Idiom "Potemkin village" has firmly entered into the everyday life, as a symbolic interpretation of fraud, ostentatious, sell.The phrase has been around for nearly 250 years, since the days of the historic trip of Empress Catherine II to the Crimea.The journey took place in 1787, after the war with the Ottoman Empire, the results of which were joined to the Russian territory north of Tauris, under the name New Russia.
Favorite Catherine Grigory Potemkin Tauride, which the Empress was in a relationship and, according to historians, even entered into a marriage with him, he decided to strike the beloved spectacle unprecedented in scope.All along the route the royal motorcade were lined up in a variety of miniature huts, farmhouses and all kinds of presence, churches, cathedrals and chapels.On the sidelines of the work of hundreds of peasants in the meadows grazing flocks of cattle, ran down the village street children.But all this was frankly fake character, the houses were painted, cows were distilled from one place to another during the night the Empress and her retinue.On the route of the motorcade Empress arose another "Potemkin village".
Peasant families also moved under cover of darkness to a new location.Catherine II was struck by the wealth of the land and a huge number of rural folk who constantly bowed to her throughout the journey.Similar shifts have occurred in Russia in the past, each governor tried to hide the extent possible flaws in their ancestral lands, to embellish reality, where a high fence close unsightly houses, where to build a new road in front of the arrival of the authorities.And since the higher officials came quite often, "Potemkin villages" emerged, here and there.
However, such a large-scale performance, which gave Prince Grigory Potemkin, was quite unique and scope and on the funds invested in the event.All were paid from the state treasury, and cost "Potemkin villages" more than one million of public money.The most expensive gift to the Empress was fireworks with fireworks at Sevastopol raid where Catherine II saw the Black Sea Fleet in all its beauty, but also in most of the ships were painted.Nevertheless, the picture of well-being all the way to the king's motorcade from Kiev and Sevastopol to a worthy end of a formal dinner in the gallery of the palace in Inkerman with views of Sevastopol Bay.
Ship cannon fired, fireworks one after another flew into the night sky, the festival was in full swing.The next day the Empress toured the city of Sevastopol.New streets and neighborhoods showed her from a distance, the facades of the buildings were hung with canvases painted with architecture, "Potemkin villages" have become part of Sevastopol.Catherine was surprised to see "... three years ago there was nothing, and now I see a beautiful city, a great fleet, harbor, marina.We must pay tribute to Prince Potemkin for his constant concern for the state and foresight in the affairs ... ".A distinguished Frenchman, Count Segur, who accompanied the Empress in her Crimean journey, wrote: "The mind boggles as Prince Potemkin in such a short time managed to build a city, to build ships, to build a fortress and to gather so many people in the public service."
