14 Facts About Grigory Orlov

Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov was a favourite of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, state and military figure, collector, patron of arts, and General-in-Chief.

Grigory Orlov became a leader of the 1762 coup which overthrew Catherine's husband Peter III of Russia and installed Catherine as empress.

Grigory Orlov was the son of Gregory Grigory Orlov, governor of Great Novgorod.

Grigory Orlov had a younger brother Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov who would equally gain military and political prominence in Russia.

Grigory Orlov was educated in the corps of cadets at Saint Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years' War, and was wounded at Zorndorf.

Grigory Orlov's influence became paramount after the discovery of the Khitrovo plot to murder the whole Grigory Orlov family.

Grigory Orlov had a quick wit, a fairly accurate appreciation of current events, and was a useful and sympathetic counselor during the earlier portion of Catherine's reign.

Grigory Orlov entered with enthusiasm, from both patriotic and economic motives, into the question of the improvement of the condition of the serfs and their partial emancipation.

Grigory Orlov led the investigation of Lieutenant Vasily Mirovich, who tried to free the former Russian Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich from the Shlisselburg Fortress.

Grigory Orlov promoted smallpox inoculation and was one of the first in Russia to inoculate against smallpox together with Empress Catherine II in 1768.

Grigory Orlov was one of the earliest propagandists of the Slavophile idea of the emancipation of the Christians from Ottoman rule.

Meanwhile, Grigory Orlov's enemies, led by Panin, were attempting to break up the relationship between Grigory Orlov and Catherine.

When Potemkin, in 1774, superseded Vasilchikov as the queen's lover, Grigory Orlov became of no account at court and went abroad for some years.

Grigory Orlov returned to Russia a few months prior to his death in Moscow in 1783.