Potemkin's fake villages most likely never existed.
The story of painted façades along the Dnieper was spread by the Saxon diplomat Helbig, who was not on Catherine's 1787 journey himself.
The events
- Catherine's Crimean journey and the 'Potemkin villages'1787 · New Russia and Crimea. In 1787 Catherine II spent six months touring New Russia and Crimea with foreign envoys. The tale of fake villages Potemkin supposedly moved along her route came from the Saxon diplomat Helbig, who was not on the trip. Historians call it a myth: Potemkin decorated real towns, openly.
- Russian annexation of Crimea (1783)1783 · Crimea. On 19 April 1783 Catherine II's manifesto annexed the Crimean Khanate after the abdication of Khan Şahin Giray. Sevastopol, base of the Black Sea Fleet, was founded the same year.
More amazing facts
- 1787 · 1788 British Australia exists partly because of American independence.
- 1789 The navy's most famous mutiny broke out on a ship carrying plants.
- 1789 Captain Bligh, set adrift by mutineers, sailed 6,700 km in an open boat.
- 1789 · 1792 Dr Guillotin did not invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty.
- 1789 When the Bastille was stormed on 14 July 1789 it held just seven prisoners: four forgers, two lunatics and one aristocrat.
- 1789 George Washington's false teeth were not wooden.