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Eduard Pleske

Russian politician (1852–1904)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ2389916 ↗
Source-derived summary

Eduard Dmitrievich Pleske (Russian: Эдуард Дмитриевич Плеске; 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1852 – 9 May [O.S. 26 April] 1904) was a Russian statesman of German origin.

Career

Eduard Pleske was born into a noble family in the Russian Empire. He was educated in the Imperial Alexander Lyceum. After graduation, he joined the Ministry of Finance. Pleske was Assistant Director and later Director of the Special Credit Office.

Eduard Pleske also held the position of Head of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, and his signature can be seen in many Russian banknotes dated 1895–1899.

He was appointed Assistant Minister of Finance under Sergei Witte in 1903. He succeeded Witte on 16 August 1903 after Witte was shunted aside to the position of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. He died in office on the 4 February 1904. He was also briefly a member of the Imperial State Council in 1904.

Editorial summary

“Eduard Pleske” enters the record as russian politician (1852–1904). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Eduard, Pleske and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1852, 1904, 1895, 1899—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1852-10-25. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Eduard, Pleske and Russian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Eduard Pleske” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Eduard, Pleske and Russian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2389916. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1904, 1895 and 1899.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Eduard Pleske”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Eduard Pleske primary sources, Eduard Pleske archive and Eduard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Eduard Pleske”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Eduard Pleske” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.