Van wie was Grigory Orlov?

Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (Russian: Григорий Григорьевич Орлов; 17 October 1734 – 24 April 1783) was a favourite of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (1772), state and military figure, collector, patron of arts, and General-in-Chief.

He patronised M. V. Lomonosov, D. I. Fonvisin, V. I. Bazhenov and gave them financial support. Honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (since 1765). He collected paintings (including Rembrandt, P. P. Rubens, Titian), sculpture, Chinese, Japanese and Russian porcelain, hunting weapons, etc. (Orlov's collection has been preserved almost completely; it is now in the State Museum-Reserve "Gatchina" of the eponymous city). A large landowner, particularly of the Gatchina manor, where Orlov commissioned the construction of a palace and a landscape garden.

He became a leader of the 1762 coup which overthrew Catherine's husband Peter III of Russia and installed Catherine as empress. For some years he was virtually co-ruler with her, but his repeated infidelities and the enmity of Catherine's other advisers led to his fall from power.

Catharina II Aleksejevna (Russisch: Екатерина II Алексеевна, Jekaterina II Aleksejevna; Stettin, 2 mei 1729 – Tsarskoje Selo, 17 november 1796), bijgenaamd Catharina de Grote (Russisch: Екатерина Великая, Jekaterina Velikaja), was van 1762 tot 1796 tsarina van Rusland.

Ze werd in het Duitse Stettin in Pommeren (sinds 1945 Szczecin in Polen) geboren als Sophia Augusta Frederika, prinses van Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, dochter van vorst Christiaan August van Anhalt-Zerbst en hertogin Johanna Elisabeth van Sleeswijk-Holstein-Gottorp. Ze was een nicht van de koningen Gustaaf III en Karel XIII van Zweden en echtgenote van de Russische troonopvolger Peter III.