Samoilov col 1558.
AKV 13: 216-22, Bezborodko to Zavadovsky 5 December 1791, Jassy.
Derzhavin, The Waterfall, in Segal vol 2 p 299.
BM 33540 f 296, Jeremy Bentham to Prince P. Dashkov 19/30 July 1786.
Masson p 110.
Ligne, Letters (Stael) vol 2 p 6, Prince de Ligne to Comte de Segur 1 August 1788.
Louis Philippe, Comte de Segur, Memoires et souvenirs et anecdotes 1859 pp 348- 9. Littlepage quoted in Curtis Carroll Davis, The King's Chevalier p 148.
A. S. Pushkin, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniya vol 12 p 177.
Lord Byron, Don Juan VII: 41.
Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun Souvenirs vol 1 p 324.
ZOOID 9 (1875): 461-4.
Derzhavin, The Waterfall, in Segal vol 2 p 299.
Comte de Stedingk, Un Ambassadeur a la cour de Catherine II, ed Comtesse Brevern de la Gardie, p 186, Stedynk to Gustavus III 28 October 1791.
AKV 7: 37 Count Fyodor Rostopchin to Count S. R. Vorontsov 7th October 1791, Jassy.
A. Soldatsky, The Secret of the Prince, ZOOID 9, 360-3.
RGVIA 52.2.94.30, V. S. Popov to CtG, Jassy.
SIRIO 23: 561, CtG to Grimm.
A. V. Khrapovitsky, Dnevnik p 377.
Masson p 113.
SIRIO 23: 561, CtG to Grimm.
Bakunin quoted in Wladimir Weidle, Russia: Absent and Present p 49.
Khrapovitsky pp 377-87.
On the history of GAP. The priggish morality and dynastic self-preservation of the Romanovs in the nineteenth century suppressed a real rehabilitation of GAP: the testimonies of contemporaries about his marriage with Catherine could only be published AFTER the 1905 Revolution when the regime was forced to relax its autocracy. The cult of Suvorov, after his campaign against the French and throughout the 19th century and again during the Great Patriotic War, played its role in distorting GAP's histories. Until Stalin's death, Soviet histories regarded Potemkin with a mixture of class hatred and Communist primness. His main role in Soviet history was to demonstrate the folly of Imperial whim and to serve as bungling noble fool who 'often hampered* the actions of the hero, Suvorov. See the Bolshaia Sovietskaya Encyclopedia volume 46 p 545, published in 1940. Later editions of Istorii SSSR (such as the 1949 edition by Y. I. Belan) follow this line even more since Stalin had made Suvorov an official hero during the war. (One Stalinist historian took a slightly different line, placing Potemkin as a people's leader like Peter the Great: 'Potemkin's name,' wrote the author of Istoriia SSR volume 1 pages 702/3, S drevneiskykh vremen do kontsa XVIII v., published in Moscow 1939, 'hated by the aristocrats because of his arbitrariness, became popular among the soldiers, although less than Suvorov' - naturally. But this was published before WW 2.) Only in the Fifties did historians such as E. I. Druzhinina begin to analyse his career properly. The main researches by authors like V. S. Lopatin and О. I. Yeliseeva have appeared since the downfall of Communism and have returned him to his rightful place.
In the West, from Potemkin's death right up to today, there has been an endless stream of romantic histories of Catherine and her lover though naturally the outstanding modern Russian specialists such as Marc Raeff, Isabel de Madariaga, J. T. Alexander, and W. Bruce Lincoln have appreciated his special role. Vincent Cronin's biography of Catherine gives a fair portrait of him while Henri Troyat's emphasizes his personality. However, the legends of Potemkin are so colourful and strange that they have also affected academic historians. The tendency to treat Potemkin as part-joke, part-legend, about whom the usual rules of history are ignored, shows no sign of abating even in the 1990s. Take two of the most admired modern historians. The quotation is from Professor Т. C. W. Blanning, Professor of Modern European History, Cambridge,
514 notes
distinguished authority on Joseph II and the Enlightened Despots, who refers to Potemkin's bedroom performance in Joseph II Profiles in Power p 176. Norman Davies, Professor of History, School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, University of London, repeats the legend of the Potemkin Villages as if it was an undisputed historical fact in Europe: A History p 658.
chapter i: the provincial boy
RS (1872) 5 p 463: Istoricheskiye rasskazy i anekdoty zapisannyye so slov imenityh lyudey, P. E Karabanovym (Karabanov).
Sergei Alexandrovich Medvedev, a descendant of Mikhail Potemkin who lives in Petersburg, is the source for this information - the issues 1998-2000 'About the Potemkin Family', Nobleman's Assembly.
RGADA 286.413.638-48. Istochnik (1995) no 1 pp 16-25.
Prince Emmanuel Golitsyn, Recit du voyage du Pierre Potemkin: la Russie du xvii siecle dans ses rapports avec VEurope Occidentale pp xxviii, xxix, xxx, xxxi, 255, 305, 370, 262-3, 253. Ironically Prince Emmanuel Golitsyn was the son of Prince Mikhail and Princess Praskovia Andreevna (nee Shuvalova), who was allegedly Prince G. A. Potemkin's last mistress. See Chapter 33.
RA 1867 Samoilov col 558; RGADA 286.1.253.691, Spisok voennym chinam 1- oy poloviny i8go stoletiya in Senatski Arkhiv (1895) V°1 7-
Henri Troyat, Pushkin pp 16-17.
RP 5.22 p 221. Local legend: Victor M. Zheludov, 'Zhivoie dyhanie istorii'
Local legend: Zheludov. Author's visit to Chizhova 1998.
RP 5.22 p 221 Karabanov RS 1872 5. p 463 RGADA 286.413.638-48. Istochnik (1995) no 1 pp 16-25. E. Golitsyn pp xxviii, xxix, xxxi, pp. 255, 305, 270, 262, 263, 253.
William Coxe, Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark p 343.
Massonpp 303.
Engelhardt 1863 p 3.
F. F. Wiegel, Zapiski Filipa Filipovich Vigela 1864-6 vol 1 pp 21-2.
Martha Elena married Colonel Vasily A. Engelhardt; Pelageya married Peter E. Vysotsky; Daria married Alexander A. Likachev; Nadezhda died without marrying aged nineteen in 1757; and Maria married Nikolai B. Samoilov.
Isabel de Madariaga, Catherine the Great: A Short History pp 14-15.
I. I. Orlovsky, In the Motherland of His Highness pp 1-20. Local research in Chizhova by author 1998.
Masson pp 303.
L. Zayev, 'Motherland of Prince Potemkin', IV (1899) no 2 pp 169-200. Orlovsky p 4. S. N. Shubinsky, Historical Essays and Stories p 144.
Margravine of Anspach (Lady Craven), Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople p 142, 21 February 1786, St Petersburg. Madariaga, CtG: A Short History pp 13-20. E. V. Anisimov, Empress Elisabeth pp 43-4 and 75-83. Shcherbatov quoted in Anisimov pp 77-8.
Isabel de Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great pp 79-80.
Anspach, Journey p 142, 21 February 1786 St Petersburg. Madariaga, CtG: A Short History pp 13-20. Anisimov, Empress Elisabeth pp 43-4 and 75-83. Shcherbatov quoted in Anisimov pp 77-8.
Waliszewski, Autour d'un trone vol 1 p 43.