HIS 241-242
Witte Paragraph Assignment

Looking closely at this map, you can see a small problem with the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway; a sizable portion of it runs through non-Russian territory.  Not sure how Russia ever thought that it was going to get away with that, and it didn't (war with Japan soon followed).

Check the following websites with information about Sergei Witte:

• The Fight for Russian Industry (1912)
• Sergei Witte on the Economic Challenge to Russia
• Charles Conant, Russia as a World Power, from The North American Review, 168 (February 1899).
• Read a contemporary explanation of Russia's lack of any substantial industry
• Some interesting comments by contemporaries about Witte.
• Excerpts from his memoirs focusing on tariffs and the imperial court (There is also a short biography on the latter website.).
• There are numerous online encyclopedia entries for Witte, and there is a good essay, From Vision to Reality, dealing with Witte's program of railway construction in Russia.