CATHERINE II, Empress of Russia (1729-1796). Document signed as Empress of Russia, St. Petersburg, Summer, 1789.

In Russian. One page, 343 x 510mm (light toning along center vertical crease, a few marginal chips, minor mounting remnants on verso).

Catherine the Great grants retirement to General-in-Chief Peter Tekeli (1720-1792). A Serb, Tekeli had been in the service of Austria before he emigrated to Russia in the late 1740s and was active in the Seven Years War as well as the first and second Russo-Turkish Wars. It was Tekeli who oversaw the disbandment of the Zaporozhian Cossacks without a drop of blood spilled—a feat that earned him the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. Here, the Empress cites his long and distinguished military service as the reason to grant the general a retirement, in light of his declining health. Provenance: Christie's, 8 March 1978, lot 163.