The phraseology "Potemkin villages" has become firmly established, as a symbolic interpretation of fraud, show-off, and cheating. The phrase has been around for almost 250 years, since the time of the historical visit of Empress Catherine II to the Crimea. The journey took place in 1787, after the end of the war with the Ottoman Empire, according to which Russia joined the territories north of Tauris, under the general name of Novorossia.
Favorite of Catherine Grigory Potemkin Tavrichesky, with whom the Empress was in a close relationship and, as historians claim, even made a marriage with him, decided to impress the beloved with an unprecedented spectacle. All along the path of the royal cortege were built in a variety of decorative huts, rural houses and all kinds of presence, churches, cathedrals and chapels. Hundreds of peasants worked on the fields, fat herds of cattle grazed in the meadows , children ran through the village streets. But all this was frankly sham, the houses were painted, the herds of cows were driven from one place to another during the night of the night of the Empress and her retinue. On the route of the motorcade the next "Potemkin village" arose.
Peasant families also moved under cover of darkness to a new location. Catherine II was struck by the richness of the land and the huge number of village folk who incessantly bowed to her along the entire journey. Similar tricks have happened in Russia before, each governor tried to hide as far as possible flaws in his patrimony, to embellish reality, where to close high fences unpretentious houses, where to lay a new road before the arrival of the authorities. And since the higher-ranking officials came often enough, the "Potemkin villages" arose, here and there.
However, such a large-scale performance, as Prince Grigory Potemkin arranged, was completely unique both in scope and in funds invested in the event. Everything was paid from the state treasury, and the "Potemkin villages" cost not one million of state money. The most expensive gift to the Empress was a festive salute with fireworks on the Sevastopol roadstead, where Catherine II saw the Black Sea Fleet in all its glory, but the ships were also mostly painted. Nevertheless, the picture of well-being along the whole path of the royal train from Kiev and to Sevastopol was duly finished in the form of a solemn dinner at the gallery of the palace in Inkerman with a view of Sevastopol Bay.
Ship guns fired, fireworks one after another soared into the evening sky, the holiday was in full swing. The next day the Empress inspected the city of Sevastopol. New streets and blocks were shown to her from afar, the facades of the buildings were covered with canvases with painted architecture, the "Potemkin villages" became part of Sevastopol. Catherine noted with surprise: "... three years ago there was nothing here, but now I see a beautiful city, a large flotilla, a harbor, a pier. We must pay tribute to Prince Potemkin for his tireless concern for the state and foresight in business ... ". A noble Frenchman, Count Segur, who accompanied the Empress on her Crimean trip, wrote: "It is incomprehensible to the mind how Prince Potemkin managed to build a city in such a short time, build ships, build fortresses and collect so many people for public service."