Pyotr Potemkin

Pyotr Ivanovich Potyomkin (Potemkin) (Russian: Пётр Иванович Потёмкин) (1617-1700) was a Russian courtier, diplomat and namestnik of Borovsk during the reigns of Tsars Alexis I and Feodor III. He was a voivode during the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and took Lublin in 1655 as well as Nyenschantz and Noteborg in 1656. Later he became a stolnik working as a Tsar's ambassador.

Service

Potemkin led the embassy to Spain and France in 1667-1668. This embassy established regular diplomatic relations between Russia and Spain. A colorful portrait of Pyotr Potemkin by Spanish painter Juan Carreño de Miranda is on display in Museo del Prado in Madrid. During his envoy to France he introduced a new term, Avgardent (Авгардент), into the Russian diplomatic vocabulary. The term meant "distilled spirits", especially Cognacs and Armagnacs. Potemkin considered them harmful and advocated a complete ban on their import to Russia.

He travelled to Vienna in 1674 to discuss common actions against Polish king John III Sobieski. He also was the envoy of Feodor III to France and England in 1681. He died in 1700 in the rank of an okolnichy.