Welcome to Russian History Retold Episode 313 Sergei Vitek Last time, we ended the series on the Great Purge, also known as the Great Terror of 1937-39.
Today, we shift gears and discuss the life and times of Sergei Witte, the first Prime Minister of the Russian government under Tsar Nicholas II.
Born on June 29, 1849, to Julius and Ekaterina Fadeyevna Witte in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, Georgia, Sergei Witte would be the first Prime Minister of Russia, a position traditionally held by the Tsar.
He would be responsible for turning Russia into an industrialized nation, although the country had a very long way to go. Vitte would write a memoir, translated in 1921, six years after his death.His wife would write the foreword.
And there was one part that caught my eye when describing her husband. Although a nobleman, he did not defend the privileges of the nobility.
And while aiming in his political activities, mainly at improving the condition of the peasantry in accordance with the dictates of justice, as a statesman, he remained alien to that theoretical populism with which the majority of the Russian intellectuals was infatuated.
He was not a liberal, for he did not sympathize with the striving of the liberals to reorganize the political system all at once with a single stroke.
Nor was he a conservative, for he despised the coarseness and backwardness of the political thinking which was characteristic of Russia's ruling bureaucracy.
My husband repeatedly said to those intimate with him, quote, I am neither a liberal nor a conservative.I am simply a man of culture.
I cannot exile a man to Siberia merely because he does not think as I do, and I cannot deprive him of civil rights because he does not pray in the same church as I do.
Now, hearing this, you can imagine why I picked Sergei Witte as the subject of today's episode. He was an absolutely brilliant man, one who tried with all his heart and mind to do what was best for Russia.
He didn't always make the right decision in the long run, but he always believed in what he was doing.Witte would serve two czars, Alexander III and his son, Nicholas II.
His heritage suggested a life as a nobleman, but he aspired to become a theoretical mathematics professor. Witte's parents were not too keen on his career choice, so he decided to work in the new railway system that was beginning to grow in Russia.
Eventually, he made it up the ladder, only to fall from grace when a deadly wreck occurred on the Odessa railways in late 1875.Many lives were lost, and Witte was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison.Despite being sentenced,
Sergei continued to manage the railroad and did a stellar job guiding supplies to Russian troops during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.His performance caught the eye of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, Alexander II's brother.
Because of this, his sentence was commuted to two weeks. Afterward, he accepted a position in St.Petersburg, where he published an influential paper entitled, Principle of Railway Tariffs for Cargo Transportation.
Then he got into an argument with Tsar Alexander III's staff about the dangerous use of two locomotives to shuttle the Tsar and his family around at breakneck speeds.
Sergei's warnings proved to be prophetic as an incident known as the Borki train disaster occurred on October 29th, 1888.The train transporting the Tsar and his family did indeed derail as Witte predicted
killing 21 people, and almost costing Czar his life.In this incident, Czar Alexander III showed his incredible strength in holding up the ceiling of his car and letting his family escape.
After an official inquiry, Sergei Witte was promoted to Director of State Railways.This would be his jumping-off point to accelerating his career path upward. His next appointment was as acting minister of ways and communications in 1892.
This allowed Vitae to control both the running of the railroad system and tariffs imposed on goods flowing through the system.
Because of this, as one historian put it, quote, Russian railroads gradually became perhaps the most economically operated railroads of the world. While at this prestigious post, Wittheim met his future wife, Matilda Ivanovna Lazinovich.
Their meeting would result in a scandal, as she was married when they met.More importantly, though, she was Jewish, which did not sit well with people in high society at the time.Still, Tsar Alexander protected him, seeing his benefits for Russia.
While they never had any children together, Sergei adopted her children as his own.In 1895, Vitya created a state monopoly on the sale of alcohol, which would be one of the Russian government's most significant revenue sources.
He also completed a number of spokes of the Trans-Siberian Railway. When this was finished, the government wanted to extend its holdings into the Liaoning Peninsula with the purpose of constructing a naval base at Port Arthur.
Witte was vehemently against this.Of course, he was right, as it would eventually lead to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.His skills, now very apparent, Sergei Witte was named Minister of Finance in 1892 by Tsar Alexander III.
He would remain in this position for 11 years and serve two tsars. In 1894, Witte, in a conversation with Czar Alexander, suggested that it might be time to educate his son Nicholas about the affairs of the state.
As Orlando Feige writes in his book, A People's Tragedy, quote, Alexander seemed surprised. Tell me, he asked the minister, have you ever spoken to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Zarevich?Vite admitted that he had.
Then don't tell me you never noticed that the Grand Duke is a dunce. It's very apparent that Alexander held his son in very low esteem, believing him weak and, frankly, an imbecile.
He feared for Russia should something happen to himself, which did with his early passing in November 1894.This is likely why Witte remained a close confidant to Nicholas, as he knew that the Tsar needed all the help he could get.
When you become as close to the ultimate power in Russia, you begin to develop a lot of jealousy from others.However, the person most jealous of his minister of finance was none other than Tsar Nicholas II.
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As Feige writes, quote, to defend his autocratic prerogatives, Nicholas believed that he needed to keep his officials weak and divided.The more powerful a minister became, the more Nicholas grew jealous of his powers.
Able prime ministers, such as Count Witte and Peter Stollepin, who alone could have saved the czarist regime, were forced out in this fog of mistrust. Only gray mediocrities, such as the old man, Ivan Gormaikin, survived long in the highest office.
It was not only Tsar Nicholas, though, who would become jealous of Vitae.It was some of the other ministers.Vyacheslav von Plev, the ultra-conservative and ardent Russophile, accused Sergei of being part of a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy.
This would cause Witte to lose his position as Minister of Finance, being given the position of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers on August 6th, 1903.While this was considered a promotion, it held absolutely no official power.
Some historians, though, believe that Witte resigned from the position of Minister of Finance because of his fervent opposition to Nicholas's Korean policy. After von Plew was assassinated in July 1904, Vitae slowly returned to the government.
This time, it was in a very different position.Sergei was embarking on a domestic and foreign diplomatic career.Internally, Russia was in the midst of a great deal of civil unrest.
The ineffectual Tsar Nicholas and his cadre of sycophants as ministers were unable to turn the heat down. Enter Sergei Witte.I have a little personal detour here.
My grandfather, William Schaus, was a world-class violinist at the time and was offered a position with the Moscow Philharmonic in 1904.
His mother told him that he must refuse what amounted to a major promotion, as Russia was far too unstable and safe. Instead, he went to Trier, where my father would be born in 1921.
One of the most important focuses of Witte's career was keeping Russia together.He knew that there were immense pressures on the autocracy to break the country apart.
As Sergei writes in his memoirs, quote, this flood of revolutionary pressure is made more dangerous in Russia by the fact that 35% of the population consists of non-Russian conquered nationalities.
Anyone who has intelligently read recent history knows how difficult the development of nationalism in the past century has rendered the task of welding together heterogeneous national elements into a uniform body politic.
In 1905, the border provinces were clearly taking advantage of the weakening of Central Russia to show their teeth.They began to retaliate for the age-long injustices that had been inflicted upon them.
They were ardently waiting for what appeared to them as their deliverance from the Russian yoke.For this situation, we alone were to blame.
We failed to perceive that since the days of Peter the Great, and especially since the reign of Catherine II, we had not been living in Russia, but in the Russian Empire.
Our border provinces will never put up with the policy of ruthless russification. The Georgians, Armenians, Tartars, they wanted autonomy, all longed for the annihilation of the system of deliberate oppression that embittered their existence.
Another episode that brought great pain to Witte was the January 9th, 1905 slaughter during the peaceful protest led by Father Capone.As Sergei saw it, quote, from my balcony, I could see a large crowd moving along the Kamenno-Ostrovsky prospect.
It contained many women and children.Before 10 minutes had passed, shots resounded in the direction of the Troitsky Bridge. A bullet whizzed past my head.Another one killed the porter of the Alexander Lyceum.
I saw a number of wounded being carried away from the scene in cabs, and then a crew running in disorder, with crying women here and there.I learned afterwards that it had been decided not to allow the marchers to reach the palace square.
But apparently instructions were not issued in time to the military authorities.There was no one present to speak to the workers and make an attempt to bring them to reason.The troops fired rashly and without rhyme or reason.
There were hundreds of casualties, and the revolutionists triumphed.The workers were completely alienated from the Tsar and his government.
Interestingly, Sergei Witte paid Father Gapon 500 roubles out of his own pocket to leave Russia, hoping this would help defuse the situation.
Vitae, along with several other more enlightened ministers, suggested that Nicholas and the Russian government put out statements of understanding of the people's plight.
Of course, the Tsar was against that idea and instead condemned the revolutionaries and banned further agitation, strikes, and talk of creating a constitution. While Nicholas thought that this was going to be the end of it, obviously it was not.
Pressure began to mount on the Tsar to give in to the idea of a Duma and work towards a constitutional monarchy.Then came the Russo-Japanese War.
As I mentioned earlier, Witte was against war as he believed, and rightfully so, that it would be economically and politically devastating for Russia and the Tsar. This was certainly the case regarding the Russo-Japanese War.
Nicholas believed that a quick victory over the so-called inferior Japanese, a belief that shows off his feeling of Russian superiority over other non-European peoples.Witte had this to say in his memoir.
Quote, at heart, his majesty was for an aggressive policy. But, as usual, his mind was a house divided against itself.He kept on changing his policy from day to day.
He became involved in the Far Eastern adventure because of his youth, his natural animosity against Japan, and, finally, because of a hidden craving for a victorious war.Suffice it to say that he alone is to be blamed for that most unhappy decision.
With Russia losing the war badly, Nicholas decided to send Witte to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to negotiate a ceasefire deal.This would be one of the very few brilliant decisions that the Tsar would make.
The Treaty of Portsmouth was nothing short of a spectacular win for the Russians, and an equally astonishing loss for the Japanese.Russia lost almost nothing, and the Japanese gained almost nothing as well.
What it did do internationally would show that Russia was a paper tiger and its prestige would suffer greatly, although none of that was Witte's fault.The loss in the war, regardless of the favorable treaty, was a disaster for the Tsar's reputation.
While many knew what would save the monarchy, Nicholas was unable to understand why it was necessary to give any power to anyone else. Add to it, his wife Alexandra kept telling him that Russia was his and he didn't need to listen to his ministers.
What they were begging the Tsar to do was agree to create a working Duma and not a consultative one.One that actually had the power to clean up the mess Russia was becoming.
Between January and October of 1905, things were so bad that the Russian government had to suppress over 2,700 peasant uprisings.
When riot in Odessa had been going on for two weeks, the military was sent in and over 2,000 people were massacred with over 3,000 wounded. At the same time, a mutiny had occurred on the battleship Potemkin.
All over the Russian Empire, outbreaks of violence were met with military retaliation.The nation was teetering on complete collapse.Witte was asked by a large number of the Tsar's ministers to do something.
Nicholas was finally forced to allow Sergei to meet with him at the Winter Palace on October 9, 1905.
In no uncertain words, the Tsar was told that he was, to quote Phyges, the country was on the verge of a cataclysmic revolution that would sweep away a thousand years of history.
The Tsar had two choices, either appoint a military dictator or introduce major reforms.
Witte outlayed the needed reforms in a memorandum arguing for a manifesto, which he had brought with him, the granting of civil liberties, a constitutional order, cabinet government, and a legislative duma elected on a democratic franchise.
Nicholas refused until his uncle, Grand Duke Nicolai, pointed a gun at his own head and threatened to shoot himself if Nicholas did not sign the manifesto.
The Tsar signed the papers on October 17, 1905, with little real intention of following through on all the promises. He felt that as wise as Vitae was, he was only a businessman and a former railway clerk.
Well, the people celebrated all over Russia, believing that a new Russia was upon them.They would be sorely disappointed over the following years.
Sergei Vitae struggled to form a government with experienced and wise men, almost all of whom rejected the offer.
The liberals that Witte believed fervently would help steer Russia into a safer and more prosperous direction did not believe he would be successful.
Sergei had to admit to the men that he could not guarantee that Tsar Nicholas II would carry out any laws they passed and reforms that they would suggest.
When it became apparent that Nicholas was adamant about remaining the sole decider of what was going to happen in Russia, more riots broke out.
In response, those loyal to him created a group known as the Union of the Russian People, and quote, anti-liberal, anti-socialist, and above all, anti-Semitic.
They then formed a group known as the Black Hundreds, a paramilitary organization with about 300,000 members. While they did go after radicals, their main focus was on Jews.
Over 690 pogroms were aimed at Jews throughout Russia, with over 3,000 being murdered.
Vitae ordered an investigation and found out that the local police were not only supplying the Black Hundreds with weapons and aid, but they were also helping them root out Jews who were in hiding.
Sergei ordered that one of the police chiefs be prosecuted.Tsar Nicholas stepped in and protected him.
By 1906, Witte had lost all influence with the Tsar due to his insistence in providing everyone with protection from violence promoted by the government. It got even worse for Sergei, as in January 1907, a bomb was found planted in his home.
The Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, had been involved in that attempted assassination.On March 13, 1915, Sergei Vitya died of a brain tumor at the age of 65. Many have praised him as, quote, the only talented person in the government.
Some have blamed him for destroying the monarchy, an accusation I have a really, really hard time backing.Had Nicholas II listened to his reforms, the Bolsheviks likely never would have come to power.
The Romanov line would have likely followed that of the British monarchy. Before we go, as I've mentioned before, I think, I'll be speaking at an online conference entitled Intelligent Speech 2025, Deception, Lies, Fakery, Fraudulence, and Forgery.
This is what Intelligent Speech 2025 will be bringing you.My talk will be on Russian paranoia and how it leads to the lies and deception that color the Russian government today. The conference will take place on February 8th, 2025.
And if you act now, you'll get the early bird price of a very reasonable $20.But we also have a special offer for listeners of this podcast.
When you buy your ticket, enter promo code RULER at checkout to receive an additional 10% off the already discounted ticket price.I mean, you gotta see the content.It's podcasters from all over the world.They're just spectacular information.
So you go to intelligentspeechonline.com to get your tickets today.Well, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Join me next time when we begin a two-part series on the Cossacks.So, until next time, do svidaniya i spasiba za vinyamanya.
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