Pyotr Zavadovsky

Portrait of Zavadovsky by Stepan Shchukin

Pyotr Zavadovsky, (1739–1812) was a Russian favourite and the lover of 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 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 to recall him, but was then introduced to Korsakov.

References

Simon Sebac 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	Anna Mons Willem Mons Avdotya Chernysheva Mary Hamilton Maria Cantemir Ernst Johann von Biron Aleksey Razumovsky Ivan Shuvalov Elizaveta Vorontsova Maria Rumyantseva

1762–1796	Grigory Orlov (1762–72) Alexander Vasilchikov (1772–74) Grigory Potemkin (1774–76) Pyotr Zavadovsky (1776–77) Semyon Zorich (1777–78) Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov (1778–80) Alexander Lanskoy (1780–84) Alexander Yermolov (1784–85) Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov (1785–89) Platon Zubov (1789–96)

1796–1917	Anna Lopukhina Maria Naryshkina Varvara Nelidova Catherine Dolgorukova Mathilde Kschessinska Natalia Brasova