Grigory Potemkin was born on September 24, 1739 in the family of a Smolensk nobleman, a former Dragoon officer and participant in the Petrine wars, Alexander Potemkin. When the future prince was only seven years old, his father died. The boy was brought up by her mother - Daria Potemkina (nee Kondratyev).

At the age of five, Grigory moved to Moscow, where the Potemkin had a house. Thanks to influential relatives, his mother took him to a gymnasium at Moscow University. He was also in absentia considered a raider in the Horse Guards: he was allowed to appear in active service after receiving an education.

Contemporaries noted the phenomenal reading speed and memory of Potemkin. The comrades were having fun, asking him to recall from memory one or another page of books read in a matter of hours.

After completing the gymnasium course, Potemkin studied at the university, but was expelled from it allegedly for "laziness and non-attendance at classes." The true reasons, however, are still unknown. According to the biographers of Potemkin, this could happen due to a conflict with the administration.

Mother wanted Gregory to continue his studies, but the young man made a choice in favor of military service. In 1761 he was awarded the rank of Wahmister of the Horse Guards.

The path to fame

During the palace coup of 1762, which led to the overthrow of Peter III, Potemkin, judging by the memoirs of his contemporaries, became one of the key supporters of Catherine II in the horse guard. The new ruler generously rewarded those who helped her come to power. So, Potemkin immediately advanced in rank, becoming a second lieutenant of the guard, and then a chamber-cunker of the yard. In addition, he received 10 thousand rubles and 400 souls of peasants.

  • Catherine II on the balcony of the Winter Palace, welcomed by the guard and the people on the day of the coup June 28, 1762
  • © Wikimedia Commons

According to one version, Potemkin already at that time began to have strong feelings for Catherine II, however, due to political dependence on her favorite Grigory Orlov and his brothers, she could not reciprocate.

Soon after the coup, Potemkin went blind in one eye. Authors of historical jokes attribute this misfortune to a fight or duel with the Orlovs, but historians do not consider this version reliable. According to the memoirs of relatives, Gregory returned from Petersburg to Moscow and caught a cold. For treatment, he turned to the healer, who made him an eye patch with an unknown drug. Soon Potemkin felt a burning sensation, tore off the bandage and found a growth under it, which caused loss of vision.

In 1763, Potemkin, retaining a place in the guard, began to act as assistant to the chief prosecutor of the synod. In this post, he contributed to the implementation of church reform, as a result of which the state tightened control over the church and received monastic lands. In 1765, Potemkin was promoted to guards, and in 1768 - to the chamberlain.

The next year, Potemkin volunteered for the Russo-Turkish War (1768 - 1774), while he was promoted to army major general. During the fighting, he was in the thick of things, distinguished himself at Fokshany, Brailov and Zhurzhe.

The empress kept personal correspondence with Potemkin and asked in vain not to risk her life.

Her Majesty's Favorite

At the beginning of 1774, Catherine II and Grigory Potemkin became close. According to a number of testimonies, in the summer of that year, the Empress and Potemkin secretly married, and in 1775 Catherine II gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Temkin. However, there is no documentary evidence of this, although the son of Temkina openly called Potemkin his grandfather.

At the end of 1775, relations between the empress and Potemkin deteriorated. The new favorite of Catherine was Peter Zavadovsky. Nevertheless, Potemkin did not lose political influence in the country.

  • The assault on Ochakovo, 1788
  • © Wikimedia Commons

In 1775, he conducted a massive military reform. Army uniforms changed dramatically: powder, pigtails and buccles were canceled, footcloths began to be used instead of stockings, new uniforms became stronger and more comfortable than the previous ones. Shagistika was replaced by combat training. Potemkin demanded from the commanders more humane treatment of the soldiers and control over the sanitary and hygienic condition of the personnel.

The prince was also responsible for the liquidation of the Zaporizhzhya Sich in 1775, as a result of which the Cossacks moved into new military formations, operating first in New Russia and then in the Kuban.

In 1779, under the leadership of Grigory Potemkin, the construction of a new fleet began on the Black Sea, which became his favorite brainchild. In 1785, the states of the fleet and the Black Sea Admiralty were officially approved, personally subordinate to Potemkin.

Crimea and New Russia

In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was forced to recognize the independence of Crimea and transfer land to Russia east of the Southern Bug. However, the terms of the agreement, as well as the diplomatic activity of Russia in the Transcaucasus, caused discontent among the Turkish authorities, which poured out in 1787 into a new war, which in pre-revolutionary historiography was called Potemkin.

Potemkin by this time managed to develop a stormy administrative activity in the Northern Black Sea region. In 1776, under his leadership, Ekaterinoslav (the modern Dnieper) was founded, in 1778 - Kherson, and in 1783 - Sevastopol.

With the direct participation of Potemkin in 1783, Crimea officially became part of the Russian Empire. In 1787, Catherine II made a trip through Little Russia and New Russia to the peninsula, which made a strong impression on her.

“Potemkin’s administration of all the endless territories of New Russia, which was being mastered by Russian settlers, played an extremely positive role. He did a lot for the development of these lands, for their development, and was completely unjustly accused of building the “Potemkin villages”. This story spoiled the biography of a man who needs to bow ten times for all his colossal state activities in the south of Russia, ”said historian and writer Dmitry Volodikhin in an interview with RT.

The beginning of a new war with Turkey allowed the nobleman to prove himself as a commander. In 1788, Russian troops under the command of Grigory Potemkin and Alexander Suvorov took one of the most powerful fortresses in the Black Sea region - Ochakov. A year later, not far from it, a new city was founded with a powerful shipyard - Nikolaev.

Foreigners visiting the Northern Black Sea region were shocked by the speed with which the region, which was recently called the Wild Field, is being built up and developing.

In 1790-1791, Potemkin actually controlled part of the Moldavian Principality that came under Russian control. By this time, he was already Field Marshal, Senator, Count and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (received this title from the German Emperor Joseph II). After visiting the Crimea, the Empress granted him the nominal title of Tauride. The huge estates allocated to him by Catherine II in Little Russia and New Russia made him the richest subject of the Russian crown.

  • The Death of Potemkin (Detail of an engraving, 1793)
  • © Wikimedia Commons

Potemkin defeated many enemies, both external and internal, but could not cope with one. In 1791, he developed a fever at the front. The courtier, who did not trust doctors and self-medicated, was able to force the disease to recede, but he did not manage to recover completely. Since then, from time to time, he has had relapses.

In 1791, a particularly strong attack overtook Potemkin on the road from Iasi to Nikolaev. On October 16, a powerful dignitary died in a field near the Moldavian village of Rady Veki in the arms of his Cossack guard. They buried him in Kherson. The prince did not manage to realize large-scale plans for the development of New Russia and the defeat of Turkey with the subsequent restoration of Byzantium. His death was a heavy blow for Catherine II.

According to historian Yevgeny Pchelov, Potemkin was an outstanding statesman and played a large role in the history of Russia.

“He was a man of great intelligence and abilities,” the expert emphasized.

In his opinion, with the death of Potemkin, Catherine II "lost an important support, a statesman who was her comrade-in-arms, performing an important function of state administration."

“Potemkin is a large-scale and extraordinary personality, one of Catherine the Great’s bright associates,” summed up Yevgeny Pchelov.