The last favorite of Catherine the Great was 38 years younger than her. Horse Guardsman Platon Zubov was a pale shadow of Orlov and Potemkin …
Young man, dance with me
Even great eras do not always end beautifully. Even great women do not always know how to grow old with dignity. Catherine the Great, whose reign is called the "golden age of the Russian Empire", alas, was not one of those who take the autumn of life for granted.
Clinging to the outgoing youth, Mother Empress went the usual way of high-ranking and wealthy ladies of all eras - the older Catherine became, the younger her favorites became.
In 1789, the Russian empress turned 60, which was quite a respectable age for the 18th century. And in the same year, Catherine the Great found her last favorite.
Catherine the Great. Portrait by Vigilius Eriksen
The third son of a retired lieutenant colonel and provincial vice-governor Alexander Zubov, Platon was not endowed with any special talents. Enrolled at the age of 8 in the sergeants of the Semyonovsky regiment, in 1779 he was transferred to the Horse Guards with the rank of sergeant.
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He did not earn any special military merits, and he did not strive for them. The young man grew up in ranks, thanks to parental connections, and dreamed of getting everything at once - big ranks, money and power.
In 1789, the second-captain of the Horse Guards, Platon Zubov, begged the authorities to allow him to command the convoy that accompanied Catherine II during her trip from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo.
The 22-year-old horse guard, endowed with a slender figure and attractive appearance, during the trip desperately tried to attract the attention of Catherine and achieved his goal. He was invited to dinner, where he received a benevolent conversation. After some time, Platon Zubov ended up in the empress's private chambers.
Collapse of the giant
Perhaps this progress would not have been so impetuous if not for the court intrigues. Before that, almost all of the Empress's favorites had been selected and controlled by the omnipotent Potemkin, and Zubov ended up in Catherine's bed without the approval of His Serene Highness. The enemies of Potemkin tried, of whom he had a great many.
Potemkin himself did not take the empress's new lover seriously - he was stupid, devoid of any talents, narcissistic, ignorant, could such a person argue with Prince Tauride for influencing Catherine?
Portrait of Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, Prince of Tauride
Grigory Potemkin reasoned soberly, but did not take into account that the 60-year-old empress was less and less capable of sober reasoning. At the sight of Platon Zubov, she completely lost her head.
The new favorite was showered with favors, he was rapidly growing in ranks: already in October 1789 Zubov was appointed cornet of the Cavalry Corps with the promotion to major general.
For Plato, Catherine spared no awards: only in 1790 he was awarded the Order of St. Anna, the Prussian orders of the Black and Red Eagles and the Polish White Eagle and St. Stanislav, as well as the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.
Immersed in state affairs, Potemkin did not immediately understand how serious everything was. And when I realized, it was already too late - the Empress, who didn’t look forward to the "Plateau", chose to sacrifice friendship and alienate Potemkin from herself, rather than admit that her new lover is a dissolute and stupid person.
The weakness of an aging woman
In the fall of 1791, Potemkin died suddenly. The empress was shocked by the loss of her closest companion, whom, despite everything, she considered indispensable in state affairs.
However, she decided that the "new Potemkin" could be brought up from the "Plateau". Catherine persistently tried to introduce him to public administration affairs, categorically refusing to see that the favorite had neither the knowledge nor the ability to do this.
His political projects were completely out of touch with reality, but Catherine was ready to consider them brilliant. The fact that some of the affairs entrusted to Zubov were still not failed is the merit of the secretaries assigned to him, among whom, for example, was the founder of Odessa, Joseph Deribas. However, Ekaterina considered these successes to be the achievements of “Platosha”.
Platon Zubov
The most daring at court whispered that the Empress had grown stupid in her old age. Together with Plato, the entire Zubov clan also broke through to high government posts: father, brothers and other relatives.
The embezzlement and bribery, thanks to the Zubovs, flourished. The courtiers, realizing that the favorite was firmly entrenched in the Empress's bedchamber, lined up to him, asking for favors.
High-born nobles, military generals, respectable officials - all of them humbly pleaded with Platon Zubov for help in solving various issues. And the favorite, the pitiful shadow of Orlov and Potemkin, reveled in his power, which he so dreamed of.
The poet Derzhavin dedicated odes to Zubov, the future hero of the Patriotic War, Kutuzov, prepared a special coffee for him, and the great Suvorov gave his only, beloved daughter to his favorite brother.
“The old generals and nobles were not ashamed to caress his insignificant lackeys. We often saw how these footmen in jolts dispersed generals and officers, who for a long time crowded around the door and prevented them from being locked. Leaning in armchairs, in the most obscene negligee, thrusting his little finger into his nose, with eyes aimlessly directed at the ceiling, this young man, with a cold and pouty face, barely deigned to pay attention to those around him.
His Serene Prince Platon Zubov
He amused himself with the tomfoolery of his monkey, which was jumping over the heads of vile flatterers, or talked to his jester. And at this time, the elders, under whose command he began to serve as a sergeant - the Dolgorukiy, Golitsyns, Saltykovs and all the others - expected him to lower his gaze in order to humbly cuddle at his feet , - this is how they later wrote about the time of the omnipotence of the last favorite of Catherine Great.
If at that time the Russian Empire did not stagger under the weight of "teeth", it was only because it was reliably built in the best years of Catherine's reign.
Life after Catherine
By the end of the empress's life, Zubov's title had grown to the point of indecency:
"General Feldzheikhmeister, General Director over the fortifications, over the Black Sea Fleet, Voznesensk Light Cavalry and the Black Sea Cossack Army, Commander-in-Chief, Adjutant General of Her Imperial Majesty, Chief of the Cavalry Corps, Yekaterinoslavsky, Voznesensky and Tavrichesky Collegiate General Orphanage honorary philanthropist, the Imperial Academy of Arts honorary lover and orders of the Russian St. Andrew, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Vladimir, Equal to the Apostles, I degree, the royal Prussian Black and Red Eagles, the Polish White Eagle and St. Stanislav and the Grand Duke Holstein St. Anna's cavalier ".
But everything that has a beginning has an end. On November 6, 1796, Catherine the Great died in the Winter Palace.
It was as if her favorite had been replaced - pathetic, frightened, he was expecting punishment from the new emperor Paul I. Pavel at first did not pay attention to Zubov, considering him unworthy of any revenge. Then, however, he still fell into disgrace - his estates were taken away to the treasury, and the former favorite himself was ordered to travel abroad.
His Serene Prince Platon Zubov
The disgrace and grace of Emperor Paul were very changeable. In 1800, Platon Zubov returned to Russia, received back his estates and was appointed director of the First Cadet Corps, renamed Generals of Infantry.
This did not prevent Zubov from becoming one of the active participants in the conspiracy against Paul I. Plato, together with his brothers, directly participated in the assassination of the emperor in the Mikhailovsky Palace on March 11, 1801.
It seems that Platon Zubov himself believed that he was a major statesman. In any case, he in all seriousness hoped to take a high post under Alexander I, composing new projects of state reforms.
However, Alexander I perfectly understood the true value of both Zubov and his ideas. Very soon he found himself on the sidelines of political life.
Possessing a huge fortune and vast possessions, Platon Zubov by the end of his life became an extremely greedy and economical person. It is believed that Alexander Pushkin copied his Covetous Knight from Platon Zubov.
By the age of 50, the young handsome man with whom Catherine once fell in love has turned into a decrepit old man.
In 1821, at the age of 54, he decided to marry the 19-year-old daughter of a poor Vilna gentry, Tekla Ignatievna Valentinovich. The girl's parents did not want to hear about such a marriage, but here the miser suddenly showed generosity, giving a million rubles for the bride.
This marriage was not long - already in April 1822 Platon Zubov died in the castle of Ruenthal, in Courland. His only legitimate daughter was born three weeks after the death of his father and died in infancy.
The young widow, who inherited her husband's fortune, four years later married Count Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov, in a happy marriage with whom she lived for almost half a century, having given birth to four children.
Andrey Sidorchik