Letter from Cecil Spring Rice to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt
Chargé d’Affaires of Britain Spring Rice details to First Lady Roosevelt the economic and political climate in Russia. While Spring Rice sees no immediate stirrings of revolution there, he hints that revolution may still be in Russia’s future because of the unsustainable, poor economic conditions in the rural areas and the dearth of strong, reform-minded leadership within the government. While Spring Rice sees Russia’s Interior Minister, Vi︠a︡cheslav Konstantinovich Pleve, as a capable leader, Pleve opposes reform, and though S. I︠U︡. Vitte, the chairman of the Committee of Ministers is “a strong man, too, and might be a reformer,” Emperor Nicholas II strongly dislikes him. Spring Rice also perceives Russia’s slights of other nations and its aversion to making treaties as hindrances to its government. Additionally, Spring Rice tells Roosevelt of a Russian folk story he has recently translated into English.
Collection
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Creation Date
1903-12-09