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99-613: Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1899 as an engineering school in Russia. The main person promoting the creation of this university was the Finance Minister Count Sergei Witte . Witte viewed establishing an engineering school loosely modeled by the French École Polytechnique as an important step towards the industrialization of Russia. The first director of the institute became Prince Andrey Gagarin. Unlike

198-513: A Utopia, the Utopia of the electricians. He is throwing all his weight into a scheme for the development of great power stations in Russia to serve whole provinces with light, with transport, and industrial power. Two experimental districts he said had already been electrified. Can one imagine a more courageous project in a vast flat land of forests and illiterate peasants, with no water power, with no technical skill available, and with trade and industry at

297-551: A condemnation of the Home Office. In a political conflict on land reform, Vyacheslav von Plehve accused him of being part of a Jewish- Masonic conspiracy. According to Vasily Gurko , Witte had dominated the irresolute tsar, and his opponents decided that was the moment to get rid of him. Witte was appointed on 16 August 1903 ( O.S. ) as chairman of the Committee of Ministers , a position he held until October 1905. While officially

396-623: A crusade against the evils of drunkenness, Witte established a state monopoly on alcohol, which became a major source of revenue for the Russian government. In 1896, he concluded the Li–Lobanov Treaty with Li Hongzhang of the Qing dynasty . One of the rights secured for Russia was the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway across northeast China , which greatly shortened the route of

495-421: A delegation of intellectuals led by Maxim Gorky , who begged them to negotiate with demonstrators. After the government's postings of warnings of 'resolute measures' against street gatherings led by Father Gapon , they worried about violent confrontation, which did take place. They were unsuccessful as the government had believed they could control Fr. Gapon. Leaving his visiting cards with Witte and Mirsky, Gorky

594-458: A few months Witte fell into disgrace as a reformer because of continuing court opposition to these changes. He resigned before the First Duma assembled on 10 May [ O.S. 27 April] 1906. Witte was fully confident that he had resolved the main problem: providing political stability to the regime, but according to him, the " peasant problem" would further determine the character of

693-474: A major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. Lenin's stated goal for it was "...the organization of industry on the basis of modern, advanced technology, on electrification which will provide a link between town and country, will put an end to the division between town and country, will make it possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside and to overcome, even in

792-486: A nationally uniform country and not a heterogeneous Empire. To achieve that goal there is but one way, namely to give up our border provinces, for these will never put up with the policy of ruthless Russification . But that measure our ruler will, of course, never consider. On 10 November, Russian Poland was placed under martial law . Witte's position was not well established. The Liberals remained obdurate and refused to be cajoled. The All-Russian Peasant Union asked

891-925: A part of the planning team for the GOELRO plan . Professor of the Institute, A. V. Wulf was the chairman of the group working on the electrification of the Northern Region of RSFSR . The Institute developed projects of the Volkhov hydroelectric dam on the Volkhov River and the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station on the Dnieper River . In autumn 1920, due to the cold weather and the absence of heating some lectures were only attended by one or two students. At that difficult time Nikolay Semyonov and Pyotr Kapitsa discovered

990-411: A promotion, the post had no real power. Witte's removal from the influential post of Minister of Finance was engineered under the pressure of the landed gentry and his political enemies within the government and at the court. But historians Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Robert K. Massie say that Witte's opposition to Russian designs on Korea resulted in his resigning from the government in 1903. Witte

1089-467: A strongly worded prohibition of any further agitation in favor of a constitution. By spring a new political system was beginning to form in Russia. A petition campaign was conducted seeking a wide variety of proposed changes, such as ending the war with Japan, which lasted from February to July 1905. In June mutiny broke out on the Russian battleship Potemkin . The tsar called upon Witte to negotiate an end to

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1188-543: A way to measure the magnetic field of an atomic nucleus . Later the experimental setup was improved by Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach and became known as Stern–Gerlach experiment . In another laboratory another student of the Institute, Léon Theremin worked on the development of electronic musical instruments . His first demonstration of the theremin was held in Polytechnic Institute in November 1920. After

1287-416: A year to the government (exact amount unknown because of accounting defects). In 1892 Witte became acquainted with Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich in a theater. Witte began to seek her favour, urging her to divorce her gambling husband and marry him. The marriage was a scandal not only because Matilda was a divorcee but also because she was a converted Jew. That cost Witte many of his connections with

1386-415: Is considered one of the greatest errors Witte made during his administration. According to Harold Williams: "That government was almost paralyzed from the beginning. Witte acted immediately by urging the release of political prisoners and the lifting of censorship laws." Alexander Guchkov and Dmitry Shipov refused to work with the reactionary Durnovo and to support the government. On 26 October (O.S.),

1485-747: Is named in his honour (a private institution accredited by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Russia) in 1997) GOELRO plan GOELRO (Russian: ГОЭЛРО ) was the first of Soviet Russia 's plans for national economic recovery and development. It became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans drafted by Gosplan . GOELRO is the transliteration of the Russian abbreviation for "State Commission for Electrification of Russia" ( Russian : Государственная комиссия по электрификации России , romanized :  Gosudarstvennaya komissiya po elektrifikatsii Rossii ). The Commission and Plan were initiated and supervised by Vladimir Lenin . Lenin's belief in

1584-614: The 1905 Russian Revolution , Witte framed the 17th the October Manifesto and the accompanying government communication to establish constitutional government . However, he was not convinced it would solve Russia's problems with the Tsarist autocracy . On 20 October 1905 Witte was appointed as the first chairman of the Council of Ministers (effectively prime minister). Assisted by his Council, he designed Russia's first constitution . But within

1683-516: The Caucasus , and his grandmother was Princess Helene Dolgoruki . Sergei had two brothers (Alexander and Boris) and two sisters (Olga and Sophia). Helena Blavatsky , noted as a mystic, was their first cousin. Witte studied at a Tiflis gymnasium, but he took more interest in music, fencing and riding than in academics. He finished Gymnasium I in Kishinev and began studying Physico-Mathematical Sciences at

1782-514: The Governor of Saint Petersburg , Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov , who wielded considerable influence at court. Only when Nicholas II's cousin Grand Duke Nicholas threatened to shoot himself if he did not agree to Witte's demands, following the tsar's request for him to accept appointment as dictator, would the tsar agree. He was embarrassed to have been forced by a former "railway clerk", a man who

1881-768: The Leningrad Industrial Institute . In November 1940, the Institute almost got its original name back. Now it was named the Kalinin Politechnical Institute (Leningradskij Politekhnicheskij Institut imeni Kalinina) after the President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Mikhail Kalinin . With the onset of the eastern front of World War II , 3500 students went to the army and hundreds were involved in constructing fortifications to

1980-642: The Li–Lobanov Treaty ), which led in 1898 to Russian occupation and administration (by its own personnel and police) of the entire Liaodong Peninsula. Russia also fortified the ice-free Port Arthur and completed the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway , which was to cross northern Manchuria from west to east and link Siberia with Vladivostok. In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and the Chinese attacked all foreigners. A large coalition of

2079-570: The Maria Fyodorovna Hospital. Despite the war the institute did not stop its work. In 1916 Abram Ioffe opened his Physics Seminar at the Polytechnic Institute. The seminar prepared three Nobel Prize -winners and many other prominent Russian physicists. Eventually, this seminar became the core of the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute . On June 5, 1918 the institute was renamed to First Polytechnic Institute (with

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2178-504: The Ministry of Education to Evgenii Troubetzkoy . Pavel Milyukov and Prince Georgy Lvov were also offered ministerial posts. None of those liberals agreed to join the government, though. Witte had to form his cabinet from 'tsarist bureaucrats and appointees lacking public confidence'. The Kadets doubted that Witte could deliver on the promises made by the tsar in October, knowing the tsar's staunch opposition to reform. Witte argued that

2277-581: The Novorossiysk University in Odessa in 1866 and graduated at the top of his class in 1870. After completing his studies he devoted some time to journalism in close relations with the Slavophiles and Mikhail Katkov . Witte had initially planned to pursue a career in academia with the intention of becoming a professor in theoretical mathematics. His relatives took a dim view of that career path, as it

2376-870: The Okhrana , the tsarist secret police, had been involved. During the winter season, Witte lived in Biarritz and started writing his Memoirs, but he returned to St Petersburg in 1908. During the July Crisis in 1914, Grigori Rasputin , and Witte desperately urged the Tsar to avoid the conflict and warned that Europe faced calamity if Russia became involved. The advice went unheeded. French Ambassador Maurice Paléologue complained to Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Sazonov . Witte died in February 1915 at his home in St. Petersburg; his quick death

2475-572: The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the established state church. Witte argued that ending discrimination against religious rivals of the Orthodox Church 'would not harm the church, provided it embraced the reforms that would revive its religious life'. Although the Church's 'senior hierarchs' may for some time have played with the thought of self-government, Witte's demand that it would come at

2574-750: The Russo-Japanese War . He was sent to the United States for the talks, as the Russian emperor's plenipotentiary titled "his Secretary of State and President of the Committee of Ministers of the Emperor of Russia," along with Baron Roman Rosen , Master of the Imperial Court of Russia. The peace talks were held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire . Witte is credited with negotiating brilliantly on Russia's behalf during

2673-537: The Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) , he had risen to a position in which he controlled all the traffic passing to the front along the lines of the Odessa Railways . As finance minister from 1892- 1903, Witte presided over extensive industrialization and achieved government monopoly control over an expanded system of railroad lines. Following months of civil unrest and outbreaks of violence in what became known as

2772-485: The Second Polytechnic Institute being the former Women's Polytechnic Institute ). In November 1918 Sovnarkom abolished all forms of scientific decrees, licenses and certifications. There remained only two positions for the faculty: Professor (that required three years of engineering experience) and instructor (with no formal requirements at all). Departments were renamed Faculties (факультеты), and

2871-453: The Treaty of Portsmouth discussions. Russia lost little in the final settlement. But the loss of the war with Japan is believed to have marked the beginning of the end of Imperial Russia. For his efforts, he was made a Count ( Russian : граф , romanized :  graf ). After that diplomatic success, Witte wrote to the tsar stressing the urgent need for political reforms at home. He

2970-538: The 1890s. His goal was peaceful expansion of trade with Japan and China . Japan, with its greatly expanded and modernized military, easily defeated the antiquated Chinese forces in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Russia had to confront collaborating with Japan with which relations had been fairly good for some years or acting as protector of China against Japan. Witte chose the second policy, and in 1894, Russia, Germany and France forced Japan to soften

3069-485: The 1914 level of 6,000. By 1928 there were 8,000 students. In 1930, Sovnarkom decided to create a network of highly specialized Engineering schools. On June 30 Polytechnic Institute was closed and a number of independent institutes were created instead: Soon another Institute of Military Mechanics forked from the Machine Building Institute. In April 1934, most of these institutes were merged back into

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3168-709: The Council of Ministers. The position and influence of General Trepov, Grand Duke Nicholas, the Black Hundreds , and overwhelming victories by the Kadets in the 1906 Russian legislative election , forced Witte on 14th to resign, which was announced 22 April 1906 (O.S.). Witte confessed to Alexander Polovtsov in April 1906 that the success of the repressions in the wake of the Moscow uprising in 1905 had resulted in his losing all influence over

3267-478: The Duma's activity. He is widely considered to have been one of the key figures in Russian politics at the end of 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. Orlando Figes has described Witte as the 'great reforming finance minister of the 1890s', 'one of Nicholas's most enlightened ministers', and as the architect of Russia's new parliamentary order in 1905. Witte's father, Julius Christoph Heinrich Georg Witte,

3366-534: The French École Polytechnique, the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute was always considered to be a civilian establishment. In tsarist Russia it was subordinated to the Ministry of Finance; its students and faculty wore the uniform of the ministry. The main campus was built on the rural lands beyond the dacha settlement Lesnoye . The location was intended to provide some separation between

3465-600: The Imperial Council I made it clear that the Procurator of the Most Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev , could not remain in office, for he definitely represented the past." He was replaced by Prince Alexey D. Obolensky. Trepov and Alexander Bulygin were dismissed and, after many discussions, Pyotr Nikolayevich Durnovo was appointed as Minister of Interior on 1 January 1906; his appointment

3564-619: The Plan, the territory of the Russian SFSR was divided into eight regions, with distinct development strategies due to the specific features of each region: Southern Region, Central Industrial region, Northern Region, Ural Region, Volga Region, Turkestan Region, Caucasus Region and Western Siberia Region. The Plan included the construction of a network of 30 regional power plants , including ten large hydroelectric power plants , and numerous electric-powered large industrial enterprises. It

3663-941: The Polytechnic University includes 6 associated institutes outside Saint Petersburg in the cities of Pskov , Cheboksary , Cherepovets , Sosnovy Bor , Smolensk and Anadyr . The University has graduated over 150,000 students. Notable alumni and faculty include: The university has undergone several name changes throughout its existence. Detailed list of name changes is as following: 60°00′26.41″N 30°22′22.66″E  /  60.0073361°N 30.3729611°E  / 60.0073361; 30.3729611 Sergei Witte Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte ( Russian : Сергей Юльевич Витте , romanized :  Sergey Yulyevich Vitte , IPA: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈjʉlʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈvʲitːɛ] ; 29 June [ O.S. 17 June] 1849  – 13 March [ O.S. 28 February] 1915), also known as Sergius Witte ,

3762-522: The Regionalisation Commission of Gosplan which divided the Soviet Union into thirteen European and eight Asiatic economic regions, using rational economic planning rather than "the vestiges of lost sovereign rights". The term "Ilyich's lamp" (лампочка Ильича) for an electric bulb , a reference to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, is a reminder of the Plan period. In 1963, Che Guevara cited

3861-453: The Russian people to refuse to make redemption payments to the government and withdraw their deposits from banks that might be subject to government action. He promised an eight-hour working day and tried to secure vital loans from France to keep the government from bankruptcy. Witte sent his envoy to the Rothschild bank ; they responded that "they would willingly render full assistance to

3960-653: The Trans-Siberian Railway to its projected eastern terminus at Vladivostok . However, following the Triple Intervention , Witte strongly opposed the Russian occupation of Liaodong Peninsula and the construction of the naval base at Port Arthur in the Russia–Qing Convention of 1898 . In 1896, Witte undertook a major currency reform to place the Russian ruble on the gold standard . That resulted in increased investment activity and an increase in

4059-519: The Tsarist regime could be saved from a revolution only by the transformation of Russia to a 'modern industrial society', in which 'personal and public initiatives' were encouraged by a rechtsstaat who guaranteed civil liberties. In the two weeks following the October Manifesto , several pogroms took place against Jews, especially in St. Petersburg and Odessa . Witte ordered an official investigation, where it

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4158-638: The White Russians, and 35 per cent, of the population is non-Russian. It is impossible to rule such a country and ignore the national aspirations of its varied non-Russian national groups, which largely make up the population of the Great Empire. The policy of converting all Russian subjects into "true Russians" is not the ideal which will weld all the heterogeneous elements of the Empire into one body politic. It might be better for us Russians, I concede, if Russia were

4257-405: The aftermath of the Kishinev pogrom in 1903, Witte had said that if Jews 'comprise about fifty percent of the membership in the revolutionary parties', it was 'the fault of our government. The Jews are too oppressed'. Milyukov once confronted Witte to ask why he would not commit himself to a constitution. Witte replied that he could not 'because the Tsar does not wish it'. Witte was worried that

4356-475: The attention of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich , who commuted his prison sentence to two weeks. Witte had devised a novel system of double-shift operations in his efforts to overcome delays on the railways. In 1879, Witte accepted a post in St. Petersburg , where he would meet his future wife. He moved to Kiev the following year. In 1883, he published a paper on "Principles of Railway Tariffs for Cargo Transportation" in which he also discussed social issues and

4455-609: The authorities ignored the attacks. On 8 November, the sailors in Kronstadt mutinied. The same month, the border provinces were clearly taking advantage of the weakening of Central Russia to show their teeth. Witte later wrote in his Memoirs about the empire's ethnic minorities: The dominating element of the Empire, the Russians, fall into three distinct ethnic branches: the Great, the Little, and

4554-495: The autocracy not from the outside like revolutionaries but from the inside. Witte failed to retain the confidence of the emperor but continued in Russian politics as a member of the State Council but he was never again appointed to an administrative role in the government. He was ostracized by the Russian establishment. In January 1907 a bomb was found planted in his home. The investigator Pavel Alexandrovich Alexandrov proved that

4653-478: The beginning 1919 there were only around 500 students at the University. In August 1919 the new semester started but on August 24 all the students were mobilized to fight Yudenich army. The Institute itself was encircled by stanchions and barbed wire and transformed into a Red Army fortification. After December 1919 the Institute was completely empty. The Institute started working again in April 1920 when it became

4752-531: The campus and the capital city of Saint Petersburg. The institute was opened to students on October 1, 1902. Originally there were four departments: Economics, Shipbuilding, Electro-mechanics and Metallurgy. Its work was interrupted by the Russian Revolution of 1905 . One student, M. Savinkov, was killed during the Bloody Sunday events of January 22 [ O.S. January 9] 1905. The reaction of

4851-467: The censorship of magazines and newspaper was released. On 16 December Trotsky and the rest of the executive committee of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested. The Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Kutler resigned in February 1906; Witte refused to appoint Alexander Krivoshein . In the next few weeks, changes and additions to the Russian Constitution of 1906 were made, so that the emperor

4950-449: The central importance of electrification to the achievement of communism is represented by his statement: Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country. The commission was established by the Presidium of the VSNKh on February 21, 1920, in accordance with February 3, 1920, VTsIK resolution on the electrification plan development. The director of the commission

5049-438: The cost of religious toleration 'guaranteed to drive them back into the arms of reaction'. Witte had made that demand (self-government in exchange for religious toleration) in the hope of 'wooing' the important commercial groups of the ethnic minorities of Jewish and Old Believer communities. According to Dmitry Filosofov , Witte was the only talented person in the government, but he brought many troubles to Russia. He destroyed

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5148-403: The court was only using him, as had emerged in talks with members of the Kadet Party. After his skillful diplomacy Witte was appointed as Chairman of the new Council of Ministers , the equivalent of Prime Minister, and formed Sergei Witte's Cabinet , not belonging to any party, as there were none. No longer was the tsar the head of the government. "Immediately upon my nomination as President of

5247-403: The data to justify those reforms. By 1900 the growth in the manufacturing industry had been four times faster than in the preceding five-year period and six times faster than in the decade before that. External trade in industrial goods was equal to that of Belgium . In 1904, the Union of Liberation was formed, which demanded economic and political reform. Witte controlled East Asian policy in

5346-543: The director became rector. A Soviet (Council) of 11 professors and 15 students was given the main authority in the Institute. One of these 15 students in the Soviet was Pyotr Kapitsa , a future Nobel-prize winner in physics. The Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, headed at that time by Abram Ioffe, focused on atomic and the solid state physics. In winter of 1918/1919 there were food shortages and no heating on campus due to fuel shortages ; many students and faculty members died of starvation and freezing temperatures. In

5445-409: The economic theories of Friedrich List and justified the need for a strong domestic industry, to be protected from foreign competition by customs barriers . A new customs law for Russia was passed in 1891, spurring an increase in industrialization by the turn of the 20th century. While Witte worked to achieve industrialization, he also fought for practical education. He said that railways operated by

5544-420: The end of that period, he was appointed as chief of the traffic office. After a wreck on the Odessa Railways in late 1875 cost many lives, Witte was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison. However, while he was still contesting the case in court, Witte directed the Odessa Railways and achieved extraordinary efforts towards the transport of troops and war materials in the Russo-Turkish War and attracted

5643-409: The end of the Russian Civil War many students returned to the Institute. By the spring of 1922 there were 2800 students on the campus. In 1926, Sovnarkom re-established the title Engineer and allowed "children of working intelligentsia" to enter the tertiary schools; prior to this only workers and children of workers were allowed. The number of students enrolled at the Polytechnic Institute reached

5742-412: The establishment of new "commercial" schools. He was known for appointing subordinates by their academic credentials or merit, rather than because of patronage political connections. In 1894, he concluded a 10-year commercial treaty with the German Empire on favorable terms for Russia. When Alexander III died, he told his son on his deathbed to listen well to Witte, his most capable minister. In 1895, on

5841-473: The inflow of foreign capital. Witte also enacted a law in 1897 limiting working hours in enterprises, and in 1898 reformed commercial and industrial taxes. In 1899 the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute was founded on his initiative. In summer 1898, he addressed a memorandum to the Tsar calling for an agricultural conference on the reform of the peasant community. This resulted in three years of talks about laws to abolish collective responsibility and facilitate

5940-414: The institute took its current name Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University . During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the University issued a public statement strongly supporting Russian actions, calling the assault a "denazification operation" and accusing Ukrainian leadership of endangering the security and existence of Russia and "all of humanity". According to Andrey Rudskoy, head of

6039-427: The institute was named Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute after Peter I of Russia . In 1914 the number of students reached 6,000. With the onset of World War I many students found themselves in the Army and soon the number of students decreased to 3,000. Some students, like future Soviet military commander Leonid Govorov studied at the institute for one month. Part of the institute's buildings were transferred into

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6138-405: The last gasp? Projects for such an electrification are in process of development in Holland and they have been discussed in England, and in those densely-populated and industrially highly-developed centres one can imagine them as successful, economical, and altogether beneficial. But their application to Russia is an altogether greater strain upon the constructive imagination. I cannot see anything of

6237-400: The leader of the demonstration to leave the country. Witte recommended that the government issue a manifesto related to the people's demands. Schemes of reform would be elaborated by Ivan Goremykin and a committee consisting of elected representatives of the zemstva and municipal councils under the presidency of Witte. On 3 March the tsar condemned the revolutionaries. The government issued

6336-417: The loan, but that they would not be in a position to do so until the Russian Government had enacted legal measures tending to improve the conditions of the Jews in Russia. As I deemed it beneath our dignity to connect the solution of our Jewish question with the loan, I decided to give up my intention of securing the participation of the Rothschilds." On 24 November by Imperial decree provisional regulations on

6435-413: The major Western powers and Japan sent armed forces to relieve their diplomatic missions in Peking . The Russian government used that as an opportunity to bring a substantial army into Manchuria . As a consequence, by 1900 Manchuria was a fully-incorporated outpost of the Russian Empire, and Japan prepared to fight Russia. Witte, in a memorandum, tried to turn the reports of the zemstvo presidents into

6534-421: The most remote corners of land, backwardness, ignorance, poverty, disease, and barbarism." In 1920, British writer Herbert George Wells visited Soviet Russia and met with Vladimir Lenin. Wells believed that it was impossible to realise the Russian revolutionary’s plan, as he wrote in his book Russia in the Shadows : For Lenin, who like a good orthodox Marxist denounces all "Utopians," has succumbed at last to

6633-501: The peace terms that it had imposed on China. Japan was forced to cede the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur back to China (both territories were located in south-western Manchuria, a Chinese province). The new Russian role angered Tokyo, which decided Russia was the main enemy in its quest to control Manchuria , Korea and China. Witte underestimated Japan's growing economic and military power and exaggerated Russia's military prowess. Russia concluded an alliance with China (in 1896 by

6732-432: The political programme of the Liberation Movement , were an attempt to isolate the political Left by pacifying the liberals. Witte emphasised that repression would be only a temporary solution to the problem and a risky one because he believed that the armed forces, whose loyalty was now in question, could collapse if they were to be used against the masses. Most of the military advisers to the tsar agreed with Witte, as did

6831-450: The resettlement of farmers onto lands on the outskirts of the empire. Many of his ideas were later adopted by Pyotr Stolypin . In 1902 Witte's supporter, Dmitry Sipyagin , the Minister of Home Affairs, was assassinated. In an attempt to keep up the modernization of the Russian economy, Witte called and oversaw the Special Conference on the Needs of the Rural Industry. The conference was to provide recommendations for future reforms and compile

6930-421: The role of the monarchy. Witte gained popularity in the government. In 1886, he was appointed manager of the privately-held Southwestern Railways , based in Kiev, and was noted for increasing its efficiency and profitability. Around then, he met Tsar Alexander III , but he conflicted with the tsar's aides by warning of the danger in their practice of using two powerful freight locomotives to achieve high speeds for

7029-532: The royal train. His warnings were proven in the October 1888 Borki train disaster , Witte was then appointed as Director of State Railways. Witte worked in railroad management for 20 years after he had begun as a ticket clerk. He caught the attention of Finance Minister Ivan Vyshnegradsky , who appointed him as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry, where he served from 1889 to 1891. During that period, he oversaw an ambitious program of railway construction. Until then, less than one fourth of

7128-573: The safest route for the Road of Life - the transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga , which provided the only access to the besieged city. Some faculties and students were evacuated to Tashkent in January 1943 where they were able to hold classes. In November 1943 they restarted classes in Leningrad as well. In 1943 in Leningrad there were 250 students and 90 teachers at the Institute. The Polytechnic Institute

7227-404: The small railway systems were under direct state control, but Witte set about expanding the rail lines and getting the railway service under control as a state monopoly. Witte also obtained the right to assign employees based on their performance or merit, rather than for patronage for political or familial connections. In 1889, he published a paper, "National Savings and Friedrich List", which cited

7326-463: The sort happening in this dark crystal of Russia, but this little man at the Kremlin can; he sees the decaying railways replaced by a new electric transport, sees new roadways spreading throughout the land, sees a new and happier Communist industrialism arising again. While I talked to him he almost persuaded me to share his vision. The GOELRO Plan was implemented during a 10- to 15-year period. According to

7425-449: The state would be useless "unless it does its utmost for spreading technical education..." Tsar Alexander III appointed Witte in 1892 as acting Minister of Ways and Communications. That gave him both control of the railroads in Russia and the authority to impose a reform on the tariffs charged. "Russian railroads gradually became perhaps the most economically operated railroads of the world". Profits were high: over 100 million gold rubles

7524-606: The student body was so strong that classes only resumed in September 1906, almost two years later. Among the polytechnic students who participated in the Revolutionary events were the future Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze and the future writer Yevgeny Zamyatin . Among the deputies of the First Duma were four Polytechnic Institute's faculties: N.A. Gredeskul (Н.А. Гредескул), N.I. Kareev (Н.И. Кареев), A.S. Lomshakov (А.С. Ломшаков) and L.N. Yasnopolsky (Л.Н. Яснопольский). In 1910

7623-957: The title of Count to be given to his grandson, L. K. Naryshkin (1905-1963). Witte's reputation was burnished in the West after his secret memoirs were published in translation in 1921. They had been completed in 1912 and kept in a bank in Bayonne , France. He had left orders that they could not be published during the lifetimes of him and his contemporaries. The ambassador in France, Vasily Maklakov , received them from his widow. The original manuscript of his memoirs are now held in Columbia University Library's Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture. The Sergei Witte University of Moscow, with campuses in Ryazan, Krasnodar and Nizhny Novgorod

7722-555: The tsar appointed Trepov as Master of the Palace without consulting Witte, and had daily contact with the emperor; his influence at court was paramount. "In addition mass violence broke out in the days following the issuance of the October Manifesto. The major source of the unrest was unrelated to the October Manifesto. It took the form of attacks by gangs in the cities on the Jews. In general,

7821-462: The tsar with two choices: either appoint a military dictator, or agree to broad and major reforms. In a memorandum arguing for a manifesto, Witte outlined the reforms needed to appease the masses. He argued for the following reforms: creation of a legislative parliament ( Imperial Duma ) elected via a democratic franchise; granting of civil liberties; establishing a cabinet government and a 'constitutional order'. Those demands, which basically comprised

7920-453: The tsar. Despite Witte's protests, Durnovo was allowed to 'carry out a brutal and excessive, and often totally unjustified, series of repressive measures.' In 1906, Father Gapon returned to Russia from exile and supported Witte's government. On 30 April 1905 Witte proposed the Law of Religious Toleration, followed by the edict of 30 October 1906 giving legal status to schismatics and sectarians of

8019-465: The university itself. The main building was transformed into a hospital and another building was used as a tank school. Institute shops filled military contracts. On September 8, 1941 the Siege of Leningrad began. Research on the strength of ice by employees S. S. Golushkevich, P. P. Kobeko, N. M. Reyman and A. R. Shulman proved the feasibility of transporting vital materials across ice. The researchers selected

8118-578: The university, while scientific cooperation with Western universities had been developed over decades, after the invasion it was almost completely destroyed, with foreign universities halting their ties with the university. More than 30,000 students are enrolled in the university. International students countries of origin include US, UK, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden and most of the CIS state members. Proportion of student body enrolled in each department, where enrollment exceeds 10%: The campus consists of Today

8217-580: The upper nobility, but the tsar protected him. In August 1892, Witte was appointed to the post of Minister of Finance, which he held for the next eleven years, and he nearly doubled the revenues of the empire. (Until 1905 matters pertaining to industry and commerce were within the province of the Ministry of Finance.) During his tenure, he greatly accelerated the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway . He also emphasized creation of an educational system to train personnel for industry, in particular,

8316-405: The working classes from suffrage . The proposal was greeted by numerous protests and strikes across the country, which became known as the Russian Revolution of 1905 . Witte described the regime's usual "incompetence and obstinacy" in response to the crisis of 1904–1905 as a "mixture of cowardice, blindness and stupidity". On 8 January 1905, Witte and Sviatopolk-Mirsky had been approached by

8415-578: Was Gleb Krzhizhanovsky . About 200 scientists and engineers participated, including Genrikh Graftio , Ivan Alexandrov , Mikhail Shatelen and others. By the end of 1920 the Commission devised the " Russian SFSR Electrification Plan" ( «План электрификации Р.С.Ф.С.Р» ), that was approved subsequently by the 8th All-Russian Congress of Soviets on December 22, 1920, and accepted by the Sovnarkom (Soviet government) on December 21, 1921. The Plan represented

8514-495: Was a Russian statesman who served as the first prime minister of the Russian Empire , replacing the emperor as head of government. Neither liberal nor conservative, he attracted foreign capital to boost Russia's industrialization . Witte's strategy was to avoid the danger of wars. Witte served under the final two emperors of Russia , Alexander III ( r.  1881–1894 ) and Nicholas II ( r.  1894–1917 ). During

8613-580: Was a bureaucrat and "businessman," to relinquish his autocratic rule. Witte later said that the tsar's court were ready to use the Manifesto as a temporary concession, and later return to autocracy "when the revolutionary tide subsided". In October Witte was charged with the task of assembling the nation's first cabinet government, and he offered the liberals several portfolios: Ministry of Agriculture to Ivan Shipov ; Ministry of Trade and Industry to Alexander Guchkov ; Ministry of Justice to Anatoly Koni and

8712-490: Was arrested, along with the other members of the deputations. In later 1905 Witte was approached by the tsar's advisers, in an effort to save the country from complete collapse, and on 9 October 1905, he went to the Winter Palace for a meeting. Here he told the tsar 'with brutal frankness' that the country was on the verge of a catastrophic revolution, which he said 'would sweep away a thousand years of history'. He presented

8811-471: Was attributed to meningitis or a brain tumor . His third-class funeral was held at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra . On the black granite slab, in addition to the usual dates of birth and death, another date was carved: 17 October, 1905, the date he presented the Manifesto. Witte had no children, but he had adopted his wife's by her first marriage. According to Edvard Radzinsky , Witte asked in vain for

8910-413: Was brought back into the governmental decision-making process to help deal with growing civil unrest. Confronted with increasing opposition and, after consulting with Witte and Prince Sviatopolk-Mirsky , the tsar issued a reform ukase on December 25, 1904 with vague promises. After the Bloody Sunday riots of 1905, Witte supplied 500 rubles, the equivalent of 250 dollars, to Father Gapon in order for

9009-494: Was confirmed as the dictator of foreign policies and the supreme commander of the army and navy . The ministers remained responsible solely to Nicholas II, not to the Duma. The "peasant question" or land reforms was a hot issue; the influence of the "Duma of Public Anger" had to be limited, according to Goremykin and Dmitri Trepov. The Bolsheviks boycotted the coming election. When Witte discovered that Nicholas never intended to honour those concessions, he resigned as Chairman of

9108-409: Was considered unsuitable for a noble or aristocrat at the time. He was instead persuaded by Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Machabelov , Minister of Ways and Communication, to pursue a career in the Russian railroads . At the direction of the count, Witte undertook six months of training in a variety of positions on the Odessa Railways to gain a practical understanding of Russian railways operations. At

9207-520: Was created. The department was modeled on the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute and headed by the director of the Ioffe Institute Zhores Ivanovich Alferov , recipient of the 2000 Nobel prize in physics. In September 1991 Leningrad returned its historical name Saint Petersburg and the Institute was renamed St. Petersburg State Technical University (the word "Technical" was changed to "Polytechnic" in 2002). Finally, in 2015,

9306-421: Was dissatisfied with proposals by Alexander Bulygin , the successor of Sviatopolk-Mirsky. Even figures like Mikhail Osipovich Menshikov and Vladimir Meshchersky agreed. A 6 August (O.S.) manifesto created a Duma as a consultative body only. Elections of its representatives would not be direct but be held in four stages, and qualifications for class and property would exclude much of the intelligentsia and all of

9405-475: Was from a Lutheran Baltic German family. He converted to Russian Orthodoxy upon his marriage with Yekaterina Fadeyeva. His father was made a member of the knighthood in Pskov but moved as a civil servant to Saratov and Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia ). Sergei was raised on the estate of his mother's parents. His grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of

9504-579: Was intended to increase the total national power output per year to 8.8 billion kWh , as compared to 1.9 billion kWh in Imperial Russia in 1913. Soviet propaganda declared the plan was basically fulfilled by 1931. While only three out of ten hydroelectric stations were built by 1930: the Volkhov , the Svir , and the Dnieper Hydroelectric Stations ; the goal of 8.8 billion kWh

9603-526: Was reached in 1931, and national power output continued to increase significantly. It reached 13.5 billion kWh by the end of the first five-year plan in 1932, 36 billion kWh by 1937, and 48 billion kWh by 1940. Leon Trotsky as president of the electrification commission and the Opposition bloc also put forward an electrification plan which involved the construction of the hydroelectric Dnieprostroi dam . Ivan Alexandrov later directed

9702-412: Was revealed that the police in the former city had organised, armed and gave vodka to the anti-Semitic crowds, and even participated in the attacks. Witte demanded the prosecution of the chief of police in St. Petersburg, who was involved in the printing of anti-Semitic pamphlets, but the tsar intervened and protected him. Witte believed that anti-Semitism was 'considered fashionable' among the elite. In

9801-450: Was the only school in the besieged city that had the authority to evaluate the Kandidat (Ph.D) and Doctor of Science dissertations. Before the end of the siege the Polytechnic Institute evaluated 19 dissertations, many related to military defense. In 1952, Radio-physics Department was created. In 1988, the new Physics-Technical (Fiziko-Tekhnichesky) Department (faculty) of the Institute

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