Pavel 1 son of catherine 2 short biography. Emperor Paul was the first. What important steps have been taken

Paul I (Pavel Petrovich; September 20 [October 1], Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna, St. Petersburg - March 12, Mikhailovsky Castle, St. Petersburg) - All-Russian Emperor from November 6 (17), Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Admiral General, son of Peter III Fedorovich and Catherine II Alekseevna.

Image in history

In the Russian Empire, it was first published about the assassination of Paul I in 1905 in the memoirs of General Bennigsen. This caused a shock in society. The country was amazed that Emperor Paul I was killed in his own palace, and the murderers were not punished.

Under Alexander I and Nicholas I, the study of the history of the reign of Pavel Petrovich was not encouraged and was prohibited; it was forbidden to mention him in print. Emperor Alexander I personally destroyed materials about the murder of his father. The official reason for the death of Paul I was declared an apoplectic stroke.

“We do not even have a brief, factual review of the Pavlovian period of Russian history: the anecdote in this case pushed history aside,” wrote the historian S.V. Shumigorsky.

Childhood, education and upbringing

The future Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, and then the All-Russian Emperor Paul I, was born on September 20 (October 1), 1754 in St. Petersburg, in the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. Subsequently, this palace was destroyed, and in its place the Mikhailovsky Castle was built, in which Pavel was killed on March 12 (24), 1801.

On September 27, 1754, in the ninth year of marriage, Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseevna had her first child. The birth was attended by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Grand Duke Pyotr Fedorovich (Pavel's father) and the Shuvalov brothers. On this occasion, Empress Elizabeth issued a manifesto. The birth of Pavel Petrovich caused general joy in Russia, because he continued the dynasty, which was threatened with suppression and a dynastic crisis. Paul's birth was reflected in many odes written by poets of that time.

The Empress baptized the baby and ordered to give him the name Paul. Ekaterina Alekseevna and Pyotr Fedorovich were completely removed from the upbringing of their son.

Due to 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.

The first educator was diplomat FD Bekhteev, who was obsessed with the spirit of all kinds of regulations, clear orders, military discipline, comparable to drill. He began to publish a small newspaper in which he talked about all, even the most insignificant actions of Paul. Because of this, Paul hated routine work all his life.

In 1760, Elizaveta Petrovna appointed a new head of education for the young prince, prescribing the main parameters of training in her instructions. It was, by her choice, Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin. He was a forty-two-year-old man who held a very prominent position at court. Possessing extensive knowledge, before that he was a diplomat in Denmark and Sweden for several years, where his worldview was formed. Having very close contacts with the Freemasons, he adopted the ideas of the Enlightenment and even became a supporter of a constitutional monarchy, modeled on Sweden. His brother, General Pyotr Ivanovich, was a great local master of the Masonic order in Russia.

Nikita Ivanovich Panin approached the problem thoroughly. He outlined a very wide range of topics and subjects in which, in his opinion, the Tsarevich should understand. ... It is possible that in accordance with his recommendations, a number of “subject matter” teachers were appointed.

Among them are the Law of God (Metropolitan Plato), natural history (S.A. Poroshin), dances (Grange), music (J. Milliko), etc. Beginning in the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, classes did not stop even during the short reign of Peter III, not under Catherine II.

The atmosphere of Pavel Petrovich's upbringing was significantly influenced by his entourage. Among the guests who visited the prince, one could see a number of educated people of that time, for example, G. Teplov. On the contrary, communication with peers was rather limited. Only children of the best surnames (Kurakins, Stroganovs) were allowed to contact Pavel, the sphere of contacts, basically - a rehearsal of masquerade parties.

He was taught history, geography, arithmetic, the Law of God, astronomy, foreign languages ​​(French, German, Latin, Italian), Russian, drawing, fencing, dancing. Interestingly, the training program had nothing to do with military affairs. But this did not stop Paul from getting carried away. He was introduced to the works of the enlighteners: Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu. Pavel had good abilities to study. He had a developed imagination, was restless, impatient, loved books. He read a lot. In addition to historical literature, I read Sumarokov, Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Racine, Corneille, Moliere, Cervantes, Voltaire and Rousseau. He spoke Latin, French and German, loved mathematics, dancing, military exercises. In general, the education of the crown prince was the best one could get at that time. The confessor and mentor of the Tsarevich was a preacher and theologian, archimandrite, and later - Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) of Moscow.

One of Pavel's younger mentors, Semyon Andreevich 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.

Already in his youth, Paul began to take up the idea of ​​chivalry, the idea of ​​honor and glory. On February 23, 1765, Poroshin wrote: “I read to His Highness Vertotov a story about the Order of the Knights of Malta. He deigned, then, to amuse himself and, having tied the admiral's flag to his cavalry, to present himself as a cavalier of Malta. "

All the time, the aggravated relationship between Pavel and his mother led to the fact that Catherine II presented her son with the Gatchina estate in 1783 (that is, she “resettled” him from the capital). Here Paul introduced customs that were sharply different from those in St. Petersburg.

It is customary to characterize the Gatchina troops negatively, as rude martyrs, learned only to march and shagistike. But the documents show otherwise. The surviving plans for the exercises refute this replicated stereotype. From 1793 to 1796, during the exercises, the Gatchina troops under the command of the Tsarevich practiced: salvo fire and bayonet techniques. The interaction of various types of troops was practiced when forcing water obstacles, conducting an offensive and retreat, and repelling an enemy amphibious assault, when landing on the coast. Troops were moved at night. Great importance was attached to the actions of artillery. For the Gatchina artillery in 1795 - 1796, specially separate exercises were conducted. The experience gained formed the basis for military transformations and reforms. Despite their small numbers, by 1796 the Gatchina troops were one of the most disciplined and trained units of the Russian army. Natives of the Gatchina troops were N.V. Repnin, A.A. Bekleshov. Paul's associates were S.M. Vorontsov, N.I. Saltykov, G.R. Derzhavin, M.M. Speransky.

The traditional stage, usually completing education in Russia in the XVIII century, was a trip abroad. A similar voyage was undertaken in 1782 by the then young Tsarevich together with his second wife. Travel "incognito", that is, unofficial, without the required receptions and ritual meetings, under the names of the Count and Countess of the North (du Nord).

Relationship with Catherine II

Immediately after his birth, Paul was removed from his mother. Catherine could see him very rarely and only with the permission of the empress. When Paul was eight years old, his mother, Catherine, relying on the guards, carried out a coup, during which Paul's father, Emperor Peter III, died under mysterious circumstances. Paul was to ascend the throne. On accession to the throne of Catherine, they swore allegiance to Pavel Petrovich as the legal heir. Empress Catherine II, during her coronation, solemnly made a promise that the time of her reign would be limited to the time required for the enthronement of the legitimate heir. But the closer this date got, the less there was a desire to keep this word. However, Catherine was not going to compromise the fullness of her power and share it, neither in 1762, nor later, when Paul matured. It turned out that the son was turning into a rival, on whom all those dissatisfied with her and her rule would pin their hopes.

The name of Pavel Petrovich was used by rioters and dissatisfied with the rule of Catherine. Emelyan Pugachev often mentioned his name. Holstein banners were also in the ranks of the rebels. Pugachev said that after the victory over the government of Catherine "he did not want to reign and was 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 revolted exiles in Kamchatka, led by Beniovsky, swore allegiance to Paul as emperor. During the plague riot in Moscow, the name of Tsarevich Pavel was also mentioned. There is information that Catherine, after the coup and accession to the throne, gave a written commitment to transfer the crown to Paul upon reaching adulthood, which was subsequently destroyed by her. 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 completely strangers to each other. Mother and son looked at the same things differently.

Catherine did not love her son. She did not interfere with the spread of rumors, and some spread herself: about the imbalance and cruelty of Paul; that it was not Peter III who was his father at all, but Count Saltykov; that he was not her son at all, that another child was planted on her by order of Elizabeth. The Tsarevich was an unwanted son, born for the sake of politics and state interests, little resemblance in appearance and in his views, preferences, to his mother. Catherine could not but be annoyed by this. She called Paul's troops in Gatchina "Father's army." In addition to Pavel, Catherine also had an illegitimate son from Grigory Orlov, known under the name of Alexei Bobrinsky. She had a completely different attitude towards him, the reigning mother forgave him revelry, debts and all kinds of misdeeds. By the time Paul came of age, a mutual enmity had arisen between mother and son. Catherine deliberately did not signify the coming of age of her son. The final break came between Paul and Catherine in May 1783. For the first time, the mother invited her son to discuss foreign policy problems - the Polish question and the annexation of Crimea. Most likely, a frank exchange of views took place, which revealed the complete opposite of views. Paul himself could not bestow positions, awards, ranks. People who enjoyed the favor of Paul fell into disgrace and disgrace at court. Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov was not afraid of disgrace and maintained good relations with Pavel Petrovich. The Tsarevich was a figurehead with no power or influence. Each of the temporary workers, the reigning mother, considered it his duty to offend and humiliate the heir.

Empress Catherine wanted to deprive Paul of the throne and transfer the throne to her beloved grandson Alexander. Although Alexander made it clear to his father that he was against these plans, Paul feared that his mother would do it. This is confirmed by the early marriage of Alexander, after which, according to tradition, the monarch was considered an adult. From a letter from Catherine dated August 14, 1792 to her correspondent to the French Baron Grimm: "First, my Alexander will marry, and there, in time, he will be crowned with all kinds of ceremonies, celebrations and folk festivals." There were rumors at court that a manifesto was being made public about the removal of Paul and the proclamation of Alexander as heir. According to rumors, this event was supposed to take place on November 24 or January 1, 1797. In that manifesto, there should have been an indication of the arrest of Paul and his imprisonment in the castle of Lode (now the territory of Estonia). But on November 6, Catherine died. Confirmation of this version is Catherine's small testament: "My Vivliofica with all the manuscripts and that from my papers I can find it by my hand, I give it to my dear grandson Alexander Pavlovich, also my various stones and bless him with my mind and heart."

Domestic policy

Emperor Paul I came to the throne on November 6, 1796 at the age of 42. During his reign, about 2,251 pieces of legislation were issued. Let's compare: Emperor Peter I published 3296 documents, Catherine II - 5948 documents. In addition to legislative documents, Paul I issued 5614 personal decrees and issued 14,207 orders for the army.

On April 5, 1797, on the first day of Easter, the coronation of the new emperor took place. This was the first joint coronation of the emperor and empress in the history of the Russian Empire. On the day of his coronation, Paul I publicly read the adopted new law on succession to the throne. For the first time, the rules of the regency were established.

The manifesto on the three-day corvee banned the landowners from sending corvee on Sundays, holidays and more than three days a week.

The ruinous grain service for the peasants was abolished and the arrears of stifling tax were forgiven. The preferential sale of salt began (until the middle of the 19th century, in fact, salt was the national currency). They began to sell grain 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 household people and peasants without land, to divide families when selling. In the provinces, governors were ordered to monitor the attitude of landowners to peasants. In the event of cruel treatment of the serfs, the governors were ordered to report this to the emperor. By the decree of September 19, 1797, the obligation to keep horses for the army and provide food was abolished for the peasants, instead they began to take "15 kopecks per soul, a supplement to the capitation salary." In the same year, a decree was issued ordering the serfs to obey their landowners on pain of punishment. By a decree of October 21, 1797, the right of state peasants to enroll in the merchant class and philistinism was confirmed.

The future Alexander I described the last years of his grandmother's reign in this way - “a mess, disorder, robbery”. In a letter to Count Kochubei, dated March 10, 1796, he expressed his opinion on the situation in the country: “Incredible disorder reigns in our affairs, they are robbed from all sides; all parts are poorly governed, order seems to be expelled from everywhere, and the empire seeks only to expand its limits. " “Never before have crimes been so impudent as now,” Rostopchin wrote to Count SR Vorontsov. “Impunity and insolence have reached the extreme limit. Three days ago, a certain Kovalinsky, the former secretary of the military commission and driven out by the empress for embezzlement and bribery, is now appointed governor in Ryazan, because he has a brother, the same scoundrel like him, who is friends with Gribovsky, the head of the office of Platon Zubov. Ribas alone steals more than 500 thousand rubles a year. "

In 1796 the vicegerency was abolished.

In 1800, Paul I banned the import of foreign books and the sending of young men abroad for education. The result of these decrees was that among the nobility began to go foreign fashion. The highest circles of society gradually began to move from French to Russian. Paul changed the functions of the Senate, some collegia were restored, abolished by Catherine II. The emperor believed that it was necessary to transform them into ministries and appoint ministers - to replace collective responsibility with personal responsibility. According to Paul's plan, it was supposed to create seven ministries: finance, justice, commerce, foreign affairs, military, maritime and state treasury. This reform, conceived by him, was completed already in the reign of Alexander I.

Paul I can be considered the founder of service dog breeding in Russia - cynology. He ordered the Expedition of the State Economy, by a decree of August 12, 1797, to purchase from Spain merino sheep and dogs of the Spanish breed to guard livestock: “To order from Spain a special breed of dogs used there at sheepfolds because they are credited with a special ability to keep a herd in collection and to protect from predatory animals, which breed can be bred in Tavria. "

In 1798, the Russian Emperor Paul I signed a decree establishing a department of water communications.

On December 4, 1796, the State Treasury was established. On the same day, a decree was signed - "On the establishment of the position of the State Treasurer". The "Decree on the Board of Commerce" approved in September 1800 gave the merchants the right to elect 13 out of 23 of its members from among their midst. Alexander I, five days after coming to power, canceled the decree.

On March 12, 1798, Pavel issued a decree authorizing 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.

On March 18, 1797, the Manifesto on Freedom of Religion in Poland was issued for Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

Pavel canceled on January 2, 1797, the article of the Charter, which forbade corporal punishment to be applied to the nobility. Corporal punishment was introduced for murder, robbery, drunkenness, debauchery, and service violations. In 1798, Paul I forbade noblemen who had served as officers for less than a year from asking for resignation. By a decree of December 18, 1797, the nobles were obliged to pay a tax of 1.640 thousand rubles for the maintenance of local governments in the provinces. In 1799, the tax was increased. According to the decree, in 1799 the nobles began to pay to file 20 rubles "from the heart". By a decree of May 4, 1797, the emperor forbade the nobles from submitting collective petitions. The Emperor, by decree of November 15, 1797, forbade nobles who had been dismissed from service for misconduct to participate in the elections. The number of voters was reduced and governors were given the right to intervene in elections. In 1799, the provincial noble assemblies were abolished. On August 23, 1800, the right of noble societies to elect assessors to the judiciary was abolished. Paul I ordered noblemen evading civil and military service to prosecute. The emperor sharply limited the transition from military to civilian service. Paul limited the noble deputations and the opportunity to file complaints. This was only possible with the permission of the governor.

After the changes taking place in the state, it became clear to everyone: reforms are underway in the country. This could not suit everyone. Opposition starts to appear and dissatisfaction is brewing. Dissatisfied people and the Masonic environment begin to discredit the image of the emperor. Posing as loyal people, using all kinds of benefits, they try to denigrate the ruler. The image of the emperor "Paul the tyrant, despot and madman" was created very thoughtfully and at the same time insolently. The emperor's decrees were distorted and discredited as much as possible. Any document, if desired, can be distorted beyond recognition, and its author can be made an abnormal and mentally unhealthy person [ style!] .

Prince Lopukhin writes in his memoirs: "There were malicious people around the Emperor who took advantage of his irritability, and recently even aroused it in order to make the Emperor hateful for their own purposes."

In memoirs and books on history, dozens and thousands of those who were exiled to Siberia during Pavlov's time are often mentioned. In fact, the number of those exiled in the documents does not exceed ten. These people were exiled for military and criminal offenses: bribes, theft on an especially large scale, and others. For example, during the reign of Anna Ioannovna for ten years, as a result of denunciations, more than twenty thousand people were exiled to Siberia, five thousand were missing, more than thirty thousand were convicted.

Military reform

In the last decades of the reign of Catherine II, a period of decline began in the army. In the troops, especially in the guards, abuses flourished, a shortage of personnel, theft, bribes, a drop in the level of discipline, and the training of troops was at a low level. Only in the regiments of Suvorov and Rumyantsev discipline and order were maintained.

In his book “The Russian Army in the Year of the Death of Catherine II. The composition and structure of the Russian army ", a French emigrant in the Russian service, General Count Longeron, writes that the guard is" a disgrace and scourge of the Russian army. " According to him, the situation is worse only in the cavalry: “Russian cavalrymen hardly know how to stay in the saddle; these are only peasants riding on horseback, not cavalrymen, and how can they become them when they ride on horseback only 5 or 6 times throughout the year "," Russian cavalrymen never practice saber techniques and barely know how to wield a saber "," old and worn-out horses have neither legs nor teeth "," in Russia it is enough to be a cavalry officer in order not to be able to ride a horse. I knew only four regimental commanders who knew how to ride horses. "

Emperor Paul I tried to prohibit the army from engaging in politics. To this end, he sought to stop the activities of political circles in the army among the officers.

“The way of our life as an officer after the accession to the throne of Emperor Paul completely changed, - recalled Count E.F. Komarovsky; - under the empress, we thought only to go to society, theaters, to walk in tailcoats, and now from morning to evening in the regimental yard; and taught us all how to recruit. "

Paul I signed a decree of November 29, 1796 on the adoption of new military regulations: "Military regulations on field and infantry service", "Military regulations on field cavalry service" and "Rules on cavalry service."

Emperor Paul I introduced criminal and personal liability of officers for the life and health of soldiers. Officers could be punished and severely punished. Banned officers and generals from being on leave for more than 30 days a year. The officers were forbidden to do debt. In case of non-payment of the debt, the regimental commander had to deduct the required amount from the salary. If the salary was not enough, then the officer was arrested until the debt was paid, and the salary was transferred to the creditors. For the lower ranks, the emperor introduced leave of 28 calendar days a year. Forbidden to take soldiers to work on estates and involve them in other work not related to military service. The soldiers were allowed to complain about the abuses of the commanders.

Under Peter I, the deployment of troops was the responsibility of the townspeople, who allocated premises for this purpose in their homes. The barracks were built only in the new capital - St. Petersburg. Paul decided to put an end to this. The first barracks in 1797 was the Catherine Palace in Moscow, converted for this purpose. At the direction of the emperor, the construction of barracks for the troops was carried out in the country. Pavel ordered to build them at the expense of the local nobility and townspeople.

The famous "Pavlovsky" watch parade has survived to this day, only under a different name - divorce of the guard. The marching step introduced by Paul also exists in the current army under the name of the printed one for the guard of honor.

In 1797, by order of Paul I, the Pioneer Regiment was formed - the first large military engineering unit in the Russian army. Emperor Paul I, shortly after his accession to the throne, tackled the problem of the lack of good and accurate maps in Russia. He issues a decree of November 13, 1796 on the transfer of the maps of the General Staff to the jurisdiction of General G.G. Kuleshov and the creation of His Imperial Majesty the Drawing Room, which on August 8, 1797 was transformed into His Majesty's Own Map Depot. Paul I is the founder of the courier service in Russia. This is a military communications unit. The courier corps was created by decree of the emperor on December 17, 1797. Emperor Paul I changed the concept of a regimental banner in the army. Since 1797, Paul ordered to issue regimental banners only to the dragoon and cuirassier regiments. Since the time of Peter I, regimental banners and standards belonged to official property. Pavel Petrovich transferred them to the category of regimental shrines.

He established a solemn ceremony for the consecration of standards and banners in the army, the procedure for presenting relics to the regiments, and taking the oath under the regimental banners. While pronouncing the words of the oath, the warrior held on to the banner with one hand, and raised the other up.

Under Peter I, a regular army appeared in Russia and recruits began to be recruited by one person from each peasant household. The soldier's service was lifelong. The recruits were branded. Only those who were not at all fit for it were dismissed from service. Emperor Paul I limited the service life of soldiers to 25 years. Introduced a pension for those dismissed from service for health reasons or more than 25 years of service, with the maintenance of such soldiers in mobile garrison or invalid companies. The emperor ordered to bury the dead and deceased soldiers with military honors. Paul established the concept of "blameless service." With a "blameless service" for a period of 20 years, the lower ranks were forever exempted from corporal punishment. In 1799, Paul I introduced the silver medal "For Bravery", which was awarded to the lower ranks. For the first time in Europe, soldiers were rewarded with insignia of the Order of St. Anna for twenty years of blameless service. In 1800 it was replaced by the badge of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1797, Pavel, by his decree, established a holiday for all holders of Russian orders.

Before that, orders or awards for soldiers simply did not exist, and not only in Russia, but also in Europe. Napoleon was the second in the history of Europe, after Paul, to introduce decorations for soldiers in France. Under Paul, the punishment of the soldiers was commuted. They were punished less severely than under Catherine II or in subsequent reigns. The punishment was strictly determined by the existing charter. For cruel treatment of lower ranks and soldiers, officers were subjected to severe penalties.

Emperor Paul I introduced criminal and personal liability of officers for the life and health of soldiers. Officers could be punished and severely punished. Banned officers and generals from coming on vacation more than 30 days a year. The officers were forbidden to do debt. In case of non-payment of the debt, the regimental commander had to deduct the required amount from the salary. If the salary was not enough, then the officer was arrested until the debt was paid, and the salary was transferred to the creditors. For the lower ranks, the emperor introduced leave of 28 calendar days a year. Forbidden to take soldiers to work on estates and involve them in other work not related to military service. The soldiers were allowed to complain about the abuses of the commanders.

In the military regulations adopted by the troops of the Russian Empire in 1796, for the first time clear practical instructions were given for training recruited recruits: change from the guard, teach; and if a soldier knows exactly what is due, but he makes a mistake, he must be punished. " Pavel Petrovich was not alone in his views on the need for corporal punishment in the army. This view was shared by many before and after Paul. Suvorov in his book "The Science of Victory" wrote on this issue: "Whoever a soldier does not take care of - sticks, who does not take care of himself - that also sticks".

In the winter season, the emperor introduced sheepskin sheepskin coats and felt boots for sentries; there should be as many pairs of boots in the guardroom as needed so that each shift of sentries put on dry boots. This guard duty rule has survived to this day.

There is a widespread legend about the sent in full force of the Horse Guards regiment to Siberia. Actually. After conducting military exercises with the wording for "their reckless actions during maneuvers", the regiment commander and six colonels were arrested. The regiment was sent to Tsarskoe Selo. According to eyewitnesses, during the trial Pavel Petrovich uttered the word Siberia several times. So there was a gossip about a regiment sent to Siberia, which they began to take seriously.

The military uniforms introduced under Paul I are often criticized. This outfit was not invented and developed by Grigory Potemkin. In Austria, in anticipation of a war with the Ottoman Empire, Emperor Joseph II, co-ruler of Maria Theresa, decides to replace the uniform with a more suitable one for the upcoming hostilities in the Balkans. Wigs and braids were not removed from military uniforms. This outfit is very similar to the "Potemkin" uniform, the same jacket, wide trousers, short boots. Russia at that time was also going to fight with Turkey.

For the new "Pavlovsk" uniforms, warm winter things were first introduced: special warm vests and, for the first time in Russian military history, an overcoat. Before that, since the time of Peter the Great, the only warm thing in the army was an epancha - a cloak made of simple matter. The soldiers had to buy their own winter clothes from their own funds and wear them only with the permission of their superiors. The overcoat saved the lives of thousands of soldiers. According to a medical examination in 1760, “rheumatic” diseases and diseases of the respiratory system were most common in the Russian army. Why did the officers react so negatively to the innovations? This is not a matter of convenience. It was a protest against the order introduced by Paul. With the introduction of a new form, a change in the order in the army, the nobles understood that the end of Catherine's liberties was coming.

The Emperor revised and changed the Naval Regulations of Peter the Great. The Pavlovsk fleet charter has hardly changed to this day. Pavel Petrovich paid great attention to the organization, technical support and supply of the fleet.

The new charter differed for the better from the "Petrovsky" one. But its main difference was a clear regulation of service and life on the ship. In the "Peter's" charter, almost every article contains a punishment for its violation. Punishments are rarely mentioned in the "Pavlovian" charter. It was a humane charter. It no longer provided for the position and duties of an executioner on the ship. Pavel Petrovich canceled the pitching - this is when the offender was tied to a rope and dragged on it under water from one side of the ship to another. The charter introduced new positions in the fleet - historiographer, professor of astronomy and navigation, drawing master.

Foreign policy

Fyodor Maksimovich Briskorn was the Privy Councilor and State Secretary of Emperor Paul I since 1796. In 1798, Russia entered the anti-French coalition with Great Britain, Austria, Turkey, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. At the insistence of the allies, the experienced A.V.Suvorov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, as the best commander in Europe. The 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 passage of Suvorov across the Alps. However, 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.

England itself hardly took part in the war. She lent money at interest to the belligerent states and actually profited from this war. In 1799, the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte dispersed the revolutionary parliament (Directory, Council of Five Hundred) and seized power. Emperor Paul I understands that the fight against the revolution is over. Napoleon finished with her. Bonaparte cracks down on the Jacobins and allows French emigrants to return to the country. Pavel Petrovich tried to end the war. In his opinion, it has ceased its meaning. England was not interested in ending the war in Europe. Having seized power, Napoleon began to look for allies in foreign policy and strive for rapprochement with Russia.

Moreover, there was an idea for a plan to create a coalition of the united fleets: France, Russia, Denmark and Sweden, the implementation of which could deal a fatal blow to the British. Prussia, Holland, Italy and Spain join the coalition. Until recently, a lonely France was now at the head of a powerful allied coalition.

An agreement of alliance is concluded on December 4-6, 1800 between Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Denmark. In fact, this meant a declaration of war on England. The British government orders its fleet to seize ships belonging to the countries of the hostile coalition. In response to these actions, Denmark occupies Hamburg, and Prussia occupies Hanover. The allied coalition concludes an agreement to ban exports. Many European ports are closed to the British Empire. The lack of bread could lead to famine and crisis in England.

The reason for the formation of a powerful coalition against England was the domination of the seas by the British fleet, which led to the concentration of world trade in the hands of the British and put other maritime powers at a disadvantage.

When Russia has changed its course of foreign policy towards rapprochement with France, British Ambassador Charles Whitward understands the change in attitudes towards him. During the early years of Paul's reign, he praised the emperor and his policies. However, on the eve of his expulsion, in his report dated March 6, 1800, he wrote: "The emperor literally went mad ... Since he ascended the throne, his mental disorder began to gradually increase ...". This became known to the emperor. The British ambassador was asked to leave the Russian capital and the borders of the state. Whitward was the first to spread rumors about Pavel Petrovich's madness.

After the British managed to capture Malta in September 1800, Paul I set about creating an anti-British coalition, which was to include Denmark, Sweden and Prussia. Shortly before the assassination, he, together with Napoleon, began to prepare a military campaign against India in order to "disturb" the British possessions. At the same time, he sent the Don army to Central Asia - 22,500 people, whose task was to conquer Khiva and Bukhara. The campaign was hastily canceled immediately after the death of Paul by the decree of Emperor Alexander I.

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 place. For help, the knights of the order turned to the Russian emperor and the Defender of the Order from 1797, Paul I.

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

On October 12, 1799, the knights of the order arrived in Gatchina, who presented to their Grand Master, the Russian emperor, three ancient relics of the Hospitallers - a particle of the tree of the Lord's Cross, the Filermskaya icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist. Later in the fall of the same year, the shrines were transported from the Priory Palace 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, in 1800, the Governing Synod established a holiday on October 12 (25) in honor of "the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Filerme Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist."

Pavel signs a decree on the acceptance of 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 should 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 wanted to create a military base and a fleet to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean and southern Europe.

After the assassination of Paul, Alexander I, who ascended the throne, 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 terminate the awarding of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Malta became an English colony in 1813, after the victory of the British fleet under the command of Admiral Nelson over the French in Egypt at the Nile. It gained independence on September 21, 1964 and became a republic, but remained a country within the British Commonwealth.

Conspiracy and death

Contrary to the prevailing point of view, in the era of Paul I there was not one, but several conspiracies against the emperor. After the coronation of Emperor Paul I in Smolensk, a secret organization Kanalsky workshop appeared. The purpose of those who entered it was the murder of Paul. The conspiracy was revealed. The participants were sent into exile or hard labor. Pavel ordered to destroy the materials on the investigation of the conspiracy.

During the reign of Paul, there were three incidents of alarm among the troops. This happened twice during the Emperor's stay in Pavlovsk. Once at the Winter Palace. Rumors of a conspiracy against the emperor are spreading among the soldiers. They stop listening to the officers, even injure two and burst into the palace.

Another conspiracy formed in 1800. The conspirators' meetings were held in the house of Olga Zherebtsova, Zubova's sister. Among the conspirators were the English ambassador and lover Stallion Whitward, the governor and head of the secret police Palen, Kochubei, Ribbas, General Bennigsen, Uvarov and others. Palen decided to win Alexander over to his side. The income and well-being of a large part of the Russian nobility depended on the trade in timber, flax, and grain with Britain. Russia supplied England with cheap raw materials, and in return received cheap English goods that hindered the development of its own processing industry.

Paul I was killed by officers in his own bedroom on the night of March 12, 1801 at the Mikhailovsky Castle. The conspiracy was attended by A.V. Argamakov, Vice-Chancellor N.P. Panin, the commander of the Izyum Light Regiment L.L. Bennigsen, P.A.Zubov (Catherine's favorite), Governor-General of St. Petersburg P.A. regiments: Semenovsky - N.I. shelf. The British ambassador also supported the dissatisfied. The soul and organizer of the conspiracy was P.A. Palen is the governor-general of St. Petersburg. The archives of Panin, Zubovs, Uvarov, the leaders of the conspiracy, were bought out by the royal family and destroyed. The preserved information contains many inaccuracies and ambiguities. The exact number of conspirators is unknown. In the surviving information, this figure fluctuates around 150 people.

A family

Gerhardt von Kügelgen. Portrait of Paul I with his family. 1800. Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve Depicted from left to right: Alexander I, Grand Duke Constantine, Nikolai Pavlovich, Maria Fedorovna, Ekaterina Pavlovna, Maria Pavlovna, Anna Pavlovna, Pavel I, Mikhail Pavlovich, Alexandra Pavlovna and Elena Pavlovna.

Paul I was married twice:

• 1st wife: (from October 10, 1773, St. Petersburg) Natalia Alekseevna(1755-1776), nee. Princess Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. She died in childbirth.

• 2nd wife: (from October 7, 1776, St. Petersburg) Maria Fedorovna(1759-1828), nee. Princess Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg, daughter of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. Paul I and Maria Feodorovna had 10 children:
  • Alexander Pavlovich(1777-1825) - Tsarevich, and then the All-Russian Emperor from March 11, 1801.
  • Konstantin Pavlovich(1779-1831) - Tsarevich (since 1799) and Grand Duke, Viceroy of Poland 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
  • Nikolay Pavlovich(1796-1855) - All-Russian Emperor from December 14, 1825
  • Mikhail Pavlovich(1798-1849) - soldier, founder of the first Artillery School in Russia.

Illegitimate children:

• Veliky, Semyon Afanasevich(1772-1794) - from Sofia Stepanovna Ushakova (1746-1803).
• Inzov, Ivan Nikitich(according to one version).
• Marfa Pavlovna Musina-Yurieva(1801-1803) - from, presumably, Lyubov Bagarat.

Military ranks and titles

Colonel of the Life-Cuirassier Regiment (July 4, 1762) (Russian Imperial Guard), Admiral General (December 20, 1762) (Russian Imperial Navy)

Awards

Russian:

• (03.10.1754)
• (03.10.1754)
• Order of St. Anne 1 st. (03.10.1754)
• Order of St. Vladimir 1 st. (23.10.1782)

foreign:

• Polish Order of the White Eagle
• Prussian Order of the Black Eagle
• Swedish Order of the Seraphim
• Sicilian Order of St. Ferdinand 1 tbsp.
• Sicilian Order of Saint Januarius (1849)
• Neapolitan Constantine Order of Saint George
• French Order of the Holy Spirit
• French Order of Our Lady of Carmel
• French Order of Saint Lazarus

Paul I in art

Literature

• Alexandre Dumas - "Fencing Teacher". / Per. with fr. ed. O. V. Moiseenko. - True, 1984
• Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky - "Pavel I" ("Drama for Reading", the first part of the trilogy "The Kingdom of the Beast"), which tells about the conspiracy and murder of the emperor, where Paul himself appears as a despot and tyrant, and his killers - guardians for the good of Russia.

Cinema

• "Suvorov"(1940) - a film by Vsevolod Pudovkin with Apollo Yachnitsky as Pavel.
• "Ships storm the bastions"(1953) - Pavel Pavlenko
• Katharina und ihre wilden Hengste(1983) - Werner Singh
• "Assa"(1987) - a film by Sergei Solovyov with Dmitry Dolinin as Pavel.
• "Steps of the Emperor"(1990) - Alexander Filippenko.
• "Countess Sheremetev"(1994) - Yuri Verkun.
• "Poor, poor Paul"(2003) - Victor Sukhorukov.
• "Adjutants of Love"(2005) - Vanguard Leontiev.
• "Favorite"(2005) - Vadim Skvirsky.
• "Maltese cross "(2007) - Nikolay Leshchukov.
• "Alternative history" (2011)

Monuments to Paul I

Monument to Paul I in the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Castle

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

• Vyborg... In the early 1800s, a tall granite column with an explanatory inscription in Latin was erected in Monrepos Park by its then owner, Baron Ludwig Nicolai, in gratitude to Paul I. The monument has been safely preserved.
• Gatchina... On the parade ground in front of the Great Gatchina Palace 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, Novgorod region... A cast-iron bust of Paul I on a cast-iron pedestal was installed on the territory of his estate by A.A. Arakcheev. The monument has not survived to this day.
• Mitava... In 1797, by the road to his estate Sorgenfrey, 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, 1872. The monument has been safely preserved.
• Spaso-Vifanovskiy monastery... In memory of the visit to the monastery in 1797 by Emperor Paul I and his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna, an obelisk of white marble was erected on its territory, decorated with a marble plaque with an explanatory inscription. The obelisk was erected in an open pavilion supported by six columns, near the chambers of Metropolitan Platon. During the years of Soviet power, both the monument and the monastery were destroyed.
• St. Petersburg... In the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Castle in 2003, a monument to Paul I was erected by the sculptor V.E. Gorevoy, architect V.P. Nalivaiko. Opened on May 27, 2003.

see also

Notes (edit)

Literature

• Alexandrenko V. Emperor Paul I and the British. (Extract from Whitworth's reports) // Russian antiquity, 1898. - T. 96. - No. 10. - P. 93-106.
• Bashomon L. Tsesarevich Pavel Petrovich in France in 1782 Bashomon's Notes [Excerpts] // Russian antiquity, 1882. - T. 35. - No. 11. - P. 321-334.
• Boshnyak K. K. The stories of the old page about the time of Paul I, recorded by the page's son / Recorded by A.K. Boshnyak // Russian antiquity, 1882. - T. 33. - No. 1. - P. 212-216.
• Paul's time and death. Notes of contemporaries and participants in the event on March 11, 1801/ Comp. G. Balitsky. 2 - Part 1, 2 - M .: Russian byl, Education, 1908. - 315 p.
• Geyking K.-G. background. Emperor Paul and his time. Notes of a Courland nobleman. 1796-1801 / Per. I.O. // Russian antiquity, 1887. - T. 56. - No. 11. - P. 365-394. ,

Pavel I Petrovich (1754-1801)

The ninth All-Russian Emperor Pavel I Petrovich (Romanov) was born on September 20 (October 1), 1754 in St. Petersburg. His father was Emperor Peter III (1728-1762), who was born in the German city of Kiel, and was named Karl Peter Ulrich Holstein-Gottorp at birth. By coincidence, Karl Peter simultaneously had the rights to two European thrones - Swedish and Russian, since, in addition to kinship with the Romanovs, the Holstein dukes were in direct dynastic connection with the Swedish royal house. Since the Russian empress Elizaveta Petrovna had no children of her own, in 1742 she invited her 14-year-old nephew Karl Peter to Russia, who was baptized into Orthodoxy under the name of Peter Fedorovich.

Having come to power in 1861 after the death of Elizabeth, Pyotr Fedorovich spent 6 months in the role of the All-Russian emperor. Peter III's activities characterize him as a serious reformer. He did not hide his Prussian sympathies and, having taken the throne, immediately put an end to Russia's participation in the Seven Years War and entered into an alliance against Denmark, the longtime offender of Holstein. Peter III liquidated the Secret Chancellery - a grim police institution that kept the whole of Russia at bay. In fact, no one canceled the denunciations, it was just that from now on they had to be submitted in writing. And then he took the land and peasants from the monasteries, which even Peter the Great could not do. However, the time allotted by history for the reforms of Peter III was not long. Only 6 months of his reign, of course, cannot be compared with the 34-year reign of his wife, Catherine the Great. As a result of a palace coup, Peter III was dethroned on June 16 (28), 1762 and killed in Ropsha near St. Petersburg 11 days after that. During this period, his son, the future Emperor Paul I, was not even eight years old. The wife of Peter III, who proclaimed herself Catherine II, came to power with the support of the Guards.

The mother of Paul I, the future Catherine the Great, was born on April 21, 1729 in Stettin (Szczecin) in the family of a general of the Prussian service and received a good education for that time. When she was 13 years old, Frederick II recommended her to Elizabeth Petrovna as a bride for Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich. And in 1744 the young Prussian princess Sophia-Friderica-Augusta-Anhalt-Zerbst was brought to Russia, where she received the Orthodox name of Ekaterina Alekseevna. The young girl was smart and ambitious, from the first days of her stay on Russian soil she diligently prepared to become a Grand Duchess, and then the wife of the Russian emperor. But the marriage with Peter III, concluded on August 21, 1745 in St. Petersburg, did not bring happiness to the spouses.

It is officially believed that Paul's father is Catherine's legal husband, Peter III, but her memoirs contain indications (however, indirect) that Paul's father was her lover Sergei Saltykov. This assumption is supported by the well-known fact of extreme hostility that Catherine always felt for her husband, and against the significant portrait likeness of Paul to Peter III, as well as the persistent hostility of Catherine and Paul. An examination of the DNA of the remains of the emperor, which has not yet been carried out, could completely discard this hypothesis.

On September 20, 1754, nine years after the wedding, Catherine gave birth to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. This was an important event, because after Peter I, Russian emperors had no children, confusion and turmoil reigned at the death of each ruler. It was under Peter III and Catherine that there was hope for the stability of the state structure. During the first period of her reign, Catherine was worried about the legitimacy of her power. After all, if Peter III was still half (by his mother) a Russian person and, moreover, was the grandson of Peter I himself, then Catherine was not even a distant relative of the legitimate heirs and was only the wife of the heir. Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich was the legitimate but unloved son of the empress. After the death of his father, he, as the only heir, was supposed to take the throne with the establishment of a regency, but this, at the behest of Catherine, did not happen.

Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich spent the first years of his life surrounded by nannies. Immediately after his birth, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna took him to her. In her notes, Catherine the Great wrote: "They had just swaddled him when, at the order of the empress, her confessor appeared and named the child Paul's name, after which the empress immediately ordered the midwife to take him and carry him, and I remained on the maternity bed." The whole empire rejoiced at the birth of the heir, but they forgot about his mother: "Lying in bed, I cried and groaned incessantly, there was one in the room."

Paul's baptism took place in a magnificent setting on September 25th. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna expressed her favor to the mother of the newborn by the fact that after the christening she herself brought her a decree to the cabinet on a gold platter on the issue of 100 thousand rubles to her. After the christening at the court, solemn holidays began - balls, masquerades, fireworks on the occasion of Paul's birth lasted for about a year. Lomonosov, in an ode written in honor of Pavel Petrovich, wanted him to compare with his great great-grandfather.

Catherine had to see her son for the first time after giving birth only after 6 weeks, and then only in the spring of 1755. Ekaterina recalled: “He was lying in an extremely hot room, in flannel swaddling clothes, in a bed upholstered with black fox fur, they covered him with a quilted satin blanket, and on top of that, a pink velvet blanket ... sweat appeared on his face and all over his body When Paul grew up a little, the slightest breath of wind inflicted a cold on him and made him sick. In addition, many stupid old women and mothers were assigned to him, who, with their excessive and inappropriate zeal, caused him incomparably more physical and moral harm than good. " Improper care led to the fact that the child was distinguished by increased nervousness and impressionability. Even in early childhood, Pavel's nerves were upset to the point that he hid under the table when the doors slammed somewhat violently. There was no system in caring for him. He went to bed either very early, at about 8 pm, or in the first hour of the night. It happened that he was allowed to eat when "if he pleases," there were cases of simple negligence: "Once he fell out of the cradle, so no one heard it. rests soundly. "

Paul received an excellent education in the spirit of the French enlighteners. He knew foreign languages, had knowledge of mathematics, history, applied sciences. In 1758, Fedor Dmitrievich Bekhteev was appointed his tutor, who immediately began to teach the boy to read and write. In June 1760, Nikita Ivanovich Panin was appointed Chief Hofmeister under the Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Semyon Andreevich Poroshin, the former adjutant of Peter III, was the tutor and teacher of mathematics for Pavel, and Archimandrite Platon, Hieromonk Trinity Sergius Lavra, later Moscow Metropolitan.

On September 29, 1773, 19-year-old Pavel marries, having married the daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Princess Augustine-Wilhelmina, who received the name of Natalia Alekseevna in Orthodoxy. Three years later, on April 16, 1776, at 5 o'clock in the morning, she died in childbirth, and the child died with her. The medical report, signed by doctors Kruse, Arsh, Bok and others, speaks of the difficult childbirth of Natalya Alekseevna, who suffered from a curvature of the back, and the "large child" was incorrectly positioned. Catherine, however, not wanting to waste time, begins a new matchmaking. This time, the queen chose the Württemberg princess Sophia-Dorothea-Augusta-Louise. A portrait of the princess is delivered by courier, which Catherine II offers to Paul, saying that she is "meek, pretty, lovely, in a word, a treasure." The heir to the throne falls more and more in love with the image, and in June he goes to Potsdam to match the princess.

Seeing the princess for the first time on July 11, 1776 in the palace of Frederick the Great, Paul writes to his mother: “I have found my bride as I could mentally wish: not ugly, large, slender, answers intelligently and promptly. As for her heart, then she has his very sensitive and gentle ... She loves to be at home and practice reading and music, greedy to study in Russian ... "Having met the princess, the Grand Duke fell passionately in love with her, and after parting, he wrote her tender letters from the road with a declaration of love and devotion.

In August, Sophia-Dorothea arrives in Russia and, following the instructions of Catherine II, on September 15 (26), 1776, she receives Orthodox baptism under the name of Maria Feodorovna. Soon the wedding took place, a few months later she writes: "My dear husband is an angel, I love him to madness." A year later, on December 12, 1777, the young couple had their first son, Alexander. On the occasion of the birth of the heir in St. Petersburg, 201 cannon shots were fired, and the sovereign grandmother Catherine II gave her son 362 dessiatines of land, which laid the foundation for the village of Pavlovskoye, where the palace-residence of Paul I was later built. 1778. The construction of the new palace, designed by Charles Cameron, was carried out mainly under the supervision of Maria Feodorovna.

With Maria Fedorovna, Pavel found true family happiness. Unlike mother Catherine and great-aunt Elizabeth, who did not know family happiness, and whose personal life was far from generally accepted moral norms, Pavel appears as an exemplary family man who gave an example to all subsequent Russian emperors - their descendants. In September 1781, the grand ducal couple, under the name of the Count and Countess of the North, set off on a long journey across Europe, which lasted a whole year. During this trip, Pavel did more than just sightseeing and acquiring works of art for his palace under construction. The trip was also of great political importance. Having escaped from the care of Catherine II for the first time, the Grand Duke had the opportunity to personally meet the European monarchs and paid a visit to Pope Pius VI. In Italy, Paul, following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Emperor Peter the Great, is seriously interested in the achievements of European shipbuilding and gets acquainted with the organization of naval affairs abroad. During his stay in Livorno, the Tsarevich finds time to visit the Russian squadron located there. As a result of assimilating new trends in European culture and art, science and technology, style and way of life, Pavel largely changed his own worldview and perception of Russian reality.

By this time, Pavel Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna already had two children after the birth of their son Konstantin on April 27, 1779. And on July 29, 1783, their daughter Alexandra was born, in connection with which Catherine II presented Pavel with the Gatchina manor, bought from Grigory Orlov. The number of Paul's children, meanwhile, is constantly increasing - on December 13, 1784, his daughter Elena was born, on February 4, 1786 - Maria, on May 10, 1788 - Catherine. Pavel's mother, Empress Catherine II, rejoicing for her grandchildren, wrote to her daughter-in-law on October 9, 1789: "Right, madam, you are a master of children to produce."

Catherine II personally took care of the upbringing of all the older children of Pavel Petrovich and Maria Feodorovna, in fact, taking them away from their parents and not even consulting them. It was the empress who invented the names for the children of Paul, naming Alexander in honor of the patron saint of St. Petersburg, Prince Alexander Nevsky, and she gave this name to Constantine because she intended her second grandson for the throne of the future Constantinople Empire, which was to be formed after the expulsion of the Turks from Europe. Catherine personally was looking for a bride for Paul's sons - Alexander and Constantine. And both of these marriages did not bring family happiness to anyone. Emperor Alexander only at the end of his life will find a devoted and understanding friend in his wife. And the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich will violate the generally accepted norms and divorce his wife, who will leave Russia. As the governor of the Warsaw principality, he will fall in love with the beautiful Polish woman - Ioanna Grudzinskaya, Countess Lovich, in the name of preserving family happiness he will renounce the Russian throne and will never become Constantine I, the emperor of all Russia. In total, Pavel Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna had four sons - Alexander, Konstantin, Nikolai and Mikhail, and six daughters - Alexandra, Elena, Maria, Ekaterina, Olga and Anna, of whom only 3-year-old Olga died in infancy.

It would seem that Paul's family life was developing happily. A loving wife, many children. But the main thing that every heir to the throne aspires to was lacking - there was no power. Pavel patiently awaited the death of his unloved mother, but it seemed that the great empress, who had an imperious character and good health, was never going to die. In previous years, Catherine wrote more than once about how she would die surrounded by friends, to the sound of gentle music among flowers. The blow suddenly overtook her on November 5 (16), 1796 in a narrow passage between two rooms of the Winter Palace. She suffered a severe stroke, and several servants with difficulty managed to pull the heavy body of the empress out of the narrow corridor and put it on a mattress spread on the floor. Couriers rushed to Gatchina to inform Pavel Petrovich of the news of his mother's illness. The first was Count Nikolai Zubov. The next day, in the presence of her son, grandchildren and close courtiers, the empress died without regaining consciousness, at the age of 67, of which she spent 34 years on the Russian throne. Already on the night of November 7 (18), 1796, everyone was sworn in to the new emperor - 42-year-old Paul I.

By the time of accession to the throne, Pavel Petrovich was a man with established views and habits, with a ready-made, as it seemed to him, program of action. Back in 1783, he broke off all relations with his mother; rumors circulated among the courtiers about Paul's deprivation of the right of succession to the throne. Pavel plunges into theoretical considerations about the urgent need to change the governance of Russia. Far from the courtyard, in Pavlovsk and Gatchina, he creates a kind of model of a new Russia, which he saw as a model for governing the entire country. At the age of 30, he received from his mother a large list of literary works for in-depth study. There were books by Voltaire, Montesquieu, Corneille, Hume and other famous French and English authors. Paul considered the goal of the state to be "the bliss of each and all." He recognized only monarchy as a form of government, although he agreed that this form "is associated with the inconveniences of mankind." However, Paul argued that autocratic power is better than others, since "it combines the power of the laws of power of one."

Of all the occupations, the new tsar had the greatest passion for military affairs. Combat General P.I. Panin and the example of Frederick the Great drew him to the military path. During the reign of his mother, Paul, removed from work, filled his long hours of leisure with training military battalions. It was then that Paul formed, grew and strengthened that "corporal spirit", which he sought to instill in the entire army. In his opinion, the Russian army of Catherine's times was rather a disorderly crowd than a properly organized army. The embezzlement of the state, the use of soldiers 'labor in the landowners' estates of commanders, and much more flourished. Each commander dressed the soldier to his liking, sometimes trying to save money in his favor, allocated for uniforms. Pavel considered himself to be the successor of the work of Peter I on the transformation of Russia. The ideal for him was the Prussian army, by the way, the strongest in Europe at that time. Paul introduced a new uniform form, regulations, weapons. The soldiers were allowed to complain about the abuse of their commanders. Everything was strictly controlled and, in general, the situation, for example, of the lower ranks became better.

At the same time, Paul was distinguished by a certain peacefulness. During the reign of Catherine II (1762-1796), Russia participated in seven wars, which in total lasted more than 25 years and caused heavy damage to the country. Having ascended the throne, Paul declared that Russia under Catherine had the misfortune to use its population in frequent wars, and that inside the country the affairs were started. However, Paul's foreign policy was notable for its inconsistency. In 1798, Russia entered an anti-French coalition with England, Austria, Turkey and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. At the insistence of the allies, the disgraced A.V. was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian troops. Suvorov, in whose jurisdiction the Austrian troops were transferred. 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. For the Italian campaign, Suvorov received the rank of Generalissimo and the title of Prince of Italy. However, in October of the same year, Russia broke the alliance with Austria, and Russian troops were withdrawn from Europe. Not long before the assassination, Pavel sent the Don army on a campaign against India. These were 22,507 people without a convoy, supplies and any strategic plan. This adventurous campaign was canceled immediately after Paul's death.

In 1787, setting off for the first and last time in the army, Paul left his "Order", in which he outlined his thoughts on government. Listing all the estates, he dwells on the peasantry, which "contains by itself and by its labors all the other parts, therefore, worthy of respect." Pavel tried to enforce a decree that serfs should work no more than three days a week for the landowner, and on Sunday they would not work at all. This, however, led to their further enslavement. Indeed, before Paul, for example, the peasant population of Ukraine did not know corvee at all. Now, to the delight of the Little Russian landowners, a three-day corvee was introduced here. In Russian estates, it was very difficult to follow the execution of the decree.

In the field of finance, Paul believed that state revenues belonged to the state, and not to the sovereign personally. He demanded that the costs be coordinated with the needs of the state. Pavel ordered that part of the Winter Palace's silver services be melted down into coins, and up to two million rubles in banknotes be destroyed to reduce the state debt.

Attention was also paid to public education. A decree was issued on the restoration of the university in the Baltic States (it was opened in Dorpat already under Alexander I), a Medical-Surgical Academy, many schools and colleges were opened in St. Petersburg. At the same time, in order to prevent the idea of ​​a "depraved and criminal" France from entering Russia, the study of Russians abroad was completely prohibited, imported literature and notes were censored, and it was even forbidden to play cards. It is curious that, for various reasons, the new tsar drew attention to the improvement of the Russian language. Soon after accession to the throne, Paul ordered in all official papers "to speak in the purest and simplest syllable, using all possible accuracy, and pompous expressions that have lost their meaning should always be avoided." At the same time, the decrees prohibiting the use of certain types of clothing were strange, arousing distrust of the mental abilities of Paul. So, it was impossible to wear tailcoats, round hats, vests, silk stockings; instead, a German dress with an exact definition of the color and size of the collar was allowed. According to A.T. Bolotov, Pavel demanded that everyone perform their duties honestly. So, driving through the city, writes Bolotov, the emperor saw an officer walking without a sword, and behind an orderly carrying a sword and a fur coat. Pavel approached the soldier and asked whose sword he was carrying. He replied: "The officer who is in front." "Officer! So, it is difficult for him to carry his sword? So put it on yourself, and give him your bayonet!" So Pavel promoted the soldier to the officer, and demoted the officer to the rank and file. Bolotov notes that this made a tremendous impression on the soldiers and officers. In particular, the latter, fearing a repetition of this, have become more responsible for the service.

In order to control the life of the country, Pavel hung a yellow box at the gates of his palace in St. Petersburg for filing petitions in his name. Similar reports were received by mail. This was new to Russia. True, they immediately began to use this for false denunciations, libels and caricatures of the king himself.

One of the important political acts of Emperor Paul after accession to the throne was the reburial on December 18, 1796 of his father Peter III, who was killed 34 years ago. It all began on November 19, when "by the order of Emperor Pavel Petrovich, the body of the deceased Emperor Pyotr Fedorovich was taken out in the Nevsky Monastery, and the body was laid in a new magnificent coffin, covered with a golden eyelet, with the emperor's emblems, with the old coffin." On the evening of the same day, "His Majesty, Her Majesty and Their Highnesses were pleased to come to the Nevsky Monastery, to the Lower Annunciation Church, where the body stood, and upon arrival, the coffin was opened; they were pleased to kiss the body of the deceased sovereign ... and then it was closed." ... Today it is difficult to imagine what the tsar "adhered to" and forced his wife and children to "kiss". According to eyewitnesses, there was only bone dust and parts of clothing in the coffin.

On November 25, according to the ritual developed by the emperor in the smallest details, the burial of the ashes of Peter III and the corpse of Catherine II was performed. Russia has never seen anything like this. In the morning at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Paul laid the crown on the tomb of Peter III, and at 2 pm, Maria Feodorovna in the Winter Palace placed the same crown on the deceased Catherine II. There was one ghastly detail in the ceremony in the Winter Palace - the cadet's chamberlain and the empress's valets, during the laying on of the crown, "lifted the body of the deceased." Obviously, it was imitated that Catherine II was, as it were, alive. In the evening of the same day, the body of the Empress was transferred to a splendidly arranged funeral tent, and on December 1, Pavel solemnly transferred the imperial regalia to the Nevsky Monastery. The next day, at 11 o'clock in the morning, a funeral cortege slowly set off from the Lower Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In front of the coffin of Peter III, the hero of Chesma, Alexei Orlov, carried the imperial crown on a velvet pillow. Behind the hearse, the entire august family marched in deep mourning. The coffin with the remains of Peter III was transported to the Winter Palace and installed next to the coffin of Catherine. Three days later, on December 5, both coffins were transported to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. For two weeks they were exhibited there for worship. Finally, on December 18, they were interred. On the tombs of the hated spouses, the same date of burial was indicated. On this occasion, N.I. Grech remarked: "You would think that they spent their entire lives on the throne, died and were buried in the same day."

This whole phantasmagoric episode struck the imagination of contemporaries who tried to find at least some reasonable explanation for it. Some argued that all this was done in order to refute rumors that Paul was not the son of Peter III. Others saw in this ceremony a desire to humiliate and insult the memory of Catherine II, who hated her husband. Having crowned the already crowned Catherine at the same time as Peter III, who did not manage to be crowned during his lifetime, with the same crown, and almost simultaneously, Paul, as it were, posthumously married his parents, and thereby nullified the results of the 1762 palace coup. Paul forced the killers of Peter III to bear the imperial regalia, thereby exposing these people to public ridicule.

There is evidence that the idea of ​​a secondary burial of Peter III was suggested to Paul by the freemason S.I. Pleshcheev, who wanted to take revenge on Catherine II for the persecution of "free masons". One way or another, the ceremony of reburial of the remains of Peter III was performed even before the coronation of Paul, which followed on April 5, 1797 in Moscow, - the new tsar devoted so much importance to the memory of his father, emphasizing once again that his filial feelings for his father were stronger than feelings for the imperious mother. And on the very day of his coronation, Paul I issued a law on succession to the throne, which established a strict order in the succession to the throne along a direct male descending line, and not at the arbitrary will of the autocrat, as before. This decree was in effect throughout the 19th century.

Russian society was ambivalent about the government events of Pavlovsk time and personally to Paul. Sometimes historians said that under Paul, the Gatchins became the head of state - ignorant and rude people. Of these, A.A. Arakcheev and others like him. The words of F.V. Rostopchin, that "the best of them deserves a wheel." But we should not forget that among them were N.V. Repnin, A.A. Bekleshov and other honest and decent people. Among Paul's associates we see S.M. Vorontsova, N.I. Saltykova, A.V. Suvorov, G.R. Derzhavin, a brilliant statesman M.M. Speransky.

Relations with the Order of Malta played a special role in Paul's politics. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which appeared in the 11th century, was associated with Palestine for a long time. Under the onslaught of the Turks, the Johannites were forced to leave Palestine, settle first in Cyprus and then on the island of Rhodes. However, the struggle with the Turks, which lasted more than one century, forced them to leave this refuge in 1523. After seven years of wandering, the Johannites received Malta as a gift from King Charles V of Spain. This rocky island became an impregnable fortress of the Order, which became known as the Maltese one. By the convention of January 4, 1797, the Order was allowed to have a great priority in Russia. In 1798, Paul's manifesto "On the Establishment of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem" appeared. The new monastic order consisted of two priors - Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox with 98 commanders. There is an assumption that Paul wanted thereby to unite two churches - Catholic and Orthodox.

On June 12, 1798, Malta was taken by the French without a fight. The knights suspected the great master Gompesh of treason and defrocked him. In the autumn of the same year, Paul I was elected to this post, who willingly accepted the insignia of the new dignity. Before Paul was drawn the image of a knightly union, in which, in contrast to the ideas of the French Revolution, the principles of the order would flourish - strict Christian piety, unconditional obedience to elders. According to Paul, the Order of Malta, which had fought the enemies of Christianity for so long and successfully, must now gather all the "best" forces of Europe and serve as a mighty bulwark against the revolutionary movement. The residence of the Order was moved to St. Petersburg. In Kronstadt, a fleet was equipped to expel the French from Malta, but in 1800 the island was occupied by the British, and Paul soon died. In 1817, it was announced that the Order no longer existed in Russia.

At the end of the century, Pavel moved away from his family, and relations with Maria Feodorovna deteriorated. There were rumors about the empress's infidelity and reluctance to recognize the younger boys as their sons - Nicholas, born in 1796, and Mikhail, born in 1798. Gullible and straightforward, but at the same time suspicious, Paul, thanks to the intrigues of von Palen, who became his closest courtier, begins to suspect all people close to him of hostility towards him.

Pavel loved Pavlovsk and Gatchina, where he lived while awaiting the throne. Having ascended the throne, he began to build a new residence - Mikhailovsky Castle, designed by the Italian Vincenzo Brenna, who became the chief court architect. Everything in the castle was adapted to protect the emperor. Canals, drawbridges, secret passages, it seemed, should have made Paul's life long. In January 1801, the construction of the new residence was completed. But many plans of Paul I remained unfulfilled. It was in the Mikhailovsky Palace that Pavel Petrovich was killed on the evening of March 11 (23), 1801. Having lost the sense of reality, he became manically suspicious, removed from himself loyal people, and himself provoked the disaffected in the guards and high society into a conspiracy. The conspiracy was attended by Argamakov, Vice-Chancellor P.P. Panin, favorite of Catherine P.A. Zubov, Governor-General of St. Petersburg von Palen, the commanders of the Guards regiments: Semenovsky - N.I. Depreradovich, Kavalergardsky - F.P. Uvarov, Preobrazhensky - P.A. Talyzin. Thanks to treason, a group of conspirators entered the Mikhailovsky Castle, went up to the emperor's bedroom, where, according to one version, he was killed by Nikolai Zubov (Suvorov's son-in-law, Platon Zubov's older brother), who hit him in the temple with a massive gold snuffbox. According to another version, Paul was strangled with a scarf or crushed by a group of conspirators who pounced on the emperor. "Have mercy! Air, air! What have I done wrong to you?" - these were his last words.

The question of whether Alexander Pavlovich knew about the conspiracy against his father for a long time remained unclear. According to the memoirs of Prince A. Czartoryski, the idea of ​​a conspiracy arose almost in the first days of Paul's reign, but the coup became possible only after it became known about the consent of Alexander, who signed a secret manifesto, in which he pledged not to pursue the conspirators after accession to the throne. And most likely, Alexander himself perfectly understood that without murder, a palace coup would be impossible, since Paul I would not voluntarily renounce. The reign of Paul I lasted only four years, four months and four days. His funeral took place on March 23 (April 4), 1801 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The rest of her life Maria Feodorovna devoted to her family and perpetuating the memory of her husband. In Pavlovsk, almost on the edge of the park, in the middle of the wilderness, above the ravine, the Mausoleum was erected to the benefactor spouse according to the project of Tom de Thomon. Like an ancient temple, it is majestic and silent, all nature around seems to mourn along with a porphyry-bearing widow sculpted from marble, weeping over the ashes of her husband.

Paul was ambivalent. A knight in the spirit of the outgoing century, he could not find his place in the XIX century, where the pragmatism of society and the relative freedom of representatives of the top of society could no longer coexist. The society, which for a hundred years before Paul tolerated any antics of Peter I, did not tolerate Paul I. "Our romantic tsar", as A.S. Paul I called him. Pushkin, failed to cope with the country, which was waiting not only for the strengthening of power, but, above all, various reforms in domestic politics. The reforms that Russia has been waiting for from every ruler. However, it was in vain to expect such reforms from Paul, due to his upbringing, education, religious principles, experience of relationships with his father and, especially, with his mother. Paul was a dreamer who wanted to transform Russia and a reformer who displeased everyone. The unfortunate sovereign who died during the last palace coup in the history of Russia. An unhappy son who repeated the fate of his father.

Madam dear mother!

Take a break, please, please, for a moment from your important occupations, to accept the congratulations that my heart, humble and obedient to your will, brings on the birthday of Your Imperial Majesty. May Almighty God bless your precious days for the whole fatherland until the most distant times of human life, and may Your Majesty never run out of tenderness for me, the mother and ruler, always dear and revered by me, the feelings with which I remain for you, Your Imperial Majesty , the most obedient and most devoted son and subject Paul.