Potemkin was also a great man in military affairs. In contrast to Peter Sh and Pavel G, who made it difficult for the soldiers with unusual uniforms and hairstyles, Potemkin tried in every possible way to make it easier for the soldiers, to simplify their military uniform. “The beauty of military clothing lies in the equality5 and the correspondence of things with their use,” he wrote, starting these renovations.
Mom: “The dress should be clothing for the soldier, and not a burden, all foppishness should be destroyed, for it is the fruit of luxury, it requires a lot of time and dependents and servants, which a soldier cannot have. Curling, powdering, braiding hair—is it a soldier’s saddle?” they don't have valets. Why farts? Everyone must agree that it is healthier to wash and comb your hair than to burden it with powder, lard, flour, hairpins, and braids. A soldier's toilet should be such that when he gets up, he's ready. If only it were possible to count how many sticks were issued to the regiments, and how many brave souls went from this to the next world! And is it forgivable that the guardian of the fatherland is depressed by the whims that come from helipads, and often from the reckless." Contemporaries highly valued these reasonable transformations of Potemkin; "Russian soldiers," they said, "will never forget this." But this is not enough. He also cared about reducing cruel punishments, setting up soldiers' artels and multiplying infirmaries. But the soldiers were offended by him because he usually said “you” to everyone and blamed him for disbanding the troops.
Potemkin was also a well-read, enlightened person. From a young age, he himself read books avidly, he was especially interested in theological issues, he studied the history of church councils, the division of churches, and schism. He read Plutarch, was fascinated by the odes of Pindarai, and ordered them to be translated for him; his libraries contained up to 2 thousand books. Segur, going with the empress to the Crimea, was glad that meet Potemkin there and read to him “several Greek tragedies and Anacreontic odes” from Catherine’s library (she brought a whole library with her). He was not ignorant of the arts either: he appreciated painting, sculpture, architecture, especially “the lightness and simplicity of the 1onic style,” and “without studying music, he was a great connoisseur of it”; he monitored the new works of musicians, and sent new items from the pen of Sarti, Grimm, with his notes; gr. Razumovsk from Vienna was going to send him Mozart for his service. It was not for nothing that poets called him a philanthropist, and Derzhavin himself wrote about him in his ode “Waterfall”:
“Weren’t you the confidant near the throne of the Great Minerva,
To the temple of Muses, a friend of Apollo, To the floor of Mars, he was known as a leader; The maker of thoughts in war and peace, the Mighty - although not in purple."
Ekaterina had the highest opinion of Potemkin. Aries said about him: “Oh, what a head this man has!” And this good head is as funny as the devil.” She seemed to particularly like this combination. The German Emperor judged this head differently; Gosie P, having met Potemkin personally (in St. Petersburg), wrote about him: "he is an adviser to the empress, but an incompetent adviser. He has little information; besides, he is lazy, and even the empress herself treats him as her student... - You
CATHERINE'
You can imagine that the people to whom she says this are not frank enough to directly object to her: since, madam, he is your student, he does not bring you honor." Segur analyzed Potemkin in detail: "Never before, either at court or in the civil or military fields, has there been a courtier more magnificent and wild, a minister more enterprising and If he were a hardworking, more courageous and rather timid commander, he represented the most unique personality, because in him there was incomprehensibly greatness and pettiness, laziness and laziness, courage and timidity, ambition and carelessness. strangeness. But behind the background of Russia and without the special circumstances that brought him favor with Catherine II, he not only could not have achieved such enormous fame and reached such a high rank, but he would hardly have risen to any significant rank... Ambitious to the point of dreaminess, he imagined himself either as the Duke of Courland, or as the King of Poland, or as he planned to found a spiritual order, or just to become a monk. What he had, he needed; what he could not achieve, excited his desire. Insatiable and satiated, he was completely a favorite of happiness, and as mobile, fickle and whimsical as happiness itself.” “The darling of happiness,” Potemkin himself called himself.