Catherine the Great & Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair

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.

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12 ADAD 421: 22–3, Deboli to SA 12 April 1791; 421: 36–9, 29 April 1791; 421: 58–65, 17 May 1791, St Petersburg, unpublished.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