ABSTRACT
Skilful, conscientious, trusted and honest administrators were indispensable to the effective functioning of a centralized monarchy. In 1893 A. S. Suvorin attributed the scarcity of good men to Russia's lack of a genuine ruling class or aristocracy; in 1904 he concluded that if the government had no friends, this was because it was composed of fools and dolts, extortionists and thieves. Russia might indeed be on the eve of great upheavals, and precisely for that reason the state had to defend itself and battle against threats to its existence. A close student of Russia's administration has concluded that ministers' dependence on the favour of the tsar, and in particular the latter's backing of a favourite minister, were a necessity and an advantage when decisive action was wanted and departmental disagreements blocked it. Sergei Witte's introduction of the gold standard in 1897, when a hostile State Council was bypassed, is cited as a case in point.
