Catherine the Great & Potemkin

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  4 Derzhavin quoted from A. A. Kiuchariants, Ivan Starov (Leningrad 1982) p 43 by Cross, By the Banks of the Neva p 275. The words and music of the four choral pieces were, according to Bolotina’s ‘Private Library of Prince GAPT’, by G. R. Derzhavin and Osip Kozlovisky respectively.

  5 Anspach, Journey p 137, 18 February 1786.

  6 Derzhavin ode quoted in Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 230.

  7 L. I. Dyachenko at Tavrichesky Palace. Author’s visit to St Petersburg 1998. Also L. I. Dyachenko, Tavrichesky Dvorets pp 1–64.

  8 This account is based on the following: SIRIO 23 (1878): 517–19, CII to Grimm 29 April 1791. Memoirs of the Life of Prince Potemkin p 243. Masson pp 240–4, 386–7. Belyakova p 91. Dyachenko pp 1–57. Author’s visit to Taurida Palace with Ludmila Dyachenko September 1998. Moskvityanin zhurnal (1852) vol 3 pp 21–8, about the private life of Prince Potemkin.

  9 Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 p 177. Story of Natalia Zakrevskaya, née Razumovskaya. This was the sister of Elisaveta, the daughter of Kirill Razumovsky with whom GAP possibly flirted in the 1760s.

  10 Stedingk p 137, Count Stedingk to Gustavus III 18 May 1791, St Petersburg.

  11 SIRIO 23 (1878): 519, 29 April 1791, and SIRIO 23 (1878): 520, 30 April 1791, CII to Grimm, St Petersburg. Zamoyski, Last King of Poland pp 337–6. Edmund Burke, Collected Works vol 6 pp 244–6, quoted in Zamoyski p 345. Lord pp 527–8. Madariaga, Russia pp 420–1.

  12 ADAD 421: 22–3, Deboli to SA 12 April 1791; 421: 36–9, 29 April 1791; 421: 58–65, 17 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  13 RGADA 5.85.2.289, L 457, CII to GAP May 1791.

  14 RV (1841) vol 8 pp 366–7, GAP to Admiral F. F. Ushakov, Prince N. I. Repnin and General-en-Chef I. V. Gudovich 11 May 1791. RGVIA 52.2.21.153, L 457, GAP to CII 9 June 1791, and RGVIA 52.2.21.145–9, GAP to CII 9 June 1791. Anapa, like Ismail, Bender and Akkerman, was always a Russian target. See Dubrovin, Istoriya voyny vol 2 p 269, GAP to Gudovich on Anapa 24 December 1790. RGADA 16.799.2.170, L 456, and RGADA 16.766.2.171, L 456, both GAP to CII. These letters, dating from this time, propose settling Swedish prisoners, Armenians and Moldavians in GAP’s lands as well as expanding Nikolaev and building more ships.

  15 RA (1874) 2 pp 251–2, CII rescript to GAP on Poland 16 May 1791.

  16 Jerzy Lojek, ‘Catherine’s Armed Intervention in Poland’ pp 579–81.

  17 RGVIA 52.2.68.32 and /30, Count Felix Potocki to GAP 12 October 1790 and 9 July 1791, unpublished. Lord pp 527–8, Potocki to GAP 14 May 1791, all three from Vienna. RGVIA 52.2.68.47, GAP to Potocki 18/29 May 1790. RGVIA 52.2.68.48, GAP to Potocki 8 February 1791, unpublished.

  18 AKV 13: 227, A. A. Bezborodko to S. R. Vorontsov 17 November 1791.

  19 SIRIO 27 (1880): pp 332–3, CII rescript to GAP on precautions on return of Zaporogians and Nekrazovsky Cossacks 15 April 1784.

  20 SIRIO 27 (1880): 338, CII rescript to GAP on keeping detachment of Cossacks in Poland, 2 July 1784. SIRIO 27 (1880): 416, CII rescript to GAP permitting establishment of five squadrons of Polish Cossacks 6 July 1787.

  21 See Rulikowski, Smila.

  22 S. Malachowski, Pamietnik i Stanislawa hr. Nalecz Malachowskiego wyd. Wincenty hr. Los p 92.

  23 AGAD 421: 58–65, Deboli to SA 17 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  24 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, William Fawkener to Lord Grenville no 3, 2 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  25 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Fawkener to Lord Grenville 18 June 1791, St Petersburg. Also in same place: GAP on the Black Sea Fleet, Fawkener no 3, 2 June 1791, St Petersburg. Both unpublished.

  26 RGVIA 52.2.89.159, S. R. Vorontsov to GAP 3 May NS 1791, London, unpublished.

  27 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106.67, Charles Whitworth no 41, 5 August 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished. Stedingk p 146, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 June 1791, St Petersburg.

  28 Derzhavin vol 6 pp 592, 422–3.

  29 Derzhavin vol 6 pp 592, 422–3.

  30 This portrait of Derzhavin uses Jesse V. Clardy, G. R. Derzhavin: A Political Biography pp 70–1, 123, 128.

  31 RP 1.1 p 39. Burton Raffel, Russian Poetry under the Tsars p 20. Segal vol 2 pp 262–74.

  32 Derzhavin vol 6 pp 422–44.

  33 AGAD 421: 122–3, Deboli to SA 22 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished. Derzhavin vol 6 pp 423–4. AKV 8: pp 44–5, Count Fyodor Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 25 December 1791, Jassy.

  34 AKV 8: 67, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 14/25 April 1793, and pp 44–5, 25 December 1791, Jassy.

  35 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Fawkener no 4, 7 June 1791, and no 8, 21 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  36 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Whitworth 8 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  37 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Whitworth 8 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  38 RGADA 5.85.1.479, L 457, CII to GAP June 1791.

  39 RGADA 5.85.2.18, L 458, CII to GAP, and RGVIA 52.2.22.70, L 458, GAP to CII June 1791. The reports to GAP from the fronts, his orders to his commanders, and his reports to CII are in RGVIA 52 op 2, for example GAP’s report to CII on M. I. Kutuzov’s raid across the Danube of 4 June 1791 can be found, dated 19 June 1791, at RGVIA 52.2.21.164.

  40 AGAD 421: 122–3, Deboli to SA 22 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  41 AGAD 421: 77–8, Deboli to SA 31 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  42 RGVIA 52.2.22.4, L 458, GAP to CII July 1791. KFZ 2 July 1791. The fall of Anapa: Dubrovin, Istoriya voyny vol 2 p 269, Gudovich to GAP 22 June 1791. On capture and fate of Mansour: Marie Bennigsen Broxup (ed), The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance towards the Moslem World; see Paul B. Henze, ‘Circassian Resistance to Russia’ p 75.

  43 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, agreement signed by Whitworth, Fawkener and Goertz 11/22 July 1791 and 16/27 July, St Petersburg, unpublished. KFZ 12 July 1791. RGADA 5.85.1.432, L 459, CII to GAP July 1791, and RGADA 5.85.1.430, L 459, CII to GAP July 1791. RGVIA 52.2.22.11–15, Repnin’s report to GAP on Battle of Machin.

  44 AGAD 421: 122–3, Deboli to SA 22 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  45 AGAD 421: 113–14, Deboli to SA July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  46 RGVIA 52.2.39.346, Count Stackelberg to GAP 9/20 December 1789, unpublished.

  47 AGAD 421: 85–6, Deboli to SA 17 June 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  48 Stedingk p 143, Stedingk to Gustavus III 25 June 1791, St Petersburg.

  49 AAE 20: 312, Langeron, ‘Evénements de l’hiver de 1790 et 1791’. Stedingk p 209, J. J. Jennings to Fronce December 1791, St Petersburg. Golovina p 64.

  50 RGADA 5.85.1.499–500, L 460, CII to GAP July 1791. GAP, contrary to legend, was keen to reform the army to stop financial abuses by officers. Hence he created a new sort of Army Inspectorate to check abuses. AVPRI 2.2/81.21.138, L 460, GAP to CII 14 July 1791, and AVPRI 2.2/8a.21.139, L 460, GAP to CII 14 July 1791. See Epilogue note 34.

  51 Vigée Lebrun vol 1 p 323.

  52 Lojek, ‘CII’s Armed Intervention in Poland’ pp 579–81. It is argued that conditions CII places on his actions prove that this is a sham, though the rescript contained no more conditions than her 1783 Crimean rescript to GAP. This suits the overview of many Polish historians. Lojek, for example, suggests that the condition that GAP had to arrange a Polish opposition was clearly a sham because CII knew the nobility supported the new Constitution. Yet one country rarely invades another without first arranging to make it look as if they are being invited in by the opposition. Besides, Felix Potocki was one of many Polish magnates opposed to May the Third and devoted
to the old Polish concept of ‘golden liberty’. GAP’s actions were also conditional on signing peace with the Porte, but this was just common sense: he himself had always stressed that southern peace was necessary before war in the west.

  53 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, no 40 Whitworth to Grenville 5 August 1791. AGAD 421: 103–4, Deboli to SA 8 July 1791. Both these diplomatic despatches from St Petersburg are unpublished.

  54 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Whitworth 12 July 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.

  55 RS (1876) September p 43, Knyaz Platon Alexandrovich Zubov.

  56 Reshetilovsky Archive (Popov archive) pp 77–84, Catherine II’s secret rescript on Poland to GAPT 18 July 1791. RA (1874) 2 pp 281–9.

  57 Golovina p 28.

  58 RGADA 5.85.2.291, L 461, CII to GAP 25 July 1791. KFZ 24 July 1791.

  CHAPTER 33: THE LAST RIDE

  1 Michel Oginski, Mémoires sur la Pologne and les Polonais vol 1 ch 7 pp 146–53.

  2 Ligne, Mélanges vol 24 p 67 Prince de Ligne to JII April 1788. RGADA 5.85.2.25, CII to GAP 19 November 1786.

  3 Masson p 111.

  4 RGVIA 52.2.22.90–103, Prince N. I. Repnin to GAP July–August 1791. RGADA 5.85.2.296, CII to GAP 12 August 1791, Tsarskeo Selo. SIRIO 29: 220, A. A. Bezborodko to P. V. Zavadovsky 17 November 1791. Engelhardt 1997 p 94. SIRIO 23 (1878): 553, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 27 August 1791.

  5 PRO FO Secretary of State: State Papers, Foreign, cyphers SP106/67, Charles Whitworth to Lord Grenville 5 August 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished. Samoilov col 1555 and notes 1 and 2, plus cols 1556–7.

  6 RGADA 1.1/1.43.97, L 464, GAP to CII 4 August 1791, Olviopol. RGADA 5.85.2.296, L 465, CII to GAP 12 August 1791.

  7 This was Mrs Maria Guthrie’s expression ten years later for the feverish sicknesses of the rivers around the Black Sea: letter 23 p 111. SIRIO 29: 121, Bezborodko on GAP’s breaking of talks in August 1791.

  8 Samoilov col 1557.

  9 AKV 8:37, Count F. V. Rostopchin to Count S. R. Vorontsov 7 October 1791. Samoilov col 1555. RGADA 1.1/1.43.100, L 465, GAP to CII 15 August 1791, Galatz. Stedingk p 197, J. J. Jennings to Fronce ud, St Petersburg.

  10 RGVIA 52.2.38.18, V. S. Popov to Bezborodko 24 August 1791. RGADA 1.1/1.43.104, GAP to CII 24 August 1791. RGADA 5.85.2.298, L 466, CII to GAP 28 August 1791. Khrapovitsky 28 and 29 August 1791. AAE 20: 358, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. RV (1841) vol 8 p 372, GAP to Repnin August 1791.

  11 RGADA 1.1/1.43.106, L 468, GAP to CII 6 September 1791, Jassy. RGADA 5.85.2.302, CII to GAP 4 September 1791, St Petersburg. RGVIA 52.2.38.22, Popov to Bezborodko 6 September 1791.

  12 RGVIA 52.2.89.95, C. S. Czernisen (?) to Popov ‘to tell the Marshal’ 9 September 1791, unpublished.

  13 RGVIA 52.2.68.50, GAP to Comte de Potocki Grand Maître d’Artilleries ud, 4 September? 1791, and RGVIA 52.11.71.16, GAP to Comte Rzewewski ud, 4 September 1791, both from Jassy, both unpublished. Zamoyski, Last King of Poland p 357. SBVIM vol 8 p 254, GAP’s reports on the negotiations with the Vizier and return of the Sebastopol Fleet 29 August 1791.

  14 For example, RGVIA 52.2.89.162, Chevalier Second to GAP 25 June/6 July 1791, Le Hague, on the settlement of a ‘New Marseilles’ of French settlers. RGVIA 52.2.89.165, GAP to Comte de Kahlenberg 29 August/9 September 1791 on supplying timber contracts for shipbuilding. All unpublished.

  15 ‘Canon to the Saviour’ quoted in Lopatin, Potemkin i Suvorov p 239.

  16 Vassilchikov vol 3 p 122, Count Andrei Razumovsky to GAP 15 September 1791, Vienna. RGVIA 52.2.89.166, GAP to Sénac de Meilhan 27 August 1791. RGVIA 271.1.65.1, Sénac de Meilhan to GAP 6 August 1791, Moscow. Both unpublished.

  17 AKV 8: 43, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 25 December 1791, Jassy.

  18 RGADA 5.85.2.303, L 468, CII to GAP 16 September 1791. Popov’s reports to CII on GAP’s illness are the main source for this account of his demise unless otherwise ascribed: RGVIA 52.2.94.3–26 and RA (1878) 1 pp 20–5.

  19 Popov 6–25 September 1791. AKV 25: 467, CII to Countess A. V. Branicka 16 September 1791.

  20 RGADA 1.1/1.43.103, L 468, GAP to CII 16 September 1791. Popov 16 September 1791.

  21 RGVIA 52.2.37.255, GAP to Bezborodko 16 September 1791. Popov 16 September 1791. RGVIA 52.2.55.253, 247 and 268, reports from Vienna on GAP and peace talks 21, 17 and 28 September NS 1791, unpublished.

  22 RGADA 1.1/1.43.7, L 469, and RGVIA 52.2.22.187, L 469, GAP to CII 21 September 1791. Popov 21 September 1791. RGVIA 52.2.37.257, GAP to Bezborodko.

  23 AAE 20: 358, 360–2, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. Castera vol 3 p 323. Samoilov col 1557. Popov 25 September 1791.

  24 Popov 25 September 1791, Metropolitan Iona’s report, originally in Georgian. ZOOID 3: 559.

  25 RGADA 1.1/1.43.102, L 470, GAP to CII 27 September 1791. Popov 27 September 1791.

  26 Popov 30 September–2 October 1791. RGADA 5.85.2.304, CII to GAP 30 September 1791.

  27 RGADA 1.1/1.43.9, L 470, GAP to CII 2 October 1791. Popov 2 October and 3 October 1791.

  28 RGADA 5.85.1.429, L 470, CII to GAP 3 October 1791. AEB vol 25 p 467, CII to Branicka. Popov 3–4 October 1791. Khrapovitsky 3 October 1791.

  EPILOGUE: LIFE AFTER DEATH

  1 Author’s visits to Chizhova, Smolensk Province, Russia, September 1998, and Kherson, Ukraine, July/August 1998. Father Anatoly and V. M. Zheludov, the schoolteacher of Petrishchevo, Smolensk Province. Samoilov cols 1569 and 1560.

  2 AKV 13: 216–22, A. A. Bezborodko to P. V. Zavadovsky November 1791, Jassy. Also ZOOID 11: 3–5. AAE 20: 360–2, Langeron, ‘Evénements 1791’. Lopatin, Perepiska pp 961–4. There were stories that Dr Timan had poisoned the Prince on either Zubov’s or Catherine’s orders. Even Langeron discounts them. Soon a scurrilous pamphlet appeared entitled Panslavin – Prince of Darkness (Fürst der Finsternis) by J. F. E. Albrecht, a Freemason – the beginning of the anti-Potemkin mythology. This suggested that a good queen had ordered the poisoning of her demonic co-ruler.

  3 Engelhardt 96–7. AKV 13: 216–22, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky ud, November 1791: RA (1878) 1 pp 20–5, V. S. Popov to CII 8 October 1791, Jassy. General Kahovsky was supposed to take command but he was in the Crimea, so Mikhail Kamensky, future Field-Marshal in the Napoleonic Wars, seized control and went berserk in the street, beating Jews, but the army refused to obey his authority. GAP’s wishes prevailed.

  4 Khrapovitsky pp 377–8, 16, 17 and 18 October 1791.

  5 RGADA 5.131.5–5, CII to Popov 4 November 1791.

  6 RGADA 11.1096.1–1, Countess Ekaterina Skavronskaya to CII 3 November 1791.

  7 RA (1878) 1 p 25, Princess Varvara V. Golitsyna to Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin 2 November 1791, Jassy.

  8 SIRIO 23 (1878): 561, CII to Baron F. M. Grimm 22 October 1791.

  9 RGVIA 52.2.55.285, news from Vienna 1/12 October 1791, unpublished. AKV 13: 221–2 Bezborodko to Zavadovsky November 1791.

  10 RGADA 5.138.9, M. S. Potemkin to CII 6 December 1791, Jassy.

  11 V. L. Esterhazy, Nouvelles Lettres du Comte Valentin L. Esterhazy à sa femme 1792–95 p 371, 23 December 1791–3 January 1792. Stedingk p 216, Count Stedingk to Gustavus III 26 December 1791–9 January 1792. AKV 8: 58, F. V. Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 28 September 1792, St Petersburg. Russkiy Biographicheskiy Slovar vol 14 (1904). AKV 13 (1879): 256, Bezborodko to S. R. Vorontsov 15 May 1792, Tsarskoe Selo.

  12 LeDonne p 262. ZOOID 9: 222–5, report of M. S. Potemkin. ZOOID 9: 227, Emperor Alexander I to the State Treasurer Baron Vasilev 21 April 1801, St Petersburg. ZOOID 8: 226–7, Popov’s explanation of GAP’s finances 9 May 1800. ZOOID 8: 225–6, brief note on income and expenditure of extraordinary sums at command of Prince GAPT. ZOOID 9 (1875): 226, CII ukase to the cabinet on GAP’s debts 20 August 1792, Tsarskoe Selo. Brückner Potemkin, p 274.
Karnovich p 314. The Sutherland financial scandal is best told in Cross, By the Banks of the Neva pp 80–1. GAP was not the only magnate exposed by Sutherland’s death. Prince Viazemsky, Count Osterman and Grand Duke Paul himself were all hugely in debt to him. Rulikowski, Smila. RS (1908) 136 pp 101–2. Tregubov. Tregubov wrote, ‘The benefit to the country, felt by all, was worth all the money he spent.’ This was literally true for the soldiers under his command.

  13 Stedingk p 188, Stedingk to Gustavus III 28 October 1791, St Petersburg.

  14 AKV 13: 216–22, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky November 1791, Jassy.

  15 RGADA 11.902a Register of Prince GAPT’s Debts, and RGADA 11.902a.30. These debts extended from the vast sums owed to Sutherland to onyx pillars for the Taurida Palace, diamonds, gold muslin shawls (1,880 roubles), female dresses (over 12,000 roubles), oysters, fruit, asparagus and champagne.

  16 AKV 13: 223–8, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 17 November 1791, Jassy.

  17 Esterhazy p 333, 17/28 October 1791, St Petersburg.

  18 Masson p 113.

  19 Stedingk p 188, Stedingk to Gustavus III 4 November 1791.

  20 Esterhazy p 333.

  21 Stedingk pp 186–8, Stedingk to Gustavus III 28 October 1791, St Petersburg.

  22 AKV 8: 39, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 25 December 1791, Jassy, and AKV 8: 53, Rostopchin to S. R. Vorontsov 8 July 1792, St Petersburg.

  23 Stedingk p 196, J. J. Jennings to Fronce ud, St Petersburg.

  24 S. N. Glinka, Russkiye chteniya, izdavaemye Sergeem Glinkoyu. Otechestvennye istoricheskiy pamyatniki xviii i xix stoleiya pp 78–9.

  25 AKV 13: 223–8, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 17 November 1791, Jassy.

  26 Petrushevsky p 263. Suvorov, Pisma (Lopatin) p 224, A. V. Suvorov to D. I. Khvostov 15 October 1791; pp 232–3: Suvorov to Khvostov 20 July 1792; p 251, Suvorov to Khvostov 24 November 1796 and Suvorov to P. I. Turchaninov 7 May 1793.

  27 Engelhardt 1997 p 97.