Orloff Diamond: An eye for an eye



(Count Grigory Orlov)

The story of the Orloff Diamond is no less fascinating than the story of its most famous owner.

Catherine the Great wasn’t always Catherine (or great).  She was born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg (say that three times fast), daughter of a devout Lutheran who strongly opposed her eventual (and politically motivated) conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy.  Along with this conversion came a change of name.  She was now known as Ekaterina (Catherine) Alekseyevna

(“daughter of Aleksey” – not a reference to her actual Lutheran father).

Soon after that (and not coincidentally), Catherine married Peter von Holstein-Gottorp (who - also not coincidentally - soon afterwards became Tsar Peter III of Russia).  After Peter’s (far from coincidental) death a mere six months later, Catherine became Empress Regnant of Russia (for the next 34 years).  Before that (while Peter was still alive), she had begun a love affair with Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (amongst others).

Orlov (Orloff) was (yet again not coincidentally) the leader of the conspiracy that dethroned and killed (not necessarily in that order) Catherine’s husband, Peter III.  For that, he must have won “brownie points” with Catherine - but just not enough of them.  Because his competition was literally getting a leg up on Catherine, Orloff felt the need to get something really big that would outshine his opponent.  That “something” turned out to be the Orloff Diamond.

Word on the street is that this diamond was originally the eye of a Hindu statue in the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple of Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India.  It was allegedly stolen by a French solider circa 1750 CE.  It later wound up in the hands of a Persian merchant whom Orloff came into contact with.  Orloff purchased it - then (surprise) gave it to Catherine. 

The good news:  Catherine accepted it, named it after Orloff, and even incorporated it into a sceptre.  The bad news:  She dumped Orloff anyway.  Orloff’s bad news became Potemkin’s good news.  Potemkin “got the girl” – but ended up losing his left eye.  To this day, no one quite knows how…

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great

http://siberianlight.net/russiaguide/orlov-diamond/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Potemkin#CITEREFMontefiore2001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple_(Srirangam)

Copyright June 28, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved