The Memoirs of Count Witte [Hardcover]

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 .An account of the later years of Tsarism. Witte presents portraits of the statesmen around him, explains the problem of bringing the economy to a level commensurate with Russia's putative position as the greatest land power in the world and the effort to create a constitutional monarchy.Sergei Iu Witte, Sidney HarcaveVolume I: 1849-1903; 1_1: My Family; 1_2: General Fadeev and His Times; 1_3: Some Caucasian Memories; 1_4: My Education; 1_5: The Odessa Railroad, 18701879; 1_6: St. Petersburg, 18791880; 1_7: Kievan Years 18801889; 1_8: Kievan Years, 18801889; 1_9: Kiev in the 1880s; 1_10: Kiev in the 1880s; 1_11: Director of the Department of Railroad Affairs 18891891; 1_12: St. Petersburg, 18891891; 1_13: Minister of Ways and Communications, 18911892; 1_14: Family Matters; 1_15: Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshcherskii; 1_16: Fellow Ministers and Other High Officials, 18891894; 1_17: Minister of Finance; 1_18: Emperor Alexander III; 1_19: My Work as Minister of Finance under Emperor Alexander III; 1_20: The Imperial Court; 1_21: Last Days of Emperor Alexander III; 1_22: A New Reign Begins; 1_23: The New Emperor's First Personnel Changes, 18941895; 1_24: The Sino-Russtan Treaty of 1896; 1_25: The Khodynka Tragedy; 1_26: MayOctober 1896; 1_27: Some New Faces, Some New and Unfortunate Policies 18961898; 1_28: The Visiting Dignitaries, 1897; 1_29: Origins of the War with Japan, 18971900; 1_30: Foreign Affairs, 18981900; 1_31: A New Minister of Interior and Some Minor Developments, 18981900; 1_32: The Imperial Court; 1_33: On the Road to War and Revolution, 19011903; 1_34: My Departure frl#Ó