NOUN:Something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance: “the Potemkin village of this country's borrowed prosperity” (Lewis H. Lapham).ETYMOLOGY:
After Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who had elaborate fake villages constructed for Catherine the Great's tours of the Ukraine and the Crimea
Thank you I shall remember this term and try to use it.
The Russians won a war with the Turks/Ottomans and needed to colonize the Ukrane or Black Sea area. Catherine the Great made an offer of special privaleges, travel expenses, and free land to german speaking peasants if they would settle the land. There was a mass migration to the Ukrane of german speaking people, some of whom were called Vulga Deutch or Vulga Germans. After a few generations the rules were changed and around the late 1890's and early 1900's most left. Many came to the US, including one of my of grand parents.
Thank you, I think I understand the meaning and the context of this term.