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WITTE, SERGE JULIEVICH, COUNT (1849— )

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 763 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WITTE, SERGE JULIEVICH, See also:COUNT (1849— ) , See also:Russian statesman, was See also:born at See also:Tiflis, where his See also:father (of Dutch extraction) was a member of the Viceregal See also:Council of the See also:Caucasus. His See also:mother was a See also:lady of the Fadeyev See also:family, by whom he was brought up as a member of the Eastern Orthodox See also:Church and thoroughly imbued with nationalist feeling in the Russian sense of the See also:term. After completing his studies at See also:Odessa University, in the See also:faculty of See also:mathematics and See also:physical See also:science, and devoting some See also:time to journalism in See also:close relations with the Slavophils and M. See also:Katkov, he entered in 1877 the service of the Odessa See also:State railway, and so distinguished himself in the trans-See also:port operations necessitated by the See also:Turkish See also:campaign of 1877—1878, that he was soon afterwards appointed See also:general See also:traffic manager of the See also:South-Western railway of See also:Russia and member of an Imperial See also:commission which had to study the whole question of railway construction and management throughout the See also:empire. His speciality was an intimate acquaintance with the problem of railway rates in connexion with the general economic development of the See also:country, and in 1884 he published a See also:work on the subject which attracted some See also:attention in the See also:official See also:world. Among those who had discovered his exceptional ability in matters of that See also:kind was M. Vishnegradski, See also:minister of See also:finance, who appointed him See also:head of the railway See also:department in the finance See also:ministry. In 1892 he was promoted to be minister of ways of communication, and in the following See also:year, on the retirement of Vishnegradski, he succeeded him as minister of finance. In this important See also:post he displayed extraordinary activity. He was an ardent See also:disciple of See also:Friedrich See also:List and sought to develop See also:home See also:industries by means of moderate See also:protection and the introduction of See also:foreign See also:capital for See also:industrial purposes. At the same time he succeeded by drastic See also:measures in putting a stop to the See also:great fluctuations in the value of the See also:paper currency and in resuming specie payments. The rapid See also:extension of the railway See also:system was also largely due to his See also:energy and See also:financial ingenuity, and he embarked on a crusade against the evils of See also:drunkenness by organizing a See also:government See also:monopoly for the See also:sale of See also:alcohol.

In the region of foreign policy he greatly contributed to the extension of Russian See also:

influence in See also:northern See also:China and See also:Persia. Naturally of a combative temperament, and endowed with a persevering tenacity rare among his country-men, he struggled for what he considered the liberation of his country from the economic bondage of foreign nations. See also:Germany was, in his See also:opinion, the See also:neighbour whose aggressive tendencies had to be specially resisted. He was therefore not at all persona grata in See also:Berlin, but the See also:German imperial authorities learned by experience that he was an opponent to be respected, who under-stood thoroughly the interests of his country, and was quite capable of adopting if necessary a vigorous policy of See also:reprisals. During his ten years' See also:tenure of the finance ministry he nearly doubled the revenues of the empire, but at the same time he made for himself, by his policy and his See also:personal characteristics, a See also:host of enemies. He was transferred, therefore, in 1903 from the influential post of finance minister to the ornamental position of See also:president of the See also:committee of ministers. The See also:object was to deprive him of any real See also:political influence, but circumstances brought about a different result. The disasters of the See also:war with See also:Japan, and the rising See also:tide of revolutionary agitation, compelled the government to think of appeasing popular discontent by granting administrative reforms, and the reform projects were revised and amended by the See also:body over which M. Witte presided. Naturally the influence of a strong See also:man made itself See also:felt, and the president became virtually See also:prime minister; but, before he had advanced far in this legislative work, he was suddenly trans-formed into a diplomatist and sent to See also:Portsmouth, N. H., U.S.A., in See also:August 1905, to negotiate terms of See also:peace with the See also:Japanese delegates. In these negotiations he showed great energy and decision, and contributed largely to bringing about the peace.

On his return to St See also:

Petersburg he had to See also:deal, as president of the first ministry See also:tinder the new constitutional regime, with a very difficult political situation (see RUSSIA: See also:History); he was no longer able to obtain support, and See also:early in 19(36 he retired into private See also:life.

End of Article: WITTE, SERGE JULIEVICH, COUNT (1849— )

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