Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte

Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (1849–1915) was an influential Russian statesman who served as Minister of Finance from 1892 to 1903 and as the first constitutional Prime Minister of the Russian Empire (1905–1906). Trained in mathematics at Odessa University, Witte rose through private railway management to become the foremost modernizing economist in late Tsarist history.

As Finance Minister under Alexander III and Nicholas II, Witte directed Russia's industrial leap forward: he placed the Russian ruble on the international Gold Standard, secured massive French loans, placed a state monopoly on alcohol, and directed the construction of the 5,772-mile Trans-Siberian Railway. Following the 1905 Revolution, Witte drafted the historic October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and establishing Russia's first elected parliament, the State Duma, and negotiated the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War.