Our Notes & References

First edition of this interesting account of the 18th-century Russian royal favourites who shaped the Imperial politics from the reign of Peter the Great to Paul I, based on contemporary and eyewitness testimonies.

The anonymous author, who describes himself as having spent many years in Russia, traces the story of each favourite in chronological order, drawing on what he describes as “oral, written, and printed” sources. From Prince Menshikov and Admiral François Lefort under Peter I to Prince Platon Zubov, the last favourite of Catherine the Great, the list includes figures of varied origins and roles: Anna Kramer, General Prince Grigory Orlov, Field Marshal Prince Grigory Potemkin, Ivan Betskoy (president of the Imperial Academy of Arts), and many lesser-known names alongside them – to reach a total of 110 short biographies.

Each entry combines detailed biographical narrative with close analysis of the subject’s relationship with the sovereign, and observations on their character, appearance, and behaviour.

The work was later attributed to Georg Adolf Wilhelm von Helbig (1757–1813), Saxon diplomat and historian. He served as secretary to the Saxon embassy in Saint Petersburg for eight years from 1787, placing him at court during the final years of Catherine’s reign.

Written in the turbulent times of mid-1808, when Russia was simultaneously at war with Persia, England, Turkey, and Sweden, and Napoleon’s campaigns were shaking Europe, the book was translated into Russian only in 1886, published in the journal Russkaia Starina under the title Russkie Izbranniki, with significant omissions imposed by censorship. The complete Russian text appeared outside Russia, in Berlin and only in 1900.

A short poem by Johann Nikolaus Götz (1721–81) is placed at the beginning, in which he compares the world to an opera stage upon which each person rises according to their inclinations and abilities — an epigraph for the gallery of personalities who follows, rising through luck, charm, and opportunism to achieve extraordinary influence in an era of absolute monarchy. Götz was a German clergyman, epigrammatist, and leading representative of German Anacreontic verse.

Provenance

D.M.P. (gilt lettering to spine foot); Jean Möllinger in Pfeddersheim (stamp to title; Möllinger (1823–1906) was a Hessian landowner and politician); from the estate of Prof. Philip Longworth (1933-2021, historian and writer, esp. on Russian history).

Bibliography

Cat. Russica H-423.