradictory as S. Yu. Witte was. This man was destined to experience a meteoric rise - to rise from a third-rate clerical official to the most influential minister; in critical years for the fate of Russia - to be the chairman of the Committee of Ministers, and then to become the head of a government besieged by the revolution.

He had the opportunity to shine brightly in the diplomatic field, to witness the Crimean War, the abolition of serfdom, the reforms of the 60s, the rapid development of capitalism, the Russo-Japanese War, and the first revolution in Russia. S. Yu. Witte is a contemporary of Alexander III and Nicholas II, P. A. Stolypin and V. N. Kokovtsov, S. V. Zubatov and V. K. Pleve, D. S. Sipyagin and G. E. Rasputin.

The life, political activity, and moral qualities of Sergei Yulievich Witte have always evoked contradictory, sometimes polar opposite, assessments and judgments. According to some memoirs of his contemporaries, we have before us “an exceptionally gifted”, “highly outstanding statesman”, “superior in the variety of his talents, the vastness of his horizons, the ability to cope with the most difficult tasks with the brilliance and strength of his mind of all the people of his time.” According to others, he is “a businessman completely inexperienced in the national economy,” “suffering from amateurism and poor knowledge of Russian reality,” a person with “an average philistine level of development and the naivety of many views,” whose policies were characterized by “helplessness, unsystematicness and... unprincipledness.”

Characterizing Witte, some emphasized that he was “European and liberal,” others that “Witte was never either a liberal or a conservative, but sometimes he was deliberately reactionary.” The following was even written about him: “a savage, a provincial hero, an insolent and libertine with a sunken nose.”

So what kind of person was this - Sergei Yulievich Witte?

He was born on June 17, 1849 in the Caucasus, in Tiflis, in the family of a provincial official. Witte's paternal ancestors came from Holland and moved to the Baltic states in the middle of the 19th century. received hereditary nobility. On his mother's side, his ancestry was traced back to the associates of Peter I - the princes Dolgoruky. Witte's father, Julius Fedorovich, a nobleman of the Pskov province, a Lutheran who converted to Orthodoxy, served as director of the department of state property in the Caucasus. Mother, Ekaterina Andreevna, was the daughter of a member of the main department of the governor of the Caucasus, former Saratov governor Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeev and Princess Elena Pavlovna Dolgorukaya. Witte himself very willingly emphasized his family ties with the Dolgoruky princes, but did not like to mention that he came from a family of little-known Russified Germans. “In general, my entire family,” he wrote in his “Memoirs,” was a highly monarchical family, “and this side of character remained with me by inheritance.”

The Witte family had five children: three sons (Alexander, Boris, Sergei) and two daughters (Olga and Sophia). Sergei spent his childhood in the family of his grandfather A. M. Fadeev, where he received the usual upbringing for noble families, and “the initial education,” recalled S. Yu. Witte, “was given to me by my grandmother ... she taught me to read and write.”

At the Tiflis gymnasium, where he was then sent, Sergei studied “very poorly”, preferring to study music, fencing, and horse riding. As a result, at the age of sixteen he received a matriculation certificate with mediocre grades in science and a unit in behavior. Despite this, the future statesman went to Odessa with the intention of entering the university. But his young age (the university accepted people no younger than seventeen years old), and on top of everything, the behavioral unit denied him access there... He had to go to school again - first in Odessa, then in Chisinau. And only after intensive studies did Witte pass the exams successfully and receive a decent matriculation certificate.

In 1866, Sergei Witte entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University in Odessa. “... I studied day and night,” he recalled, “and therefore throughout my stay at the university I was truly the best student in terms of knowledge.”

This is how the first year of student life passed. In the spring, having gone on vacation, on the way home Witte received news of the death of his father (not long before this he had lost his grandfather, A. M. Fadeev). It turned out that the family was left without a livelihood: shortly before their death, the grandfather and father invested all their capital in the Chiatura mines company, which soon failed. Thus, Sergei inherited only his father’s debts and was forced to take on part of the care of his mother and little sisters. He was able to continue his studies only thanks to a scholarship paid by the Caucasian governorship.

As a student, S. Yu. Witte had little interest in social problems. He was not worried about either political radicalism or the philosophy of atheistic materialism that excited the minds of young people in the 70s. Witte was not one of those whose idols were Pisarev, Dobrolyubov, Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky, Mikhailovsky. “... I have always been against all these trends, because according to my upbringing I was an extreme monarchist... and also a religious person,” S. Yu. Witte later wrote. His spiritual world was formed under the influence of his relatives, especially his uncle, Rostislav Andreevich Fadeev, a general, participant in the conquest of the Caucasus, a talented military publicist, known for his Slavophile, pan-Slavist views.

Despite his monarchist beliefs, Witte was elected by students to the committee in charge of the student cash fund. This innocent idea almost ended in disaster. This so-called mutual aid fund was closed as... a dangerous institution, and all members of the committee, including Witte, were under investigation. They were threatened with exile to Siberia. And only the scandal that happened to the prosecutor in charge of the case helped S. Yu. Witte avoid the fate of a political exile. The punishment was reduced to a fine of 25 rubles.

After graduating from the university in 1870, Sergei Witte thought about a scientific career, about a professorship. However, my relatives - my mother and uncle - “looked very askance at my desire to be a professor,” recalled S. Yu. Witte. “Their main argument was that ... this is not a noble cause.” In addition, his scientific career was hindered by his ardent passion for the actress Sokolova, after meeting whom Witte “didn’t want to write any more dissertations.”

Choosing a career as an official, he was assigned to the office of the Odessa governor, Count Kotzebue. And two years later, the first promotion - Witte was appointed head of the department. But suddenly all his plans changed.

Railway construction was rapidly developing in Russia. This was a new and promising branch of the capitalist economy. Various private companies arose that invested in railway construction amounts that exceeded investments in large-scale industry. The atmosphere of excitement surrounding the construction of railways also captured Witte. The Minister of Railways, Count Bobrinsky, who knew his father, persuaded Sergei Yulievich to try his luck as a specialist in the operation of railways - in the purely commercial field of railway business.

In an effort to thoroughly study the practical side of the enterprise, Witte sat in the station ticket office, acted as an assistant and station manager, controller, traffic auditor, and even served as a freight service clerk and assistant driver. Six months later, he was appointed head of the traffic office of the Odessa Railway, which soon passed into the hands of a private company.

However, after a promising start, S. Yu. Witte’s career almost ended completely. At the end of 1875, a train crash occurred near Odessa, causing many casualties. The head of the Odessa Railway, Chikhachev, and Witte were put on trial and sentenced to four months in prison. However, while the investigation was dragging on, Witte, while remaining in service, managed to distinguish himself in transporting troops to the theater of military operations (the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 was underway), which attracted the attention of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, by whose order the prison for the accused was replaced by a two-week guardhouse.

In 1877, S. Yu. Witte became the head of the Odessa Railway, and after the end of the war - the head of the operational department of the Southwestern Railways. Having received this appointment, he moved from the province to St. Petersburg, where he took part in the work of Count E. T. Baranov’s commission (to study the railway business).

Service in private railway companies had an extremely strong influence on Witte: it gave him management experience, taught him a prudent, businesslike approach, a sense of the situation, and determined the range of interests of the future financier and statesman.

By the beginning of the 80s, the name of S. Yu. Witte was already quite well known among railway businessmen and in the circles of the Russian bourgeoisie. He was familiar with the largest “railroad kings” - I. S. Bliokh, P. I. Gubonin, V. A. Kokorev, S. S. Polyakov, and knew closely the future Minister of Finance I. A. Vyshnegradsky. Already in these years, the versatility of Witte’s energetic nature was evident: the qualities of an excellent administrator, a sober, practical businessman combined well with the abilities of a scientist-analyst. In 1883, S. Yu. Witte published “Principles of railway tariffs for the transportation of goods,” which brought him fame among specialists. This was, by the way, not the first and far from the last work that came out from his pen.

In 1880, S. Yu. Witte was appointed manager of the South-Western roads and settled in Kyiv. A successful career brought him material well-being. As a manager, Witte received more than any minister - over 50 thousand rubles a year.

Witte did not take an active part in political life during these years, although he collaborated with the Odessa Slavic Benevolent Society, was well acquainted with the famous Slavophile I. S. Aksakov, and even published several articles in his newspaper “Rus”. The young entrepreneur preferred the “society of actresses” to serious politics. “... I knew all the more or less outstanding actresses who were in Odessa,” he later recalled.

The murder of Alexander II by the Narodnaya Volya dramatically changed S. Yu. Witte’s attitude towards politics. After March 1, he actively became involved in the big political game. Having learned about the death of the emperor, Witte wrote a letter to his uncle R. A. Fadeev, in which he presented the idea of ​​​​creating a noble secret organization to protect the new sovereign and fight the revolutionaries using their own methods. R. A. Fadeev picked up this idea and, with the help of Adjutant General I. I. Vorontsov-Dashkov, created the so-called “Sacred Squad” in St. Petersburg. In mid-March 1881, S. Yu. Witte was solemnly initiated into the squad and soon received his first task - to organize an attempt on the life of the famous revolutionary populist L. N. Hartmann in Paris. Fortunately, the “Holy Squad” soon compromised itself with inept espionage and provocateur activities and, after existing for just over a year, was liquidated. It must be said that Witte’s stay in this organization did not at all embellish his biography, although it gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his ardent loyal feelings. After the death of R. A. Fadeev in the second half of the 80s, S. Yu. Witte moved away from the people of his circle and moved closer to the Pobedonostsev-Katkov group, which controlled state ideology.

By the mid-80s, the scale of the Southwestern Railways ceased to satisfy Witte's ebullient nature. The ambitious and power-hungry railway entrepreneur persistently and patiently began to prepare his further advancement. This was greatly facilitated by the fact that the authority of S. Yu. Witte as a theorist and practitioner of the railway industry attracted the attention of the Minister of Finance I. A. Vyshnegradsky. And besides, chance helped.

On October 17, 1888, the Tsar's train crashed in Borki. The reason for this was a violation of basic train traffic rules: the heavy train of the royal train with two freight locomotives was traveling above the established speed. S. Yu. Witte previously warned the Minister of Railways about the possible consequences. With his characteristic rudeness, he once said in the presence of Alexander III that the emperor’s neck would be broken if the royal trains were driven at an illegal speed. After the crash in Borki (from which, however, neither the emperor nor his family members suffered), Alexander III remembered this warning and expressed a desire that S. Yu. Witte be appointed to the newly approved post of director of the department of railway affairs in the Ministry of Finance.

And although this meant a three-fold reduction in salary, Sergei Yulievich did not hesitate to part with a profitable place and the position of a successful businessman for the sake of the government career that beckoned him. Simultaneously with his appointment to the position of director of the department, he was promoted from titular to full state councilor (i.e., received the rank of general). It was a dizzying leap up the bureaucratic ladder. Witte is one of I. A. Vyshnegradsky’s closest collaborators.

The department entrusted to Witte immediately becomes exemplary. The new director manages to prove in practice the constructiveness of his ideas about government regulation railway tariffs, demonstrate a breadth of interests, remarkable administrative talent, strength of mind and character.

In February 1892, having successfully used the conflict between two departments - transport and financial, S. Yu. Witte sought appointment to the post of manager of the Ministry of Railways. However, he did not remain in this post for long. Also in 1892, I. A. Vyshnegradsky became seriously ill. In government circles, a behind-the-scenes struggle began for the influential post of Minister of Finance, in which Witte took an active part. Not too scrupulous and not particularly picky about the means to achieve the goal, using both intrigue and gossip about the mental disorder of his patron I. A. Vyshnegradsky (who had no intention of leaving his post), in August 1892 Witte achieved the position of manager Ministry of Finance. And on January 1, 1893, Alexander III appointed him Minister of Finance with simultaneous promotion to Privy Councilor. The career of 43-year-old Witte has reached its shining peak.

True, the path to this peak was noticeably complicated by the marriage of S. Yu. Witte to Matilda Ivanovna Lisanevich (nee Nurok). This was not his first marriage. Witte's first wife was N.A. Spiridonova (née Ivanenko), the daughter of the Chernigov leader of the nobility. She was married, but was not happy in her marriage. Witte met her back in Odessa and, having fallen in love, obtained a divorce.

S. Yu. Witte and N. A. Spiridonova got married (apparently in 1878). However, they did not live long. In the fall of 1890, Witte's wife died suddenly.

About a year after her death, Sergei Yulievich met a lady (also married) at the theater who made an indelible impression on him. Slender, with gray-green sad eyes, a mysterious smile, a bewitching voice, she seemed to him the embodiment of charm. Having met the lady, Witte began to woo her, convincing her to end the marriage and marry him. To get a divorce from her intractable husband, Witte had to pay compensation and even resort to threats of administrative measures.

In 1892, he married the woman he loved dearly and adopted her child (he did not have any children of his own).

The new marriage brought Witte family happiness, but put him in an extremely delicate social position. A high-ranking dignitary turned out to be married to a divorced Jewish woman, and even as a result of a scandalous story. Sergei Yulievich was even ready to “give up” his career. However, Alexander III, having delved into all the details, said that this marriage only increased his respect for Witte. Nevertheless, Matilda Witte was not accepted either at court or in high society.

It should be noted that Witte’s relationship with high society was far from simple. High-society Petersburg looked askance at the “provincial upstart.” He was offended by Witte's harshness, angularity, non-aristocratic manners, southern accent, and poor French pronunciation. Sergei Yulievich became a favorite character in metropolitan jokes for a long time. His rapid advancement aroused open envy and hostility on the part of officials.

Along with this, Emperor Alexander III clearly favored him. “... He treated me especially favorably,” wrote Witte, “he loved me very much,” “he trusted me until the last day of his life.” Alexander III was impressed by Witte's directness, his courage, independence of judgment, even the harshness of his expressions, and the complete absence of servility. And for Witte, Alexander III remained the ideal autocrat until the end of his life. “A true Christian”, “a faithful son of the Orthodox Church”, “a simple, firm and honest man”, “an outstanding emperor”, “a man of his word”, “royally noble”, “with royal lofty thoughts” - this is how Witte characterizes Alexander III .

Having taken the chair of the Minister of Finance, S. Yu. Witte received great power: the department of railway affairs, trade, and industry were now subordinate to him, and he could put pressure on the resolution of the most important issues. And Sergei Yulievich really showed himself to be a sober, prudent, flexible politician. Yesterday's Pan-Slavist, Slavophile, convinced supporter of Russia's original path of development in a short time turned into an industrializer of the European model and declared his readiness to bring Russia into the ranks of advanced industrial powers within a short period of time.

By the beginning of the 20th century. Witte’s economic platform has acquired quite complete outlines: within about ten years, to catch up with the more industrially developed countries of Europe, take a strong position in the markets of the East, ensure accelerated industrial development of Russia by attracting foreign capital, accumulating internal resources, customs protection of industry from competitors and encouragement export A special role in Witte's program was assigned to foreign capital; the Minister of Finance advocated their unlimited involvement in Russian industry and railways, calling them a cure against poverty. He considered unlimited government intervention to be the second most important mechanism.

And this was not a simple declaration. In 1894-1895 S. Yu. Witte achieved stabilization of the ruble, and in 1897 he did what his predecessors had failed to do: he introduced gold currency circulation, providing the country with hard currency and an influx of foreign capital until the First World War. In addition, Witte sharply increased taxation, especially indirect, and introduced a wine monopoly, which soon became one of the main sources of the government budget. Another major event carried out by Witte at the beginning of his activity was the conclusion of a customs agreement with Germany (1894), after which S. Yu. Witte even became interested in O. Bismarck himself. This extremely flattered the young minister’s vanity. “... Bismarck... paid special attention to me,” he later wrote, “and several times through his acquaintances he expressed the highest opinion of my personality.”

During the economic boom of the 90s, the Witte system worked excellently: an unprecedented number of railways were built in the country; by 1900, Russia took first place in the world in oil production; Russian government bonds were highly rated abroad. The authority of S. Yu. Witte grew immeasurably. The Russian Finance Minister became a popular figure among Western entrepreneurs and attracted favorable attention from the foreign press. The domestic press sharply criticized Witte. Former like-minded people accused him of implanting “state socialism”, adherents of the reforms of the 60s criticized him for the use of state intervention, Russian liberals perceived Witte’s program as “a grandiose sabotage of the autocracy” that diverted public attention from socio-economic and cultural-political reforms.” "One statesman in Russia was not the subject of such varied and contradictory, but persistent and passionate attacks as my... husband," Matilda Witte later wrote. "At court he was accused of republicanism, in radical circles he was credited with a desire to curtail the rights of the people in favor of monarch. The landowners reproached him for seeking to ruin them in favor of the peasants, and the radical parties for seeking to deceive the peasantry in favor of the landowners." They even accused him of being friends with A. Zhelyabov, of trying to lead to the decline Agriculture Russia to deliver benefits to Germany.

In reality, the entire policy of S. Yu. Witte was subordinated to a single goal: to implement industrialization, to achieve successful development of the Russian economy, without affecting the political system, without changing anything in public administration. Witte was an ardent supporter of autocracy. He considered an unlimited monarchy “the best form of government” for Russia, and everything he did was done in order to strengthen and “preserve autocracy.

For the same purpose, Witte begins to develop the peasant question, trying to achieve a revision of agrarian policy. He realized that it was possible to expand the purchasing power of the domestic market only through the capitalization of peasant farming, through the transition from communal to private land ownership. S. Yu. Witte was a staunch supporter of private peasant ownership of land and strenuously sought the government's transition to bourgeois agrarian policy. In 1899, with his participation, the government developed and adopted laws abolishing mutual responsibility in the peasant community. In 1902, Witte achieved the creation of a special commission on the peasant question (“Special Meeting on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry”), which aimed to “establish personal property in the countryside.”

However, Witte’s longtime opponent V.K. Plehve, appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, stood in Witte’s way. The agrarian question turned out to be an arena of confrontation between two influential ministers. Witte never succeeded in realizing his ideas. However, it was S. Yu. Witte who initiated the government’s transition to bourgeois agrarian policy. As for P. A. Stolypin, Witte subsequently repeatedly emphasized that he “robbed” him and used ideas of which he himself, Witte, was a convinced supporter. That is why Sergei Yulievich could not remember P. A. Stolypin without a feeling of bitterness. “... Stolypin,” he wrote, “had an extremely superficial mind and an almost complete absence of state culture and education. In terms of education and intelligence... Stolypin was a type of bayonet cadet.”

Events of the beginning of the 20th century. called into question all of Witte's grandiose undertakings. World economic crisis sharply slowed down the development of industry in Russia, the influx of foreign capital decreased, and the budget balance was disrupted. Economic expansion in the East aggravated Russian-British contradictions and brought the war with Japan closer.

Witte's economic "system" was clearly shaken. This made it possible for his opponents (Plehve, Bezobrazov, etc.) to gradually push the Minister of Finance out of power. Nicholas II willingly supported the campaign against Witte. It should be noted that quite complex relations were established between S. Yu. Witte and Nicholas II, who ascended the Russian throne in 1894: on Witte’s side there was distrust and contempt, on Nicholas’s side - distrust and hatred. Witte crowded the restrained, outwardly correct and well-mannered tsar, constantly insulting him, without noticing it, with his harshness, impatience, self-confidence, and inability to hide his disrespect and contempt. And there was one more circumstance that turned simple dislike for Witte into hatred: after all, it was impossible to do without Witte. Always, when great intelligence and resourcefulness were really required, Nicholas II, albeit with gnashing of teeth, turned to him.

For his part, Witte gives a very sharp and bold characterization of Nikolai in “Memoirs”. Listing the numerous advantages of Alexander III, he always makes it clear that his son in no way possessed them. About the sovereign himself, he writes: “... Emperor Nicholas II... was a kind man, far from stupid, but shallow, weak-willed... His main qualities were courtesy when he wanted it... cunning and complete spinelessness and lack of will." Here he adds a “proud character” and a rare “grudge.” In S. Yu. Witte’s “Memoirs,” the empress also received a lot of unflattering words. The author calls her a “strange person” with a “narrow and stubborn character”, “with a stupid egoistic character and a narrow worldview.”

In August 1903, the campaign against Witte was successful: he was removed from the post of Minister of Finance and appointed to the post of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. Despite the loud name, it was an “honorable resignation”, since the new post was disproportionately less influential. At the same time, Nicholas II did not intend to completely remove Witte, because the Empress Mother Maria Feodorovna and the Tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Mikhail, clearly sympathized with him. In addition, just in case, Nicholas II himself wanted to have such an experienced, intelligent, energetic dignitary at hand.

Having been defeated in the political struggle, Witte did not return to private enterprise. He set himself the goal of regaining lost positions. Remaining in the shadows, he tried not to completely lose the favor of the tsar, more often attract the “highest attention” to himself, strengthened and established connections in government circles. Preparations for war with Japan made it possible to begin an active struggle for a return to power. However, Witte's hopes that with the beginning of the war Nicholas II would call him were not justified.

In the summer of 1904, Socialist-Revolutionary E. S. Sozonov killed Witte’s longtime enemy, Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve. The disgraced dignitary made every effort to take the vacant seat, but failure awaited him here too. Despite the fact that Sergei Yulievich successfully completed the mission entrusted to him - he concluded a new agreement with Germany - Nicholas II appointed Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky as Minister of Internal Affairs.

Trying to attract attention, Witte takes an active part in meetings with the tsar on the issue of attracting elected representatives from the population to participate in legislation, and tries to expand the competence of the Committee of Ministers. He even uses the events of “Bloody Sunday” to prove to the Tsar that he, Witte, could not do without him, that if the Committee of Ministers under his chairmanship had been endowed with real power, then such a turn of events would have been impossible.

Finally, on January 17, 1905, Nicholas II, despite all his hostility, nevertheless turns to Witte and instructs him to organize a meeting of ministers on “measures necessary to calm the country” and possible reforms. Sergei Yulievich clearly hoped that he would be able to transform this meeting into a government of the “Western European model” and become its head. However, in April of the same year, new royal disfavor followed: Nicholas II closed the meeting. Witte again found himself out of work.

True, this time the fall did not last long. At the end of May 1905, at the next military meeting, the need for an early end to the war with Japan was finally clarified. Witte was entrusted with difficult peace negotiations, who repeatedly and very successfully acted as a diplomat (negotiated with China on the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, with Japan - on a joint protectorate over Korea, with Korea - on Russian military instruction and Russian financial management, with Germany - on concluding a trade agreement, etc.), while showing remarkable abilities.

Nicholas II accepted Witte's appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary with great reluctance. Witte has long pushed the Tsar to begin peace negotiations with Japan in order to “at least calm Russia down a little.” In a letter to him dated February 28, 1905, he indicated: “The continuation of the war is more than dangerous: the country, given the current state of mind, will not endure further casualties without terrible catastrophes...”. He generally considered the war disastrous for the autocracy.

On August 23, 1905, the Portsmouth Peace was signed. It was a brilliant victory for Witte, confirming his outstanding diplomatic abilities. The talented diplomat managed to emerge from a hopelessly lost war with minimal losses, while achieving “an almost decent peace” for Russia. Despite his reluctance, the tsar appreciated Witte’s merits: for the Peace of Portsmouth he was awarded the title of count (by the way, Witte was immediately mockingly nicknamed “Count of Polosakhalinsky,” thereby accusing him of ceding the southern part of Sakhalin to Japan).

Returning to St. Petersburg, Witte plunged headlong into politics: he took part in Selsky’s “Special Meeting,” where projects for further government reforms were developed. As the revolutionary events intensify, Witte more and more persistently demonstrates the need for a “strong government” and convinces the Tsar that it is he, Witte, who can play the role of “the savior of Russia.” At the beginning of October, he addresses the Tsar with a note in which he sets out a whole program of liberal reforms. In critical days for the autocracy, Witte inspired Nicholas II that he had no choice but to either establish a dictatorship in Russia, or Witte’s premiership and take a number of liberal steps in the constitutional direction.

Finally, after painful hesitation, the tsar signed the document drawn up by Witte, which went down in history as the Manifesto of October 17. On October 19, the tsar signed a decree on reforming the Council of Ministers, headed by Witte. In his career, Sergei Yulievich reached the top. During the critical days of the revolution, he became the head of the Russian government.

In this post, Witte demonstrated amazing flexibility and ability to maneuver, acting in the emergency conditions of the revolution either as a firm, ruthless guardian or as a skilled peacemaker. Under the chairmanship of Witte, the government dealt with a wide variety of issues: reorganized peasant land ownership, introduced a state of exception in various regions, resorted to the use of military courts, the death penalty and other repressions, prepared for the convening of the Duma, drafted the Basic Laws, and implemented the freedoms proclaimed on October 17 .

However, the Council of Ministers headed by S. Yu. Witte never became similar to the European cabinet, and Sergei Yulievich himself served as chairman for only six months. The increasingly intensifying conflict with the tsar forced him to resign. This happened at the end of April 1906. S. Yu. Witte was in full confidence that he had fulfilled his main task - to ensure the political stability of the regime. The resignation essentially marked the end of his career, although Witte did not retire from political activities. He was still a member of the State Council and often appeared in print.

It should be noted that Sergei Yulievich was expecting a new appointment and tried to bring it closer; he waged a fierce struggle, first against Stolypin, who took the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, then against V.N. Kokovtsov." Witte hoped that the departure of his influential opponents from the state stage would allow him to return to active political activity.He did not lose hope until the last day of his life and was even ready to resort to the help of Rasputin.

At the beginning of the First World War, predicting that it would end in collapse for the autocracy, S. Yu. Witte declared his readiness to take on a peacekeeping mission and try to enter into negotiations with the Germans. But he was already mortally ill.

S. Yu. Witte died on February 28, 1915, just shy of 65 years old. He was buried modestly, “in the third category.” There were no official ceremonies. Moreover, the deceased’s office was sealed, papers were confiscated, and a thorough search was carried out at the villa in Biarritz.

Witte's death caused quite a wide resonance in Russian society. The newspapers were full of headlines like: “In Memory of a Great Man”, “Great Reformer”, “Giant of Thought”... Many of those who knew Sergei Yulievich closely came forward with their memoirs.

After Witte's death, his political activities were assessed extremely controversially. Some sincerely believed that Witte had rendered a “great service” to his homeland, others argued that “Count Witte did not live up to the hopes placed on him,” that “he did not bring any real benefit to the country,” and even, on the contrary, his activities “ should rather be considered harmful."

The political activities of Sergei Yulievich Witte were indeed extremely contradictory. At times it combined the incompatible: the desire for unlimited attraction of foreign capital and the fight against the international political consequences of this attraction; commitment to unlimited autocracy and understanding of the need for reforms that undermined its traditional foundations; The Manifesto of October 17 and subsequent measures that reduced it to almost zero, etc. But no matter how the results of Witte’s policy are assessed, one thing is certain: the meaning of his entire life, all his activities was service " great Russia". And both his like-minded people and his opponents could not help but admit this.

(1849-1915) Russian statesman

Count Sergei Yulievich Witte left a noticeable mark on the history of the Russian state. His activities coincided precisely with the period when capitalist relations began to take shape in Russia. Sergei Witte found himself in the right place, since his character successfully combined the qualities of a major industrial organizer, the acumen of an entrepreneur and the resourcefulness of an experienced courtier.

Sergei Yulievich Witte was born in Tiflis into the family of a major government official. His father was the director of the state property department. Mother came from the family of the famous general and writer Alexander Fadeev.

It seemed that the family’s prosperity and connections opened up brilliant prospects for Sergei and his brother. But in 1857, his father unexpectedly dies, and almost the entire family fortune goes to pay off his numerous debts. The family was rescued by the governor in the Caucasus, who provided Witte’s sons with a scholarship to study at Novorossiysk University.

Sergei Witte graduates from the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Science. After a brilliant defense of his master's thesis, he was offered to stay to prepare for a professorship. But, according to the family, the nobleman should not have pursued a scientific career, so Sergei chooses a different path.

He becomes the secretary of the Odessa governor Count Kotzebue. Witte uses his stay in the office to establish the necessary connections and within a few months becomes a confidant of the Minister of Railways, Count V. Bobrinsky.

Sergei Witte quickly got involved in the work and in a short time he thoroughly studied the railway transport operating system. For six months he worked at different stations as an assistant and station manager, controller and traffic controller. It was at this time that he collected material for his first works on organizing the work of railways. One of the first, Sergei Witte realized that railway tariffs are a very convenient tool for making a profit and stimulating the development of railway transport.

The executive and neat young man was noticed by his superiors, and about a year later he was appointed head of the Odessa Railway.

Taking office, Witte had to mobilize all his abilities and knowledge. Just a few months after his appointment, the Russian-Turkish War began, and the Odessa Railway became Russia's main strategic route. The young official was able to develop a transportation organization system in which military cargo was delivered with virtually no delays.

After the end of the war, Sergei Witte moved to Kyiv and became the head of the service for the operation of all southwestern roads of Russia. Now he has the opportunity to implement his accumulated experience. Witte reforms the transportation payment system, develops a procedure for providing loans for the transportation of especially important cargo and a unified tariff schedule for all types of transportation. His innovations made it possible to transform the southwestern roads from a loss-making to a profitable enterprise.

Sergei Witte begins to be invited to various private companies for consultations, many companies offer him highly paid positions. But he rejects all offers because he doesn't want to leave public service, realizing that only here it will be able to fully implement its developments.

Subsequently, he was even proud of the fact that he became the first and only manager of the largest road in Russia, although he was not a communications engineer by training.

In Kyiv, Sergei Witte makes connections among the local aristocracy. At the same time, he is groping for ways to move to St. Petersburg. His marriage played a decisive role in his further career advancement. In 1878, Sergei Witte met the wife of one of the Kyiv rich men, N. Spiridonova. She was much younger than her husband and became interested in Witte.

After Spiridonova's divorce, Witte could not stay in Kyiv due to his ambiguous position. He mobilizes all his connections and seeks a transfer to St. Petersburg, where he holds the position of assistant to the chairman of the railway commission in the Ministry of Railways.

Sergei Yulievich Witte is developing a unified charter for all Russian railways. But the main area of ​​his activity is the organization of the movement of all royal trains throughout Russia. He accompanies Alexander III on his trips, and once he managed to quickly eliminate the consequences of a royal train crash. In gratitude, the emperor appoints Witte director of the department of railway affairs in the Ministry of Finance, practically, Sergei Witte becomes the Minister of Railways of Russia. Then he had just turned forty years old.

He takes up residence in a state-owned mansion and begins an extensive program of reorganizing railroad transportation. Two years later, Alexander III appointed him Minister of Finance of Russia. Witte spent eleven years in this post and during this time introduced many initiatives into practice. He managed to reform the procedure for paying for transportation and systematize taxation.

In 1884, Sergei Yulievich Witte sought to introduce a wine monopoly, which significantly increased budget revenues. It became a preparatory stage for the monetary reform of 1897. Witte introduces gold coins into circulation and seeks to stabilize the exchange rate of the Russian ruble.

At the same time, his diplomatic abilities also manifest themselves. In 1886, he developed the terms of the Russian-Chinese agreement on the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

Realizing that the development of capitalism in Russia is impossible without the introduction of land ownership, Sergei Witte is thinking through land reform. But his idea of ​​free land ownership is met with stiff resistance. Pyotr Stolypin managed to implement certain provisions of this reform only a few years later.

In 1889, Witte's first wife died, and soon he married M. Lisanevich. But this marriage was regarded as a challenge to society, since Witte’s wife was divorced, and in addition also Jewish. However, Alexander III spoke out in defense of Sergei Witte: he not only did not accept his resignation, but also publicly expressed his confidence in him. Soon Witte had a daughter, who became his only heir.

Using the trust of the emperor, Sergei Yulievich Witte continues the planned reforms. But the unexpected death of Alexander III disrupts his plans, although Nicholas II, who ascended the throne, also initially supported Witte. True, in 1903 he was nevertheless fired from the post of Minister of Finance. This was due to the fact that Witte, a cautious and far-sighted politician, understood the danger of Japan strengthening in the Far East and sought an agreement that would prevent war. But this line ran counter to the plans of the king’s inner circle. Nevertheless, he is appointed chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, he remains a member of the State Council and carries out the most important orders of the emperor. At the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Sergei Witte is sent to America, where he seeks to conclude the Portsmouth Peace Treaty with Japan. Russia recognized Korea as Japan's sphere of influence, lost the Liaodong Peninsula with Port Arthur and Dalny, and was forced to give up half of Sakhalin Island. Witte, elevated to the dignity of count for signing the treaty, began to be called Count Polosakhalinsky behind his back.

The finest hour in the career of Sergei Yulievich Witte comes after the events of 1905. He becomes one of the drafters of the manifesto of October 17. Nicholas II appoints him chairman of the Russian Council of Ministers. In his new position, Witte proved himself to be a resourceful politician who managed to come to an agreement with both the right and the left.

In 1906, he sought a loan in France. The funds received under this agreement made it possible to stabilize the financial situation of Russia after the war and the first Russian revolution. But according to his convictions, Witte remained an ardent monarchist, so he could not understand the need to reform the political system in Russia.

Since mid-1906, Sergei Yulievich Witte has opposed the emerging expansion of the powers of the State Duma and the State Council, which led to his resignation.

He switches to consulting work and is engaged in journalism. Witte purchases a villa in Biarritz, where he works on his books and memoirs. There he dies in the spring of 1915.

), count, Russian statesman; from 1889 - Director of the Railway Department of the Ministry of Finance, from August 1892 - Minister of Finance, from August 1903 - Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. In 1905 he headed the Russian delegation that signed Treaty of Portsmouth Russia and Japan. From October 1905 to April 1906 - head of the Council of Ministers. Member of the State Council and Chairman of the Finance Committee until 1915.

Witte Sergei Yulievich (1849-1915). Count, Russian statesman. He began his career as head of the traffic service of the Odessa branch of the South-Western Railways. In 1879 he worked in St. Petersburg, as the head of the operation department on the board of the South-Western Railways. In 1888 he was appointed director of the department of railway affairs and chairman of the tariff committee, and in 1892 he became manager of the Ministry of Railways. At the end of the same year, Witte was appointed to the post of Minister of Finance, which he held for 11 years. In this post, he carried out the famous reform - the transition to gold circulation. Witte's undoubted merit is his implementation of a monetary reform in 1897, which strengthened a stable gold currency in Russia before the 1914 war, instead of the previous paper one, and created the preconditions for the import of foreign capital into Russia. In 1903, he assumed the duties of chairman of the Committee of Ministers. The last position was actually an honorable resignation, since the committee had no significance before the 1905 revolution. This transfer from the post of all-powerful master of finance to the post of powerless chairman of the committee occurred under the pressure of the noble-landowner elements of the government (mainly Plehve), dissatisfied with Witte’s patronizing attitude and his flirting with moderate liberals. During the events of January 9, Witte disclaimed all responsibility for the actions of the government. In the summer of 1905, Nicholas sent Witte to Portsmouth to conclude a peace treaty with Japan. For the successful completion of this assignment, Witte was elevated to the rank of count. In the days of the October strike, when the course towards an agreement with the bourgeoisie won, Witte turned out to be the most suitable person for the post of prime minister. The October 17 Manifesto is the brainchild of Witte. After the defeat of the revolution, when the autocracy felt solid ground beneath it, Witte again left the stage. Witte's last fall from grace lasted until his death (1915).

One meeting with Stolypin

"... Count Witte came to my father and, terribly excited, began to talk about how he had heard rumors that deeply outraged him, namely that in Odessa They want to rename the street after him. He began to ask my father to immediately give orders to the Odessa mayor Pelican to stop such an indecent act. The pope replied that this was a matter for the city government and that it was completely contrary to his views to interfere in such matters. To my father’s surprise, Witte began to beg more and more insistently for his request to be fulfilled, and when dad repeated for the second time that this was against his principle, Witte suddenly knelt down, repeating his request over and over again. When even here my father did not change his answer, Witte got up, quickly, without saying goodbye, went to the door and, not reaching the last one, turned and, looking angrily at my father, said that he would never forgive him for this ... "

Bock M.P. Memories of my father P.A. Stolypin. Minsk, Harvest, 2004. p. 231. (we are talking about the winter of 1910\1911)