Vladimir Kokovtsov

Count Vladimir Nikolayevich Kokovtsov (Влади́мир Никола́евич Коковцо́в) (1853–1943) was a Russian statesman during the reign of Nicholas II of Russia.

Government positions held

He served in the Russian Imperial State Council's Department of State Economy before accepting one of the three Assistant Minister of Finance positions under Sergei Witte in the mid 1890s. After serving in several other governmental positions he was appointed Minister of Finance in 1904. He resigned the position when Witte, his former superior in the Finance Ministry assumed the Chairmanship of the Council of Ministers in 1905-06. Kokovtsov returned as Minister of Finance in the Ivan Goremykin and Petr Stolypin cabinets.

Kokovtsov succeeded Stolypin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) after Stolypin's assassination. He served as Chairman from 1911 until his retirement in 1914. He maintained the position of Minister of Finance for the duration of his term as Prime Minister.

On his retirement he was invested with the title and rank of Count. After the October Revolution, 1917 he escaped with his family to Finland and eventually settled in Paris. He was a leading figure in Russian emigre society until his death.

Witte states in his autobiography that while Kokovtsov was serving as one of his assistants, he was left alone to do the business he knew so well and that Kokovtsov was the source of several small but meaningful reforms in the finances of the Russian Empire.

Much was made of Kokovtsov's differences with Witte which resulted in the two refusing to work with one another after 1905-1906. The apparent cause of these differences were conflicts over courses of action in an important loan negotiation that occurred in 1905-1906. These differences were made public in the Council of State when one or the other would make comments in opposition to the other's viewpoint on various issues.

Many historians have made the case that the differences were the result of Witte's desire to return to the Chairmanship of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister of Russia) and his knowledge that his long time associate was one of his chief rivals for the position. Some speculate that the differences were actually rather minor and overstated so that these two men, being in opposing political camps could safeguard the financial reforms they worked together to implement in the 1890s and early 1900s. It is known that Kokovtsov did visit Witte in 1915 during the illness that lead to Witte's death.

References

• Out of My Past by Vladimir Kokovtsov
• Memoirs of Count Witte, translated and edited by Sydney Harcave