Russian Hamlet Pavel 1. Pavel I. The last palace coup of the outgoing era

During his reign, Paul the First did not execute anyone

Historical science has not yet known such a large-scale falsification as an assessment of the personality and activities of the Russian Emperor Paul the First. After all, what is there Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Stalin, around whom polemical spears are now basically breaking! No matter how you argue, "objectively" or "non-objectively" they killed their enemies, they still killed them. And Paul the First did not execute anyone during his reign.

He ruled more humanely than his mother Catherine II, especially in relation to ordinary people. Why is he a "crowned villain," as Pushkin puts it? Because, without hesitation, he fired negligent bosses and even expelled them from St. Petersburg (about 400 people in total)? Yes, many of us now dream of such a “crazy ruler”! Or why is he, in fact, "crazy"? Yeltsin, excuse me, sent some needs in public, and he was considered simply an ill-mannered "original".

Not a single decree or law of Paul the First contains signs of insanity - on the contrary, they are distinguished by reasonableness and clarity. For example, they put an end to the madness that was going on with the rules of succession to the throne after Peter the Great.

The 45-volume Complete Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, published in 1830, contains 2,248 documents of the Pavlovsk period (two and a half volumes), and despite the fact that Paul reigned for only 1,582 days! Therefore, he issued 1-2 laws every day, and these were not grotesque reports about “lieutenant Kizha”, but serious acts that later became part of the “Complete Code of Laws”! Here's "crazy" for you!

It was Paul I who legally secured the dominant role Orthodox Church among other churches and denominations in Russia. In the legislative acts of Emperor Paul it is said: "The leading and dominant faith in the Russian Empire is the Christian Orthodox Catholic Eastern Confession", "The Emperor, who possesses the Throne of All Russia, cannot profess any other faith than the Orthodox." We will read approximately the same thing in the Spiritual Regulations of Peter I. These rules were strictly observed until 1917. Therefore, I would like to ask our adherents of “multiculturalism”: when did Russia manage to become “multi-confessional”, as you tell us now? During the atheist period 1917–1991? Or after 1991, when the Catholic-Protestant Baltic States and the Muslim republics of Central Asia "fell off" from the country?

Many Orthodox historians are wary of the fact that Paul was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1798-1801), regarding this order as a "paramasonic structure".

But it was precisely one of the then main Masonic powers, England, that overthrew Paul's power in Malta, occupying the island on September 5, 1800. This at least suggests that Paul was not recognized in the English Masonic hierarchy (the so-called "Scottish Rite") his. Maybe Paul was "one of his own" in the French Masonic "Great East" if he wanted to "make friends" with Napoleon? But this happened precisely after the capture of Malta by the British, and before that Paul fought with Napoleon. One must also understand that the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta was required by Paul I not only for self-affirmation in the company of European monarchs. In the calendar of the Academy of Sciences, according to his instructions, the island of Malta was to be designated as the "province Russian Empire". Pavel wanted to make the title of grandmaster hereditary, and to annex Malta to Russia. On the island, he planned to create a naval base to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean Sea and in southern Europe.

Finally, Paul is known to have favored the Jesuits. This is also blamed on him by some Orthodox historians in the context of the complex relationship between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. But there is also a specific historical context. In 1800, it was the Jesuit Order that was considered the main ideological enemy of Freemasonry in Europe. So the Freemasons could in no way welcome the legalization of the Jesuits in Russia and treat Paul I as a Freemason.

THEM. Muravyov-Apostol repeatedly spoke to his children, future Decembrists, “about the enormity of the coup that took place with the accession of Paul the First to the throne - a coup so sharp that descendants would not understand it,” and General Yermolov argued that “the late emperor had great features , its historical character has not yet been determined with us.

For the first time since the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, the serfs also take the oath to the new tsar, which means that they are considered subjects, not slaves. Corvee is limited to three days a week with weekends on Sundays and public holidays, and since there are many Orthodox holidays in Rus', this was a great relief for the working people. Paul the First forbade the sale of courtyards and serfs without land, as well as separately if they were from the same family.

As in the time of Ivan the Terrible, in one of the windows Winter Palace a yellow box is installed where everyone can throw a letter or petition addressed to the sovereign. Pavel himself had the key to the room with the box, and every morning he himself read the requests of his subjects and printed the answers in the newspapers.

“Emperor Paul had a sincere and firm desire to do good,” A. Kotzebue wrote. - Before him, as before the kindest sovereign, the poor and the rich, the nobleman and the peasant, all were equal. Woe to the mighty one who arrogantly oppressed the wretched. The road to the emperor was open to everyone; the title of his favorite did not protect anyone before him ... ” Of course, the nobles and the rich, who were accustomed to impunity and life for free, did not like this. “Only the lower classes of the urban population and the peasants love the emperor,” testified the Prussian envoy in St. Petersburg, Count Brühl.

Yes, Paul was extremely irritable and demanded unconditional obedience: the slightest delay in the execution of his orders, the slightest malfunction in the service entailed the most severe reprimand and even punishment without any distinction of persons. But he is just, kind, generous, always benevolent, inclined to forgive insults and ready to repent of his mistakes.

However, the best and good undertakings of the king were broken against a stone wall of indifference and even obvious hostility of his closest subjects, outwardly devoted and servile. Historians Gennady Obolensky in the book "Emperor Paul I" (M., 2001) and Alexander Bokhanov in the book "Paul the First" (M., 2010) convincingly prove that many of his orders were reinterpreted in a completely impossible and treacherous way, causing an increase in hidden dissatisfaction with the king . “You know what my heart is, but you don’t know what kind of people they are,” Pavel Petrovich wrote bitterly in one of his letters about his entourage.

And these people vilely killed him, 117 years before the murder of the last Russian sovereign - Nicholas II. These events are certainly connected, the terrible crime of 1801 predetermined the fate of the Romanov dynasty.

Decembrist A.V. Poggio wrote (by the way, it is curious that many objective testimonies about Paul belong to the Decembrists): “... a drunken, violent crowd of conspirators rushes in to him and disgustingly, without the slightest civilian purpose, drags him, strangles, beats ... and kills him! Having committed one crime, they completed it with another, even more terrible. They frightened, captivated the son himself, and this unfortunate one, having bought a crown with such blood, will languish, abhor and involuntarily prepare an outcome unhappy for himself, for us, for Nicholas throughout his reign.

But I would not, as many admirers of Paul do, directly contrast the reigns of Catherine the Second and Paul the First. Of course, the moral character of Paul in better side differed from the moral image of the loving empress, but the fact is that her favoritism was, among other things, a method of government, far from always ineffective. Catherine needed favorites not only for carnal pleasures. Favored by the empress, they worked hard, God forbid, especially A. Orlov and G. Potemkin. The intimate closeness of the empress and favorites was a certain degree of trust in them, a kind of initiation, or something. Of course, there were idlers and typical gigolos like Lansky and Zubov next to her, but they appeared already in last years Catherine's life, when she somewhat lost her grasp of reality ...

Another thing is the position of Paul as heir to the throne under the system of favoritism. A. Bokhanov writes: in November 1781, “the Austrian Emperor (1765–1790) Joseph II arranged a magnificent meeting (for Paul. - A. B. ), and in a series of ceremonial events, the play "Hamlet" was scheduled at the court. Then the following happened: the leading actor Brockman refused to play the main role, because, according to him, "there will be two Hamlets in the hall." The emperor was grateful to the actor for his wise warning and rewarded him with 50 ducats. Paul did not see Hamlet; it remained unclear whether he knew this tragedy of Shakespeare, the external plot of which was extremely reminiscent of his own fate.

And the diplomat and historian S.S. Tatishchev spoke to the famous Russian publisher and journalist A.S. Suvorin: "Pavel was Hamlet in part, at least his position was Hamletian," Hamlet "was banned under Catherine II", after which Suvorin concluded: "Indeed, it is very similar. The only difference is that instead of Claudius, Catherine had Orlov and others…”. (If we consider the young Pavel Hamlet, and Alexei Orlov, who killed Paul's father Peter III, Claudius, then the unfortunate Peter will be in the role of Hamlet's father, and Catherine herself will be in the role of Hamlet's mother Gertrude, who married the murderer of her first husband).

Paul's position under Catherine was indeed Hamletian. After the birth of his eldest son Alexander, the future Emperor Alexander I, 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. On August 14, 1792, Catherine II wrote to her correspondent, Baron Grimm: “First, my Alexander will marry, and there, in time, he will be crowned with all kinds of ceremonies, celebrations and folk festivals.” Apparently, therefore, 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 of A. A. Bezborodko, which allowed him to receive the highest rank of chancellor under the new emperor.

Having ascended the throne, Pavel solemnly transferred the ashes of his father from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral simultaneously with the burial of Catherine II. At the funeral ceremony, depicted in detail on a long ribbon-painting by an unknown (apparently Italian) artist, the regalia of Peter III - the royal baton, scepter and large imperial crown - were carried by ... regicides - Count A.F. Orlov, Prince P.B. Baryatinsky and P.B. Passek. In the cathedral, Paul personally performed the ceremony of crowning the ashes of Peter III (only crowned persons were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral). In the headstones of the tombstones of Peter III and Catherine II, the same date of burial was carved - December 18, 1796, which is why the uninitiated may get the impression that they lived together long years and died on the same day.

Invented in Hamlet style!

In the book by Andrei Rossomahin and Denis Khrustalev "The Challenge of Emperor Paul, or the First Myth of the 19th Century" (St. Petersburg, 2011), for the first time, another "Hamlet" act of Paul I is examined in detail: a challenge to a duel that the Russian emperor sent to all the monarchs of Europe as an alternative to wars in which tens and hundreds of thousands of people die. (This, by the way, is exactly what L. Tolstoy rhetorically suggested in War and Peace, who himself did not favor Paul the First: they say, let emperors and kings personally fight instead of destroying their subjects in wars).

What was perceived by contemporaries and descendants as a sign of "madness" is shown by Rossomahin and Khrustalev as a subtle game of the "Russian Hamlet" that broke off during the palace coup.

Also, for the first time, evidence of the “English trace” of the conspiracy against Paul is convincingly presented: for example, the book reproduces in color English satirical engravings and caricatures of Paul, the number of which increased precisely in the last three months of the emperor’s life, when preparations began for the conclusion of a military-strategic alliance between Paul and Napoleon Bonaparte. As you know, shortly before the murder, Pavel ordered an entire army of Cossacks of the Don Cossacks (22,500 sabers) under the command of ataman Vasily Orlov to set out on a campaign agreed with Napoleon on India in order to "alarm" English possessions. The task of the Cossacks was to conquer Khiva and Bukhara "in passing". Immediately after the death of Paul I, Orlov's detachment was withdrawn from the Astrakhan steppes, and negotiations with Napoleon were curtailed.

I am sure that the "Hamlet theme" in the life of Paul the First will still become the subject of attention of historical novelists. I think that there will also be a theater director who will stage Hamlet in a Russian historical interpretation, where, while preserving the Shakespearean text, the action will take place in Russia in late XVIII century, and Tsarevich Pavel will act as Prince Hamlet, the murdered Peter III will act as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Alexei Orlov will play the role of Claudius, etc. episode of the production of Hamlet in St. Petersburg by a foreign troupe, after which Catherine II and Orlov will ban the play. Of course, the real Tsarevich Pavel, finding himself in the position of Hamlet, outplayed everyone, but anyway, after 5 years, the fate of Shakespeare's hero was waiting for him ...

Special for the Centenary

During the stay of the heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, in Vienna in 1781, it was decided to arrange a grand performance in honor of the Russian prince. Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was chosen, but the actor refused to play the main role: "You're crazy! There will be two Hamlets in the theater: one on the stage, the other in the imperial box!”…

Indeed, the plot of Shakespeare's play was very reminiscent of the story of Paul: his father, Peter III, was killed by his mother, Catherine II, next to her was the all-powerful temporary worker, Potemkin. And the prince, removed from power, is exiled, like Hamlet, to travel abroad ...

Indeed, the play of Paul's life unfolded like a drama. He was born in 1754 and was immediately taken from his parents by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who decided to raise the boy herself. The mother was allowed to see her son only once a week. At first she yearned, then she got used to it, calmed down, especially since a new pregnancy came.

Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich as a child.

Here we can see that first, imperceptible crack, which later turned into a gaping abyss that forever separated Catherine and the adult Pavel. The separation of a mother from a newborn child is a terrible trauma for both.

Over the years, the mother became alienated, but Pavel never had the first sensations of the warm, tender, perhaps obscure, but unique image of the mother with which almost every person lives ...

Panin's lessons

Of course, the child was not left to the mercy of fate, he was surrounded by care and affection, in 1760, the educator N.I. Panin appeared next to Pavel, an intelligent, educated man who greatly influenced the formation of his personality.

It was then that the first rumors spread that Elizabeth wanted to raise her heir from Paul, and send the boy’s parents hated by her to Germany.

Antoine Pen. Portrait of Catherine II in her youth.

Such a turn of events for the ambitious, dreaming of the Russian throne, Catherine was impossible. The imperceptible crack between mother and son, again against their will, expanded: Catherine and Paul, albeit hypothetically, on paper, as well as in gossip, became rivals, competitors in the struggle for the throne. This affected their relationship.

When Catherine came to power in 1762, she could not, looking at her son, not feel anxiety and jealousy: her own position was precarious - a foreigner, a usurper, a man-killer, the mistress of her subject.

In 1763, a foreign observer noted that when Catherine appeared, everyone fell silent, “ and the crowd always runs after the Grand Duke, expressing their pleasure with loud cries". In addition, there were people who were happy to drive new wedges into the crack.

Panin, as a representative of the aristocracy, dreamed of limiting the power of the empress and wanted to use Paul for this, putting the ideas of the constitution into his head. At the same time, he imperceptibly, but consistently set his son against his mother.

Nikita Ivanovich Panin is the mentor of Paul I, who prevented the marriage of Catherine II and the father of her three children, Grigory Orlov.

As a result, having not firmly mastered Panin's constitutional ideas, Pavel was used to rejecting the principles of his mother's government, and therefore, having become king, he so easily went to overthrow the fundamental foundations of her policy.

In addition, the young man learned the romantic idea of chivalry, and with it - love for the outside of the matter, decorativeness, lived in a world of dreams far from life.

Marriages on earth and in heaven

1772 is the time of Paul's coming of age. The hopes of Panin and others that Pavel would be admitted to management did not come true. Catherine was not going to transfer power to the legitimate heir of Peter III. She took advantage of her son's majority to remove Panin from the palace.

Soon the empress found a bride for her son. In 1773, at the behest of his mother, he married Princess Augusta Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (in Orthodoxy - Natalia Alekseevna) and was quite happy. But in the spring of 1776, in severe labor pains grand duchess Natalya Alekseevna died.

Natalya Alekseevna, born Princess Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt - Grand Duchess, the first wife of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (later Emperor Paul I).

Pavel was inconsolable: his Ophelia was no longer in the world ... But the mother cured her son of grief in the most cruel way, similar to amputation.

Having found the love correspondence of Natalya Alekseevna and Andrei Razumovsky, a courtier and close friend of Paul, the empress handed these letters to Paul. He was immediately cured of grief, although one can imagine what a cruel wound was then inflicted on the thin, fragile soul of Paul ...

Almost immediately after the death of Natalia, a new bride was found for him - Dorothea Sophia Augusta Louise, Princess of Wirtemberg (Maria Feodorovna in Orthodoxy). Pavel, unexpectedly for himself, immediately fell in love with his new wife, and the young people lived in happiness and peace.

Maria Feodorovna; before converting to Orthodoxy - Sophia Maria Dorothea Augusta Louise of Württemberg - Princess of the Württemberg house, second wife of the Russian Emperor Paul I. Mother of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I.

In the autumn of 1783, Pavel and Maria moved to the former estate of Grigory Orlov, Gatchina (or, as they wrote then, Gatchino), donated to them by the empress. Thus began the long Gatchina epic of Pavel ...

Gatchina model

In Gatchina, Pavel created not just a nest, cozy house, but built a fortress for himself, opposing it throughout Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo, the "lecherous" court of Empress Catherine.

Prussia, with its cult of order, discipline, strength, and drill, was chosen as a model for imitation by Paul. In general, the Gatchina phenomenon did not appear immediately. Let's not forget that Paul, becoming an adult, did not receive any power and his mother deliberately kept him away from state affairs.

Divorce of the guard in the halls of the Gatchina Palace.

Waiting for the “queue” for the throne lasted for Paul for over twenty years, and the feeling of his worthlessness did not leave him. Gradually, he found himself in military affairs. A thorough knowledge of all the subtleties of the statutes led to strict adherence to them.

Linear tactics, built on regular, rigorous training in well-coordinated movement techniques, required complete automatism. And this was achieved by continuous exercises, divorces, parades. As a result, the elements of the parade ground completely captured Pavel. This specific form of life of the then military man became the main one for him, turned Gatchina into a small Berlin.

Paul's small army was dressed and drilled according to the charters of Frederick II, the heir himself lived the harsh life of a warrior and ascetic, not like these debauchees from the ever-celebrating nest of vice - Tsarskoye Selo!

But here, in Gatchina, there is order, work, business! The Gatchina model of life, built on strict police supervision, seemed to Pavel the only worthy and acceptable one. He dreamed of spreading it to all of Russia, for which he set about becoming emperor.

Parade in Gatchina.

Toward the end of Catherine's life, the relationship between son and mother went wrong irreparably, the crack between them became a gaping abyss.

Pavel's character gradually deteriorated, suspicions grew that his mother, who never loved him, could deprive him of his inheritance, that her favorites want to humiliate the heir, they are watching him, and the hired villains are trying to poison - so, once they even put stacks in sausages.

The fight against "debauchery"

Finally, on November 6, 1796, Empress Catherine died. Paul came to power. In the first days of his reign, it seemed that a foreign power had landed in St. Petersburg - the emperor and his people were dressed in unfamiliar Prussian uniforms.

Pavel immediately transferred the Gatchina order to the capital. Black-and-white striped booths brought from Gatchina appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg, the police furiously attacked passers-by, who at first took lightly the strict decrees banning tailcoats and vests.

In the city that lived a midnight life under Catherine, a curfew was established, many officials and military men who somehow did not please the sovereign, in the blink of an eye lost their ranks, titles, positions and went into exile.

Coronation of Paul I 1796-1801.

The divorce of the palace guards - a familiar ceremony - suddenly turned into an important event state scale with the presence of the sovereign and the court.

Why did Paul become such an unexpectedly harsh ruler? After all, when he was young, he once dreamed of the reign of law in Russia, he wanted to be a humane ruler, to reign according to irrevocable (“indispensable”) laws, containing goodness and justice.

But not everything is so simple. Paul's philosophy of authority was complex and contradictory. Like many rulers in Russia, he tried to combine autocracy and human freedoms, "the power of the individual" and " executive power of the state”, in a word, tried to combine the incompatible.

In addition, over the years of waiting for his “turn” to the throne, a whole icy mountain of hatred and revenge has grown in Paul’s soul. He hated his mother, her orders, her favorites, her leaders, in general, the whole world created by this extraordinary and brilliant woman, called by the descendants of the “Catherine era”.

A.N. Benoit. Vakhtparad under Emperor Paul I.

You can rule with hatred in your soul, but not for long ... As a result, no matter what Paul thought about law and law, ideas of tougher discipline and regulation began to prevail in his entire policy. He started building just one " executive state". Perhaps this is the root of his tragedy ...

The fight against the "licentiousness" of the nobles meant, first of all, the infringement of their rights; restoring order, sometimes necessary, in the army and the state apparatus led to unjustified cruelty.

Undoubtedly, Paul wished well for his country, but he was drowning in "small things." And they are just the most remembered people. So, everyone laughed when he forbade the use of the words "snub-nosed" or "Masha".

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

In pursuit of discipline and order, the king knew no measure. His subjects heard many wild decrees of the sovereign. So, in July 1800, all printing houses were prescribed “seal so that nothing can be printed in them". Well said! True, this ridiculous order soon had to be canceled - labels, tickets and labels were needed.

It was also forbidden for the audience to applaud in the theater, if this was not done by the sovereign sitting in the royal box, and vice versa.

Digging your own grave

Communication with the emperor became painful and dangerous for others. In place of the humane, tolerant Catherine was a strict, nervous, uncontrollable, absurd person. Seeing that his wishes remained unfulfilled, he was indignant, punished, scolded.

As H. M. Karamzin, Pavel wrote, “ to the inexplicable surprise of the Russians, he began to dominate the general horror, not following any charters, except for his own whim; considered us not subjects, but slaves; executed without guilt, rewarded without merit, took away the shame from the execution, the charm from the award, humiliated the ranks and ribbons with wastefulness in them ... Heroes accustomed to victories, he taught to march.

Having, like a man, a natural inclination for doing good, he fed on the bile of evil: daily he invented ways to frighten people, and he himself was more afraid of everyone; thought to build himself an impregnable palace and built a tomb».

Assassination of Emperor Paul I.

In other words, it didn't end well. A conspiracy arose against Pavel among the officers and among the aristocracy, on March 11, 1801, a night coup took place, and in the newly built Mikhailovsky Castle, Pavel was killed by conspirators who broke into the royal bedroom ...

Evgeny Anisimov

During his reign, Paul the First did not execute anyone

The 45-volume Complete Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, published in 1830, contains 2,248 documents of the Pavlovsk period (two and a half volumes), despite the fact that Paul reigned for only 1,582 days! Therefore, he issued 1-2 laws every day, and these were not grotesque reports about "Lieutenant Kizha", but serious acts that later became part of the "Complete Code of Laws"! Here's "crazy" for you!

It was Paul I who legally secured the dominant role of the Orthodox Church among other churches and confessions in Russia. In the legislative acts of Emperor Paul it is said: "The leading and dominant faith in the Russian Empire is the Christian Orthodox Catholic Eastern Confession", "The Emperor, who possesses the Throne of All Russia, cannot profess any other faith than the Orthodox." We will read approximately the same thing in the Spiritual Regulations of Peter I. These rules were strictly observed until 1917. Therefore, I would like to ask our adherents of “multiculturalism”: when did Russia manage to become “multi-confessional”, as you tell us now? During the atheistic period 1917-1991? Or after 1991, when the Catholic-Protestant Baltic States and the Muslim republics of Central Asia "fell off" from the country?

Many Orthodox historians are wary of the fact that Paul was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1798-1801), regarding this order as a "paramasonic structure".

But it was precisely one of the then main Masonic powers, England, that overthrew Paul's power in Malta, occupying the island on September 5, 1800. This at least suggests that Paul was not recognized in the English Masonic hierarchy (the so-called "Scottish Rite") his. Maybe Paul was "one of his own" in the French Masonic "Great East" if he wanted to "make friends" with Napoleon? But this happened precisely after the capture of Malta by the British, and before that Paul fought with Napoleon. One must also understand that the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta was required by Paul I not only for self-affirmation in the company of European monarchs. In the calendar of the Academy of Sciences, according to his instructions, the island of Malta was to be designated as a "province of the Russian Empire." Pavel wanted to make the title of grandmaster hereditary, and to annex Malta to Russia. On the island, he planned to create a naval base to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean Sea and in southern Europe.

For the first time since the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, serfs also take the oath to the new tsar, which means that they are considered subjects, not slaves. The corvée is limited to three days a week with the provision of days off on Sundays and holidays, and since there are many Orthodox holidays in Rus', this was a great relief for the working people. Paul the First forbade the sale of courtyards and serfs without land, as well as separately if they were from the same family.

As in the time of Ivan the Terrible, a yellow box is installed in one of the windows of the Winter Palace, where everyone can drop a letter or petition addressed to the sovereign. Pavel himself had the key to the room with the box, and every morning he himself read the requests of his subjects and printed the answers in the newspapers.

“Emperor Paul had a sincere and firm desire to do good,” A. Kotzebue wrote. - Before him, as before the kindest sovereign, the poor and the rich, the nobleman and the peasant, all were equal. Woe to the mighty one who arrogantly oppressed the wretched. The road to the emperor was open to everyone; the title of his favorite did not protect anyone before him ... ” Of course, the nobles and the rich, who were accustomed to impunity and life for free, did not like this. “Only the lower classes of the urban population and the peasants love the Emperor,” testified the Prussian envoy in St. Petersburg, Count Brühl.

And these people meanly killed him, 117 years before the murder of the last Russian sovereign - Nicholas II. These events are certainly connected, the terrible crime of 1801 predetermined the fate of the Romanov dynasty.

But I would not, as many admirers of Paul do, directly contrast the reigns of Catherine the Second and Paul the First. Of course, the moral character of Paul for the better differed from the moral character of the loving empress, but the fact is that her favoritism was, among other things, a method of government, far from always ineffective. Catherine needed favorites not only for carnal pleasures. Favored by the empress, they worked hard, God forbid, especially A. Orlov and G. Potemkin. The intimate closeness of the empress and favorites was a certain degree of trust in them, a kind of initiation, or something. Of course, there were idlers and typical gigolos like Lansky and Zubov next to her, but they appeared already in the last years of Catherine's life, when she somewhat lost her grasp of reality ...

Another thing is the position of Paul as heir to the throne under the system of favoritism. A. Bokhanov writes: in November 1781, “the Austrian Emperor (1765-1790) Joseph II arranged a magnificent meeting (for Paul. - A. B. ), and in a series of ceremonial events, the play "Hamlet" was scheduled at the court. Then the following happened: the leading actor Brockman refused to play the main role, because, according to him, "there will be two Hamlets in the hall." The emperor was grateful to the actor for his wise warning and rewarded him with 50 ducats. Paul did not see Hamlet; it remained unclear whether he knew this tragedy of Shakespeare, the external plot of which was extremely reminiscent of his own fate.

Having ascended the throne, Pavel solemnly transferred the ashes of his father from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral simultaneously with the burial of Catherine II. At the funeral ceremony, depicted in detail on a long picture-tape by an unknown (apparently Italian) artist, the regalia of Peter III - the royal baton, scepter and large imperial crown - were carried by ... regicides - Count A.F. Orlov, Prince P.B. Baryatinsky and P.B. Passek. In the cathedral, Paul personally performed the ceremony of crowning the ashes of Peter III (only crowned persons were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral). In the headstones of the tombstones of Peter III and Catherine II, the same date of burial was carved - December 18, 1796, which is why the uninitiated may get the impression that they lived together for many years and died on the same day.

Invented in Hamlet style!

What was perceived by contemporaries and descendants as a sign of "madness" is shown by Rossomahin and Khrustalev as a subtle game of the "Russian Hamlet" that broke off during the palace coup.

Also, for the first time, evidence of the “English trace” of the conspiracy against Paul is convincingly presented: for example, the book reproduces in color English satirical engravings and caricatures of Paul, the number of which increased precisely in the last three months of the emperor’s life, when preparations began for the conclusion of a military-strategic alliance between Paul and Napoleon Bonaparte. As you know, shortly before the assassination, Pavel ordered an entire army of Cossacks of the Don Cossacks (22,500 sabers) under the command of ataman Vasily Orlov to set out on a campaign agreed with Napoleon on India in order to "disturb" the English possessions. The task of the Cossacks was to conquer Khiva and Bukhara "in passing". Immediately after the death of Paul I, Orlov's detachment was withdrawn from the Astrakhan steppes, and negotiations with Napoleon were curtailed.

I am sure that the "Hamlet theme" in the life of Paul the First will still become the subject of attention of historical novelists. I think that there will also be a theater director who will stage Hamlet in a Russian historical interpretation, where, while preserving the Shakespearean text, the action will take place in Russia at the end of the 18th century, and Tsarevich Pavel will act as Prince Hamlet, and as the ghost of Hamlet's father - the murdered Peter III, in the role of Claudius - Alexei Orlov, etc. Moreover, the episode with the performance played in Hamlet by the actors of a traveling theater can be replaced with an episode of the production of Hamlet in St. Petersburg by a foreign troupe, after which Catherine II and Orlov will ban the play . Of course, the real Tsarevich Pavel, finding himself in the position of Hamlet, outplayed everyone, but anyway, after 5 years, the fate of Shakespeare's hero was waiting for him ...

Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich as a child.

Over the years, the mother became alienated, but Pavel never had the first sensations of the warm, tender, perhaps obscure, but unique image of the mother with which almost every person lives ...

Panin's lessons

It was then that the first rumors spread that Elizabeth wanted to raise her heir from Paul, and send the boy’s parents hated by her to Germany.

Antoine Pen. Portrait of Catherine II in her youth.

In 1763, a foreign observer noted that when Catherine appeared, everyone fell silent, “and a crowd always runs after the Grand Duke, expressing their pleasure with loud cries.” In addition, there were people who were happy to drive new wedges into the crack.

Nikita Ivanovich Panin is the mentor of Paul I, who prevented the marriage of Catherine II and the father of her three children, Grigory Orlov.

In addition, the young man mastered the romantic idea of chivalry, and with it - love for the outside of the matter, decorativeness, lived in a world of dreams far from life.

Marriages on earth and in heaven

Soon the empress found a bride for her son. In 1773, at the behest of his mother, he married Princess Augusta Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (in Orthodoxy - Natalya Alekseevna) and was quite happy. But in the spring of 1776, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna died in severe labor pains.

Natalya Alekseevna, born Princess Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt - Grand Duchess, the first wife of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (later Emperor Paul I).

Pavel was inconsolable: his Ophelia was no longer in the world ... But the mother cured her son of grief in the most cruel way, similar to amputation.

Having found the love correspondence of Natalia Alekseevna and Andrei Razumovsky, a courtier and close friend of Paul, the empress handed these letters to Paul. He was immediately cured of grief, although one can imagine what a cruel wound was then inflicted on the thin, fragile soul of Paul ...

Almost immediately after the death of Natalia, a new bride was found for him - Dorothea Sophia Augusta Louise, Princess of Wirtemberg (in Orthodoxy, Maria Feodorovna). Pavel, unexpectedly for himself, immediately fell in love with his new wife, and the young people lived in happiness and peace.

In the autumn of 1783, Pavel and Maria moved to the former estate of Grigory Orlov, Gatchina (or, as they wrote then, Gatchina), donated to them by the empress. Thus began the long Gatchina epic of Pavel ...

Emperor Paul I did not have an attractive appearance: short stature, snub-nosed short nose ... He knew about this and could, on occasion, joke about his appearance and his entourage: “My ministers ... oh, these gentlemen really wanted to lead me by the nose, but unfortunately for them, I don't have it!"

Paul I tried to establish a form of government that would eliminate the causes that gave rise to wars, riots and revolutions. But some of Catherine's nobles, accustomed to licentiousness and drunkenness, weakened the opportunity to realize this intention, did not allow it to develop and establish itself in time to change the life of the country on a solid basis. The chain of accidents is linked into a fatal pattern: Paul could not do this, and his followers no longer set this task as their goal.

F. Rokotov "Portrait of Paul I in childhood"

S.S. Schukin "Portrait of Emperor Paul I"

Pavel I Petrovich, Emperor of All Russia, was born on September 20, 1754 in the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg.

Childhood

Immediately after his birth, he came under the full care of his grandmother, Elizaveta Petrovna, who took over all the worries about his upbringing, effectively removing his mother. But Elizabeth was notable for her inconstancy of character and soon cooled off towards the heir, transferring him to the care of nannies, who were only concerned that the child would not catch a cold, hurt himself or be naughty. In early childhood, a boy with an ardent imagination was intimidated by nannies: later he was always afraid of the dark, shuddered at a knock or an incomprehensible rustle, believed in omens, fortune-telling and dreams.

In the fifth year of his life, the boy began to be taught grammar and arithmetic, his first teacher F.D. Bekhteev used an original technique for this: he wrote letters and numbers on wooden and tin soldiers and, lining them up in ranks, he taught the heir to read and count.

Education

Since 1760, Count N.I. Panin, who was his teacher before the marriage of the heir. Despite the fact that Paul preferred the military sciences, he received enough a good education: easily explained in French and German, knew Slavonic and latin languages, Horace read in the original, in the process of reading he made extracts from books. He had a rich library, a physics office with a collection of minerals, a lathe for manual labor. He knew how to dance well, fence, was fond of horseback riding.

O.A. Leonov "Paul I"

N.I. Panin, himself a passionate admirer of Frederick the Great, raised his heir in the spirit of admiration for everything Prussian to the detriment of the national Russian. But, according to contemporaries, in his youth, Paul was capable, striving for knowledge, romantically inclined, with an open character, who sincerely believed in the ideals of goodness and justice. After the accession to the throne of the mother in 1762, their relationship was quite close. However, they got worse over time. Catherine feared her son, who had more legal rights to the throne than she herself. Rumors about his accession spread throughout the country, E. I. Pugachev called out to him as a “son”. The Empress tried not to allow the Grand Duke to participate in the discussion of state affairs, and he began to more and more critically evaluate the policy of his mother. Ekaterina simply “did not notice” the age of her son, without marking it in any way.

Maturity

In 1773, Pavel married the Hesse-Darmstadt princess Wilhelmina (baptized Natalia Alekseevna). In this regard, his education was completed, and he had to be involved in state affairs. But Catherine did not consider it necessary.

In October 1766, Natalya Alekseevna, whom Pavel loved very much, died in childbirth with a baby, and Catherine insisted that Pavel marry a second time, which he did, going to Germany. The second wife of Paul is the Württemberg princess Sophia-Dorotea-Augusta-Louise (baptized Maria Feodorovna). The encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron says this about Paul's further position: “And after that, during the whole life of Catherine, the place occupied by Paul in government spheres was the place of an observer, aware of the right to supreme leadership of affairs and deprived of the opportunity to use this right for changes in even the smallest detail in the course of affairs. This situation was especially conducive to the development of a critical mood in Paul, which acquired a particularly sharp and bilious tone due to the personal element that entered him in a wide stream ... "

Russian coat of arms during the reign of Paul I

In 1782, Pavel Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna went on a trip abroad and were warmly received in European capitals. Pavel even gained a reputation there as a "Russian Hamlet". During the journey, Paul openly criticized his mother's policies, which she soon became aware of. Upon the return of the grand ducal couple to Russia, the empress gave them Gatchina, where the “small courtyard” moved and where Paul, who inherited from his father a passion for everything military in the Prussian manner, created his small army, conducting endless maneuvers and parades. He languished in inactivity, made plans for his future reign and made repeated and unsuccessful attempts to occupy state activities: in 1774, he submits to the empress a note drawn up under the influence of Panin and entitled "Discourse on the state regarding the defense of all limits." Catherine rated her as naive and disapproving of her policies. In 1787, Pavel asked his mother for permission to volunteer for Russian-Turkish war, but she refuses him under the pretext of the approaching birth of Maria Feodorovna. Finally, in 1788, he takes part in Russian-Swedish war, but here, too, Catherine accused him of the fact that the Swedish prince Karl was looking for rapprochement with him - and she recalled her son from the army. It is not surprising that gradually his character becomes suspicious, nervous, bilious and despotic. He retires to Gatchina, where he spends 13 years almost without a break. The only thing that remains for him is to do what he loves: the device and training of "amusing" regiments, consisting of several hundred soldiers, according to the Prussian model.

Catherine hatched plans to remove him from the throne, citing his bad temper and inability. She saw her grandson Alexander, son of Paul, on the throne. This intention was not destined to come true due to the sudden illness and death of Empress Catherine II in November 1796.

on the throne

The new emperor immediately tried, as it were, to cross out everything done during the 34 years of the reign of Catherine II, to destroy the hated orders of Catherine's reign - this became one of the most important motives of his policy. He also tried to stop the influence of revolutionary France on the minds of Russians. It was in this direction that his policy was deployed.

First of all, he ordered to remove from the crypt of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra the remains of Peter III, his father, who were buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress along with the coffin of Catherine II. On April 4, 1797, Pavel was solemnly crowned in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. On the same day, several decrees were promulgated, the most important of which were: the "Law on the Succession to the Throne", which assumed the transfer of the throne according to the principle of pre-Petrine times, and the "Institution on the Imperial Family", which determined the procedure for keeping the persons of the reigning house.

The reign of Paul I lasted 4 years and 4 months. It was somewhat chaotic and inconsistent. He's been "kept on a leash" for too long. And so the leash was removed ... He tried to correct the shortcomings of the hated former regime, but he did it inconsistently: he restored the Petrine collegiums liquidated by Catherine II, limited local government, issued a series of laws leading to the destruction of noble privileges ... They could not forgive him for this.

In decrees of 1797, landowners were recommended to perform a 3-day corvee, it was forbidden to use the labor of peasants on Sundays, it was not allowed to sell peasants under the hammer, and Little Russians without land. It was ordered to appear in the regiments of the nobles, fictitiously enlisted in them. Since 1798, noble societies became controlled by the governors, the nobles again began to be subjected to corporal punishment for criminal offenses. But at the same time, the position of the peasants was not alleviated.

Transformations in the army began with the replacement of the "muzhik" uniforms with new ones copied from the Prussian. Wishing to improve discipline in the troops, Paul I was present daily at exercises and divorces and severely punished for the slightest mistake.

Paul I was very afraid of the penetration of the ideas of the Great French Revolution into Russia and introduced some restrictive measures: already in 1797, private printing houses were closed, strict censorship for books was introduced, a ban was imposed on French fashion, young people were forbidden to travel abroad to study.

V. Borovikovsky "Paul I in the uniform of Colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment"

Upon accession to the throne, Paul, in order to emphasize the contrast with his mother, declared peacefulness and non-interference in European affairs. However, when in 1798 there was a threat of the restoration of an independent Polish state by Napoleon, Russia accepted Active participation in the organization of the anti-French coalition. In the same year, Paul assumed the duties of the Master of the Order of Malta, thus challenging the French emperor, who had captured Malta. In this regard, the Maltese octagonal cross was included in National emblem. In 1798-1800, Russian troops successfully fought in Italy, and the Russian fleet fought in the Mediterranean, which caused concern from Austria and England. Relations with these countries finally deteriorated in the spring of 1800. At the same time, rapprochement with France began, and a plan for a joint campaign against India was even discussed. Without waiting for the signing of the corresponding agreement, Pavel ordered the Don Cossacks to set out on a campaign, which were already stopped by Alexander I.

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

Despite the solemn promise to maintain peaceful relations with other states, given upon accession to the throne, he took an active part in the coalition with England, Austria, the Kingdom of Naples and Turkey against France. The Russian squadron under the leadership of F. Ushakov was sent to the Mediterranean Sea, where, with the Turkish squadron, they liberated the Ionian Islands from the French. In Northern Italy and Switzerland, Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov won a number of brilliant victories.

The last palace coup of a bygone era

Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg, where Paul I was killed

The main reasons for the coup and the death of Paul I were the infringement of the interests of the nobility and unpredictability in the actions of the emperor. Sometimes he exiled or sent people to prison for the slightest offense.

He planned to declare the 13-year-old nephew of Maria Feodorovna the heir to the throne, adopting him, and to imprison his eldest sons, Alexander and Konstantin, in a fortress. In March 1801, a ban was issued on trade with the British, which threatened damage to the landlords.

The fate of this emperor was tragic. He was brought up without parents (from birth he was taken away from his mother, the future empress, and brought up by nannies. At the age of eight, he lost his father, Peter III, who was killed as a result of a coup d'etat) in an atmosphere of neglect from his mother, like an outcast, forcefully removed from power . Under these conditions, he developed suspicion and irascibility, combined with brilliant abilities in the sciences and languages, with innate ideas about knightly honor and state order. The ability for independent thinking, close observation of the life of the court, the bitter role of an outcast - all this turned Paul away from the lifestyle and politics of Catherine II. Still hoping to play some role in state affairs, Pavel at the age of 20 submitted to his mother a draft military doctrine of a defensive nature and concentration of state efforts on internal problems. She was not taken into account. He was forced to try out military regulations in the Gatchina estate, where Catherine resettled him out of sight. There, Paul's conviction was formed about the benefits of the Prussian order, with which he had the opportunity to get acquainted at the court of Frederick the Great - a king, commander, writer and musician. The Gatchina experiments later became the basis of the reform, which did not stop even after the death of Paul, creating an army of a new era - disciplined and well trained.

Often the reign of Paul I is spoken of as a time of discipline, drill, despotism, and arbitrariness. There is, however, an alternative point of view according to which the “Russian Hamlet” Paul fought laxity in the army and in general in the life of Russia at that time and wanted to make public service the highest valor, stop embezzlement and negligence and thereby save Russia from the collapse that threatened it.

Many anecdotes about Paul I were spread in those days by the nobles, whom Paul I did not allow to live a free life, demanding that they serve the Fatherland.

Succession reform

The decree on succession to the throne was issued by Paul I on April 5, 1797. With the introduction of this decree, the uncertainty of the situation in which the Russian imperial throne found itself with each change of reign and with constant coups and seizures of supreme power after Peter I as a result of his legislation ended. Love for the rule of law was one of the brightest traits in the character of Tsarevich Paul at that time of his life. Clever, thoughtful, impressionable, as some biographers describe him, Tsarevich Pavel showed an example of absolute loyalty towards the culprit of his removal from life - until the age of 43 he was under undeserved suspicion from the Empress Mother in attempts on the power that rightfully belonged to him more than she herself, who ascended the throne at the cost of the lives of two emperors (Ivan Antonovich and Peter III). A sense of disgust at coups d'état and a sense of legitimacy was one of the main stimuli that prompted him to reform the succession to the throne, which he considered and decided almost 10 years before its implementation. Paul canceled the Peter's decree on the appointment of his successor on the throne by the emperor himself and established a clear system of succession to the throne. From that moment on, the throne was inherited through the male line, after the death of the emperor, he passed to the eldest son and his male offspring, and if there were no sons, to the next oldest brother of the emperor and his male offspring, in the same order. A woman could occupy the throne and pass it on to her offspring only when the male line was suppressed. By this decree, Paul excluded palace coups, when emperors were overthrown and erected by the power of the guard, the reason for which was the lack of a clear system of succession to the throne (which, however, did not prevent the palace coup on March 12, 1801, during which he himself was killed). Pavel restored the system of colleges, attempts were made to stabilize the financial situation of the country (including the famous action of melting palace services into coins).

Postage stamp "Paul I signs the Manifesto on the three-day corvee"

Prerequisites

The corvee economy of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century was the most intensive form of exploitation of peasant labor and, unlike the quitrent system, led to the utmost enslavement and maximum exploitation of the peasants. The growth of corvee duties gradually led to the appearance of a month (daily corvee), and small peasant farming was in danger of disappearing. The serfs were not legally protected from the arbitrary exploitation of the landowners and the burden of serfdom, which took forms close to slavery.

During the reign of Catherine II, the problem of legislative regulation of peasant duties became the subject of public discussion in an atmosphere of relative publicity. New drafts of regulation of peasant duties appear in the country, heated discussions are unfolding. A key role in these events was played by the activities of the Free Economic Society and the Legislative Commission, created by Catherine II. Attempts to legislatively regulate peasant duties were initially doomed to failure due to the harsh opposition of the nobility and landowner circles and the political elite associated with them, as well as due to the lack of real support for reform initiatives from the autocracy.

Even before his accession, Paul I took real measures to improve the situation of the peasants on his personal estates in Gatchina and Pavlovsk. So, he reduced and reduced peasant duties (in particular, on his estates for a number of years there was a two-day corvée), allowed the peasants to go to work in their free time from corvée work, issued loans to the peasants, built new roads in the villages, opened two free medical hospital for his peasants, built several free schools and colleges for peasant children (including disabled children), as well as several new churches. He insisted on the need for a legislative settlement of the position of serfs. "Human, Paul wrote, - the first treasure of the state", "saving the state - saving the people"("Discourse on the state"). Not being a supporter of radical reforms in the field peasant question, Paul I admitted the possibility of some limitation of serfdom and the suppression of its abuses.

Manifesto

GOD'S MERCY

WE PAUL THE FIRST

Emperor and Autocrat

ALL-RUSSIAN,

and other, and other, and other.

We declare to all OUR faithful subjects.

The Law of God in the Decalogue taught to US teaches US to dedicate the seventh day to it; why on this day we were glorified by the triumph of the Christian faith, and on which WE were honored to receive the sacred anointing of the world and the Royal wedding on OUR Ancestral Throne, we consider it our duty to the Creator and to confirm all blessings throughout OUR Empire about the exact and indispensable fulfillment of this law, commanding everyone and everyone to watch, so that no one, under any circumstances, would dare to force the peasants to work on Sundays, especially since for rural products the six days remaining in the week equal number of these, generally shared, both for the peasants themselves and for their work in favor of the next landowners, with good disposal, they will be sufficient to satisfy all economic needs. Given in Moscow on the day of Holy Pascha, April 5, 1797.

Evaluation of the Manifesto by contemporaries

Representatives of foreign powers saw in him the beginning of peasant reforms.

For the Manifesto on the three-day corvee, Paul was sincerely praised by the Decembrists, noting the sovereign's desire for justice.

The Manifesto was greeted with a muffled murmur and widespread boycott by conservative noble and landlord circles, who considered it an unnecessary and harmful law.

The peasant masses saw hope in the Manifesto. They regarded it as a law that officially protected their interests and alleviated their plight, and tried to complain about the boycott of its norms by the landowners.

But the implementation of the norms and ideas of the Manifesto on the three-day corvee, issued by Emperor Paul I, was initially doomed to failure. The ambiguity of the wording of this law and the lack of development of mechanisms for its implementation predetermined the polarization of opinions of government and judicial officials of the country in the interpretation of its meaning and content and led to complete inconsistency in the actions of the central, provincial and local structures that controlled the implementation of this law. The desire of Paul I to improve the plight of the peasant masses was combined with his stubborn unwillingness to see the serf peasantry as an independent political force and social support for the anti-serfdom undertakings of the autocracy. The indecision of the autocracy led to the lack of strict control over the observance of the norms and ideas of the Manifesto and the connivance of its violations.

Military reform of Paul I

G. Sergeev "Military exercise on the parade ground in front of the palace" (watercolor)
1. Introduced single soldier training and improved content.
2. A defense strategy has been developed.
3. 4 armies were formed in the main strategic directions.
4. Military districts and inspections were created.
5. New statutes have been introduced.
6. The guards, cavalry and artillery were reformed.
7. The rights and duties of military personnel are regulated.
8. General privileges have been reduced.
The reforms in the army caused discontent on the part of the generals and the guards. The guardsmen were required to serve as they should. All officers assigned to the regiments were required to report for duty from long-term leave, some of them and those who did not appear were expelled. Unit commanders were limited in the disposal of the treasury and the use of soldiers for household work.

The military reform of Paul I created the army that defeated Napoleon.

Jokes about Paul were fanned for political purposes. The indignant nobility did not understand that Paul "tightening the screws" extended the dominance of the "service class" for a hundred years.

Paul's contemporaries adapted to him. He brought order and discipline, and this met with approval in society. True military men quickly realized that Pavel is hot-tempered, but quick-witted, understands humor. There is a known case that allegedly Paul I sent a whole regiment from the watch parade to Siberia; in fact, Pavel showed dissatisfaction in a sharp form, reprimanding the commander before the ranks. In annoyance, he said that the regiment was worthless, that it should be sent to Siberia. Suddenly the regimental commander turns to the regiment and gives the command: “Regiment, march to Siberia!” Here Pavel was taken aback. And the regiment marched past him. Of course, the regiment caught up and turned back. And the commander had nothing. The commander knew that Pavel would eventually like such a trick.

Dissatisfaction with Paul was manifested primarily by a part high nobility, who fell out of favor under Paul for various reasons: either because they constituted the "Catherine's court" hated by the emperor, or were held accountable for embezzlement and other offenses.

F. Shubin "Portrait of Paul I"

Other reforms

One of the first attempts to create a code of laws was made. All subsequent rulers of Russia up to the present time have tried to create a code like the "Napoleon Code" in France. Nobody succeeded. The bureaucracy interfered. Although under Paul there was a "training" of the bureaucracy, but from this training it only became stronger.
* Decrees were declared not to be considered laws. During the 4 years of the reign of Paul I, 2179 decrees were issued (42 decrees per month).

* Proclaimed the principle: "Income of the state, not the sovereign." Audits carried out public institutions and services. Significant sums were collected in favor of the state.
* The issuance of paper money was discontinued (by this time, one paper ruble was worth 66 silver kopecks).
* Emphasis was placed on the distribution of land and peasants into private hands (during the reign - 4 years), 600 thousand souls were granted, for 34 years Catherine II granted 850 thousand souls. Pavel believed that the landowners would be better off supporting the peasants than the state.
* A "Loan Bank" was established and a "bankruptcy charter" was adopted.
* The family of Academician M. Lomonosov was exempted from the head salary.
* Polish insurgents led by T. Kosciuszko were released from prison.

On the night of March 11-12, 1801, Pavel I Petrovich was killed by conspiring officers in the newly built Mikhailovsky Castle: the conspirators, mostly guard officers, burst into the bedroom of Paul I demanding to abdicate. When the emperor tried to object and even hit one of them, one of the rebels began to choke him with his scarf, and the other hit him on the temple with a massive snuffbox. It was announced to the people that Paul I had died of apoplexy.

Paul I and Maria Feodorovna had 10 children: