On Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, next to the Lidval house, stands a modest white and blue mansion. This mansion is connected to Sergey Yulyevich Witte — one of the most significant figures in Russian history.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the plot belonged to retired commissioner Apraksin, then to Privy Councillor Bek, and later to the noblewoman Zelinskaya. In the 1870s, the plot was divided. Part of it went to the widow of Colonel Blyum. Until the end of the 19th century, there were wooden buildings here.

In 1898, the next owner of the plot, Shtremberg, built a three-story stone house here. The building's design was done by architect Ernest Frantsevich Virrich. By that time, the architect had only one independent work — the Assumption Cathedral in Omsk. However, he had considerable experience in technical work and in supervising construction as an assistant to renowned architects Shaub and Syuzor. And a bright professional future, as it turned out later. Ernest Frantsevich (Ernest-Friedrich) Virrich was born in Odessa on May 20, 1860. His parents — German Lutherans — belonged to the petty bourgeoisie and gave their son a good home education. In 1878, he arrived in St. Petersburg and enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts. After studying for five years in the painting department and receiving several medals for his works, he nevertheless decided that it was not his calling and transferred to the architecture department. (Many years later, outside Russia, his drawing skills would prove invaluable.) He graduated from the academy only in 1890 but was actively engaged in architectural activities during his student years. Interestingly, in the same 1898 when the mansion on Kamennoostrovsky was built, Virrich began designing and then constructing his most significant project — the ensemble of buildings of the Imperial St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, heading a specially created construction commission. For this work, Virrich received the title of Academician of Architecture.

After completing the construction, the owner of the new mansion on Kamennoostrovsky, Shtremberg, put it up for sale. The house looked unassuming but elegant: it was built in the eclectic style with elements of classicism, and the facade was decorated with pilasters of the Corinthian and Tuscan orders. "The mansion's floors are separated by a stepped cornice. The main entrance is framed by a strongly protruding vestibule, above which a balcony is arranged."

In the summer of 1898, the land and mansion were purchased by Sergey Yulyevich Witte's second wife, Maria Ivanovna Lisanovich, née Matilda Isaakovna Nurok. The marriage was preceded by a scandal, as Witte began seeing Lisanovich before her divorce and came into conflict with her husband. This could have cost Witte his career, as a scandalous marriage to a divorced Jewish woman (although she had converted to Orthodoxy) was not welcomed at the time. As a result, Witte's already not very warm relations with high society worsened even more. According to contemporaries, in her youth Matilda Ivanovna possessed attractive looks, skillfully used them, and brilliantly completed her ascent step by step up the ladder of great success. "Many hands reached out to her with offers to lean on them during her rise; she chose the strongest and was not embarrassed by their number." She was a woman of extraordinary intellect and, as Witte's wife, significantly influenced her husband: thanks to her, he stopped swearing and learned to somewhat understand and speak French and German "with a pitiful accent." Despite her persistent desire, even as Witte's wife, she never managed to be accepted at court; she was the only minister's wife to be persistently refused.

Sergey Yulyevich Witte moved into the mansion in 1903 from an apartment at Moika 45 after resigning as Minister of Finance and being appointed Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. In 1904, work on the mansion was completed for the official's family: the mansion was extended by one floor, and courtyard wings were added.

Once in this mansion, the count narrowly escaped death, and the proximity of Ida Lidval's income house, adjoining the ex-premier's mansion, played a certain role in the possibility of organizing the assassination attempt. At the end of January 1907, news spread across the capital: former Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, Count Sergey Yulyevich Witte, narrowly escaped death from an explosion in his own home. Reporters eagerly relayed the details, sometimes so vividly that it seemed they themselves had defused the "infernal machine." The hero who saved the premier was the stoker Antonov.

"Bringing firewood, Antonov put it in the stove and began opening the flues," reported the next day, January 30, 1907, in the "Petersburg Gazette." "While removing the second flue, he felt the end of a rope in his hand. Thinking that the chimney sweep had left it in the pipe, Antonov pulled the rope. He had to pull for a long time, as the rope was at least ten sazhen (about 21 meters). The gentleman sitting at the round table became interested in the case and helped Antonov pull the rope. After pulling out about ten sazhen of rope, they noticed it became harder to pull — obviously, the rope was tied to something. Pulling harder, Antonov finally pulled out a small bundle wrapped in white cloth."

The gentleman who helped the stoker pull the rope was Witte's close associate Alexander Nikolaevich Gurev, who served as scientific secretary in the Ministry of Finance during Witte's tenure as head of the department. Gurev was also a contributor to the newspapers "New Time," "St. Petersburg Gazette," and "Russia." According to him, he had been visiting the count in the evenings for several months to compile a historical overview of Russia's finances during Witte's management of the Ministry of Finance.

Gurev and the stoker Antonov decided to cut open the cloth bundle extracted from the chimney and discovered a pine box with a small square hole, from which protruded a metal cap shaped like a screwed-on nut. They called the owner, and Witte, taking the object in his hands, calmly stated: "Perhaps there is some kind of bomb there. Better not to touch the box and notify the police."

The authorities arrived, carefully removed the box to the yard, and opened it. Under the lid, they found "a wooden dial, like those found in cheap kitchen clocks," and a mass resembling "semolina porridge or coarse sand" — later it was found to be nitroglycerin. The degree of fear rose even higher when an identical "gift" was found in the neighboring stove. It turned out that the devices could be triggered either by the hammer attached to the clock mechanism or by the stove's fire — the danger was serious.

The infernal machines were found precisely in those rooms on the second floor where Gurev worked. Apparently, the perpetrators were simply poorly informed about where Witte's office was located. The rooms where the ex-premier worked were equipped with opaque curtains. Only in the room where Gurev worked did the curtains let light through.

"It must be assumed that the perpetrators, having surveilled the house, noticed that late light in the count's apartment was regularly visible in this room, while all other windows were dark. They took this room to be the count's bedroom and surrounded it with infernal machines on both sides," noted the journalist.

The danger passed, and throughout January 30, high-ranking officials and representatives of high society visited the count with congratulations; many government telegrams were received in the ex-minister's name…

Meanwhile, the police began to investigate how the infernal machines got into the house. The doorman, who was constantly on duty at the main staircase, swore that no one could have carried such bulky objects past him unnoticed. If the perpetrator had risked entering the mansion through the back door, he would have had to pass through many inhabited rooms, so this route was also unlikely. It turned out that the terrorists climbed from the neighboring house and lowered the infernal machines down the chimneys from the roof. Therefore, soon the roof of Witte's mansion "along the entire line of the house adjoining the neighboring house" was fenced with a barrier of pointed rods intertwined with barbed wire for reliability. In addition, the fence was connected to an electric alarm system.

The investigation established that the explosives were planted by revolutionary-minded workers under the direction of Alexander Kazantsev, who, according to the preliminary version of the investigation, was an agent of the security department and simultaneously a member of the "Union of the Russian People." Why did the Black Hundreds dislike Witte? As noted by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergey Stepanov, according to their logic, Witte was one of the secret leaders of the revolution...

However, the investigation soon stalled because Kazantsev was killed by one of the perpetrators, Vasily Fyodorov, who found refuge in France. Witte, outraged by the involvement of a government agent in the assassination attempt and the slow progress of the investigation, appealed to Prime Minister Stolypin in 1910. Stolypin replied that Kazantsev was neither a government agent nor a member of the "Union of the Russian People," and the only surviving identified criminal was not extradited by the French authorities.

On January 4, 1911, a special meeting of the Council of Ministers was held, which ruled that Witte's arguments "regarding the participation of government agents in the attempt on his life and the biased and improper conduct of the case" were unfounded. Emperor Nicholas II's resolution stated:

"I see no irregularities in the actions of the administrative, judicial, and police authorities. I consider this case closed."

The last pre-revolutionary photographs of the mansion are dated the day of Sergey Witte's funeral. He died in his home on February 28, 1915, from meningitis. The archival photo captures richly decorated horse-drawn carriages, torchbearers in top hats and liveries, and a crowd of people.

During the Soviet era, the building housed a preventive outpatient clinic, a daytime children's sanatorium, and a research institute for the health protection of children and adolescents. Since 1935 and to this day, a children's music school has operated here. Among its graduates is the famous violinist and conductor Spivakov.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witte,_Sergey_Yulyevich

https://www.citywalls.ru/house677.html

https://xn--c1acndtdamdoc1ib.xn--p1ai/fan-zona/statii/bomba-dlya-eks-premera/

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4975343