4 RGADA 5.166.14, SA to GAP, 16–17 February 1787, unpublished.
5 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 3 pp 30–46. Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 297. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 82. Aragon p 144, N-S to wife May 1787. SIRIO 23: 408, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 26 April 1787.
6 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. RGADA 5.166.9, SA to GAP 7 May 1787, unpublished. There are many letters from SA to GAP at this time in this font. SA promises to help GAP protect his estates in Poland. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 p 39.
7 RGVIA 271.1.43.1, JII to GAP 25 November 1786, Vienna. This unpublished archive contains much of GAP’s correspondence with JII, his successor Leopold and their Chancellor Prince Kaunitz. B&F vol 2 p 117, Count Cobenzl to JII 25 February 1787. JII–CII (Arneth), Briefe Joseph II an den Feldmarschall Grafen Lacey, p 277, JII to Kaunitz 19 August and 12 September 1786, and JII to CII 15 February 1787.
8 SIRIO 23: 408, CII to Grimm 3 May 1787. B&F vol 2 p 141, Cobenzl to JII 11 May 1787. Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) pp 232–3. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 40, Ligne to Coigny.
9 BM 33540 ff365–6, SB to JB 16 May 1787, Kremenchuk. M. S. Bentham p 82. Christie, Benthams in Russia pp 186–7.
10 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 40, Ligne to Coigny. Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 234. JII–CII (Arneth) p 356, JII to Lacey 19 May 1787, Kaidak. B&F vol 2 p 140, Cobenzl to JII 6 May 1787, Kaniev.
11 JII–CII (Arneth) p 356, JII to Lacey 19 May 1787, Kaidak. SIRIO 23: 410, CII to Grimm 15 May 1787, Kherson.
12 Khrapovitsky pp 30, 29, 15–20. Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 pp 4–8.
13 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 46–7. Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 pp 4–8. Dniepropetrovsk State Historical Museum, author’s visit 1998.
14 Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin p 118. Ségur, Mémoires vol 3 p 220.
15 JII–CII (Arneth) p 355, JII to Lacey 19 May 1787, Kherson; p 358, 30 May 1787, Aibar, Crimea. Khrapovitsky pp 35, 36, 15 May 1787.
16 SIRIO 23 (1878): 410, CII to Grimm 15 May 1787. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 p 47. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 42, Ligne to Coigny.
17 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 47–8.
18 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 54–5.
19 Aragon p 154, N-S to wife May 1787. JII–CII (Arneth) p 358, JII to Lacey 30 May 1787.
20 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) pp 238–9.
21 B&F vol 2 pp 147–50, Cobenzl to Kaunitz 3 June 1787, Sebastopol. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 54–5.
22 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 54–5.
23 Author’s visit to Crimea 1998. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 54–5. Aragon p 155, N-S to wife JII–CII (Arneth) p 361, JII to Lacey 1 June 1787.
24 JII–CII (Arneth) p 361, JII to Lacey 1 June 1787. Aragon pp 155–8, N-S to wife. Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 44, Ligne to Coigny. SIRIO 23 (1878): 411, CII to Grimm 21 May 1787, Bakhchisaray. B&F vol 2 p 148, Cobenzl to Kaunitz 3 June 1787, Sebastopol. RA (1865) p 622, L 216 CII to GAP 28 May 1787, St Petersburg.
25 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 11.
26 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 pp 4–7. Aragon pp 158–61, N-S to wife 1 June 1787, Sebastopol. B&F vol 2 pp 150, Cobenzl to Kaunitz 3 June 1787. JII–CII (Arneth) p 363, JII to Lacey 3 June 1878; p 292; JII to Kaunitz 3 June 1787. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 66–7.
27 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 pp 4–8. SIRIO 23 (1878): 412, CII to Grimm 23 May 1787. JII–CII (Arneth) p 363, JII to Lacey 3 June 1787; p 292, JII to Kaunitz 3 June 1787. B&F vol 2 pp 150–1, Cobenzl to Kaunitz 3 June 1787.
28 B&F vol 2 pp 150–1, Cobenzl to Kaunitz 3 June 1787. JII–CII (Arneth) p 364, JII to Lacey 5 June 1787.
29 RGVIA 52.2.53.31, N. Pisani to Ya. Bulgakov 1/12 May 1787, unpublished. The reports of the professional Ottoman diplomatic dynasty, the Pisanis, via Bulgakov to GAP, are invaluable evidence of how Istanbul was already in a state of war-fever. RGVIA 52.2.53.80, N. Pisani to Bulgakov 1 June 1787. Here again Pisani reported that recruits were already marching through Istanbul to prepare for war. This is significant evidence since most histories blame the entire war on GAP’s mishandling and provocations to the Sublime Porte. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 52–3. Aragon pp 158–61, N-S to wife 1 June 1787.
30 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 50, Ligne to Coigny. Mansel, Charmeur p 113. Aragon p 173, N-S to wife.
CHAPTER 25: THE AMAZONS
1 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 64, Prince de Ligne to Coigny, Kaffa. Note on Amazon Company, Moskvityanin zhurnal (1844) no 1 pp 266–8, note by G. Dusi based on Elena Sardanova’s memories. Herodotus, The Histories pp 306–8. See also Neal Ascherson, Black Sea pp 111–14.
2 Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 88–90.
3 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 42, Ligne to Coigny.
4 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 245.
5 Guthrie letter LXV pp 204–6.
6 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 60, Ligne to Coigny. JII–CII (Arneth) p 363, JII to Lacey 5 and 7 June 1787. B&F vol 2 p 163, Count Cobenzl to Prince Kaunitz 13 June 1787. Aragon pp 173–4, N-S to wife.
7 JII–CII (Arneth) p 364, JII to Lacey 7 June 1787. Aragon p 174, N-S to wife. Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 236.
8 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 242; or Mémoires 1859 vol 2 pp 67–8.
9 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 242. JII–CII (Arneth) p 364, JII to Lacey 8 June 1787, Staricrim. ZOOID 13: 268. General V. V. Kahovsky to V. S. Popov 11 June 1787, Karasubazaar; Lt Tsiruli to Kahovsky 7 June 1787. There seem to be two girls. While Lt Tsiruli’s second mission sounds like a quest for sexual procurement, the purchase of the six-year-old child must surely be an educational experiment, though the two are not necessarily exclusive. Tsiruli was off to the mountains while a contemporary print, Purchase of a Tartar Maiden, shows Joseph buying the child from ‘a slave-trader’. There is a reference to the Circassian girl in Zinzendorf’s diary on the day of Joseph II’s death. The Emperor wrote to Countess Chanclos to ensure that the girl received her 1,000 Gulden pension. A footnote in the diary by Hans Wagner says she was Elisabeth Gulesy, a Circassian bought by Joseph on his Crimean trip. Countess Chanclos brought her up, Kaunitz then took over guardianship and she married Amandus Lacdemer, the majordomo of a Count Karoly, in 1798. I am indebted to Professor Derek Beales for these references. Wien von Maria Theresa bis zur Franzosenzeit, Aus den Tagebüchern des Grafen Karl v. Zinzendorf (ed Hans Wagner) Vienna 1972, p 40, 20 February 1790. Also Österreich zur Zeit Kaiser Josephs II mit Regent Kaiserin Maria Theresias, Kaiser und Landesfürst, Niedero-Sterreichische Landesaustellung (Lower Austrian Exhibition catalogue) Stift Melk, 29 March–2 November 1980, p 439, item 551, Linz, Stadtarchiv.
10 RGADA 5.85.2.39, L 216, CII to GAP 9 June 1787. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 2 p 90. JII–CII (Arneth) p 373, JII to Lacey 12 July 1787, Berislav. SIRIO 27: 410–13, 447. KFZ 8 June 1787. RGADA 5.85.2.31, L 217, CII to GAP (‘Your kitten’).
11 ‘Potemkin Villages’ and ‘Helbig’ in the Modern Encyclopaedia of Russian and Slavic History, Academy International Press 1982 by Joseph L. Wieczynski p 134. Georg von Helbig, ‘Potemkin der Taurier’, Minerva ein Journal historischen und politischen Inhalts herausgegeben von J. W. Archehotlz (Hamburg 1797–1800). Russische Günstlinge (Tübingen 1809). Potemkin: Ein interessanter Beitrang zur Regier ungeschichte Katarina der Zweiten (Halle/Liepzig 1804). These were republished in different forms such as (in French) Vie de Pr Potemkin by J. E. de Cerenville (1808) and Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin (London 1812 and 1813).
12 Vassilchikov vol 1 pp 370–1, 22 June 1782.
13 Anspach, Journey p 160, 3 April 1786.
14 Khrapovitsky p 17, 4 April 1787.
15 ZOOID 12: 303, 309, 320, GAP to Kahovsky 1784, 1785.
16 JII–CII (Arneth) p 356, JII to Lacey 19 May 1787, Kaidak. SIRIO 23: 410, CII to Grimm 15 May 1787, Kherson.
17 Miranda p 244, 20 January 1787.
18 Anspach, Journey p 160, 3 April 1786.
19 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 65, Ligne to Coigny.
20 Anspach, Journey p 170, 8 April 1786.
21 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 232.
22 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 137. Ségur, Mémoires 1859 vol 3 pp 6–8, 111–13, 120–5. B&F vol 2 pp 172, Cobenzl to Kaunitz 22 June 1787.
23 Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 232.
24 Moskvityanin zhurnal (1842) no 2 pp 475–88. Oral chronicle of CII’s stay in Tula, collected by N. Andreev. Miranda p 324, 9 May 1787.
25 Aragon p 117, N-S to wife 3 January 1787, Kherson.
26 JII–CII (Arneth) p 364, JII to Lacey 8 June 1787, Starikrim.
27 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 65, Ligne to Coigny, Tula. Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 3, ‘Rélation de ma campagne de 1788 contre les Turcs’.
28 RGADA 2.111.13–14, 14–15, CII to Moscow commander P. D. Eropkin 12 and 20 May 1787. SIRIO 27: 411, CII to Grand Duke Alexander 28 May 1787. RGADA 10.2.38.1–2, CII to Count L. A. Bruce 14 May 1787.
29 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 11. Miranda p 204, 22 November 1786.
30 IRLI 265.2.2115.5–6, L 219, GAP to CII 17 July 1787, Kremenchuk. RGADA 5.85.1.543, L 220, CII to GAP 27 July 1787.
31 RS (1876) 15 pp 33–8, Garnovsky July 1787.
32 B&F vol 2 p 192, Cobenzl to JII 9 August 1787.
33 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 pp 5, 11, 14, quoted in Mansel, Charmeur p 116.
34 Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin pp 117–18. Honoré de Balzac was one of the many who referred to the ‘Potemkin Villages’: see Graham Robb, Balzac p 383.
35 AKV 14: 242–3, Arkadiy Ivanovich Markov to A. R. Vorontsov 17 February 1787, St Petersburg.
36 RGVIA 52.11.53.31, N. Pisani to Bulgakov 1/12 May 1787, unpublished. This description of the coming of war also uses Madariaga, Russia pp 394–7, and Alexander, CtG pp 262–5.
37 Sobstvennoruchnyye bumagi Knyaza Potemkina, RA (1865) pp 740–1, CII to GAP 16/27 October 1786, and GAP to Bulgakov 13/24 December 1786. Ragsdale pp 75–103.
38 AKV 14: 242, Markov to A. R. Vorontsov 17 February 1787, St Petersburg. B&F vol 2 p 188, Cobenzl to JII 9 August 1787, St Petersburg.
39 ZOOID 8: 201, GAP to Bulgakov March 1787.
40 RGVIA 52.2.1.9, GAP to Bulgakov.
41 ZOOID 8: 203, GAP to A. A. Bezborodko 14 August 1787.
42 RGVIA 52.2.53.59, N. Pisani to Bulgakov 15/26 May 1787. RGVIA 52.2.53.80, N. Pisani to Bulgakov 1 June 1787. RGVIA 52.2.53.31, N. Pisani to Bulgakov 1/12 May 1787. All these despatches are unpublished. The latter lists the activities of the diplomats of England to encourage the war against Russia and the Porte’s policy of using diversions by the Caucasian peoples, including the Daghestanis, Chechens and Lesghis, to attack Russia.
43 RGVIA 52.2.53.130, N. Pisani to Bulgakov ud. This clearly dates from the summer of 1787. RGVIA 52.2.53.31, N. Pisani to Bulgakov 1/12 May 1787. Both unpublished. ZOOID 8: 203, GAP to Bezborodko. As he received these reports, one senses Potemkin fretting in his letters to Bezborodko. ‘I ask you so much to win some time,’ he wrote to him on 14 August 1787 when it was too late.
44 RGADA 1.1/1.47.5–9, L 223, CII to GAP 24 August 1787.
45 RGADA 5.85.2.43–8, L 233, CII to GAP 24 September 1787.
46 MIRF ch 15 p 51, M. I. Voinovich to GAP 25 August 1787. AVPRI 5.585.149, L 223, GAP to CII 22 August 1787. RGADA 11.267.38–41, GAP to P. A. Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky 22 August 1787.
47 AVPRI 5.585.343, L 226, GAP to CII 28 August 1787.
48 RGADA 1.1/1.47.13–14, L 226, CII to GAP 6 September 1787.
49 AVPRI 5.585.317, L 229, GAP to CII 16 September 1787, Kremenchuk.
50 AVPRI 5.585.143, L 231, GAP to CII 19 September 1787.
51 Robert Slater, Rabin: Warrior for Peace (London 1996) p 142. Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power: Revolution from Above 1928–1941 (New York 1990) p 625. Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parellel Lives (London 1991) pp 805–6. The newer Russian accounts, Stalin by Edvard Radzinsky (London 1996) pp 445–7, and Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy by Dmitri Volkogonov (New York 1991) pp 405–7, show that Stalin managed to function in those days more than hitherto realized. Macdonogh pp 278–80, 157. Hughes p 30.
52 AVPRI 5.585.152, L 232, GAP to CII 24 September 1787, Kremenchuk; p 314, L 232, GAP to CII 24 September 1787. SBVIM issue IV pp 150–1, GAP to Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky 24 September 1787.
CHAPTER 26: JEWISH COSSACKS AND AMERICAN ADMIRALS: POTEMKIN’S WAR
1 In Chapters 26–34, the description of the course of the Second Russo-Turkish War is based on the following works. The main source is A. N. Petrov, Vtoraya turetskaya voyna v tsarstvovaniye imperatritsy Ekateriny II 1787–91. Others are V. S. Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov; A. V. Suvorov, Pisma ed V. S. Lopatin; A. Petrushevsky, Generalissimo Knyazi Suvorov; D. F. Maslovsky, Zapiski po istorii voiennogo iskusstva v Rossii; ZOOID 8, 4, 11. D. F. Maslovsky (ed), Pisma i Bumagi A. V. Suvorova, G. A. Potemkina, i P. A. Rumiantseva 1787–1789. Kinburn Ochakovskaya operatsiya, SBVIM; N. F. Dubrovin (ed), Istoriya voyny i vladychestva russkikh na Kavkaze; Bumagi Knyaza Grigoriya Alexandrovicha Potemkina-Tavricheskogo, ed N. F. Dubrovin, SBVIM; RS 1875 June, RS 1876 July and RA 1877, GAP’s letters to A. V. Suvorov; I. R. Christie, ‘Samuel Bentham and the Russian Dnieper Flotilla’, and I. R. Christie, The Benthams in Russia; MIRF. In English and French, this account draws on Christopher Duffy, Russia’s Military Way to the West; Alexandre, Comte de Langeron’s accounts of the campaigns of the war 1787–91 in AAE vol 20; Roger, Comte de Damas, Mémoires; the Prince de Ligne’s Mélanges and Letters (Staël); and the Duc de Richelieu’s ‘Journal de mon voyage en Allemagne’. Langeron’s papers have not yet been published in full. Langeron’s and Ligne’s accounts have been used widely against GAP. They are useful but clearly prejudiced. Langeron’s account is balanced by his final tribute to GAP, while the unpublished letters between Ligne and GAP, used here for the first time, reveal much more about his motives. The rarely used Richelieu and Damas give a much more just account of GAP at war. If the reference is to a specific document, the reference is noted, but general information on the course of the war, mainly derived from Petrov, is not referenced. RGADA 5.85.2.43–8, L 233, CII to GAP 24 September 1787. RGADA 5.85.2.49, L 235, 25 September. RGADA 5.85.2.52–4, L 238, 2 October 1787.
2 AVPRI 5.585.365–7, L 358, GAP to CII 2 October 1787, Kremenchuk.
3 RGADA 5.85.2.56, L 240, CII to GAP 9 October 1787.
4 RS (1875) May vol 8 pp 21–33, letters of GAP to A. V. Suvorov 1787–8, 5 October 1787.
5 Byron, Don Juan Canto VII: 55.
6 Duffy, Russia’s Military Way pp 185–7.
7 AAE 20: 20, Langeron, ‘Armées Russes and Turques’. Damas pp 34–5. Engelhardt 1868 p 183. Duffy, Russia’s Military Way pp 192–3.
8 AAE 20: 95–7, Langeron, ‘Résumé des campagnes de 1787, 1788, 1789’.
9 RS (1875) May vol 8 p 21, GAP to Suvorov 5 October 1787; p 28, 1 January 1788.
10 AVPRI 5.585.190, GAP to CII 1 November 1787.
11 RS (1875) May vol 8 pp 21–33, letters of GAP to Suvorov 5 November 1787.
12 Aragon p 189, N-S to wife (Paul’s wish to join army and take wife). RGADA 5.85.2.43–8, CII to GAP 24 September 1787. RGADA 5.181.7, Grand Duke Paul Petrovich to GAP June 1788, Pavlovsk. RGADA 5.181.11 Grand Duke Paul Petrovich to GAP 26 September 1789, Gatchina. RGADA 5.182.2–3 and 181.1, 6, Grand Duchess Maria to GAP, Pavlovsk and Gatchina. Ségur, Memoirs (Shelley) p 265. Damas pp 100–7. RS (1876) 15 p 484, Garnovsky November 1787. SIRIO 42: 191, CII to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich 1791.
13 B&F vol 2 p 231, JII to Count Cobenzl 11 December 1787, Vienna.
14 RGVIA 52.2.52.10, JII to Prince de Ligne 25 November 1787, Vienna, unpublished.
15 Ligne, Mélanges vol 7 p 152, Ligne to Comte de Ségur 1 December 1787, Elisabethgrad.
16 AVPRI 5.585.312, L 254, GAP to CII 12 November 1787, Elisabethgrad.
17 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 15.
18 Ligne, Letters (Staël) p 72, Ligne to JII December 1787, Elisabethgrad.
19 Pishkevich p 128.
20 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 pp 11–15.
21 Damas pp 23–5.
22 Ligne, Mélanges vol 21 pp 296–7.
23 AAE 20: 64, Langeron, ‘Résumé des campagnes de 1787, 1788, 1789’.
24 RGVIA 52.2.64.4, Ségur to GAP 7 January 1788, St Petersburg, unpublished.
25 Damas p 25.
26 RGVIA 52.2.48.1, GAP to Cobenzl 15 October 1787, Elisabethgrad, unpublished.
27 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 17. RGVIA 52.2.52.3, GAP to Ligne ud, unpublished.
28 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 18. AVPRI 5.585.179–80, L 282, GAP to CII; and RS (1873) November pp 727–8, L 283, 5 May 1788, Elisabethgrad.
29 Count Fyodor Rostopchin, La Verité sur l’incendie de Moscou, p 27. Aragon p 180. Waliszewski, Autour d’un trône vol 2 p 78. See also GAP on General V. S. Tamara’s Mediterranean missions: RGVIA 52.2.47.11,’m GAP to Prince Kaunitz October 1790, unpublished.
30 SIMPIK KV vol 2 p 9, GAP to Ataman Sidor Bely 2 January 1788, Elisabethgrad. AVPRI 2.2/8a.21.96, L 261, GAP to CII 3 January 1788, Elisabethgrad. SIRIO 27 (1880): 494, CII thanks GAP for founding Cossack forces 20 May 1788, pp 486–7, CII rescript to GAP agreeing to his proposal to complete Cossack forces with coachmen and bourgeois 20 April 1788. GAP’s passion for Cossacks: AKV 13: 227, A. A. Bezborodko to S. R. Vorontsov 17 November 1791. SIRIO 27 (1880): 332–3 CII’s rescript to GAP on precautions to be taken on arranging the return of Nekrazovsky and Zaporogian Cossacks 15 April 1784. Both CII and GAP were initially cautious but GAP ultimately persuaded the Empress. See also Longworth, Cossacks p 229.
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