Grigory Potemkin
Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favorite of Catherine the Great
1739 CE to 1791 CE
Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski (October 11 [O.S. September 30] 1739 – October 16 [O.S. October 5] 1791) is a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favorite of Catherine the Great.
He dies during negotiations over the Treaty of Jassy, which ends a war with the Ottoman Empire that he had overseen.
Potemkin was born into a family of middle-income noble landowners.
He first attracts Catherine's favor for helping in her 1762 coup, then distinguishes himself as a military commander in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774).
He becomes Catherine's lover, favorite and possibly her consort.
After their passion cools, he remains her lifelong friend and favored statesman.
Catherine obtains for him the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and gives him the title of Prince of the Russian Empire among many others: he is both a Grand Admiral and the head of all of Russia's land and irregular forces.
Potemkin's defining achievements include the peaceful annexation of the Crimea (1783) and the successful second Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792).
The fall of Ottoman stronghold Izmail that he orchestrates prompts Gavrila Derzhavin and Osip Kozlovsky to write Russia's first national anthem, "Let the thunder of victory sound!".
In 1774, Potemkin becomes the governor-general of Russia's new southern provinces.
An absolute ruler, he works to colonize the wild steppes, controversially dealing firmly with the Cossacks who live there.
He founds the towns of Kherson, Nikolayev, Sevastopol, and Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk).
Ports in the region become bases for his new Black Sea Fleet.
His rule in the south is associated with the "Potemkin village", a largely fictional method of ruse involving the construction of painted façades to mimic real villages, full of happy, well-fed people, for visiting officials to see.
Potemkin is known for his love of women, gambling and material wealth; he oversees the construction of many historically significant buildings, including the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg.
A century after Potemkin's death, his name will be given to the Battleship Potemkin, which features in the 1905 Russian Revolution and is fictionalized in Battleship Potemkin, a silent film by Sergey Eisenstein.
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Some of these rumors included that Peter had taken a mistress (Elizabeth Vorontsova), while Catherine will be said to carry on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783), Alexander Vasilchikov, Grigory Potemkin, Stanisław August Poniatowski, and others.
She has become friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's mistress, who has introduced her to several powerful political groups that oppose her husband.
Peter III's temperament has become quite unbearable for those who resided in the palace.
He announces trying drills in the morning to male servants, who later join Catherine in her room to sing and dance until late hours.
Catherine becomes pregnant with her second child, Anna, who only lives to four months, in 1759.
Due to various rumors of Catherine's promiscuity, Peter is led to believe he is not the child's biological father and is known to have proclaimed, "Go to the devil!" when Catherine angrily dismissed his accusation.
She thus spends much of this time alone in her own private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive personality.
Five years earlier, Alexander Suvorov had ordered that earthworks be erected along the harbor and Russian troops be placed there.
In February 1784, Catherine the Great orders Grigory Potemkin to build a fortress here and call it Sevastopol.
The realization of the initial building plans falls to Captain Fyodor Ushakov who in 1788 is named commander of the port and of the Black Sea squadron.
It becomes an important naval base and later a commercial seaport.
All civilians in the captured cities are massacred by order of Grigory Potemkin.
Despite his defeat, he will be rewarded by Empress Catherine, on the recommendation of Grigory Potemkin, with promotion to Colonel and the Cross of St. George, 4th Class.
The percentage of state money spent on the court has increased from 10.4% in 1767 to 11.4% in 1781 to 13.5% in 1795.
Catherine has given away sixty-six thousand serfs from 1762–72, two hundred and two thousandf rom 1773–93, and in one day, August 18, 1795, gives away one hundred thousand.
Just as the church has supported her, hoping to get their land back, Catherine had bought the support of the bureaucracy.
From April 19, 1764, any bureaucrat holding the same rank for seven years or more got instantly promoted.
On September 13, 1767, Catherine had decreed that after seven years in one rank, civil servants would be automatically promoted regardless of office or merit.
After her affair with her lover and adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, he had allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and mental faculties to hold her interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov and Nicholas Alexander Suk).
Some of these men had loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards them, even after the affair ended.
One of her lovers, Pyotr Zavadovsky, received fifty thousand rubles, a pension of five thousand rubles, and four thousand peasants in Ukraine after she dismissed him in 1777.
The last of her lovers, Prince Zubov, is forty years her junior.
Her sexual independence has led to many of the legends about her.