Among the prominent figures of Russia in the late XIX and early XX centuries, a special place belongs to Count Sergei Yulievich Witte, who held a number of high government posts and made a very significant contribution to the development of the country. It so happened that he was forced to correct many errors of the policy pursued by the sovereign, and, sometimes, bear responsibility for them. He entered the domestic history with the humiliating nickname Count Polusakhalinsky.
Youth and career beginning of the future minister
Before we talk about why Witte was nicknamed Count Polusakhalinsky, we recall the main stages of his biography. He was born on June 17 (29), 1849 in Tiflis, in an aristocratic family. Sergey Yulievich’s father was a Courland nobleman, and his mother was the daughter of the governor of the Saratov Territory. Having received primary education at home, he continued it at the gymnasium, and then in a private boarding school. In 1866, Sergei, along with his brother Boris, entered Odessa University, which he successfully graduated with a candidate’s degree in physics and mathematics.
Immediately after graduation, the young man begins to climb the career ladder. In the biography of Witte (Count Polusakhalinsky, as he will be called later), an important stage begins ─ he becomes an official of the railway department. In the future, Sergey Yulievich will take the post of Minister of Railways, but in 1870 he begins his career with a modest post of technical specialist.
Way from a small official to a minister
The mind, perseverance and, of course, connections, helped the petty official Witte to become a member of the top management of the Odessa Railway a few years later. The next stage of the career is the transfer to the capital and a new high post in one of the structures subordinate to the Ministry of Railways. In 1881, after the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, he, the future Earl of Polusakhalinsky-Witte, became involved in the political life of the country. In particular, through a prominent Georgian enlightener and publicist Niko Nikoladze, he managed to negotiate with the freedom activists who were free to end their terrorist activities. In the eyes of the imperial family, the Count established himself as a person capable of making non-trivial decisions.
In March 1889, Sovereign Alexander III put Witte at the head of the Railway Department, formed under the Ministry of Finance, and this served as the impetus thanks to which, three years later, the future Count Polusakhalinsky became Minister of Railways of Russia. At this post, he carried out a number of reforms: both administrative in nature and related to the technical issues of the operation of rolling stock.
At the head of the Ministry of Finance
Appreciating Witte's business qualities, Alexander III in 1892 entrusted him with a new, even more responsible post, appointing him Minister of Finance. In this position, the count remained for 11 years, also making every effort to strengthen the country's economic situation and increase its political stability.
As the history of those years shows, many of his reforms in the financial sphere came across the resistance of a certain part of influential people close to the emperor. Their backroom intrigues led to the fact that in 1903 Sergey Yulievich was removed from his post, as a result of which he took the post of chairman of the Committee of Ministers, which at that time was only nominal and did not provide its owner with actual power.
In royal disfavor
Very soon, the count was completely dismissed. One of the reasons for this was his extremely negative statements about the intention of Nicholas II to start a war with Japan. Witte considered this plan to be adventurous and did not hide his opinion. Subsequent tragic events, which entailed the defeat of Russia and the aggravation of the social tension in it that spilled over into the First Russian Revolution, completely proved that it was right. In 1905, the sovereign again called for the service of the Earl, who had been dismissed earlier, but this time he needed him as a diplomat. Here we come to the answer to the question of why Count Witte received the nickname "Semi-Sakhalin".
Results of the Russo-Japanese War
The fact is that, despite the victory in the war with Russia, the efforts made by Japan were so significant that they placed its government in a very difficult economic and political situation. In this regard, it began to look for the possibility of concluding peace on the conditions most favorable to it. The first and unsuccessful attempt in this direction was made in early 1904, and then repeated after the capture of Port Arthur. In both cases, the Japanese side insisted that the request for peace come from the Russian side. Nicholas II rejected such an initiative.
In the future, the Japanese government did not stop diplomatic negotiations in this direction, but achieved real success only after the defeat of the Russian fleet under Tsushima, forcing the sovereign to be accommodating. A sharp aggravation of social contradictions within Russia, which resulted in an open revolutionary action of the masses, played into their hands.
Portsmouth Conference
As a result, with the mediation of the American side and at the initiative of President T. Roosevelt, a peace conference was convened in the city of Portsmouth (USA). The Russian delegation on it, on behalf of Nicholas II, was headed by Count Witte, who was faced with the difficult task of “dissolving porridge”, which a year earlier, contrary to his warnings, had been brewed by a short-sighted monarch.
Using the advantages that the victorious state has in such negotiations, Japan put forward a number of harsh conditions, many of which were unacceptable for the Russian side - they became the subject of heated discussions. So, among other things, Witte was able to reject the demand of the Japanese to pay them a significant indemnity, and largely settled issues related to the sovereignty of Korea. However, he also had to make some concessions to achieve the desired peace. In particular, under the agreement signed on August 23 (September 5) in Portsmouth, he was forced to cede almost half of Sakhalin Island to the Japanese side. That is why Witte was called the Earl of Polusakhalinsky.
This essentially forced step provoked an extremely negative reaction from the liberal part of Russian society and made the head of the delegation an object of sharp and undeserved criticism. By the way, the reception of Japanese diplomats was far from a warm welcome. He was also blamed for excessive pliability, and general discontent caused a wave of riots in Tokyo.
Honored Award
Nevertheless, despite the negative attitude of a significant part of the public towards the results of the Portsmouth Conference, Nicholas II was pleased with its results, and granted Witte a count dignity, which he had not previously had. In addition, the new Count Polusakhalinsky was appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers, which had been reformed by then.
This role was largely facilitated by Witte's role in suppressing the 1905 uprising and his participation in the drafting of the October 17 Manifesto, which marked the beginning of the State Duma. As chairman of the Council of Ministers, Witte held very successful negotiations with the French government on granting Russia a loan and put a lot of effort into objective coverage in the foreign press of the actions of the Russian government.
last years of life
However, the incessant intrigues in the highest power structures forced him in September 1906 to file a report on his voluntary resignation to the highest name. Having thus completed his civil service, Count Witte (Polusakhalinsky), whose photos are presented in the article, spent the rest of his life in the aristocratic region of St. Petersburg, occupying a mansion on Kamenny Island.
In 1907, he successfully survived the assassination attempt, organized, as is now commonly believed, by representatives of extreme right-wing forces who did not forgive the column for his participation in the creation of the State Duma, which was a new instrument of democratic government for Russia. Having lived to the age of 65, Sergei Yulievich died on February 28 (March 13), 1915 in Petrograd from meningitis.
Finally
Despite the solemn funeral service and the magnificent military funeral at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the death of Witte is associated with one critical statement by Nicholas II, which became famous thanks to the memoirs of the French ambassador J.-M. Paleologist. In them, the diplomat recalls how the king, in an interview with him, noted that with the death of this man "a large center of intrigue" went out. Why Count Witte “Polusakhalinsky” deserved such an unflattering posthumous characterization in the mouth of the monarch is now difficult to judge with complete objectivity. Perhaps the last Russian emperor had certain reasons for this, but even in this case it should be taken into account that Witte, spinning in higher circles, only played according to the rules established in them.
A lot of gossip in the world was also caused by the personal life of Count Polusakhalinsky. He was married twice, and both times this was preceded by high-profile scandals related to divorce proceedings, as his chosen women were married women. His second wedding made a lot of noise, since the count began to cohabit with his future wife before her divorce from her former husband, which was highly condemned in high society.
Count Witte entered the history of Russia as one of the prominent statesmen of the pre-revolutionary period. It remains only to regret that, in the opinion of many modern historians, only a few decades of peace and peace were not enough for the realization of his plans to build a great Russia. A photo of the grave of the count, in its current form, completes the article.