Grigory Potemkin
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Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski was a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman, and favourite of Catherine the Great. He died during negotiations over the Treaty of Iași, which
1847 portrait, copy of an earlier work by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder
Potemkin uniforms, in service from 1786 until 1796. Russian infantry and jägers. (in German)
A probably later portrait of a 35-year-old Potemkin at the height of his love affair with Catherine
The Empress Catherine (45) at around the same time
Potemkin village
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A Potemkin village is a construction, literal or figurative, that provides a façade to a situation, to make people believe that the situation is better than it actually is.
Grigory Potemkin
…and Yekaterinoslav. Ports in the region became bases for his new Black Sea Fleet. His rule in the south is associated with the (probably mythical) "Potemkin village", a ruse involving the construction of painted façades to mimic real villages, full of happy, well-fed people, for visiting officials to see. Potemkin…
Because of a newly painted façade, the whole building looks as if it has been reconstructed, although the rest is still in decay (castle brewery in Kolín, Czech Republic).
The North Korean Peace Village, located inside the Demilitarized Zone, appears empty despite its advertised population of two hundred families.
False front commercial buildings in Greenhorn, Oregon, 1913