Catherine the Great & Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair

7 AAE 20: 8–10, Langeron, ‘Journal de la campagne de 1790’. Damas p 139. Ligne, Mémoires 1828 vol 1 pp 211–14, Ligne to Ségur I December 1788 and vol 2 pp 390–2. Mansel, Constantinople pp 154–7. RGVIA 52.2.89.149, Prince Alexander Mavrocordato to GAP 21 September 1790, Elisabethgrad, unpublished. SIRIO 54 (1886): 197, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’. Ligne, Mélanges vol 7 p 199–210, Ligne to Ségur 1 December 1788.

8 Castera vol 3 p 294. Saint Jean pp 48–54, 137–45. AAE 20: 38, Langeron, ‘Journal de la campagne de 1790’ (résumé).

9 AAE 20: 367, Langeron, ‘Résumé 1790’.

10 RGVIA 52.11.91.11, Prince Nicholas Mavrogeny Hospodar of Wallachia to GAP 5 November 1789; and RGVIA 52.11.91.6, GAP to Prince Nicholas Mavrogeny Hospodar of Wallachia 24 October 1789, unpublished.

11 Demetrius Dvoichenko-Markov, ‘Russia and the First Accredited Diplomat in the Danubian Principalities 1779–1808’ pp 208–18.

12 Saint Marc de Giraudin, Souvenirs de voyage et d’études p 249, cited in Georges Haupt, ‘La Russie et les Princapautés Danubiennes en 1790: Le Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky et le Courrier de Moldavie’ pp 58–63. Also N. Iorga, Geschichte des Osmanishen Reiches (Gotla 1908) vol 1 p 469, cited in Dvoichenko-Markov p 218.

13 Samoilov col 1553.

14 RGVIA 52.11.91.25–6, Prince de Cantacuzino and others to GAP 12 February 1790. RGVIA 52.11.91.24, Moldavian boyars to GAP 17 November 1789. RGVIA 52.11.91.23, Moldavian boyars to GAP ud, 1790, unpublished.

15 ZOOID 4: 470. Haupt, pp 58–63.

16 AAE 20: 367, Langeron, ‘Résumé 1790’

17 Samoilov col 1553.

18 RGADA 5.85.2.206, L 385, CII to GAP 25 November 1789.

19 RA (1907) 2 pp 130–2.

20 Engelhardt 1997 p 82.

21 RGIA 1146.1.31, Mikhail Garnovsky accounts 1790, unpublished.

22 RS (1876) 16 p 425, Garnovsky to Popov 4 March 1790.

23 RGVIA 52.2.89.128, unsigned to GAP ud, unpublished.

24 Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) no 2 January vol 2 p 101.

25 Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) no 2 January vol 2 p 99.

26 AAE 20: 98, Langeron, ‘Résumé 1790’.

27 RGADA 11.940.5, Peter Zahorevsky to Praskovia Potemkina ud, unpublished.

28 RS (1875) June vol 13 pp 164–8. Brückner, Potemkin pp 254–5, GAP to Praskovia Andreevna Potemkina. RGADA 11.857.8, 13, 14, 19, 22, 40, P. A. Potemkina to GAP.

29 SBVIM vol 8 p 22, GAP Orders to M. L. Faleev 15 March and 25 April 1790.

30 AAE 20: 131, Langeron, ‘Evénements de la Campagne de 1790 des Russes contre les Turcs en Bessarabie et en Bulgarie’.

31 RGVIA 52.2.56.32–3, Baron I. M. Simolin to GAP 16/26 July 1790, Paris, unpublished.

32 RGVIA 52.2.39.182, Count Stackelberg to GAP 18/29 March 1788, Warsaw, unpublished.

33 RGVIA 52.2.56.32–3, Simolin to GAP 16/26 July 1790, Paris, unpublished.

34 RGVIA 52.2.35.35, GAP to Baron Sutherland 1/16 March 1787 on payment to Baron Grimm for purchases in Paris, unpublished.

35 Literaturnoye nasledstvo (Moscow 1937) vol 29–30 pp 386–9. Simolin to A. A. Bezborodko 25 December 1788/5 January 1789, Paris. The bill was 8,000 Turenne livres, each worth approximately four normal livres.

36 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 323.

37 Ligne, Letters (Staël) vol 2 p 5, Ligne to Ségur 1 August 1788.

38 Masson p 113.

39 A. S. Pushkin, ‘Notes on Russian History of the Eighteenth Century’ p 5.

40 RGADA 248.4404.221 reverse, CII to Senator Count Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov ordering him to assign three million roubles to GAP to build the Sebastopol Admiralty 2 September 1785. Once the war began in 1787, the budgets increased massively. A document in the same place as the above from Prince A. A. Viazemsky to CII on 7 November 1790 shows how, for example, 7.3 million roubles were distributed in 1787–90 by GAP to the Black Sea Navy and the Ekaterinoslav and Ukrainian armies through officials such as Colonel Garnovsky, Faleev and Popov. However, Viazemsky does complain that GAP had three times neglected to report on the details of all his spending of his money. Another example: SIRIO 27 (1880): 348–51, CII to GAP 14 January 1785. CII ordered Viazemsky to pay GAP one million roubles for creating new regiments. PSZ xxii no 16, 131. SIRIO 27 (1880): 354, CII to GAP 13 August 1785. In this case, the money is 2.4 million roubles for the Black Sea Admiralty.

41 Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin pp 85–7.

42 GARF 9: Potemkin’s correspondence with different persons. Potemkin continued to use his ‘Court Jew’ and friend Zeitlin as well as bankers like Ferguson Tepper of Warsaw. Their unpublished correspondence is spread throughout the archives in RGIA in Petersburg, RGVIA f52 and RGADA f11 in Moscow. This is an invaluable picture of GAP’s and the Russian Empire’s finances, but again it is beyond the scope of this book. See next note for the unhappy struggles of Baron Sutherland.

43 RGADA 11.895.3–5, Baron Richard Sutherland to GAP 10 August and 13 September 1783. RGADA 11.895.7, Baron Sutherland to GAP 2 March 1784. All unpublished. Presumably Sutherland was paid something because he calmed down until the next year, when he fell foul of Zeitlin: ‘I am extremely mortified to learn that I’m losing the protection and confidence with which Your Highness has deigned to honour me, through the report of my business with Monsieur Zeitlin.’ Sutherland claimed he was the ‘victim of his own goodwill’ and grovelled for Potemkin to forgive whatever he had done. One suspects that GAP is one of the few Russian statesmen who would fall out with a British baron on behalf of a Jewish merchant. (see Ch 19) RGVIA 52.2.35.33, Ferguson Tepper to GAP 11 January 1788 Warsaw. Sutherland was soon back in favour, but every delay in paying him hit the Scotsman’s bankers in Warsaw, Ferguson Tepper, who were soon begging GAP directly to give Sutherland the money to pay them 77,912 roubles. For the way GAP’s Chancellery functioned as both a state and a personal office, see RGVIA 271.1.53.1, Abbé Michel Ossowski to GAP 30 July NS 1789, unpublished. Here a Pole discusses both GAP’s Polish estates and the supply of timber and masts for shipbuilding in Kherson.

44 RGVIA 52.2.35.4, Sutherland to GAP 6 October 1788. RGADA 11.895.13, Sutherland to GAP 22 October 1788, unpublished.

45 RA (1873) 2 p 1687, GAP to Bezborodko.

46 Khrapovitsky 24 December 1789.

47 Gerhard F. Kramer and Roderick E. McGrew, ‘Potemkin, the Porte and the Road to Tsargrad: The Shumla Negotiations 1789–90’ pp 467–87. This work quotes from the Barozzi Diaries in Austrian Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv Russland II Berichte 202A to 206B

48 RGIA 468.1.2.3904, list of jewels sent down to Jassy for Turkish negotiations, unpublished.

49 RGVIA 52.2.79.1, GAP to Barozzi February 1790. ZOOID 8 (1872): 194–5, GAP to Grand Vizier and Barozzi 16/27 February 1790. ZOOID 8: 198–9, GAP to Barozzi, the offer of the mosque in Moscow.

50 RGADA 5.85.2.216, L 397, CII to GAP 6 February 1790.

51 Blanning, JII 1, pp 189, 198. SIRIO 54: 111, Richelieu, ‘Journal de mon voyage’. RGVIA 52.2.47.8, GAP to Prince Kaunitz 31 January 1790, unpublished. Ligne, Letters (Staël) vol 2 p 34, Ligne to CII 12 February 1790. Joseph had been urging GAP to negotiate peace as his condition worsened. His correspondence with GAP (all unpublished): RGVIA 271.1.43.3, JII to GAP 7 October NS 1789, Vienna. RGVIA 52.2.47.41, JII to GAP 22 October NS 1789, Vienna (six-page letter). RGVIA 52.2.47.6, GAP to Kaunitz 11/22 December 1789, Jassy, and also RGVIA 52.2.47.4, GAP to Kaunitz 7 November 1789, Bender.

52 RGVIA 52.2.46.9, Leopold King of Hungary to GAP 30 March 1790, and GAP to King of Hungary ud. Also RGVIA 52.2.46.6, GAP to Leopold ud. The correspondence between GAP and the Austrians Leopold and Kaunitz is unpublished. GAP was said to have been outraged by Leopold’s nervous letters, stamping on them furiously, and swearing at the Habsburgs, who soon heard about the names he had called them. Sir N. William Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of my own Time p 171.

53 RGVIA 52.2.65.1, Duke of Leeds to GAP 31 March NS 1790. RGVIA 52.2.65.2, GAP to Leeds 30 May 1790, unpublished. Cross, By the Banks of the Neva pp 361–3. John Howard (1726–90) was buried near Kherson, and Tsar Alexander I erected a pyramid over his tomb. The Soviets continued to revere this friend of humanity. In 1998, when the author visited Kherson, there were still tours and pamphlets offered to tourists to encourage visits to Howard’s tomb.

54 RGADA 5.85.2.212, L 385, CII to GAP 3 December 1789.

55 RGVIA 52.2.46.4, GAP to Leopold King of Hungary 25 May 1790, unpublished.

56 AVPRI 5.5/1.589.214–16, GAP to CII ud, November/December 1789.

57 RGADA 5.85.2.208–9, L 385, CII to GAP 2 December 1789.

58 Engelhardt 1997 p 82.

59 RGADA 1.1/1.43.24–6, L 414, GAP to CII May 1790. The actual order is quoted in SIMPIK KV vol 2 p 30, 31 March 1790: ‘To all ranks of the army, I order you to wear only regular uniform without any differentiation. The generals should not have eagles on their tunics…’.

60 AVPRI 5.585.142, L 397, GAP to CII February 1790, Jassy.

61 AVPRI 5.585.128.31, L 389, GAP to CII December 1789.

62 RGADA 5.85.2.225–6, L 407, CII to GAP 19 March 1790, and RGADA 5.85.2.224, L 408, CII to GAP 30 March 1790.

63 AVPRI 5.585.323, L 394, GAP to CII 23 January 1790, Jassy. RGADA 5.85.2.208, L 387, CII to GAP 2 December 1789. AVPRI 5.585.128–131, L 388–9, GAP to CII December 1789. The orders to his Cossack officers Chepega and Golovaty about the formation of the new Host intensify in late 1789, spring 1790, for example SIMPIK KV vol 2 p 24, GAP to Golovaty 4 October 1789; p 32, 14 April 1790, Jassy.

64 RGVIA 52.2.37.207, GAP to Bezborodko.

65 RA (1842) 7–8 pp 17–18. AKV 5: 402, M. N. Radischev to Count A. R. Vorontsov 17 May 1791.

66 RGADA 1.1/1.43.107, L 441, GAP to CII 3 December 1790.

67 RS (1876) November pp 417–8, 1 GAP to CII June 1790.

68 RGADA 5.85.2.227, CII to GAP 27 April 1790.

69 RGADA 1.1/1.43.17, L 419, GAP to CII 19 June 1790.

70 Madariaga, Russia p 414. Austria’s withdrawal from the Russian alliance was partly blamed by Wraxall on Leopold’s hearing of GAP’s rudeness. But Russian anger was the least of Leopold’s problems. However, it is very likely that GAP was furious at the loss of the Austrian alliance. Wraxall claims GAP had ‘ebullitions of rage’. Wraxall p 171.

71 RGADA 5.85.2.239, L 422, CII to GAP 17 July 1790.

72 RGADA 5.85.2.245–6, L 425, CII to GAP 9 August 1790.

73 RGADA 1.1/1.43.38, L 427, GAP to CII 16 August 1790, Bender.

74 AAE 20: 179, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’

75 Dubrovin p 20, quoted in Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 182.

76 RP 2.1 p 36. RP 4.1 p 19. RP 1.2 p 85. Vigée Lebrun vol 1 pp 319–20. AAE 20: 138, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’. Golovina pp 24–5. RGVIA 52.2.52.1, Ligne to GAP ud but probably 18 October 1789 or even 1790 from Vienna because it mentions that young Charles de Ligne is serving with GAP and Ismail may be taken. Unpublished. Ligne’s handwriting is notoriously hard to decipher. This marks another stage in the reconciliation of Ligne and GAP after Ochakov: ‘I often feel the need to tell my dear Prince I love him tenderly and, for the first time in my life, absence doesn’t make any difference…What unhappiness for me that I can’t see…Madame Samoilov…and those who surround you in Moldavia whom I so like and who so adore you…’.

77 SIRIO 54 (1886): 111–98, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’. RP 4.2 p 152.

78 SIRIO 54 (1886): 147–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

79 SIRIO 54 (1886): pp 147–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

80 AAE 20: 158, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

81 RGVIA 52.2.47.12, GAP to Kaunitz October 1790, Bender, unpublished.

82 SIRIO 54 (1886): 147–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

83 AAE 20: 160, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

84 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 321.

85 Engelhardt 1868 p 88.

86 Engelhardt 1868 p 88. AAE 20: 226, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

87 SIRIO 54 (1886): 152, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

88 SIRIO 54 (1886): 147–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’. AAE 20: 226, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

89 Golovina pp 24–5.

90 AAE 20: 143, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’. Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 p 173. Pushkin’s story is set at Ochakov with a countess, but the real events are more likely to have taken place at Bender with Princess Dolgorukaya in 1790.

91 Engelhardt 1997 p 88.

92 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 321. AAE 20: 226, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

93 RGVIA 52.2.71.9, GAP to Princess Lubomirska 2 August 1790, ‘Not a moment for myself’, and RGVIA 52.2.71.8, GAP agrees to cede Dubrovna 20 July 1790, Czerdack near Jassy, unpublished. On Polish politics: RGVIA 52.2.70.12, GAP to Branicki 28 February 1790 on the Hetmanate; RGADA 11.946.56, Baron Ivan I. d’Asch to GAP 23 July/3 August 1790, and document 65 d’Asch thanks GAP for present of a Turkish manuscript. RGVIA 52.2.7.2, SA to GAP 22 July 1790, Warsaw; RGVIA 52.2.68.26, Count Felix Potocki to GAP 1 May NS 1790, Vienna. All unpublished. On reforms of army, Cossacks and Guards regiments: RGADA 1.1/1.43.24–6, L 414, GAP to CII May 1790. G. S. Vinsky, Moe vremya, zapiski with new introduction by Isabel de Madariaga. Vinsky p 100. Vinsky grumbles that GAP is filling the Guards with ‘all kinds of raznochintsky and even Asiatics’. AKV 9: 270, S. R. Vorontsov complains of the same 7 November 1792, quoted in Duffy, Russia’s Military Way p 138. On Cossack recruitment: SIMPIK KV vol 2 p 39, GAP to Chepega 9 November 1790, Bender. On the Kuban war: Dubrovin, Istoriya voyny vol 2 pp 260–1, Yury Bogdanovich Bibikov to GAP 16 February 1790; p 269, GAP to General de Balmain 26 June 1790; and p 269, GAP to I. V. Gudovich 24 December 1790. Also SBVIM vol 8 p 9, GAP to Y. B. Bibikov 23 February 1790. On naval war, vol 7 p 107, GAP to José de Ribas 8 July 1790; p 139, GAP to Ribas 17 August 1790. On signals for fleet: vol 8 p 18, GAP to Ribas 14 March 1790. On Nikolaev: ZOOID 8: 200, GAP on Nikolaev Church, orders to Starov and architects and orders to Faleev on 24 August 1790, quoted in Kruchkov.

94 RGADA 5.85.2.266, L 440, CII to GAP October 1790.

95 RGADA 5.85.2.251–4, L 430, CII to GAP 29 August 1790.

96 RGADA 5.85.2.256–7, L 434, CII to GAP 11 September 1790. RGADA 5.85.2.266, L 439, CII to GAP October 1790.

97 The threat to Potemkin’s indigenat and Russia’s position in Poland can be followed in the unpublished Potemkin–Stackelberg correspondence, e.g. RGVIA 52.2.74.2, GAP to Marshals of the Sejm Malachowski and Sapieha 7 November 1788, Ochakov. RGVIA 52.2.39.1, CII to Stackelberg 12 May 1788, Tsarskoe Selo. RGVIA 52.2.39.270, Stackelberg to GAP 13/24 December 1788. RGVIA 52.2.39.385, Stackelberg to GAP 1/12 April 1790. RGVIA 52.2.39.384, Stackelberg to GAP 5/16 March 1790. RGVIA 52.2.39.370, Stackelberg to GAP 12/23 January 1790. RGVIA 52.2.39.358, Stackelberg to GAP 3/14 January 1790. See also the anti-Potemkin propaganda: ‘Reflexion,’ RGVIA 52.2.54.147, ud, unsigned. All the above unpublished. See Chapter 23 note 49.

98 RGADA 1.1/1.43.59–60, L 432, GAP to CII 10 September 1790, Bender. RGADA 5.85.2.258–9, CII to GAP 16 September 1790. RGADA 5.85.2.260, L 436, CII to GAP 30 September 1790. RGADA 5.85.2.262, L 436, CII to GAP 1 October 1790.

99 Petrov, Vtoroya turetskaye voyna vol 2 pp 43–4, GAP to Lazhkarev 7 September 1790. RA (1884) 2 p 30.

100 SBVIM vol 8 p 16, GAP to F. F. Ushakov 14 March 1790; p 89, GAP to Ushakov 24 June 1790; p 92, GAP to Ushakov 3 July 1790.

101 RGADA 1.1/1.43.55, L 431, GAP to CII 4 September 1790, Bender.

102 RGADA 5.85.2.258–9, L 434, CII to GAP 6 September 1790.

103 SBVIM vol 8 p 172, GAP to Ribas 28 September 1790.

104 RGVIA 52.2.37.230, GAP to Bezborodko.

105 RGVIA 52.1.586.1.586, GAP to Bezborodko.

106 SBVIM vol 8 p 186, GAP to Ribas 13 November 1790.

107 AAE 20: 272, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’

108 Odessa State History Local Museum d680 and d681, Armand Duc de Richelieu to GAP and Alexandre Comte de Langeron to GAP 10 November 1790.

CHAPTER 30: SEA OF SLAUGHTER: ISMAIL

1 For the main sources for this account of the Second Turkish War, see Chapter 26, note 1. This chapter also uses Alexander, CtG pp 257–92, and Madariaga, Russia pp 413–26. RA (1871) September 394–6, Count G. I. Chernyshev to Prince S. F. Golitsyn 23–24 November 1790, Ismail. G. I. Chernyshev was the son of Ivan, who ran the Naval College and was opposed to Potemkin. But he is writing to his friend Prince S. F. Golitsyn, who was married to GAP’s niece Varvara and was therefore close to Serenissimus. Therefore this is the testimony of a hostile witness given to a friendly one and shows how futile it is trying strictly to divide the Russian Court into family factions or political parties.

2 Damas pp 148–50. SIRIO 54 (1886): 156, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’

3 RGADA 1.1/1.43.107, L 442, GAP to CII 3 December 1790, Bender.

4 RA (1871) pp 385–7, 20 November 1790, Ismail.

5 AAE 20: 168, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

6 SD vol 2 pp 524–5, GAP to A. V. Suvorov 25 November 1790, Bender. KD vol 1 p 113, GAP to Suvorov 25 November 1790. GAP uses the Polish word ‘Sejm’ instead of parliament. RA (1877) no 10 pp 196–7, GAP to Suvorov (two notes) 25 November 1790, Bender.

7 RA (1871) pp 391–2, Count G. I. Chernyshev to Prince S. F. Golitsyn 22 November 1790, Ismail.

8 RGVIA 52.1.586.1.630, GAP to José de Ribas 28 November 1790. RA (1871) September p 396, Count G. I. Chernyshev to Prince S. F. Golitsyn 27 November 1790, Ismail.

9 AAE 20: 194, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’

10 Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin p 229. Castera vol e p 292. RGADA 1.1/1.43.51–4, L 447, GAP to CII 13 January 1791, Jassy. RGADA 1.1/1.43.22, L 415, GAP to CII 29 May 1790, Kokoteny (‘the soul of war’).

11 SBVIM 8 pp 193–4, GAP to General Ivan Gudovich 28 November 1790, Bender. SIRIO 54 (1886): 194, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

12 SBVIM 8 p 195, GAP to Suvorov, order 1730, 4 December 1790, Bender. RGVIA 52.1.16.11. RA (1877) 10 pp 197–8, GAP to Suvorov 29 November 1790, Bender, and 4 December 1790, Bender.

13 SBVIM 8 p 194, GAP to Suvorov 29 November 1790, Bender. SIRIO 54 (1886): 168–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

14 RV (1841) 1.8 p 345, GAP to Governor of Ismail 7 December 1790.

15 RA (1877) no 10 p 198, Suvorov to Governor of Ismail 7 December 1790, Ismail. SD vol 2 p 535, Suvorov to Governor of Ismail 7 December 1790, quoted in Longworth, Art of Victory p 167.

16 SIRIO 54 (1886): 174, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

17 Damas p 151.

18 Longworth, Art of Victory p 168.

19 AAE 20: 235, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

20 Damas pp 153–5. SIRIO 54 (1886): 181–3.

21 Damas pp 153–6. SIRIO 54 (1886): 183–7, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’. AAE 20: 235, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

22 Longworth, Art of Victory p 174. AAE 20: 235, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’. Duffy, Russia’s Military Way pp 187–8. M. S. Anderson, Europe in Eighteenth Century p 135. The true deathtoll at Ismail will never be known. Even eye-witnesses could not decide between 24,000 and 30,000, but the best estimate is that 26,000 Turks died at Ismail. Of the 9,000 prisoners, 2,000 died of their wounds within the week. Russian losses were much higher than the official 1,815 dead, 2,445 wounded – probably between 4,500 and Langeron’s 8,000 dead (4,000 died of their wounds), including 429 officers.

23 Samoilov col 1550.

24 AAE 20: 272, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’

25 RGADA 5.85.2.277, L 446, CII to GAP 3 January 1791.

26 SIRIO 54 (1886): 195, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’

27 SIRIO 54 (1886): 194, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’. AAE 20: 272, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’. Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 pp 171–2. RGVIA 52.2.47.16, GAP to Prince Kaunitz 25 January/5 February 1791, Jassy, and RGVIA 52.2.47.19, GAP to Kaunitz 9/20 February 1791, RGVIA 52.2.55.72, unnamed to GAP 15 February 1791, Vienna, all unpublished. GAP was still in friendly contact with Kaunitz. In the first letter, despatched back to Vienna with young Prince Charles de Ligne, GAP thanks Kaunitz for sending him the ‘painting by Monsieur Casanova’ – the lover Casanova’s brother was a well-known portraitist. ‘It has happily arrived here,’ writes GAP, ‘it gives me the greatest pleasure.’ The second letter covers politics: ‘Our enemies and the envious do all to separate our interests but they won’t succeed,’ GAP declares, though this had already effectively happened. GAP then thanks Kaunitz for the cheeses he has sent him. In return, ‘I have a Turkish horse for Your Highness which belonged to the Pasha in command of Ismail.’ GAP triumphantly informs Prince Kaunitz and the Prince de Ligne in Vienna of his victory: now in the 3rd document, GAP hears back that Ligne has had to correct his mistaken opinions of GAP’s generalship. Two reports reveal how ‘the remarkable letter that Prince Potemkin had written to the Prince de Ligne to compliment him on his son’s conduct in the column across the Danube under General Ribas…has been visibly directed to avenge the libels the Prince de Ligne père made on the reputation of the Russian Field-Marshal after his return from Ochakov’.

28 Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 198: ‘After Ismail: What happened in Jassy?’ Lopatin’s recent research into this legend appears to disprove it conclusively. Examples of the story appear in Petrushevsky vol 1 pp 400–1 and Longworth, The Art of Victory p 175.

29 AVPRI 5.585.217, L 447, GAP to CII 11 January 1791, Jassy. Richelieu and Damas now headed back to Paris, stricken by revolution. Young Prince Charles de Ligne returned to Vienna taking the letters announcing the victory to Prince Kaunitz. Kaunitz sent GAP the cheese and painting, GAP sent him the Pasha of Ismail’s horse, mentioned above. See unpublished letters in note 27 above.

30 RGADA 1.1/1.43.51–4, L 448, GAP to CII 13 January 1791, Jassy. RGADA 5.85.2.275, L 444, CII to GAP 20 December 1791. AVPRI 5.585.208, L 449, GAP to CII 15 January 1791, Jassy.

31 AVPRI 5.585.217, L 447, GAP to CII 11 January 1791, Jassy.

32 RGADA 1.1/1.43.51–4, L 448, GAP to CII 13 January 1791, Jassy.

33 AVPRI 5.585.204, L 451, GAP to CII January 1791, Jassy. M. I. Pilaev, Staryy Peterburg p 306.

34 RGADA 5.85.2.279–80, L 451, CII to GAP 22 January 1791.

35 RGADA 1.1/1.43.51–4, L 448, GAP to CII 13 January 1791, Jassy.

36 McKay and Scott pp 240–2. John Ehrman, The Younger Pitt, vol 2: The Reluctant Transition pp 12–17.

37 Stedingk p 77, Count Stedingk to Gustavus III 8 February NS 1791.

38 Stedingk p 87, Stedingk to Gustavus III 16 February NS 1791.

39 Stedingk p 94, Steding to Gustavus III 11 March NS 1791.

40 Ehrman vol 2 pp 12–17. PRO FO 65/20, Sir Charles Whitworth to Duke of Leeds no 2, 10 January 1791. PRO FO 30/8/20, Joseph Ewart to William Pitt 11 February 1791, both as quoted in Ehrman vol 2 pp 12–17.

CHAPTER 31: THE BEAUTIFUL GREEK

1 Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin pp 233–4. This chapter uses, apart from the references given below, Alexander, CtG pp 285–92, and Madariaga, Russia pp 409–26.

2 Stedingk p 98, J. J. Jennings to Fronce 17 March NS 1791, St Petersburg.

3 Stedingk p 96, Count Stedingk to Gustavus III 17 March NS 1791, St Petersburg.

4 AGAD Collection of Popiel Family 421: 10–11, Augustyn A. Deboli to SA, unpublished.

5 Derzhavin, The Waterfall, in Segal p 302.

6 AGAD 421.5–6, Deboli to SA ud, March 1791, unpublished. The ode to GAP was probably the one by Sumarokov – see Bolotina, ‘Private Library of Prince GAPT’ p 254.

7 AGAD 421: 1–2, Deboli to SA 1, 2, 3, 5 March 1791, unpublished.

8 SIRIO 42: 163, CII to Prince de Ligne 21 May 1791. SIRIO 33: 349, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 30 March 1791.

9 AGAD 421: 10–11, Deboli to SA March 1791, unpublished.

10 Stedingk p 98, Jennings to Fronce 17 March NS 1791.

11 AGAD 421: 12–15 and 20–1, Deboli to SA 1 April and 8 April 1791, unpublished. Stedingk p 103, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 March NS 1791, St Petersburg.

12 AGAD 421: 12–15 and 20–1, Deboli to SA 1 April and 8 April 1791, unpublished. Stedingk p 103, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 March NS 1791, St Petersburg.

13 Stedingk pp 98–108, Stedingk to Gustavus III and Jennings to Fronce 17, 21 25 March, 1 April NS 1791, St Petersburg.

14 AAE 20: 134–5, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’. RP 1.1 p 72.

15 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 325. Czartoryski p 37.

16 Engelhardt, 1868 p 69.

17 SIRIO 54 (1886): p 149, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’. Golovina pp 24–5.

18 RGVIA 52.11.69.61, GAP to Count Joseph de Witte 21 September 1788, unpublished.

19 RP 1.1 p 72. AGAD 421: 5–6 and 20–1, Deboli to SA ud, March 1791, and 8 April 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

20 AGAD 421: 12–15 and 20–1, Deboli to SA 1 and 8 April 1791, unpublished. Stedingk p 103, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 March NS 1791, St Petersburg.

21 AGAD 421: 12–15, Deboli to SA 1 April 1791, St Petersburg unpublished. Stedingk p 108, Jennings to Fronce 1 April 1791, St Petersburg. AAE 20: 286, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’.

22 AGAD 421: 22–3 Deboli to SA 12 April 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

23 Ehrman, vol 2 pp 18–19. RGADA 5.85.2.290, L 455, CII to GAP 25 April 1791. The despatch of Suvorov to Sweden is regarded by most Suvorov historians are more evidence of Potemkin’s jealousy, though in fact the Swedish threat was a real one in April 1791.

24 Stedingk p 107, Jennings to Fronce 1 April NS 1791, St Petersburg.

25 Stedingk pp 113–16, Stedingk to Gustavus III 8 April NS 1791, St Petersburg.

26 Stedingk pp 109–10, Jennings to Fronce 1 April NS 1791, St Petersburg.

27 Stedingk pp 113–16, Stedingk to Gustavus III 8 April NS 1791, St Petersburg.

28 AGAD 421: 16–19, Deboli to SA 5 April 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

29 K. E. Dzedzhula, Rossiya i velikaya Frantzuzskaya burzhuaznaya revolyutsiya kontsa XVIII veka p 281. Literaturnoye nasledstvo (Moscow 1937) vol 29–30 pp 448–50, Baron Simolin to Count Osterman 21 March/1 April 1791, Paris pp 450–1. Also AKV 8: 1–38, S. R. Vorontosov to F. V. Rostopchin 18/29 November 1796. GAP was closely informed of the Revolution both by Stackelberg in Warsaw, whose letters are in RGVIA 52.2.39.385, and by Simolin, for example RGVIA 52.2.56.31, as well as by Ségur: RGVIA 52.2.64.24, Comte de Ségur to GAP 9 May 1790, Paris. All these are unpublished. Catherine’s true opinion of Mirabeau (‘fit to be broken on the wheel’) is in SIRIO 23 (1878): 520, CII to Grimm 30 April 1791. Antonina Vallentin, Mirabeau: Voice of the Revolution p 65.

30 Stedingk p 111, Stedingk to Gustavus III 8 April NS 1791, St Petersburg.

31 Stedingk p 94, Stedingk to Gustavus III 11 March NS 1791; and p 96, 17 March 1791, St Petersburg.

32 ADAD 421: 84 Deboli to SA ud, March? 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

33 Derzhavin Sochineniya vol 6 p 592.

34 Madariaga, Politics and Culture pp 166–7. Franz Demmler, Memoirs of the Court of Prussia p 342.

35 Vernadsky Imperatritsa Ekaterina II i Zakonodatdnaya Komissiya 1767–8 pp 237–9, quoted in Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 213.

36 Robert H. Lord, The Second Partition of Poland pp 180–1. Goertz p 74.

37 Khrapovitsky p 359, 15, 17, 22 March 1791.

38 RS (1892) April p 179, Memoirs of Fyodor Secretarev.

39 Khrapovitsky pp 359–61, 7 and 9 April 1791. Madariaga, Russia p 418. Lord p 181 and appendix 5, Osterman to Alopeus 14/25 March 1791.

40 SIRIO 42: 150–1. RS (1887) 55 p 317.

41 Ehrman vol 2 pp 19–28. Madariaga, Russia p 418. Lord pp 183–5. Hansard XXIX: 31 and 52–79. AKV 8: 1–38, S. R. Vorontsov to Rostopchin 18/29 November 1796. The Marquess of Salisbury compared the confrontation of Britain with Russia in 1878 to a fight between a shark and a wolf (quoted in Andrew Roberts, Salisbury, (London 1999).

42 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67 no 29, Charles Whitworth 10 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

43 Odessa State Local History Museum, invitation to Countess Osterman 28 April 1791. Author’s visit to Odessa August 1998. Unpublished.

CHAPTER 32: CARNIVAL AND CRISIS

1 For the main sources for this account of the Second Turkish War, see Chapter 26, note 1. For the Polish Revolution, this chapter uses, apart from the references given below, Alexander, CtG pp 285–92, and Madariaga, Russia pp 409–26, Lord pp 512–28, Zamoyski, Last King of Poland pp 326–57, Ehrman vol 2 pp 26–41, McKay and Scott pp 240–7. Also Jerzy Lojek, ‘CII’s Armed Intervention in Poland’ and Jerzy Lukowski, The Partitions of Poland 1772, 1793, 1795. Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin p 243.

2 SIRIO 23 (1878): 517–19, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 29 April 1791.

3 Zoia Belyakova, The Romanov Legacy p 91. Potemkin would not use tallow. The cost was said to be more than 70,000 roubles: he had bought every candle in the capital and had to order more from Moscow.

4 Derzhavin quoted from A. A. Kiuchariants, Ivan Starov (Leningrad 1982) p 43 by Cross, By the Banks of the Neva p 275. The words and music of the four choral pieces were, according to Bolotina’s ‘Private Library of Prince GAPT’, by G. R. Derzhavin and Osip Kozlovisky respectively.

5 Anspach, Journey p 137, 18 February 1786.

6 Derzhavin ode quoted in Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 230.

7 L. I. Dyachenko at Tavrichesky Palace. Author’s visit to St Petersburg 1998. Also L. I. Dyachenko, Tavrichesky Dvorets pp 1–64.

8 This account is based on the following: SIRIO 23 (1878): 517–19, CII to Grimm 29 April 1791. Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin p 243. Masson pp 240–4, 386–7. Belyakova p 91. Dyachenko pp 1–57. Author’s visit to Taurida Palace with Ludmila Dyachenko September 1998. Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) vol 3 pp 21–8, about the private life of Prince Potemkin.

9 Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 p 177. Story of Natalia Zakrevskaya, née Razumovskaya. This was the sister of Elisaveta, the daughter of Kirill Razumovsky with whom GAP possibly flirted in the 1760s.

10 Stedingk p 137, Count Stedingk to Gustavus III 18 May 1791, St Petersburg.

11 SIRIO 23 (1878): 519, 29 April 1791, and SIRIO 23 (1878): 520, 30 April 1791, CII to Grimm, St Petersburg. Zamoyski, Last King of Poland pp 337–6. Edmund Burke, Collected Works vol 6 pp 244–6, quoted in Zamoyski p 345. Lord pp 527–8. Madariaga, Russia pp 420–1.

12 ADAD 421: 22–3, Deboli to SA 12 April 1791; 421: 36–9, 29 April 1791; 421: 58–65, 17 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

13 RGADA 5.85.2.289, L 457, CII to GAP May 1791.

14 RV (1841) vol 8 pp 366–7, GAP to Admiral F. F. Ushakov, Prince N. I. Repnin and General-en-Chef I. V. Gudovich 11 May 1791. RGVIA 52.2.21.153, L 457, GAP to CII 9 June 1791, and RGVIA 52.2.21.145–9, GAP to CII 9 June 1791. Anapa, like Ismail, Bender and Akkerman, was always a Russian target. See Dubrovin, Istoriya voyny vol 2 p 269, GAP to Gudovich on Anapa 24 December 1790. RGADA 16.799.2.170, L 456, and RGADA 16.766.2.171, L 456, both GAP to CII. These letters, dating from this time, propose settling Swedish prisoners, Armenians and Moldavians in GAP’s lands as well as expanding Nikolaev and building more ships.

15 RA (1874) 2 pp 251–2, CII rescript to GAP on Poland 16 May 1791.

16 Jerzy Lojek, ‘Catherine’s Armed Intervention in Poland’ pp 579–81.

17 RGVIA 52.2.68.32 and /30, Count Felix Potocki to GAP 12 October 1790 and 9 July 1791, unpublished. Lord pp 527–8, Potocki to GAP 14 May 1791, all three from Vienna. RGVIA 52.2.68.47, GAP to Potocki 18/29 May 1790. RGVIA 52.2.68.48, GAP to Potocki 8 February 1791, unpublished.

18 AKV 13: 227, A. A. Bezborodko to S. R. Vorontsov 17 November 1791.

19 SIRIO 27 (1880): pp 332–3, CII rescript to GAP on precautions on return of Zaporogians and Nekrazovsky Cossacks 15 April 1784.

20 SIRIO 27 (1880): 338, CII rescript to GAP on keeping detachment of Cossacks in Poland, 2 July 1784. SIRIO 27 (1880): 416, CII rescript to GAP permitting establishment of five squadrons of Polish Cossacks 6 July 1787.

21 See Rulikowski, Smila.

22 S. Malachowski, Pamietnik i Stanislawa hr. Nalecz Malachowskiego wyd. Wincenty hr. Los p 92.

23 AGAD 421: 58–65, Deboli to SA 17 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

24 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, William Fawkener to Lord Grenville no 3, 2 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

25 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Fawkener to Lord Grenville 18 June 1791, St Petersburg. Also in same place: GAP on the Black Sea Fleet, Fawkener no 3, 2 June 1791, St Petersburg. Both unpublished.

26 RGVIA 52.2.89.159, S. R. Vorontsov to GAP 3 May NS 1791, London, unpublished.

27 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106.67, Charles Whitworth no 41, 5 August 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished. Stedingk p 146, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 June 1791, St Petersburg.

28 Derzhavin vol 6 pp 592, 422–3.

29 Derzhavin vol 6 pp 592, 422–3.

30 This portrait of Derzhavin uses Jesse V. Clardy, G. R. Derzhavin: A Political Biography pp 70–1, 123, 128.

31 RP 1.1 p 39. Burton Raffel, Russian Poetry under the Tsars p 20. Segal vol 2 pp 262–74.

32 Derzhavin vol 6 pp 422–44.

33 AGAD 421: 122–3, Deboli to SA 22 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished. Derzhavin vol 6 pp 423–4. AKV 8: pp 44–5, Count Fyodor Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 25 December 1791, Jassy.

34 AKV 8: 67, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 14/25 April 1793, and pp 44–5, 25 December 1791, Jassy.

35 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Fawkener no 4, 7 June 1791, and no 8, 21 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

36 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Whitworth 8 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

37 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Whitworth 8 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

38 RGADA 5.85.1.479, L 457, CII to GAP June 1791.

39 RGADA 5.85.2.18, L 458, CII to GAP, and RGVIA 52.2.22.70, L 458, GAP to CII June 1791. The reports to GAP from the fronts, his orders to his commanders, and his reports to CII are in RGVIA 52 op 2, for example GAP’s report to CII on M. I. Kutuzov’s raid across the Danube of 4 June 1791 can be found, dated 19 June 1791, at RGVIA 52.2.21.164.

40 AGAD 421: 122–3, Deboli to SA 22 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

41 AGAD 421: 77–8, Deboli to SA 31 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

42 RGVIA 52.2.22.4, L 458, GAP to CII July 1791. KFZ 2 July 1791. The fall of Anapa: Dubrovin, Istoriya voyny vol 2 p 269, Gudovich to GAP 22 June 1791. On capture and fate of Mansour: Marie Bennigsen Broxup (ed), The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance towards the Moslem World; see Paul B. Henze, ‘Circassian Resistance to Russia’ p 75.

43 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, agreement signed by Whitworth, Fawkener and Goertz 11/22 July 1791 and 16/27 July, St Petersburg, unpublished. KFZ 12 July 1791. RGADA 5.85.1.432, L 459, CII to GAP July 1791, and RGADA 5.85.1.430, L 459, CII to GAP July 1791. RGVIA 52.2.22.11–15, Repnin’s report to GAP on Battle of Machin.

44 AGAD 421: 122–3, Deboli to SA 22 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

45 AGAD 421: 113–14, Deboli to SA July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

46 RGVIA 52.2.39.346, Count Stackelberg to GAP 9/20 December 1789, unpublished.

47 AGAD 421: 85–6, Deboli to SA 17 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

48 Stedingk p 143, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 June 1791, St Petersburg.

49 AAE 20: 312, Langeron, ‘Evénements de l’hiver de 1790 et 1791’. Stedingk p 209, J. J. Jennings to Fronce December 1791, St Petersburg. Golovina p 64.

50 RGADA 5.85.1.499–500, L 460, CII to GAP July 1791. GAP, contrary to legend, was keen to reform the army to stop financial abuses by officers. Hence he created a new sort of Army Inspectorate to check abuses. AVPRI 2.2/81.21.138, L 460, GAP to CII 14 July 1791, and AVPRI 2.2/8a.21.139, L 460, GAP to CII 14 July 1791. See Epilogue note 34.

51 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 323.

52 Lojek, ‘CII’s Armed Intervention in Poland’ pp 579–81. It is argued that conditions CII places on his actions prove that this is a sham, though the rescript contained no more conditions than her 1783 Crimean rescript to GAP. This suits the overview of many Polish historians. Lojek, for example, suggests that the condition that GAP had to arrange a Polish opposition was clearly a sham because CII knew the nobility supported the new Constitution. Yet one country rarely invades another without first arranging to make it look as if they are being invited in by the opposition. Besides, Felix Potocki was one of many Polish magnates opposed to May the Third and devoted to the old Polish concept of ‘golden liberty’. GAP’s actions were also conditional on signing peace with the Porte, but this was just common sense: he himself had always stressed that southern peace was necessary before war in the west.

53 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, no 40 Whitworth to Grenville 5 August 1791. AGAD 421: 103–4, Deboli to SA 8 July 1791. Both these diplomatic despatches from St Petersburg are unpublished.

54 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Whitworth 12 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

55 RS (1876) September p 43, Knyaz Platon Alexandrovich Zubov.

56 Reshetilovsky Archive (Popov archive) pp 77–84, Catherine II’s secret rescript on Poland to GAPT 18 July 1791. RA (1874) 2 pp 281–9.

57 Golovina p 28.

58 RGADA 5.85.2.291, L 461, CII to GAP 25 July 1791. KFZ 24 July 1791.

CHAPTER 33: THE LAST RIDE

1 Michel Oginski, Mémoires sur la Pologne and les Polonais vol 1 ch 7 pp 146–53.

2 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 67 Prince de Ligne to JII April 1788. RGADA 5.85.2.25, CII to GAP 19 November 1786.

3 Masson p 111.

4 RGVIA 52.2.22.90–103, Prince N. I. Repnin to GAP July–August 1791. RGADA 5.85.2.296, CII to GAP 12 August 1791, Tsarskeo Selo. SIRIO 29: 220, A. A. Bezborodko to P. V. Zavadovsky 17 November 1791. Engelhardt 1997 p 94. SIRIO 23 (1878): 553, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 27 August 1791.

5 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Charles Whitworth to Lord Grenville 5 August 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished. Samoilov col 1555 and notes 1 and 2, plus cols 1556–7.

6 RGADA 1.1/1.43.97, L 464, GAP to CII 4 August 1791, Olviopol. RGADA 5.85.2.296, L 465, CII to GAP 12 August 1791.

7 This was Mrs Maria Guthrie’s expression ten years later for the feverish sicknesses of the rivers around the Black Sea: letter 23 p 111. SIRIO 29: 121, Bezborodko on GAP’s breaking of talks in August 1791.

8 Samoilov col 1557.

9 AKV 8:37, Count F. V. Rostopchin to Count S. R. Vorontsov 7 October 1791. Samoilov col 1555. RGADA 1.1/1.43.100, L 465, GAP to CII 15 August 1791, Galatz. Stedingk p 197, J. J. Jennings to Fronce ud, St Petersburg.

10 RGVIA 52.2.38.18, V. S. Popov to Bezborodko 24 August 1791. RGADA 1.1/1.43.104, GAP to CII 24 August 1791. RGADA 5.85.2.298, L 466, CII to GAP 28 August 1791. Khrapovitsky 28 and 29 August 1791. AAE 20: 358, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. RV (1841) vol 8 p 372, GAP to Repnin August 1791.

11 RGADA 1.1/1.43.106, L 468, GAP to CII 6 September 1791, Jassy. RGADA 5.85.2.302, CII to GAP 4 September 1791, St Petersburg. RGVIA 52.2.38.22, Popov to Bezborodko 6 September 1791.

12 RGVIA 52.2.89.95, C. S. Czernisen (?) to Popov ‘to tell the Marshal’ 9 September 1791, unpublished.

13 RGVIA 52.2.68.50, GAP to Comte de Potocki Grand Maître d’Artilleries ud, 4 September? 1791, and RGVIA 52.11.71.16, GAP to Comte Rzewewski ud, 4 September 1791, both from Jassy, both unpublished. Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 357. SBVIM vol 8 p 254, GAP’s reports on the negotiations with the Vizier and return of the Sebastopol Fleet 29 August 1791.

14 For example, RGVIA 52.2.89.162, Chevalier Second to GAP 25 June/6 July 1791, Le Hague, on the settlement of a ‘New Marseilles’ of French settlers. RGVIA 52.2.89.165, GAP to Comte de Kahlenberg 29 August/9 September 1791 on supplying timber contracts for shipbuilding. All unpublished.

15 ‘Canon to the Saviour’ quoted in Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 239.

16 Vassilchikov vol 3 p 122, Count Andrei Razumovsky to GAP 15 September 1791, Vienna. RGVIA 52.2.89.166, GAP to Sénac de Meilhan 27 August 1791. RGVIA 271.1.65.1, Sénac de Meilhan to GAP 6 August 1791, Moscow. Both unpublished.

17 AKV 8: 43, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 25 December 1791, Jassy.

18 RGADA 5.85.2.303, L 468, CII to GAP 16 September 1791. Popov’s reports to CII on GAP’s illness are the main source for this account of his demise unless otherwise ascribed: RGVIA 52.2.94.3–26 and RA (1878) 1 pp 20–5.

19 Popov 6–25 September 1791. AKV 25: 467, CII to Countess A. V. Branicka 16 September 1791.

20 RGADA 1.1/1.43.103, L 468, GAP to CII 16 September 1791. Popov 16 September 1791.

21 RGVIA 52.2.37.255, GAP to Bezborodko 16 September 1791. Popov 16 September 1791. RGVIA 52.2.55.253, 247 and 268, reports from Vienna on GAP and peace talks 21, 17 and 28 September NS 1791, unpublished.

22 RGADA 1.1/1.43.7, L 469, and RGVIA 52.2.22.187, L 469, GAP to CII 21 September 1791. Popov 21 September 1791. RGVIA 52.2.37.257, GAP to Bezborodko.

23 AAE 20: 358, 360–2, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. Castera vol 3 p 323. Samoilov col 1557. Popov 25 September 1791.

24 Popov 25 September 1791, Metropolitan Iona’s report, originally in Georgian. ZOOID 3: 559.

25 RGADA 1.1/1.43.102, L 470, GAP to CII 27 September 1791. Popov 27 September 1791.

26 Popov 30 September–2 October 1791. RGADA 5.85.2.304, CII to GAP 30 September 1791.

27 RGADA 1.1/1.43.9, L 470, GAP to CII 2 October 1791. Popov 2 October and 3 October 1791.

28 RGADA 5.85.1.429, L 470, CII to GAP 3 October 1791. AEB vol 25 p 467, CII to Branicka. Popov 3–4 October 1791. Khrapovitsky 3 October 1791.

EPILOGUE: LIFE AFTER DEATH

1 Author’s visits to Chizhova, Smolensk Province, Russia, September 1998, and Kherson, Ukraine, July/August 1998. Father Anatoly and V. M. Zheludov, the schoolteacher of Petrishchevo, Smolensk Province. Samoilov cols 1569 and 1560.

2 AKV 13: 216–22, A. A. Bezborodko to P. V. Zavadovsky November 1791, Jassy. Also ZOOID 11: 3–5. AAE 20: 360–2, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. Lopatin, Perepiska pp 961–4. There were stories that Dr Timan had poisoned the Prince on either Zubov’s or Catherine’s orders. Even Langeron discounts them. Soon a scurrilous pamphlet appeared entitled Panslavin – Prince of Darkness (Fürst der Finsternis) by J. F. E. Albrecht, a Freemason – the beginning of the anti-Potemkin mythology. This suggested that a good queen had ordered the poisoning of her demonic co-ruler.

3 Engelhardt 96–7. AKV 13: 216–22, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky ud, November 1791: RA (1878) 1 pp 20–5, V. S. Popov to CII 8 October 1791, Jassy. General Kahovsky was supposed to take command but he was in the Crimea, so Mikhail Kamensky, future Field-Marshal in the Napoleonic Wars, seized control and went berserk in the street, beating Jews, but the army refused to obey his authority. GAP’s wishes prevailed.

4 Khrapovitsky pp 377–8, 16, 17 and 18 October 1791.

5 RGADA 5.131.5–5, CII to Popov 4 November 1791.

6 RGADA 11.1096.1–1, Countess Ekaterina Skavronskaya to CII 3 November 1791.

7 RA (1878) 1 p 25, Princess Varvara V. Golitsyna to Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin 2 November 1791, Jassy.

8 SIRIO 23 (1878): 561, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 22 October 1791.

9 RGVIA 52.2.55.285, news from Vienna 1/12 October 1791, unpublished. AKV 13: 221–2 Bezborodko to Zavadovsky November 1791.

10 RGADA 5.138.9, M. S. Potemkin to CII 6 December 1791, Jassy.

11 V. L. Esterhazy, Nouvelles Lettres du Comte Valentin L. Esterhazy à sa femme 1792–95 p 371, 23 December 1791–3 January 1792. Stedingk p 216, Count Stedingk to Gustavus III 26 December 1791–9 January 1792. AKV 8: 58, F. V. Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 28 September 1792, St Petersburg. Russkiy Biographicheskiy Slovar vol 14 (1904). AKV 13 (1879): 256, Bezborodko to S. R. Vorontsov 15 May 1792, Tsarskoe Selo.

12 LeDonne p 262. ZOOID 9: 222–5, report of M. S. Potemkin. ZOOID 9: 227, Emperor Alexander I to the State Treasurer Baron Vasilev 21 April 1801, St Petersburg. ZOOID 8: 226–7, Popov’s explanation of GAP’s finances 9 May 1800. ZOOID 8: 225–6, brief note on income and expenditure of extraordinary sums at command of Prince GAPT. ZOOID 9 (1875): 226, CII ukase to the cabinet on GAP’s debts 20 August 1792, Tsarskoe Selo. Brückner Potemkin, p 274. Karnovich p 314. The Sutherland financial scandal is best told in Cross, By the Banks of the Neva pp 80–1. GAP was not the only magnate exposed by Sutherland’s death. Prince Viazemsky, Count Osterman and Grand Duke Paul himself were all hugely in debt to him. Rulikowski, Smila. RS (1908) 136 pp 101–2. Tregubov. Tregubov wrote, ‘The benefit to the country, felt by all, was worth all the money he spent.’ This was literally true for the soldiers under his command.

13 Stedingk p 188, Stedingk to Gustavus III 28 October 1791, St Petersburg.

14 AKV 13: 216–22, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky November 1791, Jassy.

15 RGADA 11.902a Register of Prince GAPT’s Debts, and RGADA 11.902a.30. These debts extended from the vast sums owed to Sutherland to onyx pillars for the Taurida Palace, diamonds, gold muslin shawls (1,880 roubles), female dresses (over 12,000 roubles), oysters, fruit, asparagus and champagne.

16 AKV 13: 223–8, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 17 November 1791, Jassy.

17 Esterhazy p 333, 17/28 October 1791, St Petersburg.

18 Masson p 113.

19 Stedingk p 188, Stedingk to Gustavus III 4 November 1791.

20 Esterhazy p 333.

21 Stedingk pp 186–8, Stedingk to Gustavus III 28 October 1791, St Petersburg.

22 AKV 8: 39, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 25 December 1791, Jassy, and AKV 8: 53, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 8 July 1792, St Petersburg.

23 Stedingk p 196, J. J. Jennings to Fronce ud, St Petersburg.

24 S. N. Glinka, Russkiye chteniya, izdavaemye Sergeem Glinkoyu. Otechestvennye istoricheskiy pamyatniki xviii i xix stoleiya pp 78–9.

25 AKV 13: 223–8, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 17 November 1791, Jassy.

26 Petrushevsky p 263. Suvorov, Pisma (Lopatin) p 224, A. V. Suvorov to D. I. Khvostov 15 October 1791; pp 232–3: Suvorov to Khvostov 20 July 1792; p 251, Suvorov to Khvostov 24 November 1796 and Suvorov to P. I. Turchaninov 7 May 1793.

27 Engelhardt 1997 p 97.

28 Stedingk pp 188 and 195, Stedingk to Gustavus III 28 October 1791 and Jennings to Fronce ud, St Petersburg.

29 AKV 8: 39, 25 December 1791, Jassy.

30 AKV 13: 223–8, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 17 November 1791, Jassy.

31 Ligne, Mélanges vol 22 p 82, Prince de Ligne to CII 1793.

32 Ségur quoted by Castera vol 3 p 333.

33 AKV 13: 223–8, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 17 November 1791, Jassy. As ever with the Prince, the difference between the legend and the truth is marked: the chaos, corruption and destruction of the armies that he left in Jassy, for example, fill all accounts. Yet Count Bezborodko, who always cast a sardonic but just eye on Potemkin, found that the grain magazines were full, the army was in ‘a very good state’, provisions were generous, and the fleet and flotilla were numerous, if not built of the best wood, and that, despite Potemkin’s Cossack obsession, he had to admit ‘the light Cossack forces are in the best state possible’.

34 AAE 20: 362, Langeron. Pushkin quoted in Lopatin, Perepiska p 470. Castera vol 2 p 177. Wiegel vol 1 pp 28–9. Samoilov col 1560. Derzhavin in Segal vol 2 pp 291–2. Ligne, Mélanges vol 7 pp 171–2, Ligne to Comte de Ségur 1 August 1788. On the state of the army: Potemkin undoubtedly allowed his colonels to run their regiments profitably with minimal supervision, though he was now introducing inspectors to stop outrageous abuse. Nor was he remotely interested in Prussian drilling or endless ceremonial. He was said by foreigners (for example, Damas pp 114–16) to discourage all exercises, yet his archives reveal his instructions for training his marine commandos already quoted above. SBVIM vol 4 p 217, where GAP gives training instructions, criticizing officers who teach manoeuvres ‘seldom fit to be used in battle’ and recommends easy marching to walk faster without getting tired and simple training in forming squares, shooting and reloading. GAP simply disdained the slavish and pedantic following of Prussian training and tactics and evolved his own style regardless of Western opinion but based on Tartar, Cossack and Russian traditions. This offended French and German officers – hence Langeron, Damas and Ligne. Finally on the corruption of the Russian army under GAP, it is worth noting that Louis XVI’s army was crippled with corruption and that commissions in the British army, though partially reformed in 1798, were still sold until 1871 when Gladstone abolished them. So GAP’s system was probably no worse than that at Horse-Guards in London.

35 SIRIO 54 (1886): 147–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

36 RA (1879) 1 pp 2–25, Popov to CII 8 October 1791.

37 RGADA 5.131.4–4, CII to Popov ud, November 1791.

38 Engelhardt 1997 pp 97–102. Author’s visit to Golia Monastery in Iaşi, Rumania, October 1999.

39 Khrapovitsky pp 383–5, 387.

40 AKV 18: 36, Prince V. . Kochubey to S. R. Vorontsov 28 July/9 August 1792.

41 Khrapovitsky pp 407–8, 236. Madariaga, Russia p 562.

42 Ligne, Mélanges vol 22 p 82, Ligne to CII 1792. Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna p 292. For Popov, see RP 2.1.19 and AKV 8: 58, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 28 September 1792, St Petersburg.

43 Rear-Admiral J. P. Jones to Potemkin 13 April 1789, quoted in Otis p 359. Statement to chief of police quoted in Morison p 388. RGVIA 52.2.64.12, Ségur to GAP ud, summer of 1789, St Petersburg, unpublished.

44 Stedingk p 226, Stedingk to Gustavus III 6/17 February 1792. AKV 8: 48–50, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 13/24 February 1792, St Petersburg.

45 Masson p 195. As Catherine continued most of Potemkin’s policies, Zubov had the job of executing them, but he did so with none of the master’s lightness of touch and flexibility. His sole achievements were the greedy and bloody partition of Poland that Potemkin had hoped to avoid and the bungled negotiations to marry Grand Duchess Alexandra to the King of Sweden, a marriage the Prince had suggested. This was the humiliation that accelerated Catherine’s final stroke. Zubov’s very Potemkinian expedition to attack Persia was recalled after the Empress’s death.

46 Masson pp 58–9. AKV 13 (1879): 256, Bezborodko to S. R. Vorontsov 15 May 1792, Tsarskoe Selo.

47 Masson p 124. Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 183. The Prince de Ligne said they were planning to remove Paul as early as 1788. Ligne to Kaunitz 15 December 1788, Jassy.

48 McGrew p 237. ZOOID 9 (1875): 226, rescript of Paul I 11 April 1799. On the library: Bolotina, ‘Private Library of Prince GAPT’ 252–64, 29 May 1789. Paul orders library sent to Kazan Gymnasium, 29 March 1799. It arrived in Kazan in ‘18 carts’ and in 1806 was placed in the Library of Kazan State University.

49 Czartoryski p 62.

50 RP 1.1 p 72. AAE 20: 134–5, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1790’. Sophie de Witte/Potocka built a palace and a beautiful park called Sopheiwka which remains popular in today’s Ukraine. She also owned estates in the Crimea and planned to build a new town there, named after herself. One of her sons by Witte, Jan, became the Russian secret policeman in charge of observing the potential Polish revolutionaries against Alexander I in Odessa during the 1820s. The Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz was one of them. See Ascherson p 150.

51 Wiegel vol 1 p 43. RP 4.2 p 214. RP 2.1 p 5. She kept a shrine to GAP at her famous estate, Belayatserkov. There is a portrait of her with her children, now at the Alupka Palace in the Crimea, in which the bust beside her is said to be GAP. It is possible that GAP’s heart is buried at Belayatserkov. Branicka also built a fabulous park that still exists in Ukraine called Alexandria. She was much loved for giving villages to her peasants and endowing them with their own agricultural banks to finance their farming.

52 RP 1.1 p 30. RP 1.1 p 29. RP 3.1 p 10. RP 1.2 p 120. Skavronskaya was also made Grand Mistress of Court by Alexander I. Her husband Count Giulio P. Litta was a high official under Alexander and Nicholas I

53 Yusupov pp 6–9. RP 1.1 p 10 and RP 4.2 206. See also T. Yusupova in Russkiy Biographicheskiy Slovar (1916).

54 Anthony L. H. Rhinelander, Prince Michael Vorontsov, Viceroy to the Tsar pp 75–6. Henri Troyat, Pushkin pp 214–25. Vorontsov personally commanded one of some of Nicholas I’s campaigns against Shamyl and the Chechen/Daghestan Murids who defied Russian attempts to control the North Caucasus. Vorontsov and Lise appear in ‘Hadji Murat’ by Leo Tolstoy: see Tolstoy, Master and Man and Other Stories (Harmondsworth 1977).

55 RP 1.1 p 30. RP 1.1 p 29. RP 3.1 p 10. RP 1.2 p 120. Alan Palmer, Metternich pp 36, 136, 137, 148, 322.

56 The actual Potemkin family multiplied in the nineteenth century, but not the lines closest to the Prince’s story. Pavel Potemkin’s son Count Grigory died at Borodino, while his other son Sergei married but had no children. Mikhail Potemkin had two children by Tatiana Engelhardt, but their one son, Alexander, had no children. The other lines, however, multiplied exceedingly. The last of one noble line was Alexander Alexeievich, who was the ultimate marshal of the Smolensk nobility and was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 when they captured him in the Crimea as he tried to escape Russia. His daughter, Natalia Alexandrovna Potemkina, lived on in Simferopol, one of the Prince’s cities, and died in 2000. Thus ended one noble branch of Potemkins.

57 Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924 pp 217, 515–16.

58 Kenneth Rose, George V p 320.

59 Vallentin p 523.

60 Author’s visit to Golia Monastery in Iaşi, Rumania, October 1998. Fanica Ungureanu, Professor of Economic Science, Iaşi University, showed the author the place.

61 Author’s visit to Potemkin monument, Republic of Moldova, 1998.

62 RGADA 11.966.1–2 pp 1, 2, Popov to CII October 1791 and 27 March 1792.

63 RGADA 11.956.1, Popov to CII, p 2; Popov to CII 27 March 1792. ZOOID 9: 390–3. Gravestone monuments in Kherson Fortress Church including Soldatsky. RGADA 16.696.2.35, General-en-Chef Kahovsky to CII 27 February 1792; p 35, Kahovsky to CII 2 February 1792. RGVIA 1287.12.126.31 and 21 (1823) CII’s rescripts on GAPT’s monuments quoted in ‘New Work of I. P. Martos’, in E. V. Karpova, Cultural Monuments, New Discoveries pp 355–64.

64 ZOOID 9: 390–3, about the gravestone monuments of Kherson Fortress Church, including Soldatsky. ZOOID 5 (1863): 1006, about the place of GAP’s burial by I. Andreevsky: Emperor Paul I to Alexander Kurakin 27 March 1798 and Kurakin to the local Govenor Seletsky, received on 18 April 1798. It is ironic that this was the same A. B. Kurakin whose letter to his friend Bibikov, when he was in Paul’s entourage on his trip to Europe in 1781–2, had ensured that Paul was excluded from power as long as Catherine lived. On Paul and GAP’s body, see AAE 20: 331, Langeron, 1824: ‘The commander of the fortress had the courage to disobey but reported that [Paul’s] order had been obeyed’. Langeron was close to Paul’s court.

65 AAE 20: 331, Langeron writes in 1824 of his disgust that the family had not yet built GAP the monument he deserved. Karpova pp 355–64. RGVIA 1287.12.126.23–4 A. Samoilov to Alexander I. GAOO 4.2.672.2, Alexander I rescript to build GAP monument 1825. But, as soon as Paul was murdered by his Guards officers in 1801 and his son Alexander succeeded promising to govern ‘like my beloved grandmother Catherine the Second’, GAP was rehabilitated and a monument commissioned in Kherson. The sculptor I. P. Martos was commissioned, but work was soon stopped by one of the frequent rows between Potemkin’s heirs about money – it was to cost the vast sum of 170,000 roubles – and did not start again until 1826. The colossal bronze Classical monument, finally unveiled in 1837, depicted Potemkin in Roman armour and robes with a huge sword and plumed helmet, on top of a pedestal reached by steps and guarded by the figures of Mars, Hercules, Apollo and Neptune. But during the Revolution Kherson changed hands back and forth and it was the Petluraists who tore down Martos’s Roman GAP to avenge the liquidation of the Zaporogian Sech. They tossed it into the yards of the local museum. The Nazis later either stole it or destroyed it.

66 AAE 20: 331, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. ZOOID 9: 390–3.

67 ZOOID 5 (1863): 1006, I. Andreevsky. Milgov letter from Kherson 12 October 1859 published in St Petersburg journal Vedomosti no 918 January 1860.

68 ZOOID 9: 390–3, N. Murzakevich 30 August 1874.

69 Father Anatoly, priest of St Catherine’s Church. Author’s visit to Kherson July–August 1998.

70 B. A. Lavrenev, Potemkin’s Second Burial.

71 ZOOID 9: 390–3, Soldatsky. L. G. Boguslavsky to E. V. Anisimov 15 July 1786, Kherson.