Platon Zubov
Encyclopedia
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
(Reichsfürst) Platon Alexandrovich Zubov was the last of Catherine the Great's favourites and the most powerful man in Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
during the last years of her reign.
Platon was a member of the Zubov
Zubov
Zubov was a Russian noble family which rose to the highest offices of state in the 1790s, when Platon Zubov succeeded Count Orlov and Prince Potemkin as the favourite of Catherine II of Russia....
family and had several siblings, including Nicholas
Nikolay Zubov
Count Nikolay Alexandrovich Zubov was the eldest of the Zubov brothers who, together with Count Pahlen, masterminded the conspiracy to assassinate Tsar Paul of Russia....
, Valerian
Valerian Zubov
Count Valerian Aleksandrovich Zubov was a Russian general who led the Persian Expedition of 1796. His siblings included Platon Zubov and Olga Zherebtsova....
, and Olga Zherebtsova
Olga Zherebtsova
Olga Alexandrovna Zherebzova, née Zubova, also known as Madame Gerebtzoff , was the sister of the celebrated Zubov brothers, Prince Platon and Counts Nicholas and Valerian....
. It was through his distant relative, Nicholas Saltykov, that he met the Empress. Saltykov presented the young and handsome officer to the court on the understanding that he would help Saltykov in his feud with Catherine's long-standing favourite, Prince Potemkin.
In August of 1789, Catherine wrote to Potemkin that she returned to life after a long winter slumber "as a fly does". "Now I am well and gay again," she added, telling about her new friend, "a dark, little one". "Our baby," as she called him, "weeps when denied the entry into my room," Catherine informed Potemkin in the next letter. As young minions succeeded each other monthly in Catherine's heart, Potemkin didn't attach much importance to her new liaison. Catherine was over 60, Zubov was just 22. The old courtier couldn't believe that their connection would last for an extended period of time.
Zubov, however, contrived to establish a strong hold of Catherine's affections and character. In 7 years, he was made a Count and then a Reichsfurst, or Prince of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, becoming the fourth (and last) Russian to receive the title. Upon Potemkin's death, he succeeded him as the Governor-General of New Russia. As Fyodor Rostopchin
Fyodor Rostopchin
Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin was a Russian statesman, who served as governor of Moscow during French invasion of Russia.Rostopchin was born in Orel, son of Vasily Fyodorovich Rostopchin, Lord of Livna and ... Krakova...
reported to Semyon Vorontsov on August 20, 1795, "Count Zubov is everything here. There is no other will but his. His power is greater than that of Potemkin. He is as reckless and incapable as before, although the Empress keeps repeating that he is the greatest genius the history of Russia has known".
During his years in power, Zubov amassed an enormous fortune. The Empress conferred on him tens of thousands of serfs, while simultaneously the courtiers rivalled each other in lavishing the most extravagant presents on him. In the last year of Catherine's reign even most trivial matters came to be decided on Zubov's advice. Crowds of petitioners thronged in his bedroom every morning, trying desperately to attract the attention of his pet monkey if not himself. The old generals prepared coffee for him. Zubov's secretaries enriched themselves on bribes from petitioners. They were all singularly incompetent in affairs of state, but at least one of them, the Spaniard Jose de Ribas
José de Ribas
José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons known in Russia as Osip Mikhailovich Deribas was a Russian admiral of Spanish-Irish origin who founded the city of Odessa...
, is still remembered - as the founder of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
.
Denis Fonvizin
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright of the Russian Enlightenment, whose plays are still staged today. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.-Life:...
, and yet he is thought to have instigated the persecution of Radischev
Alexander Radishchev
Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev was a Russian author and social critic who was arrested and exiled under Catherine the Great. He brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence with the publication in 1790 of his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow...
and Novikov
Nikolay Novikov
Nikolay Ivanovich Novikov was a Russian writer and philanthropist most representative of his country's Enlightenment. Frequently considered to be the first Russian journalist, he aimed at advancing the cultural and educational level of the Russian public....
. To the heir apparent, Tsarevich Paul, he paid no respect whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, Catherine's death all but brought him to the verge of madness. For ten days, he concealed himself in the house of his sister Olga. On the 11th day, he was visited by Emperor Paul who drank to his health and wished him "as many years of prosperity as there are drops in this beaker". Nevertheless, he was stripped of his estates, relieved of all his posts and was strongly advised to go abroad.
During Paul's reign, Zubov travelled in Europe, where he was shown as a curiosity. In Teplitz he fell in love with the Countess de la Roche-Aimont, then proposed to the Princess of Courland
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is the name of a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1569 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and from 1569...
but was refused. Following one obscure duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
, in which he ignominiously refused to take part and which resulted in his aide's killing Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
's cousin, Chevalier de Saxe, Zubov withdrew to his Rastrelli
Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an Italian architect naturalized Russian. He developed an easily recognizable style of Late Baroque, both sumptuous and majestic...
esque Rundale Palace
Rundale Palace
Rundāle Palace is one of the two major baroque palaces built in the 18th century for the Dukes of Courland in what is now Latvia, the other being Jelgava Palace. It is situated at Pilsrundāle, 12 km west of Bauska. It was constructed in the 1730s to a design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli as a summer...
in Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
, formerly the seat of the Biron
Biron
-Places:France* Biron, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime département* Biron, Dordogne, in the Dordogne département* Biron, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques départementUnited States* Biron, Wisconsin...
ducal dynasty. He ended his days living in total seclusion and exploiting his serfs mercilessly. His young widow, Thekla Walentinowicz, a local landowner's daughter, remarried Count Shuvalov, thus bringing the vast Zubov estates into the Shuvalov
Shuvalov
Shuvalov is a Russian noble family which, although documented since the 16th century, rose to distinction during the reign of Empress Elizabeth and was elevated to counts on 5 September 1746.-Members of Shuvalov noble family:The notable Shuvalovs include:...
family.