Catherine the Great's Secret War and the Potemkin Village Myth

In this episode of The Romanov Dynasty, Lucas and Luna dive into one of the most colorful and misunderstood episodes of Catherine the Great's reign: her relationship with Prince Grigory Potemkin and the conquest of Crimea. Forget the 'Potemkin village' cliché — we explore the real story behind the 1787 journey to the Black Sea, the annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783, and the creation of the Black Sea Fleet. Along the way, we meet figures like Field Marshal Rumyantsev, the last Crimean khan Şahin Giray, and the legendary naval commander Fyodor Ushakov. We also examine Catherine's 'Greek Project' — her ambitious plan to revive the Byzantine Empire under her grandson Constantine — and how Potemkin's so-called 'fake villages' were actually a massive, genuine effort to settle and develop a new region. This episode connects Catherine's expansionist policies to the longer arc of Russian imperial history, from Peter the Great to the Crimean War. #CatherineTheGreat #GrigoryPotemkin #Crimea #BlackSeaFleet #ŞahinGiray #GreekProject #PotemkinVillage #FyodorUshakov #RussoTurkishWar #Kherson #Sevastopol #ImperialRussia #18thCentury #History #FexingoHistory #Podcast #RomanovDynasty #EasternEurope Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo