Count Sergei Yulyevitch Witte (Russian: Сергей Юльевич Витте, Sergej Jul'evič Vitte) (June 29, 1849 – March 13, 1915), also known as Sergius Witte, was a highly influential policy-maker who presided over extensive industrialization within the Russian Empire. He was also the author of the October Manifesto of 1905, a precursor to Russia's first constitution, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the Russian Empire. June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... Anthem: God Save the Tsar! The Russian Empire in 1914 Capital Saint Petersburg Language(s) Russian Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1721-1725 Peter the Great (first)  - 1894-1917 Nicholas II (last) History  - Established 22 October, 1721  - February Revolution 2 March, 1917 Area  - 1897 22,400,000 km2 8,648,688 sq... Wikisource has original text related to this article: October Manifesto (in English) Ilya Repin 17 October 1905 The October Manifesto (Russian: ) was issued on October 17, 1905; October 30 in the Gregorian calendar) by Emperor Nicholas II of Russia under the influence of Count Sergei Witte as a response to... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... The Prime Minister of Russia is the current Head of Government of the Russian Federation. ...

Witte's portrait by Ilya Repin.

Witte's family from his father's side was russified Lutheran German and his mother's side Russian nobility. Sergei Witte's maternal grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of the Caucasus, his grandmother was Princess Helene Dolgoruki, and the mystic Madame Blavatsky was his first cousin. His father was Julius Witte, his mother was Catherine Fadeyev. He was born in Tiflis and raised in the Caucasus region of Russia, in the house of his mother's parents. He graduated from Novorossiysk University in Odessa with a degree in Mathematics. He then spent the greater part of the 1870s and 1880s involved in private enterprises, particularly the administration and management of various railroad lines in Russia. Image File history File linksMetadata Sergius_Witte_Portrait_by_Ilya_Repin. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Sergius_Witte_Portrait_by_Ilya_Repin. ... Ilyá Yefímovich Répin (Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин) (August 5, 1844 (Julian calendar: July 24) – September 29, 1930) was a leading Russian painter and sculptor of the Peredvizhniki artistic... Saratov (Russian: ) is a major city in southern European Russia. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Caucasus Mountains. ... Helene Dolgoruki (1789-1860) (also known as Yelena in Russian), best remembered in the United States as the grandmother, and surrogate mother of Blavatsky. ... Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London, England), better known as Helena Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky was the founder of Theosophy. ... Coordinates:  - Governing Mayor Giorgi Gigi Ugulava Area    - City 372 km²  (143. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Caucasus Mountains. ... For other uses, see Odessa (disambiguation). ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... // The invention of the telephone (1876) by Alexander Graham Bell. ... // Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ...

Impact on Russian economics

Witte served as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry from 1889 – 1891, Transportation Minister (1892), where he pursued an ambitious program of railway construction and oversaw the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Trans-Siberian line in red; Baikal Amur Mainline in green. ...

He was appointed Russian Finance Minister in 1892, a position he held until 1903. During his tenure as Finance Minister the nation saw unprecedented economic growth. Witte strongly encouraged foreign capital to invest in Russia, and to do so he put Russia on the gold standard in 1897. Witte encouraged the growth of Russian industry, as a result the industrial sector of the economy expanded rapidly, especially the metals, petroleum, and transportation sectors. To improve the economy and to attract foreign investors Witte also advocated curbing the powers of the Russian autocracy. 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic measure of value is gold, and the currencies which are used as units of account are specified as a weight of gold, ideally fixed and not subject to change, and where all currency issuance is to one degree... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily loses electrons to form positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds between metal atoms. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ...

Witte was transferred to the relatively powerless position of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers in 1903, a position he held until 1905. This position was also called Secretary of State in the US [1]. In an attempt to keep up the modernization of the Russian economy Witte called and oversaw the Special Conference on the Needs of the Rural Industry. This conference was to provide recommendations for future reforms and the data to justify those reforms. Despite these efforts the lot of the peasants slowly declined and unrest increased in the peasant population. The Russian Council of Ministers is an executive governmental body that brings together the principal officers of the Executive Branch of the Russian government. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... In several countries, Secretary of State is a senior government position. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the...

Impact on Russian politics

Witte returned to the forefront in 1905, however, when he was called upon by the Tsar to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Witte traveled with Baron Rosen to the United States, where the peace talks were being held, and negotiated brilliantly on Russia's behalf. Despite losing dramatically on the battlefield, Russia lost very little in the final settlement. 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Tsar (Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian цар, Russian  , Croatian car, in scientific transliteration respectively car and car ), occasionally spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English, is a Slavonic term designating certain monarchs. ... Combatants Russian Empire Empire of Japan Commanders Emperor Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov† Emperor Meiji Oyama Iwao Heihachiro Togo Strength 500,000 Soldiers 400,000 Soldiers Casualties 39,518 killed; 158,600 wounded; 74,000 POW [1]; unknown Chinese civilians 47,387 killed; 173,425 woundedï¼› unknown Chinese civilians... Baron Rosen was one of the members of the Russian delegation that negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War at the Portsmouth Peace Conference in 1905 mediated by Theodore Roosevelt Baron Roman Romanovitch Rosen (February 24, 1847 — January 22, 1922) was a Russian diplomat. ... The Russian and Japanese delegates around the negotiating table at the Portsmouth Navy Yard St The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. ...

After this success Witte was brought back into the governmental decision-making process to help deal with the civil unrest following the war and Bloody Sunday. He was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the equivalent of Prime Minister, in 1905. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Witte advocated for the creation of an elected parliament, the formation of a constitutional monarchy, and the establishment of a Bill of Rights through the October Manifesto. Many of his reforms were put into place, but they failed to end the unrest. This, and overwhelming victories by left-wing political parties in Russia's first elected parliament, the State Duma, forced Witte to resign as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday. ... The Russian Council of Ministers is an executive governmental body that brings together the principal officers of the Executive Branch of the Russian government. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... The Russian Revolution of 1905 was an empire-wide struggle of both anti-government and undirected violence. ... A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modelled after that of the United Kingdom. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the general concept of a bill of rights. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: October Manifesto (in English) Ilya Repin 17 October 1905 The October Manifesto (Russian: ) was issued on October 17, 1905; October 30 in the Gregorian calendar) by Emperor Nicholas II of Russia under the influence of Count Sergei Witte as a response to... For other uses, see State Duma (disambiguation). ...

Witte continued in Russian politics as a member of the State Council but never again obtained an administrative role in the government. Just prior to the outbreak of World War I he urged that Russia stay out of the conflict. His warning that Europe faced calamity if Russia became involved went unheeded, and he died shortly thereafter. This article is becoming very long. ...

References

• Out of My Past by Vladimir Kokovtsov
• Memoirs of Count Witte, translated and edited by Sydney Harcave, 1990 ISBN 0873325710
• Biographical notes on Peter von Hahn, etc.