Video: Femme fatale Sofia Pototskaya: how Ukrainian Angelica received Sofievsky Park as a gift
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
O Countess Sofia Pototskaya say different things. Someone considers her wise and diplomatic, someone calls her Ukrainian Azhelika or even Mata Hari. Whether she was a lecherous and cunning courtesan, a spy and an adventurer, or a clever gambler, she has one thing - the talent to make men fall in love with her and to influence the most prominent people of her time. A Greek woman, sold as a child in a Turkish bazaar by her own mother, became one of the richest and most beautiful women of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Her husband brought her a whole park in Uman, named after her by Sofievsky, and she cheated on him with her stepson and brought him to death.
Her name is surrounded by legends, and now it is difficult to say which of the known facts of her biography are fictional and which are real. One thing can be said: of all the trials and adversities that befell her, she contrived to derive benefits and benefits. Countess Sofia Pototskaya drove men crazy and forced them to act in their own interests.
She was born near Istanbul to an impoverished Greek merchant. Their house burned down and the family went bankrupt. According to legend, the mother sold her daughter to the Polish ambassador. Later he returned to his homeland, Sofia followed, but in Kamenets-Podolsk, waiting for permission to enter Poland, she met the son of the commandant of the fortress, Jozef Witt. The major proposed to her and she agreed without hesitation.
The couple went on a trip to Europe, during which Sofia was introduced to the Polish king, the Austrian emperor, the king of Prussia, and she knew how to make a good impression on everyone. Meanwhile, the Polish king forbade her husband Jozef to leave the fortress, and she continued to have fun with influential people.
At the request of Prince Potemkin, the Austrian emperor conferred on Jozef the rank of general and made him commandant of Kherson - they say, in exchange for Potemkin's right to communicate closely with his wife. The prince gave Sophia expensive gifts, and she was not only his mistress, but also a political agent - on behalf of Catherine, she communicated with diplomats from Istanbul and Poland. She was asked to contact the leadership of the confederation in Poland and persuade him to closer relations with St. Petersburg. Soon there was a redistribution of the borders of Poland, she lost her independence.
During a visit to Warsaw, Sofia met Count Stanislav Potocki, a romance broke out between them. They settled in Uman, it was at that time that the park was founded, named after her Sofievsky.
In 1798, Sofia's plans came true - they managed to buy off her husband and she finally became the legal wife of Potocki. At home, the count was not forgiven for betrayal, his friends turned away from him, but the worst awaited him ahead. Soon, the wife had an affair with her stepson. The count could not bear this - he died at the age of 63.
Yuri Pototsky was a gambler, a reveler and a spender. After the death of the count, his estate turned into a gambling house for several years. Yuri squandered the inheritance, cooled off to Sofia and left. But he was sick with tuberculosis and soon died. At that time, Sofia herself was seriously ill. At the end of her life she began to do charity work, in Uman she was mourned when she died in 1822.
And A. Pushkin was in love with the daughter of the fatal beauty Sophia Pototskaya-Kiseleva at one time: "Hidden Love", or Who was NN from Pushkin's Don Juan list?
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