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POTEMKIN, GRIGORY ALEKSANDROVICH, PRI...

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 205 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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POTEMKIN, GRIGORY ALEKSANDROVICH, See also:PRINCE (1739-1791) , See also:Russian statesman, was See also:born at Chizheva near See also:Smolensk. He was educated at the See also:Moscow University, and in 1755 entered the " Reiter " of the See also:Horse See also:Guards. His participation in the coup d'etat of the 8th of See also:July 1762 attracted the See also:attention of the new empress, See also:Catherine II., who made him a Kammerjunker and gave him a small See also:estate. The See also:biographical anecdotes See also:relating to him during the next few years are obscure and mostly apocryphal. In 1768 he quitted the Guards and was attached to the See also:court as a Kammerherr, but in 1769 he volunteered for the See also:Turkish See also:War and distinguished himself at See also:Khotin, See also:Focshani and Larga, besides routing the See also:Turks at Oita. It was not till 1971 that he became Catherine's See also:prime favourite. In that See also:year he was made an See also:adjutant-See also:general, See also:lieutenant-See also:colonel of the Preobrazhensky Guards, a member of the See also:council of See also:state, and, in the words of a See also:foreign contemporary diplomatist, " the most influential personage in See also:Russia." Somewhat later he was created a See also:count, and appointed See also:commander-in-See also:chief and See also:governor-general of " New Russia," as the conquered provinces in the See also:Ukraine were then called. In. 1776, at Catherine's See also:request, the See also:emperor See also:Joseph II. raised Potemkin to the See also:rank of a prince of the See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:Empire. I,n 1775 he was superseded in the empress's See also:graces by Zavadovsky; but the relations between Catherine and her former See also:lover continued to be most friendly; and his See also:influence with her was never seriously disturbed by any of her subsequent favourites. A whole See also:mass of facts testify to the enormous and extraordinary influence of Potemkin during the next ten years. His See also:correspondence with the empress was uninterrupted.

The most important state documents passed through his hands. Catherine loaded him with gifts: He was deeply interested in the question of the See also:

southern boundaries of Russia and consequently in the See also:fate of the Turkish Empire. It was he who, in 1776, sketched the See also:plan for the See also:conquest of the See also:Crimea which was subsequently realized; and about the same See also:period he was busy with the so-called " See also:Greek project," which aimed at restoring the See also:Byzantine Empire under one of Catherine's grandsons. In many of the See also:Balkan states he had well-informed agents. After he became See also:field See also:marshal, in 1784, he introduced many reforms into the See also:army, and built a See also:fleet in the See also:Black See also:Sea, which, though constructed of very See also:bad materials, did excellent service in Catherine's second Turkish War (1787—92) His colonizing See also:system was exposed to very severe See also:criticism, yet it is impossible not to admire the results of his stupendous activity. The See also:arsenal of See also:Kherson, begun in 1778, the See also:harbour of See also:Sevastopol and thenew fleet of fifteen liners and twenty-five smaller vessels, were monuments of his See also:genius. But there was exaggeration in all he attempted. He spared neither men, See also:money, nor himself in attempting to carry out his gigantic See also:scheme for the colonization of the See also:south Russian See also:steppes; but he never calculated the cost, and more than three-quarters of the See also:design had to be abandoned when but See also:half finished. Catherine's famous expedition to the south in 1787 was a veritable See also:triumph for Potemkin; for he contrived to conceal all the weak points of his See also:administration and to See also:present everything in a See also:rose-coloured See also:light. On this occasion he received the See also:title of prince of Tauris. The same year the second Turkish War began, and the founder of New Russia took upon himself the responsibilities of commanderin-chief. But the army was See also:ill-equipped and unprepared; and Potemkin in an hysterical See also:fit of depression gave everything up for lost, and would have resigned but for the steady encouragement of the empress.

Only after See also:

Suvarov had valiantly defended Kinburn did he take See also:heart again, and besiege and See also:capture See also:Ochakov and See also:Bender. In 1990 he conducted the military operations on the See also:Dniester and held his court at See also:Jassy with more than See also:Asiatic pomp. In 1791 he returned to St See also:Petersburg where, along with his friend See also:Bezborodko (q.v.), he made vain efforts to overthrow the new favourite, Zubov, and in four months spent 85o,000 roubles in banquets and entertainments, a sum subsequently reimbursed to him from the See also:treasury. Then the empress See also:grew impatient and compelled him (1791) to return to Jassy to conduct the See also:peace negotiations as chief Russian plenipotentiary. On the 5th of See also:October, while on his way to See also:Nikolayev, he died in the open See also:steppe, 40 M. from Jassy, in See also:con-sequence of eating a whole See also:goose while in a high state of See also:fever. Very various are the estimates of Potemkin. Neither during his See also:life nor after his See also:death did any two See also:people agree about him. The See also:German pamphlet: Pansalim Fiirst der Finsterniss and See also:seine Geliebte, published in 1794, is a See also:fair specimen of the See also:opinion of those who regarded him as the evil genius of Catherine and of Russia. But there were many, including the empress herself, who looked upon him as a See also:man of manifold and commanding genius. He was indubitably the most extraordinary of all the Catherinian favourites. He was an able See also:administrator, but wanting in self-See also:control. Licentiousness, extravagance and an utter disregard for human life were his weak points, but he was loyal, generous and magnanimous.

Nearly all the anecdotes related of him by Helbig, in the See also:

biography contributed by him to the See also:journal See also:Minerva (1797—1800), and freely utilized by later biographers, are absolutely worthless. See V. A. Bilbasov, Geschichte Katharinas II. (See also:Berlin, 1891—1893); C. de Lariviere, Catherine la Grande d'apres sa correspondance (See also:Paris, 1895) ; See also:Anonymous, La Cour de Catherine II. Ses collaborateurs (St Petersburg, 1899) ; A. V. Lopukhin, See also:Sketch of the See also:Congress of Jassy, 1791 (Rus.; St Petersburg, 1893) ; The Papers of Prince Potemkin, 1744—170 (Rus.; St Petersburg, 1893—1895). (R. N.

End of Article: POTEMKIN, GRIGORY ALEKSANDROVICH, PRINCE (1739-1791)

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