Catherine the Great & Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair

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 Bulgakov 1/12 May 1787, unpublished.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.