Did Sergei Witte's Policies Help Strengthen Russia Before 1914?
- Submitted by: Redodua
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- Category: History: Russian
- Date Submitted: 12/08/2010 07:35 AM
- Pages: 7
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“Witte’s policies helped to strengthen Russia in the years before 1914” Outline how far you agree with this statement.
Sergei Witte is a very influential person. He was the finance minister from 1892 to 1903 where he directed and oversees the modernization of Russia’s economy. His policies I think strengthen Russia in terms of Railways and economic growth. But weakened or undermined Russia due to lack of social reforms to match the economic growth and a slow growth in agricultural sector.
The policies of Sergei Witte strengthened Russia as he was able to modernize Russia’s economy and made Russia compete internationally. Firstly Sergei Witte believes that he can achieve this through large investment from the Russian imperial state and from foreign countries such as France. But the revenues of Russia at that time were low it is because only the poor people are paying the tax (peasants), and its industries are weak so it’s income from tax is low. To solve the problem about capital, he secured the money by securing large loan from French using their strategic relationships (French needs Russia to divert German force in case of an attack) and by raising taxes. Besides that he also put Russia into Gold Standard in 1897 to attract foreign investments. Gold standard attracts foreign investment as the currency becomes more stable as hyperinflation is impossible with gold standard. So it is seems save to invest in countries with Gold Standard. It was seen as successful as the foreign investments trebles in 10 years. Using this money he invested in the different industries in Russia such as mining and etc.
This results a great increase in industrial production from 1892 to 1903. The growth exceeds the growth of productions before 1892. For example for Steel it increased from 0.3 million tonnes in 1881 to 0.4 million tonnes in 1891(before Witte). But it increased from 0.4million tonnes in 1891 to 2.2 million tonnes in 1901 (during Witte’s time). Which was a huge increase,...
Sergei Witte is a very influential person. He was the finance minister from 1892 to 1903 where he directed and oversees the modernization of Russia’s economy. His policies I think strengthen Russia in terms of Railways and economic growth. But weakened or undermined Russia due to lack of social reforms to match the economic growth and a slow growth in agricultural sector.
The policies of Sergei Witte strengthened Russia as he was able to modernize Russia’s economy and made Russia compete internationally. Firstly Sergei Witte believes that he can achieve this through large investment from the Russian imperial state and from foreign countries such as France. But the revenues of Russia at that time were low it is because only the poor people are paying the tax (peasants), and its industries are weak so it’s income from tax is low. To solve the problem about capital, he secured the money by securing large loan from French using their strategic relationships (French needs Russia to divert German force in case of an attack) and by raising taxes. Besides that he also put Russia into Gold Standard in 1897 to attract foreign investments. Gold standard attracts foreign investment as the currency becomes more stable as hyperinflation is impossible with gold standard. So it is seems save to invest in countries with Gold Standard. It was seen as successful as the foreign investments trebles in 10 years. Using this money he invested in the different industries in Russia such as mining and etc.
This results a great increase in industrial production from 1892 to 1903. The growth exceeds the growth of productions before 1892. For example for Steel it increased from 0.3 million tonnes in 1881 to 0.4 million tonnes in 1891(before Witte). But it increased from 0.4million tonnes in 1891 to 2.2 million tonnes in 1901 (during Witte’s time). Which was a huge increase,...