SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2001

PRINCE OF PRINCES

THE LIFE OF

POTEMKIN

Fascinating...this highly ambitious biography has

succeeded triumphantly' Antony Beevor, Sunday Times

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

Prince of Princes The Life of Potemkin

'This splendidly written biography...Not only does it retrieve Potemkin and his eccentric career from historical obscurity, it helps bring to life all of aristocratic, 18th century Russia. Could easily have been double the length so enjoyable is it' AnnЈ Applebaum, Sunday Telegraph

Prince Grigory Potemkin was Catherine the Great's lover, secret husband and partner in ruling the Russian Empire. Catherine called him 'one of the greatest, strangest and wittiest eccentrics' of her epoch - her 'twin soul', 'tiger' and 'darling husband'; her 'hero' and 'master' in politics.

Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement allowing them to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine, her favourites. But they never stopped loving each other.

After five years' new research in archives from St. Petersburg to Odessa, Montefiore brings blazingly to life Potemkin's loving partnership with Catherine and restores him to his rightful place as an outstandingly gifted statesman, and a colossus of the eighteenth century.

' A terrific read...Book of the Year' Antonia Fraser, BBC History Magazine

'Excellent with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair... Book of the Year...One of the great love-stories of history in a league with Napoleon and Josephine and Antony and Cleopatra' Economist

PHOENIX PRESS NON-FICTION/HISTORY £9.99 IN UK ONLY

'Magnificent...' Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

'Superb' Frank McLynn, Financial Times

Cover: Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky by G.B. Lampi (attrib.) Suvorov Museum, St. Petersburg

Spine: Catherine II by A. Roslin / Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Cover design: Killian Strong

PRINCE OF PRINCES

'This wonderful history book!'

Jeremy Paxman, Start the Week, Radio Four

'If you want a good racy historical read, Prince of Princes certainly provides it! Book of the Year.' Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph

'Potemkin opened up a whole world ... to me. Book of the Year.'

Alain de Botton, Sunday Telegraph

'Montefiore's enthusiasm and knowledge make this more than just an engaging biography - it's a headlong gallop of a read. Potemkin was a scandalous, promiscuous and fascinating character. Through Montefiore's panoramic study, one clearly sees the split character of Russia itself. Book of the Year.'

Antony Beevor, Mail on Sunday

'Superb ..Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph

'His object in this exhaustive and beautifully written biography is to rescue Potemkin from 200 years of defamation ... a biography as industrious and exuberant as the man himself vividly brings to life his cast of conspirators, aristocratic mistresses, dandies, adventurers and diplomats.' Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

'This magnificent biography beautifully brings out ... the heroic and mesmerising tale of one of history's greatest love affairs whose passion puts Antony and Cleopatra in the second league.'

Petronella Wyatt, Independent

'The best new book I've read this year and indeed for several years. Impeccably researched, beautifully written, it takes us at an unslackening pace through the colourful life of one of the most legendary Russians - war hero, politician, visionary and lover.'

Simon Heffer, Daily Mail

'A superb, passionate but scholarly defence of one of the greatest figures of Russian history. With this lavish biography, Montefiore has announced himself as a historian who deserves to be taken seriously.' Victor Sebestyen, Evening Standard

This bulky, exhilarating book about Catherine the Great's lover, general and right-hand man, Prince Grigory Potemkin, could not be better timed.' Stella Tillyard, Mail on Sunday

'This irresistible biography is history from above. To write this stupendous, engaging tour de force, the first biography of Potemkin in any language since 1891, Montefiore has devoted many hours in the archives of Moscow and Petersburg and covered thousands of miles of the former Russian empire ...'

Philip Mansel, Spectator

This is a superb biography and it is hard to see how it can be superseded. To make archives come alive, one needs psychological acumen and lucid page-turning prose. Montefiore succeeds in all these departments.' Frank McLynn, Financial Times

This splendid biography, as sprawling, magnificent and exotic as its subject, provides for the first time in English a fully researched, accurate and immensely readable history of this extraordinary man.' Nikolai Tolstoy, Literary Review

.. this gripping and richly researched biography ...'

Peter Nasmyth, TLS

'Sebag Montefiore is effortlessly readable and compelling ... this is history as it should be written.' Brian Morton, Sunday Herald

'As a scholar of Imperial Russia, I can say Mr Montefiore offers us a masterful and fair treatment of Potemkin. This is a first-rate biography.' Dr Douglas Smith, Amazon

This book ... written with great verve ... is based on a wealth of sources ... Montefiore's narrative breathes new life into them. Montefiore makes the reader appreciate the genius and forgive the absurdity.' Professor Lindsey Hughes, Rossica Magazine 'This is a wonderful book. Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin is as magnificent as its subject. For two centuries this roaring giant of a man has been either ignored or misinterpreted. Now Simon Sebag Montefiore has written a book that captures the iridescent spirit of Russia's greatest adventurer.'

Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

Simon Sebag Montefiore, who was born in 1965, read history at Gonville &c Caius College, Cambridge. He writes for the Sunday Times, the New York Times, and the Spec­tator, particularly about Russia, and spent much of the Nineties travelling throughout the ex-Soviet empire, especi­ally in the Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The author of two novels he lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their daughter. He is currently researching his next book - Stalin's Inner Circle - in the Moscow Archives.

Also by Simon Sebag Montefiore

King's Parade My Affair with Stalin

PRINCE OF PRINCES

The Life of Potemkin

Simon Sebag Montefiore

w

PHOENIX PRESS

5 upper saint martin's lane london wc2h 9ea

a phoenix press paperback

First published in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2000 This paperback edition published in 2001 by Phoenix Press, a division of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin's Lane, London WC2H9EA

Copyright © 2000 by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The moral right of Simon Sebag Montefiore to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in

any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it may not be resold or otherwise issued except in its original binding.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

isbn 1 84212 438 2

To Santa

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Notes xvii

prologue: Death on the Steppes i

part one: potemkin and catherine 1739-1762

The Provincial Boy 13

The Guardsman and the Grand Duchess: Catherine's Coup 3 2

First Meeting: The Empress's Reckless Suitor 48

part two: closer 1762-1774

Cyclops 65

The War Hero 76

The Happiest Man Alive 94

part three: together i774-i776

Love 109

Power 122

Marriage: Madame Potemkin 136

Heartbreak and Understanding 151

part four: the passionate partnership 1776-1777

Her Favourites 165

His Nieces 185

Duchesses, Diplomats and Charlatans 196

x contents

part five: the colossus 1777-1783

Byzantium 215

The Holy Roman Emperor 223

Three Marriages and a Crown 236

Potemkin's Paradise: The Crimea 244

part six: the co-tsar 1784-1786

Emperor of the South 263

British Blackamoors and Chechen Warriors 285

Anglomania: The Benthams in Russia and the Emperor of Gardens 295

The White Negro 312

A Day in the Life of Grigory Alexandrovich 328

part seven: the apogee 1787-1790

The Magical Theatre 351