The Prince of Princes : The Life of Potemkin

by Sebag Montefiore

Release Date: 07 November, 2001

Edition: Hardcover

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Wisdom derived from a flawed work

Yes, this biography is flawed. And anyone who abjures imperfect work should avoid this book. But if you care to learn how one man and one woman's passion enlightened and modernized the Russian empire, you should read this book and accept it for what it is--an insightful psychobiography rather than history.

Montefiore documents the frenetic and flawed love between Catherine, Tzarina of the Russian Empire and Potemkin. He shows how their love bound and locked their souls together in a dance played out through letters that left each no less desperate, but somehow more complete. Catherine tutored the younger Potemkin, mentored his fine mind, and then recognized her protege-lover first as her equal and then as unparalleled founder of the empire that she could adeptly run, but never of her own device create.

Also, Montefiore shows how Potemkin looms as freethinker over the feudal landscape of 18th century Russia. Not through courage or moral principle did he embrace new ideas and pariahs but rather through audaciousness. Potemkin thirsted for new experiences. He craved proximity to ancient truths, and to their exponents--whether they be Rabbis, Mullahs, ArchBishops or defrocked Priests. And his actions transformed that landscape as he built cities, ships, whole provinces seemingly with nothing but the power of his own will.

I am left with a question for the author. What role did self-preservation, and obsession to protect Catherine play in Potemkin's unbounded efforts to extend the Russian empire southward? Did his actions protect his sovereign from intrique and possible deposition? Was he driven by vision or necessity?

Partisan Biography Runs Aground

Unlike physics, writing biography or history is often an exercise in opinion. It gains credibility by being informed of the historical record, but affairs are frequently so complex, and knowledge so incomplete, that opinion may prevail by default. Unfortunately, opinion can also prevail in the presence of substantial fact, and this seems to be the case with Sebag Montefiore's "Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin." This prodigious work with over a hundred pages of references and notes, many citing sources never before seen, makes a contribution by bringing these to light. On the other hand, it shares with its useless 1938 predecessor, George Soloveytchik's "Potemkin: A Picture of Catherine's Russia", an overwhelming hero worship of its subject. This leads to an intolerant opinion and dismissal of material not supporting the author's love. Thus, unfavorable material on Potemkin is out of hand labeled, and often with some emotion, "untrustworthy," "prejudiced," "venomous," containing "weasel words," etc.

Sadly, Montefiore's efforts are compromised by incomplete and out-of-context quotations of Prince de Ligne that self-servingly change the meaning to the opposite of its original intent. For example, the author writes on page 382, "Ligne knew 'very well what legerdemain tricks are', but the achievements were real." However, the quotation he cites continues, "...for example, the empress, who cannot rush about on foot as we do, is made to believe that certain towns for which she has given money are finished; whereas they are often towns without streets, streets without houses, houses without roofs, doors, or windows." One hopes that this was a mere oversight, but the reader is helpless to tell and is inevitably left wondering about the reliability of other citations.

There is also confusion of the Lake Ladoga/Upper Volga cruise of 1785 with the celebrated 1787 inspection trip south. The author has the English Ambassador Fitzherbert composing on the Volga trip some tricky verse when in fact the incident took place two years later on the Dnieper River, and Count de Segur was the impromptu poet.

There are many sweeping statements presented as undisputed fact such as the French and Indian War "...set off the events that would lead to the Seven Years War..." (p. 35), the Russian army brought the Prussian army to the "very edge of destruction" during the Seven Years War (p. 40), the Black Sea fleet was well- made (p. 370) and then refutes himself in footnote 33 on page 589, etc. Most historians would take issue with every one of these statements and with dozens more as well.

The author seems to be confused about the issue behind the "Potemkin Villages" story. The Potemkin Village controversy was not over the achievements in the Crimea and lower Ukraine seen during the land portion of Catherine's 1787 journey (though these too were questioned) but over what was seen earlier during the Dnieper River float. It was the "villages" seen from the river that were alleged to be "fake," (though once again questions were raised about achievements elsewhere as well,) and contrary to advertising claims on the book's dust jacket, the work is completely unpersuasive in laying the Potemkin Village matter to rest.

The book also frequently seems to loose focus with numerous biographical asides of secondary characters, some quit lengthy.

There are just too many issues with this book from weak editing to questionable facts, injudicious hero worship, outright errors of fact, an almost Russia partisanship and defensiveness, a peculiar view of history, etc., to make it acceptable. Alas, a trustworthy biography of Gregory Potemkin remains yet to be written.