![](https://media.shortform.com/avatars/andrei-maylunas-47606.jpg)
Ranked #70 in Russian History
Potemkin shone as an outstandingly gifted statesman, winning the Crimea, founding the Black Sea Fleet, reforming the Cossacks, planning new cities like... more
Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Prince of Princes from the world's leading experts.
![](https://media.shortform.com/avatars/andrei-maylunas-47606.jpg)
Andrei Maylunas We move to the age of Enlightenment: a very nice, well-written book by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and it’s called The Life of Potemkin. So what do we have? We’ve had the reforms of Peter the Great, cutting his ‘window on to Europe’, then we had – and the 18th century is a crucial one – Russia meeting the Enlightenment. Catherine the Great comes to power, and that’s where the biggest revolution I think takes place, from the point of view of civilising the country. She has a great court, of which Voltaire was a part, as well as Potemkin, and this is a wonderful book about these times and days:... (Source)