Transformation of autocracy in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century: Sergei Witte’s viewpoint

The article examines the opinions of Sergei Witte, one of the first Russian public politicians and one of the most influential officials of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, on the transformation of the Russian autocracy. The Memoirs of Sergei Witte as well as documents from his personal fonds stored in the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) constitute the source basis of the research. The interdisciplinary research paradigm of the performative turn was adopted as the methodological basis of the research. S. Witte’s views on the process of transformation of autocracy are considered through the prism of the following scientific categories: the image of power, scenario of power, authoritative discourse, political myth, performative shift, the principle of outsideness. The analysis of the historiography presented in the article allows us to justify the relevance of the performative approach to the study of Russia’s historical realities in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Special attention is paid to the personal characteristics of the last two Russian emperors, which were given by Sergei Witte in the pages of his Memoirs and became an important part of Witte’s representation of the process of evolution of the institution of autocracy in Russia in the pre-revolutionary period. Of considerable academic interest are his substantial “portraits” of Russian political parties at the time of their institutional design and programmatic self-identification. Interesting nuances of Sergei Witte’s resignation presented by him in the extremely subjective optics of perception remain of high relevance for the analysis of various materials on the subject. The final part of the article draws conclusions about the content and elements of the concept of transformation of autocracy and describes the influence of new political institutions on that transformation in socio-political situation which had been changing.

Bakhmann-Medik, D. Kul'turnye povoroty: novye orientiry v naukakh o kul'ture [Cultural turns. Neuorientierungen in den kulturwissenschaften]. Translated by S. Tashkenov. – Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2017. (In Russian)
Boitsov, M.A. “Chto takoe potestarnaya imagologiya?” [What is potestar imagology?]. In Vlast' i obraz. Ocherki potestarnoi imagologii [Power and image. Essays on potestar imagology], edited by M.A. Boitsov and F.B. Uspenskii, 5–37. St Petersburg: Aleteiya, 2010. (In Russian)
Burke, K. A Grammar of motives. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1945.
Demekhina, D.O. “K voprosu o kontseptualizatsii performansa: versiya Richarda Shekhnera” [Revisiting conceptualization of performance: version by Richard Schechner]. Artikul't, no. 28 (4) (2017): 144–52, https://doi.org/10.28995/2227-6165-2017-4-144-152 (In Russian)
Domanska, E. “Performativnyi povorot v sovremennom gumanitarnom znanii” [Performative turn in modern humanitarian knowledge]. In Sposoby postizheniya proshlogo. Metodologiya i teoriya istoricheskoi nauki: sbornik statei [Ways to comprehend the past. Methodology and theory of historical science: collected articles], edited by M.A. Kukartseva, 226–35. Moscow: Kanon+, 2011. (In Russian)
Geertz, C. Negara: The theatre state in nineteenth-century Bali. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Grigor'ev, S.I. Pridvornaya tsenzura i obraz verkhovnoi vlasti [Court censorship and the image of the supreme power]. St Petersburg: Aleteiya, 2007. (In Russian)
Il'in, S.V. Witte. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 2012. (In Russian)
Karabushchenko, P.L. “Imperskie elity Rossii v vospominaniyakh grafa S.Yu. Witte” [The imperial elite of Russia in the memoirs of Count S. Witte]. Vestnik Novgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. Yaroslava Mudrogo, no. 87, pt. 2 (2015): 16–19. (In Russian)
Kir'yanov, I.K. “‘Homo politicus’ i publichnyi politik v Rossii nachala ХХ veka” [‘Homo Politicus’ and a public politician in Russia in the early 20th century]. Vestnik RUDN. Seriya: Istoriya Rossii, no. 3 (2004): 70–78. (In Russian)
Lieven, D. Towards the flame. Empire, war and the end of tsarist Russia. London: Penguin books, 2016.
Martynov, S.D. Gosudarstvennyi chelovek Witte [Statesman Witte]. St Petersburg: Petropolis, LYuDOVIK, 2008. (In Russian)
Romanovich, N.A. “Obraz vlasti kak otrazhenie rossiiskoi politicheskoi kul'tury” [The image of power as a reflection of Russian political culture]. Vestnik VGU. Seriya: Lingvistika i mezhkul'turnaya kommunikatsiya, no. 1 (2010): 169–72. (In Russian)
Saginadze, E.O. Reformator posle reform: S.Yu. Witte i rossiiskoe obshchestvo. 1906–1915 gody [The reformer after the reforms: Sergei Witte and the Russian society. 1906–1915]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2017. (In Russian)
Solov'ev, K.A. Khozyain zemli russkoi? Samoderzhavie i byurokratiya v epokhu moderna [The owner of the Russian land? Autocracy and bureaucracy in the Modern Era]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2017. (In Russian)
Solov'ev, K.A. Politicheskaya sistema Rossiiskoi imperii v 1881–1905 gg.: problema zakonotvorchestva [The political system of the Russian Empire in 1881–1905: The problem of lawmaking]. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2018. (In Russian)
Turner, V. Dramas, fields, and metaphors: symbolic action in human society. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 1975.
Uortman, R. Stsenarii vlasti. Mify i tseremonii russkoi monarkhii: Materialy i issledovaniya [Scenarios of power: myth and ceremony in Russian monarchy]. 2 vols. Vol. 2, Ot Aleksandra II do otrecheniya Nikolaya II [From Alexander II to the Abdication of Nicholas II]. Translated by I.A. Pil'shchikov. Moscow: Ob"edinennoe gumanitarnoe izdatel'stvo, 2004. (In Russian)
Wcislo, F.W. Tales of imperial Russia. The life and times of Sergei Witte, 1849–1915. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Wortman, R. Visual texts, ceremonial texts, texts of exploration: Collected articles on the representation of Russian monarchy. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2014.
Yurchak, A. Eto bylo navsegda, poka ne konchilos'. Poslednee sovetskoe pokolenie [Everything was forever, until it was no moайловre: The last Soviet generation]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2014. (In Russian)