High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Count Valerian Aleksandrovich Zubov was a young Russian general who led the Persian Expedition of 1796. His siblings included Platon Zubov and Olga Zherebtsova. As a young man Zubov had flattering prospects of a brilliant military career due to his brother Platon's ascendancy at Catherine II's court. He was reputed by contemporaries as "the handsomest man in Russia". The legend has it that the aged Empress flirted with him, secretly from his brother.