Catherine the Great & Potemkin Read online

  Acclaim for Simon Sebag Montefiore’s

  CATHERINE THE GREAT AND POTEMKIN

  “Colorful figures cross the pages of this flamboyant biography…. A rollicking tale, balanced in treatment of its controversial characters.”

  —The Boston Globe

  “Superb…sumptuous…. Montefiore has a journalist’s instinct for getting behind the official version of events.”

  —The Daily Telegraph (London)

  “A wonderful story, and Sebag Montefiore tells it with joyful verve…. The material is so enjoyable, and it is related with evident pleasure and enthusiasm.”

  —The Times (London)

  “A good, racy historical read…. The amazing story of Catherine the Great’s lover, then favorite, then secret husband, then chief advisor in ruling Russia, might seem the stuff of fiction; fortunately Sebag Montefiore’s researches have been so evidently extensive that this is clearly not the case.”

  —Antonia Fraser, author of The Wives of Henry VIII

  “With great industry and huge enthusiasm [Montefiore] has combed the archives to give us a detailed account of a gigantic…figure.”

  —Sunday Express (London)

  “[Montefiore’s] fascination shines through every page of this book…. It could easily have been double the length, so enjoyable is it to read.”

  —The Sunday Telegraph (London)

  “Effortlessly readable and compelling. This is history as it should be written.”

  —The Sunday Herald

  “A wonderful book…as magnificent as its subject…. Captures the iridescent spirit of Russia’s greatest adventurer.”

  —Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana

  “This splendid biography, as sprawling, magnificent and exotic as its subject, provides for the first time in English a fully researched, accurate, and immensely readable history of this extraordinary man.”

  —Literary Review

  “A passionate, but scholarly, defense of one of the greatest creative figures in Russian history.”

  —Evening Standard (London)

  “Exhaustive and beautifully written…. A magnificent biography…which is as industrious and exuberant as the man himself.”

  —Daily Mail (London)

  “Montefiore’s enthusiasm and knowledge make this much more than just an engaging biography, it is a headlong gallop of a read.”

  —Anthony Beevor, author of Stalingrad

  “This gripping and richly researched biography…makes it easy to see why novelists are often seduced away from fiction to write biography—where, just sometimes, implausible reality exceeds plausible fantasy many times over.”

  —Peter Nasmyth, Times Literary Supplement

  “An example of how to make a page-turner out of the most profound scholarship.”

  —New Statesman

  “This book…written with great verve…is based on a wealth of sources…Montefiore’s narrative breathes new life into them. Montefiore makes the reader appreciate the genius and forgive the absurdity.”

  —Professor Lindsey Hughes, Rossica

  “[Catherine the Great and Potemkin] opened up a whole new world…to me.”

  —Alain de Botton, Sunday Telegraph (Books of the Year)

  “A rather wonderful book.”

  —Mick Jagger, Sunday Times

  Simon Sebag Montefiore

  CATHERINE THE GREAT AND POTEMKIN

  Simon Sebag Montefiore is a prizewinning historian whose bestselling books have been published in over forty languages. Catherine the Great and Potemkin was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards; Young Stalin won the Costa Biography Prize, Los Angeles Times Biography Prize and Le Grand Prix de Biographie; Jerusalem was a number-one international bestseller. His most recent book is The Romanovs. Montefiore is also the author of the acclaimed novels Sashenka and One Night in Winter. He read history at Cambridge University where he received his PhD, and lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their two children.

  ALSO BY SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

  nonfiction

  The Romanovs

  Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

  Young Stalin

  Jerusalem: The Biography

  Titans of History

  fiction

  Sashenka

  One Night in Winter

  To Santa

  VINTAGE BOOKS EDITIONS, 2005, 2016

  Copyright © 2000, 2016 by Sebag Montefiore

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published under the title Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, in 2000, and subsequently in slightly different form in hardcover in the United States by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, LLC, New York, in 2001. Published here by arrangement with St. Martin’s Press, LLC. Originally published as Potemkin: Catherine the Great’s Imperial Partner in trade paperback by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 2005.

  Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Potemkin: Catherine the Great’s Imperial Partner is on file at the Library of Congress.

  Vintage Books Trade Paperback ISBN 9780525431961

  Ebook ISBN 9780593467916

  Cover design by Two Associates

  www.vintagebooks.com

  a_prh_5.7.0_c0_r0

  CONTENTS

  List of Illustrations

  Acknowledgements

  Notes

  Preface

  prologue: Death on the Steppes

  part one: potemkin and catherine 1739–1762

  1 The Provincial Boy

  2 The Guardsman and the Grand Duchess: Catherine’s Coup

  3 First Meeting: The Empress’s Reckless Suitor

  part two: closer 1762–1774

  4 Cyclops

  5 The War Hero

  6 The Happiest Man Alive

  part three: together 1774–1776

  7 Love

  8 Power

  9 Marriage: Madame Potemkin

  10 Heartbreak and Understanding

  part four: the passionate partnership 1776–1777

  11 Her Favourites

  12 His Nieces

  13 Duchesses, Diplomats and Charlatans

  part five: the colossus 1777–1783

  14 Byzantium

  15 The Holy Roman Emperor

  16 Three Marriages and a Crown

  17 Potemkin’s Paradise: The Crimea

  part six: the co-tsar 1784–1786

  18 Emperor of the South

  19 British Blackamoors and Chechen Warriors

  20 Anglomania: The Benthams in Russia and the Emperor of Gardens

  21 The White Negro

  22 A Day in the Life of Grigory Alexandrovich

  part seven: the apogee 1787–1790

  23 The Magical Theatre

  24 Cleopatra

  25 The Amazons

  26 Jewish Cossacks and American Admirals: Potemkin’s War

  27 Cry Havoc: The Storming of Ochakov

  28 My Successes Are Yours

  29 The Delicious and the Cruel: Sardanapalus

  30
Sea of Slaughter: Ismail

  part eight: the last dance 1791

  31 The Beautiful Greek

  32 Carnival and Crisis

  33 The Last Ride

  epilogue: Life After Death

  Illustrations

  List of Characters

  Maps

  Family Trees

  Notes

  Select Bibliography

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Serenissimus Prince Grigory Potemkin, by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Hermitage, St Petersburg, photo by N. Y. Bolotina

  Cathrine the Great in 1762 by Vigilius Ericksen (1722–1782), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres, France, Lauros-Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library

  Countess Alexandra Branicka by R. Brompton, Alupka Palace Museum, Ukraine, photo by the author

  Portrait of Paul I, 1796–7 by Stepan Semeonovich Shukin (1762–1828), Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia/Bridgeman Art Library

  Potemkin’s Palacesacid.*

  Portrait of Catherine II the Great in Travelling Costume, 1787 (oil on canvas) by Mikhail Shibanov (fl. 1783–89), State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia/Bridgeman Art Library

  Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky as Grand Admiral of Black Sea Fleet, attributed to J. B. Lampi, Suvorov Museum, St Petersburg, photo by Leonid Bogdanov

  Potemkin’s signature

  Catherine the Great, 1973 by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia/Bridgeman Art Library

  Portrait of Prince Grigori Potemkin-Tavrichesky, c. 1790 by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia/Bridgeman Art Library

  The roadside memorials marking Potemkin’s death, photo by author

  The board announcing Potemkin’s death, photo by author

  The trapdoor in St Catherine’s church in Kherson, Ukraine, leading to Potemkin’s tomb, photo by author

  Potemkin’s coffin, St Catherine’s, Kherson, Ukraine, photo by author

  The ruined church in Potemkin’s home village of Chizhova, Russia, photo author’s collection

  Potemkin in Chevalier-Garde uniform, collection of V. S. Lopatin

  Potemkin’s mother, Daria Potemkina, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  The Empress Elisabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, etching by E. Chemesov, Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  The Grand Duchess Catherine with husband Peter and their son, Paul, Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  Field-Marshal Peter Rumiantsev at the Battle of Kagul, 1770, Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  Grigory Orlov, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Alexei Orlov, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich picture courtesy of the British Library

  Catherine and Potemkin in her boudoir, author’s collection

  Alexander Lanskoy, by D. G. Levitsky, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Count Alexander Dmitriyev-Mamonov, by Mikhail Shibanov, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Princess Varvara Golitsyna, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Countess Ekaterina Skavronskaya with her daughter, by Angelica Kauffman, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Princess Tatiana Yusupova, by E. Vigée Lebrun, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Portrait of Ekaterina Samoilova by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, photo author’s collection

  Joseph II and Catherine meeting 1787, Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, photo author’s collection

  Catherine walking in the park at Tsarskoe Selo, by V. L. Borovikovsky, Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  The storming of the Turkish fortress of Ochakov in 1788, Odessa State Local History Museum, photo by Sergei Bereninich, photo author’s collection

  Count Alexander Suvorov, Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  The invitation to Potemkin’s ball in the Taurida Palace, 1791, Odessa State Local History Museum, photo by Sergei Bereninich, photo author’s collection

  Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukaya by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Countess Sophia Potocka by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Portraits Russes by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, picture courtesy of the British Library

  Prince Platon Zubov by Johann Baptist von Lampi (1751–1830), Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  Potemkin’s death, 1791, Odessa State Local History Museum, photo by Sergei Bereninich, photo author’s collection

  Potemkin’s funeral, Weidenfeld & Nicolson picture collection

  *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

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Over several years and thousands of miles, I have been helped by many people, from the peasant couple who keep bees on the site of Potemkin’s birthplace near Smolensk to professors, archivists and curators from Petersburg, Moscow and Paris to Warsaw, Odessa and Iasi in Rumania.

  I owe my greatest debts to three remarkable scholars. The inspiration for this book came from Isabel de Madariaga, Professor Emeritus of Slavonic Studies at the University of London and the doyen of Catherinian history in the West. Her seminal work Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great changed the study of Catherine. She also appreciated the remarkable character of Potemkin and his relationship with the Empress, and declared that he needed a biographer. She has helped with ideas, suggestions and advice throughout the project. Above all, I must thank her for editing and correcting this book during sessions which she conducted with the amused authority and intellectual rigour of the Empress herself, whom she resembles in many ways. It was always I who was exhausted at the end of these sessions, not she. I lay any wisdom in this work at her feet; the follies are mine alone. I am glad that I was able to lay a wreath on her behalf on Potemkin’s neglected grave in Kherson.

  I must also thank Alexander B. Kamenskii, Professor of Early & Early-Modern Russian History at Moscow’s Russian State University for the Humanities, and respected authority on Catherine, without whose wisdom, charm and practical help, this could not have been written. I am deeply grateful to V. S. Lopatin, whose knowledge of the archives is without parallel and who was so generous with that knowledge: Lopatin and his wife Natasha have been so hospitable during Muscovite stays. He too has read the book and given me the benefit of his comments.

  I must also thank Professor J. T. Alexander for answering my questions and Professor Evgeny Anisimov, who was so helpful during my time in Petersburg. The advice of George F. Jewsbury on Potemkin’s military performance was most enlightening. Thanks to Professor Derek Beales, who helped greatly with Josephist matters especially the mystery of the Circassian slavegirls. I should mention that he and Professor Tim Blanning, both of Sidney Sussex, Cambridge, were the supervisors whose compelling teaching of Enlightened Despotism, while I was an undergraduate, laid the foundations for this book. I want to stress my debt too to three recent works that I have used widely – Lopatin’s Ekaterina i Potemkin Lichnaya Perepiska, the aforementioned book by Isabel
de Madariaga, and J. T. Alexander’s Catherine the Great.

  * * *

  —

  I would like the thank the following without whom this could not have been written: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for his kind help in connection with his work for the restoration of St Petersburg and the Pushkin Bicentenary. Sergei Degtiarev-Foster, that champion of Russian history who made many things possible from Moscow to Odessa, and Ion Florescu who made the Rumanian-Moldovian expedition such a success. Thanks also to Lord Rothschild, Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky and Geraldine Norman, chairman, president and director of Hermitage Development Trust, who are creating the permanent exhibition of Catherine the Great’s treasures, including the famous Lampi portrait of Potemkin, at Somerset House in London.

  I owe a debt to Lord Brabourne for reading the entire book and, for reading parts of it, to Dr Amanda Foreman, Flora Fraser, and especially to Andrew Roberts for his detailed advice and encouragement. William Hanham read the sections on art, Professor John Klier read the Jewish sections, and Adam Zamoyski read those on Poland.

  In Moscow, I thank the Directors and staff of the RGADA and RGVIA archives; Natasha Bolotina, with her special knowledge on Potemkin, her mother Svetlana Romanovna, Igor Fedyukin, Dmitri Feldman, and Julia Tourchaninova and Ernst Goussinski, Professors of Education, all helped immensely. Galina Moiseenko, one of the brightest scholars of the History Department of the Russian State Humanities University, was excellent at selecting and finding documents and her historical analysis and precision were flawless.

  Thanks to the following. In St Petersburg, I thank my friend Professor Zoia Belyakova, who made everything possible, and Dr Sergei Kuznetzov, Head of Historical Research of the Stroganov Palace Department of the State Russian Museum, and the staff of the RGIA. I am grateful to Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum (again), to Vladimir Gesev, Director of the Russian State Museum of the Mikhailovsky Palace; Liudmilla Kurenkova, Assistant to the Director of the Russian State Museum, A. N. Gusanov of the Pavlovsk Palace State Museum; Dr Elana V. Karpova, Head of the XVIII–early XXth Century Sculpture Department of the State Russian Museum, Maria P. Garnova of the Hermitage’s Western Europe Department, and G. Komelova, also of the Hermitage. Ina Lokotnikova showed me the Anichkov Palace and L. I. Diyachenko was kind enough to give me a private tour, using her exhaustive knowledge, of the Taurida Palace. Thanks to Leonid Bogdanov for taking the cover-photograph of Potemkin.