by his biographers that the elder Platov knew how to read and write, advantages which he took pains to secure for his son, young Matvei Ivanovitch. But in the warlike times of Catherine's reign school days were necessarily brief in all Cossack stanitzi on the Don. At the age of thirteen we find the future hetman serving as a private in the ranks of the Tcherkask regiment.
Like all true Cossacks Platov welcomed the end of the long peace which was marked by the outbreak of the first Turkish war. Great, therefore, was his disappointment when the elder Platov was summoned (on account of his knowledge of the frontier conditions) to the general staff in Petrograd, so that in his absence his son became charged with the direction of the family's modest affairs. It was in disobedience, therefore, of his father's orders that in 1770 Platov joined his old comrades-in-arms in the Crimea, where they were then serving under the command of the Russian General Dolgorouki. His stay at the main front was, however, not a prolonged one, for we next hear of him stationed among the frontier garrisons of Cossack troops on the shores of the Kouban. With them he engaged in a brisk little campaign against the warlike mountaineers of the Caucasus, a never failing accompaniment of Russia's wars against the Sultan.
During the years 1775-1777 Platov served with the Russian troops engaged in hunting down the rebellious Cossacks of the Jaik, who under their unworthy leader, Pougatchev, were defending their right to follow out their own rehgious customs and beliefs. After the capture and execution of the "False Tsar Peter," Platov continued to serve in the border garrison along the Kouban, earning distinction and experience in campaigns against the courageous Tcherkess, Lesghians and the other mountain tribesmen of these romantic regions.
The outbreak of Catherine's second war against the Turks was welcomed by Platov as offering an opportunity for more rapid promotion. At the famous siege of Otchakov he found himself promoted to be a colonel of Cossacks, and in 1789 (when his regiment captured the famous Turkish general Gazan Pasha) Potemkin consented to lend him his powerful support, the surest road to further promotion. To please her favourite the empress appointed Platov "Hetman of all the Cossacks of the Don," and to this title was shortly added that of Governor of the pro\dnce of Ekaterinoslav.
A few months after this event the young hetman's reputation for personal bravery and liis continued warlike success caused Catherine to express a wish to meet the "most famous Cossack of her armies." This high compliment, which was conveyed to Platov through his protector, Potemkin, involved a long and tedious journey to Petrograd. At court he was received with favours which might well have turned the course of his career, or even engaged him in a dangerous rivalry with his patron the favourite.
The great Catherine, although by no means in her first youth, had never ceased to show her interest in gallant — and especially in handsome — soldiers. For those who bravely served her she considered no reward too exalted. So pleased was the Empress with the young Cossack's martial yet modest bearing that she even accorded him the honour of personally conducting him through the marvels of the imperial apartments. For nearly a week the Winter Palace hummed with the news of his good fortune. Ambassadors of Great Powers began to concern themselves with a possible change in the imperial "policy" of the day. But age had not made Catherine more constant. Soon tiring of the simple and soldierly manners of her new favourite, an intimation that she would no longer detain him from his military duties ended his brief career as a courtier. We can well imagine with what rehef young Platov quitted the stifling atmosphere of the Winter Palace, heavy with scent and intrigue, to breathe once more the pure breezes of the Don steppes.
Yet this interlude in Platov's military career does not seem to have caused him to lose the favour of the powerful Potemkin. In their cynical enjoyment of power, the group of "ministers" surrounding the Empress had little time for jealousy. Under Zoubov, another favourite promoted by Catherine to be "Hetman of all the Cossack Annies," he fought through the Persian campaign of 1795 and was present at the fall of Baku and Elizabethpol. The cross of the Order of Saint Vladimir and a sword bearing the legend in diamonds "In recognition of Braverj%" was the reward of Platov's services at court and in the field.