Grigory Potemkin (1739-1791) was once the lover of Empress Catherine II of Russia, and for 17 years the most powerful man in her empire. A loyal and able administrator, he was also licentious and extravagant. He spared neither men nor money in an abortive attempt to colonize the Ukrainian steppes, but not wanting to disappoint the Empress when she toured the south of Russia in 1787, he purportedly assembled a number of mobile villages to be viewed from the imperial barge. As soon as it had passed out of sight Potemkin's men stripped off their jolly peasant costumes, dismantled the villages and rebuilt them overnight further downstream. However, the principal dupes were foreign ambassadors; indeed, according to Encyclopedia Britannica this is an apocryphal tale that never really happened. Nevertheless, "Potemkin village" has come "to denote any pretentious façade designed to cover up a shabby or undesirable condition." Norman Davies in his recent history Europe argues that "Potemkin village" is also a byword for a long Russian tradtion of deception and disinformation.