“I am 62 years old, I was born in Tiflis in 1849.My father, Julius Fedorovich Witte, was the director of the Department of State Property in the Caucasus. My mother is Ekaterina Andreevna Fadeeva, daughter of a member of the Main Directorate of the Viceroy of the Caucasus Fadeev. Fadeev was married to Princess Elena Pavlovna Dolgoruky, who was the last of the senior branch of the princes Dolgoruky, descended from Grigory Fedorovich Dolgorukov, senator under Peter I, brother of the famous Yakov Fedorovich Dolgorukov. My grandfather came to the Caucasus under the viceroy, His Serene Highness Prince Vorontsov, who laid a solid civil foundation for the administration of the Caucasus. Previously, my grandfather ruled foreign colonies in the Novorossiysk Territory, when His Serene Highness Prince Vorontsov was the Governor-General of Novorossiysk, and even earlier, my grandfather Fadeev was the governor in Saratov. My grandfather had three daughters and one son. The eldest daughter, a fairly well-known writer of the time of Belinsky, who wrote under the pseudonym "Zinaida R.", was married to Colonel Gan ... "