Minister of Finance and Arctic Toponymics (In Commemoration of the 175th Anniversary of the Birth of S. Yu. Witte

S.Yu. Witte is widely known as Russia’s Minister of Railways (1892) and Minister of Finance (1892–1903); his efforts led to accelerated development of Russian industry and to the construction of the Great Siberian Route. Less is known, however, about Witte’s role in the studies and exploration of Russia’s North even though it was he who in 1897 supported Rear Admiral S. O. Makarov and Professor D. I. Mendeleev’s proposal of the construction of the arctic-class icebreaker Yermak.

In June 1894, on the steamship Lomonosov of the Arkhangelsk-Murman steamship company, Witte traveled the Northern Dvina and the White and Barents Seas, looking for a site to build a military port. In particular, he visited the Yokang Islands, Teriberberskaya Bay and Ekaterina Harbour, Ura Bay and port Vladimir, Pechenga Bay, and then returned to St. Petersburg via Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic Sea. After the visit to the Bezymyannyi Island which was part of the group of Yokang Islands, the party that accompanied Witte drew up a protocol with a petition to rename this island after Witte. In December 1894, Admiral N. M. Chikhachev who was in charge of the Naval Ministry ordered to rename the Bezymyannyi Island the Witte Island in the new maps. This article is devoted to the analysis of this historical episode.