(The Russo-Japanese Treaty of Portsmouth, signed in 1905, ...)
The Russo-Japanese Treaty of Portsmouth, signed in 1905, brought an end to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The agreement was signed by Russian and Japanese diplomats at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, near the boundary of Maine and New Hampshire, in the United States. The treaty was signed in September, after negotiations that lasted throughout most of August.
The Russo-Japanese War was caused by a Russian and Japanese dispute for dominance in Manchuria and Korea. Manchuria had been controlled by the Manchu Qing dynasty of China (the dynasty had, in fact, originated in Manchuria), and Korea had been a vassal state or dependency of China. But as the power of imperial China declined, foreign powers began to encroach on its tributary states and empire. Great Britain took control of Hong Kong after the First Opium War in the 1840s. France seized Vietnam and Southeast Asia (Indochina) between the 1850s and 1880s.
The First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) ended in the defeat of imperial China by the modernized Japanese army and navy. As a result of this victory, Korea, a former vassal of Qing China, won its independence. Once Korea was removed from Chinese control, the Russians and Japanese began to compete for influence there and in neighboring Manchuria. In 1898 the Russians leased the Liaodong (Liaotung) Peninsula from China, and established a naval base called Port Arthur there. Liaodong is located in southeastern Manchuris, right next to the northern Korean peninsula. The Japanese saw the establishment of the Russian base right next to Korea, which they saw as part of their sphere of influence, as a serious threat.
Relations between the Japanese and Russians deteriorated, resulting in the outbreak of war in early 1904. Russia had the largest army in Europe, but the Russian heartland was far from the area where the fighting took place, and the Japanese navy was able to the destroy the Russian Pacific fleet based at Port Arthur. The Japanese were supported by Great Britain during the war because the British saw Russian expansion as a threat. After Japanese naval victories and land victories at Port Arthur and Mukden, the Russians decided to negotiate peace. The Russian decision was heavily influenced by the Russian Revolution of 1905. The revolution, in turn, had been partly inspired by the military defeats Russia was suffering at the hands of Japan.
Negotiations between Russian and Japanese diplomats took place in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine, in the United States. The talks were mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who was seen by both sides as impartial. Roosevelt would win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the negotiations. On the Russian side, the chief negotiators were Russian Prime Minister Sergei Witte (1849-1915), and the former Russian ambassador to Japan, Roman Romanovich Rosen (1847-1921). The main Japanese negotiators were Jutaro Komaru (or Marquis Komaru Jutaro, 1855-1911), the Japanese Foreign Minister, and Takahira Kogoro (or Kogoro Takahira, 1854-1926), the Japanese ambassador to the United States from 1900 to 1909.
Under the terms of the treaty, the Russians agreed to withdraw from Manchuria and recognize Japanese suzerainty over Korea. The treaty set the stage for Korea’s formal annexation by the Japanese Empire in 1910, and cleared the way for the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s. Manchuria (the puppet state of Manchukuo under former Manchu Qing Emperor Puyi) served as a base for Japanese invasions of China during the Second World War.
The Memoirs of Count Witte First edition by Witte, Sergei Iu, Harcave, Sidney (1990) Hardcover
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(A portrait of the twilight years of Isarism by Count Serg...)
A portrait of the twilight years of Isarism by Count Sergei Witte (1849-1915), the man who built modern Russia. Witte presents incisive and often piquant portraits of the mighty and those around them--powerful Alexander III, the weak-willed Nicholas II, and the neurasthenic Empress Alexandra, along with his own notorious cousin, Madam blavatsky, the "priestess of the occult".
The memoirs of Count Witte; Translated from the orginal Russian manuscript and edited by Abraham Yarmolinsky
(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...of what happened later would have been avoided. The peasantry would not have been as deeply stirred up by the revolution as it actually was. The agrarian disturbances would have been greatly reduced in scope and violence, and many innocent lives saved. Naturally, Goremykin's conference failed to interest anyone, and resulted in nothing. As for our conference, it left behind a vast contribution to Russian economic literature in the form of memoranda written by competent members of local committees and well-digested systematic material relating to the various sides of Russia's economic life. The general impression an investigator derives from all this material is that in the years 1903-1904, one definite idea fermented the minds of the people, namely that to avoid the miseries of a revolution, it was necessary to carry out a number of liberal reforms in keeping with the spirit of the times. It was this feature of the activity of the conference that accounts for its dissolution. When the revolution broke out, the Government, in its agrarian policy, was forced to go much beyond what was projected by the Agricultural Conference. But it was too late. The peasant problem could no longer be solved by way of liberal reforms. It assumed an acute, a revolutionary form. All revolutions occur because governments fail to satisfy in time the crying needs of the people and remain deaf to them. No Government can neglect these needs with impunity. For many years our Government kept blazoning forth with great pomp that it had the people's needs at heart, that it was constantly striving to render the peasantry happy, etc., etc. All that was mere lip service. Since the death of Alexander II, the Government's treatment of the peasants has been determined by the...
Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte was a highly influential econometrician, minister, and prime minister in Imperial Russia, one of the key figures in the political arena at the end of 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century.
Background
He was born on June 29, 1849 at Tifiis, where his father (of Dutch extraction) was a member of the Viceregal Council of the Caucasus. His mother was a lady of the Fadeyev family, by whom he was brought up as a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church and thoroughly imbued with nationalist feeling in the Russian sense of the term.
Sergei had two brothers (Alexander and Boris) and two sisters (Olga and Sophia), and the mystic Helena Blavatsky was their first cousin. His grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of the Caucasus, his grandmother was Princess Helene Dolgoruki.
Education
He entered a Tiflis gymnasium, but he took more interest in music, fencing and riding than in studying. Sergei finished Gymnasium I in Kishinev and commenced studying Physico-Mathematical Sciences at the Novorossiysk University in Odessa in 1866 graduating top of his class in 1870.
Career
After completing his studies at Odessa University, in the faculty of mathematics and physical science, and devoting some time to journalism in close relations with the Slavophils and M. Katkov, he entered in 1877 the service of the Odessa State railway.
At the time the Russian Empire was developing a fast railway system. Witte got into this endeavor by accepting a position at a private railway enterprise. He spent the greater part of the 1870s and 1880s in this occupation, particularly in the administration and management of various railroad lines. As a candidate of mathematical sciences he began as a cashier in a ticket office, then gradually worked his way up, studying the business in the smallest details. He fulfilled the duties of controller, assistant machinist, assistant station-master and then station–master.
He so distinguished himself in the transport operations necessitated by the Turkish campaign of 1877- 1878, that he was soon afterwrards appointed general traffic manager of the South-Western railway of Russia and member of an Imperial commission which had to study the whole question of railwray construction and management throughoutthe empire.
His speciality was an intimate acquaintance with the problem of railway rates in connexion with the general economic development of the country, and in 1884 he published a work on the subject which attracted some attention in the official world. Among those who had discovered his exceptional ability in matters of that kind was M. Vishnegradski, minister of finance, who appointed him head of the railway department in the finance ministry.
In 1880 Sergei Witte was appointed the head of the Operations Department of the South Western Railway System of the Empire and settled in Kiev. In 1886 he was appointed to head the South Western System.
In 1892 he was promoted to be minister of ways of communication, and in the following year, on the retirement of Vishnegradski, he succeeded him as minister of finance. In this important post he displayed extraordinary activity. He was an ardent disciple of Friedrich List and sought to develop home industries by means of moderate protection and the introduction of foreign capital for industrial purposes.
At the same time he succeeded by drastic measures in putting a stop to the great fluctuations in the value of the paper currency and in resuming specie payments. The rapid extension of the railway system was also largely due to his energy and financial ingenuity, and he embarked on a crusade against the evils of drunkenness by organizing a government monopoly for the sale of alcohol. In the region of foreign policy he greatly contributed to the extension of Russian influence in northern China and Persia.
Following major reforms the Finance Minister clearly foresaw the need to develop a strong currency. In 1894-1895 Witte was able to stabilize the ruble. In 1987 he implemented a reform of the national currency. The ruble was provided with the gold standard and remained absolutely stable until WWI. It resulted in a great capital inflow to the country and as a consequence to railway and industrial development in the Russian Empire. Managing the budgetary deficiency Witte increased taxes. He entered the state monopoly for the trade of alcohol. This resulted in a quarter of all incomes of the Imperial treasury.
In 1896 Witte carried out successful negotiations with a Chinese representative, gaining the consent of China for the construction of the Chinese-East Railway, which would expedite the building of a railway to Vladivostok. The success of the negotiations was promoted by a bribe to the Chinese representative.
Germany was, in his opinion, the neighbour whose aggressive tendencies had to be specially resisted.
He was therefore not at all persona grata in Berlin, but the German imperial authorities learned by experience that he was an opponent to be respected, who understood thoroughly the interests of his country, and was quite capable of adopting if necessary a vigorous policy of reprisals. During his ten years' 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 personal characteristics, a host of enemies.
He was transferred, therefore, in 1903 from the influential post of finance minister to the ornamental position of president of the committee of ministers. The object was to deprive him of any real political influence, but circumstances brought about a different result. The disasters of the war with Japan, and the rising 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 body over which M. Witte presided.
In 1904 the Russian Japanese war broke out. What started as a “small and victorious war” turned into a disaster for the Empire and its economical and political expansion in the Far East. A first revolution then inflamed the country in 1905. Under these complicated circumstances Tsar Nicholas II was forced to appoint Sergei Witte as an ambassador to the peace talks with Japan in Portsmouth, US. The ex-finance minister proved to be a talented diplomat.
He managed to end the hopelessly lost war with minimum losses, having achieved for Russia “almost a decent peace treaty. " He was honored with a count title for it. This peace negotiation brought him back to top politics.
Naturally the influence of a strong man made itself felt, and the president became virtually prime minister; but, before he had advanced far in this legislative work, he was suddenly transformed into a diplomatist and sent to Portsmouth, N. H. , U. S. A. , in August 1905, to negotiate terms of peace with the Japanese delegates. In these negotiations he showed great energy and decision, and contributed largely to bringing about the peace.
Due to the revolution Count Witte insisted on the reform of the political system of the country. After a long period of hesitation the Tsar agreed to a reform of the Ministerial Council. The document was published and became known as the Manifesto of the 17th of October.
Witte pointed out the necessity of immediate reforms, underlining that natural development would inevitably lead Russia to a constitutional Monarchy. The Tsar agreed with these arguments and suggested preparing the corresponding manifesto. The monarchical power was limited to elective representative institution. For the first time in many centuries the population received political freedoms. Literally the day after the manifesto was released there was a question as to whether it was possible to consider it as the constitution. Though it wasn’t a constitution, it was defiantly a precedent.
Witte had been put in charge of the Council of Ministers in the most difficult period of the first Russian revolution. His political career reached its absolute peak.
His actions as head of the office cooled the country and ended the revolution. He started the major vital reforms declared in the Manifesto. But due to his disagreements with the Emperor he was forced to resign at the end of April 1906. But Witte was fully confident that he had resolved the main problem - providing political stability to the regime. His resignation practically turned out to be his career’s end. But Witte did not depart from political activity, remaining a member of the State Council.
When WWI began Witte, foretelling that it would be the end for the monarchy, declared his readiness for a peace making mission and negotiations with Germany. But he became mortally ill at that moment.
On his return to Si Petersburg he had to deal, as president of the first ministry under the new constitutional regime, with a very difficult political situation (sec Russia: History); he was no longer able to obtain support, and early in 1906 he retired into private life.
Count Sergei Witte died on 28 February 1915 at the age of 64. His political legacy remained controversial for a long time, but he was undoubtedly one of the key figures in the political arena at the end of 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century.
Witte did not take any interest in the political life of the country. But the situation changed dramatically when Emperor Alexander II the Liberator was killed on 1 March 1881. Witte was deeply concerned by the tragedy. He suggested fighting terrorists with their methods, killing them the way they killed others. He became a member of the newly established Holy Drygina (Brigade) – a secret community fighting terrorists. But he wasn’t successful in his mission to fight terrorists abroad. Later Witte remembered this moment in his biography with embarrassment.
Views
As a member of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, he was a devoted adherer of the absolute monarchy. Naturally of a combative temperament, and endowed with a persevering tenacity rare among his countrymen, he struggled for what he considered the liberation of his country from the economic bondage of foreign nations.
Witte knew human weaknesses well and impudently bribed the people necessary to him. As the Minister of Finance he had the broadest possibilities for the distribution of monetary grants, granting of privileges, concessions, appointments to lucrative posts and he didn’t hesitate to use them. Also he was one of the first to understand the force of the printed word and used newspapers for carrying out his plans. Russian and foreign journalists worked for him. Under his command brochures and solid works were published. The press conducted campaigns to discredit opponents and advance Witte’s plans.
Quotations:
Sergei Witte always outlined his connection to the Dolgoruki family with great pleasure and disliked mentioning his father’s foreign origins:
“Everybody in my family was deeply devoted to the monarchy and I inherited this feature of character, ” Witte used to say.
“I have always opposed these tendencies. Due to my education I remained devoted to the monarchy. Besides that I was a religious person, ” Witte said.
Membership
He was a member of the Holy Drygina (Brigade) – a secret community fighting terrorists.
Personality
Witte was as a man with a wide range of vision and outstanding moral qualities.
Quotes from others about the person
He has been described as "the great reforming finance minister of the 1890s", one of Nicholas's most enlightened ministers', and the architect of Russia's new parliamentary order in 1905.
Connections
He married Matilda Lisanevich in 1892. The year before Witte forced his future wife to divorce her husband. For this divorce Witte paid a considerable compensation and even threatened Matilda’s husband with administrative measures. In view of Witte’s devoted love to the woman the marriage brought him familial happiness.