Catherine the Great & Potemkin

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

66 Miranda p 204, 22 November 1786.

  67 Saint-Jean ch 6 p 40.

  CHAPTER 22: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GRIGORY ALEXANDROVICH

  1 IV (1889) vol 37: 683–4, G. P. Alexeev.

  2 Thiébault vol 2 p 78.

  3 RA (1877) 1 p 479 Ribeaupierre.

  4 RGADA f11.

  5 Castera vol 3 p 296.

  6 SIRIO 23 (1878): 300, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 5 April 1784.

  7 M. Fournier-Sarloveze, Artistes Oubliés, pp 95–6.

  8 Ségur quoted in Castera vol 2 p 333.

  9 Masson p 110.

  10 Davis p 148. SIRIO 54 (1886): 148–9, Duc de Richelieu, ‘Journal de mon voyage en Allemagne’.

  11 Ségur quoted in Castera vol 3 p 333.

  12 SIRIO 54 (1886): 148–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’.

  13 Ségur quoted in Castera vol 2 p 333.

  14 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) pp 210–11.

  15 Ligne’s famous description of GAP is taken from Letters (Staël) vol 2 p 6, Prince de Ligne to the Comte de Ségur August 1788, Ochakov. This is the source for Ligne quotations in this chapter unless otherwise stated. SIRIO 53 (1886): p 147–8, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’

  16 Davis p 148.

  17 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 252.

  18 Anspach, Journey p 137, 18 February 1786.

  19 RGIA 1146.1.33.

  20 SIRIO 33 (1881): 239, Grimm to CII, 10/21 September 1786, Paris.

  21 RGADA 11.889.2, Prince Lubomirsky to GAP, 15 August 1787.

  22 B&F vol 2 p 194, JII to Count Cobenzl 12 September 1787; p 55, Cobenzl to JII October 1785. RGADA 11.928.8, Cobenzl to GAP 26 March 1786.

  23 RGVIA 52.2.61.7, Prince F. M. Golitsyn, Russian Ambassador to Vienna, to GAP 26 August/6 September 1781.

  24 Miranda p 272, 6 and 7 March 1787.

  25 RGADA 85.1.488, L 204, CII to GAP. SIRIO 23 (1878): 333, 372, 374, CII to Grimm 15 April 1785 and 17 February 1786. And 17 June 1786, Pella.

  26 Damas p 109. SIRIO 26 (1879): 315, Marquis de Parelo.

  27 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 pp 358–9. List of Potemkin’s Wardrobe at his Death. CHOIDR (1891) book IV pp 15–53. Spisok domov i dvizhimogo imushchestva G. A. Potemkina-Tavricheskogo, kuplennogo u naslednikov ego imperatritsyey Ekateranoy II. Also SIRIO 54 (1886): p 148–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’

  28 Brockliss, ‘Concluding Remarks’, in Elliott and Brockliss pp 298–9.

  29 Harris p 338, H to Viscount Stormont 16/27 February 1781.

  30 Brockliss, ‘Concluding Remarks’, in Elliott and Brockliss p 282.

  31 Waliszewski, Autour d’un trône vol 1 p 153.

  32 SIRIO 23: 84, CII to Grimm 2–4 March 1778.

  33 SIRIO 23: 73, CII to Grimm 22 December 1777, St Petersburg.

  34 Anspach, Journey p 137.

  35 Wiegel vol 1 p 291 J. H. Plumb Sir Robert Walpole: The Making of a Statesman p 124. Frederick K. Goodwin and Kay Redfield Jamison, Manic–Depressive Illness pp 332–67 esp. pp 342–56. See also Kay Redfield Jamison, The Unquiet Mind.

  36 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) pp 210–11.

  37 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 212.

  38 Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) no 2 January book 2 p 88.

  39 Thiébault vol 2 p 78.

  40 SIRIO 26 (1879): 35, Parelo.

  41 Engelhardt 1997 p 68.

  42 Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) no 2 January book 2 p 92.

  43 Castera vol 3 p 128.

  44 Miranda p 238, 13 January 1787.

  45 RGADA 5.169.1, Prince Charles of Courland 2 March 1787, Cracow. RGADA 11.925.15, Princess Dashkova to GAP ud. RGADA 11.946.229, Professor Bataille to GAP ud, 1784. RGADA 5.17.1–10, Frederick-William of Württemberg to GAP 7/8 September 1784. RGADA 5.166.8, SA to GAP 7 May 1787. RGADA 11.896.1, Ernest of Hesse to GAP ud, 1780. All unpublished. B&F vol 1 p 464, JII to Cobenzl 13 May 1784.

  46 RGADA 11.918.1, G. Golovchin to GAP 22 August 1784 (Naryshkin marriage). RGADA 11.937.3, Count de Sayn and Wittgenstein to GAP (out of favour with CtG) 1 August 1780. RGADA 11.946.430–4, Elias Abaise Prince de Palestine (?) to GAP August 1780. RGVIA 52.2.89.145 and 146, Princess Bariatinskaya to GAP 2 September 1790 and 11 March 1791, Turin. RGADA 11.946.303 and 315, Nicolas Carpoff to GAP 27 May and 25 September 1786, Kherson. All unpublished.

  47 RGADA 11.946.43–4, Elias Abaise Prince de Palestine (?) to GAP August 1780 and ud, unpublished.

  48 Ribeaupierre p 479.

  49 SBVIM vol 7 p 399, GAP to Rear-Admiral Count Mark Voinovich 9 October 1789.

  50 Niemcewicz pp 79–80.

  51 Niemcewicz p 79.

  52 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 75, Ligne to JII April 1788, Elisabethgrad.

  53 RGADA 11.867.11, K. Branicki to GAP ud, unpublished.

  54 RGADA 11.946.385, Alexis Deuza to GAP 24 August 1784, Ozerki, unpublished.

  55 RGADA 11.902a, Register of GAP’s Debts.

  56 RGADA 11.946.378, C. D. Duval to GAP February 1784, unpublished.

  57 RGADA 52.2.35.7, Pierre Tepper of Warsaw to GAP 25 September 1788, unpublished.

  58 Karnovich pp 265–9. Waliszewski, Autour d’un trône vol 1 p 155.

  59 BM 33540 f6, SB to JB 20 January 1784.

  60 SIRIO 54 (1886): 148–9, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’

  61 Miranda pp 229–30, 1 January 1787.

  62 Derzhavin vol 6 p 444.

  63 BM 33540 f64, SB to Reginald Pole Carew 18 June 1784.

  64 RGVIA f5 op 194 book 409, order to Brzokovsky 28 January 1787. Waliszewski, Autour d’un trône vol 1 p 157.

  65 RS 11 pp 722–3.

  66 SIRIO 27: 238–9. ZOOID 11: 346–7.

  67 Wiegel 1864 p 30.

  68 Wiegel 1864 p 30.

  69 Anspach, Journey p 137, 18 February 1786.

  70 Shcherbatov p 245.

  71 Saint-Jean ch 6 p 40.

  72 Pole Carew CO/R/3/95, unpublished. He liked to visit his British friends for dinner too and sometimes take their roast beef home with him – see Chapter 20.

  73 RGADA 11.881.1, Sacken to GAP re Ballez the cook 3/14 October 1778, unpublished.

  74 Pole Carew CO/R/3/95, unpublished.

  75 BM 33540 f65, SB to JB ud.

  76 RGADA 11.901.9, Count Skavronsky to GAP 20 June 1784, unpublished.

  77 Marc Raeff, ‘In the Imperial Manner’, in Marc Raeff (ed), Catherine the Great: A Profile pp 197–246. SIRIO 26 (1879): 309–10, Parelo.

  78 Engelhardt 1868 p 89. Weidle p 152.

  79 RGADA 11.864.36–77. RGADA 11.864.1.29. RGADA 11.864.1.16. RGADA 11.864.1.13. RGADA 11.864.1.12. RGADA 11.864.2.86. RGADA 11.864.2.73. RGADA 11.864.2.68. Some extracts of these letters from unknown women were published in RS (1875) 7. Most are unpublished.

  80 Ribeaupierre p 476.

  81 Samoilov col 1574.

  82 Wiegel 1864 p 30.

  83 Ségur, p 361. B&F vol 1 p 484, Cobenzl to JII 3 November 1784. Count IV Sologub married Natalia Naryshkina on 28 May 1781, according to KFZ.

  84 RGVIA Potemkin Chancellery 52.2.35.33, Ferguson Tepper to GAP 11 January 1788, Warsaw, and GAP to Messrs Boesner 21 September 1788, Brody near Ochakov, unpublished. B&F vol 1 p 484, Cobenzl to JII 3 November 1784.

  85 RGADA 5.85.2.31, L 217, CII to GAP 1 July 1787.

  86 B&F vol 2 p 75, Cobenzl to JII 1 November 1786.

  87 Reshetilovsky Archive (V. S. Popov’s Archive) Prince GAPT’s own private papers p 403.

  88 Harris p 447, H to Charles James Fox 10/21 June 1782; p 281, H to Stormont 2 July/1 August 1780.

  89 Harris p 281, H to Stormont 21 July/1 August 1780.

  90 SIRIO 54 (1886): 147–8, Richelieu, ‘Mon voyage’

  91 Harris p 200, H to Weymouth 24 May/4 June 1779. SIRIO 26 (1879): 309–16. The Mar
quis de Parelo also admired GAP’s memory.

  92 Cross, On the Banks of the Neva p 356. Sir John Sinclair quoted in Cross. SIRIO 26 (1879): 309–16. The Marquis de Parelo thought ‘knowing men’ was the ‘greatest gift in a great minister’ like GAP.

  93 AKV 9: 86, Simon R. Vorontsov to Alexander R. Vorontsov 4/15 November 1786.

  94 Miranda p 234, 8 January 1787.

  95 Damas p 89–90.

  96 SIRIO 42: 173, CII to Sénac de Meilhan 11 June 1791.

  97 SIRIO 20 (1878): 605, CII to Grimm 27 August 1794.

  98 RGADA 11.946.210 JB to GAP 25 February 1785.

  99 ZOOID 4: 470, J. Grahov, Potemkin’s Military Printing house.

  100 Pole Carew CO/R/3/95, unpublished.

  101 RGADA 5.85.2.1, L 189, GAP to CII (early 1784).

  102 Kazan State University 17: 262: 3–2300, 25–2708, 56–5700, 52–60. N. Y. Bolotina, ‘The Private Library of Prince GAP-T’.

  103 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 359.

  104 AAE 20: 330–5, Langeron, ‘Evénements dans la campagne de 1791’.

  105 Harris p 239, H to Stormont 15/26 February 1780. Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 p 171. GAP believed in sharpening his political skill and moral courage by living among his enemies – see his advice to his great-nephew N. N. Raevsky, quoted at the start of Chapter 31.

  106 Engelhardt 1868 p 42.

  107 Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 p 156. Madariaga, Politics and Culture p 167.

  108 AVPRI 5.585.168, L 266.

  109 AVPRI 5.585.128–31, L 388, GAP to CII December 1789. RGADA 5.85.2.272–4, L 390, CII to GAP.

  110 Ségur, 1826 vol 1 p 539.

  111 Edvard Radzinsky, Rasputin p 501. Radzinsky is describing Rasputin and not GAP. Though the Prince was an aesthete of high culture and a nobleman, while Rasputin was an uneducated Siberian peasant, they did share this quintessentially Russian characteristic. Potemkin was after all raised among the peasants of Chizhova and carried some of their ideas and habits with him to Court. They were both the closest advisers of Russian empresses yet they had precisely the opposite effect on history. While GAP vastly strengthened the Empress and Empire, and left great works behind him, Rasputin undermined, tainted, and contributed to the destruction of, his Empress and Empire, and left nothing behind him.

  112 Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya 12 p 811.

  113 Amanda Foreman, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire pp 42–3, 126–7, 133. Hoyle’s Games, new rev edn by C. Jones, London 1796, quoted in John Masters, Casanova pp 46–7.

  114 Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) January book 2 pp 3–22, 97–8.

  115 Castera vol 2 p 279.

  116 RS (1875) 7 p 681, anonymous woman to GAP.

  117 RGIA 1.146.1.33, unpublished.

  CHAPTER 23: THE MAGICAL THEATRE

  1 RGADA 5.85.2.229, L 348, CII to GAP 13 May 1789, Tsarskoe Selo.

  2 Miranda pp 204–19, 22 November–28 December 1786.

  3 Miranda p 219, 30 December 1786.

  4 Duc de Cars, Mémoires du duc de Cars vol 1 pp 268–79.

  5 Davis p 88. In this chapter, the source for the portrait of Prince de Nassau-Siegen is Aragon; and for Francisco de Miranda his diary (references given); Isabel de Madariaga, The Travels of General Francisco de Miranda in Russia; Benjamin Keen and Mark Wasserman, A History of Latin America pp 154–8; and Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness pp 136–43, 152–3. The epigram on Nassau and his wife’s expectations in marriage belongs to Zamoyski, Last King of Poland, p 260.

  6 Miranda pp 220–4, 31 December 1786–3 January 1787.

  7 B&F vol 2 p 75, Count Cobenzl to JII 1 November 1786.

  8 Miranda pp 224–7, 25–29 December 1786 and 5 January 1787.

  9 Anspach, Journey p 144, Lady Craven to Anspach 29 February 1786, Moscow.

  10 Miranda pp 225–38, 25 December 1786–15 January 1787.

  11 Aragon p 115, Prince Charles de Nassau-Siegen (N-S) to wife January 1787.

  12 Miranda p 242, 8 January 1787. M. M. Ivanov later painted GAP’s deathscene.

  13 B&F vol 2 p 86, Cobenzl to JII 1 November 1786.

  14 Miranda p 241, 16 January 1787.

  15 Miranda p 244, 20 January 1787.

  16 Engelhardt 1997 p 53.

  17 SIRIO 23 (1878): p 392, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 19 January 1787, Krichev.

  18 Jeremy Bentham, Collected Works p 525 (Bowring vol 10 pp 168–71), JB to George Wilson 9/20 February 1787.

  19 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 218.

  20 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 65, Prince de Ligne to Coigny. Ligne did not join the voyage until Kiev.

  21 Khrapovitsky 17 January 1787.

  22 Jeremy Bentham 19/30 January 1787, quoted in Christie, Benthams in Russia p 177.

  23 SIRIO 23 (1878): 393, CtG to Grimm 23 January 1787, Novgorod Severskiy.

  24 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 222.

  25 Urszula Mniszech, Listy pani mniszchowej zony marszalka w. koronnego, in, Rocznik towarzystwa historyczno literackiego p 192.

  26 GIM OPI 1.139.32, L 214, GAP to CII 7 January 1787, Simferopol.

  27 Aragon p 121, N-S to wife 13/24 January 1787.

  28 Miranda pp 245–53, 23 January/7 February 1787.

  29 Davis pp 148–9.

  30 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 p 4.

  31 Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 260. Davis pp 27, 119, 213.

  32 Miranda pp 294–5, 26 March 1787. Ségur, 1890 vol 1 pp 422–3, quoted in Mansel, p 106.

  33 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 17–19.

  34 Ligne, Mélanges vol 21 p 9 and Letters (Staël) p 33, Ligne to Coigny. Ségur, (Shelley) p 224.

  35 Miranda pp 255, 257, 7 and 12 February 1787.

  36 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 p 17. Aragon p 138, N-S to wife. Miranda p 257, 14 February 1787.

  37 Aragon p 138, N-S to wife. Stephen Sayre quoted in Joseph O. Baylen and Dorothy Woodward, ‘Francisco Miranda and Russia: Diplomacy 1787–88’, Historian xiii (1950) 52–68.

  38 B&F vol 2 p 134, Cobenzl to JII 25 April 1787, Kiev.

  39 Miranda p 261, 20 February 1787; p 269, 28 February 1787.

  40 Saint-Jean pp 63–75.

  41 Miranda p 279, 14 March 1787; p 262, 18 February 1787; pp 263–4, 19 February 1787; p 291, 22 March 1787.

  42 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) pp 227–9. SIRIO 23: 399, CII to Grimm 4 April 1787.

  43 RGADA 11.867.1–60, Grand Hetman K. Branicki to GAP, unpublished.

  44 Miranda pp 220–4, 31 December 1786–3 January 1787.

  45 Miranda p 271, 4 March 1787.

  46 Edward Rulikowski, ‘Smila’

  47 Prince K. F. Lubomirski was one of GAP’s top timber contractors – GAP made deals with Lubomirski and some of the Potockis in 1783. AVPRI 2.2/8a.21.39.

  48 AVPRI 5.585.157, L 257, GAP to CII 25 December 1787. J. M. Soloviev, Istoriya padeniya polshi, p 198, and Khrapovitsky p 16, 16/17 March 1787.

  49 RGADA 52.2.71.1–93. RGVIA 52.2.35.9–35. RGVIA 52.2.56.2. RGVIA 52.2.74. RGVIA 52.2.39. These documents cover GAP’s interminable correspondence with his Polish homme d’affaires Count Moczinski; the Russian Ambassador to Warsaw, Count O. M. Stackelberg; and Prince K. G. Lubomirski and his family, about the Smila and Meschiricz transactions. Some of the Lubomirskis challenged Prince K. F. Lubomirski’s ownership of, and therefore right to sell, these estates. Finally, in 1790, GAP offered his Dubrovna estate (which was next to Krichev, near Orsha on the Dnieper) as a further payment to the Lubomirskis to settle the disagreements. Also RGADA 5.166.8–14. Correspondence between SA and GAP on Smila and his estates: GAP recruited the King to aid his litigation as well as Branicki and other magnates in the Polish Sejm. These are all unpublished and form a fascinating picture of GAP’s labyrinthin
e affairs and of the relationship between Russia and Poland – but are beyond the scope of this book. See Chapter 29, notes 93 and 97.

  50 SIRIO 23: 393, 8 February 1787. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 34, Ligne to Coigny. Miranda p 259, 15 February 1787.

  51 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 34, Ligne to Coigny letter 1.

  52 Aragon p 126, N-S to wife February 1787, Kiev.

  53 Ségur, Mémoires 1855 vol 2 p 27.

  54 Kukiel p 18.

  55 Aragon p 131, N-S to wife February 1787, Kiev.

  56 Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 295. Mniszech p 199.

  57 Miranda, pp 265–6, 22 February 1787.

  58 Aragon p 134, N-S to wife. Madariaga, Russia p 370. Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 294.

  59 SA to Kicinski 21 March 1787, BP 38 p 59 quoted in Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 294.

  60 Aragon p 134, N-S to wife March 1787. X. Liske, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Kaniower Zusammenkunft (1787) und ihr Vorläufer, cited in Madariaga, Russia p 370.

  61 Davis p 148.

  62 Miranda p 261, 21 February 1787; p 265, 22 February 1787; p 278, 11 March 1787.

  63 Miranda p 305, 11 April 1787; p 309, 21 April 1787.

  64 B&F vol 2 p 120, Cobenzl to JII 9 April 1787. Miranda p 300, 1 April 1787.

  CHAPTER 24: CLEOPATRA

  1 This account of the cruise is based mainly on the descriptions of the Comte de Ségur, Prince de Nassau-Siegen and the Prince de Ligne, as well as on Madariaga, Russia pp 393–5, and Alexander, CtG pp 256–7. References are given below.

  2 Aragon pp 141–4, N-S to wife. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 37, Prince de Ligne to Coigny. Ségur, Mémoires (Shelley) pp 230–1. Also Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 3 p 30. Waliszewski, Autour d’un trône vol 2 p 233. Ségur calls Catherine ‘Cleopatra of the North’.

  3 This description of the Kaniev meeting is based on the following unpublished materials: RGADA 5.166.14, SA to GAP 16/17 February 1787. RGADA 5.166.9, SA to GAP 7 May 1787. There are numerous letters between these two from 1774 to 1791 which are immensely informative about their relationship and that of Russia and Poland. This work only uses a small fraction of this unpublished correspondence. Also SIRIO 26: 284. SIRIO 23: 407–8. RGADA 5.85.2.24, L 215, CII to GAP 25 April 1787. RGADA 5.85.2.23, L 215, CII to GAP 25 April 1787. RGADA 5.85.2.22, L 215. Khrapovitsky p 33, 26 April 1787. SA to Kicinski 8 May 1787, Kalinka. Ostatnie Lata, vol 2 p 42, quoted in Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 297. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 40, Ligne to Coigny. Ligne quoted in Mansel, Charmeur p 111. Ségur, 1859 vol 2 p 39.