Prince of Princes -The Life of Potemkin

Cagliostro, 'Countess' Serafina 209-10 Cameron, Charles 318, 422 Cantacuzino, Prince 432 Carew, Reginald Pole see Pole Carew Carlyle, Thomas 193

Carysfort, John Joshua Proby, Lord 306-7 Casanova, Giacomo, Chevalier de Seingault

60, 61, 66, 67, 200, 209, 229, 238, 315 Castera, Jean-Henri 491 Catherine I, Tsarina 27, 28П Catherine II (the Great) Tsarina: life:

becoming Empress 45-9 birth 32

conspiracies against 55, 88 coronation 52-3

coup to take throne 30, 34, 37, 40, 41,

42.-7 daily routine 66-8 death 495

on death of Lanskoy 312-14 flirtations 33-5 government 55-6 Great Instruction 74 illnesses 146, 446, 453, 464 journey to South 354-6, 363-79 marriage to Peter 32, 33-4, 37, 42 wedding 3 3 at masquerade ball 467-71 and peasant rebellion 129-31 plot to assassinate 126 pregnancies 34, 35, 37, 38, 146 succession 30

lovers (favourites) 30, 34, 35, 37, 90, 94-

120-1, 151, 152, 157П, 165-84, 210, 313, 314-17, 32.4, 32.5-7, 417-18, 421- 5

personal: ability to handle people 60-1 appearance 30, 48, 60, no-n, 320, 422 called 'the Great' 3 20 and Jews 282, 283 love of dressing up 67 love of English gardens 304-5 love of reading 3 3 personality 121 religion 61 tact 60-1

relationship with Elisabeth 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38-9

relationship with Orlov 37, 38, 40, 62, 65-

68, 69, 85, 90-1, 94, 121, 165, 182 relationship with P 2, 54, 61, 62, 65-6, 85,

Catherine II (the Great) Tsarina - contd relationship with P - contd

88-9, 90-1, 101-5, 307, 320-2, 388, 396, 409, 420, 453-4, 462, 463, 464- 5, 477-9, 491 arranging P's funeral 492-3 attitude to P's affairs 184, 188 correspondence 4-6, 10, 92-3, 111-12, 114-15, 116-21, 123, 135, 136, 138- 9, 148, 151, 153-4, 2.22, 253-4, 257, 314, 356, 385, 386-7, 388-9, 477-8, 483, 484-5 crisis 474-6, 478 life together 109-61 makes P's mother lady-in-waiting 29 marriage to P 24П, 136-41, 147-50, 151-

4, 156, 159-61, 165, 174, 181, 183-4 nicknames for P no, in, 115, 119 on P 94, 102

problems 151-4, 156, 159-61 on P's death 9, 487-90, 493-4 and P's family 149-50, 192, 227-8, 238,

239-40, 247 P's names for 111

rendezvous with P 17, 19, 102, 116, 122- 3

settling P's debts 489 wedding 136-8 views: on Elisabeth 26 on Peter 3 2

on Peter's murder 51-2 writings: Memoirs 21-2, 33, 34, 36, 316 Notes on Russian History 343 Catherine Palace 318-19 Caucasus 291-2, 385, 396, 445 Caucasus corps 393 Ceaucescu, Nicolae 432n Chamberlen family 157П Charles II, King of England 15 Charles XII, King of Sweden 15, 25, 266,

306, 379 Chechens 291-2, 384, 385 Chechnya 255

Chepega Z. A. (Cossack) 393 Cherkess 292

Chernyshev, Count Ivan G. 56, 77, 88, 129,

158, 196, 198, 206, 259, 422П, 460 Chernyshev, Count Zakhar G. 33, 56, 65, 77, 100, 123-4, 125, 127, 129, 130 daughter 359 Chertkov, Evgraf Alexandrovich 137, 138,

383 Chesme 84

Chevaliers-Gardes 67, 124, 145 chivalry, orders of 66-7 Chizhova 13, 16, 17-18, 19, 20, 489, 492, 502

Chudleigh, Elisabeth see Kingston, Duchess of

Circassians 385 Clausewitz, Karl von 218 Cleopatra 5

Clive, Robert, Lord 334П Cobenzl, Count Louis 228, 317, 331, 355, 368, 384 in Kiev 357

organizing intercepts of Paul's post 240 relationship with P 222 reports to Joseph 183, 230, 232, 234, 238, 240, 241, 275, 313-M, 354, 367, 368, 410

taking singing lessons 322 travel arrangements for Joseph 224 womanizing 322 Cobley, Henrietta 302 Coburg Saalfeld, Prince Friedrich -Josef de

Saxe 395, 421, 425, 426, 428, 441 Coigny, Louise Marthe, Marquise de 392, 412

College of War 123, 126, 151 colonization 280-4, 2-85-7, 2.93-4 conservatoires 277

Constantine, Grand Duke 158П, 219, 235,

242, 243, 379, 469 Constantinople (Tsargrad) 212, 215, 259,

*66, 353, 373, 375, 48i Constantinov, Zakhar 219П convicts: settling in Crimea 284, 285-7 Corberon, Chevalier Marie Daniel Bourree de 151, 155, 156, 157, 158, 167, 173, 177, 178, 180, 185, 198, 200, 203, 206, 208, 209, 211, 215 Cossacks 1, 3-4, 95-6, 129, 264, 288, 291, 371,446,451,473 Cossack Host 393-4 Jewish 394 Kuban 394

Zaporogian 3, 265-7, 393, 409, 412n, 440 Courland 155

Courrier de Moldavie, Le 432 Court: balls 317-18 dress 66-7, 318 life at 68

in summer 318-19, 320 weekly programme 318 Coxe, Archdeacon William 250

Craven, Elisabeth (nee Berkeley), Countess of (later Margravine of Anspach) 37П, 279, 288-9, 292, 331, 333, 338, 339, 353) 3^8o> З⁸¹» 382, 399 Crete 474

Crillon, Due de 281 Crimea 244-60 annexation 249-50, 252-3, 254-5, 264,

272-3 conquest of 2

C's visit to 371-9, 382, 384 gardens on 305 importance 249

independence of 89, 131, 202, 204, 205

invasion 247

Khanate 244-7, 272

lies about 380

population 293

position 89

Prussian plan for 437

rebellion 241-2, 243, 247

scenery 272-3

settlement 280, 281, 284, 285-7, 289 suggested withdrawal from 387, 388 Crimean War 394П, 411 Cromwell, Oliver 334П Custine, Marquis de 28 Czartoryski brothers 3 5

Dacia, Kingdom of 242-3, 431, 498 Daghestan 255 Damas, Roger, Comte de 425 arrival at P's Court 392 on С 3 20 on Cs Court 317 on C's favourites 182 disdain for soldiers 410 journey with P to Petersburg 415 onP263, 343

P as friend and protector 409 in Second Russo-Turkish War 398, 400, 401, 402, 405, 407-8, 410, 412-13, 450-1

success with women 407-8, 410, 413, 442 surveillance 61 uniforms 407-8 Danube, River 420 fortresses on 442 Danzig 437, 465,473 Dashkov, Prince M - К 40 Dashkov, Prince Pavel Mikhailovich 297,

308, 315-17 Dashkova, Princess Ekaterina P. {nee Vorontsova) 41, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50, 51, 56, 193, 259, 315-17, 321-2

Deboli, Augustyn 460, 463, 474, 475, 477,

478

Debraw, Dr John 303, 308, 310 Decembrist Revolt 158П Denis, Madame 193 Denmark: aid from 411 war against 40, 42, 43 Derzhavin, Gavrili Romanovich 1, 4, 8-9, 186, 196, 223, 236, 244, 263, 285, 430, 459, 469, 475, 487, 490, 492, 502 Deuza, Alexis 337 Devlet Giray 245, 246 Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of 288,

345)474 Diderot, Denis 66, 90, 99-100 Dimsdale, Baron Doctor Thomas 235, 237 Dimsdale, Baroness Elisabeth 227, 235, 305, 318, 319

Dino, Dorothea of Courland, Duchesse de 193

Diocletian 264 Diplomatic Revolution 3 5 diplomats 200-2 Dmitri, False 96

Dmitriyev-Mamonov, Alexander see

Mamonov Dnieper, River: cruise down 363-75 Dnepropetrovsk (Ekaterinoslav) 274-7,

282, 283, 290, 292П, 294, 305, 369 Dnepropetrovsk Mafia 277П Dniester, River 420, 421, 426-7, 437-8 Dolgorukaya, Princess Ekaterina F. {nee Bariatinskaya) 316, 336, 392, 430, 442- 3)444-5) 448, 460, 461 Dolgoruky-Krimsky, Prince Vasily M. 87,

145) 246 Dologoruky, Prince V. V. 392, 445 Dolgoruky, Prince Yuri A. 92, 93, 97 dress: Court 66-7, 318 Dubrovna 299, 445-6 Durand de Distroff 65, 91, 126 Duval (jewellers) 337

Dzones, Pavel Ivanovich see Jones, John Paul

Edward II, King of England 28n Efremov (Hetman) S. D. 266 Eisenstein, Sergei 497 Ekaterinograd 291

Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) 274-7,

282, 283, 290, 292П, 294, 305, 369 Ekaterinoslav (Glory of Catherine) (ship of

the line) 278-9 Elisabeth Petrovna, Tsarina 29 abolishing death penalty 22, 27 appearance 26

Elisabeth Petrovna, Tsarina - contd attitude to Jews 282 Catherine and 32, 33, 36, 38-9 and church 41 courtiers' fear of 26-7 'daughter' 141-4 death 39

dislike of Peter 36 finding wife for heir 3 2 funeral 40

holding transvestite balls 26 illness 30, 35, 37-8 lovers 25, 27, 28, 44 marriage 58, 137 in men's clothes 26, 46 seizing throne 28, 42, 47 taking Catherine's children 34, 35 vanity 26 views of Peter 36

Elisabeth II, Queen of England 382 Elisabethgrad 390, 391-2., 392, 393 Elphinstone, Admiral John 84 Emin, Mehmed 79, 80 Engelhardt, Alexandra (niece) see Branicka Engelhardt, Anna V. (niece) (later Zhukova) 186

Engelhardt, Ekaterina (niece) see

Skavronskaya Engelhardt, Lev Nikolaevich (cousin) 13,

18, 180, 259, 266, 316, 345 Engelhardt, Marfa Elena A. (sister) 18, 22, 149

Engelhardt, Nadezhda V. (niece) (later Ismailova, then Shepileva)i86, 238 Engelhardt, Tatiana V. (niece) (later Potemkina, then Princess Yusupova) 187, 192, 198, 208, 238, 252, 479, 496 Engelhardt, Varvara (niece) see Golitsyna Engelhardt, Vasily A. (brother-in-law) 18, 22, 149

Engelhardt, Vasily V. (nephew) 187, 192,

226, 366, 490 Eschenbaum 170-1, 319 Estandas, Antonio d' 289 Evrard (valet) 358П executions: in Ottoman Empire 216, 217 in Russia 133, 134-5

Fages, Vaumale de 70 Faleev, Mikhail Leontovich 265, 268, 269, 277, 278, 279, 287, 290, 397, 406, 433, 435

Fanshawe, Henry 398, 401, 403, 404, 412 faro 345-6

Fasi (jeweller) 338

Fawkener, William 293, 465, 472, 474, 476, 477,481

Ferdinand of Brunswick, Prince 394 Fidonise, 408

Fitzherbert, Alleyne (later Baron St.Helens) 190, 289, 297, 322-3, 324, 354, 355, 370, 373-4 Fitzherbert, Mrs 137 Flying Geese 201 Fokshany, Battle of 425 Four Year Sejm 396, 418, 454, 473 Fox, Charles James 242, 250, 465, 474 France:

allies in East 57 allliance with Austria 222, 252 in American War of Independence 204, 250 role as mediator 204 support from Prussia 253 support for Turkey 77, 84, 125, 218 Franco-Russian trade treaty 323-4 Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia 8, 55, 80, 99, 103, 155, 229, 345, 492 anti-Austrian League 323 colonization 280 C's hatred of 3 5 disgust with C's behaviour 100 emotional crises after battles 387 encouraging France against Russia 253 on Frederick William 228 honours given to P 128 jealousy of Russia's gains 89, 125 Joseph IPs emulation of 224, 226 meanness 205 musical ability 331 mysogyny 104 on P 104

Paul's admiration for 158 on Peter 50

Peter's admiration for 37 Peter's support for 39, 40, 41 reports made to 125, 182, 208 on Russian soldiers 78, 412 saved by death of Elisabeth 39 supporting С 57, 202-3 Frederick William, Prince (later King ) of Prussia 228, 229, 375, 403, 418, 438, 439, 441, 454, 455, 463, 464, 465 Freemasonry 208-9, 4⁶3~4 French Revolution 421, 440, 467, 471 Fyodor, Tsar 14-15

Gaks, Colonel 269-70, 282 gallows 133

gardens: English 304-6, 347, 378, 425

Garnovsky, Colonel Mikhail A. 198, 199,

293^327,380,411,415 Gaveston, Piers 28n Genghis Khan 244

Georg-Ludwig, Prince of Holstein-Gottorp

41,42, 193 George II, King of England 197 George III, King of England 68, 103, 128,

146-7, 202П, 323, 325, 495 George IV, King of England (Prince of Wales) 136

George V, King of England 498П Georgia, Kingdom of 255-6, 384 Georgievsk 291

Georgievsk, Treaty of 256, 291 Giroir, Claude 274 glagoly (gallows) 133 glass factories 300 Glinka, S.N. 258 Goebbels, Dr Josef 39П Goertz, Count J. E. von der 182, 208, 211, 228

Golavaty, Anton 393, 409 Golavaty, Pavel 9

Golenishev-Kutuzov, Mikhail see Kutuzov Golia Monastery 498, 501-2 Golitsyn, Field-Marshal Prince Alexander M. 77, 79-8o, 93, 102, 130, 136, 143, 296, 297, 312П Golitsyn, Prince A. M. (Vice-Chancellor) 50 Golitsyn, Prince Dmitri M. 154, 222 Golitsyn, Prince Grigory Sergeievich 189 Golitsyn, Prince Mikhail A. 477 Golitsyn, Prince Peter M. 128 Golitsyn, Prince S. 13 8n Golitsyn, Prince Sergei Fyodorovich (later

Field-Marshal) 188-9 Golitsyna, Princess Praskovia Andreevna

{nee Shuvalova) 477, 478П Golitsyna, Princess Varvara (niece) {nee Englehardt) 150, 185, 186, 187-9, ^I9°, 191, 193, 194, 238, 239 Golovina, Countess Varvara N. 430, 445, 479

Goltzwart, Katerina 419

Goncharova, Natalia 138

Gorbachev, Mikhael 29 m

Gordon Riots 174

Gothland, Battle of 403, 411

Gould, William 292, 293П, 304, 305-6, 311,

347, 353, 367, 378, 381, 42.5, 432., 468 Grand Tour 196

Grantham, Thomas Robinson, Viscount

248, 253 Grasse, Admiral Joseph de 242

Great Instruction 74

Greek Project 219-21, 225, 232, 233, 235,

240, 242-3,431 Gregoripol 281, 495

Greig, Admiral Samuel 84, 143, 398, 402, 411

Grimm, Baron Frederich Melchior 320, 398 correspondence with С 9, 66, 105, 114, 141, 145, 170-1» 2.09, 2io, 312, 313, 319, 321, 331, 344, 360, 368, 460, 467, 468, 471 introduction to С 99 Guards Regiments 29-30 Gudovich, Ivan V. 448, 449, 472, 476 Guibald, Mademoiselle 208, 342, 352 Gulesy, Elisabeth 379

Gunning, Sir Robert 69,104, no, 128,140, 147-8

Gustavus III, King of Sweden 90, 169, 204,

253,402-3,441-2,462 Guthrie, Maria 78, 271, 272, 290, 377П

Hablitz, Karl-Ludwig 233, 234, 272, 288 Habsburgs 224, 439 Haci Giray 244 Hackett (gardener) 305 Hadjibey 278, 426, 494 Hamilton, Emma, Lady 239 Hamilton, Sir William 142 Hannibal, General Abraham 16, 267 Hannibal, Ivan Abramovich 267, 268, 269, 271

Hannibal, Osip 267

Harris, Sir James, i^st Earl of Malmesbury 221,229,237 advice from P 321, 345 and Benthams 297, 303 created Earl of Malmesbury 494 friendship with P 242, 250, 314, 319, 338 leaving Petersburg 250 negotiating alliance 205-8, 210-12, 230-

1, 249, 250 recommending Englishmen to P 306 reports by 168, 169, 170, 171-2, 173-4, 182-3, 184, 188, 189, 190, 196, 234, 240, 248, 250, 251, 333, 343 of bribery 210-12

of money and gifts given 174-5, ^z8o Hassan-Pasha Genase, Grand Vizier 421,

425-6, 427 Hassan-Pasha, Ghazi ( Capitan Pasha, later Grand Vizier) 385, 399, 400, 401, 402, 408,421,425,437, 441 Hastie, William 276 Helbig, Georg von 380, 383

Henderson, Logan 303, 308, 354, 378 Henry of Prussia, Prince 155-6, 157, 158,

204, 205, 228 Hercules, Tsar of Kartli-Kacheti 255-6, 291, 384

Herman, General 1.1, von 447

Hertzberg, Count Ewald Friedrich von 403

Hertzberg Plan 437

Hervey, Augustus, Earl of Bristol 197

Hill, Mr 300П

Hitler, Adolf 39П, 387П

Holland: Triple Alliance 403, 411

Hood, Admiral Sir Samuel (Viscount) 455

Horenstein, Michal 394П

Hospodars 430-1

Howard, John 439

Howden, John Caradoc, Lord 497

Howe, William, 5^th Viscount 303

Hussein-Pasha, Seraskier of Ochakov 413

icons: depicting С and P 271 Igelstrom, General I. A. 258 Imeretia 255 incest 193

Iona, Metropolitan 484 Isabella of Parma 225 Isackcha 447 Ismail 442, 447 Ismail, Battle of 390, 448-52 Ismailov, Colonel P. A. 238 Israelovsky regiment 394 Ivan III, Tsar 219

Ivan IV (the Terrible), Tsar 219, 263 Ivan VI, Tsar 28, 43, 55, 59-60, 144 Ivanov, M. M. (painter) 353

Jassy 430-5, 453, 49^2_3, 498, 501 Jefferson, Thomas 398, 495 Jennings, Jean-Jacob no, 459, 460 Jews 282-4 Israelovsky regiment 394 Karaim sect 373 Johnson, L. B. 33 5П

Jones, Admiral John Paul 388, 398-400,

401, 408-9, 415, 419-^0, 495 Joselewicz, Colonel Berek 394П Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor 229, 236, 252, 285, 331, 354 appearance 223

Bavarian scheme 204, 221, 323 buying painting of С 307 buying slave girl 379 character 224-5 on C's marriage 140 death 438

defence alliance with Russia 221-2, 223- 7,228,230,234-5 protocol problems over signing 232 and Greek Project 242-3, 249-50 honours given by 154-5, 428 ill health 418

inspection mania 224, 226 and Jews 282

joint reign with mother 224 journey with С in South 367, 368-75,

376-7, 378-9, 382, 404 journey to Mogilev 223-4, 2-2.5-6 marriages 225 military advisers 20in on P 227 painting of 329П Paul's visit to 236, 240 on P's ships 279 reforms 224-5, 3 67 reign alone 230 reports made to 183, 314, 342 and Russo-Turkish War 253, 258, 391,

392-3, 395, 407, 414, 427, 429 sex life 225 Josepha of Bavaria 225

Kagul 83, 84, 319

Kahovsky, Vasily V. 276, 286, 287, 381, 386

Kalischevsky P. I. (Hetman) 266

Kalmyks 371

Kamenets, Battle of 79

Kamensky, General Mikhail F 78

Kantemir, Prince 141

Kaplan Giray 451

Kar, General Vasily 97, 98

Karasubazaar 252, 256, 257, 293, 377-8

Karl-Peter-Ulrich, Duke of Holstein see Peter

Fyodorovich Kartli-Kacheti 255 Karzev, Semen 20

Kaunitz-Rietberg, Prince Wenzel von 6, 205,

221-2, 329П, 335, 420, 438, 444 Kaushany 426 Kazan 129, 131, 232, 263 Kazan Commission 126, 129, 133 Keith, George, last Earl Marshal of Scotland 201

Keith, James 201

Keith, Sir Robert Murray, (Lord) 140 Keyserling, Count Herman von 56 Kherson 267-72, 414, 492 building 247-8, 268-72, 370 Court in 383 first governor 267 fleet 310

inspected by Joseph II 367, 369-70

palace 292

plans for 267-8

population 294

position 268

present-day 263, 27 m, 279П P's tomb 27m, 492, 498, 499-501 settlers in 281-2, 283, 284, 286 shipyards 268, 279, 370 taking possession of 246, 256 threat to 386, 399 visitors to 296, 367, 369-70, 380 Khitrovo, Lieutenant Fyodor A. 46, 58-9 Khotin, Battle of 80 Khotin, Pasha of 461 Khrapovitsky, Alexander V. 9, 324, 326,

380,415,417-18, 494 kibitka (light carriage) 353 Kiev 357-62 Kilia 447

Kinburn 370, 386, 389, 396, 399 Kingston, Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of 197

Kingston, Elisabeth Chudleigh, Countess of Bristol and Duchess of 196-9, 248, 288, 297, 327 Kirim Giray 79, 245 Kirtland sisters 303, 304, 308 Kiselev, (adjutant) 359 Kizikerman 371

Kizlovsky, Grigory Matveevich (godfather)

16, 17, 23-4 Kizlovsky, Sergei Grigorievich 23 Kliuchevsky, V. O. 264 Korsakov, Ivan Nikolaevich see Rimsky- Korsakov

Korsakov, Colonel Nikolai I. 270,27m, 272,

274, 279, 288, 297, 298, 301, 302, 309 Kostrov, Ermil 24-5 Krasnopevzev, Timofei 20 Kremenchuk 292, 311, 367, 382 Krestinek, Ivan 143

Krichev 299-301, 308-9, 310-11, 360 Kronstadt, fortress of 46, 47 Kuban 254, 255, 258, 273, 291, 385, 396, 445

Kuban corps 393 Kuban Cossacks 394 Kuchuk-Kainardzhi, Treaty of 131, 202, 246, 356

Kurakin, Prince Alexander B. 240-1, 499 Kurakina, Princess Elena 37 Kutuzov, General Mikhail I. (later Prince and Field-Marshal) 405-6, 407П, 449, 450, 475

Lacey, Count Francis Antony 20in Lacey, Field-Marshal Count Francis

Maurice 20m, 369, 378, 379 Lafayette, Marquis de 388 Lafite (engineer) 404

Lampi, Giambattista 278, 280, 329, 407, 444

Lamsdorf, Major 434-5 Langeron, Alexandre, Comte de 78, 278, 344, 410, 443, 445, 447, 448, 450» 45¹* 452,461,492 Lansdowne, i^st Marquess of, see Shelburne Lanskoy, Alexander Dmitrievich: appearance 313

C's favourite 174-5, *79> ^l8l> ⁱ⁸4> *9²> 232, 297, 298 problems 183 death 157П, 312-14 illness 210, 233 intrigues against P 174, 259 relationship with P 174, 182, 222, 247, 3²7

Larga, Battle of 83 Lavater, Johann Kaspar 209 Lavrenev, Boris 500 Lazhkarev, Sergei L. 432, 446, 482 Le Picq (dancemaster) 469 League of German Princes 323 Leeds, Francis Godolphin Osborne, Duke of 439

Legislative Commission 73-5, 86 Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (formerly Grand Duke of Tuscany, then King of Hungary) 240,439, 441 Lermontov, Mikhail Yurievich 20in Levashev, Major 172 Levashov, Vasily I. 317, 324, 346 Ligne, Prince Charles de 447, 448 Ligne, Charles-Joseph, Prince de 140, 264, 320

in Bakhchisaray 372-3 on С 6o, 176, 334 С on 229, 351 correspondence with P 248 at C's meeting with Joseph 368, 369, 370 departure 229-30 estate given by P 375 friendships 229 with P 229-30, 285, 288, 338, 407, 409, 442 end of 391 on Greek/Turkish women 431 on Joseph II 224, 225 in Kiev 355, 357

Ligne, Charles-Joseph, Prince de - contd lies told by 392-3, 395-6, 4°⁶, 4°9, 4M, 443_?45²

love of being foreigner everywhere 201

marriage 228

at Ochakov 404, 407

on P 3, 8, 333, 343, 344, 345, 361, 388,

402, 494 poem 376

on Polish king's meeting with С 366, 367

in Seven Years War 228

spying on P 39m, 409

on Tartars 372, 378-9

on Turks 82

upbringing 228

visiting P's towns and villages 370, 382, 383

on voyage with С 364 wish for military command 229, 494 as writer 229 Liman 399

Liman, Battles of the 395, 398-402 Liman fleet 394-5, 397 Litta, Count Giulio 496 Little Hermitage 68

Littlepage, Lewis 8, 330, 357, 361, 362,

398, 402, 408, 414 Livanov, Professor 277, 288 Lopatin, V. S. 174П, 452П Lopukhina, Countess Natalia 26 Loudon, Field-Marshal Gideon 336, 421, 428

Louis XIV, King of France 15, 28n, 21 in Louis XV, King of France 4, 112, 178, 201 Louis XVI, King of France 5, 33, 103, 128,

140, 146, 177, 185, 210П, 359, 463 Louis, Prince of Prussia 497 Lubomirska, Princess 445-6 Lubomirski, Prince Ksawery 331, 339, 360

Macartney, Sir George (later Earl) 48, 60, 176

Mack (jewellers) 353 Macmillan, Harold 345П Mahmud II, Ottoman Sultan 218n Malmesbury, i^st Earl of, see Harris Malmesbury, 6th Earl of 2 5 on Mamonov, Alexander Matveevich Dmitriyev 315, 325-7, 355, 358, 362, 364, 368, 370, 414, 415, 417-18, 421-3 Manchin 477

Mansour, Sheikh 291-2, 384, 385, 396, 476 Marchese (singer) 330-1 Maria Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess, later Tsarina (nee Princess Sophia Dorothea of

Wurttemberg) 157,158,218-19,236,481 Maria Theresa, Empress-Queen 89, 103, 128, 155, 177, 204, 221, 222, 223, 224, 230, 282

Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France 5, 177,

2ion, 229, 392, 496 Mariupol 247, 280-1 Marlborough, John Churchill, i^st Duke of

334П Massandra 305

Masson, Charles 104, 122, 168, 329, 413,

4²4, 435>489 Massot, Dr 483, 484, 499 Matushkina, Countess Sophia 296-8 Mavrocordato, Prince Alexander 356, 384, 431

Maximovich, General S. P. 412 Mazarin, Cardinal Jules 28П, 193 Mazeppa, Hetman Ivan Stepanovich 266 medical murder 157П Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan 215 Meilhan, Senac de 343, 482 Mengli Giray 244 Mennonites 282

Menshikov, Prince Alexander S. 25,44П, 9m Meschiricz 360 Mesmer, Friedrich Anton 209 Mettemich, Princess Clementine 497 Metternich, Prince Klemens von 497 Mickiewicz, Adam 394П Mikhelson, Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan I. 129, 132.

military service 19, 24 Minorca 231 mint 354

Mirabeau, Honore Gabriel Riqueti, Comte

de 462-3, 498 Miranda, Francisco de 273, 284, 292, 360, 381

background 351, 352 death 494

in French Revolutionary armies 494

icy treatment from P 361-2

journey to Kiev 356-7

in Kiev 357, 358-9

on new cities 271, 272, 274

on P 338, 343,351-2

on Poles 361

presented to С 3 5 8

on P's correspondence 336

on P's Court 351

on P's musical talent 331

travelling with С 343, 352-4

Venezuela 494

on women 3 5 8-9

Mirovich, Vladimir 59 Mniszech, Countess (Urszula Zamoyska) 356П

Mocenigo, Count 281

Mogilev 222, 225-6, 480

Moldavia 420, 421, 430-2, 441, 472, 473,

481, 483 Moldavians 282 Moldova 498П Montagu, Mary Wortley 197 Montenegro 96-7

Mordvinov, Admiral Nikolai S. 175, 279,

301, 302, 395, 397, 398 Moscow 22-3 Plague 69, 87 Moscow University 24-5, 28-9 Moslems 273

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 332, 379, 483 Miinnich, Count Burhard von 47 Murat, Caroline, Queen of Naples 496 Murid Wars 292 Musin-Pushkin, Count V.P. 403 Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan 80 Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan 125, 216, 218

Nachkichevan 281

Nagu (Kalmyk boy) 377П

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France 5,

8, 393,405, 43ⁱⁿ> 492., 494 Naryshkin, Lev A. 68, 88, 126, 179, 318,

325, 341-2., 355, 358 Naryshkina, Anna N. 422, 424 Naryshkina, M. L. 359 Naryshkina sisters (including Natalia

Sologub)342, 358-9 Nassau-Siegen, Charles, Prince de 352-4, 356-8, 361, 362, 364, 368, 373, 375, 420, 460, 463, 494 fighting Sweden 441 in Russo-Turkish war 397-8, 400, 401,

402, 403, 404-5, 408, 409 Natalia, Grand Duchess (nee Wilhelmina of

Hesse-Darmstadt) 99, 100, 156-8 Nazshbandi brotherhood 291 Negroponte 432П

Nelson, Admiral Horatio (later Viscount) 465

New Russia 264

Newton (Irish soldier) 200

Neyelov, Ilya V. 319-20

Nicholas I, Tsar 138, 158П, 496

Nicholas II, Tsar i8n, 34, 138

Nikolaev 6, 277-8, 279, 287, 293, 294, 305,

414, 445, 492 Nikolai, St 277

nobility 17, 18-22, 24, 40 Nogai Hordes 254-5, 2.58, 287 nomads: resettlement 258 Northern System 57-8, 100, 202-3, 204, 264

Oakes, Richard 151, 157 Obreskov, Alexei M. 77, 89 Ochakov 268, 277, 384, 386, 391, 393, 399, 438П, 490 siege of 403-14, 500 Ochakov Crisis 454, 462, 465-6, 472, 474, 476

Odessa 2, 263, 277, 278, 294, 494, 497-8 Oginski, Michel 480 Old Believers 96, 277, 281, 393, 446 Olivares, Count-Duke of 8, 28n, 333П Olsufiev A. V. (secretary) 73, 74 Olviopol 37m, 421 Oranienbaum 50 Orczelska, Countess 193 orders of chivalry 66-7 Orenburg Secret Commission 129 Orleans, Philippe, Due de 193 Orlov-Chesmensky, Count Alexei G. 51-2, 96, 151

antagonism to P 158, 191, 403, 476

appearance 37

character 37, 68

Minister of War 158

part in Peter's murder 51

plot to put С on throne 37, 43, 44~5, 46,

50

seducing and kidnapping pretender 141-3, 144

story of damaging P's eye 71 watching С and P 122-3 Orlov, Count Fyodor G. 68, 313 Orlov, Prince Grigory Grigorevich 415 antagonism to P 71, 85, 129, 158 appearance 36

appointed adjutant-general 53 character 36

on Council of State 77, 130 dealing with plague 87 death 157П, 248, 315 description 68-9 family 36-7 illness 152

introducing P to С 53-4 as peace negotiator 88-90 plot to put С on throne 37, 43, 44-5, 46, 50

in power 50, 51, 99, 100 presented with C's miniature 145

Orlov, Prince Grigory Grigorevich - contd relationship with С 37, 38, 40, 62, 65-6,

68, 85, 90-1, 94, hi, 165, 182, 307 respect for P 72 rewards 51, 53, 91 son with С 37, 38, 41 sponsoring new favourites 172, 315 trips abroad 128, 136, 152 wish to marry С 53 Orlov-Davydov, Count V. P. 138 Orlov brothers 30, 40, 56, 58, 59, 65-6, 66,

73, 104, no, 122-4, 128, 179, 180 Osterman, Countess A. I. 466П Osterman, Count Ivan A, Vice-Chancellor

460 Ostrovky 319, 325

Ottoman army see Turkish army Ottoman Empire 215-21, 233, 383-5 Sublime Porte (government) 217, 218, 232, 242, 248, 249, 384,437 Ozerki 319

Pahlavis 234 Palaelogina, Zoe 219 Palavitsa 274

Palmerston, Henry Temple, Viscount 359П Panin, Count Nikita Ivanovich 58, 66, 235 appearance 43 С on 230 death 248 dismissal 237 gaining power 130-1 honours for 53

as minister 51, 56, 57, 69, 100, 129-30, 202

name for P no

as Paul's governor 43-4, 46, 52, 99 possible affair with Elisabeth 44 possible affair with niece 193 rivalry with P 203-4, 206, 207, 210, 212,

227, 240 role in coup 43-4, 46 sponsoring C's favourites 172 stirring up Paul's fears 236 support for P 69

support for Paul's succession 44, 51 support for Prussia 204, 221 supporting overthrow of Peter 43-4, 46, 5°

Panin, General Count Peter Ivanovich 80,

84, 104, 129, 130-2, 132-3, 147 Panopticon 309, 395П, 495 Parkinson, John 176 Parma, Count of 289-90 Passek, Captain 44, 45

Paul, Grand Duke (later Tsar Paul I) 46, 52, 74, 144, 316, 468 assassination 496 becomes Tsar 495-6 birth 34, 189-90 at death of Natalia 156-8 on death of P 490 defacing Taurida Palace 469П destroying P's tomb 10, 499 drilling troops 391 on Grand Tour 236-7, 240 illness 53

intriguing against С and P 463-4 investigating P's finances 489 love of things Prussian 124, 226, 228, 229 marriage to Maria 158 marriage to Natalia 99, 100 Panin's support for 43, 44 parentage 34, 42, 138, 190 proposed as joint successor with mother 38 P's plans to discredit 240 relationship with mother 98-9, 229, 355П, 390

relationship with P 10, 124, 155, 229, 240,

355П, 383, 390-1, 408П support for: as rightful heir 43, 44, 55, 56,

88, 140, 175 support for Prussia 235 as Tsar 61 Peacock Clock 199 peasant rebellion 129-31 Pella 319

Perekushina, Maria Savishna 136, 137, 138 Persia: alliance with 256 invasion of 232-4 Persian-Armenian Project 257 Peter I (the Great) Tsar: changing rules of inheritance 27 character 26

emotional crises: after battles 387 family 14

founding cities 491 founding Guards Regiments 29 founding St Petersburg 25 gathering information 140 illness 333

importing German titles 27 imposing compulsory service 19 military career 15, 25, 272, 379, 385 natural son 80 P's emulation of 6 similarities between P and 491 statue of 243 Table of Ranks 19 visit to south 381 Peter II Tsar 27

Peter III Tsar (Grand Duke Peter Fyodorovich) 61, 226, 374, 496 abdication 50 affair 36 appearance 33

behaviour 33-4, 38, 40, 41, 42, 52

character 32

childhood 32-3

and Church 41

drinking 34

imposters claiming to be 95, 96-8 leading army 42 love of Prussia 3 6 marriage 32, 33-4, 37, 42 military plans 39-40 murder 51-2, 144

plots against 30, 34, 37, 38, 40-1, 42-50 succession to throne 38, 39 wedding 3 3 wife's opinion of 3 2 Peterhof 50 Petrov (librarian) 85 Pisani, N. 384, 385, 391 Pitt, William, the Younger 6, 323, 418, 454, 465,474

plague 69, 87, 253, 255, 258-9, 481 Poland:

Commonwealth with Lithuania 471 hereditary monarchy 471 kings 56, 57, 366 military alliance with Prussia 439 parliament 57

Partition 89, 155, 299, 464, 473-4, 479 Patriots 439, 440

proposed alliance with 365-7, 396-7, 411 P's lands in 360, 446

P's policy for 360-2, 438, 446, 454, 471-

4,475,477,478-9 Revolution 440, 446, 471, 473 separation from Russia 411, 418, 421, 437 support for Turkey 218 threat from Prussia 437 Pole Carew, Reginald 45, 269, 270, 279,

300П, 303, 339, 340, 344 Poltava, Battle of 15, 25, 379 Pompadour, Jeanne Antoinette Poison, Madame d'Etoiles, Marquise and Duchesse de 178 Poniatowski, Prince Stanislas 226 Poniatowski, Stanislas (King Stanislas- Augustus of Poland) 38, 42, 48,182, 238, 352, 396, 446 affair with С 35, 36, 37, 121, 165

becomes king of Poland 56, 57-8 on С 30

С gives birth to daughter of 3 5 honours given to P 127 as person 365 Polish opposition to 77 political negotiations with С 360, 361, 365-7

representatives 357, 364 wish to return to С 54-5, 365 Popov, Vasily Stepanovich 9, 10, 259, 265, 278, 280, 299, 333, 335, 347, 435, 452, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 488-9, 494 Porter, General Horace 495 potato growing 301 Potato War 204, 221, 323 Potemkin, Alexander Vasilievich (father)

15-16, 17, 22 Potemkin-Tavrichesky, Prince Grigory Alexandrovich: affairs 4, 184, 185, 194-5, 239, 316, 341, 352, 358, 382, 407-8, 433-4, 442-5, 448, 460-1 with nieces 4, 184, 185-94, 195, 238-9 burial places 27m, 492-3, 498, 499-502 gravestone 501 tomb excavations 499-501 death 7, 8, 157П, 480 autopsy and embalming 487 funeral 492-3 marking spot 9 memorial pillar 498 people's reactions to 487-90 premonitions of 470, 479, 481 finances 127, 435-7, 488-9 life:

Admiral of Black Sea and Caspian Sea

Fleets 385 appointed Grand Hetman of Black Sea

and Ekaterinoslav Host 439-40 army paymaster 73-4 becomes Prince of Holy Roman Empire

155 birth 13, 17 childhood 17-20, 22-4 at College of War 123,126,151, 259, 264 in coup against Peter 41, 43, 45-6, 50, 78 at Court 53, 62, 65-6, 67-8, 69-70, 72- 3

Court at Kiev 357-8

and Crimea 243-60, 272-3, 280, 281,

284, 285-6, 289, 293 cruise down Dnieper 363-75 daily routine 328-47

Potemkin-Tavrichesky, Prince Grigory Alexandrovich - contd life - contd decorations 81, 83, 127-8, 155, 156 education 19, 20, 23, 24-5 encouraging cultivation of land 287-9, 301

encouraging trade and manufacture 288,

289-90, 299-300 enrolling for military service 24 fighting war against Turks 385-429 foreign assignment 69-70 giving masquerade ball 466, 467-71 in Guards 29-31, 41, 49, 50-1, 53, 75, 124

in Holy Synod 70-1, 72, 73 illnesses and hypochondria 1-7,117,182, ²57, 333, 335-6, 383, 385, 386, 389, 407, 481-6 lands in Poland 360, 446 last journey 1-7, 485-6 legends about 10 losing eye 71

military command 417, 491-2 as monk 100-1

move into imperial palaces 112-13 move to Moscow 22-3 move to St Petersburg 25 Polish naturalization 14 Polish noble status 238 preparations for C's journey to South

351-4, 356-7, 380 promoted to Field-Marshal 259 receives Empress's portrait 145 rewards for support 51, 53, 72-3, 78,

160-1 in State Council 125-6 summoned to Court 94-8, 101-2 title of Tavrichevsky 379 titles 2

as viceroy of South 259, 263-94 war hero 76-93 withdrawing from Court 71-2 personal: ambitions 13, 23-4 Anglophilia 288, 302-7 appearance 2, 30, 54, 72, 109-10, 251-

2, 329, 460 art collecting 306-7 attitude to fighting wars 406 character 330,33 8-9 dealing with sycophants 335 diplomacy 203

dress 113, 124, 145, 181, 332 ease with women 18 family background 13-17 friendships 37, 250, 298, 338 with Cossacks 86 habits 113-14

humanity and generosity 339, 400, 410-

11,490, 492 intelligence 23, 343 jealousy 103, 119-20, 125, 152, 159 and Jews 282-4 knowledge 343-5 lack of prejudice 283 lack of vindictiveness 240, 241, 339 love of English gardens 304-6, 347 love of food 339-40 love of gambling 37, 345-6 love of jewels 337-8 love of music 330-2 love of reading 24-5 mimicry 53-4, 315

moodiness 72, 118-19, ^I2°, *49, 333~4, 393

political ideas 344-5 religious interest 3, 23, 71-2, 149, 233, 345

sexual equipment 115 shyness 338

as statesman 175, 191, 196 tastes 113

tolerance towards subordinates 3 3 6-7 understanding of commerce 233 writing poetry 294

relationship with С 2, 54, 62, 65-6, 69, 85, 88-9, 90-1, 94, 101-5, 3°7, 3²°"², 388, 396, 409, 420, 453-4, 462, 463,

464-5,477-9, 491

consoling С 312-14 correspondence 4-6, 10, 92-3, 111-12, 114-15, 116-21, 123, 135, 136, 138- 9, 148, 151, 153-4, 222, ²53~4, ²57, 314, 356, 385, 386-7, 388-9, 477-8,

483,484-5

crisis 474-6, 478

C's names for no, 111, 115, 119

first meeting with С 47, 49

introduction to С 53-4

life together 109-61

marriage 24П, 136-41, 147-50, 151-4,

156, 159-61, 165, 174, 181, 183-4 wedding 136-8 nicknames for С 111 problems 151-4, 156, 159-61 rendezvous 17, 19, 102, 116, 122-3 relationship with C's lovers 5, 166-7, 168, 169, 170, 173, 175, 178-9, 180, 181- 3, 314-17, 324-5, 326, 423, 4²4-5, 441

Potemkin, Hans-Tarasy 14 Potemkin, Illarion 14 Potemkin, Archbishop Iov 499, 502 Potemkin, Ivan 14

Potemkin, Mikhail Sergeievich (cousin) 141,

168, 192, 238, 252, 488-9, 496 Potemkin, Count Pavel Sergeievich (cousin) 168

accused of murder 489П in Crimea 253, 254 death 489П honour for 172

investigating salt production 141 in Second Russo-Turkish War 396, 448 signing Treaty 256

suppressing Pugachev Rebellion 115, 124-

5, 129, 131-3 as viceroy 291, 292 viceroy of Caucasus 192, 489П Potemkin, Peter Ivanovich 14-15 Potemkin, Sergei (cousin) 17 Potemkin Villages 10, 263, 294, 379-83, 498

Potemkina, Daria Vasilievna (mother) (nee

Kondyreva) 16-17, 22, 23, 29, 150, 227-8

Potemkina, Nadezhda (sister) 18 Potemkina, Praskovia Andreevna {nee Zakrevskaya) 392, 407, 433-4, 442 Potemkinskaya 133-4 Potocki, Felix 361, 362, 472, 473, 482, 496 Potocki, Ignacy 361, 362 Potocki, Yuri 496 Praga, Battle of 390 Prashkovsky, Battle of 80 pretenders 95, 96-8, 129П, 141-4 see also Pugachev

Prince Potemkin of Taurida, Battleship 497- 8

Prokopovich, Professor 288 Protasova, Anna 178, 355 Prozorovsky, Prince Alexander A. 77 Prussia: alliance with Russia 57, 204 Anglo-Prussian coalition 471 Hertzberg Plan 437 military alliance with Poland 439 Ottoman alliance with 438, 441 planning war against Russia 454, 455 plans for Poland 437 Russia at war with 39, 40 Russian peace with 40 support for Turkey 125, 218 treaty with 465 Triple Alliance 403, 411, 454

Pruth, River 420, 421

Psalmanazar, George 209

Pugachev, Emelian 95, 96, 97-8, 99, 115,

122, 123, 128-9, i3²-3_? ^J34-5 Pugachev Rebellion 123, 124, 128-9, 132.-

5, 237, 266 Pushkin, Alexander Sergeievich 8, 24П, 27, 133-4, 263, 435, 459, 475, 492 connection with P's family 497 death 267 family 16, 267 marriage 138 writings 20, 98, 319, 497 Pushkin, Lieutenant 46 Pushkina, Countess 475

Qajars 234

Rabin, Yitzhak 387 Radishchev, Alexander N. 440-1 Radziwill, Prince Karol Stanislas 142 Raevsky, Colonel Alexander N. 452 Raevsky, General Nikolai N. 452n, 459 Rasputin, Grigori Efimovich i8n, 496 Razumovsky, Count Alexei G. 27, 38, 39,

58, 59, 137, 141-2, 160 Razumovsky, Count Andrei K. 156, 158, 482

Razumovsky, Count Kirill G. 46, 58, 88, 159, 167, 271, 380 admirer of С 33, 45, 65 on Council of State 77, 130 ennobled 27

estate and household 18, 21 lack of snobbery 73 living with niece 193 relationship with P 73 rewards for 51 Razumovskaya, Countess Elisabeth K. 73 Repnin, Prince Nikolai V. 83, 84, 151, 236, 389,405,412,425-6,472,476-7,480-1 resettlement 258, 273, 287, 291 Reynolds, Sir Joshua 306-7 Ribas, Jose (Osip) de 142-3, 278, 352, 426, 442, 445, 447, 448, 449, 45°, 4^1, 482, 494

Ribbing, Count 88

Ribeaupierre, Count Alexander I. 61, 113,

185, 329 Richardson, William 60 Richelieu, Armand du Plessis, Due de Fronsac, Due de 330, 343, 443-4, 447, 448,450,451,453,492, 494 Richelieu, Cardinal Armand du Plessis de 8, 28П,333П

Riga, siege of 15

Rimsky-Korsakov, Major Ivan Nikolaevich

170-3, 179, 183, 189, 206, 319 Rinaldi, Antonio 319 Rivery, Aimee Dubucq de 2i8n Rodney, Admiral G. 242 Roebuck (gardener) 308, 310 Rogerson, Dr J. 178, 179, 190, 207, 237,

297, 312, 313 Rohan, Cardinal de 2ion Romanovs 10, 138 Rontsov, Ivan R 146, 174 Roosevelt, Theodore, US President 495 Ropsha 50, 51 Rosicrucians 463

Rostopchin, Count Fyodor V. 9, 393n, 475, 490

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 69, 229 Rudorfski, Count 193

Rudzevich, Yakov Izmailovich (Iakub Aga) ²⁷³

Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky, Field-Marshal Count Peter Alexandrovich 105, 225, 226, 415 appearance 80 family 8on as father 81

in First Russo-Turkish War 77, 80-2, 83, 84, 86, 91-2, 93, 122, 125, 128 hero of war 145 at peace talks 88, 89 signing peace treaty 131 granted title Zadunaisky 145 love of Prussia 80-1 military skills 80-1 0ПР76 parentage 80 P's support for 125, 145 reaction to P's death 490 relationship with P 80, 85 retirement 417

in Second Russo-Turkish War 385, 386, 387, 389, 407П Rumiantseva, Countess Ekaterina M. 94,

105, 124, 125, 160 Russia: succession 27, 495 Russian army 77 conscripts 77-9 dress 251

living in burrows 410 losses through dysentery 410 mourning P 490 officers 78

treatment of soldiers 251, 339,410-11 Russian Empire 14, 17

Russian Navy: treatment of men 400 Russian Revolution (1905) 497-8 Russo-Turkish Wars: First 76-93, 96, 123, 125, 128, 131, 155, 233, 246, 266, 296, 384,43! victory celebrations 144-6 Second 2, 277, 290, 292, 385-421, 426-9, 437-8, 442, 447, 472, 476-8 peace negotiations 437-8, 446, 480-1,

482, 488 Repnin's truce 480-1 victory celebrations 415, 417, 459 Rymnik, Battle of 426, 427-8 Rzewuski, Hetman Seweryn 482

Sagan, Wilhelmina of Courland, Duchess of 497

St Petersburg 23, 25-6 Saint-Germain, Comte de 209 Saint-Jean 178, 180, 327 Saint-Joseph, Baron de see Antoine Saints, Battle of the 242 Saldern, Caspar von 99, 100 Saldern Plot 99, 100, 241 salt production 141

Saltykov, Count Nikolai I. 423, 460, 461, 463

Saltykov, Serge V. 34,42, 69,121,165,407П Saltykova, Daria Nikolaevna 22 Samoilov, Count Alexander Nikolaievich (nephew) 71, 72, 86, 316, 432, 502 appointed plenipotentiary 482 appointed procurator-general 494 erects pillar to P 498 as general 192 as husband 407 at Ismail 448 at Ochakov 412

in possession of marriage certificate for С

and P138 secretary to State Council 192 Samoilov, Nikolai V. 18, 94, 100, 341 Samoilova, Countess Ekaterina S. (nee Trubetskaya) 392, 407, 410, 412, 413- 14, 442

Samoilova, Maria A. (sister) 18 Samoilova, Countess Sophia A. 497 Sangushko, Karolina, Princess (later

Princess de Nassau-Siegen) 352 Sanovsky, Dr 7

Sapieha, Prince Casimir Nestor, 361 Saratov 132, 264, 291 Sardanapalus 429 Sardanova, Elena 376-7 Sarti, Giuseppe 275, 330-2, 357-8, 363, 392, 407,425,432

Saxe, Marshal Maurice de 191 Sayre, Stephen 358 Schlussenburg 50, 59 Schtofel'n, General K. F. von 81 Schwerin, Count Kurt Christopher von 36 Sebastopol 2, 272, 274, 276, 279, 294, 373,

374,492 Secret Chancellery 40 Secret Expedition 40, 55, 241 Segur, Louis-Philippe, Comte de: on Bezborodko 220-1 on Crimea 290, 293 discussions with P 243, 344 first meeting P 3 3 2 in French Revolution 494 friendship with P 322, 325, 327, 338, 357- 8, 377, 392 end of 419 gift from Branicki 238 on Jones 399 with Joseph II 370, 371 journey to south 363, 364-5, 370, 371,

373,374,378-9 in Kiev 357-8

on marriage of С and P 139-40 at meeting of С and King of Poland 366 Mimoires 322

negotiating Franco-Russian trade treaty 323-4

on P 8, 330, 331, 333, 334, 342, 343, 344,

382, 491 poetry writing 323 on P's nieces 186 reporting to Paul 383 reprimanded for jokes 177 travelling in C's entourage 354, 355 trick played by P on 377 on Turkish army 82 turning detective 419-20 visiting P's new towns 3 70 Selim III, Ottoman Sultan 217, 420, 437,

438, 441, 488 Semple, Major James George 199-200, 205,

247, 248, 289 Sereth, River 421 serfdom 17-18, 19, 20-2, 74

fugitives 267, 281 settlements 280-4, 285-7, 293-4 Seven Years War 35, 39-40, 57, 78, 146,

202, 228 Sevres, 'Comtesse de' 352, 258 Shagin Giray 202, 205, 241-2, 246-7, 249,

252, 254, 257, 258, 324 Shakespeare, William 363 Shamyl, Imam 29 2n

Shcherbatov, General Prince Fyodor F. 128 Shcherbatov, Prince Mikhail M. 21, 61-2,

69, 175, 339 Shcherbatova, Princess Daria F. 418, 422-3 Shelburne, William Petty, Earl of (later i^st

Marquess of Lansdowne) 295, 303 Shemiakin, Nikita 293П, 316 Shepilev, P. A. 23 8 Shepilev house 160 Sheremetev, Count P. B. 20 Sheshkovsky, Stepan I 55, 134, 241 shipbuilding 268, 277-8, 279, 301, 309,

310, 367-8, 370, 395, 397, 492 Shubin F. I. (sculptor) 428, 468 Shuvalov, Ivan Ivanovich 25, 26, 27, 28, 38,

39, 44, 56, 355 Shuvalov, Count Peter I. 21, 37, 38 Sievers, Countess E. K. 104-5, ¹¹² Sievers, Count Yakov E. 13 6 silk manufacture 289-90 Simferopol 273 Simolin, Baron I. M. 434 Sinclair, Sir John 343 Sinelnikov, Ivan M. 275, 286, 405 Skavronskaya, Countess Ekaterina P. (great-

niece) (later Princess Bagration) 497 Skavronskaya (nee Engelhardt), Countess Ekaterina (niece) 168, 310, 496 alleged pregnancy by P 190-1 appearance 186-7 child 192

help from C's favourites 3 27 illness 247 jewels 337

marriage to Litta 496 marriage to Skavronsky 237 P seeking favours for 232 relationship with P 190-1, 342, 357, 408, 488

temperament 190 travelling with С 222 widowed 496

Skavronsky, Count Pavel Martynovich 20,

237,238-9,305,340 Skouratova, Daria see Potemkina, Daria

Vasilievna Smila 360, 361, 362, 473 Smolensk 13-14, 381 Smolensk Regiment 14 Solms, Count von 104, no Solomon, Tsar of Imeretia 255, 256 Soloveytchik, George 275 Solugub, Count Ivan A. 342 Soluguba, Countess Natalia {nee Naryshkina) 342

Somov, Constantine 115-16П Sophia, Princess, of Zerbst-Anhalt see

Catherine II Sophia Dorothea, Princess of Wurttemberg

see Maria Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess Spahis 82

Sparrow (gardener) 305 Special Commission of the Secret Department of the Senate 133 Stackelberg, Count Otto-Magnus 155, 362,

435,440, 446 Stael-Holstein, Baroness Anne Louise

Germaine de 28 Stalin, Joseph 387

Stanislas-Augustus, King of Poland see

Poniatowski, Stanislas Starov, Ivan E. 270, 274, 276, 292, 293,

316, 432,468,498 State Council 125-6 Stavropol 291

Stedingk, Count Curt 9, 455, 459, 462, 463,

470-1, 489, 490 Stekalov, 103 Stephen the Small 96-7 Stormont, David Murray, 7^th Viscount 211,

212, 231 Strackhov, 172, 173 Strawberry Hill 319-20 Stroganov, Count A. G. 460 Stroganova, Countess Ekaterina P. 173, 297 Sublime Porte see Ottoman Empire Suffolk, Henry Howard, 12^th Earl of 147, 205

Sumarokov, P.I. 271

Sutherland, Baron Richard 282, 283, 302,

305,436-7,489 Suvorov-Rymniksky, Count General Alexander V. (later Prince and Field- Marshal) 492 Art of Victory 442 at Battle of Liman 401 commanding attack on Ismail 449-50, 452 commanding corps facing Sweden 462 controlling exodus of Christians from

Crimea 247 correspondence with P 390 discussions with P 345 eccentricity 389-90 'flying corps' 421, 425 at Fokshany 425, 426 friendship with P 390 honours 417, 428 intellectual side 390 at Kherson 397 at Kinburn 386

in Kuban 253, 254, 258, 29m military tactics 390, 405, 406, 453 mistakes made by 405П museum to 413П

mythology of hatred between P and 390 at Ochakov 405

praise and respect of P for 426, 427-8 preparing invasion of Persia 232, 233, 234 P's nickname for 390 reaction to P's death 490 role in capturing Pugachev 132 at Rymnik 426, 427-8 title of Rymniksky 428 turning against P 475 Svickhosky, 172

Sweden 89-90, 218, 402-3, 411, 418, 440,

441-2, 462 Swedenborg, Emanuel 208-9

Table of Ranks 19 Taganrog 247

Talleyrand, Prince Charles-Maurice de 193 Talyzin, Admiral Ivan L. 46, 47 Talyzin, Captain A. F. 46 Tarakanova, Princess 141-4 Tartars 82, 244-5, 246, 247, 254-5, 256, 273, 288, 353, 371-2, 373, 377П, 378, 397

Taurida Palace 258, 311, 453, 459, 467-70,

489, 494, 495,498 Tchaikovsky, Peter 432 Tchelitche, Sophie de see Witte, Sophie de Tekeli, General P. A. 267, 396 Telesin 13, 14

Temkina, Elisaveta Grigorevna 146

Tepper (banker) 337

Teyssoniere, Chevalier de la 200, 208

Theodosia 354

Thorn 437, 465, 473

Todi, Madame 330-1

Tolly, Prince Mikhail Barclay de 406П

Took, William 197

torture 21-2, 55, 126

Tott, Baron de 79, 82, 84, 216, 218, 245

Trapezountios, George 215

Trappe, Geroge 282

Triple Alliance 403, 411, 454, 463

Troitsk 129П

Troitsko-Sereevna Monastery 149 Trubetskoi, Prince Ivan U. 146 Trubetskoi, Prince Nikita S 3 8 Trubetskoi, Prince Sergei 392 Tsargrad see Constantinople Tsaritsyno 141 Tsarskoe Selo 318-19

Tsarskoe Selo park 84, 87, 318, 319 Tsebrikov, R. M. (secretary) 405, 411 Tsiruli, Lieutenant 379 Tulcha 447

Turkey see Ottoman Empire Turkish army 82-3, 217-18, 385, 395 see also Russo-Turkish Wars

Ukraine 267 Ukraine Army 385, 393 Ushakov, Rear-Admiral Fyodor F 447, 472, 481

Ushurma see Mansour

Vassilchikov, Alexander S. 90, 92, 94-5, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 119-20, 121, 168,180

Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Comte de 140,

253, 258 vermicular 367-8, 395 Viazemsky, Prince Alexander Alexeiovich 55, 73, 74, 126, 131-2, 134, 221, 435, 475,494 Victoria, Queen of England 359П Vigee Lebrun, Marie Anne Elisabeth 8, 186,

190, 306, 337, 443 Vitovka 414

Vivarais, Chevalier de 70, 200 Vizin, Denis von 24, 335 Vladikafkaz 291

Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev 256П Vladimir, St 267

Voinovich, Count Mark I. 232, 233-4, 256, 336-7

Voltaire, Francos Arouet 60, 66, 69, 84, 88,

92, 99, 112, 193, 229 Vorontsov, Count Alexander Romanovich

221,324,327,411 Vorontsov, Count Mikhail I. (Chancellor)

43,47, 5i, 56, 58, 59 Vorontsov, Prince Mikhail Semyonovich

138, 305,496-7 Vorontsov, Count Roman I. 86, 146 Vorontsov, Count Simon Romanovich 45, 86, 91, 93, 144-5, 167, 175, 185, 285, 343,465,474 Vorontsova, Princess Elisabeth (Lise) (nee

Branicka) 36, 42, 47, 496-7 Vorontsova, Princess Sophie S. 497 Voulgaris, Eugenios 220, 344 Vysotsky, Nikolai P. (nephew) 192 Vysotskaya, Pelageya A. (sister) 192

Wallachia 420, 421, 481 Walpole, Horace, 4^th Earl of Orford 36, 197, 307, 319

Walpole, Sir Robert, 1" Earl of Orford 333 War of the Bavarian Succession 210 Warbeck, Perkin 96 Washington, George 8, 495 Weymouth, Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount 182, 184

Whitworth, Sir Charles 140, 465-6, 478 Wiegel, F. F. 186, 265, 339, 341, 443, 49*, 496

Wilhelmina, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt

see Natalia, Grand Duchess wine production 289, 290 Winter Garden 468-9, 495 Witte, General Joseph de 396П, 461 Witte, Sophie de (later Countess Potocka)

448, 449, 460-1, 484П, 496 Wolsey, Cardinal Thomas 8 Wurttemberg, Prince Karl Alexander of 481

Yelagin, Ivan Perfilevich 85, 103, 119, 209 Yenikale 246, 280

Yermolov, Alexander Petrovich 32, 315,

316-17, 318, 322, 325, 326 Yusuf-Pasha, Grand Vizier 384, 385, 407,

481,488 Yusupov, Prince Felix 496 Yusupov, Prince Nikolai B. 20, 496

Zaborovsky, General I. A. 393 Zakrevskaya, Countess Natalia G. 470 Zamoyska, Urszula, Countess Mniszech 356П

Zavadovsky, Count Peter V 158, 170, 178, 423, 460 appearance 150 appointed adjutant-general 151 correspondence with С 166 C's lover 152, 154, 155, 160, 166-8, 181 disappearing from Court 160 dismissing Yermolov 325 end of affair 167-8, 183 enmity to P 268, 324, 327, 411, 415 friendship with P's critics 167 on P 171, 251, 417 presents from С 159, 167-8 P's jealousy towards 152, 159 P's wish to dismiss 167 relationship with P 167 secretary to С 150 service to С 169 sickness 166

Zeitlin, Joshua 283, 284, 293П, 354, 394, 435

zemliankas 410

Zertis-Kamensky, Ambrosius (later Bishop) 23, 29, ⁸7,484

Zhukov, Mikhail M. 186 Zimbry 86

Zimmerman, Dr Johann 66, 289 Zinovieva, Ekaterina H. (later Princess

634 index

Orlova) 152 Zorich, Semyon Gavrilovich 168-70, 178, 182, 183

Zotov, Zakhar 415, 464

Zubov, Prince Platon Alexandrovich

(Blackie) 42.3-5, 42.8, 454, 4^3, 475, 47^, 478, 481, 482, 490, 495, 496 Zubov, Count Valerian A. 425, 452, 476, 495

Serenissimus Prince Grigory Potemkin in his prime when he was already Catherine the Great's secret husband and increasingly her partner in power. Catherine called him her 'marble beauty' and he was said to have the most beautiful head of hair in Russia. Yet he was shy about his blind eye and was always painted from this angle to hide it.

Catherine the Great, dressed in Guardsman's uniform, on 28th June 1762 - the day she seized power from her husband, Emperor Peter III. This was the occasion she met Potemkin for the first time. As she reviewed her troops outside the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, she noticed she was missing her sword-knot. Young Potemkin galloped up and offered her his own. She did not forget him.

Top: Countess Alexandra 'Sashenka' Branicka, clever, lithe and formidable, was Potemkin's niece, probably his mistress, but certainly his best friend after Catherine herself. He died in her arms.

Left: The Heir - Grand Duke (later Emperor) Paul, Catherine's unstable, embittered son who so hated Potemkin, he boasted he would toss him in jail.

'otemkin's palaces: his northern and southern houses.

light-, the neo-Classical Taurida 'alace in St Petersburg, the scene >f the Prince's sumptuous ball in 791. Below from left: his first >alace, the Anichkov in ^tersburg; the Bablovo ^lace in ruins near Tsarskoe Selo; he Ostrovki Castle. Both were nspired by Walpole's Gothic itrawberry Hill.

Above: the 'Potemkin Palace' in Ekaterinoslav Above right: The Prince's Palace in Turkish style in Nikolaev - he longed to visit this residence as he lay dying. Right: his huge palace in the centre of Kherson, his first city.

The Empress aged 58 in her travelling costume during Potemkin's mag­nificent 1787 tour of the Crimea where she met Emperor Joseph II.

Field Marshal Potemkin during the Second Turkish War - the victor at his apogee. He wears Catherine's portrait set in diamonds - his proudest possession.

Below: his signature.

The ageing Empress during the 1790s: still majestic and dignified but growing fat and breathless. As she told Potemkin, she was so in love with her talentless young lover, Zubov, that she felt like a fat fly in summer. She yearned for his approval of her last favourite ...

Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky as the triumphant warlord on his last visit to Petersburg in 1791 when he was ebullient and volatile as ever. Catherine thought victory made him even more handsome. Even his enemies admitted 'women crave the embraces of Prince Potemkin.'

Above left: the monuments by the roadside (in Moldova) where Potemkin died on 5th October 1791.

Above right: this board announced Potemkin's death and listed all his titles during his lying-in-state in October 1791. The author found it in the Golia Monastery in Jassy (Romania) behind a piano. Middle right: his coffin in the tomb beneath the Church.

The Bolsheviks stole the icons ...

Below right: the trapdoor in St Catherine's in

Kherson (Ukraine) leading to Potemkin's tomb.

The ruined church in Potemkin's home village of Chizhova, near Smolensk in Russia where he was christened, learned to read, and where his heart is probably buried.

Daria Potemkina, the Prince's mother who disapproved of his affairs with his nieces and told him so. He tossed her letters into the fire ...

Potemkin aged around 3 5 at the height of his passionate love affair with Catherine, wearing the gold breastplates and uniform of the Captain of the elite Chevalier-Gardes, who stood watch over the Empress's own apartments.

The Empress Elisabeth: statuesque, blue-eyed, blonde, shrewd and ruthless, a true daughter of Peter the Great with a taste for men, dresses, transvestite balls, and Orthodox piety. After being presented to her, young Potemkin lost interest in his studies ...

The Grand Duchess Catherine with her gawky husband Peter and their son Paul. She loathed her husband - and Paul was probably her son by Serge Saltykov, her first lover.

Field-Marshal Peter Rumiantsev in command at the Battle of Kagul against the Turks in 1770. General Potemkin's exploits in this campaign made him a war hero.

The Orlov brothers who helped Catherine seize power. Good-natured Grigory (on the left) was her lover for twelve years. Brutal, scarfaced Alexei (on the right) helped murder Peter III and won the naval battle of Chesme against the Turks. Potemkin broke their influence.

A fanciful print of Catherine and Potemkin playing cards in her boudoir. In fact, they played usually in the Little Hermitage where the Empress made special rules for him - 'Do not break or chew anything' - because he liked to wander in, chewing a radish and wearing nothing but a dressing-gown and a pink bandanna.

Alexander Lanskoy, Catherine's lover 1780-1784. He was gentle, affectionate and unambitious. She was happiest with him. When he died, Potemkin rushed to console her, and courtiers heard them howling together with grief.

Count Alexander Dmitriyev- Mamonov, Catherine's penul­timate favourite and kinsman of Potemkin. She nicknamed him 'Redcoat'. He broke the Empress's heart by falling in love with a lady-in-waiting. 'Spit on him,' said Potemkin.

Potemkin's nieces were his family, friends and mistresses.

Left: PrincessVarvara Golitsyna - he fell in love with his flirtatious, strong- willed niece after the end of his affair with Catherine.

Right: Countess Ekaterina Skavronskaya with her daughter, the future Princess Bagratian. Potemkin's languid and beautiful niece - mistress, known as his 'angel', was his 'sultana-in-chief' for many years ...

Right: The Duchess of Kingston (also Countess of Bristol) made her name when she was still Elisabeth Chudleigh by appearing naked at the Venetian Ambassador's Ball in London in 1749. By the time this ageing and slatternly self-publicist visited Petersburg in a luxurious yacht in the 1770s, she was the most scandalous woman in England, having been found guilty of bigamy. Potemkin, who fancied her art treasures, arranged for an adjutant to become her lover.

Above left: Princess Tatiana Yusupova, the youngest niece who adored her uncle and wrote that court was very dull without him. Above right: Countess Ekaterina Samoilova, the Prince's brazen but fascinating niece-by-marriage. She seduced the young Comte de Damas during the Siege of Ochakov in 1788 - and was said to be Potemkin's mistress soon afterwards.

Above: the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II meets Catherine in a field near Kaidak during Potemkin's Crimean progress in 1787. That night, Joseph grumbled about Potemkin's cooking - yet he envied his vast achievements.

Left: Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, socialite, Austrian soldier, renowned wit, 'jockey diplomatique', and the charmer of Europe, said that it took the materials for a hundred men to make one Potemkin.

Right: Potemkin's 'Matushka' and 'foster- nurse'. Catherine in the 1780s as she could be seen around the park at Tsarskoe Selo, in a bonnet and walking shoes with her beloved English grey­hounds.

Below: Potemkin, in the helmet in the centre, leads the storming of the powerful Turkish fortress of Ochakov in 1788. The Turkish dead were so numerous, they were piled into pyramids on the ice where they froze solid.

Left: Count Alexander Suvorov, Russia's most brilliant general. Tough, cultured and wildly eccentric, he used to perform naked somersaults in front of his army every morning. 'You can't over-Suvorov Suvorov,' said Potemkin.

Below: The invitation to Potemkin's famous ball in the Taurida Palace on 28th April 1791. Catherine and Potemkin wept as he knelt at her feet to say goodbye.

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Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukaya, Potemkin's mistress near the end of his life. She was a paragon of aristocratic beauty with whom the Prince fell passionately in love, shocking observers by stroking her in public, building her an underground palace, ordering artillery salvoes to mark their caresses, and serving diamonds instead of pudding at her birthday ball.

Countess Sophia Potocka, the 'Beautiful Greek' and outstanding adventuress of the age, said to be the 'prettiest girl in Europe.' She was a spy and courtesan notorious for her 'beauty, vice and crimes' who was sold at the age of 14 by her mother, a fruit-seller in Constantinople, and became one of Potemkin's last mistresses before marrying the fabulously wealthy Polish Count Felix Potocki, seducing her step-son and building a huge fortune.

Prince Platon Zubov, Catherine the Great's last favourite who was vain, silly and politically inept. She nicknamed him 'Blackie'. Potemkin failed to remove him but, as Zubov admitted, Serenissimus remained Catherine's 'exacting husband.'

'Potemkin's death was as extraordinary as his life.' On 5th October 1791 Potemkin, weeping for the Empress, died on the Bessarabian steppes beside the road, in the arms of his favourite niece, Countess Branicka. Branicka fell into a faint. A Cossack commented, 'Lived on gold; died on grass.'

Potemkin's funeral in Jassy was magnificent - but the destiny of his body was as restless as his life.

'Superb' Frank McLynn, Financial Times

'Magnificent...⁵ Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

Prince of Princes The Life of Potemkin

'This splendidly written biography...Not only does it retrieve Potemkin and his eccentric career from historical obscurity, it helps bring to life all of aristocratic, 18th century Russia. Could easily have been double the length so enjoyable is it' AnnЈ Applebaum, Sunday Telegraph

Prince Grigory Potemkin was Catherine the Great's lover, secret husband and partner in ruling the Russian Empire. Catherine called him 'one of the greatest, strangest and wittiest eccentrics' of her epoch - her 'twin soul', 'tiger' and 'darling husband'; her 'hero' and 'master' in politics.

Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement allowing them to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine, her favourites. But they never stopped loving each other.

After five years' new research in archives from St. Petersburg to Odessa, Montefiore brings blazingly to life Potemkin's loving partnership with Catherine and restores him to his rightful place as an outstandingly gifted statesman, and a colossus of the eighteenth century.

' A terrific read...Book of the Year' Antonia Fraser, BBC History Magazine

'Excellent with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair... Book of the Year...One of the great love-stories of history in a league with Napoleon and Josephine and Antony and Cleopatra' Economist

PHOENIX PRESS NON-FICTION/HISTORY £9.99 IN UK ONLY

Cover: Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky by G.B. Lampi (attrib.) Suvorov Museum, St. Petersburg

Spine: Catherine II by A. Roslin / Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Cover design: Killian Strong

* This continued right up to 1917. When Rasputin's enemies grumbled to Nicholas II about his bathing with his female devotees, the last Tsar retorted that this was a usual habit of the common people.

* The British Cabinet Noir was much feared because it was based in George Ill's Electorate of Hanover, a crossroads allowing it to intercept mail from all over Europe.

* Even Potemkin's valet, Zakhar Constantinov, was a Greek.

* The Prince de Ligne saw a universal rule about women here: 'The flattery made her drunk ... the inconvenience of women on thrones.'

* It was no coincidence that the first and most vicious anti-Potemkin biography, written even before Helbig, Panslavin Fiirst der Finsternis (Panslavin Prince of Darkness) was by a Freemason, J. F. E. Albrecht, probably a Rosicrucian. Mystical Freemasonry was surprisingly fashionable among the parodomaniacs of

[1] Potemkin's Palaces: Taurida, photo by author; Anichkov, author's collection; Ostrovky, author's collection; Bablovo, photo by author; Ekaterinoslav, photo by author; Nikolaev, Nikolaev State History Museum, photo by author; Kherson, Kherson State History Museum, photo by author

[2] 'Here lies Bauer under this stone, Coachman, drive on!'

[3] Writing in 1994, for example, one highly respected Professor of History at Cambridge University evaluates Potemkin's political and military abilities, with the amusing but completely unjustifiable claim that he 'lacked self-confidence anywhere outside the bedroom.'

[4] The date of his birth is, like everything else about him, mysterious because there is much confusion about the age that he went to live in Moscow and that he was put down for the Guards. There is an argument for saying he was born in 1742, the date given by his nephew Samoilov. The dates and military records contradict each other without creating a particularly interesting debate. This date is the most likely.

[5] When Grigory Potemkin, who was to prove even more shocking to Western sensibilities, rose to greatness in St Petersburg, it was felt he required a famous ancestor. A portrait of the foul-tempered, xenophobic and pedantic Ambassador of the era of the Sun King and the Merry Monarch was found, possibly a present from the English Embassy, and placed in Catherine the Great's Hermitage.

[6] Today, there is little on the Potemkin side of the village except Catherine's Well and the hut of two octogenarian peasants who subsist on bees. On the serf's side, there is just the ruins of the church. In Communist times, the villagers say, the commissars kept cattle in 'Potemkin's church' but all the cattle sickened and died. The villagers are still digging for an Aladdin's Cave which they call 'Potemkin's Gold'. But all they have found are the bodies of eighteenth-century women, probably Potemkin's sisters, in the graveyard.

[7] He did endow the round Nikitskaya Church (Little Nikitskaya) and it was rebuilt by his heirs. But he was still planning the big project when he died. Historians who believe he married Catherine II in Moscow point to this church as the venue for the wedding.

[8] The young Emperor, who moved the Court back to Moscow, died in the suburban Palace which today contains the War College archives (RGVIA), where most of Potemkin's papers are stored.

[9] Favourites had developed by the seventeenth century into the minister-favourites such as Olivares in Spain and Richelieu and Mazarin in France, who were not the King's lovers but able politicians chosen to run the increasingly heavy bureaucracies. When Louis XIV chose to rule himself on the death of Mazarin in 1661, the fashion ended. But Russia's female rulers, beginning with Catherine I in 172.5, reinvented it.

f In the Smolensk Local History Museum, there is just such a glass goblet which is said to have belonged to Potemkin. The story goes that when Catherine the Great passed through Smolensk she drank a toast from it.

[10] Potemkin too was described by foreigners as a giant. The best specimens were bound to join the Guards, but the physique of Russian men seems to have been undergoing a blossoming in this period, to judge by the comments of visitors: 'The Russian peasant is a fine, stout, straight, well-looking man,' gushed Lady Craven as she travelled the Empire.

t His strength was no legend - as witnessed by Baroness Dimsdale in 1781 when the Empress Catherine's carriage on the fairground Flying Mountain, an early version of the 'big dipper', flew off its wooden groove: Orlov, 'a remarkably strong man, stood behind the carriage and with his foot guided it in its proper direction'.

[11] This was the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg that so inspired Hitler and Goebbels in 1945 in the Berlin bunker when the death of President Roosevelt was supposed to split the Allies. Frederick exulted that 'The Messalina of the North is dead' and acclaimed Peter Ill's 'truly German heart.'

[12] The Panin fortunes were founded on marriage to the niece of Peter the Great's favourite Prince Alexander Menshikov, who had started life as a pie-seller.

[13] This was the child with whom she was pregnant at Elisabeth's death - Alexei Grigorevich Bobrinsky, 1762-1813. Though he was never officially recognized, Catherine saw to his upbringing. He led a debauched life in Paris with the Empress paying his debts, before returning home and later travelling again. Paul I finally recognized him as a half-brother and made him a count.

[14] This did not stop one diplomat claiming he had 'procured a glass eye in Paris'.

[15] Brother of the Empress Elisabeth's favourite, he was appointed Hetman of the Ukraine in his early twenties. This meant that he was the governor of the nominally semi-independent Cossack borderlands throughout Elisabeth's reign. Razumovsky backed Catherine's coup, then requested that she make the Hetmanate hereditary in his family. She refused, abolished the Hetmanate, replacing it with a College of Little Russia, and made him a field-marshal instead.

[16] Rumiantsev's mother was born in 1699 and lived to be eighty-nine. The grandest lady-in-waiting at Court had known the Duke of Marlborough and Louis XIV, remembered Versailles and the day St Petersburg was founded. She liked to boast until her dying day that she was Peter the Great's last mistress. The dates certainly fitted: the boy was named Peter after the Tsar. His official father, yet another Russian giant, was a provincial boy who became a Count, a General-en-Chef and one of Peter the Great's hard men: he was the ruffian sent to pursue Peter's fugitive son, the Tsarevich Alexei, to Austria and bring him back to be tortured to death by his father.

[17] Catherine, in one of the undated love letters usually placed at the official start of their affair in 1774, tells Potemkin that a nameless courtier, perhaps an Orlov ally, has warned her about her behaviour with him and asked permission to send him back to the army, to which she agrees.

[18] Peter the Great did make his favourite Prince Menshikov, but that was an exception. After 1796, Emperor Paul and his successors began to create princes themselves so promiscuously that they ultimately caused an inflationary glut in the prestige of that title.

[19] When Emperor Alexander I died in 1825, he was widely believed to have become a monk wandering the Russian vastness.

[20] In the late nineteenth century, the painter Constantine Somov, one of the 'Art for Art's Sake' circle of intellectuals, whose father was then Curator of the Hermitage Museum, held a tea party for his mainly homosexual friends, the poet Kuzmin, probably the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the poetess Anna

[21] It was a mark of the anarchy engulfing the Volga region that yet another false Peter III, a fugitive serf, now managed to raise another rabble army and conquer Troitsk, south-east of Moscow, where he set up another grotesque Court.

[22] Renamed Stalingrad in 1925. Since 1961, it has been called Volgagrad.

[23] There is another possible Moscow venue. During the nineteenth century, a Prince S. Golitsyn, a collector, used to invite visitors to his palace on Volkonsky Street, said to be one of the places where Catherine stayed in Moscow during 1775. He used to show them two icons supposedly given by Catherine to his chapel to celebrate her marriage there to Potemkin.

[24] Catherine granted Daria a house on Prestichenka where she lived until her death.

[25] Until 1733, forceps had been the secret weapon, as it were, of a surgical dynasty, the Chamberlens. In that time, even the doctors were hereditary.

f Potemkin was said to have arranged this death and mysteriously visited the midwife. Medical murder is a recurring theme in Russian political paranoia - Stalin's Doctor's Plot of 1952/3 played on the spectre of 'murderers in white coats'. Prince Orlov, Grand Duchess Natalia, Catherine's lover Alexander Lanskoy and Potemkin himself were all rumoured to have been murdered by the doctors caring for them. Potemkin was said to have been involved in the first three deaths.

[25] Paul and Maria Fyodorovna were married in Petersburg on z6 September 1776. The two emperors were Alexander I and Nicholas I, who ruled until 1855. Their second son Constantine almost succeeded but his refusal of the throne sparked off the Decembrist Revolt in 18x5.

[26] Alexander I appointed him Russia's first Minister of Education.

[26] The letters mentioning Cagliostro are usually dated to 1774 by V.S. Lopatin and others because of their obvious sensual passion for Potemkin. But Count Cagliostro emerged in London only in 1776/7, so they could not have discussed him in 1774. Cagliostro travelled through Europe in 1778, finding fame in Mittau through the patronage of the ducal family and Courland aristocracy before coming to Petersburg, where he met Potemkin: their relations are discussed in the next chapter. If her wish that, instead of 'soupe a la glace' - Vassilchikov - they had begun their love 'a year and a half ago' is translated as 'a year and a half before', the letter could date from 1779/80, when their reunion would have reminded Catherine of that wasted year and a half.

[27] Catherine's handful of adjutants included her favourite of the moment and also the sons of magnates and several of Potemkin's nephews. This was further complicated because in June 1776 Potemkin created the rank of aide-de-camp to the Empress whose duties (written out in his own hand and corrected by Catherine) were to aid the adjutants. The Prince of course had his own aides-de-camp, who often then joined Catherine's staff.

[28] This Georg-Ludwig was also the uncle of her husband Peter III, who brought him to Petersburg during his short reign. Ironically, his orderly was young Potemkin.

t On her death, Orleans' enemies sang: 'La pleures-tu comme mari / Comme ta fille ou ta maitresse?' - Do you weep for her as a husband, for your daughter or your mistress?

[29] Potemkin showed off many of Kingston's treasures at his ball in 1791, described in Chapter 32. The Hermitage today, which holds much of the contents of Potemkin's collections, is spotted with the former belongings of the Duchess of Kingston. Garnovsky was to be cursed for his avarice, for the Emperor Paul threw him into a debtor's prison and he died poor in 1810.

t The Peacock Clock is one of the centrepieces of today's Hermitage Museum. It still performs every hour on the hour.

ф This now stands in the Menshikov Palace, part of the Hermitage, and is played at midday on Sundays. In its music, we can hear the sounds of Potemkin's salon two centuries ago.

[30] There was a special Scottish relationship with Russia. The Scots often became Russianized. Empress Elisabeth's Chancellor Bestuzhev was descended from a Scotsman named Best; Count Yakov Bruce was descended from Scots soldiers of fortune; Lermontov, the nineteenth-century poet, from a Learmond named 'Thomas the Rhymer'.

f One Browne cousin was a field-marshal in the Austrian army, while George Browne joined Russian service, was captured by the Turks, sold thrice in Istanbul and then became governor of Livonia for most of Catherine the Great's reign, dying in his nineties. Field-Marshal Count Lacey became Joseph II's most trusted military adviser and correspondent, while another, Count Francis Antony Lacey, was Spanish Ambassador to Petersburg and Captain-General of all Catalonia.

[31] Indeed, 'travailler pour le roi de Prusse' was a popular euphemism for 'working without salary'.

[31] Stormont would have known that this was the positively imperial sum of two million francs. Louis XIV's minister at the Hague offered the century's most famous bribe to Marlborough in May 1709.

[32] One, who later reigned as Mahmud II, was supposedly the son of that favourite odalisque, Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, cousin of the future Empress Josephine.

[33] Even Frederick the Great called him 'a cloud of boredom and distaste.'

[34] 'Long live Great Britain and Rodney. I have just arrived, my dear Harris. Guess who is writing to you and come and see me immediately!'

[35] One token of Harris's favour with Catherine and Potemkin can still be seen in London in the form of a gorgeous bauble. When Harris left, she presented him with a chandelier created in Potemkin's glass factories. Harris's descendant, the 6th Earl of Malmesbury, recently gave this to the Skinner's Company of the City of London where it now hangs in the Outer Hall.

[36] Potemkin the Orthodox revelled in possessing the very place, the ancient town of Khersoneses in the Crimea, where Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev, had been baptized in 988, the moment when Christianity reached the land of Rus.

[37] The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabak were still fighting to escape the Moslem control of the Republic of Azerbaijan and join the Republic of Armenia during a vicious war in the early 1990s.

[38] When this author visited Kherson, it was still infested with insects: the bed and ceiling in its main hotel so teemed with mosquitoes that the white of the sheets and the paint were literally blackened.

[39] The centre of the town is still mainly as Potemkin planned it. The fortress has been destroyed: only its two gate forts remain. The huge well, possibly the one Potemkin ordered Colonel Gaks to construct, remains covered by a grid. During the Second World War, Nazis threw executed Russians down it when they retreated. Potemkin's immense Palace survived until 1922. The curving arsenal, the mint, admiralty and above all St Catherine's Church remain. The church, with its sandy-coloured stone, its pillars and its noble Starov dome, was once used as a museum of atheism to display the decaying bodies of those buried in its graveyard, but is once again used as a church. Korsakov the engineer is buried in its churchyard. And the proudest boast of its priest and parishioners is that Potemkin its builder rests there beneath the church floor - see Epilogue.

f The author had heard the legend that the icons were by V.L. Borovikovsky and showed a saintly Potemkin and Catherine. The priest in the church had never heard it. It emerged that the icons from the church were stored in the Kherson Art Museum, where they are attributed to Mikhail Shibanov. Potemkin the dragon- slayer is instantly recognizable.

[40] Still a closed naval city, it is now shared by the Black Sea Fleets of Ukraine and Russia. None of Potemkin's original buildings survived the Anglo-French siege of the Crimean War and the Nazi siege of the Second World War. But there is a monument just above the port - crowded and grey with battleships - that reads: 'Here on 3 (14) June 1783 was founded the city of Sebastopol - the sea fortress of south Russia.'

[41] Dnepropetrovsk was noted in the Soviet era for providing the USSR with its clique of leaders in the 1970s. In 1938, a thirty-two-year-old Communist apparatchik named Leonid Brezhnev stepped over the corpses of his liquidated superiors in the midst of Stalin's Great Purge to become chief of propaganda in Dnepropetrovsk. There he gathered together the cronies who were to dominate the Soviet Union in 1964- 80: the 'Dnepropetrovsk Mafia'. Locals today recall that Brezhnev especially enjoyed entertaining in the Potemkin Palace.

[42] Today Deribas is one of Odessa's most elegant boulevards.

[43] In Kherson today, on the site of the first docks stands a hideous concrete Soviet sculpture of a sailing ship. Its inscription of course does not mention Potemkin but it acclaims him nonetheless. 'Here in 1783', it reads, 'was launched the first 66-gun ship-of-the-line of the Black Sea Fleet - "Glory of Catherine".'

[44] These worshipped, according to the old rites of Orthodoxy. They had been excluded from mainstream Russian life for a century, often living in remote Siberian settlements to worship freely. Fascinated by their faith, Potemkin protected and tolerated them.

[45] Who were these 'blackamoors'? Was Potemkin really trying to import black settlers - slaves from Africa? 'Blackamoor' surely meant 'street arabs' or urchins from London's streets, whom today we would call vagrants.

[46] Stavropol's most famous son is Mikhail Gorbachev. Though General Suvorov was responsible for building some of these forts in his Kuban Line and was given credit as their founder in various Soviet histories, it was Potemkin who ordered their construction.

[47] Sheikh Mansour and the nineteenth-century leader against the Russians, Imam Shamyl, an Avar, are the two great heroes of today's Chechen rebels. When the author was in Grozny before the Chechen War in 1994, portraits of Sheikh Mansour's finely featured and heavily bearded visage adorned the offices of the President and ministers. Grozny's airport was named after him during Chechnya's short independence in the 1990s.

f The Kherson State History Museum has prints that show it in its nineteenth-century glory. But it does not stand any more. Plundered for its firewood and hated for its grandeur, it was destroyed during the Civil War.

t 'Potemkin's Palace' still stands in the centre of Dnepropetrovsk. The local museum contains some of the gold-encrusted mirrors, possibly made in his own factories, with which Potemkin planned to decorate the palace. On Potemkin's death, only one storey was finished. The rest was built according to Starov's plans during the 1830s: it became the House of the Nobility. In 1917, it became the House of Rest for Working People. It remains the House of Students. Ruined in the war, it was rebuilt in 1951. The two hothouses of the Winter Garden in Ekaterinoslav crumbled in 1794. Today, Gould's garden, now a Park of Culture, is called 'Potemkin Park' and still has an English air.

[48] This survived long after his death. The author found the place where it had stood: today, locals swim and dive from its seafront. Two storeys of white stone steps that led to the house survive along with Starov's ornate white fountain, dated 1792. A basketball court stands on the palace's foundations. The house was the Ship-Owners Club during the nineteenth century, but it was destroyed in the Revolution: a photograph shows it being dismantled for firewood. Ironically, today Moldavian-style mansions of New Russian millionaires are springing up, like distortions of Potemkin's Palace, around the suburbs of Nikolaev. f Potemkin's two creative planners, Starov and Gould, did well like everyone else who worked with him. He was evidently a very generous employer, as the fortunes of Faleev, Zeitlin, Shemiakin, Garnovsky and many others prove. Ivan Starov was a rich man, dying in 1808.

[49] Potemkin took Reginald Pole Carew on a tour of his industrial holdings in 1781, including his glass and brick factories near Schltisselburg, another glass factory near the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and his iron foundry twenty miles outside Petersburg on his Eschenbaum estate, which was run by an Englishman, Mr Hill. Pole Carew also visited Krichev and Potemkin's other estates down the Dnieper, and suggested founding an English colony on a formerly Zaporogian island where Potemkin later settled immigrants.

[50] Card games followed political fashions. For example, the Comte de Segur explains in his Memoires how in Paris the faro of high aristocracy gave way to English whist, representing moderate liberty as explained by Montesquieu, but when the American War showed that Kings could be defied, 'boston' became the fashion.

[51] Alupka is the remarkable Crimea palace built in a mixture of Scottish baronial, Arabesque and Gothic architecture by Prince Mikhail Vorontsov and his wife Lise, who was Potemkin's great-niece. It is now a museum. See Epilogue.

[52] We can follow some of Gould's adventures in the archives: in 1785, he is paid 1,453 roubles for a tool needed in the Crimea; the next year, 500 roubles for gardeners coming from England to join the team. In 1786/7, Gould headed from Petersburg to the Crimea with 200 roubles for the journey and 225 for his carriage. Then he joined the Prince in Moldavia during the war, travelling with him to Dubossary in 1789 (800 roubles) and the next year to Jassy (650 roubles).

[53] The bitchy Horace Walpole laughed at the appropriateness of the subject since two tsars had been killed, at least one strangled, to secure Catherine's crown.

f Potemkin's paintings were admired in the Hermitage by Parkinson in 1792. None of the three Reynoldes is now on display in the Hermitage, but they are exhibited abroad. When the author searched for them in 1998, they were in a dusty corridor used as a storeroom, leaning forlornly against the wall.

[54] Potemkin may never have got the chance to encounter Jeremy Bentham. But we can: he rests, stuffed, pale and desiccated but clearly recognizable, his 'auto-icon', in the corridors of University College, London.

[55] Dr Rogerson had just claimed another victim. Soon after seeing off Samuel Bentham's love for his niece, Field-Marshal Prince Alexander Golitsyn died in Rogerson's care, probably bled and purged to death. 'I'm afraid', Catherine half joked to Potemkin, 'that anybody who gets into Rogerson's hands is already dead.'

[56] On his death, the Palace passed to the Romanovs: it was the Petersburg residence of Alexander I's adored sister Catherine until her death in 1818. Then it belonged to Nicholas I until his accession and was then used to hold the Empress's dances: Pushkin and his wife often danced there. Later, it belonged to Tsar Nicholas I I's mother, the Empress Maria Fyodorovna, until 1917. In February 1914, Prince Felix Yusopov, the future killer of Rasputin, married Grand Duchess Irina there.

[57] A hideous Soviet cinema stands there today.

f There was a sinister tradition that 'Princess Tarakanova' was kept here for a while, with the child supposedly fathered by Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, but there is no evidence for this stay or the child. Ostrovky survived until the Nazis destroyed it, but luckily it was photographed during the 1930s.

[58] The author found its ruins in the Bablovsky Park. There is a surprise inside the tower: a circular red granite bowl with a diameter of about ten feet. This was the early version of a swimming pool built by Alexander I, where he used to swim privately during hot Tsarskoe Selo summers.

[59] The author found its ruins in the Bablovsky Park. There is a surprise inside the tower: a circular red granite bowl with a diameter of about ten feet. This was the early version of a swimming pool built by Alexander I, where he used to swim privately during hot Tsarskoe Selo summers.

[60] Yermolov's demand for an audience with George III when he visited London caused some awkwardness a year later. He later settled in Vienna.

[61] Giambattista Lampi, 1751-1830, was one of the most fashionable portrait painters in Vienna - Joseph II and Kaunitz sat for him. Potemkin seemed to have shared him with the Austrians, sometimes asking Kaunitz to send him over. The paintings done in 1791 before he died were copied by painters like Roslin and sold in prints.

[62] The great favourites of earlier epochs, such as the Count-Duke of Olivares and Cardinal Richelieu, both suffered recurring nervous collapses.

[63] In our times, this resembles President L.B. Johnson humiliating his cabinet from his lavatory seat.

[64] The Prince loved his food and when Monsieur Ballez's much anticipated arrival from France was delayed by his being stranded at Elsinor in Denmark, Potemkin mobilized the Russian Ambassador and various special envoys to get him quickly overland to Petersburg.

[65] This was an earlier, more proactive version of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's description of politics as 'Events, dear boy, events.'

[66] 'Blessed is he who does not go to the council of the ungodly.'

[67] The Empress's trip was the cause of another row with her Heir: she wanted to take the little princes, Alexander and Constantine, with her. Grand Duke Paul bitterly objected: he wished to come on the trip as well, but Catherine was not going to allow 'Die schwere Bagage' to spoil her glory. Paul even appealed desperately to Potemkin to stop the children going, a humiliating recognition of his power. Potemkin probably helped the children stay with the parents, a sign of kindness overcoming expediency; but Alexander fell ill, which actually solved the problem.

[68] This was Countess Mniszech, nee Urszula Zamoyska, the King of Poland's niece. Stanislas-Augustus claimed that Potemkin had proposed marriage to her back in 1775. For obvious reasons, this was unlikely. Now Potemkin, who evidently bore no ill feelings, had her decorated by Catherine, along with Alexandra Branicka.

[69] Once in this intimate circle, Segur noticed that Potemkin kept slipping away to a back room. When he tried to follow, the nieces detained him with 'charming cajolery'. Finally he escaped to discover the Oriental scene of a room filled with jewels and forbidden merchandise, surrounded by merchants and onlookers. At the centre of it was his own valet Evrard, who had been caught red-handed smuggling and whose goods were thus being sold off, with Potemkin doubtless getting the best of the gems. The highly embarrassed Segur sacked his valet on the spot, but the nieces, who were evidently delighted with the latest fashions from Paris, dissuaded him. 'You had better be nice to him,' said Potemkin, 'since by a strange chance, you find yourself to be his ... accomplice.' His valet may have been caught with contraband, but the Ambassador of the Most Christian Majesty had clearly been set up for one of Potemkin's jokes.

[70] This resembles Lord Palmerston's attempt to ravish one of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting at Windsor - except that Catherine was probably as amused as the Queen was not.

[71] The whole floating worm was 252 feet long and almost 17 feet wide, propelled by 120 rowers.

[72] 'There is no doubt', Samuel told Jeremy Bentham, deluding himself winningly, 'that the Emperor as well as everybody else praised the invention.'

[73] The carriage is in the Dnepropetrovsk State Historical Museum.

[74] Potemkin preferred its Greek name, Olviopol.

[75] Potemkin had Catherine's Crimean progress marked by milestones, engraved in Russian and Turkish and placed every ten kilometres. Only three survive: one stands today outside the Khan's Palace in Bakhchisaray. The Giray graveyard also remains intact, if somewhat overgrown.

[76] Herodotus writes that the Amazons, led by their queen Penthesilea, crossed the Black Sea, fought the Scythians and then settled with them not far from the Sea of Azov. So Potemkin would have known that the Crimea was, as it were, the natural habitat of Amazons. When Potemkin took Miranda to the Crimea, they met a German colonel, Schutz, whose wife had 'followed him in campaign dressed as a man and been injured twice - she has a bit of a manly look'. Did Frau Schutz advise on Potemkin's Amazon Regiment? It seems a coincidence that there should be two households of Amazons in one small peninsula.

[77] It turned out to be a Kalmyk boy called Nagu, later captured at the storming of Ochakov, to whom Segur taught French and then managed to unload on a delighted Countess Cobenzl, back in the north, f The exact position of this 'fairy abode' - built on the site of the Tartar hut where Potemkin almost died in late 1783 - is now unknown. But when the author visited Beligorsk, Karasubazaar's present name, he found a verdant spot near a river and orchard that fitted the description of the English visitor Maria Guthrie. The Tartars, deported by Stalin, have returned to the village.

[78] Western monarchs often procured Eastern slave girls, despite their disgust for Oriental slavery. There must have been quite a traffic in these girls, who were either captured in war or bought by ambassadors to the Sublime Porte. Hence Potemkin's offer of a girl to Segur. Frederick the Great's Scottish Jacobite friend Earl Marshal Keith travelled with a Turkish slave girl picked up in the Russo-Turkish Wars, and, as we will see, one of the most cultivated men of the era, King Stanislas-Augustus of Poland, was sent a regular supply, f This translates awkwardly into English but sounds better in German - 'Potemkin der Taurier' - and in French 'le Taurien', the Taurian. Catherine and Grimm discussed how to translate it and the philosophe suggested it should be 'Tauricus' or 'le Taurien'.

[79] But not even this was all show: when Lady Craven visited the Albanians in April 1786, they already wore a 'kind of Roman warrior's dress' and had 'Oriental and Italian poniards' while the Cossacks performed for her just for the fun of it.

f There was indeed a famine in certain areas, notably around Moscow, not in Potemkin's richer southern provinces, after a bad harvest in 1786, which was why Catherine hurried back to the capital. When she arrived in Tula, far from Potemkin's Viceroyalty, the local governor concealed local poverty with false facades but also did not inform her of the rising food prices. When Lev Naryshkin told her the bread prices, she, to her credit, cancelled the ball given for her that night. Both Catherine and Potemkin felt the suffering of ordinary people, when they heard about it, but neither would let a minor famine interfere with the glorious aggrandizement of the Empire nor with the magnificence of their lifestyles. But this was a characteristic of all eighteenth-century governments, however enlightened.

[80] When Hitler invaded Russia on 2.2. June 1941, Stalin almost disappeared, saw nobody and seemed overwhelmed by the scale of responsibility and a temporary loss of nerve. He was apparently suffering some sort of depression. In May 1967, Rabin was 'stammering, nervous, incoherent'. His biographer quotes an eye-witness as observing 'it was almost as if he had lost his nerve, was out of control'.

[81] Withdrawal of the z6 battalions of infantry, zz squadrons of cavalry and 5 Cossack regiments, all cooped up in the Crimea, was not the cowardice of a hysteric, but sound military sense. Potemkin planned to let the Turks land on the peninsula before destroying them in a land battle. (This was precisely what Suvorov did on a smaller scale at Kinburn). Once the danger of a landing was over, they could have been moved, but Catherine rejects the idea for political reasons.

[82] Later, Suvorov became more than famous: he became Prince of Italy, a European star fighting the Revolutionary French in Italy and Switzerland. By 1799, he was the peerless Russian idol and remained so until 1917. Then in 1941, Stalin restored him to the status of national hero and instituted the Order of Suvorov. Soviet historians reinvented him as a people's hero. The result of this cult is that even today Suvorov is given credit for much actually done by Potemkin.

[83] This was just the first of the many occasions when Ligne's criticisms, widely propagated and accepted by history as truth, were factually wrong and based on his Austrian partisanship. His rightly famous accounts of Potemkin at war, which he repeated in his fine letters to Joseph, Segur and the Marquise de Coigny and thus to the whole of Europe, never deliberately lied but they have to be read in the context of his job, which was to spy on his friend, and persuade him to take the heat off his own Emperor. He was also bitterly disappointed not to be given his own command.

[84] History hangs on such petty questions of rank. Count Fyodor Rostopchin, later the Governor of Moscow who burned the city in 1812, claimed in his La Verite sur Vlncendie de Moscow to have seen it: 'I've held this letter in my hands several times.' He regretted that Bonaparte did not join the Russian army.

[85] One wonders what happened to these Jewish Cossacks. Six years later, in 1794, Polish Jews raised a force of 500 light cavalry to fight the Russians. Their colonel Berek (Berko) Joselewicz joined Napoleon's Polish Legion in 1807. Berek won the Legion d'Honneur, but died fighting the Austrians in 1809. Did any of Potemkin's Jewish Cossacks fight for Napoleon? Later in the mid-nineteenth century, the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz formed another Jewish cavalry regiment called the Hussars of Israel among Polish exiles in Istanbul. A Lieutenant Michal Horenstein even designed an elegant grey uniform. During the Crimean War, the Jewish horsemen fought with the remaining Ottoman Cossacks against the Russians outside Sebastopol.

[86] Samuel was so depressed that he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Pitt the Younger which offered to exchange his 'battalion of 900 Russians' in order to supervise a Panopticon 'of British malefactors'.

[87] Ligne's letters give only half the story; Potemkin's archives hold the other half. Ligne's claims that Potemkin was lying about his victories on other fronts were accepted by historians but are actually themselves false. Potemkin's espionage network, revealed by his archives, kept him informed of events across his huge theatre of operations: he received regular reports from the Governor of the Polish fortress Kamenets-Podolsky, General de Witte, who explained how he had managed to get spies into Turkish Khotin in a consignment of butter - though the fact that the sister of Witte's Greek wife was married to the Pasha of Khotin might also have helped.

[88] In the process, he invented an amphibious cart, perhaps the first amphibious landing craft; a floating timebomb; an early torpedo; and bottlebombs filled with inflammable liquid that had to be lit and then thrown - 160 years before Molotov cocktails. Perhaps they should be called 'Bentham' or 'Potemkin cocktails'.

[89] Potemkin wrote to him: 'Sir, Her Imperial Majesty distinguishing the bravery shown by you against the Turks on the Liman of Ochakov ... has graciously been pleased to present you with a sword inscribed to commemorate your valour..

[90] Today, though the fortifications are gone, one can stand on the ramparts where the walls stood and look down on the length of the Liman and the encampments of the Russian besiegers. Far to the left is the mouth of the Bug. Opposite on its own narrow spit stands the Russian fortress of Kinburn. Near by to the right, at the end of the Ochakov spit, the Hassan-Pasha Redoubt still has an awesome power. The cobbles of the streets are almost all that remain. The modern town of Ochakov is behind.

[91] Since it became a rule of Russian history that Suvorov was a genius, it followed that he was simply trying to begin the storming of Ochakov out of frustration at Potemkin's inept hesitancy. This is possible but unlikely, since Suvorov had no artillery behind him. It was a bungled operation by a tipsy and fallible general who was capable of costly mistakes as well as brilliant victories.

[92] Most of the heroes of 1812 fought under Potemkin - the future Field-Marshal and Prince Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, Minister of War and Commander of the First Army under Kutuzov at Borodino, also served at Ochakov.

f Yet even Ligne had to admit to Joseph II that the camp was tidy, the soldiers well paid and the light cavalry in excellent state, even if they did no manoeuvres or practice.

$ There were sound military reasons for not storming until the fleet had control over the Liman and until artillery had arrived, which did not happen until August.

[93] Potemkin was not alone in delaying: when Ligne rode off to join Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky, he found him just as inactive, while Count Nikolai Saltykov ostentatiously delayed his attack on Khotin. It was Russian policy as well as Russian habit - as Kutuzov was to demonstrate to such effect in 1812.

[94] Back at Gatchina, Grand Duke Paul's microcosm of Prussian paradomania, the Tsarevich was disgusted by this harem at war and sneeringly demanded where in Vauban's siege instructions did it say that nieces were necessary to take cities. This was rich since Paul himself had asked to take his wife to the war with him in 1787.

t Colonel Bentham was to command two battalions on the Chinese-Mongolian border, create a regimental school, discover new lands, form alliances with Mongols, Kalmyks and Kirghiz and open trading with Japan and Alaska. He also devised a Potemkinian plan to defeat China with 100,000 men. In 1790 he headed back via Petersburg to Potemkin's headquarters in Bender to report to the Prince and get permission to return to England, which he finally did. There ended a unique adventure in Anglo-Russian relations.

[95] But first, on 7 November, Potemkin ordered his Zaporogians to take the island of Berezan, which offered Ochakov a last potential source of support and provisions: the Cossacks rowed there in their 'seagulls' and took the island, making their distinctive menacing cries. They captured twenty-seven cannons and two months of provisions for Ochakov - showing it was a sound decision.

[95] The town no longer exists except for one building, a former mosque that has been converted into a museum. It is a typical mark of the blind Soviet prejudice against Potemkin that the museum is dedicated to Suvorov. In fact, Suvorov was not only not in command at the storming of Ochakov, he was not even present there. Yet the museum hails him as its victor and genius and barely mentions Potemkin. Such are the absurdities of the central state planning of truth.

[96] Suvorov, according to the histories, was supposed to have complained to Catherine that jealous Potemkin was excluding him from senior commands. The truth was the opposite.

[97] Her courtiers were old too: Ivan Chernyshev left such a disgusting stench in the Empress's apartments that the floor had to be doused in lavender water every time he left.

[98] Lazhkarev, whom Westerners compared to a gypsy clown, once repelled an Islamic mob in Negroponte by leaping off a balcony with a basin of water, threatening them with the horror of instant baptism. Later, in Alexander I's entourage at Tilsit in 1807, it was he who met Napoleon and negotiated Russia's annexation of Bessarabia, ceded by the Porte in the 1808 treaty, in return for French domination of Europe, f While Potemkin later came to represent hated Russian imperialism to the Rumanians, a French visitor, forty years on, found that the Jassy boyars still regarded him as an early father of Rumanian nationalism. This made sense since Dacia roughly forms Rumania. However, the sole legacy of the name was President Ceaucescu's decision to name the national make of car the 'Dacia'.

ф The Ghika Palace still stands: it is now the Medical Faculty of Ia§i University. It has been expanded, but it still has its original Classical portico.

[99] It was Sutherland's English roast beef which Potemkin so enjoyed, when he came for dinner, that he had it wrapped up and took it home with him.

[100] Potemkin also suggested that, if the Turks would back a Russian nominee for King of Poland, Russia would consider keeping the Bug as the border. In other words, Russia would use Ottoman help to retake Poland and, in either case, Potemkin had the potential to secure a crown for himself - Poland or Dacia. Nonetheless, even for Poland, it is hard to believe Potemkin would have accepted the Bug border, which would have meant surrendering Ochakov.

[101] The surviving brother, Nikolai Raevsky, was the heroic general of 1812 who held the Raevsky Redoubt at the Battle of Borodino. Much later, he befriended Pushkin, who travelled with him, enjoying his stories of Potemkin and 1812. The Raevskys were the sons of Samoilov's sister.

f Virtually every history, Russian or English, contains this piece of Suvorov legend. This was supposedly the end of their relationship, in which the jealous Potemkin got his comeuppance from the genius Suvorov. In fact, this encounter probably never happened. No witness in Jassy, such as Langeron, mentions it. Potemkin was in Bender not Jassy after Ismail. Recent research by V. S. Lopatin, who has completely disproved most of the accepted pillars of the Potemkin-Suvorov relationship, shows that the two could not have met for two months - that is, not until the first week in February.

[102] The author found what is probably the sole surviving copy of this card, addressed to Countess Osterman, in the archives of the Odessa State Local History Museum.

[103] Potemkin's tsar of gardeners, William Gould, 'lived in splendour' in the Palladian villa Catherine had built for him in the grounds of the Taurida (still called the 'gardener's house') and 'gave entertainment to the nobility'. He died in luxurious retirement at Ormskirk in Lancashire in 1812.

[104] When the Emperor Paul set out to deface the building after his mother's death, these little rooms so disgusted him that he did not ruin them. He simply sealed them and they alone remain today.

[105] Indeed some histories claim that this was the last time they met. In fact, Potemkin remained in Petersburg for three more eventful months.

[106] Some Polish historians regard this condition as a sham to delude Potemkin, because Catherine already knew there would be no war with Prussia. This is clearly not so. England had blinked but not surrendered. The conditions placed on Potemkin's action were entirely reasonable. The accompanying documents discussing the creation of Polish forces to back up a Confederation show how they worked together just before his Taurida ball: he drafted a proposal that required recruitment of Polish forces, to which she added her thoughts in the margin.

[107] Mansour was despatched to Petersburg, and perished three years later in the dungeons of Schliisselburg.

[108] It is possible but unlikely that some of Potemkin's letters to 'Praskovia' quoted earlier were addressed to Praskovia Golitsyna, not Praskovia Potemkina.

[109] Mozart died soon afterwards on 24 November/5 December 1791.

[110] The Beautiful Greek was presumably no longer required - she disappeared as his illness worsened. Branicka probably ordered her to entertain the Polish magnates arriving to see the Prince, f Jeremy Bentham, whose utilitarianism measured the success of a ruler by the happiness he gave to his subjects, would have appreciated this: one wonders if Samuel had discussed the idea with the Prince on one of their long carriage rides across the south.

[111] It is now appropriately Ia§i University's School of Medicine, though others say the autopsy was conducted in the Cantacuzino Palace.

[112] Mikhail Potemkin died strangely in his carriage on his way home from Jassy. His brother Count Pavel Potemkin was later accused of murdering and robbing a Persian prince when he was viceroy of the Caucasus: he wrote a poem pleading his innocence, then died of a fever. Some said he committed suicide, f The almost 4 million of his 'private' income sounds much too low considering Catherine regularly bought his palaces for sums like half a million roubles. The sums of State money were much more than the entire annual revenue of the whole Russian Empire, which usually oscillated between forty and forty-four million roubles - though it was rising fast.

[113] This disappeared a few years after Potemkin's funeral. Two hundred years later in October 1998, the author, assisted by a Rumanian priest and two professors, began to search the Golia church in Jassy and found the board and its beautifully inscribed memorial under a piano behind a pile of prayer books: it was dusty but undamaged.

[114] The top row reads 'Ochakov 1788, Crimea and Kuban 1783, Kherson 1778'. The two in the middle: 'Akkerman 1789' and 'Ekaterinoslav 1787'. At the bottom: 'Bender 1789' and 'Nikolaev 1788'.