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Old Russia? Interrupted Russia? One Of Those.
From The Memoirs of Count Witte:
I was criticized by some blockheads for building up industry too rapidly. Also, I was criticized for using “artificial means” in promoting industry. What does this stupid phrase mean? By what means other than artificial can industry develop? Everything that man does is, to a certain degree, artificial. Only barbarians manage to live without artificial means. Industry has always been developed by artificial means; and the artificial measures I employed were far weaker than those employed for the same ends by other states. This, of course, our salon ignoramuses do not know.
Sergei Witte (1849-1915) was Finance Minister to a couple of czars, and how could a guy not be prickly in such circumstances?
Here’s another quote, which may not have been echoed by everyone in Russia but – I’ll bet – would have made perfect sense to certain Russian social strata: “He [Feldman, one of the few other members of the Southwestern Railroad Board who, according to Witte, knew anything about railroads] was old, very kind, well educated. Undoubtedly he was of Jewish origin, but he had long ago become so Germanized that he was accepted as Russian.”
This book is over 800 pages long and I am certainly not going to read it all. But somebody should! Either because it is surprising, or because it is not. Witte’s story is a monument to all sorts of actions and beliefs just barely remembered or forgotten for good reasons. It may not be a guide to modern Russia, but neither is it utterly disconnected from the place.
I came across cholera riots. I had only ever heard of the 1892 Tashkent ones, but in that same year, there were some in Saratov, too. I found these by noticing in the index, under “Students,” extensive lists of references, but just one for “medical.” There should have been more, but I think indexing hadn’t yet been automated by 1990 when this volume came out. Anyway, why were these kids mentioned at all? Witte had visited the afflicted areas and found that medical students, unlike many doctors, had shown up, and rendered such aid as they could. Which was not very much. A physician, and probably not just in Russia, might have been outranked by a nutritionist or a yoga coach, if either of those existed back then. Witte himself had been counseled by a professor to avoid fruits, drink weak tea, and bathe a lot — with calomel! Anyway, he overcame somewhat his earlier unfavorable impressions, deciding that Russian student youth, despite its “shortcomings and its lack of balance, sometimes approaching barbarism, is very sincere and senses who loves it and who hates it.” The Czar was pretty much in the latter camp, as he was still sore at the punks who had assassinated his dad.
I must confess again that I haven’t read this whole book, but I do think that where I haven’t gone, there remains plenty of negativity. Somehow – I sure wasn’t looking for it – I came across Witte on naval affairs. Since ships and harbors don’t get built for free, even in Russia, he would have a lot to say about such expenditures. At one point, some admirals — but not all admirals, and not Witte either — thought a place called Libau would be perfect for a naval base. The naysayers then, or at least Witte in this memoir finished in 1912 and published only after his death, said it “would be a complete waste of money – as turned out to be the case.” And was it? It depends on the timescale, but Latvian scavengers aren’t complaining. I am still uncertain if this Baltic coastal area is ice-free, or if such ice as it gets is no worse than Murmansk ever sees, but Witte traveled to the latter and thought it superior. Oh, well!
Back to railways: there are many references to those. This is what really interested me, because I had the idea that Russian dreams and fantasies of a railway network amounted to a kind of geopolitics. All that land out there had to be important, or next to something which was important, or next to something which was next to something which was something; on and on and on. Witte’s judgment in this book was that “strategic” concerns, much boosted by military men, were never as compelling as economic ones. Russia did spend three decades building railroads mostly in the West but “in the end we had to fight in the Far East.” Note Witte was much involved in the Russo-Japanese War – he even went to America for negotiations leading to the Treaty of Portsmouth – but he did not live long enough to see much of WWI.
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A couple more observations. Peasants get a lot of treatment in this book. Witte – and I’m sure everyone in the aforementioned Russian social strata – spoke explicitly of a peasant problem. I think it is generally considered pretty odd that Communism should have caught on first in such a non-urban, non-industrial country – theory predicted quite the opposite – but now I’d say any economic idea that attributed so much to one’s class as opposed to oneself was going to find Russia highly congenial. Or at least fertile, as mushrooms find dung. Classes? Classes that are not only wildly disproportionate in size and power but doing everything all wrong? We’ve got ‘em! Now, any economic theory will postulate that everyone is doing it all wrong. But Marxism may have been a perfect fit for this place. Demographically and sociologically, or at least for amateur demographers and sociologists seeking professional employment in or near a brand-new dictatorship, Russia may have hit the sweet spot.
Another observation, not in this book at all, but online: after my initial reaction to that business about the Jew who got German enough to pass for Russian – “Huh?” – I recalled having seen guides to Russian text-message shortcuts. I thought these existed for both Cyrillic and Latin keypads. And maybe they do. The one I just found does not say if “Xyx?” or “Xax?” means “Huh?” But I bet it would be understood! Google Translate, by the way, suggests “Xm?”
Published in History
Your posts are always interesting.
Yes, and they never commit the faux pas of assuming that I know less history than I actually do. In fact, sometimes an article (this very one, now that I think about it!) will be so distant from that doing that discourtesy that it is almost as uncomfortable as it (doing the discourtesy) would have been.
It makes a man determined, at least for a few minutes, to better his mind. And sometimes it works. I just finished a history book (Stalin’s War, by Sean McMeekin) wherein having the memory of the answer to “just where is Slovenia, again?” readily at hand was convenient. Probably, anyway. I have little doubt that repeatedly looking it up over the Ricochet years was at least occasionally an action triggered by one of the John H. series.
Good post. Thx.
I have the impression (though admittedly without data) that Czarist Russia had enormous social and economic inequality (kinda like Saudi Arabia where 5,000 families own the whole country). In Western Europe and the USA, innovation & opportunity grew out of a middle class culture (see, McCloskey). Peasants and aristos don’t think like that which is why they tend to be more stagnant arrangements. The absence of a middle leaves entitlement and unchecked self-aggrandizing power at one end and pessimism and envy at the other (kinda like the Democratic Party’s vision of a bourgeois-free utopia).
Government-driven change is “artificial” in that it does not spontaneously arise from an economically vibrant populace but that does not mean “false.” Roads, sanitation and literacy programs are also “artificial” in this sense but that does not have to mean impractical or delusional (see, Great Society, New Green Deal, California High-Speed Rail etc).
Witte et al did not jump-start a middle class. Middle-class movements require that a middle class already exist (Glorious Revolution, MAGA) although the Meiji revolution may have helped to foster a middle class and middle class expectations.
Somewhat at variance with what I said about Communism catching on in an unlikely setting, I recalled, imperfectly, another point of view. But last night – for I always sleep on my posts before publishing them! – it came to me. It was something I’d seen in Joe Scarborough’s book about the Truman Doctrine…and now I know, having gone back to the library to look at it, that he was quoting George Kennan. The latter had pointed out how insecure Russia, its czars, and their subjects, always were. Either as a result or as a cause – probably both – everyone was not merely tough but implacable. Whatever they were in, they were in it to win. Kennan noted Marxism had “smoldered ineffectually” in Europe for half a century before energizing Russia. Although he didn’t say why it should have taken that long – maybe Russian troublemakers had over the decades been more interested in the anarchy thing or the nihilism thing? – once it did happen, the embrace of Marxism would be fiery and firm. Russians might show patience from time to time but they did expect open clashes, the destruction of or by enemies, and victory as opposed to truce or compromise. Here was a doctrine that postulated that economic conflict, like other conflicts, was harsh at least, and if violent, unsurprisingly so. Communism was at last on its way!
Kennan of course said this better. The Long Telegram was long but its points are, still, succinct. As for me, I will now hush, but before posting this I would like to note an amazing property of the Ricochet search function: if you ask it for “George Kennan” or even “Joe Scarborough,” you get hits containing those exact names. Wow!
The Revolutions Podcast did extensive coverage of the factors leading to the Russian revolution of 1917. If I recall, podcaster Mike Duncan singled out Sergei Witte for his rare competence, unusual among the aristocracy and bureaucracy of Tsarist Russia.
If Witte was “competent”, he must have exhibited it on some occasion other than the moment he wrote this. It is sadly incompetent.
It’s all relative, Mark. You should see the other guys.
You have way too much time on your hands.
Also available at archive.org, but apparently in an earlier translation.
I didn’t know they were still having cholera riots as late as the time of Count Witte. I have on my bookshelf, Russia and the Cholera 1823-1832 by Roderick E. McGrew (1965), which I bought mostly to learn about the worldwide epidemic that reached the United States in 1832. My impression is that much like with covid, cholera became less virulent in subsequent outbreaks. But maybe not enough less virulent if people were still rioting. Or maybe the government was over-reacting?
The cholera reached Michigan along with the soldiers who were sent out along with Winfield Scott to clean up the Black Hawk war. I don’t remember the details offhand, but a horse was shot near Ypsilanti when its rider tried to violate a quarantine. Or something like that. Whatever the details, I don’t think it qualifies as a riot. I’ve gotten a few bicycle destinations out of visiting the gravesites of people in my part of Michigan (just barely starting to become settled then) who died in the pandemic, as well as the gravesites of the surviving children of a family in which Ma, Pa, and others of the children all died of cholera in short order.
If your reading in Russia history ever takes you to English-language books that cover the topic of the soviets (12-man advisory councils) that were established during the time of Alexander 1, be sure to write about it. A 3xgreat-grandrather, a German living in Moscow, supposedly served on one of them until he had to flee the country. I’ve recently learned his name, his wife’s name, and where he was buried. I’ve probably visited the place where his wife was buried, but didn’t realize it at the time. Until a couple of months ago I knew their birth and death dates, but not their names. We’ve often wondered how a German could have got on one of those Russian councils. Maybe the guy who wrote of someone who had “become so Germanized that he was accepted as Russian” would understand how things like that could have happened. I have suspected that a Russian mother-in-law was part of the story, which may explain why DNA tests of those of my parents’ generation sometimes show a bit of Russian ancestry.
My great-great-grandfather died in an outbreak in Illinois in 1872 or shortly thereafter. I would need to look up the date to be certain.
I know you have watched many Russian films, but perhaps you have concentrated in the Soviet era. Peter the Great went on a trip to the west to learn European technologies. He also invited many academics to come to Russia. Many of these were German, since the Germany of the time had so many monarchies. They also had the Hanse, who helped build trade all around the Baltic. And most of them were German or related-language speakers. There were also Yiddish-speaking Jews who migrated into western Russia. Thus, most of the middle class in late Czarist times were Germans.
Oh, yes, and there was a large German quarter in Moscow, to the southeast of the Kremlin, I think. The Germans weren’t supposed to mix with the Russians to the extent of marrying them, though. That was one reason for establishing a separate area of Moscow for them. Doesn’t mean it never happened that a German guy married a Russian girl and that they had kids, though. My best guess is that the soviet that my ancestor supposedly served on was one that had to do with commerce, for the reasons that you suggest above.
That quote is from Witte himself. But from which Witte may not be obvious! If I’m reading the translator’s foreword rightly, Witte had produced a manuscript version and what he called a stenographic version – that is, dictated. Posing problems for his future editors, he seems to have been tougher when writing his books, more moderate when speaking them. Which voice was the better voice? He had also output a separate volume dealing with the Russo-Japanese War, one the memoirs assumed the reader would already be familiar with. In any case, he directed that these not be published ’til after his death. They almost weren’t published at all, because right after his death, the authorities not only sacked his home in Russia but tried to do something similar in France. But his widow had shrewdly moved the papers from a bank in Paris to one in Bayonne. Only after 1965 did Witte’s daughter turn the original papers over to Columbia University.
Translations – even in Spanish! – had appeared in the 1920s. An actual Russian edition was much longer in coming. In any case, the challenge would be the same: how to condense all this material. With its numerous repetitions and also its lacunae – Witte may simply have reeled off words, with no later attempt to punch this stuff up into readable form – the producer of this 1990 volume makes it clear that there’s more than one way to approach the problem.
But approach it he did. The guy is or was at SUNY Binghamton, which impresses me. Not only that, in his foreword he thanks someone at SUNY Oswego. I know people who have been associated with one or the other of those schools. I should tell them about this. They’d like that. They might hum the fight song or something!
Incidentally, Witte itself may originally have been a German surname. I remember people with that surname in the German Lutheran communities where I grew up. Does Count Witte make any reference to that?
It is German. Beyond that, let’s look on Wikipedia:
Oh, and I just noticed the Russian transcription of his name: Сергей Юльевич Витте
Definitely a transcription of the German pronunciation.