What are 'Potemkin villages' which were purportedly erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Potemkin to impress Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787?
"the barge left, the village was disassembled, then rebuilt downstream overnight. Modern historians are divided on the degree of truth behind the Potemkin village story, and some writers argue that the story is an exaggeration. According to Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Potemkin's most comprehensive English-language biographer, the tale of elaborate, fake settlements with glowing fires designed to comfort the monarch and her entourage as they surveyed the barren territory at night, is largely fictional. Aleksandr Panchenko, an established specialist on 19th-century Russia, used original correspondence and memoirs to conclude that the Potemkin villages are a myth. He writes: ""Based on the above"
"Potemkin village In politics and economics, a Potemkin village (also Potyomkin village, translated from the , ""potyomkinskiye derevni"") is any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II by her former lover Grigory Potemkin during her journey to Crimea in 1787. While modern historians claim accounts of this portable village are exaggerated, the original story was that Potemkin erected phony portable settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order"
"of heavy equipment, in advance of a visit by the executives, to move dirt around on the proposed casino site, creating the illusion that construction was underway. Potemkin village In politics and economics, a Potemkin village (also Potyomkin village, translated from the , ""potyomkinskiye derevni"") is any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II by her former lover Grigory Potemkin during her journey to Crimea in 1787. While modern historians"
"bringing in Russian settlers. In 1787, as a new war was about to break out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, Catherine II with her court and several ambassadors made an unprecedented six-month trip to New Russia. One purpose of this trip was to impress Russia's allies prior to the war. Another purpose was to familiarize herself, supposedly directly, with her new possessions. To help accomplish this, Potemkin set up ""mobile villages"" on the banks of the Dnieper River. As soon as the barge carrying the Empress and ambassadors arrived, Potemkin's men, dressed as peasants, would populate the village. Once"
"Austrian emperor Joseph II, travelling incognito. The trip was arranged by Gregory Potemkin, a favorite and lover of Catherine II. The trip happened when the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92) was just about to erupt. Since these times the expression ""Potemkin village"" came into being, referring to the legend about fake villages hastily erected by Potemkin along the Catherine's route, in order to impress the Empress. Crimean journey of Catherine the Great The Crimean journey of Catherine the Great (, also known as Таврический вояж (Taurida Voyage) at the time) was a six-month (January 2, 1787 — July 11, 1787) inspection trip"
"to impress the Russian Empress; the structures would be disassembled after she passed, and re-assembled farther along her route to be viewed again as if another example. Grigory Potemkin was a minister and lover of the Russian Empress Catherine II. After the Russian annexation of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire and liquidation of the Cossack Zaporozhian Sich (see New Russia), Potemkin became governor of the region. Crimea had been devastated by the war, and the Muslim Tatar inhabitants of Crimea were viewed as a potential fifth column of the Ottoman Empire; Potemkin's major tasks were to pacify and rebuild by"
"""dezinformatsiya"" in Russian, in order to put forth the ruse that it was actually a technique used by the Western world. Pacepa recounts reading Soviet instruction manuals while working as an intelligence officer, that characterized disinformation as a strategy utilized by the Russian government that had early origins in Russian history. Pacepa recalls that the Soviet manuals said origins of disinformation stemmed from phony towns constructed by Grigory Potyomkin in Crimea to impress Catherine the Great during her 1783 journey to the region—subsequently referred to as Potemkin villages. The authors describe disinformation and posit that it played a role in"
"it is possible that the phrase cannot be applied accurately to its own original historical inspiration. According to some historians, some of the buildings were real and others were constructed to show what the region would look like in the near future and at least Catherine and possibly also her foreign visitors knew which were which. According to these historians, the claims of deception were part of a defamation campaign against Potemkin. According to a legend, in 1787, when Catherine passed through Tula on her way back from the trip, the local governor Mikhail Krechetnikov indeed attempted a deception of"
"Catherine obtained for him the title of ""Prince of the Holy Roman Empire"" and gave him the title of ""Prince of the Russian Empire"" among many others: he was both a Grand Admiral and the head of all of Russia's land and irregular forces. Potemkin's achievements include the peaceful annexation of the Crimea (1783) and the successful second Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). In 1774, Potemkin became the governor-general of Russia's new southern provinces. An absolute ruler, he worked to colonize the wild steppes, controversially dealing firmly with the Cossacks who lived there. He founded the towns of Kherson, Nikolayev, Sevastopol, and"
"Empire in 1783, they formed the clear majority of Crimean population. The colonization ""New Russia"" (the Novorossiysk Governorate, of which the later Taurida Governorate formed a part) at the end of the 18th century was led by Prince Grigori Potemkin who was granted the powers of an absolute ruler over the area by Catherine the Great. The lands were generously given to the Russian ""dvoryanstvo"" (nobility), and the enserfed peasantry mostly from Ukraine and fewer from Russia were transferred to cultivate what was a sparsely populated steppe. Catherine the Great also invited European settlers to these newly conquered lands: Germans,"
"at this time, including a 'Countess' and a Naryshkina. Leaving in April, the royal party arrived in Kherson a month later. On visiting Sevastopol, Austria's Joseph II, who was traveling with them, was moved to note that ""The Empress is totally ecstatic... Prince Potemkin is at the moment all-powerful"". The notion of the Potemkin village (coined in German by critical biographer Georg von Helbig as """") arose from Catherine's visit to the south. Critics accused Potemkin of using painted façades to fool Catherine into thinking that the area was far richer than it was. Thousands of peasants were alleged to"
"December 1787, Prince Potemkin, Catherine the Great's favourite and minister, founded a regiment of Jewish Cossacks for the purpose of liberating Jerusalem—the culmination of his philo-Semitism. The first partition of Poland in 1772 brought large numbers of Jews into the Russian empire. Catherine granted Potemkin a huge estate, named Krichev, in the newly acquired lands. Potemkin thus came into contact with Jews for the first time. Potemkin was embarking on the task of populating the empty southern steppes around the Black Sea with settlers, and he immediately tried to attract Jews from both Poland and the Mediterranean to his new"
"Ekaterinoslav. Ports in the region became bases for his new Black Sea Fleet. His rule in the south is associated with the ""Potemkin village"", a ruse involving the construction of painted façades to mimic real villages, full of happy, well-fed people, for visiting officials to see. Potemkin was known for his love of women, gambling and material wealth. He oversaw the construction of many historically significant buildings, including the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg. A distant relative of the Moscovite diplomat Pyotr Potemkin (1617–1700), Grigory was born in the village of Chizhovo near Smolensk into a family of middle-income noble"
"of thousands of settlers who moved into his territories. It is estimated that by 1782 the populations of Novorossiya and Azov had doubled during a period of ""exceptionally rapid"" development. Immigrants included Russians, foreigners, British convicts diverted from Australia, Cossacks and controversially Jews. Though the immigrants were not always happy in their new surroundings, on at least one occasion Potemkin intervened directly to ensure families received the cattle to which they were entitled. Outside of Novorossiya he drew up the , constructing forts at Georgievsk, Stavropol and elsewhere and ensured that the whole of the line was settled. In 1784"
"Potemkin's plans for the city were extremely ambitious. It was to be about in size, and included Transfiguration Cathedral (the claim that it was intended as the largest in the world probably results from confusing Potemkin's reference to San Paulo-fuori-le-mura in Rome with St Peter's Basilica.); The Potemkin palace; university (never built); botanical garden on Monastyrskyi Island and wide straight avenues through the city. The cathedral's foundation stone was laid by Empress Catherine II and Austrian Emperor Joseph II, during Catherine's Crimean journey on , which was heralded as the official date of founding the city. Nevertheless, the cathedral as"
"""The glory of Catherine""), now Dnipro. The second most successful city of Potemkin's rule was Nikolayev (now better known as Mykolaiv), which he founded in 1789. Potemkin also initiated the redesign of Odessa after its capture from the Turks; it was to turn out to be the greatest. Potemkin's Black Sea Fleet was a massive undertaking for its time. By 1787, the British ambassador reported twenty-seven battleships. It put Russia on a naval footing with Spain, though far behind the British Navy. The period represented the peak of Russia's naval power relative to other European states. Potemkin also rewarded hundreds"
"and often took part in rebellions which were constantly breaking out in Ukraine. Another problem for the imperial Russian government was the Cossacks' resistance to colonization of lands the government considered theirs. In 1775, after numerous attacks on Serbian colonisers, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great had Grigory Potemkin destroy the Zaporozhian Host. The operation was carried out by General Pyotr Tekeli. The Zaporozhians scattered; some (five thousand men or 30% of the host) fled to the Ottoman-controlled Danube area. Others joined the Imperial Russian Husar and Dragoon regiments, while most turned to local farming and trade. A decade later,"
"Crimean status referendum, 2014, which was soon followed by the Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia. Main specializations of the port are: A settlement was formed at the Sevastopol port in June 1783 as a base for a naval squadron under the name Akhtiar (""White Cliff""), by Rear Admiral Thomas MacKenzie (Foma Fomich Makenzi), a native Scot in Russian service; soon after Russia annexed the Crimean Khanate. Five years earlier, Alexander Suvorov ordered that earthworks be erected along the harbor and Russian troops be placed there. In February 1784, Catherine the Great ordered Grigory Potemkin to"
"said we must conclude that the myth of 'Potemkin villages' is exactly a myth, and not an established fact."" He writes that ""Potyomkin indeed decorated existing cities and villages, but made no secret that this was a decoration"". The close relationship between Potemkin and the empress would make it difficult for him to deceive her. Thus, the deception would have been mainly directed towards the foreign ambassadors accompanying the imperial party. Although ""Potemkin village"" has come to mean, especially in a political context, any hollow or false construct, physical or figurative, meant to hide an undesirable or potentially damaging situation,"
"have been stage-managed for this purpose. Certainly, Potemkin had arranged for Catherine to see the best he had to offer (organising numerous exotic excursions) and at least two cities' officials did conceal poverty by building false houses. It seems unlikely, however, that the fraud approached the scale alleged. The Prince of Ligne, a member of the Austrian delegation, who had explored on his own during the trip, later proclaimed the allegations to be false. Potemkin remained in the south, gradually sinking into depression. His inactivity was problematic, given that he was now Russia's commander-in-chief and, in August 1787, another Russo-Turkish"
"One of these was Georg von Trappe, who visited the Mennonites of Danzig in 1786. The Mennonite congregations elected to send Hoeppner and Johann Bartsch, who von Trappe arranged to send to Russia at government expense. They departed in the fall of 1786, sailing first to Riga, then travelling cross country, arriving at the Dnieper in late November. From here they sailed down the river looking for a suitable site. They met Potemkin at Kremenchuk and were presented to Catherine in May, as she was inspecting her new territories. They found a suitable settlement location, then returned home by way"
"Prince Grigory Potemkin to restore Şahin to power. No significant opposition was fielded against the invading Russians, and many rebels fled back across the Kerch Strait. As such, the Khan was restored to his position in October 1782. By this time, however, he had lost the favour of both Crimeans and Empress Catherine. In a letter to a Russian advisor to Şahin, Catherine wrote ""He must stop this shocking and cruel treatment and not give them [Crimeans] just cause for a new revolt"". As Russian troops entered the peninsula, work on the establishment of a Black Sea port for use"
"Russian help. Exhausted, Potemkin collapsed into a fever he barely survived. Catherine rewarded him with one hundred thousand roubles, which he used to construct the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg. Potemkin returned to St. Petersburg in November 1783 and was promoted to Field Marshal when the Crimea was formally annexed the following February. He also became President of the College of War. The province of Taurida (the Crimea) was added to the state of Novorossiya (lit. ""New Russia"".) Potemkin moved south in mid-March, as the ""Prince of Taurida"". He had been the ""namestnik"" of Russia's southern provinces (including Novorossiya, Azov,"
"on the orders of Catherine the Great. The city was built under the supervision of General Ivan Gannibal on the site of a small fortress called Aleksanderschanz. The name Kherson is a contraction of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea. One of the first buildings in the Kherson Fort was the Church of St. Catherine where Potemkin was eventually buried. The last tarpan was caught near Kherson in 1866. During the Ukrainian revolution of 2014 the city was the scene of riots against president Yanukovich during which the main Lenin"
"virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favour, and his family moved into the palace. He later became the de facto absolute ruler of New Russia, governing its colonisation. In 1780, the son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Joseph II, toyed with the idea of determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and travelling with him to Saint Petersburg. Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to increase the number of scientists. Potemkin fell very ill in"
"Romanians at 75%, followed by Serbs at 12% and 13% others. After the annexation of the Ottoman territories to Novorossiya in 1774, the Russian authorities commenced an aggressive program of colonization, encouraging large migrations from a broader spectrum of ethnic groups. Catherine the Great invited European settlers to these newly conquered lands: Romanians (from Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania), Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Albanians, Germans, Poles, Italians, and others. In 1775, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great forcefully liquidated the Zaporizhian Sich and annexed its territory to Novorossiya, thus eliminating the independent rule of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Prince Grigori Potemkin (1739–1791) directed"
"originally designed was never to be built. The site for the Potemkin palace was bought from retired Cossack yesaul (colonel) Lazar' Globa, who owned much of the land near the city. Part of Lazar' Globa's gardens still exist and are now called Globa Park. A combination of yet another Russo-Turkish war that broke out later in 1787, bureaucratic procrastination, defective workmanship, and theft resulted in what was built being less than originally planned. Construction stopped after the death of Potemkin and his sponsor, Empress Catherine, who was succeeded by her son Paul I known for his open antipathy to his"
"reminds him that he can still betray him. 1786 year. During the first training voyage, Ushakov theoretically studies his ideas in the field of tactics of sea battles, while surprising officers by putting his forces into losing conditions - guided by the principle ""you want victory - believe that the enemy is three times stronger, four times"". 1787 year. Catherine II travels to the Crimea. Potemkin is working on a scenario of events on this matter. Ushakov tells him that he can only boast of the increased training of personnel. Potemkin, despite external outrage, decides to surprise the empress and"
"by the Empire began. The city of Akitar was chosen as the site of the port, which would go on to house the newly created Black Sea Fleet. Uncertainty about the sustainability of the restoration of Şahin Giray, however, led to an increase of support for annexing Crimea, spearheaded by Prince Potemkin. In March 1783, Prince Potemkin made a rhetorical push to encourage Empress Catherine to annex Crimea. Having just returned from Crimea, he told her that many Crimeans would ""happily"" submit to Russian rule. Encouraged by this news, Empress Catherine issued a formal proclamation of annexation on . Tatars"
"congregations elected two delegates, Jakob Höppner and Johann Bartsch, who von Trappe arranged to send to Russia at government expense. They departed in the fall of 1786, sailing first to Riga, then traveling cross country, arriving at the Dnieper in late November. From here they sailed down the river looking for a suitable site. They met Potemkin at Kremenchuk and were presented to Catherine in May, as she was inspecting her new territories. They found a suitable settlement location, then returned home by way of Saint Petersburg, where they met with Crown Prince Paul, who confirmed the promises made by"
"Lanskoy died and Potemkin was needed at court to console the grieving Catherine. After Alexander Yermolov was installed as the new favorite in 1785, Catherine, Yermolov and Potemkin cruised the upper Volga. When Yermolov attempted to unseat Potemkin (and attracted support from Potemkin's critics), he found himself replaced by Count Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov in the summer of 1786. Potemkin returned to the south, having arranged that Catherine would visit in the summer of 1787. She reached Kiev in late January, to travel down the Dnieper after the ice had melted (see Crimean journey of Catherine the Great). Potemkin had other lovers"
"purchasing land from the local Tartars for the site of his new palace at Alupka from 1823; however, the acquisition had been part of a deal which necessitated Vorontsov to build a new mosque. Part of the site had already been planted with fine trees in 1787 for Prince Potemkin by the English landscape gardener William Gould as part of Potemkin's ""improvements"" to the area in perpetration of a visitation by Catherine the Great following Potemkin's bloodless annexation of the Crimea to Russia. On acquiring ownership of the site, Vorontsov immediately employed the German gardener Karl Kebach to further improve"
"east to Alekseyevskoye village. A 1677 marriage between Tcherkassky and Odoyevsky families brought in a valuable asset - architect Pavel Potekhin, a slave of Odoyevsky family, who designed and built extant Trinity church (1678–1683, 1691–1692). In the first half of 18th century Ostankino was gradually converted from a permanent country manor to a temporary retreat with hunt, house theater and other entertainment of the period; empress Elizabeth of Russia herself paid a visit to Ostankino in 1742. Next year, through a marriage between princess Varvara, the sole heir of Tcherkassky fortunes, and Peter Sheremetev, son of field marshal Sheremetev, Ostankino"