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Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin by Empress Catherine II of Russia, Douglas Smith (Hardcover, 2004)

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ISBN-13: 9780875803241, 978-0875803241. Love and Conquest. In February 1774, the Russian empress took Grigory Potemkin for her lover and, it is now believed, secretly married him a few months later. Love and Conquest contains the most historically significant and personally revealing of these letters, only a few of which have ever before been translated into English.

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Of all the great imperial romances in European history, few can compare with that of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin. Their turbulent and complicated relationship shocked their contemporaries and continues to intrigue observers of Russia centuries later. Lovers, companions, and, most likely, husband and wife, Catherine and Potemkin were also close political partners, and for a time Potemkin served as Catherine's de facto co-ruler of the Russian empire. Their letters offer an intimate glimpse into the lovers' unguarded moments, revealing both ecstatic expressions of love and candid insights on eighteenth-century politics. Beginning with Potemkin's initial letter to Catherine written while off fighting the Turks in 1769 and concluding with his farewell note scribbled the day before his death in 1791, the correspondence spans most of Catherine's reign. The letters are at once personal and political, private and public. Many of Catherine's love letters to Potemkin written during their stormy affair reveal the empress's passionate personality. Potemkin's letters provide rare insight into his arrogant and mercurial character.