of Emperors. I shall not live to see this disgrace and disaster … which shall shake the foundations of other States."
Witte was right. Early in February 1915 he died suddenly. Rumour has it he was poisoned. This Is not true. He caught a severe cold during his long speech on the financial and industrial policy of Russia at the Congress of Russian industrialists. The speech led to the resignation of the Minister of Trade and Industry, Timashev, and of a number of responsible officials in that Ministry. On the eve of Witte's death I brought him a memorandum on the intended monopolisation of manganese ores; Witte studied the document carefully, made some remarks and requested me to have it printed.
Next morning, on opening my paper, I read the notice of his death.
He was a real, ruthlessly immoral, forceful, and wise man. He seemed to be living exclusively for politics, indifferent to the common aspects of every-day life. But in truth, this giant of Russian policy had one soft spot. He was madly in love with his wife, whom he married after having helped her to get a divorce from her first husband.
Their married life passed in deep love. When the Countess travelled and stayed in her villa at Biarritz, leaving Witte behind at home in the Kamenno Ostrovski Prospect until the end of the Parliamentary session, he invariably fell ill. He suffered much from
