Pyotr Zavadovsky

Russian Imperial statesman of Ukrainian origin

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Pyotr Zavadovsky (1739–1812) was a Russian Imperial statesman of Ukrainian origin. He was a favourite (lover) of Russian Empress Catherine the Great from 1776 to 1777.

Count Zavadovsky was named official secretary to Catherine in 1775 and became her lover on 2 January 1776. He is described as serious and cultivated and he is regarded to have been genuinely in love with Catherine. Their relationship was tense because of the jealousy he felt toward Grigory Potemkin, who still had a relationship with Catherine, although Zavadovsky had replaced him in a sexual sense, and Potemkin was also said to have had difficulties accepting the situation. The relationship was ended because of the continuing pressure. In 1778, Catherine contemplated recalling him, but was then introduced to Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov. Zavadovsky became the highest official in the empire’s educational system. ^[1]

In 1780 he was appointed a privy councillor; in 1781, he became the director of the state bank. He later became a senator and, at the end of his life, the minister of education under Czar Alexander I.^[2]

In popular culture

In the 2019 HBO miniseries Catherine the Great Zavadovsky is portrayed by Thomas Doherty.^[3]

References

^ Plokhy, Serhii (2017). Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation. New York: Basic Books. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-465-09849-1.
^ Massie, Robert K (2011). Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. New York: Random House. p. 445. ISBN 978-0-679-45672-8.
^ "Who is Thomas Doherty? 'Catherine the Great's Peter Zavadovsky is an Exciting Rising Star".

Simon Sebag Montefiore : Potemkin och Katarina den stora - en kejserlig förbindelse (Potemkin and Catherine the Great - an imperial commitment) (2006) (In Swedish)

Mistresses and minions of Russian emperors and empresses

1700–1762