1 Bernard Pares, My Russian Memoirs, p. 184.

2 The materials on Witte's early career, as on his life in general, are unfortunately limited. In fact, Witte has never been given his proper place in modern Russian history. His misfortune stems from the fact that he belonged to the new managerial and professional class which arose with Russian industrialization and which, to this day, has not gained sufficient political recognition. He was a misunderstood, if not hated, outsider at the court of Nicholas II. In the eyes of the Bolsheviks, on the other hand, he stood for the despised autocracy. Conceivably, he could be interpreted as a great forerunner of Soviet industrialization. Yet no thaw is likely to unfreeze the Leninist repudiation of the last decades of tsarism or open the Imperial archives for impartial study. Among the materials available, Witte's Memoirs (Vospominanija; Dectvo, and the two volumes of Carstvovanie Nikolaja II) have to be used with caution; the reminiscences of Polovcov, Kuropatkin, V. I. Gurko, Maklakov, Kokovcov, Meshcherskij, S. M. Propper, and of Witte's close collaborators published after his death in Istoricheskij Vestnik CXL, April, 1915, show little understanding of Witte's basic aims; neither does V. von Korostowetz, Graf Witte, der Steuermann in der Not. The biographical sketches in the contemporary official histories of the Ministry of Finance likewise reveal very little. Perhaps the fairest account of Witte's work can be found in E.J. Dillon, The Eclipse of Russia. Thus the vindication by his countrymen, for which Witte so eagerly, and alas, so pathetically longed, will be withheld, one fears, until “the shrimps whistle on the mountain.”

3 For the clearest statement available see his memorandum on industrialization under the title “Dokladnaja zapiska Vitte Nikolaju II , ” in Istorik Marksist, No. 2-3, p. 13 off.

4 See for instance his letter to Nicholas II, dated October, 1898, reprinted in his Memoirs, Vospominanija; Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, I, 467. See also his lectures on agriculture in Witte: Vorlesungen über Volks—und Staatswirtschaft (Berlin, 1913).

5 This tract was leaked to the opposition and first published by Peter Struve in Germany. It was later republished by Witte. The historical and legal sections of the book. i.e., by far the greater part, were ghost-written. Witte's opinion of his tract is found in the letter cited below.

6 “Perepiska Vitte i Pobedonosceva”, Krasnyi Arkhiv, 1928, V (XXX), 104-05.

7 V. von Korostowetz, op. cit., p. 34. This remark was made by [Witte to Korostowetz’ mother.

8 For instance, Witte's economic policy, i.e., rapid industrialization, railroad construction, the gold standard, etc., was highly unpopular. It was carried through only by the application of autocratic methods (and extreme ones at that, if one thinks of the introduction of the gold standard.) The fact is that in Russia industrialization could be promoted only under autocratic auspices. A free expression of the vox populi would have meant an agrarian and narodnik orientation.

9 Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, I, 300.

10 “Perepiska Vitte i Pobedonosceva”, loc. cit., No. 22, letter of Dec. 25, 1904.

11 Ibid., No. 24.

12 “Perepiska S. Ju. Vitte i A. N. Kuropatkina,” Krasnyi Arkhiv, XVIII, 1926, letter of Feb. 27, 1905.

13 “Perepiska Vitte i Pobedonosceva,” loc. cit., No. 26.

14 “Perepiska S. Ju. Vitte i A. N. Kuropatkina,” loc. cit., letter of June 23, 1905.

15 The text of the October Manifesto and of Witte's Report accompanying it is given in Witte's Memoirs, in the first chapter of Vol. II of Carstvovanie Nikolaja II.

16 “Dnevnik Polovceva”, in Krasnyi Arkhiv, IV, p. 63 ff., entry for Sept. 21, 1905.

17 Ibid., entry for Oct. 3.

18 Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, II, 184.

19 “Zapiska Vitte ot 9 Oktjabrja”, Krasnyi Arkhiv, XI-XII, 51.

20 The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar to his Mother, E. T. Bing, ed. See the letter of Oct. 17, 1905, p. 188.

21 V. I. Gurko, Features and Figures of the Past, p. 442.

22 see the account in V. A. Maklakov, Vlast’ i obshchestvennost', p. 432; also Shipov's account, reprinted in Gurko, op. cit., p. 703.

23 In the concluding sentence of the Report accompanying the October Manifesto.

24 “Zapiska Vitte ot 9 Oktjabrja,” loc. cit., p. 56.

25 So for instance in his interview with the press on Oct. 18, reprinted in Krasnyi Arkhiv, XI-XII, 99 ff.

26 According to Shipov, in Gurko, op. cit., p. 710.

27 Vospominanija Nikolaja II, II, 93.

28 see “Graf Vitte v borbe s revoljuciei,” Byloe, No. 3, March, 1918, p. 4.

29 “Dnevnik Polovceva”, loc. cit., entry for Oct. 1, 1905.

30 Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, II, 38,

31 Krasnyi Arkhiv, XI-XII. See the report of Oct. 12, 1905.

32 In the crown councils on Dec. 5 and 17. See the stenographic reports in Byloe, No. 3, March, 1918.

33 S. S. Oldenburg, Carstvovanie imperatora Nikolaja II (Belgrade, 1939), I, 311.

34 In the memorandum of Oct. 9.

35 See particularly chapters 33 and 34 of Carstvovanie Nikolaja II

36 For the stenographic report of this memorable session see footnote 25.

37 V. N. Kokovcov, Out of My Past, pp. 84, 89.

38 “Dnevnik Polovceva”, loc. cit., entry for March 30, 1906.

39 Byloe, Sept. 1917, pp. 244-45.

40 Gurko, op. cit.-p. 443.

41 Ibid.

42 Byloe, No. 3, September, 1917, p. 246.

43 Krasnyi Arkhiv I, “K istorii karatelnykh ekspedicii v Sibiri”, p. 329 ff; also ibid., XI-XII, p. 149 ff. Also Byloe, No. 3, March, 1918, “Graf Vitte v borbe s revoljuciei.”

44 See Witte's report of Jan. 10, 1906, printed in Agrarnyi vopros v sovete ministrov (1906), p. 7 off.

45 “Carstvoval”, as Polovcov, who also recorded the following quotation, noted in his diary, loc. cit., entry for Jan. 30, 1906.

46 The protocols of the Crown Councils of Feb. 11 and 16 in Byloe, Nos. 5/6, November- December, 1917, p. 303.

47 For the stenographic reports of the April Crown Councils, see Byloe, No. 4, October, 1917, pp. 194 and 226-27.

48 See, apart from the stenographic reports, Polovcov's diary for Feb. 16, and the Empgror's letter to his mother, dated Jan. 12, 1906, in Bing, ed., The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, p. 211.

49 I have preferred here the documentary evidence in Witte's undated memorandum printed in Krasnyi Arkhiv, XI-XII, p. 150, over Witte's testimony in his Memoirs (Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, II, 269). From the memorandum it appears that Witte opposed the Emperor's repeated demands for courts martials for all those who attacked government officials. In his Memoirs, on the other hand, Witte—obviously writing with strong emotion— described the Emperor as a humanitarian who in his wisdom rejected Witte's own plea for the death penalty. ,

50 In his report to the Emperor of Jan. 10, 1906, as quoted in Agrarnyi vopros (44)

51 We know of the existence of this dossier from Gurko, op. cit., p. 452.

52 Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, II, 172.

53 Ibid.

54 From the editor's preface to Agrarnyi vopros.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid., p. 7 off.

57 Ibid., editor's preface.

58 Polovcov's diary, entry for March 18. It is not clear from Polovcov's account in which body this vote (21:17 against Witte) took place; it was, presumably, another Crown Council.

59 See the stenographic report in Byloe, No. 3, September, 1917, p. 244 ff.

60 Byloe, Nos. 5-6, November-December, 1917, p. 293 ff.

61 Polovcov's diary, entry for Oct. 30, 1905.

62 Gurko, op. cit., p. 454.

63 Byloe, No. 4, October, 1917, p. 199.

64 December 7, 1905, in the stenographic report for the Crown Council of that day; p. 252.

65 See, for instance, his report of Dec. 23, 1905, in Byloe, No. 3, March, 1918, p. 6.

66 This was the observation of Gurko, op. cit., p. 442.

67 There have always been rumors that Witte suffered from syphilis and that his failings could be traced to the ravages of this disease. There is no proof available to substantiate these rumors; and I think that the circumstances of his career are sufficient to explain his conduct.

68 So for instance his observation: “Our revolution was entirely caused by the fact that the rulers did not and do not now understand the truth that society and the people are stirring. The government is obliged to regulate that movement and keep it within limits. If it does not do that, but bluntly dams its path, then a revolutionary deluge will take place.” Carstvovanie Nikolaja II, I, 464. Or: “I was born a monarchist and hope to die as one. But under Nicholas II, with all his deplorable shortcomings, the monarchy in Russia may totter in its very foundations. May God grant that I do not have to see this.” Ibid., II, 293. Witte died, incidentally, in the spring of 1915, having predicted the defeat of Russia in the war then raging.

69 The interpretation of Russia in these years is, of course, a vast and difficult subject. My own version may be found in an article “Die Revolution von aussen als erste Phase der russischen Revolution 1917,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, IV, No. 2, 1956.