| Potemkin Village |
| A cardboard facade with nothing behind it, as on certain B-movie sets; a showy exterior to hide real and embarassingly poor conditions. From Prince Potemkin, a favorite of Catherine II of Russia, for whose visit to the Ukraine in 1787 he had carboard villages constructed.An impressive showy facade designed to mask undesirable facts.
Imagine a Hollywood set and you'd have a good idea of the original Potemkin village. In 1787, when Catherine the Great visited the Ukraine and the Crimea, Prince Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791), a Russian army officer, statesman, and her lover, decided to put up elaborate cardboard houses apparently full of splendor in the villages Catherine was shown. While this setup depicted an illusion of prosperity, the real condition of the village was hidden behind this facade. A Potemkin village is, in other words, whitewash taken to the Nth degree. ~Wordsmith.org |
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