Rather, he is turning age 19, and obsessed with challenging his mother's power. Potemkin', Grigory Orlov is responsible for artillery), but Paul is not portrayed as a 8-12 year-old boy he would have at that point. When the series begins, most elements suggest that it is pre-1768 (the Russo-Turkish War has yet to break out, Potemkin is referred to as 'Lt. Joseph Quinn's Paul I is a fairly-stock villain for Catherine to square off against.

How then, does the series treat Tsar Paul? This belief both crooked and foolish, as in Russian history, Catherine and Prince Potemkin have always been more beloved than Paul I and his father, Peter III, who are viewed as being traitors to the 'Russian soul.' In claiming to have unearthed a secret narrative of Catherine's life, the HBO miniseries is really just championing the same nationalist view of the Russian past which was common in 19th and 20th centuries. The implication is that Paul I controlled the narrative of Catherine's reign, preventing the nature of her love with Prince Potemkin from being common knowledge. In the closing scene of the HBO miniseries, Clive Russell, playing the court fool, sings a song which opens: '.History is written by crooks and fools.'. This post discusses a main character in the series, and Catherine's son, Tsar Paul I of Russia. Our first post discussed the role of Peter III in Russian, history, describing some of the ways that he has been misunderstood by historians. Today we are continuing the series of posts discussing 'Catherine the Great': HBO's recent period drama on that most excellent of monarchs in eighteenth-century Russia.

Catherine the Great by Simon Dixon