Pyotr Zavadovsky

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 Grigory 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 recalling him, but was then introduced to Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov. Zavadovsky became the highest official in the empire's educational system.{{Cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |title=Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation |publisher=Basic Books |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-465-09849-1 |location=New York |pages=75 |language=en}}

In 1780, he was appointed a privy councillor; in 1781, he became the director of the state bank. He later became a senator and, at the end of his life, the minister of education under Emperor Alexander I.{{cite book |last1=Massie |first1=Robert K |title=Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman |url=https://archive.org/details/catherinegreatpo00mass_3 |url-access=limited |date=2011 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-45672-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/catherinegreatpo00mass_3/page/445 445]}}

In the 2019 HBO miniseries Catherine the Great Zavadovsky is portrayed by Thomas Doherty.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/who-is-thomas-doherty-catherine-the-greats-peter-zavadovsky-is-exciting-rising-star-18845949|title=Who is Thomas Doherty? 'Catherine the Great's Peter Zavadovsky is an Exciting Rising Star}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite Efron|Завадовский, Петр Васильевич}}
• Simon Sebag Montefiore : Potemkin och Katarina den stora - en kejserlig förbindelse (Potemkin and Catherine the Great - an imperial commitment) (2006) (In Swedish)

{{Favoritki}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zavadovsky, Pyotr}}

Category:1739 births

Category:1812 deaths

Category:18th-century diplomats of the Russian Empire

Category:Russian people of Ukrainian descent

Category:Lovers of Catherine the Great

Category:Burials at Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)

Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)

Category:Russian royal favourites

{{Russia-hist-stub}}