Grigory Potemkin

Potemkin was born in 1739 to middling Russian nobility and caught Catherine's eye by helping her seize the throne in 1762. He proved himself commanding troops in the first Russo-Turkish War, became her lover and possibly her consort, and when the passion faded stayed on as her closest adviser and the empire's most powerful governor. Catherine gave him grand titles and sent him south to tame the wild steppes, where he built Sevastopol, Kherson, and a Black Sea fleet from scratch, dealt harshly with the Cossacks, and peacefully folded Crimea into Russia in 1783. He led the second Turkish war, besieged Ochakov, and died in 1791 mid-negotiations for the treaty that would end it. The "Potemkin village" - those painted façades supposedly erected to fool inspectors - may be myth, but his taste for spectacle, women, and vast construction projects was real enough.