This is a complete work whose copyright is expired. All pages are fully intact and it has been carefully reviewed. A portrait of the twilight years of Isarism by Count Sergei Witte (1849-1915), the man who built modern Russia. Witte presents incisive and often piquant portraits of the mighty and those around then-powerful Alexander III, the weak-willed Nicholas II, and the neurasthenic Empress Alexandra, along with his own notorious cousin, Madam blavatsky, the "priestess of the occult".Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte also known as Sergius Witte, was a highly influential policy-maker who presided over extensive industrialization within the Russian Empire. He served under the last two emperors of Russia. He was also the author of the October Manifesto of 1905, a precursor to Russia's first constitution, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the Russian Empire.Witte served as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry from 1889-1891; and during this period, he oversaw an ambitious program of railway construction which included the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Witte also obtained the right to assign employees based on their performance, rather than political or familial connections. In 1889, he published a paper titled "National Savings and Friedrich List", which cited the economic theories of Friedrich List and justified the need for a strong domestic industry, protected from foreign competition by customs barriers. The resulted in a new customs law for Russia in 1891, which spurred an increase in industrialization in Russia towards the turn of the century.Tsar Alexander III appointed Witte acting Minister of Ways and Communications in 1892. This gave him control of the railroads in Russia and the authority to impose a reform on the tariffs charged. However, in late 1892, Witte (whose first wife had died in 1890) chose to remarry. The marriage was a scandal, as Witte's second wife, Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich, was not only a converted Jew, but was also divorced, and Witte had come into conflict with her husband while she was still married. The scandal cost Witte many of his connections with the upper nobility.