The Colorado statesman., 1906-05-05
COUNT WITTE RESIGNS.
Succeeded as Premier of Russia by M.
Goremykin.


St Petersburg.-The resignation of
Count Witte as premier has been ac-
cepted. He will be succeeded by M.
Goremykin, former minister of the in
terror. The official announcement of
the change in the cabinet will be made.
The new premier comes from a noble
but not prominent family of Novgorod
province, where his estates are stu
ated. They are especially noted for
the excellence of their cows and their
dairy products, which are sent to st.
Petersburg. In fact, NJ. Goremykin
practically supplies the capital with
milk.
M. Goremykin's elevation to the pre-
miership created amazement. He Is
not only regarded as a reactionary, but
the general opinion is that he is not
equal to the task of facing the coming
crisis.
M. Goremylxin is considered a medi-
ocre man, of insignificant appearance
as well as capacities. He wears side
whiskers and looks like an English
butler. While for some time he has
been called a liberal, it was only in
contrast with such men as Won Plehve
and M. Sipiagume, the late interior
minister.
of justice, becoming assistant minis
ter, from which post he was called in
1895 as protege of the dowager en-
press, to become minister of the inte-
rior. The student troubles, the fore
runners of the recent revolution, were
then just beginning and NJ. Goremykin
lacked the energy necessary to end
them
M. Goremykin, the new premier, was
exposed by Witte in 1898, and since
then has been the retiring minister's
unrelenting enemy. At that time the
former minister of the interior made a
report to the Emperor to the effect
that the stories of famine and suffering
which were said to exist in certain
provinces were untrue.
White, who was then minister of
finance, thereupon produced docu-
ments to prove that the conditions in
the interior were as they had been rep
resented to be. When the Emperor
confronted NJ. Goremykin with this, he
is said to have fallen on his knees be-
fore the Emperor to have wept and to
have begged for forgiveness. The min
lister was SO overcome that the En-
'peror himself brought him a glass OF
water.
Later M. Goremyllin took part in the
Won Plehve cabal which drove Witte
| from the ministry of finance in 1903.
Goremykin was minister of the inte.
rior from 1895 to 1899, when M. Sipia
| gume succeeded him, and has taken a
| prominent part in Russian political
life, especially the revolutionary period
of the last few years.
His administration as minister OF
the interior was not marked by harsh.
ness and his name has never been
mentioned as one of the likely victims
of the terrorists, who assassinated two
of his immediate predecessors.
He was supplanted in 1899 by NJ
Sipiagume. Last year, when Interior
Minister Durnovo legislated out of ex
istence the rural commission of which
Witte was president, and which had
| been investigating the agrarian ques
tion for several years, M. Goremykir
was appointed head of the agricultural
commission which supplanted it. Wher
he became premier, Witte retaliated OF
by NJ. Goremykin by dissolving the
agricultural commission.
Count Witte, unquestionably the big
gest man in public life here, goes ou
unwept and unsIng and amid ths. re
joicing of the reactionaries, who hat,
the liberals, and who distrust him. Ye
even to-day it is predicted that wher
ihe ne-it great cri,- comes the EN-
| peror will be forced to summon WHITE
from his retirement