Catherine Visits A Palace in the Crimea

Then Catherine and Joseph, plus the whole entourage, went to the old khan's palace at Bakhchisarai in the Crimea. It was a fabulous place and they lingered there for 3 or 5 days, enjoying the art work and fountains, sleeping in bedroomsthat had housed the khans' harems.. Catherine had sent an architect a year ahead to be sure it was ready for her, and he had had the good sense just to clean it up not redesign it. In what today's observer might see as a bit of play-acting, she sat on the throne from which the khan had ruled the area.

While they were in the Crimea, Catherine and Joseph again rode alone in a carriage and took side trips to get a good look at the open, now-empty steppe. The troupe lived for a time in tents pitched on the steppe, so it wasn't just a quick drive-through.

On the Way Home

Then they went home, all overland. At Poltava, the tour group was enchanted when 50,000 soldiers appeared and reenacted a victory of Peter the Great over the Swedes. The accounts tell of more stopping for balls and fireworks and other entertainments, but by this time, everyone must have been pretty tired and weary of all that. Joseph II left at Kharkov and returned home to Poland.

Little grandsons Alexander and Constantine met Catherine at Moscow, and she greeted them with hugs of delight as any doting grandmother would. Having been gone for six months, Catherine, the quintessential working woman, returned in July to St Petersburg to heaps of backlog and nonstop crises.

Was the Trip Worth It?

The journey's value is debated. One biographer, in a book carried by many libraries, dismisses it with a single sentence, which is why many who have read a biography of Catherine have never heard about the trip. Some biographers think it was important in that it made the world focus on Russia's position as a power to be reckoned with. It warned the Turks, strengthened Russia's alliance with Austria, and affirmed Russia's ownership of some very valuable real estate.

The trip cost as much as ten million rubles, the labors of thousands, and even some lives. Persons who learn of the trip, today shake their heads in wonder that Potemkin pulled it off in the style he did. He was able to commandeer the labors of thousands of serfs who did all the heavy lifting and the aristocracy who were obliged to make their homes and other resources available. It may be that the money and effort would have been better spent improving the quality of Russia's army and navy in the south. Some biographers even surmise that the trip and all that display was the most fantastic love gift ever given by a man to a woman, by Prince Potemkin to Catherine.

Sources

Alexander, John T. Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. NY, Oxford University Press. 1989.