Catherine the Great by Alexander John T.;

Author:Alexander, John T.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 1989-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

Of course, theirs was much more than a love match. She initiated him into virtually the whole spectrum of statecraft—and found a willing pupil, industrious viceroy, and a fellow dreamer of glorious dreams. The Empress valued Potemkin’s political abilities so highly, and trusted him so thoroughly, that she allowed him greater freedom of action and wider access to resources than anybody else in the Empire. Recognizing his restless ambition and gradually tiring of his temperamental outbursts and bilious sulks, Catherine may have endeavored to avoid a repetition of her relationship with Orlov by gently encouraging Potemkin’s involvement in myriad projects that took him away from St. Petersburg for long periods. Their romance could continue by courier, to some degree. As she remarked in the middle of one businesslike note: “Although I do not like it when you are not by my side, my dear Lord, I must confess that your four-week sojourn in Kherson has ultimately included significant utility in itself, as you yourself mention.”12

It is not certain what caused the crisis or crises that resulted in the lovers’ loosening their bond. Perhaps the intensity of their passion simply wore them out. According to Catherine, however, “the essence of our disagreement is always the question of power and never that of love.”13 Power in what sense and how manifested? Did Catherine apprehend that Potemkin was trying to manipulate her with his moodiness? Did she think he was trying to dictate policy like a Turkish pasha to her, a cultured German princess become the all-powerful Russian empress? Or did she suspect that he was in love with her power above herself? So long as Paul lived she could not make her ties with Potemkin any more official than they already were. She could not make Potemkin co-sovereign in any event; for the essence of absolute sovereignty was rule by a single person, and the most serious threats to the principle of absolutism in eighteenth-century Russia had come during periods of female rule. To be sure, she could (and did) share some of the burdens of absolute rule with favorites and subordinates. But she could not share any of the final responsibility. If the burdens of awesome power made her need constant love and attention more than ever, then her failure to find these in sufficient measure in Potemkin led to a wider, more insistent search. Power she had. Love she powerfully desired. The dilemma was to find a man who could love her without cramping her power.

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