Potemkin village

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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)

In politics and economics, a Potemkin village (also Potyomkin village, translated from the Russian: потёмкинские деревни, Russian pronunciation: [pɐˈtʲɵmkʲɪnskʲɪɪ dʲɪˈrʲɛvnʲɪ] potyomkinskiye derevni) is any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II by her former lover Grigory Potemkin during her journey to Crimea in 1787. While some modern historians claim accounts of this portable village are exaggerated, the original story was that Potemkin erected phony portable settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool the Russian Empress; the structures would be disassembled after she passed, and re-assembled farther along her route to be viewed again as if new.[1]

Origin[edit]

Grigory Potemkin was a minister and lover of the Russian Empress Catherine II.[2] After the Russian annexation of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire and liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich (see New Russia), Potemkin became governor of the region. Crimea had been devastated by the war, and the Muslim Tatar inhabitants of Crimea were viewed as a potential fifth column by the Russian Empire; Potemkin's major tasks were to rebuild it and bring in Russian settlers. In 1787, as a new war was about to break out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, Catherine II with her court and several ambassadors made an unprecedented six-month trip to New Russia. One purpose of this trip was to impress Russia's allies prior to the war. Another purpose was to familiarize herself, supposedly directly, with her new possessions.[3] To help accomplish this, Potemkin set up "mobile villages" on the banks of the Dnieper River.[4] As soon as the barge carrying the Empress and ambassadors arrived, Potemkin's men, dressed as peasants, would populate the village. Once the barge left, the village was disassembled, then rebuilt downstream overnight.[2]

Historical accuracy[edit]

Modern historians are divided on the degree of truth behind the Potemkin village story, and some writers argue that the story is an exaggeration. According to Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Potemkin's most comprehensive English-language biographer, the tale of elaborate, fake settlements with glowing fires designed to comfort the monarch and her entourage as they surveyed the barren territory at night, is largely fictional.[5] Aleksandr Panchenko, an established specialist on 19th-century Russia, used original correspondence and memoirs to conclude that the Potemkin villages are a myth. He writes: "Based on the above said we must conclude that the myth of 'Potemkin villages' is exactly a myth, and not an established fact."[6] He writes that "Potyomkin indeed decorated cities and villages, but made no secret that this was a decoration".[7]

The close relationship between Potemkin and the empress would make it difficult for him to deceive her. Thus, the deception would have been mainly directed towards the foreign ambassadors accompanying the imperial party.[8]

Although "Potemkin village" has come to mean, especially in a political context, any hollow or false construct, physical or figurative, meant to hide an undesirable or potentially damaging situation,[9] it is possible that the phrase cannot be applied accurately to its own original historical inspiration. According to some historians, some of the buildings were real and others were constructed to show what the region would look like in the near future and at least Catherine and possibly also her foreign visitors knew which were which. According to these historians, the claims of deception were part of a defamation campaign against Potemkin.[10][11] According to a legend, in 1787, when Catherine passed through Tula on her way back from the trip, the local governor Mikhail Krechetnikov indeed attempted a deception of that kind in order to hide the effects of a bad harvest.[12]

Modern usage[edit]

Examples of Potemkin villages[edit]

  • Western visitors to the Soviet Union were strictly controlled by the secret police,[13] especially during the Soviet famine of 1932–33, e.g. Édouard Herriot said that Soviet Ukraine was "like a garden in full bloom".[14]
  • Following the Manchurian Incident, and China's referral of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria to the League of Nations in 1931, the League's representative was given a tour of the "truly Manchurian" parts of the region. It was meant to prove that the area was not under Japanese domination. Japan withdrew from the League the following year.[15]
  • The Nazi German Theresienstadt concentration camp, called "the Paradise Ghetto" in World War II, was designed as a concentration camp that could be shown to the Red Cross, but was really a Potemkin village: attractive at first, but deceptive and ultimately lethal, with high death rates from malnutrition and contagious diseases. It ultimately served as a way-station to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
  • Henry A. Wallace visited a Soviet penal labor camp in Magadan in 1944 and believed that the prisoners were volunteers.[16]
  • In 1998, the energy services company Enron built and maintained a fake trading floor on the 6th story of its downtown Houston headquarters. The trading floor was used to impress Wall Street analysts attending Enron's annual shareholders meeting and even included rehearsals conducted by Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.[17]
  • According to journalist and author Rory Carroll, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had routes in Caracas that would be visited by foreign dignitaries fixed up, with workers placing new paint on the streets and painting rocks and other fragments that were inside of potholes.[18]
  • In 2010, 22 vacant houses in a blighted part of Cleveland, Ohio, USA, were disguised with fake doors and windows painted on the plywood panels used to close them up, so the houses looked occupied.[19] A similar program has been undertaken in Chicago[20] and in Cincinnati.[21]
  • In preparation for hosting the July 2013 G8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, large photographs were put up in the windows of closed shops in the town so as to give the appearance of thriving businesses for visitors driving past them.[22]
  • In 2013 before Vladimir Putin's visit to Suzdal some old and half-ruined houses in the city center were covered with large posters with doors and windows printed on them.[23]

In the United States legal system[edit]

"Potemkin village" is a phrase that has been used by American judges, especially members of a multiple-judge panel who dissent from the majority's opinion on a particular matter, to refer to an inaccurate or tortured interpretation and/or application of a particular legal doctrine to the specific facts at issue. Use of the phrase is meant to imply that the reasons espoused by the panel's majority in support of its decision are not based on accurate or sound law, and their restrictive application is merely a masquerade for the court's desire to avoid a difficult decision.[24][25]

In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey (1992), chief justice of the US, William Rehnquist, wrote that Roe v. Wade "stands as a sort of judicial Potemkin Village, which may be pointed out to passers-by as a monument to the importance of adhering to precedent".[26]

Other uses[edit]

Further information: Facade
Construction or not, motorists and pedestrians in Bothell, Washington, can see a forest-like view

Sometimes, instead of the full phrase, just "Potemkin" is used, as an adjective. For example, the use of a row of trees to screen a clearcut area from highway drivers has been called a "Potemkin forest".[27] For example, the glossary entry for "clearcut" in We Have The Right To Exist: A Translation of Aboriginal Indigenous Thought states that "Much of the extensive clearcut in Northern Minnesota is insulated from scrutiny by the urbanized public by a Potemkin forest, or, as the D.N.R. terms it, an aesthetic strip--a thin illusion of forest about six trees deep, along most highways and fronting waters frequented by tourists."[28] Or for example in the phrase "Potemkin court", which implies that the court's reason to exist is being called into question; differing from the phrase "kangaroo court" with which the court's standard of justice is being impugned.[29]

Many of the newly constructed base areas at ski resorts are referred to as Potemkin villages.[30][31] These create the illusion of a quaint mountain town, but are actually carefully planned theme shopping centers, hotels and restaurants designed for maximum revenue. Similarly, in The Geography of Nowhere, American writer James Howard Kunstler refers to contemporary suburban shopping centers as "Potemkin village shopping plazas".[32]

Hardcore punk band Propagandhi released an album in 2005 called Potemkin City Limits. The cover depicts kids playing in a city which is drawn on the ground, a façade city.[33] Their 2009 album Supporting Caste has a song called "Potemkin City Limits", about the statue of Francis the pig, in Alberta, Canada.[34][35][36]

The United States' President Donald Trump's business councils have been described as Potemkin Villages after several high-profile CEO participants resigned in August 2017.[37] Trump's The Art of the Deal describes a stunt in which he lured Holiday Inn executives into investing in an Atlantic City casino by directing his construction manager to rent dozens of pieces of heavy equipment, in advance of a visit by the executives, to move dirt around on the proposed casino site, creating the illusion that construction was underway.[38]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Of Russian origin: Potemkinskie derevni". Russiapedia. Retrieved 31 May 2017. 
  2. ^ a b Norman Davies (30 September 2010). Europe: A History. Random House. pp. 658–. ISBN 978-1-4070-9179-2. 
  3. ^ Griffiths, David (2003). "Catherine II Discovers the Crimea". JSTOR 41052102. 
  4. ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (2010-08-06). "Top 10 Weird Government Secrets". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2017-09-01. 
  5. ^ "The Straight Dope: Did "Potemkin villages" really exist?". 
  6. ^ Aleksandr Panchenko, "Potyomkin villages as a cultural myth", (rus) in Panchenko, O russkoi istorii i kul´ture (Saint-Petersburg, Azbuka, 2000), 416. "В связи с вышесказанным должно сделать заключение, что миф о «потемкинских деревнях» – именно миф, а не достоверно установленный факт."
  7. ^ Aleksandr Panchenko, "Potemkinskie derevni' kak kul´turnyi mif", in Panchenko, O russkoi istorii i kul´ture (Saint-Petersburg, Azbuka, 2000), 416. "Потемкин действительно декорировал города и селения, но никогда не скрывал, что это декорации."
  8. ^ Davies, Norman. Europe: A history, London, Pimlico, 1997, p. 658.
  9. ^ Joseph A. Maxwell (8 June 2012). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach. SAGE Publications. pp. 139–. ISBN 1-4522-8583-7. 
  10. ^ "The Straight Dope: Did "Potemkin villages" really exist?". Retrieved 5 June 2016. 
  11. ^ Kulke, Ulli (28 February 2011). "Katharina die Grosse: An Fürst Potemkin war alles echt. Auch die Dörfer" – via www.welt.de. 
  12. ^ "Русский литературный анекдот XVIII-XIX вв". fershal.narod.ru. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2011. 
  13. ^ David-Fox, Michael (12 January 2012). "Showcasing the Great Experiment: Cultural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921-1941". Oxford University Press, USA. Retrieved 5 June 2016 – via Google Books. 
  14. ^ Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, Stéphane Courtois, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-674-07608-7, pages 159-160
  15. ^ Haruo Tohmatsu and H. P. Wilmott. A Gathering Darkness: The Coming of War to the Far East and the Pacific, 1921–1942. Lanham, Maryland, USA, SR Books, 2004. Pp 38–39.
  16. ^ Абаринов, Владимир. "Как руководство ГУЛАГа обмануло вице-президента США". Retrieved 5 June 2016 – via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. 
  17. ^ Tran, Mark (21 February 2002). "Enron 'sting' used fake command centre". Retrieved 5 June 2016. 
  18. ^ Carroll, Rory (5 March 2013). "In the End, an Awful Manager". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2015. 
  19. ^ Livingston, Sandra (25 August 2010). "Program uses decorative boards to try to blend vacant homes into Cleveland neighborhoods". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland, Ohio, USA: Advance Publications. Retrieved 23 November 2010. 
  20. ^ Boyer, Mark (17 November 2010). "Painting Fake Windows on Vacant, Boarded-Up Buildings". Curbed Chicago. Chicago. 
  21. ^ "Future Blooms". Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2012. 
  22. ^ Crossan, Andrea. ": Northern Ireland Town Fakes Prosperity for G8 Summit". Retrieved 31 May 2013. 
  23. ^ "Нарисуй для Путина". Retrieved 5 June 2016. 
  24. ^ Sinclair, Timothy J. (2004). Global Governance: Critical Concepts in Political Science, Volumen 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 56. ISBN 9780415276627. 
  25. ^ Dmitriev, Oleg. "Of Russian origin: Potemkinskie derevni". RT Russia. 
  26. ^ Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 966 (29 June 1992) (“Roe v. Wade stands as a sort of judicial Potemkin Village, which may be pointed out to passers-by as a monument to the importance of adhering to precedent. But behind the façade, an entirely new method of analysis, without any roots in constitutional law, is imported to decide the constitutionality of state laws regulating abortion.”).
  27. ^ "THE POTEMKIN PRESIDENCY". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2017-09-01. 
  28. ^ Wub-e-ke-niew. "We Have The Right To Exist: A Translation of Aboriginal Indigenous Thought". Maquah.net. Retrieved 15 November 2016. 
  29. ^ Shahabuddeen, Mohamed (2012-11-01). International Criminal Justice at the Yugoslav Tribunal: A Judge's Recollection. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780191649851. 
  30. ^ Title Downhill Slide: Why the Corporate Ski Industry is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment; A Sierra Club Books Publication Series Author Hal Clifford; Publisher Sierra Club Books, 2002; ISBN 9781578050710, pp. 106-110
  31. ^ "Colorado Ski Areas – SKI BUM". Retrieved 22 March 2017. 
  32. ^ Kunstler, James Howard (1993). The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York, Touchstone.
  33. ^ "Discography - Propagandhi". Retrieved 5 June 2016. 
  34. ^ "Supporting Caste - Propagandhi". Retrieved 5 June 2016. 
  35. ^ Inc, Slacker. "AOL Radio Stations". Retrieved 5 June 2016. 
  36. ^ For further information on Francis, see i.e. "Alberta's greatest animal stories". Canada.com. CanWest MediaWorks Publications. 5 October 2008. Archived from the original on 30 March 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015. 
  37. ^ Hiltzik, Michael (2017-08-15). "Pressure points? Here are the companies whose CEOs are still kissing up to Trump". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-08-15. 
  38. ^ "A quote from 'The Art of the Deal' perfectly explains Trump's presidency". 

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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