Elizabeth Temkina

Elizabeth Temkina
Елизавета Тёмкина
Portrait by Vladimir Borovikovsky (1798)
Born	(1775-07-24)24 July 1775 Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	6 June 1854(1854-06-06) (aged 78)
Spouse	Ivan Kalageorgi
Children	10
Parents	Grigory Potemkin (alleged) Catherine II of Russia (alleged)

Elizabeth Grigorievna Temkina (Russian: Елизавета Григорьевна Тёмкина, romanized: Elizaveta Grigoryevna Tyomkina; 24 July [O.S. 13 July] 1775 – 6 June [O.S. 25 May] 1854) was the once-alleged daughter of Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin.

Biography

According to a number of historical testimonies and family legends, which, however, do not have documentary evidence and are disputed by most historians, Grigory Potemkin and Catherine the Great were secretly married. In 1775, a female infant appeared in Potemkin's house, who was named Elizabeth Grigorievna Temkina (the surname was obtained by truncation from "Potemkin" as was a Russian tradition when naming illegitimate children).

The girl was born secretly, but at the court there were rumors that the Empress was her mother, though this is now regarded as unlikely. Elizabeth was brought up in the Samoilov household, her guardian being Alexander Nikolaevich Samoilov the son of Potemkins sister Maria Alexandrovna Samoylova nе́e Potemkina, which could lend some credence to the rumor that her father were one of the Potemkins or a relation of theirs.

But tellingly, Elizabeth was never acknowledged by Catherine, in contrast to Count Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky (1762–1813) the illegitimate son of the Empress.

In 1780s, the physician Ivan Filippovich Beck, who treated the grandchildren of the Empress, became the girl's guardian. Elizabeth finished her education in a boarding school.

One April 10, 1794 she received the estate of Mezhyhirya near Kiev and huge estates in the Kherson province.

On 4 June 1794 Elizabeth was married to Second-Major Ivan Khristoforovich Kalageorgi (Иван Христофорович Калагеорги). Her husband was a wealthy Greek, who had been invited from Greece to join the retinue of the emperor Paul I son Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, in order to teach him Greek in preparation to the reinstatement the Byzantine monarchy with Catherine's grandson Constantine as emperor, but this plan was never realized. Nevertheless, because of this Kalageorgi had close ties to the imperial family and would come to be the governor of Kherson (which had been founded by Elizavetas alleged father Potemkin) and then of Ekaterinoslav.

The couple had 10 children together:

• Varvara Ivanovna (b. 1795)
• Ekaterina Ivanovna (b. 1798)
• Alexander Ivanovich (b. 1799)
• Grigory
• Nadezhda (b. 1809)
• Vera (b. 1810)
• Nikolai (b. 1816)
• Konstantin (b. 1813 or 1814)
• Sofia
• Anastasia

In 1797, Alexander Samoilov, Elizabeths former guardian commissioned the artist Vladimir Borovikovsky to paint a portrait of Elizabeth, who was 22 years old at the time. "Let Elizaveta Grigorievna be painted in such a way that her neck is open, and her hair lies on it in disheveled curls without order." The portrait was ready in a year.

The family later lived in near Kyiv in the town of Mezhyhirka. The character of Elizaveta Tiomkina was described in different ways - some called her spoiled, self-confident and uncontrollable, others - a modest woman and a good mother.

The great-grandson of Elizaveta Tiomkina, the famous literary critic and linguist Dmitry Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, described the life of his ancestors as follows: "The family lived amicably, cheerfully and noisily, but at the same time somehow very restless, expecting all sorts of troubles and misfortunes from time to time."

Elizabeth died on the 6th of June, 1854, aged 78 years.

Sources

• Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2010). Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair. Orion. ISBN 978-0-297-86623-7.