Zubov's rise is always described as a political disaster for Potemkin, but its significance has been exaggerated by hindsight. The Prince's first interest was for Catherine to find a favourite to leave him to run the Empire and to make her happy. He was not sorry to see the end of Mamonov, originally his choice, because he had become disrespectful to Catherine. When he was in Petersburg in February, it was rumoured he was pushing his own candidate46 - and one source suggests it was Zubov's younger brother Valerian, which would mean that, whoever their friends were, the Zubovs were not regarded as inherently hostile. Indeed Potemkin liked the brave and able Valerian and promoted him wherever possible.47 Damas, who was with Potemkin, did not notice any particular antipathy towards the Zubovs.48 Potemkin and Zubov now began the usual correspondence - young favourite paying court to older consort. Every favourite dreamed of supplanting the Prince. The danger was now greater because of Catherine's age. But Potemkin's prestige and power increased throughout the war. So Zubov was politically inconvenient - but no more than a pinprick.
Serenissimus granted his approval slowly: 'My dear Matushka, how can I not sincerely love the man who makes you happy? You may be sure I will have a frank friendship with him because of his attachment to you.' But he had more exciting news: victory.49
The Ottoman corps of 30,000 suddenly jabbed towards Fokshany in Moldavia, where 12,000 Austrians guarded Potemkin's right flank. Coburg, the stodgy Austrian commander, was in no doubt of his own limitations and called for Russian help. Potemkin had specifically ordered Suvorov to prevent any concentration of the Turks or attempt to divide the allied forces. As soon as Suvorov received Coburg's message, he informed Potemkin and force- marched his 5,000 Russians to intervene so aggressively that the Turkish commander presumed they must be the vanguard of an army. On 20/21 July 1789 at the Battle of Fokshany, Suvorov's tiny but disciplined corps, assisted by the Austrians, routed the Turks, killing over 1,500 while losing only a few hundred men. The Turks fled towards Bucharest.50
The Grand Vizier's huge army was on the move again. Suvorov hurried back to his post. Potemkin crossed the Dniester on 12 August and turned southwards to set up his headquarters at Dubossary. All eyes were on the Grand Vizier: Potemkin kept his army between Dubossary and Kishnev, and rushed over to Ochakov and Kherson to prepare them for the planned Turkish attack from the sea.
At his Headquarters at Dubossary, Serenissimus lived sumptuously in a residence 'as splendid as the Vizier's'. William Gould, the emperor of landscapes, created an instant English garden on the spot.51 Sard's orchestra played all day. Many generals have travelled with mistresses and servants, but only Potemkin went to war with an army of gardeners and violinists. It seemed as if he planned to spend the rest of his life there.52
The Vizier correctly identified the 'hinge' between the allied armies as Potemkin's weakest point, so he launched two thrusts. The old Crocodile, Ghazi Hassan, sortied out of Ismail with a corps of 30,000, and lunged across the Pruth to draw Potemkin's main army. But Potemkin kept his army in place and despatched Repnin to parry the thrust and if possible take mighty Ismaiclass="underline" he pursued the now land-lubbing Algerian sailor and his corps all the
way back to the fortress. Once there, Repnin wasted time and did nothing.
On i September, Potemkin gave specific orders to Suvorov about the Vizier's army. 'If the enemy appears anywhere in your direction, attack him, having asked for God's mercy, and don't let him concentrate.'53 Just after getting Potemkin's orders on 4 September, Suvorov received a second call for help from Coburg. The Grand Vizier was approaching Fokshany, bearing down on Coburg's 18,000 with an army of 90,000. Suvorov replied to Coburg: 'Coming. Suvorov'.54 He just had time to send off a courier to the Prince before he embarked his 7,000 men on a Spartan forced-march of 100 versts, across flooded rivers, which he covered in two and a half days.
Potemkin fretted that he would not make it in time.55 On the same day that he ordered Suvorov to be ready, he devised a complex amphibious operation to attack a vital Ottoman fortified port called Hadjibey, the future Odessa. The land forces advanced from Ochakov supported by a flotilla made up of Zaporogian chaiki and other oar-propelled gunboats, commanded by that talented Neapolitan adventurer Jose de Ribas, whose rear was covered by the ships-of-the-line of the Black Sea Fleet. Potemkin himself led his army forward towards Kaushany in case Repnin or Suvorov required his assistance. These sophisticated manoeuvres belie Potemkin's unjust reputation as a military incompetent.56
Suvorov found Coburg cowed before the Grand Vizier's encampment on the River Rymnik. The Turks outnumbered the allies four to one. On 8 September, Potemkin ordered Suvorov to 'assist Prince Coburg in attacking the enemy but not in defence'. On 11 September, the allies attacked. The Turks fought with their old fanaticism, throwing wave after wave of Janissaries and Spahis against Suvorov's squares. They just held for two hours. Then the allied troops advanced, shouting 'Catherine' and 'Joseph'. Potemkin's new light forces - his Jaegers, mobile sharpshooters, and cavalry, Carabiniers and Cossacks - proved themselves as adept and swift as Ottoman forces. The Turks were annihilated, 15,000 died on the 'cruel battlefield'.57 The Grand Vizier, as Potemkin boasted to his erstwhile friend Ligne, 'fled like a boy'.58
The elated Serenissimus lavished praise on Suvorov: 'I embrace and kiss you sincerely, my dear friend, your indefatigable zeal makes me wish I could have you everywhere!' Suvorov embraced him back: 'I'm kissing your precious letter and remain in deepest respect, Serenissimus, Merciful Lord!' Their exultation was based on mutual respect: the strategy was Potemkin's; the tactics belonged to Suvorov's genius. Potemkin followed up Suvorov's triumph on land and sea. He took Kaushany on 13 September. Next day, Ribas captured Hadjibey. The Prince ordered the Sebastopol fleet out to sea to attack the Ottomans.
He then advanced on the two most potent Ottoman fortresses on the Dniester. Wielding the memory of the bloodbath of Ochakov as his weapon, Potemkin hoped to get them 'cheap'. First there were the towering ramparts of Akkerman (Belgrade-on-Dniester) that commanded the mouth of the river.
When the Turkish fleet headed back to Istanbul, Potemkin ordered the taking of Akkerman. It surrendered on 30 September. The Prince rushed down to inspect it and returned through Kishnev, struggling to arrange the provisioning of the armies as Poland closed its doors.*
Serenissimus turned to the greatest prize on the Dniester: the famous fortress of Bender, built high on an escarpment above the river in a modern fortified square with four formidable towers and a 20,ooo-strong garrison, a small army.59 Potemkin moved to besiege the fortress, but he also opened negotiations. On 4 November, he got his wish. He later enjoyed telling Catherine the 'Miraculous Case' of Bender's eight generals, who dreamed that they had either to surrender or perish. They went to the Pasha and told him the story. The dreaming Turks were obviously looking for a somnolent excuse to avoid a Russian assault, but this life-saving parable amused Potemkin.60 Bender surrendered; Potemkin took 300 cannons - in return for letting the garrison march out. The surrender document, now in Potemkin's papers,61 catches the elaborate formality of the stultified Ottoman bureaucracy, but it also referred to the Prince in terms not given to the Grand Vizier but only to the Sultan himself, t