10The Winter Palace
St. Petersburg, Russia
October 16, 1905
Serge Witte thumbed through the various official documents he had prepared for the Tsar’s signature. As October progressed, he sensed he had become a bundle of nerves, and he hoped his stress didn’t show. As he sat in the Tsar’s outer study, he wondered what urgent business had caused the Tsar to summon him to the palace on such short notice. The Tsar had hastily returned from his main residence at Tsarskoe Selo earlier in the day, traveling the fifteen-mile journey on his personal train. Witte had been summoned from his dinner table where his family was celebrating the joyous news that had just been announced the previous day. The Tsar was so pleased with the outcome of the Portsmouth Peace Conference that he had created a tit
