Witte, neither a liberal nor a conservative, attracted foreign capital to boost Russia's industrialization. He served under the last two emperors of Russia, Alexander III () and Nicholas II (). During the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), he had risen to a position in which he controlled all the traffic passing to the front along the lines of the Odessa Railways. As Minister of Finance from 1892 to 1903 Witte presided over extensive industrialization and achieved government monopoly control over an expanded system of railroad lines.