Sergey Witte

Sergey Witte (1849-1915), Russian statesman who played a leading role in political and economic affairs during the reigns of the last two tsars: Alexander III and Nicholas II. Witte was born in the Georgian city of Tiflis (now T’bilisi). After completing studies at Odessa (now Odesa) University in Ukraine, he spent several years as a journalist and then entered the government railway service. Witte displayed outstanding ability in administration and rose to the rank of minister of communications by 1892. Later that year he became minister of finance, a post that he retained for ten years. Under his administration, state revenue almost doubled. By introducing sharply protective tariffs and exporting huge amounts of grain, Witte obtained a favourable Russian balance of payments, accumulated a considerable gold reserve, and placed Russia on the gold standard.

Witte’s economic policies attracted large amounts of foreign capital for funding the development of Russia’s vast natural resources. Most of this capital came from four countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. By 1900 there were 269 foreign companies in Russia, all but 16 of which had been founded since 1888. Witte was also interested in Russian imperial expansion in East Asia. In 1896 he negotiated a treaty between Russia and China that provided for Russian construction of a railway (later known as the Chinese Eastern Railway) across northern Dongbei. The railway included a branch line to the port of Dairen (now called Dalian in present-day north-east China), which Russia leased in 1898.

Witte was most at home in economic affairs, but revolution at home and the Russo-Japanese War drew him into political and diplomatic action. Witte, representing a defeated Russia, met with representatives from Japan in the late summer of 1905 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to sign the Treaty of Portsmouth, which had been mediated by United States president Theodore Roosevelt. Witte held out successfully against Japanese demands for a war indemnity. Russia, however, ceded to Japan its rights and interests in southern Dongbei, recognized Korea as a Japanese sphere of influence, and gave up the southern half of the island of Sakhalin.

Witte returned from Portsmouth to find Russia in the throes of revolution. In 1905 a general strike forced Nicholas II to issue a manifesto, known as the October Manifesto, which promised an elective Duma, or parliament, and other reforms. Witte was named prime minister, but the tsar dismissed him in 1906. Witte’s last service was the procurement in France of a large loan that made the Russian government financially independent of the Duma. After his dismissal, Witte was appointed a member of the Council of State.