Catherine the Great & Potemkin

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

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

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

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

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

  81 RGVIA 52.2.47.12, GAP to Kaunitz October 1790, Bender, unpublished.

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

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

  84 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 321.

  85 Engelhardt 1868 p 88.

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

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

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

  89 Golovina pp 24–5.

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

  91 Engelhardt 1997 p 88.

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

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1790, ‘Not a moment for myself’, and RGVIA 52.2.71.8, GAP agrees to cede Dubrovna 20 July 1790, Czerdack near Jassy, unpublished.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 All unpublished.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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  104 RGVIA 52.2.37.230, GAP to Bezborodko.

  105 RGVIA 52.1.586.1.586, GAP to Bezborodko.

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

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

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

  CHAPTER 30: SEA OF SLAUGHTER: ISMAIL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  17 Damas p 151.

  18 Longworth, Art of Victory p 168.

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

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

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

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

  23 Samoilov col 1550.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  CHAPTER 31: THE BEAUTIFUL GREEK

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

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

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

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

  5 Derzhavin, The Waterfall, in Segal p 302.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  16 Engelhardt, 1868 p 69.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  33 Derzhavin Sochineniya vol 6 p 592.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  CHAPTER 32: CARNIVAL AND CRISIS

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

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

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