This also started to create the impoverished classes to reject the tsarist regime; In turn this created conflicts and more violence within the already separated classes of Russia’s society.
Middle class liberals wanted to participate in government and they also wanted some form of an elected national assembly.
Another negatively impact, it had a direct bearing on the poor classes with the standard of living, becoming already more expensive. Poor harvests in 1900 and 1902 led to starvation and violence in the countryside. The peasants became hungrier and in the end suffered from starvation.
All of Sergei Witte polices were designed to modernize the country, secure the Russian far east , and give Russia a good commanding position with which it could exploit the resources of China’s northern territories, Korea Siberia. But all of this had a positive and negative result on Russia’s social groups.
Witte policy was to squeeze resources out of the peasants to pay for industrialization. He also kept urban workers wages low so that all the money available went into industrial development.
During this time his polices had mixed results, in spite of a severe economic depression at the end of the century, Russia’s state capitalism of coal, iron, steel and oil production tripled between 1890 and 1900, railroad mileage almost doubled, giving Russia the most tracks of any nation other that the United States, however Russian grain production and exports failed to rise significantly, and imports grew faster than exports. Although Russia’s main source of wealth was farming, old fashioned farming methods and bad weather often spoiled harvests and caused terrible famines. Farming did not produce enough money to buy new machinery. But On the other hand the natural resources and cheap labour encouraged foreigners to set up new industries and businesses in the Russian Empire. These foreigners took the profits, which mean’s that Russia had to keep borrowing large amounts of money from other countries.
The state budget also more than doubled, absorbing some the countries economic growth.
Sergei Witte Was a highly influential policy-maker who presided over extensive industrialization within the Russian empire. He saw that Russia compared to Western Europe was lacking a broad –based, wealthy middle class. He also had a direct responsibility of rapidly improving the output of industrial raw materials, such as coal in the Ukraine and oil in the Caucasus.
Sergi Witte made use of Russia state capitalism, through the use of state power and its resources to direct and control the economy; he believed that this was one of the key factors of the country modernization. Although Russia lacked sufficient capital at home he understood that she needed to attract foreign investors and in particular loans, that would support her industrial expansion. This suited very well with Russia’s political motives of the tsarist regime as it allowed them to directly control its growth economically in the way it wanted and without, it hoped, the social and political chaos or instability it feared.
Another solution for Russia for its economical problem was gaining essential advice on industrial planning and techniques. With this Russia decided to invite skilled craftsmen from other industrial countries such as France, Germany, Sweden and Britain. Although thought as costly, Witte regarded this to be important but also it would have a direct impact on Russia industrial development. With this in mind, Russia’s working class leant vital skilled jobs which infect created an improvement of skilled working class.
During the 1890s, Russia's industrial development led to a significant increase in the size of the urban bourgeoisie and the working class, setting the stage for a more dynamic political atmosphere and the development of radical parties. Because the state and foreigners owned much of Russia's industry, the working class was comparatively stronger and the bourgeoisie comparatively weaker than in the West.
The working class and peasants were the first to establish political parties because the nobility and the wealthy bourgeoisie were politically timid. During the 1890s and early 1900s, abysmal living and working conditions, high taxes, and land hunger gave rise to more frequent strikes and agrarian disorders. These activities prompted the bourgeoisie of various nationalities in the empire to develop a host of different parties, both liberal and conservative.
The most economically and developed industrialion for Russia was the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway 1891-1904. Railroads were the largest single industry in the country, employing 400,000 people in 1900, and were forcibly transforming other sectors. The metallurgical industries were developing apace, while approximately one-half of all finished metal products were railroad tracks. Witte combined his experience in the railway industry with a strong interest in foreign policy. He encouraged the expansion of the Trans- Siberians Railway and organized the construction of the Chinese eastern Railway he also played an impotent role in helping to increase the speed of Russia’s industrial development.
With this great development he developed the more remote regions of central and eastern Asia by links to already indutriliased western part of Russia. Russians workers resided to develop inland resources and living; production had helped to increase the movements of exports of coal, iron and steel and other exports, as it increased Russia’s wealth.
.
Industrial output; Annual Production (millions of tons)
Coal pig iron oil grain
1880 3.2 0.42 0.5 34
1890 5.9 0.89 3.9 36
1900 16.1 2.66 10.2 56
1910 26.8 2.99 9.4 74
Witte returned to the forefront in 1905, however, when he was called upon by the Tsar to negotiate on end to the (Russo Japanese war) witte traveled to the united states, where 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.
‘Sergei Witte was thought to be the key figure of the Russo-Japanese War by critics, in that he created the Russian situation in the Far East, lost control of it in the power struggles, watched the war destroy his efforts and then returned to favor just in time to clean up the mess by negotiating the peace’. Chris Corin (p78)
When he was appointed chairman of Russian council of ministers in 1905 during the Russian revolution of 1905, He was Convinced that Russia's interests in the Far East were best served by commerce and railroad-building, not belligerence, Witte strongly opposed the drift to war with Japan over (among other problems) the fate of Korea. He urged the Tsar to make political concessions, at first to allay general domestic discontent and in a later memorandum, to defuse the revolutionary crisis of 1905. Nicholas II did indeed address Witte's call for steps to restore public order. The result was the "October Manifesto"-- a comprehensive guarantee of civil rights and a broadly elected legislative assembly that (to paraphrase Hosking) tried to achieve in a few months what had taken hundreds of painful years to emerge elsewhere in Europe.
Witte also advocated for the creation of an elected parliament, the formation of a constitution ional monarchy, and the establishment of a bill of rights through the October manifesto. This granted freedom of conscience, speech, meting and association. He also promised that in future people would not be imprisoned without trial after that he announced that no law would become operative without the approval of the state Dumas;
The revolution in 1905 created work unions but also People in professions and businesses joined together in a “union of unions” and set up a central committee to organize it called the St Petersburg Soviet.
The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Agriculture and Domains remained strongholds of the landed nobility, who for the most part supported an alliance with England and perpetuation of Russia's role as chiefly a grain exporter. Chipping away at their areas of control would not be enough, as Witte's eventual defeat in 1905 showed. Agriculture remained backward and hobbled comprehensive industrialization. Although Russia's industrial growth was among the most rapid in the world, over seven-eighths of the population lived at subsistence level in rural villages.
In his 1890 budget report for the Ministry of Finance, Witte wrote,
``The railroad is like a leaven, which creates a cultural fermentation among the population. Even if it passed through an absolutely wild people along its way, it would raise them in a short time to the level requisite for its operation.'' www.historyRussionsabroad.com
Although the policies met with some success, they were hampered by the Czar and other members of government, who suspected that the reforms were designed to them. 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. With this he knew concessions had become unavoidable, but they must be limited and granted on terms laid down by the régime. He thought by giving ground to divide the opposition forces he could ‘buy off’ the middle classes it would take the added pressure off the government. Witte then bought off the peasantry with a promise to them to reduce their mortgage repayments as a prelude to their abolition and new land reforms. He also offered the right to vote in elections for the new Dumas. This ensured that the middle class liberal and radical element in any new parliament would be counter balanced by a more conservative peasant element.
Many of his reforms were put into place, but they failed to end the unrest. This, and overwhelming victories by Political parties of Russian Revolution in Russia's first elected parliament, the State Dumas, forced Witte to resign as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister).
The Czars had always feared their Ministers' desire for , and therefore generally appointed s to lead their government. Had the government and bureaucracy been willing to support Witte who in fact was deeply , they might have prevented the build-up of social tensions which culminated in the 1917 Revolution.2
;
Memoirs of Count Witte
translated and edited by Sidney Harcave
M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Armonk, Newyork - London, England
1990
Chris Corin, (2002) “Communist Russia under Lenin and stalin” jm (London Macmillan)
Hamish Macdonald, ((2001)”Russia and the Ussr Empire of Revolution” Pearson education limited (Essex)
