The sex life of Catherine II of Russia, known to history as Catherine the Great, was a source of endless fascination for her contemporaries. As ruler of the Russian colossus, Catherine was one of the most powerful people of late-eighteenth century Europe and, in a world dominated by men, Catherine’s personal life was seen as both politically consequential and socially titillating. Indeed, the passage of just over two centuries since her death has done little to diminish our sordid appetite for tidbits regarding her most intimate affairs.

Despite contemporary beliefs to the contrary, in most cases Catherine’s relationships with various men, known in courtly parlance as “favorites”, carried little political significance. Over the 44 years of her reign, the number of her documented lovers did not exceed 12 and only one of those men ever achieved any real and lasting political power. While the dashing Gregory Orlov was instrumental in the coup that brought her to power, and the handsome Plato Zubov (almost 40 years her junior) was crucial to her emotional health in the final years of her reign, it was the mercurial personality and prodigious talents of Gregory Potemkin that won her heart most passionately.

Tall, handsome, brown-haired and strong, Potemkin was the son of a minor noble family known for loyal service to the Crown. A military officer in the Horse Guards during the coup that brought Catherine to power in 1762, he was not able to rise to the position of royal favorite until 1774. From then, until his death in 1791, Potemkin was the most powerful man in Russia and one of the greatest statesmen in the history of Imperial Russia.

Stressed by the demands of absolute power, Catherine appreciated Potemkin’s gifts as an adviser, lover and friend and fed off his well-articulated devotion to her. A great volume of their personal correspondence has survived and it paints the picture of a relationship that was tempestuous, but deeply affectionate. Money, palaces, titles, honors and offices were all his for the taking as he assumed a very active role in the policy of her realm. (Some historians even speculate that the couple was secretly married.) Though their physical relationship ended perhaps two years or so into the affair, Potemkin, alone among her favorites, maintained all of his positions until his

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death. Even when his attention as a lover was no longer needed, his skill for statecraft proved irreplaceable. When Catherine heard of Potemkin’s death she was tear-stricken for days. More than any of the men in her life, Potemkin was the intellectual and emotional equal of Catherine in a way that none could ever replicate. Her greatest confidant and collaborator was gone and she would never again find his equal.

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