short biography

Pavel Petrovich(October 1, 1754, Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna, St. Petersburg - March 24, 1801, Mikhailovsky Castle, St. Petersburg) - son of Catherine II and Peter III, Emperor of All Russia from November 17, 1796, 72nd Grand Master of the Order of Malta from 1798 of the year.

Birth

Pavel Petrovich was born on October 1, 1754 in St. Petersburg, in the Summer Palace of Elizaveta Petrovna (subsequently, this palace was demolished by order of Pavel, and the Mikhailovsky Castle was built in its place, in which Pavel was killed on March 24, 1801). Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, Grand Duke Pyotr Fedorovich (Paul's father) and the Shuvalov brothers were present at the birth. On the occasion of the birth of the successor to the dynasty, Empress Elizabeth issued a manifesto, this event was reflected in the odes written by the poets of that time.

Because of the political struggle, Paul was essentially deprived of the love of those close to him. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered to surround him with a whole staff of nannies and the best, in her opinion, teachers, and the mother and father were actually removed from raising their child. The name Pavel at baptism was given to him at the behest of the empress.

Despite the outward resemblance of Pavel to his father, later rumors persisted at the court that the child was conceived by Catherine from her first favorite, Sergei Saltykov, a famous handsome man in his time. Rumors were fueled by the fact that Pavel was born ten years after the marriage of Peter and Catherine, when many became convinced of the futility of this union (Ekaterina sheds light on the 10-year childlessness of marriage in her memoirs, in which she hints that before the surgery her husband suffered from phimosis).

Upbringing

The first educator of Pavel was the diplomat Fyodor Bekhteev, close to the Shuvalovs, obsessed with the spirit of charters, clear orders and military discipline comparable to drill. He printed a small newspaper in which he talked about all, even the most insignificant actions of the boy.

In 1760, Elizaveta Petrovna replaced the main mentor, prescribing the main training parameters in her instructions. They became at her choice Nikita Ivanovich Panin. He was a 42-year-old man who had extensive knowledge and shared the ideas of the Enlightenment. During his diplomatic service in Sweden and Denmark, he came into close contact with the Freemasons and did not rule out the possibility of introducing a constitutional monarchy in Russia along the Swedish lines.

Nikita Panin outlined a very wide range of topics and subjects in which, in his opinion, the crown prince should have understood. Perhaps it was in accordance with his recommendations that a number of "subject teachers" were appointed. Among them were Metropolitan Platon (Law of God), Semyon Poroshin (natural history), Grange (dance), J. Millico (music), and others. Catherine II.

The atmosphere of Pavel Petrovich's upbringing was significantly influenced by his environment. Among the guests who visited the prince, there were a number of educated people of that time, for example, the writer and composer Grigory Teplov. On the contrary, communication with peers was rather limited. Only children of the best families (Kurakins, Stroganovs) were allowed to have personal contacts with Pavel. Prince Alexander Kurakin was especially close to him. One of Paul's junior mentors, Semyon Poroshin, kept a diary (1764-1765), which later became a valuable historical source on the history of the court and for studying the personality of the Tsarevich.

Catherine purchased for her son an extensive library of Academician Korf. The heir was taught history, geography, arithmetic, the Law of God, astronomy, foreign languages ​​​​(French, German, Latin, Italian), Russian, drawing, fencing, dancing. There was nothing in the training program related to military affairs, which did not prevent Pavel from getting carried away with them. He was introduced to the works of the Enlightenment: Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu. Pavel had good abilities for studying, he had a developed imagination, at the same time he was restless and impatient, although he loved books. He spoke Latin, French and German, loved mathematics, dancing, military exercises. In general, the education of the Tsarevich was the best that could be obtained at that time.

Already in his youth, Paul began to be occupied with the idea of ​​chivalry. On February 23 (March 6), 1765, Poroshin wrote: “I read to His Highness Vertotov the story of the Order of the Knights of Malta. He deigned, then, to amuse himself and, having tied the admiral's flag to his cavalry, present himself as a gentleman of Malta.

Pavel was proclaimed Tsarevich and Grand Duke, heir of All Russia and the reigning Duke of Schleswig-Holstein on June 28 (July 9), 1762. Having reached adulthood, the Grand Duke, at the insistence of his mother, ceded on October 5, 1773, his rights to possessions in the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, to which the cities of Kiel, Apenrade, Neumünster belonged, to the Danish king Christian VII, instead of the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst in Northern Germany, which he refused December 14 of the same year in favor of his relative, Duke Friedrich August, Protestant Bishop of Lübeck.

Life in Gatchina

For the first time, Pavel married on September 29, 1773, Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna, born Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt, who died in childbirth two and a half years later, on April 15, 1776. In the same year, Paul was chosen a new wife - Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg, who, after converting to Orthodoxy, became known as Maria Feodorovna. Frederick the Great personally arranged a meeting between Paul and his future wife in Berlin. Pavel (who was called “the ugliest man of the empire” behind his back) was captivated by a stately blonde with a pleasant face; the next day he wrote to his mother:

I found my bride such as I could only mentally wish for myself: not bad-looking, great, slender, shy, answers intelligently and quickly. As for her heart, she has it very sensitive and tender. Very easy to handle, loves to be at home and practice reading or music.

The traditional stage, usually completing education in Europe of the 18th century, was a trip abroad. A similar voyage was undertaken in 1782 by the then young Tsarevich together with his wife. They traveled incognito under the names of the Count and Countess of the North (du Nord), visited Italy, where they received an audience with the Pope, and France, where they were greatly impressed by the estate of the Prince of Condé. The couple spent two weeks with the parents of Maria Feodorovna in a rural estate near Montbéliard. The journey of the Tsarevich lasted 428 days; he traveled 13,115 versts.

All the time, the aggravated relationship between Pavel and his mother led to the fact that after the death of Grigory Orlov in 1783, the Gatchina estate that belonged to the deceased was transferred to the full disposal of the heir to the throne. Having left the capital for Gatchina, Pavel adopted customs that were sharply different from those in St. Petersburg. In addition to Gatchina, he owned the Pavlovskaya estate near Tsarskoye Selo and a summer cottage on Kamenny Island.

[Paul] received 175,000 rubles a year for himself and 75,000 for his wife, not counting the money allocated for the staff of his court. Thus, from the material side, it was furnished very decently. If, despite this, he was constantly desperate for money and, in order to get it, even resorted to such shameful means as an agreement with the empress's suppliers, then this was due to the fact that the manager impudently robbed him, the poor relatives of Maria Feodorovna robbed him, and he himself went bankrupt on useless buildings and spent crazy money on his expensive and ridiculous toy, the Gatchina army.

K. Valishevsky

It is customary to characterize the Gatchina troops negatively - as rude martinets trained only in front and stepping. The surviving plans for exercises refute this replicated stereotype. From 1793 to 1796, during the exercises, the Gatchina troops under the command of the Tsarevich practiced methods of salvo fire and bayonet fighting. The interaction of various branches of the armed forces was practiced when forcing water barriers, conducting an offensive and retreat, as well as repelling an enemy amphibious assault during its landing on the coast. Troop movements were carried out at night. Great importance was attached to the actions of artillery. For the Gatchina artillery in 1795-1796, specially separate exercises were carried out. The experience gained formed the basis of Paul's military transformations and reforms. Despite the small number, by 1796 the Gatchina troops were one of the most disciplined and well-trained units of the Russian army.

Relations with Catherine II

Immediately after his birth, Paul was moved away from his mother. His mother Catherine could see him very rarely and only with the permission of the empress. When Pavel was eight years old, his mother, relying on the guards, carried out a coup, during which Pavel's father died under circumstances not entirely clear.

When Catherine came to the throne, the troops swore allegiance not only to herself, but also to Pavel Petrovich. There is evidence that on the eve of the wedding to the kingdom, Catherine gave a written commitment to transfer the crown to Paul upon reaching the age of majority, subsequently destroyed by her. In fact, she was not going to give up the fullness of her power and share it either in 1762 or later, when Paul matured. All those dissatisfied with Catherine and her reign in such a situation pinned their hopes on Paul as the only heir to the throne.

Indeed, the name of Pavel Petrovich was used by rebels and those dissatisfied with Catherine's rule. Emelyan Pugachev often mentioned his name. Holstein banners were seen in the ranks of the rebels. Pugachev said that after the victory over the government of Catherine "he does not want to reign and is busy only in favor of Pavel Petrovich." He had a portrait of Paul. The impostor often referred to this portrait when pronouncing toasts. In 1771, the rebellious exiles in Kamchatka, led by Benevsky, swore allegiance to Paul as emperor. During the plague riot in Moscow, the name of Tsarevich Pavel was also mentioned.

Paul was brought up as heir to the throne, but the older he got, the further he was kept from public affairs. The enlightened empress and her son became complete strangers to each other. For Catherine, the Tsarevich was an unwanted son, born from a person she did not love for the sake of politics and state interests, who did not look much like his mother in appearance and in his views, preferences. Catherine could not help being annoyed by this. She called Paul's troops in Gatchina "father's army" and did not prevent the spread of rumors unpleasant for her son (if she did not spread them herself): about Paul's imbalance and cruelty; that it was not Peter III who was his father at all, but her lover Saltykov; that he was not her son at all, that, on the orders of Elizabeth, another child was placed on her.

Catherine deliberately did nothing to mark her son's coming of age. Paul himself could not grant positions, awards, ranks. People who enjoyed the favor of Paul often fell into disfavor and disgrace at court. The break between Paul and Catherine came in May 1783. Then the mother invited her son for the first time to discuss foreign policy issues (the Polish issue and the annexation of Crimea). It cannot be ruled out that a frank exchange of views took place, which revealed the complete opposite of views.

After the birth of Paul's eldest son, named Alexander, Catherine considered the possibility of transferring the throne to her beloved grandson, bypassing her unloved son. Paul's fears in such a development of events were strengthened by the early marriage of Alexander, after which, according to tradition, the monarch was considered an adult. From a letter from Catherine on August 14 (25), 1792 to her correspondent, Baron Grimm: “First, my Alexander gets married, and then over time he will be crowned with all kinds of ceremonies, celebrations and folk festivals.” Pavel defiantly ignored the celebrations on the occasion of the marriage of his son.

On the eve of Catherine's death, the courtiers were waiting for the publication of a manifesto on the removal of Paul, his imprisonment in the Estonian castle of Lod and the proclamation of Alexander's heir. It is widely believed that while Pavel was waiting for his arrest, Catherine's manifesto (testament) personally destroyed the cabinet-secretary Alexander Bezborodko, which allowed him to receive the highest rank of chancellor under the new emperor.

Governing body

Domestic politics

Emperor Paul I ascended the throne on November 6 (17), 1796 at the age of 42. On April 5 (16), 1797, on the first day of Easter, the coronation of the new emperor took place. This was the first joint coronation of an emperor and an empress in the history of the Russian Empire. After accession to the throne, Paul resolutely set about breaking the rules established by his mother. Contemporaries were left with the impression that many decisions were made in spite of her memory. Feeding a deep disgust for revolutionary ideas, Pavel, for example, returned freedom to the radicals Radishchev, Novikov and Kosciuszko (87 people in total), and even allowed the latter to leave for America.

Simultaneously with the burial of Catherine, the ashes of Peter III were transferred to the imperial tomb - the Peter and Paul Cathedral. At the funeral ceremony, regalia were carried by Alexei Orlov and other participants in the regicide, and Pavel personally performed the ceremony of crowning the parental remains. Fear of a new palace coup led to measures to weaken the positions of the nobility in general and the guards in particular.

Succession reform

On the day of the coronation, Paul I publicly read the adopted new law on succession to the throne, drew a line under the century of palace coups and women's rule in Russia. From now on, women were actually removed from the inheritance of the Russian throne, because there was a strict requirement for the transfer of the crown through the male line (from father to son). Regency rules were established for the first time.

The weakening of the positions of the nobility

• On January 2 (13), 1797, Paul canceled the article of the Letter of Complaint, which forbade the use of corporal punishment against the nobility. Corporal punishment was introduced for murder, robbery, drunkenness, depravity, and official violations.
• On April 24 (May 5), 1797, Paul I deprived the nobility of the right to submit collective complaints to the sovereign, the Senate and regional governors.
• In 1798, Paul I forbade nobles who had served as officers for less than a year to ask for their resignation.
• By decree of December 18 (29), 1797, the nobles were obliged to pay tax for the maintenance of local governments in the provinces. In 1799 the amount of the tax was increased.
• In 1799, the nobles began to pay a tax of 20 rubles "from the soul."
• By decree of May 4 (15), 1797, the emperor forbade the nobles to submit collective petitions.
• By decree of November 15 (26), 1797, the Emperor forbade the participation in elections of nobles dismissed from service for misconduct. The number of voters was reduced, and the governors were given the right to interfere in elections.
• In 1799, provincial noble assemblies were abolished.
• On August 23 (September 4), 1800, the right of noble societies to elect assessors to the judiciary was abolished.
• Nobles evading civil and military service, Paul I ordered to be brought to trial. The emperor sharply limited the transition from military to civilian service.
• Paul limited noble deputations and the ability to file complaints. This was possible only with the permission of the governor.

Improving the condition of the peasants

• With a manifesto on the three-day corvee, Paul forbade the landlords to send corvee on Sundays, holidays, and more than three days a week.
• The grain service, which was ruinous for the peasants, was abolished and the arrears of the poll tax were forgiven.
• Preferential sales of salt began. They began to sell bread from state stocks in order to bring down high prices. This measure led to a noticeable drop in the price of bread.
• It was forbidden to sell yard people and peasants without land, to separate families during the sale.
• In the provinces, the governors were ordered to observe the attitude of the landowners towards the peasants. In the case of ill-treatment of serfs, the governors were ordered to report this to the emperor.
• By a decree of September 19 (30), 1797, the duty to keep horses for the army and give food was abolished for peasants, instead they began to take "15 kopecks per soul, an allowance for the capitation salary."
• At the beginning of his reign in 1797, he allowed the peasants to file complaints against the oppression of landowners and administrators. But soon a decree was issued ordering the serfs, under pain of punishment, to obey their landlords.
• The decree of October 21 (November 1), 1797, confirmed the right of state-owned peasants to enroll in the merchant class and philistinism.

Administrative reform

Pavel managed to carry out a number of transformations aimed at further centralization of state power. In particular, the functions of the Senate have changed, some boards, abolished by Catherine II, have been restored. In 1798, a decree was issued on the creation of a department of water communications. On December 4 (15), 1796, the State Treasury and the post of State Treasurer were established. Approved in September 1800 by the “Decree on the Commerce Collegium”, the merchants were given the right to choose 13 of its 23 members from their midst.

Attitude towards confessional and ethnic minorities

On March 18 (29), 1797, the Manifesto on freedom of religion in Poland was issued for Catholics and Orthodox. On November 29 (December 10), 1796, an amnesty was declared for the exiled Poles who participated in the Kosciuszko uprising.

On March 12 (23), 1798, Pavel issued a decree allowing the construction of Old Believer churches in all dioceses of the Russian state. In 1800, the regulation on the churches of the same faith was finally approved. Since then, the Old Believers have especially honored the memory of Paul I.

Increasing censorship

Panically afraid of the contagiousness of the example of the French Revolution, Paul in 1800 banned the importation of foreign books and the sending of young men abroad for education. At the Riga Customs alone, 552 volumes intended for import into Russia were confiscated. Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Swift and other prominent authors fell out of favor. All private (“free”) printing houses in the country were closed. Paul did not approve of the French cut of the dress and the words that reminded him of revolutionary France. At the same time, he gave shelter in his possessions to high-ranking French emigrants, including the Count de Lille (the future King of France, Louis XVIII), at whose disposal the entire Mitava Palace was allocated, and the last Prince of Condé, who was supposed to settle in the Gatchina Priory.

Other measures

Paul I can be considered the founder of service dog breeding in Russia - cynology. He ordered the Expedition of the State Economy (by decree of August 12 (23), 1797) to purchase merino sheep and dogs of the Spanish breed in Spain for the protection of livestock.

Memoirs and history books often mention dozens and thousands of those exiled to Siberia during the Pauline era. In fact, the number of those exiled does not exceed ten people in the documents. These people were exiled for military and criminal offenses: bribes, theft on an especially large scale, and others. Many of the servants exiled by Paul to the countryside, after a few months were returned to them in the capital, and, moreover, with a promotion in rank.

Military reform

The strengthening of discipline under Paul I affected various aspects of public life, but primarily the army. One of his first decrees, Paul approved new military regulations, then revised the Peter's naval regulations, limited the service life of recruits to 25 years. Instead of a rational "Potemkin" military uniform, which abolished wigs and curls, Pavel introduced uniforms for the troops, completely borrowed from Prussian models. The new form also had a useful innovation - overcoats, which replaced the previous epanchi in 1797 and saved many Russian soldiers. Outside of St. Petersburg, the construction of barracks was launched. Fundamentally new units appeared in the army - engineering, courier, cartographic.

Great attention was paid to the external side of military affairs (drill and frunt). For the slightest blunders, officers were expected to be demoted, which created a nervous atmosphere among the officers. Under the ban were political circles among the officers. At the same time, the soldiers were allowed to complain about the abuses of the commanders and were not punished as often as before. For the first time in Europe, award badges for privates were introduced.

architectural tastes

The Bip fortress on the left bank of the Slavyanka River is one of the architectural vagaries of Emperor Paul

The material embodiment of Paul's tense relationship with his mother was the so-called. war of palaces with castles. The chivalrous aspirations of the heir led to the militarization of the life of the "young court". Without deviating from the basic principles of classicism, Pavel especially appreciated the fortification elements like turrets and a moat with a drawbridge, which reminded him of medieval castles. In this style, not only the monumental Gatchina and Mikhailovsky castles were sustained, but also more chamber, "amusing" castles built by order of Paul - the Priory and Mariental.

On the occasion of the birth of her eldest grandson, Catherine presented her heir with the Pavlovsk Manor, where the Pavlovsk Palace was eventually built in the Palladian style, which was preferred by the Empress herself. In the capital, for the stay of the young court, the Kamennoostrovsky Palace was erected, where, however, Pavel was relatively rare. The main exponent of his architectural tastes was the Italian Vincenzo Brenna, the forerunner of the romantic trend in classicism. By order of the heir, he brought military accents to the appearance of the Pavlovsk residence - he designed the "toy" fortress Mariental and saturated the halls of the main palace with military motives.

After the death of his mother, Emperor Paul ordered the demolition of buildings that reminded him of the last years of her reign, of the unbearable time for him of the dominance of the Zubov brothers. Some of the pavilions of Tsarskoe Selo (for example, the pavilion on the Rose Field) and the Pellinsky Palace on the banks of the Neva, the largest palace and park ensemble of Russia in the 18th century (25 buildings in total), fell victim. The Catherine Palace in Lefortovo, the English Palace in Peterhof and the Tauride Palace in the capital were converted into barracks by order of Paul. Buildings of the Catherine era were demolished even in the provincial cities (for example, the palace of the governor Melgunov on the main square of Yaroslavl was demolished).

Out of fear of a palace coup - similar to the one that brought his father to the grave - Paul decided to retire in a castle separated from the city by a moat. Work began on the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle. In front of the entrance to the residence, a monument to Peter I with the inscription "Great-grandfather - great-grandson" was erected. Paul was proud of his descent from Peter the Great and tried in every possible way to emphasize it. In the new residence, Paul lived only a few months before the regicide. At this time, he ordered to start a new large-scale construction in the capital - the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt. After Pavel's death, the foreign architects who worked for him (Brenna, Violier, Rossi) lost their orders and left Russia.

court life

Contrary to the popular belief that during the reign of Paul everything was done according to his personal whim, the emperor was consistent in "introducing the Russian nobility to knightly ethics and its attributes." It was during his reign that the General Armorial was compiled and approved. He loved to "revive" extinct noble families and invent complex surnames for his confidants (Romodanovsky-Lodyzhensky, Beloselsky-Belozersky, Argutinsky-Dolgorukov, Musin-Yuriev). Under him, the distribution of princely titles began, which was almost never practiced before, 26 people became counts. Nikolai Karamzin complained that "during the reign of Paul, ranks and ribbons fell in dignity."

In addition to childhood friends, the Kurakin brothers, Pavel's inner circle included his favorite Ivan Kutaisov (a captive Turk, personal barber and valet), who invariably accompanied him on all his travels, Sergei Pleshcheev, the Gatchina commandant and "drill master" Alexei Arakcheev, Admiral Grigory Kushelev, secretaries Obolyaninov and Donaurov. Some of the favorites (such as Fyodor Rostopchin) fell into disgrace several times during the short reign of Paul. The emperor liked to arrange the family life of those close to him. For example, it was he who insisted on the disastrous marriage of Pyotr Bagration with the last Countess Skavronskaya; they were married right in the Gatchina Palace.

Foreign policy

Paul I in the crown, dalmatics and signs of the Order of Malta. Artist V. L. Borovikovsky

At the dawn of Paul's reign, the main direction of foreign policy was the fight against revolutionary France. In 1798, Russia entered into an anti-French coalition with Great Britain, Austria, Turkey, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. At the insistence of the allies, a disgraced was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian troops. Austrian troops were also transferred to his jurisdiction.

Under the leadership of Suvorov, Northern Italy was liberated from French rule. In September 1799, the Russian army made the famous crossing of the Alps. However, already in October of the same year, Russia broke off the alliance with Austria due to the failure of the Austrians to fulfill their allied obligations, and Russian troops were withdrawn from Europe. A joint Anglo-Russian expedition to the Netherlands turned out to be a failure, for which Paul blamed the English allies.

In 1799, the first consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, concentrated all power in his hands, after which he began to look for allies in foreign policy. The threat of a pan-European revolution was over, and the prerequisites for rapprochement with Russia arose. The concentration of world trade in the hands of the British irritated many maritime powers. Then came the idea of ​​a coalition of the combined fleets of France, Russia, Denmark and Sweden, the implementation of which could deal a tangible blow to the dominance of the British at sea.

The decisive factor was the capture on September 5, 1800, by the British fleet of the strategically important island of Malta, which Paul I, as Grand Master of the Order of Malta, considered a subordinate territory and a potential Mediterranean base for the Russian fleet. This was taken by Paul as a personal insult. As a response, on November 22 (December 4), 1800, Paul I issued a decree imposing a sequestration on all English ships in all Russian ports (there were up to 300 of them), as well as on suspending payments to all English merchants until they settled their debt obligations in Russia , with the prohibition of the sale of English goods in the empire. Diplomatic relations between the countries were interrupted. Just as his father, due to a private dynastic interest in Holstein, almost drew Russia into a war with Denmark, so Paul, taking care of the interests of the Knights of Malta, brought Russia to the brink of war with Britain, the strongest maritime power of that time.

The union treaty between Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Denmark was formalized on December 4-6 (18), 1800. With regard to England, a policy of armed neutrality was proclaimed. The British government gave permission to its fleet to seize ships belonging to countries of a hostile coalition. In response to these actions, Denmark occupied Hamburg, and Prussia - Hanover. The allied coalition imposed an embargo on the export of goods to England, and primarily grain, in the hope that the lack of bread would bring the British to their knees. Many European ports were closed to British ships.

Preparations began for the conclusion of a military-strategic alliance with Bonaparte. Shortly before the assassination, Paul, together with Napoleon, began to prepare a military campaign against India in order to "alarm" the English possessions. At the same time, he sent the Don army (22,500 people) to Central Asia, whose task was to conquer Khiva and Bukhara. Such a grandiose enterprise was not in the least prepared, Pavel himself admitted that he did not have maps of Central Asia, and at the same time demanded from Ataman Vasily Orlov:

Remember that you only care about the English, and peace with all those who will not help them; and so, passing them, assure the friendship of Russia and go from the Indus to the Ganges, and there to the English. Approve Bukharia in passing so that the Chinese do not get it. In Khiva, release so many thousands of our captive subjects. If infantry were needed, then after you, and not otherwise, it would be possible. But it would be better if you did it yourself.

In the historical literature, the invasion of Central Asia is regarded as a gamble: "It is absolutely clear that everything was done impromptu, without any preliminary, serious preparation, in an amateurish and frankly frivolous way." The detachment was withdrawn from the Astrakhan steppes immediately after the death of Paul - in the same way that after the death of Catherine, her successor first of all recalled the army under the command of Valerian Zubov to Russia, which was going to conquer Persia.

Order of Malta

After Malta surrendered to the French without a fight in the summer of 1798, the Order of Malta was left without a Grand Master and without a seat. For help, the knights of the order turned to the Russian Emperor Paul I, who, sharing the knightly ideals of honor and glory, a year earlier declared himself the protector of the most ancient spiritual order.

Paul I was elected Grand Master of the Order of Malta on December 16 (27), 1798, in connection with which the words “... and Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem". In Russia, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem was established. The Russian Order of St. John of Jerusalem and the Order of Malta were partly integrated. The image of the Maltese cross appeared on the Russian coat of arms.

Three ancient relics of the Hospitallers - a particle of the wood of the Cross of the Lord, the Philermo Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist - were delivered to Gatchina and on October 12 (23), 1799 were solemnly brought into the church of the Gatchina Palace. On December 9 of the same year, the shrines were transported from Gatchina to St. Petersburg, where they were placed in the court church of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the Winter Palace. In memory of this event, the Holy Synod established on October 12 (24), 1800, the annual celebration on this day of “the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, the Philermo Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist.”

For the knights in Gatchina, the Priory Palace was built, in addition, the Vorontsov Palace was transferred to their disposal, at which the Maltese Chapel was arranged. The emperor issued a decree accepting the island of Malta under the protection of Russia. In the calendar of the Academy of Sciences, at the direction of the emperor, the island of Malta was to be designated the "Province of the Russian Empire." Paul I wanted to make the title of grandmaster hereditary, and to annex Malta to Russia. On the island, the emperor planned to create a naval base to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean Sea and in southern Europe.

After the assassination of Paul, Alexander I, who ascended the throne, normalized relations with the British Empire and renounced the title of grandmaster. In 1801, at the direction of Alexander I, the Maltese cross was removed from the coat of arms. In 1810, a decree was signed to stop awarding the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Conspiracy and death

Contrary to the prevailing view, in the era of Paul I there was not one, but several conspiracies against the emperor. During the reign of Paul, three cases of alarm in the troops were recorded. Twice this happened during the emperor's stay in Pavlovsk, once - in the Winter Palace. After the coronation of Emperor Paul I, a secret organization arose in Smolensk (the Kanal shop). The purpose of the persons included in it was the murder of Paul. The plot was exposed. Participants were punished by exile or hard labor. Paul ordered the materials of the investigation of the conspiracy to be destroyed.

A conspiracy of high-ranking dignitaries took shape in 1800. Pavel I was killed by officers in the Mikhailovsky Castle in his own bedchamber on the night of March 12 (24), 1801. De Ribas, Vice-Chancellor Nikita Petrovich Panin, the commander of the Izyum Light Horse Regiment Leonty Bennigsen, Count Nikolai Zubov, the commanders of the guards regiments: Semenovsky - Leonty Depreradovich, Kavalergardsky - Fedor Uvarov, Preobrazhensky - Pyotr Talyzin participated in the conspiracy. The dissatisfied were also supported by the English Ambassador Whitworth, who was in love with Olga Zherebtsova (sister of the disgraced Zubov brothers), in whose house the conspirators gathered. It is believed that the conspiracy was subsidized by the British government, which thus tried to avoid a war with Russia over Malta. The soul and organizer of the conspiracy was Peter Palen, the St. Petersburg governor-general and head of the secret police.

The news of Paul's death aroused barely contained rejoicing in the streets of both capitals. “The hoarse roar of the Nord has ceased, The formidable, terrible look has closed,” Derzhavin wrote in those days. According to Vigel’s memoirs, the generals who delivered the message to Moscow on Palm Week “congratulated and greeted everyone who met with their eyes”:

This is one of those memories that time can never destroy: mute, universal joy, illuminated by the bright spring sun. Returning home, I could not get any sense: acquaintances constantly came and left, everyone spoke at the same time, everyone hugged, as on the day of Bright Sunday; not a word about the deceased, so as not for a moment to darken the heartfelt joy that burned in all eyes; not a word about the past, all about the present and the future. This day, so longed for by all, seemed especially prosperous to the messengers and messengers: everywhere they received them with open arms.

Notes by F. Vigel

The official cause of the death of Paul I was declared apoplexy.

Awards

Military ranks and titles

• Colonel of the Life Cuirassier Regiment (July 4 (15), 1762)
• Admiral General of the Russian Imperial Fleet (December 20 (31), 1762)

Orders and medals

Russian:

• Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (3 (14) October 1754)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (3 (14) October 1754)
• Order of St. Anne (3 (14) October 1754)
• Order of St. Vladimir 1st class (October 23 (November 3), 1782)
• Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Grand Commander's Cross (November 29 (December 10), 1798)

foreign:

• Polish Order of the White Eagle
• Prussian Order of the Black Eagle
• Swedish Order of the Seraphim (November 20 (December 1) 1772)
• Neapolitan Order of Saint Januarius
• Neapolitan Constantinian Order of St. George, grand cross
• Neapolitan Order of Saint Ferdinand and Merit, grand cross
• French Order of the Holy Spirit
• French Order of Our Lady of Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem

Personal life

Favorites

The first woman of Paul is considered to be the maid of honor Sofya Ushakova, who gave birth to his son Semyon. After marriage, Ekaterina Nelidova, “an ugly little brunette”, attracted his attention with her lively mind and mobile cheerful character. Her sincere and noble judgments corresponded to Paul's chivalrous aspirations to a greater extent than the "German accuracy and methodicalness" of his wife, the housewife of Pavlovsk. Over time, Nelidova, having completely mastered the mind and heart of the heir, learned to manage it. She declared that "God himself ordained her" to guard and guide Paul for the common good. Their connection was more moral than carnal; religious and mystical motives predominate in the surviving correspondence. When Maria Fedorovna realized the true nature of this connection, she concluded with the favorite "a real friendly alliance for the benefit of the person loved by both."

Kutaisov, Rostopchin and other ill-wishers of the Empress in 1798 convinced Paul that he was entirely under the care of his wife and her maid of honor, reigning in his name, and arranged for Nelidova to be replaced by a new lover - Anna Lopukhina. Nelidova's closest friend, Countess N. A. Buxgevden, was sent to Lode Castle, where the rejected favorite herself followed her.

Lopukhina was somewhat burdened by her position at court and, in particular, how it was flaunted: ships were called after her (“Grace” is the Russian translation of the name Anna); her name was emblazoned on the banners of the guard; she became the first woman to receive the Order of Malta. N.K. Schilder considered their relationship purely platonic: like any knight, Paul needed a lady of the heart, whom he could worship. Nevertheless, in the Mikhailovsky Castle, the emperor’s bedroom with the chambers of Lopukhina (as well as Kutaisov) was connected by a special staircase.

Family

Pavel I was married twice:

• 1st wife (from October 10 (21), 1773, St. Petersburg): Natalya Alekseevna(1755-1776), born Princess Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. She died in childbirth with the baby.
• 2nd wife (from October 7 (18), 1776, St. Petersburg): Maria Fedorovna(1759-1828), born Princess Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg, daughter of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. Paul I and Maria Feodorovna had 10 children:
  • Alexander I(1777-1825) - Tsarevich, and then the All-Russian Emperor from March 12 (24), 1801;
  • Konstantin Pavlovich(1779-1831) - Tsarevich (since 1799) and Grand Duke, Polish governor in Warsaw;
  • Alexandra Pavlovna(1783-1801) - Hungarian palatine;
  • Elena Pavlovna(1784-1803) - Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1799-1803);
  • Maria Pavlovna(1786-1859) - Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach;
  • Ekaterina Pavlovna(1788-1819) - 2nd Queen Consort of Württemberg;
  • Olga Pavlovna(1792-1795) - died at the age of 2 years;
  • Anna Pavlovna(1795-1865) - Queen consort of the Netherlands;
  • Nicholas I(1796-1855) - Emperor of All Russia since December 14 (26), 1825;
  • Mikhail Pavlovich(1798-1849) - Feldzeugmeister General of the Russian Army, founder of the first Artillery School in Russia.

Illegitimate children:

• Veliky, Semyon Afanasyevich(1772-1794) - from Sofia Stepanovna Ushakova (1746-1803);
• Musina-Yurieva, Marfa Pavlovna(1801-1803) - from Mavra Isidorovna Yurieva.

Memory

Story

Although the involvement of the sons in the conspiracy was not proven, the study of the reign of Pavel Petrovich was not encouraged in the first half of the 19th century. The materials compromising the conspirators were destroyed. “We don’t even have a brief, factual review of the Pavlovian period of Russian history: in this case, an anecdote pushed aside history,” historian S. V. Shumigorsky complained at the beginning of the 20th century. The circumstances of the death of the emperor, however, did not represent a big secret.

The perception of Paul by posterity is very ambiguous. In pre-revolutionary, and then Soviet historiography, such aspects of his reign as absurdly petty regulation of the life of subjects and repressions against the nobles for the most insignificant missteps were highlighted. He gained a reputation as a tyrant, tyrant and despot.

On the other hand, attempts were made (especially in the second half of the 20th century) to emphasize his chivalry and heightened sense of justice (“romantic on the throne”, “Russian Hamlet”), which was expressed in equal rejection of the court hypocrisy of the Catherine era and bloodthirsty Jacobinism. There is evidence that on the eve of the February Revolution, the Orthodox Church was preparing materials for the canonization of Paul. Calls for the canonization of Paul were also heard at the beginning of the 21st century.

In modern studies devoted to the study of the mechanism of formation of the historical memory of Russian society, it is emphasized that Paul I is not inscribed in any ideologically harmonious image of Russian history.

Named after Paul I

• City of Pavlograd
• City of Pavlovsk
• Alley of Emperor Paul I in Gatchina

Educational institutions

• Gymnasium No. 209 "Pavlovskaya Gymnasium" in St. Petersburg

monuments

At least six monuments were erected to Emperor Paul I on the territory of the Russian Empire:

• Vyborg. In the early 1800s, in Mon Repos Park, its then owner, Baron Ludwig Nicolai, in gratitude to Paul I, placed a high granite column with an explanatory inscription in Latin. The monument has been successfully preserved.
• Gatchina. On the parade ground in front of the Great Gatchina Palace there is a monument to Paul I by I. Vitali, which is a bronze statue of the emperor on a granite pedestal. It was opened on August 1, 1851. The monument has been safely preserved.
• Gruzino. On the territory of his estate, A. A. Arakcheev installed a cast-iron bust of Paul I on a cast-iron pedestal. To date, the monument has not been preserved.
• Mitava. In 1797, near the road to his estate Sorgenfrei, the landowner von Driesen erected a low stone obelisk in memory of Paul I, with an inscription in German. The fate of the monument after 1915 is unknown.
• Pavlovsk. On the parade ground in front of the Pavlovsk Palace there is a monument to Paul I by I. Vitali, which is a cast-iron statue of the emperor on a brick pedestal lined with zinc sheets. Opened June 29 (July 11), 1872. The monument has been successfully preserved.
• Sergiev Posad. To commemorate the visit of Paul I and his wife to the Savior Bethany Skete in 1797, an obelisk of white marble was erected on its territory, decorated with a marble plaque with an explanatory inscription. The obelisk was installed in an open gazebo, supported by six columns, near the chambers of Metropolitan Platon. It was demolished during the Soviet era.

During the post-Soviet period, at least two monuments were erected to Emperor Paul I in the Russian Federation:

• St. Petersburg. In the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Castle in May 2003, a monument to Paul I was erected by the sculptor V. E. Gorevoy (architect V. P. Nalivaiko).
• Moscow region. In the village of Avdotino, Yamkinsky village council, Noginsk district, Moscow region, on the Romanovskaya Walk of Fame, located on the territory of the Nikolo-Berlyukovsky monastery, on October 1, 2015, a bronze bust of Paul I was unveiled (sculptor A. A. Appolonov).

Image in art

In literature

• The scene of the murder in the Mikhailovsky Castle was captured by Pushkin in his youthful ode "Liberty". In the ode "Liberty", Pushkin calls him "the crowned villain."
• The urban legend about the ghost of Paul I, who wanders around the Engineer's Castle, is set out in the story "The Ghost in the Engineer's Castle" by N. S. Leskov (1882).
• Merezhkovsky's drama "Paul I" (1908) tells of a conspiracy against the emperor, with Paul himself appearing as a despot and tyrant, and his killers as guardians for the good of Russia.
• Yury Tynyanov's story Lieutenant Kizhe (1927) depicts in satirical colors the setting of Paul's reign.
• Vladislav Khodasevich's book about Paul I and his tragic fate remained unfinished.
• The book by Mark Aldanov "Devil's Bridge" describes the death of Empress Catherine, the accession of Paul, the reburial of Peter III and the fate of Catherine's favorites, in particular Prince Bezborodko. Aldanov's novel "Conspiracy" is dedicated to the murder of Pavel.
• In 1946, Olga Forsh published the historical novel Mikhailovsky Castle.
• V. Pelevin's novel "The Caretaker" (2015) is built on the assumption that Paul I faked his own death in order to become the first caretaker of the quasi-Masonic Idyllium.

To the cinema

Documentary

• Pavel I Petrovich - "Unenlightened absolutism". Documentary film from the series "Russian Tsars"

Feature cinema

• The Patriot (1928) - film by Ernst Lubitsch with Emil Jannings as Pavel.
• "Lieutenant Kizhe" (1934) - Mikhail Yanshin.
• Suvorov (1940) - film by Vsevolod Pudovkin with Apollon Yachnitsky as Pavel.

Russian Hamlet was called the contemporaries of Paul I.

Pavel Petrovich was born on September 20 (October 1), 1754, in the family of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (future Peter III) and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (future Catherine II). The place of his birth was the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg.

Portrait by G. H. Groth. Peter III Fedorovich (Karl Peter Ulrich) The State Tretyakov Gallery

Louis Caravaca. Portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (Sophia Augusta Frederick of Anhalt-Zerbst). 1745. Portrait gallery of the Gatchina Palace

Pavel Petrovich's childhood began here

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. 18th century engraving

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna expressed her goodwill towards the mother of the newborn by the fact that after the christening she herself brought her on a golden platter the decree of the cabinet on the issuance of 100,000 rubles to her. After the baptism at the court, a series of solemn holidays began on the occasion of the birth of Paul: balls, masquerades, fireworks lasted about a year. Lomonosov, in an ode written in honor of Pavel Petrovich, wished him to compare in business with his great great-grandfather, prophesied that he would liberate the Holy Places, step over the walls separating Russia from China.

***
Whose son was he?
Since 1744, Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov was a chamberlain of the Grand Duke and heir to the throne of Peter Fedorovich at the small court. .
Why, then, in 1752, chamberlain Sergei Vasilyevich suddenly began to enjoy success with the wife of the heir to the Russian throne? What happened then at the Russian court?

By 1752, the patience of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna snapped, who had long and unsuccessfully waited for an heir from the grand ducal couple. She kept Catherine under vigilant supervision, but now she has changed tactics. The Grand Duchess was granted some freedom, of course, with a known purpose. A medical fuss was organized around Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, and rumors began to spread about his resolution from forced celibacy. Saltykov, who himself participated in both the fuss and the spread of rumors, was quite well aware of the real situation, he decided that his hour had come.

According to one version, he was the father of the future Emperor Paul I

Portrait of S. V. Saltykov
When Catherine II gave birth to Paul, Bestuzhev-Ryumin reported to the Empress:
« ... that what was inscribed, according to the wise consideration of Your Majesty, took on a good and desirable beginning, - the presence of the executor of Your Majesty's highest will is now not only not necessary here, but even to achieve an all-perfect fulfillment and concealment for eternity of mystery would be harmful. With respect for these considerations, kindly, most merciful empress, order Chamberlain Saltykov to be Your Majesty's ambassador in Stockholm, under the King of Sweden.

Catherine II herself contributed to Saltykov's fame as "the first lover"; she, of course, counted on the domestic use of this image and did not want to spread such fame to a wider sphere. But the genie could not be kept in the lamp, a scandal erupted.

On the way to his destination, Saltykov was honored in Warsaw, warmly and cordially greeted in the homeland of Catherine II - in Zerbst. For this reason, rumors about his paternity grew stronger and spread throughout Europe. On July 22, 1762, two weeks after Catherine II came to power, she appointed Saltykov as Russian ambassador to Paris, and this was taken as confirmation of his closeness to her.

After Paris, Saltykov was sent to Dresden. Deserving from Catherine II the unflattering description of the "fifth wheel of the carriage." He never again appeared at court and died in almost total obscurity. He died in Moscow with the rank of major general in late 1784 or early 1785.

And now about one more legend about the birth of Tsarevich Paul.

It was resurrected in 1970 by the historian and writer N. Ya. Eidelman, who published the historical essay "Reverse Providence" in the Novy Mir magazine. Having studied the evidence about the circumstances of the birth of Pavel Petrovich, Eidelman does not exclude that Catherine II gave birth to a dead child, but this was kept secret, replacing him with another newborn, Chukhonian, that is, Finnish, a boy born in the village of Kotly near Oranienbaum. The parents of this boy, the family of the local pastor and all the inhabitants of the village (about twenty people) were sent under strict guard to Kamchatka, and the village The boilers were demolished, and the place where she stood was plowed up.

Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of Emperor Paul I as a child. 1761 Russian Museum

To this day no one knows whose son he is. Russian historian G.I. Chulkov in the book "Emperors: Psychological Portraits" wrote:
"He himself was convinced that Peter III was indeed his father. "

Surely, in early childhood, Paul heard gossip about his birth. So, he also knew that a variety of people considered him "illegitimate". It left an indelible mark on his soul.

***
Empress Elizabeth loved her great-nephew, she visited the baby twice a day, sometimes got out of bed at night and came to watch the future emperor.

And immediately after birth, she tore him from his parents. She herself began to lead the upbringing of the newborn.
The Empress surrounded her great-nephew with maids of honor, nannies and wet nurses, the boy got used to female affection.
Pavel liked to play with soldiers, firing cannons and models of warships.

Porcelain soldiers. Meissenskaya Models of cannons on a field carriage from

porcelain manufactory. Model J. Kendler collections of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich

Such a cannon was an exact copy of a real one and could fire both small cannonballs (buckshot bullets were used for this) and blank shots, i.e. shoot with ordinary gunpowder. Naturally, these amusements of the little Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich took place under the watchful eye of both educators and a specially appointed batman from the artillery team.
(Napoleon also played such soldiers with his son and nephews, and the composer Johannes Brahms simply adored this activity. Our famous compatriot A.V. Suvorov also loved this game very much)

Pavel enjoyed the company of peers, of whom Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin, Panin's nephew, and Count Andrei Kirillovich Razumovsky enjoyed his special disposition. It was with them that Pavel played with soldiers.

A.K. Razumovsky L. Guttenbrunn. Portrait of A.B. Kurakina
At the age of 4, he was taught to read and write.
As a child, Pavel had three Russian teachers who took care of his education and upbringing - Fedor Bekhteev, Semyon Poroshin and Nikita Panin.

F. Bekhteev - the first tutor of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna punished "pupil of the "women's chamber" suggest that he is a future man and King ..». Immediately upon arrival, he began to teach Pavel to read Russian and French in a very original alphabet.
During his studies, Bekhteev began to apply a special method that combined fun with learning, and quickly taught the Grand Duke to read and arithmetic with the help of toy soldiers and a folding fortress.
F. Bekhteev presented the tsarevich with a map of the Russian state with the inscription: “Here you see, sovereign, the inheritance that your glorious grandfathers spread with victories.”
Under Bekhteev, the first textbook, specially compiled for Pavel, “A Brief Concept of Physics for Use by His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich” was printed (St. Petersburg, 1760).

Semyon Andreevich Poroshin - the second educator of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, in the period 1762-1766, i.e. when Paul was 7-11 years old. Since 1762 he has been a permanent knight under Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. Poroshin treated the Grand Duke with the loving warmth of his elder brother (he was 13 years older than Paul), cared about the development of his spiritual qualities and heart, and gained more and more influence on him; the Grand Duke, in turn, was on friendly terms with him.

And in 1760, when Paul was 6 years old, the empress appointed a chamberlain Nikita Ivanovich Panin chief chamberlain (mentor) under Paul. Panin was then forty-two years old. For some reason, he seemed to the little Tsarevich a gloomy and terrible old man.

Paul rarely saw his parents.

On December 20, 1762, Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich was granted the title of Admiral General of the Russian Navy by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. His mentors in the difficult naval wisdom were I.L. Golenishchev-Kutuzov (father of the famous Russian commander), I.G. Chernyshev and G.G. Kushelev, who managed to instill in the heir a love for the fleet, which he retained for the rest of his life.

Delapier N.B. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich in an admiral's uniform.

When Paul was 7 years old,
Empress Elizaveta Petrovna died and he got the opportunity to constantly communicate with his parents. But Peter paid little attention to his son. Only once did he wander into his son's lesson and, after listening to his answer to the teacher's question, exclaimed not without pride:
"I see this rascal knows things better than we do."
As a token of his goodwill, he immediately granted Pavel the rank of corporal of the guard.

Pavel was a very sensitive boy, shuddering fearfully at any unexpected knock and quickly hid under the table. For several years now, a strange fear haunted Paul. It was difficult even for patient Panin to get used to Pavel's fears, to his constant tears at dinner.

The ghost of the strangled father, Peter III, stands before the eyes of little Pavel. He does not tell anyone about this memory of his. Pavel Petrovich matured early and at times even seemed like a little old man.

Peter III Fedorovich

Now the fate of Paul more and more resembled the fate of Hamlet. The father was overthrown by the mother from the throne and, with her consent, was killed. The murderers were not punished, but enjoyed all the benefits at court. In addition, the mental health of the unbalanced Paul resembled the madness of Hamlet.

Fate did not deprive Pavel Petrovich of the ability to science.
Here is a list of subjects mastered by him: history, geography, mathematics, astronomy, Russian and German, Latin, French, drawing, fencing and, of course, Holy Bible.

His teacher of the law was Father Platon (Levshin), one of the most educated people of his time, the future Metropolitan of Moscow. Metropolitan Platon, recalling the training of Paul, wrote that his
“The high pupil, fortunately, was always disposed to piety, and whether reasoning or conversation about God and faith was always pleasant to him.”

The education of the Tsarevich was the best one could get at that time.

Once in a history class, the teacher listed about 30 names of bad monarchs. At this time, five watermelons were brought into the room. Only one of them was good. Pavel Petrovich surprised everyone:
"Out of 30 rulers - not a single good one, and out of five watermelons - one is good."
The boy was humorous.

Pavel Petrovich read a lot.
Here is a list of books that the Grand Duke got acquainted with: the works of the French enlighteners: Montesquieu, Rousseau, D "Alembert, Helvetius, the works of the Roman classics, the historical works of Western European authors, the works of Cervantes, Boileau, La Fontaine. The works of Voltaire, The Adventures of Robinson by D. Defoe , M. V. Lomonosov.

Pavel Petrovich knew a lot about literature and theater, but most of all he loved mathematics. Educator S.A. Poroshin spoke highly of the successes of Pavel Petrovich. He wrote in his Notes:
“If His Highness was a particular person and could completely indulge in mathematical teaching alone, then, in terms of his sharpness, he could very conveniently be our Russian Pascal”

Pavel Petrovich himself felt these abilities in himself. And as a gifted person, he could have an ordinary human desire to develop in himself those abilities to which his soul was drawn. But he couldn't do it. He was the heir. Instead of his favorite activities, he was forced to attend long dinners, dance at balls with ladies-in-waiting, and flirt with them. The atmosphere of almost outright debauchery in the palace oppressed him.

***
1768
Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich is 14 years old.

A well-known doctor who arrived from England inoculates Pavel Petrovich with smallpox. Before that, he conducts a detailed examination of Paul. Here is his conclusion:

"... I was glad to see that the Grand Duke was beautifully built, vigorous, strong and without any natural ailment. ... Pavel Petrovich ... is of medium height, has excellent facial features and is very well built ... he is very dexterous, affable, cheerful and very reasonable, which is not difficult to notice from his conversations, in which there is a lot of wit."

Vigilius Eriksen. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich. 1768 Museum, Sergiev Posad

His mother, Empress Catherine II, decided to replace Russian teachers with foreign ones.

The teachers were: Osterwald, Nicolai, Lafermière and Leveque. All of them were ardent supporters of the Prussian military doctrine. Pavel Petrovich fell in love with parades, like his father Peter III. Catherine called it military tomfoolery.

Alexander Benois. Parade under Paul I. 1907

Catherine the Great is to blame for the fact that her son did not receive a Russian military education - the best in Europe. And she didn't do it by accident. The Empress understood that Russian generals and officers knew their worth, they won military victories more than once. And visiting emperors and empresses, in order to maintain their influence in the country, need to lower this price by all means, including by invited foreign experts to train the crown princes.

Carl Ludwig Christinek. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich in the costume of a holder of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. 1769

At this time, Nikita Ivanovich Panin, a zealous freemason, gave Paul mysterious manuscripts to read, including "The History of the Order of the Knights of Malta." And the Tsarevich caught fire with the theme of chivalry. The writings proved that the emperor should look after the welfare of the people, as a kind of spiritual leader. The emperor must be initiated. He is the anointed one. It is not the church that should lead him, but he the church. These crazy ideas mixed up in Paul's unhappy head with that childish faith in God's providence, which he learned from infancy from Queen Elizabeth, mothers and nannies who once cherished him.

And so Paul began to dream of true autocracy, of a true kingdom for the good of the people.

***
1772
Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich came of age.

Some courtiers said that Catherine II should involve Pavel Petrovich in the management of the state. Pavel Petrovich himself told his mother about this! But Catherine II won the throne not to yield it to Paul. She decided to distract her son with marriage.

Catherine II began to look for a suitable daughter-in-law. Such that she would bind Russia by dynastic ties with the reigning houses of Europe, and at the same time be submissive and devoted to Catherine II.

Back in 1768, she instructed the Danish diplomat Asseburg to find a bride for the heir. Asseburg drew Catherine's attention to the Princess of Württemberg - Sophia - Dorothea - Augusta, who at that time was only ten years old. He was so captivated by her that he constantly wrote to Catherine II about her. But she was too young for her age.

Unknown artist. Portrait of Princess Sophia Dorothea Augusta Louise of Württemberg. 1770. Alexander Palace-Museum, Pushkin.

Asseburg sent a portrait of Louise of Saxe-Gotha to Catherine, but the proposed matchmaking did not take place. The princess and her mother were zealous Protestants and did not agree to convert to Orthodoxy.

Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Assenburg offered Princess Wilhelmina of Darmstadt to Catherine. He wrote:
"... the princess is described to me, especially from the kindness of the heart, as the perfection of nature; ... that she has a reckless mind prone to contention ..."

The King of Prussia Frederick II was very eager that the marriage of the Tsarevich with the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt took place. Catherine II was very unhappy with this and at the same time wished for the soonest end of the courtship of the Tsarevich.

She invited the Landgravine and her three daughters to Russia. These daughters: Amalia-Frederica - 18 years old; Wilhelmina - 17; Louise - 15 years old

Friederike Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt

Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt

Louise Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt

A Russian warship was sent for them. The empress sent 80,000 guilders to raise her. Asseburg accompanied the family. In June 1773 the family arrived in Lübeck. Three Russian frigates were waiting for them here. The princesses were placed on one of them, on the rest their retinue was located.

Catherine II wrote:
“My son from the first meeting fell in love with Princess Wilhelmina; I gave three days to the deadline to see if he hesitated, and since this princess is superior to her sisters in every respect ... the older one is very meek; the younger one seems to be very smart; in the middle, all the qualities we desire: her face is charming, her features are regular, she is affectionate, intelligent; I am very pleased with her, and my son is in love ... then on the fourth day I turned to the landgravine ... and she agreed ... "

Among the documents of the Ministry of Justice for more than a hundred years, the diary of the 19-year-old Grand Duke was kept in a sealed bag. In it, he recorded his experiences while waiting for the bride:
"..joy mixed with anxiety and awkwardness, who is and will be the friend of all life ... a source of bliss in the present and in the future "

***
1773

First marriage
On August 15, 1773, Princess Wilhelmina received holy anointing with the title and name of Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna.
On September 20, 1773, a solemn marriage took place in the Kazan Cathedral of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna. The groom is 19 years old, the bride is 18 years old.

Alexander Roslin. Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1776 State Hermitage Museum

The wedding celebrations lasted 12 days and ended with fireworks on the square near the Summer Palace.
Catherine's generosity was great. The Landgravine was presented with 100,000 rubles and, in addition, 20,000 rubles for expenses on the return trip. Each of the princesses received 50,000 rubles, each of the retinue received 3,000 rubles. Thanks to the graces of Catherine, the dowries of the princesses were secured.

Only one event overshadowed the wedding celebrations: as in Shakespeare's play, the shadow of the murdered father of Pavel Petrovich, Emperor Peter Fedorovich, appeared at the wedding. As soon as the reflections of the festive fireworks went out, the rebel Pugachev appeared, declaring himself Peter III.

Emelyan Pugachev. Ancient engraving.

The honeymoon of the young spouses was overshadowed by the anxieties of the peasant war.
But despite this, everyone in the family circle was happy. Pavel Petrovich was pleased with his wife. The young wife turned out to be an active person. She dispelled her husband's fears, took him on country walks, to ballet, arranged balls, created her own theater, in which she herself played in comedies and tragedies. In a word, the closed and unsociable Pavel came to life with a young wife, in whom he did not have a soul. The Grand Duke never dared to change her.

Natalia Alekseevna did not feel love for her husband, but, using her influence, she tried to keep him away from everyone except a narrow circle of her friends. According to contemporaries, the Grand Duchess was a serious and ambitious woman, with a proud heart and a strong temper. They had been married for two years, but there was still no heir.

In 1776, the court of Empress Catherine was agitated: the long-awaited pregnancy of Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna was announced. On April 10, 1776, at four in the morning, the Grand Duchess began to experience the first pains. She had a doctor and a midwife with her. The contractions lasted for several days, and soon the doctors announced that the child was dead. Catherine II and Pavel were nearby.

The baby could not be born naturally, and the doctors did not use either obstetric forceps or caesarean section. The child died in the womb and infected the mother's body.
After five days of torment, at 5 am on April 15, 1776, Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna died.
The empress did not like Natalya Alekseevna, and the diplomats gossiped that she did not let the doctors save her daughter-in-law. The autopsy, however, showed that the woman in labor suffered from a defect that would have prevented her from giving birth to a child naturally, and that the medicine of the time was powerless to help her.
The funeral of Natalya Alekseevna took place on April 26 at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Paul could not find the strength to attend the ceremony.

Catherine wrote to Baron Grimm:
"I started by suggesting travel, changing places, and then I said: the dead cannot be resurrected, we must think about the living and go to Berlin for our treasure."
And then she found in the box of the deceased her love notes by Andrey Rozumovsky and handed them to her son.
And Pavel Petrovich quickly consoled himself.

***
1776
Second marriage

It had only been about three months of his widowhood!

Pavel Petrovich goes to Berlin to propose to the Princess of Württemberg Sophia-Dorotea-August. Throughout the journey, Paul wrote to his mother:
“I found my bride the way I could only wish myself mentally: not bad-looking, great, slender, not shy, answers intelligently and quickly ...”

The princess was baptized according to the Orthodox rite, taking the name Maria Feodorovna. She began to learn Russian zealously.
On September 26, 1776, the wedding took place in St. Petersburg.

The next day, Paul wrote to his young wife:
"Every manifestation of your friendship, my dear friend, is extremely precious to me and I swear to you that every day I love you more and more. May God bless our union just as He created it."

Alexander Roslin. Maria Feodorovna shortly after the wedding. The State Hermitage Museum

Maria Feodorovna turned out to be a worthy wife. She gave birth to Pavel Petrovich 10 children, of which only one died in infancy, and of the remaining 9, two, Alexander and Nikolai, became Russian autocrats.

When in 1777 they had their first child , Catherine II dealt a strong blow to the soul of Pavel Petrovich - a kind family man and did not allow him to become a happy parent.

Catherine II only from a distance showed the parents of the born boy and took him to her forever. She did the same with his other children: sons Konstantin and Nikolai and two daughters.

K. Hoyer (?) Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna with their sons Alexander and Konstantin. 1781

I.-F.Anting. Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna with their sons in the park. 1780. Black ink and gilded bronze on glass. State Hermitage

***
1781
Travel to Europe
In 1780, Catherine II broke close ties with Prussia and moved closer to Austria. Pavel Petrovich did not like such diplomacy. And in order to neutralize Paul and his entourage, Catherine II sends her son and his wife on a long journey.
P they traveled under false names - the count and countess of the North.

When in 1781, while passing through Vienna, Pavel Petrovich was supposed to attend a court performance and it was decided to give Hamlet, the actor Brockman refused to play this role, saying that he did not want to so that there are two Hamlets in the hall. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II sent the actor 50 chervonets in gratitude for his tact.

They visited Rome, where they were received by Pope Pius VI.

Reception by Pope Pius VI of the Count and Countess of the North on February 8, 1782. 1801. Etching by A. Lazzaroni. GMZ "Pavlovsk"

In April they visited Turin. In Italy, the grand ducal couple begins to acquire antique sculpture, Venetian mirrors. All this will soon be included in the decoration of the Pavlovsk Palace.

About his position "Hamlet" Pavel Petrovich was silent for the first time. But once in a friendly (promising to become related) circle, he stopped holding back. Pavel Petrovich began to speak sharply about his mother and her politics.

These statements reached Catherine. In anticipation of the troubles threatening Russia, she said:

"I see in what hands the empire will fall after my death."

In the summer of 1782 they visited Paris. In Versailles, the grand-ducal couple was received by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, in Paris - by the Prince of Orleans, and in Chantilly - by Prince Condé. According to contemporaries in Paris, they said that
"The king received the Count of the North in a friendly way, the Duke of Orleans - in a bourgeois way, the Prince of Condé - in a royal way."
Grand ducal couple visited the workshops of artists, got acquainted with hospitals, manufactories, government agencies.
From Paris they brought furniture, Lyon silks, bronzes, porcelain and luxurious gifts from Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette: tapestries and a unique Sèvres toilet set.

Parisian service. France 1782. Sevres manufactory

Gift of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and the Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich.

Toilet utensil. France. Sevr. 1782. GMZ "Pavlovsk".

We visited Holland, the house of Peter the Great in Zaandam.

Unknown artist. External view of the House of Peter the Great in Zaandam.

Then Pavel Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna spent almost a month visiting her parents in Montbéliard and Etupe.
The young people returned home in November 1782.

***
Gatchina
In 1783, Catherine II gave her son the Gatchina estate.
In 1765, Catherine II bought the estate in order to give her favorite, Count G.G. Orlov. It was for him, according to the project of A. Rinaldi, that the palace was built in the form of a hunting castle with towers and an underground passage. The laying of the Gatchina Palace took place on May 30, 1766; the construction of the palace was completed in 1781.

Palace facades. 1781 drawing

Big Gatchina Palace. Painting on porcelain. Author unknown. Second half of XIX

Having left the capital for Gatchina, Pavel adopted customs that were sharply different from those in St. Petersburg. In addition to Gatchina, he owned the Pavlovskaya estate near Tsarskoye Selo and a summer cottage on Kamenny Island. Pavlovsk and Gatchina became grand ducal residences for 13 long years.

In order to occupy himself with at least something, Pavel Petrovich turned here into an exemplary landowner-owner. The day started early. Exactly at seven in the morning, the emperor, together with the grand dukes, was already riding on horseback to meet the troops, He was present at the exercises of the Gatchina troops and parades, which took place daily on a huge parade ground in front of the palace and ended with the divorce of the guard.

Schwartz. Parade in Gatchina

At five o'clock the whole family went for a daytime walk: on foot in the garden, or in "karatai" or lines in the park and the Menagerie, where the children especially liked to visit. There, wild animals were kept in special enclosures: deer, fallow deer, guinea fowl, pheasants and even camels.

In general, life was full of conventions and saturated with strict observance of the regulations, which everyone, without exception, had to follow - both adults and children. Getting up early in the morning, walking or riding, lunches, dinners that began at the same time, performances and evening meetings - all this was subject to strict etiquette and went according to the order once and for all established by the emperor.

Pavel I, Maria Feodorovna and their children. Artist Gerhardt Kugelgen

In the Gatchina period of life, the prince:
* *creates his own mini-army.
The army of Pavel Petrovich grows here every year and acquires an increasingly clear organization. The manor itself soon turned into "Gatchina Russia".

Infantry, cavalry, consisting of their gendarmerie, dragoon, hussar and Cossack regiments, as well as a flotilla with the so-called "naval artillery" were represented here. In total, by 1796 - 2,399 people. And the flotilla by this time consisted of 24 ships.
The only case of the participation of Gatchina troops in hostilities was the 1788 campaign in the Russo-Swedish War.
Despite the small number, by 1796 the Gatchina troops were one of the most disciplined and well-trained units of the Russian army.

** prepares the Charter of the navy, which entered into force in 1797.

The charter introduced new positions in the fleet - a historiographer, professor of astronomy and navigation, and a drawing master. An important direction in the policy of Paul I in relation to the fleet was the assertion of the principle of unity of command. The double subordination of one private to several chiefs of the same rank was excluded.

The Grand Duke had two libraries in the Gatchina Palace.
The basis of the Gatchina library of Pavel Petrovich was the library of Baron I.A. Korfa, which Catherine II acquired for her son. There was also a library formed by Paul I himself.
The library was located in the Tower Study, and consisted of books that he used, which were constantly at his fingertips.

This collection is relatively small: 119 titles, 205 volumes; of them in Russian 44 titles, 60 volumes. With a small number of books, their extraordinary diversity in content attracts attention. Nearby are a variety of works:

"Atlas of the Russian Empire", "Diplomatic ceremonial of European courts", "Modern knowledge of horses", "Discourses on sea signals",

"A detailed description of the ore business", "The Charter of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Turin",

"A General History of the Ceremonies, Customs, and Religious Practices of All the Peoples of the World", "General Studies on the Fortification, Attack, and Defense of Fortresses."

In addition, there was historical literature.

Gatchina became Pavel Petrovich's favorite place to stay. And the word "Gatchinets" has become almost a household word. It meant a disciplined, executive, honest and devoted person.

***
1796
long-awaited throne
On the night of November 7, 1796, in the palace church, Metropolitan Gabriel announced to the capital's nobles, generals and top dignitaries of the state about the death of Catherine II and the accession to the throne of Paul I. Those present began to swear allegiance to the new emperor.

A few hours have passed since the announcement of Paul I as emperor. He went for a walk in Petersburg. Passing by the theater building, built at the behest of Catherine II, Paul I shouted: "Remove it!"
500 people were sent to the building, by the morning the theater was razed to the ground.

The day after the accession of Paul I to the throne, a thanksgiving service was served in the Winter Palace. To the horror of those present, in deathly silence, the protodeacon proclaimed: “To the most pious, most autocratic great sovereign, our Emperor Alexander Pavlovich ...” - and then he only noticed a fatal mistake. His voice broke off. The silence became ominous. Pavel I quickly approached him: “I doubt, father Ivan, that you will live to see the solemn commemoration of Emperor Alexander».
On the same night, having returned home half-dead from fear, the protodeacon dies.

Thus, under the sign of a mystical omen, the short reign of Paul I began.

Pavel Petrovich was crowned in Moscow. The crornation took place on April 27, 1797, the celebration was held very modestly, not like his mother. He was crowned with his wife. This was the first joint coronation of an emperor and an empress in the history of the Russian Empire.

After the coronation, the emperor traveled around the southern provinces for two months, and returning to St. Petersburg, he laid on himself the crown of the Grand Master of the spiritual-knightly order of St. John of Jerusalem. The Order needed military assistance. And Paul I took over the patronage of the Order of Malta .. Europe did not like this, and for the Russian people the order was alien. This did not add authority to Paul I.

Paul I in the crown, dalmatics and signs of the Order of Malta. Artist V. L. Borovikovsky. Around 1800.
After accession to the throne, Paul I resolutely set about breaking the rules established by his mother.

He transferred the ashes of his father Peter III to the imperial tomb - the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

He ordered the release of the writer N.I. Novikov, to return A.N. Radishchev from exile. He carried out a provincial reform, reducing the number of provinces and liquidating the Yekaterinoslav province. Special mercy was shown to the rebel Kosciuszko: the emperor personally visited the prisoner in prison and granted him freedom, and all the Poles arrested in 1794 were soon released. Pavel I fully rehabilitated Kosciuszko, gave him financial assistance and allowed him to leave for America.

Paul I adopted a new law on succession to the throne, which drew a line under a century of palace coups and women's rule in Russia. Now power legitimately passed to the eldest son, in his absence to the eldest man in the family.

With his first manifesto, Emperor Paul reduced peasant labor for landlords (“corvée”) to three days a week, that is, by half. On Sunday, as the day of the Lord, it was forbidden to force the peasants to work.
Paul I perfectly understood the role of the book in the life of society, its influence on the mood of the minds.

In 1800, a decree of Paul I to the Senate was published, which stated:
"So how corruption of faith, civil law and morality is inflicted through various books exported from abroad, then from now on, until the decree, we order to prohibit the entry from abroad of all kinds of books, in whatever language they may be, without exception, into our state, uniformly and music.

Under Paul I, three monuments were erected: the statue of Peter the Great, the obelisk "Rumyantsev's Victories" designed by Brenna on the Field of Mars and the monument to A.V. Suvorov in the form of the god of war Mars, which was replaced by Emperor Paul I, ordered by Emperor Paul I to the sculptor M. Kozlovsky, but already installed after the death of the emperor.
In 1800, the construction of the Kazan Cathedral was started according to the project of A. Voronikhin.

During his reign, the General Armorial was compiled and approved. Under him, the distribution of princely titles began, which was almost never practiced before.

During the reign of Paul I, 17 new battleships, 8 frigates were launched in the Baltic and Black Sea fleets, and the construction of 9 more large ships began. In St. Petersburg, at the end of Galernaya Street, a new shipyard was built, called the New Admiralty.

The results of the activities of Paul I in the maritime department were significantly higher than the results of the activities carried out in the previous reign.

In memoirs and history books, dozens and thousands of those exiled to Siberia during the Pavlovian time are often mentioned. In fact, the number of those exiled does not exceed ten people in the documents. These people were exiled for military and criminal offenses: bribes, theft on an especially large scale, and others.

Literature:

1.I.Chizhova. Immortal triumph and mortal beauty. EKSMO.2004.
2.Toroptsev A.P. the rise and fall of the Romanov dynasty. Olma Madia Group.2007
3.Ryazantsev S. Horns and crown Astrel-SPb.2006

4 Chulkov G. Emperors (Psychological portraits)

5. Schilder N.K. Emperor Paul the First. SPb. M., 1996.

6. Pchelov E. V. The Romanovs. History of the dynasty. - OLMA-PRESS.2004.

7. Grigoryan V. G. The Romanovs. Biographical guide. —AST, 2007

8.photo from the website Our heritage magazine website http://www.nasledie-rus.ru

9. Photo from the website of the State Hermitage http://www.hermitagemuseum.org

The reign of Paul 1 is one of the most mysterious periods in Russian history. He ascended the throne after his mother (the great Catherine 2), but was never able to become a worthy successor to her policy.

The years of the reign of Paul 1 - 1796-1801. During these five years, he managed to do a lot, including the strong displeasure of the nobility and other statesmen. disliked his mother and her politics. This attitude was, in particular, because Catherine 2, fearing for her rights to the throne, did not allow her son to participate in state affairs. Therefore, he lived and dreamed of how he would lead his empire.

The reign of Paul 1 began with a change. It should be recalled that Peter 1 changed the traditional order of succession, first royal, and then imperial power, which was the beginning of Paul 1 returned everything to its place: power was again transferred through the male line (by seniority). His order removed women from power forever. By changing the system of succession to the throne, the new emperor got rid of those people who occupied prominent government positions during the reign of his mother. Thus, Paul formed a new nobility and got rid of the old overseers. He also enacted a "decree on a three-day corvee" and abolished the ban on complaining about their masters for peasants. This gives the right to say that the emperor was aimed at softening serfdom.

These measures were very dissatisfied with the nobles, landowners and all who owned the peasants. Strengthened hostility to Paul and a significant restriction adopted by his mother. In his immediate environment, thoughts about the overthrow of the emperor and the ascension to the throne of his son, the future Alexander 1, begin to emerge.

The reign of Paul 1 (its brief description will be supplemented below) was favorable for the peasant population of the country. But what happened in domestic politics?

Pavel 1 was a lover of the Prussian order, but this love did not reach fanaticism. Having completely lost confidence and disillusioned with England, he is moving closer to another great power - France. The result of this rapprochement, Paul saw a successful struggle with and isolation of England, as well as the struggle for their colonies. Pavel decides to send the Cossacks to capture India, but this campaign was economically unprofitable for the country and also intensified the emerging contradictions between the authorities and the nobility. It is worth noting that the reign of Paul 1 was too dependent on his mood: orders were taken very thoughtlessly and spontaneously, spontaneous decisions were sometimes too strange.

In March 1801, there was a coup d'etat, after which the emperor was killed (according to many historians, the conspirators did not want to kill him, but after refusing to abdicate, they decided to take this step).

The reign of Paul 1, although short, left a bright mark on the history of our country. He did a lot for the peasantry, but little for the nobles and landowners, for which he was killed by the conspirators.

Pavel 1

Pavel Petrovich was born on September 20, 1754 in the city of Petersburg, in the Summer Palace. Later, at the direction of Paul, this palace was demolished, and the Mikhailovsky Castle was erected in that place. At the birth of Paul 1, Paul's father, Prince Pyotr Fedorovich, the Shuvalov brothers and Empress Elizaveta Petrovna were present. After the birth of Pavel, his mother and father, in fact, due to the political struggle, almost did not take part in the upbringing of their child. In his childhood, Pavel was deprived of the love of his relatives, since, by order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, he was separated from his parents and surrounded by a large number of nannies and educators. Despite the outward resemblance of Pavel and his father, rumors constantly spread at the court that the child was born from an alliance with one of his favorites, Sergei Saltykov. These rumors were aggravated by the fact that Pavel was born after 10 years of the joint marriage of Catherine and Peter, when many already considered their marriage fruitless.

Childhood and upbringing of Paul 1

One of the first people involved in the education of Paul was the famous diplomat F.D. Bekhteev, obsessed with the observance of various charters, orders, military discipline, bordering on drill. Bakhteev even published a newspaper in which he reported on all the actions of the boy Pavel. In 1760, grandmother Elizaveta Petrovna changed her mentor, creating new prescriptions that indicated the main parameters for the training of the future emperor; N.I. became his new mentor. Panin. The new educator reached the age of 42, had extensive knowledge, introducing additional subjects when teaching Paul. A significant role in the upbringing of Pavel was played by his entourage, among which were the most educated people of that time, among whom it is worth highlighting G. Teplov, Prince A. Kurakin. Among the mentors of Paul was S.A. Poroshin, who kept a diary from 1764 to 1765, which later became a source for studying the personality of Paul 1. To educate Paul, his mother Ekaterina acquired a large Korf library. Paul studied such subjects as: arithmetic, history, geography, the Law of God, fencing, drawing, astronomy, dancing, as well as French, Italian, German, Latin and Russian. In addition to the main training program, Pavel became interested in the study of military affairs. During his studies, Pavel showed good abilities, had a developed imagination, loved books, and at the same time was impatient and restless. He loved French and German, mathematics, military exercises and dances. At that time, Paul received the best education that others could only dream of.

In 1773, Paul married Wilhelmina Hesse of Darmstadt, who later cheated on him with Count Razumovsky, dying 2.5 years later in childbirth. In the same year, Paul 1 found himself a new wife, who became Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg, who later received the name after the adoption of Orthodoxy. Traditionally, at that time, the final stage of education was a trip abroad, on which Pavel and his new wife went in 1782 under the names of the fictitious Count and Countess of the North. During the journey, Paul visited Italy, France, the journey abroad lasted 428 days, during which the future emperor covered 13,115 miles of the way.

Relations between Catherine 2 and Paul 1

Immediately after his birth, Paul was moved away from his mother, and later Catherine saw her son very rarely and only with the permission of her mother, Elizabeth. When Pavel was 8 years old, his mother, with the support of the guards, made a coup, during which, under unclear circumstances, Pavel's father died. Upon the accession of Catherine 2 to the throne, the troops swore an oath not only to her, but also to her son Paul. But Catherine did not intend in the future, when her son came of age, to transfer all power to him using him only as a possible heir to the throne after her death. During the uprising, the name of Pavel was used by the rebels, Pugachev himself said that after the overthrow of the power of Catherine, he did not want to reign and was busy only in favor of Tsarevich Pavel. Despite this upbringing as heir to the throne, the older Paul became, the further he was kept from public affairs. In the future, mother Empress Catherine 2 and son Pavel became strangers to each other. For Catherine, the son Pavel was an unloved child, born to please the politics and interests of the state, which irritated Catherine, who contributed to the spread of rumors that Pavel was not her own child, but was replaced in youth by order of mother Elizabeth. When Paul came of age, Catherine deliberately did not signify the identical approach of this event. In the future, people close to Paul fell into disfavor with the Empress, the aggravation of relations between mother and son occurred in 1783. Then, for the first time, Pavel, invited to discuss state issues, showed the opposite point of view to the empress in solving important state affairs. Later, before the death of Catherine 2, she prepared a manifesto, according to which Paul was awaiting arrest, and his son Alexander was to ascend the throne. But this manifesto of the empress after her death was destroyed by the secretary A.A. Bezborodko, thanks to which, under the new emperor Paul 1, he received the highest rank of chancellor.

Reign of Paul 1

On November 6, 1796, having reached the age of 42, Paul 1 ascended the throne, after which he began to actively destroy the orders established by his mother. On the day of his coronation, Paul adopted a new law, according to which women were deprived of the right to inherit the Russian throne. Subsequently, the reforms carried out by Emperor Paul 1 greatly weakened the positions of the nobility, among which it is worth noting the introduction of corporal punishment for committing crimes, an increase in taxes paid, limited the power of the nobles, and introduced responsibility for the evasion of nobles from military service. The reforms carried out during the reign of Paul 1 improved the situation of the peasants. Among the innovations, it is worth noting that the abolition of corvée on holidays and weekends and no more than three days a week, grain fault was abolished, preferential sales of salt and bread began to be carried out, a ban was introduced on the sale of peasants without land and the division of peasant families when they were sold. The administrative reform carried out by Pavel restored the boards previously simplified by Catherine, the department of water communications was created, the state treasury was created and the post of state treasurer was introduced. But the main part of the reforms carried out by Emperor Paul 1 concerned the army. During the reforms, new military regulations were adopted, the service life of recruits was limited to 25 years. A new form of clothing was introduced, among which it is worth noting the introduction of an overcoat, which later saved thousands of soldiers from the cold of the war of 1812, and for the first time in Europe badges for privates were introduced. The widespread construction of new barracks began, and such new units as engineering, courier, and cartographic units appeared in the army. Great influence was given to the drill of the army, for the slightest fault of the officers, demotion was expected, which made the situation among the officers nervous.

Assassination of Emperor Paul 1

The murder of Pavel took place on the night of March 11-12 in 1801, guards officers consisting of 12 people took part in the conspiracy. Bursting into the emperor's bedroom, during the conflict that arose, Emperor Paul 1 was beaten and strangled. The inspirers of the assassination were N. Panin and P. Palen (they did not directly participate in the murder). The reason for the discontent of the rebels was unpredictable, especially with regard to the nobility and army officers. The official cause of Pavel's death was apoplexy. In the future, almost all the evidence incriminating the conspirators was destroyed.

The results of Paul's reign are perceived ambiguously, on the one hand, this is a petty and absurd regulation of everything, an infringement of the rights of the nobility, which strengthened his reputation as a tyrant and tyrant. On the other hand, Paul's heightened sense of justice is noted, and the rejection of the era of the hypocritical rule of his mother Catherine, as well as innovative ideas and separated positive aspects of the reforms he is carrying out in the empire.

Name: Pavel I

Age: 46 years old

Place of Birth: St. Petersburg

Place of death: St. Petersburg

Activity: Russian Emperor

Family status: was married

Biography of Emperor Paul I

If not for the constant humiliation and insults, perhaps Emperor Paul I became a ruler equal in majesty to Peter. However, his domineering mother thought otherwise. At the mention of Paul, an image of a short-sighted martinet-"Prussian" arises in one's thoughts. But was he really like that?

Pavel I - childhood

Paul was born under very mysterious circumstances. Emperor Peter III and Catherine II could not give birth to an heir for ten years. There was a simple explanation for this: Peter was a chronic alcoholic. Nevertheless, the Empress became pregnant. Few people considered Peter III the father of the baby, but they preferred to keep quiet about this.

The born long-awaited child did not become happiness for the parents. The father matured that the son was not his, and the mother considered the appearance of the baby, rather, a “state project” than a desired child. Strangers took up the upbringing of the newborn. Pavel experienced the whole horror of the saying: "V seven nannies a child without an eye." He was often forgotten to feed, repeatedly dropped, left alone for a long time. He hasn't seen his parents in years! The boy grew up shy, withdrawn and deeply unhappy...

Pavel I: Far from the throne

In 1762, Peter III was overthrown, and his wife Catherine II took the Russian throne for a long 34 years. She treated her son coldly and with suspicion: he was the direct heir to the throne, and the empress was not going to share power with anyone.

September 20, 1772, Paul turned 18 years old - it's time to ascend the throne. However, all that he received from his mother was the position of Admiral General of the Russian Navy and colonel of the cuirassier regiment. For the prince, this was the first serious humiliation. Others followed him: he was not awarded a seat either in the Senate or in the Imperial Council. On April 21, on her birthday, the Empress gave Pavel a cheap watch, and Count Potemkin, her favorite, an expensive one for 50 thousand rubles. And the whole yard saw it!

Pavel I_- two wives, two worlds

To distract her son from thoughts of power, Catherine decided to marry him. The choice fell on the Prussian princess Wilhelmina. In the autumn of 1773, the young people got married. Contrary to expectations, the marriage did not bring happiness to Paul. His wife turned out to be a powerful woman - she actually subjugated her husband and began to cheat on him. It did not last long - three years later Wilhelmina died in childbirth. The empress consoled the grief-stricken Pavel in a peculiar way: she personally handed over to her son the love correspondence of his wife with Razumovsky, a close friend of the prince. The double betrayal made Paul an even more gloomy and closed person.

The emperor did not remain single for long. In the same year, 1776, he went to Berlin to meet the 17-year-old Princess Sophia Dorothea. Prussia made a strong impression on Pavel: unlike Russia, the Germans were dominated by order and exemplary morality. Pavel's love for a foreign country quickly grew into sympathy for his bride; The German woman reciprocated. The marriage took place in October 1776. In Russia, Sophia Dorothea received the name Maria Fedorovna.

For many years, Paul lived in two worlds - in his personal life he enjoyed happiness, and in his public life he suffered from general contempt. If in Europe he had long been revered as a full-fledged emperor, then in Russia every courtier looked at him with a squeamish grin - the country was ruled by Catherine II and her lover Count Potemkin.

When the sons of Paul grew up. the empress personally took up their education, demonstrating that she would rather agree to give the throne to one of her grandchildren than to her son. The Tsarevich's nerves gave way... On May 12, 1783, Catherine and Paul finally broke up. In August of the same year, Pavel received an estate near St. Petersburg as a gift from his mother. It meant only one thing - an invitation to voluntary exile.

Pavel I - Prisoner of Gatchina

Pavel's new estate became for him both a place of unspoken imprisonment and an island of long-awaited freedom.

First of all, the prince defended the right to have three personal battalions in Gatchina consisting of 2399 people. They lived and served according to Prussian laws; Paul himself commanded the daily exercises.

Having inflicted a dressing down on the soldiers, the prince went to supervise numerous construction projects. In Gatchina, under his leadership, a hospital, a school, manufactories for the production of porcelain and glass, four churches (Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic and Finnish), as well as a library were built. Its funds totaled 36 thousand volumes.

Pavel forgot his sharpness and unsociableness only in the evenings with his relatives. He spent all his evenings with his wife Maria Fedorovna. Dinner was modest - a glass of Burgundy claret and sausages with cabbage. It seemed that until the end of his days he would lead this measured and calm life.

Pavel I - The Great and Terrible

Catherine II died unexpectedly - November 6, 1796 from apoplexy. Had the empress lived six months longer, the throne would have gone to Alexander. All the papers with the order of his succession were ready.

The suddenly acquired power became for Paul not only a long-awaited gift, but also a real curse: he got the country in a terrible state. The ruble depreciated, corruption and theft reigned everywhere, up to 12 thousand pending cases accumulated in the Senate. Three-quarters of the officer corps of the Russian army existed only on paper. Many received ranks without serving, desertion became the norm, and the fleet was still equipped with cannons from the time of Peter I.

With lawlessness and decadence, morals Paul fought hard. Arrests, trials and exile began all over the country. From the punishment of the highest ranks, neither connections nor past merits saved. The officers also had a hard time: Paul forbade revelry and trips to balls, they were replaced by early rises and exhausting exercises. Dissatisfaction with Paul's reforms was also expressed by ordinary officials - as early as 5 in the morning they were required to be in the service.

Paul I reigned for only four years and four months. During this time, he demoted 7 marshals and more than 300 senior officers, distributed 600 thousand peasants to landowners and issued 2179 laws.

Despite Paul's tough temper, his eldest son Alexander always sided with his father. But the emperor managed to lose this ally as well. Once, in front of everyone, he called his son a fool, which restored the heir against himself.

Feast on blood

The emperor foresaw his death. In any case, numerous memoirs of his contemporaries testify to this.

Here S. M. Golitsyn writes about the last evening: “It was customary that after dinner everyone went into another room and said goodbye to the sovereign. That evening he did not say goodbye to anyone and said only: "What will be, will not be avoided."

Another eyewitness said: “After dinner, the emperor looked at himself in the mirror, which had a flaw and made faces crooked. He laughed at this and said: "Look, what a funny mirror; I see myself in it, with my neck on the side." It was an hour and a half before his death .., "

The last meeting of the conspirators took place on the night of March 12, 1801. Everything was commanded by General Bennigsen, the princes Zubov, and also Count Palen. Dissatisfaction with the policies of Paul I was discussed over champagne and wine. Having reached the desired condition, the men moved to the chambers of the emperor.

Having overcome the barrier of two sentries, the conspirators rushed to Pavel. invited the emperor to sign an act of renunciation. Paul's refusal infuriated the visitors. According to one version, they strangled the unfortunate man with a pillow, and then cut the body with sabers.

Even before dawn, St. Petersburg learned that Pavel had died suddenly from an "apoplexy," and Alexander had taken his place. In the Northern capital, stormy fun began ...

A few years later, General Ya.I. Sanglen, head of the secret police under Alexander I, wrote: “Pavel will forever remain a psychological task. With a kind, sensitive heart, an exalted soul, an enlightened mind, a fiery love for justice .. he was an object of horror for his subjects. Neither his contemporaries nor his descendants-historians could fully understand the nature of Paul I.