Review by Choice Review
Harcave's biography of Count Sergei Witte is clearly the current definitive work on Imperial Russia's most important statesman of the 19th century. The author fully integrates his previous research on Witte's memoirs into this publication. As a reflection on late Imperial Russia, Harcave (emer., SUNY Binghamton) carefully places Witte into a delicate and deteriorating world, where terrorists aspire to destroy the world Witte would protect. The biography details Witte's early rise in Russia's bureaucracy to the position of minister of finance as a result of his efforts to transform Russia's Southwestern Railroad. Described as a pragmatic, driven, Orthodox monarchist, Witte flirted with Slavophilism but gave in to a desire to adapt the ideas of Friedrich List to Russia's need for economic growth. Witte's greatest service to the monarchy, however, followed the disastrous Russo-Japanese War. His negotiating skills successfully extricated Russia and preserved the Romanov monarchy for another decade. Critical of the landed nobility for failing to recognize the need to modernize and industrialize Russia, Witte remained committed to serving the Romanovs. Overall, Harcave presents Witte as making a last desperate attempt to preserve a monarchy, government, and society seemingly doomed to collapse. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. A. Meier Dickinson State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
