Vassilchikov, Alexander S. 90, 92, 94-5, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 119-20, 121, 168,180
Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Comte de 140,
253, 258 vermicular 367-8, 395 Viazemsky, Prince Alexander Alexeiovich 55, 73, 74, 126, 131-2, 134, 221, 435, 475,494 Victoria, Queen of England 359П Vigee Lebrun, Marie Anne Elisabeth 8, 186,
190, 306, 337, 443 Vitovka 414
Vivarais, Chevalier de 70, 200 Vizin, Denis von 24, 335 Vladikafkaz 291
Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev 256П Vladimir, St 267
Voinovich, Count Mark I. 232, 233-4, 256, 336-7
Voltaire, Francos Arouet 60, 66, 69, 84, 88,
92, 99, 112, 193, 229 Vorontsov, Count Alexander Romanovich
221,324,327,411 Vorontsov, Count Mikhail I. (Chancellor)
43,47, 5i, 56, 58, 59 Vorontsov, Prince Mikhail Semyonovich
138, 305,496-7 Vorontsov, Count Roman I. 86, 146 Vorontsov, Count Simon Romanovich 45, 86, 91, 93, 144-5, 167, 175, 185, 285, 343,465,474 Vorontsova, Princess Elisabeth (Lise) (nee
Branicka) 36, 42, 47, 496-7 Vorontsova, Princess Sophie S. 497 Voulgaris, Eugenios 220, 344 Vysotsky, Nikolai P. (nephew) 192 Vysotskaya, Pelageya A. (sister) 192
Wallachia 420, 421, 481 Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl of Orford 36, 197, 307, 319
Walpole, Sir Robert, 1" Earl of Orford 333 War of the Bavarian Succession 210 Warbeck, Perkin 96 Washington, George 8, 495 Weymouth, Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount 182, 184
Whitworth, Sir Charles 140, 465-6, 478 Wiegel, F. F. 186, 265, 339, 341, 443, 49*, 496
Wilhelmina, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt
see Natalia, Grand Duchess wine production 289, 290 Winter Garden 468-9, 495 Witte, General Joseph de 396П, 461 Witte, Sophie de (later Countess Potocka)
448, 449, 460-1, 484П, 496 Wolsey, Cardinal Thomas 8 Wurttemberg, Prince Karl Alexander of 481
Yelagin, Ivan Perfilevich 85, 103, 119, 209 Yenikale 246, 280
Yermolov, Alexander Petrovich 32, 315,
316-17, 318, 322, 325, 326 Yusuf-Pasha, Grand Vizier 384, 385, 407,
481,488 Yusupov, Prince Felix 496 Yusupov, Prince Nikolai B. 20, 496
Zaborovsky, General I. A. 393 Zakrevskaya, Countess Natalia G. 470 Zamoyska, Urszula, Countess Mniszech 356П
Zavadovsky, Count Peter V 158, 170, 178, 423, 460 appearance 150 appointed adjutant-general 151 correspondence with С 166 C's lover 152, 154, 155, 160, 166-8, 181 disappearing from Court 160 dismissing Yermolov 325 end of affair 167-8, 183 enmity to P 268, 324, 327, 411, 415 friendship with P's critics 167 on P 171, 251, 417 presents from С 159, 167-8 P's jealousy towards 152, 159 P's wish to dismiss 167 relationship with P 167 secretary to С 150 service to С 169 sickness 166
Zeitlin, Joshua 283, 284, 293П, 354, 394, 435
zemliankas 410
Zertis-Kamensky, Ambrosius (later Bishop) 23, 29, 87,484
Zhukov, Mikhail M. 186 Zimbry 86
Zimmerman, Dr Johann 66, 289 Zinovieva, Ekaterina H. (later Princess
634 index
Orlova) 152 Zorich, Semyon Gavrilovich 168-70, 178, 182, 183
Zotov, Zakhar 415, 464
Zubov, Prince Platon Alexandrovich
(Blackie) 42.3-5, 42.8, 454, 4^3, 475, 47^, 478, 481, 482, 490, 495, 496 Zubov, Count Valerian A. 425, 452, 476, 495
Serenissimus Prince Grigory Potemkin in his prime when he was already Catherine the Great's secret husband and increasingly her partner in power. Catherine called him her 'marble beauty' and he was said to have the most beautiful head of hair in Russia. Yet he was shy about his blind eye and was always painted from this angle to hide it.
Catherine the Great, dressed in Guardsman's uniform, on 28th June 1762 - the day she seized power from her husband, Emperor Peter III. This was the occasion she met Potemkin for the first time. As she reviewed her troops outside the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, she noticed she was missing her sword-knot. Young Potemkin galloped up and offered her his own. She did not forget him.
Top: Countess Alexandra 'Sashenka' Branicka, clever, lithe and formidable, was Potemkin's niece, probably his mistress, but certainly his best friend after Catherine herself. He died in her arms.
Left: The Heir - Grand Duke (later Emperor) Paul, Catherine's unstable, embittered son who so hated Potemkin, he boasted he would toss him in jail.
'otemkin's palaces: his northern and southern houses.
light-, the neo-Classical Taurida 'alace in St Petersburg, the scene >f the Prince's sumptuous ball in 791. Below from left: his first >alace, the Anichkov in ^tersburg; the Bablovo ^lace in ruins near Tsarskoe Selo; he Ostrovki Castle. Both were nspired by Walpole's Gothic itrawberry Hill.
Above: the 'Potemkin Palace' in Ekaterinoslav Above right: The Prince's Palace in Turkish style in Nikolaev - he longed to visit this residence as he lay dying. Right: his huge palace in the centre of Kherson, his first city.
The Empress aged 58 in her travelling costume during Potemkin's magnificent 1787 tour of the Crimea where she met Emperor Joseph II.
Field Marshal Potemkin during the Second Turkish War - the victor at his apogee. He wears Catherine's portrait set in diamonds - his proudest possession.
Below: his signature.
The ageing Empress during the 1790s: still majestic and dignified but growing fat and breathless. As she told Potemkin, she was so in love with her talentless young lover, Zubov, that she felt like a fat fly in summer. She yearned for his approval of her last favourite ...
Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky as the triumphant warlord on his last visit to Petersburg in 1791 when he was ebullient and volatile as ever. Catherine thought victory made him even more handsome. Even his enemies admitted 'women crave the embraces of Prince Potemkin.'
Above left: the monuments by the roadside (in Moldova) where Potemkin died on 5th October 1791.