45. Raise of Novorossia #3. Potemkin at large
“The peasant is always going to get rich next year.”
“What are the main obstacles to agriculture? There are four of them: spring, summer, autumn and winter.”
old sayings
“When Potemkin came into power, he remembered one of his village friends and wrote him the following poem:
Dear friend,
If you have time,
Come to me:
If it's not like that,
.........
Lie in .....
A dear friend hurried to come for an affectionate invitation.”
Pushkin, “Table Talk”
"It is now impossible to destroy the bureaucracy, because the same bureaucrats will have to destroy it. But even after destroying the old bureaucracy, they will immediately give rise to a new, even more voracious, more hardy and tenacious..."
Potemkin
"Sometimes he [Potemkin] displayed the genius of the eagle, sometimes the frivolity of a child"
Count de Ségure.
“The Empress is in admiration for such an increment of Russian forces. Prince Potemkin is currently omnipotent, and you can't imagine how everyone takes nice to him.”
Emperor Joseph II
"I owe everything to Prince Potemkin. I hope no one will call him lazy now."
Catherine II
“In addition to fools and roads, there is another trouble in Russia: fools indicating which way to go.”
Boris Krutier
Catherine was extremely pleased with how Potemkin handled the Sich problem: the refuge of the dangerous elements was liquidated without a shot being fired and disloyal part of its population fled to the Ottoman Empire sparing a need of dealing with them while the loyal segment went on the government’s service on the conditions defined by the
government, giving up their old privileges. With a huge territory of the former Sich is now open to colonization and communications between the old imperial territory and “Novorossia” became secure.
Now the decisions had to be made about two main questions:
- With whom to populate the new lands?
- What to do on these lands?
Answer to the first question will, cynically speaking, define who is going to be the dominating power in the region, the state or the noble landowners. As was already demonstrated by the old gubernias, the landowners with their legitimized assemblies, could do a lot to push their wishes through and/or to sabotage the government’s decisions which they did not like. Of course, the sabotage would be camouflaged with the assurances of a never-dying loyalty and admiration but the things would not move and what are you supposed to do? Sending troops against the Noble Assembly? Not funny. The governor could
talk to the nobility’s elected representatives trying to convince them but that was it. And, powerful as they were, the top gubernia’s administrators would not like to be socially ostracized by a noble society part of which they and their families were. The best solution of the problem was to minimize it at the very beginning. The easiest way to do so was to organize resettlement of the state peasants from the inner gubernias. At least formally, this was a voluntary program but with some temporary taxation benefits attached. Another big group were personally free peasants from Malorossia. Due to the fact that its integration into the imperial framework only started, their social status was not quite clear beyond the fact that they had a legal right for migration. Upon the arrival to Novorossia they had two options: settle on the allocated land as a state peasant or to go to a land granted to a noble landowner in which case it was up to two sides to negotiate their legal status. As a result, in 1776 out of 108, 684 male “souls” 81,381 or 74.88% of the population were state peasants.
The second question was economic orientation of these lands and so far Catherine still was sticking to the same mantra she had at the time of her Codification Commission: the most important thing is to have more peasants working on the fields producing more exportable
agricultural products. She was not approving the “obrok” practice by which peasant could work somewhere or even, a complete horror, create his own business, on condition of paying the owner agreed upon amounts of money. On the top of all of the above she did not like the “machines” in manufacturing and, while encouraging creation of various manufactures, held a firm opinion that the fewer of these evil contraptions are being used, the better.
However, at least as far as “obrok” issue was involved, a growing percentage of the landowners did not share her views because “obrok” provided them with the ready and reasonably stable cash flow while traditional “barschina” was giving only agricultural products which they had to sell at the fluctuating prices.
Anyway,
as initially intended, Novorossia would have to become a big breadbasket with some showcase cities which Potemkin would have to build from the scratch. The agricultural part was not too easy because the newcomers had to adjust to the conditions seriously different from those they had been accustomed to. Here is some statistics:
In 1778, 115,209 quarters [1] were sown in the region and 796 quarters of different bread were harvested; in 1779, 148,200 were sown, 365 were harvested; in 1780, 125,187 were sown, 236,816 were harvested; in 1781, 195,215 were sown, 241,45 were harvested and in 1782, 146,804 were sown, 677,187 quarters harvested.
The showcase part was definitely Potemkin’s strong point and he got a lot of applause for it.
Kherson - some of the contemporary impressions:
I.I.Henmitzer (popular poet of that time):
“You can't imagine that so much could be done at the space of three years. Imagine a perfect steppe, where no twig, not to mention a home, could be found. Now it's a fortress, and a fortress is important, such as what of the best we've seen in the Netherlands. The structures in it is mostly made of hewn stone.”
K.G. Razumovsky (former Hetman):
”On the terrible desert of the steppe, where in recent times barely scattered huts were found, along the Kherson way, starting from Kremenchug itself, I found big villages in versts 20, 25 and further, mostly near abundant waters. What belongs to Kherson, imagine multitude of the stone buildings, which numbers are growing every hour, a fortress that closes the citadel and the best buildings, the Admiralty with ships under construction and already built, a vast suburb inhabited by merchants and various burghers. On the one hand, the barracks to accommodate 10,000 soldiers, on the other hand, in front of the suburbs a pleasant island with quarantine structures, with Greek merchant ships and with canals carried out for the benefit of these ships. I still can't get out of bewilderment about that imminent return to the place where only a winterer [2] was found so recently. This city will soon flourish with wealth and commerce, as you can see from the enviable beginning of it...”
It was definitely impressive to see a reasonably big city built practically out of nothing within a short period of time. Of course, none of these travelers had a crystal ball and none of them was a specialist in any applicable area to make a judgement based upon anything but the emptions. The fortress was a huge waste of money because it proved to be useless. Mentioning of a bare steppe was correct, but it meant that there was no adequate fuel nearby, and the town did not become either a shipbuilding center (transportation of the materials there was too costly and Dnieper too shallow for building the big ships) or a major port (too far upriver). Huge money were wasted on the things which eventually had to be transferred elsewhere. However, it became a capital of the Kherson gubernia.
Ekaterinoslav - had an ambitious destiny to become Russia’s “third capital”.
On April 23, 1776, the Azov governor submitted a report to Potemkin, where he reported: "
In pursuance of the command of your lordship, I [send] a project to build the provincial city of Ekaterinoslav on the river Kilchene, near its confluence with the Samara River, with the attached plan, profiles, facades and estimates... I believe that the construction of the provincial city, as estimates can be, one hundred thirty-seven thousand one hundred and forty rubles thirty-two kopecks and a half..." [3] February 2, 1777 G. A. Potemkin issued a warrant in the name of V. A. Chertkov, where he pointed out that the plan of the provincial city was approved by him and sent to the construction site. The city was to occupy the entire coast of Samara and its small tributaries. The fortress was supposed to be built at the mouth of the Kilchene, where the territory was the most protected; the same document stated: "...
continue construction of these buildings, trying to ensure that no unnecessary costs would be followed in excess of the assigned amount." The first buildings were the governor's house, the provincial government, military barracks, wooden and adobe houses. In 1778, the Holy Spirit Church was consecrated. At the same time, the city fortress began to be built. On July 20, 1778, the Government Senate issued a decree on the transfer of the management bodies of the Azov province to Ekaterinoslav.
Potemkin, planned to build the city with buildings in the Greek and Roman style, to establish a university, a conservatory, and a theater, and of course chambers for the sovereign. It was also planned to develop the industry - cloth and silk factories. But, after the first surge of an enthusiasm, Catherine decided that even for the huge Russian Empire two capitals are more than enough and funding dwindled. However the city was already functional. In 1781, there were more than 200 houses in the provincial city and there were "
270 merchants, 874 burghers and shopkeepers; 1,050 people of different ranks, a total of 2,194 souls." In 1782, doctor Schengofel arrived from St. Petersburg to Ekaterinoslav, who in his reports called this area "
harmful to human health, inconvenient and disastrous for the well-being of residents". Also, navigation in Samara turned out to be very difficult, and the waterway was then the most profitable for supplying various goods and food.
On January 22, 1784, Empress Catherine II issued a decree on the transfer of Ekaterinoslav to the right bank of the Dnieper River. Big part of the population left and the process lasted all the way to 1794. Of course, Potemkin took the task with a great enthusiasm producing even more ambitious plan for the new city. “
A court like ancient basilicas, a semicircle shop like Propylaea or the eve of Athens with a stock exchange and a theater in the middle. The chambers of the sovereign, where to live and the governor, in the taste of Greek and Roman buildings, having a magnificent and slot canopy in the middle... Cloth and silk factories. The university in combination with the Academy of Music or the Conservatory." Ekaterinoslav was to occupy an area of 20 versts in length, 15 versts in width, total 300 square versts. It was assumed that the main streets of the city would be 60-80 meters wide. The plan was prepared by a famous French architect and looked great on a paper but was missing some trifles. For example, there were no traditional market, cathedral, hay and other squares. The project also did not take into account the anhydricity of the mountain chosen for the construction of the central part of Ekaterinoslav. Water supply was supposed to be used with wells, water lifting mechanisms, pools and fountains. The next project, prepared by the Russian architect, was making city even bigger and a water supply uphill was organized by a series of the underground canals feeding a pool 30 meters deep (in which quite a few citizens fell while walking during the night). To make that logistical nightmare possible, 12 regiments had been deployed on the city construction. But the system did not work well, anyway. However, in 1780 the city became an official center of Novorossia.
By 1796 a cloth factory was already operating in the city, 11 stone houses were erected, among which the jewel of the city was Potemkin's palace, 185 wooden houses, the population was 6 thousand people. The city kept growing in a natural pace adding the candle, leather, bricks and soap factories and eventually a brewery.
Sevastopol.
Unlike two major projects listed above, this one was not screwed up and fully grew up to the expectations. Well, strictly speaking, it did not because the initial idea was to make it both a naval base and a commercial port. Both Catherine and Potemkin just loved the great ideas but of what use the place could be as a major commercial port if it was on a far end of a nowhere? Even before Catherine got it, Potemkin opted for the practical part of the task. “
To Sevastopol for the fleet it is necessary to transfer from Kherson 50 thousand poods of wood; I believe this transportation will be carried out by ordinary carts. Residents of Oleshkin will deliver the mentioned timber to Perekop, and from there to Sevastopol to make transportation on the local carts, which make an outfit and dispose of it in such a way that one does not have an excessive burden in front of the others. I ordered to pay 20 kopecks per pood, which will have to be divided by calculating the payment by distance.”
He also ordered colonel Korsakov to make a detailed study of the Crimean coast and present recommendations regarding its defenses. Regarding Sevastopol Korsakov wrote: “
In Sevastopol, the place under the fortress is the most advantageous, which your lordship yourself appointed during your time. It is touched by the very course in the harbor, battery or blockhouse on the opposite side of the strait is closer to it and you can defend the Kherson harbor, which you have determined for merchant ships. This place can be protected from bombing and inside it can be placed the docks for the retipped ships, as well as all the main stores, water in it, although through a remote distance, but it is possible to bring, and on top of that, I do not lose hope not to obtain it within city walls through the wells. Where there is old Chersonesos, there may be a merchant district, both for the convenience of unloading goods and supply in fresh water.
In Balaklava, in order to protect the harbor, there is an need to build a battery of eight cannons.”
All this well qualified Sevastopol as the main fortress on the peninsula. The price tag of the planned construction, which included the fortress, Admiralty, naval stores, sea wall, and three outlying forts was 4,628,474 rubles and 37.25 kopecks. [4] The whole construction was expected to take 9 years and, rather not typical for the Russian grand projects, its “zero stage” consisted of building housings for the workers (soldiers commandeered for the job) and the brick-making facilities.
However, in a quite ”traditional“ style Potemkin had been busying himself not just with the main projects but also with the countless minor issues which in a better organized administrative apparatus should not even reach him: fishing permissions, monetary requests of the low-ranking officers and non-coms, minor supply contracts, etc. Of course, bureaucracy was an evil but why the top-ranking state official had personally handle the issues which could be resolved by a low level bureaucrat? Small wonder that the paper trail of the expenses tended to be below any imaginable standards and the things had been made worse by the fact that his secretary tended to act as something of an “independent entity” leaving even fewer financial documents.
His tastes in food were rather simple. Sauerkraut was #1 but here are
Scrambled eggs "A la Potemkin". To make this dish, you will need: 3 eggs, 2 slices of bread, 1/2 cup of milk, cheese, ham and greens to taste.
Cooking process: Shake the broken eggs with milk, add salt, add chopped bread to the mixture, pour into a frying pan with heated butter. Add finely chopped ham and cheese. Stir. Fry until cooked, decorate with greens.
Bon apetit! 😉
________
[1] quarter («четверть») is approximately 80 kg (as much as I could make it out of the weird system of the definitions).
[2] «зимовник» - place where the nomadic people were staying for a winter with their herds.
[3] A standard rule for making financing estimates believable is to never use the rounded numbers.
[4] see [3] 😂