ПРАВЫЕ В ОПТИКЕ РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЙ С. Ю. ВИТТЕ

Abstract

The article examines the opinions of Sergei Witte, one of the first Russian public politicians and one of the most powerful bureaucrats of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries on the use of right-wing political forces and the right-wing press in constructing his own image of a statesman. The memoirs of Sergei Witte and his contemporaries as well as unpublished documents from the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) and Russian State Archive Literature and Art (RGALI) and periodical press materials constitute the source basis for the research. The interdisciplinary research paradigm of the performative turn along with the approaches of the new political history is used as the methodological basis of the research. The author analyzes Witte's relations with right-wing political forces (including moderate conservatives and right-wing radicals) in a historical retrospective: from his public service in Kyiv to the death of a retired official. The images of Sergei Witte, constructed in the Black Hundred press, are investigated, the elements and main characteristics of the image of the “enemy” are determined. The nuances of Witte's relations with the Black Hundreds are studied, and the images of right-wing radicals in his memoirs are analyzed. Attention is paid to the use of “phobias” that were actively spread during the 1905 revolution in “demonizing” the image of the “enemy”. The final part of the article draws conclusions about how both Witte and right-wing radicals used the demonized images of each other in the struggle for their own reputation and justification of their political behavior.