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Nicholas II Essay

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How much weight do you give Source 2 for an enquiry into Nicholas II’s abilities and characteristics? Source 2 is an extract from the memoirs of Sergei Witte. He was the minister of finance from 1893-1903 and the minister of interior from 1905-1906. This means Witte was very close to Nicholas and was able to communicate with him very easily. Due to this alone we can tell that the provenacne of this source has potential value as Witte had contact to the Tsar frequently. However as Witte had been fired by the Tsar twice due to uncertain circumstances. In 1903 he was fired from Minister of Finance due to a conspiracy that Witte was in a jewish conspiracy, and again in April 1906; Witte may have a grudge towards the Tsar. We can see from the first sentence that Witte did write his opinion; this is because he proclaims from the start that Nicholas was a failure due to his “lack of willpower”. We know this because there are many accounts of Nicholas …show more content…

The source is from 1921 this is after Nicholas II was executed in 1918 therefore by criticising Nicholas to much would be seen as a lack of manners to talk abou the recently deceased like this. The source can also be leaned towards opinions towards Nicholas as there was close proximity between the two. We now that Nicholas would treat the first official coming in contact with him as a friend in his favour but was able to turn hostile towards his “favourite”. As Witte was by Nicholas side for a total of 11 years therefore would have known Nicholas and his characteristics very well. There can be a grudge held against Nicholas by Witte as he was fired from both his ministry positions, due to other conservativess not liking him or his policies and Nicholas with his lack of confidence to say “No” agreed and made Witte resign in 1906. This can cause Witte to be much harsher and exaggerate the truth within his writing to make Nicholas look like an appalling

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