The reign of Emperor Paul I: An extravagant tyrant or a true knight on the Russian throne

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Paul I ruled the Russian state for a very short time - only four years, four months and four days, but disputes about himself and his rule have not subsided to this day. Some consider him a tyrant and a mentally ill tyrant, a stupid weak-willed hysteric - this repulsive image has long been supported in literature, theater and cinema. Others call him a great and wise ruler, "" with a heightened sense of justice, "". Until now, this Russian emperor remains a mystery in many ways, both as a person and as a ruler …

Paul I, the son of Catherine II and Peter III, got the throne very difficult. Although he was supposed to become a ruler when he came of age, his mother actually usurped power. And Paul, deprived of authority and removed from public affairs, lived under her strict supervision. At the same time, he had to endure ridicule and humiliation from mother's favorites. You can imagine what state of mind he was in. And this continued until the death of the empress, by that time Paul was already 42 years old. Speaking about the difficult character of Paul I, about his irritability, frequent sudden and uncontrollable fits of anger, it is worth remembering this.

Russian Hamlet

In a calm atmosphere, it was a man, "". From childhood, reading novels about valiant knights, he grew up as a very romantic young man, for whom the knightly code of honor was not an empty phrase. For some time now Paul began to be called "". It happened during his travels to European countries. In Austria, Pavel was invited to see the play Hamlet, but unexpectedly the leading actor Brockman refused to play. He explained his refusal by the fact that "". Indeed, the plot of the play was in many ways reminiscent of the dramatic events of 1762 in the life of Tsarevich Pavel. Having matured, he, like the Danish prince, tried to understand the circumstances of the death of his father and the role of his mother in the coup that had happened. I had to replace the play with The Marriage of Figaro.

Personal life

Paul's first wife was the German princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt, who became Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna. Pavel loved his wife immensely, but she did not really love him. Two years after the wedding, during childbirth, Natalya Alekseevna died, the child was also born dead. Pavel could not find a place for himself from grief, but at this time Catherine, in order to moderate his suffering, told Paul about her husband's betrayal, which he did not even suspect.

An heir was needed, and a year later Pavel married again. This time his wife was the Princess of Württemberg, Maria Feodorovna.

She turned out to be a wonderful wife who loves Paul and gave him ten children (including the future emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I).

But over time, Paul lost interest in his wife, he had favorites, At first, his lady of the heart was Ekaterina Nelidova, who had a great influence on the emperor. Paul's associates did not like this at all, and they arranged a “replacement”. Anna Lopukhina became his new favorite.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Paul and Catherine was getting worse. She even conceived of completely depriving him of his right to the throne, writing a will in favor of his eldest son, and her beloved grandson, Alexander. But she did not have time to carry out her plans, the empress was struck by an apoplectic stroke.

Drastic changes

On November 5, 1796, Catherine the Great died, and the rightful heir Paul I finally ascended the throne.

Previously, Pavel and his mother had serious disagreements over the state structure, and he was immensely outraged by the hypocritical and depraved atmosphere that reigned in society with the approval of Catherine. Having come to power and being essentially a very decent person, he decided "".

During the short period of his reign, he managed to carry out a huge number of reforms within the country. And even if he did not have managerial experience, he was already a completely mature person with his own strong convictions. And his reforms were not the hasty whims of a mad ruler (and this is how many spoke about the new emperor), many of them were very reasonable and useful. And there are many such examples …

Thus, Paul abolished the current law of succession, which allowed the current ruler to appoint his own successors, and from which Paul himself suffered. The new law clearly laid down the rules for the succession to the throne. This law was further guided in Russia until the monarchy fell.

Some of his innovations are quite interesting and would be very useful today. Near one of the windows of the palace, Paul ordered to mount a special yellow box, intended for complaints and petitions addressed to the emperor himself. At the same time, everyone was equal - absolutely any person could omit the letter - both poor and rich. Pavel personally read all these letters and by all means gave answers, which were printed in the newspaper. These letters helped Paul to keep abreast of the real life of people. Having learned from them about egregious facts - lawlessness or injustice, the sovereign did not stand on ceremony with the guilty and severely punished them. This practice had a certain effect, they began to be afraid of complaints.

Certain measures were taken by Paul to combat inflation, some of them: - sharply, tenfold, the palace expenses were cut; - many table sets from the palace were melted down with the aim of further releasing silver coins into circulation; - more than 5,000,000 paper money, not backed by gold, was withdrawn from circulation - they were simply burned on the Palace Square;

Officials were also in fear, especially in the capital - they were now undergoing constant checks - bribery, which flourished under Catherine, was punished mercilessly. In addition, they learned not to be late for work and to work all day at their workplace. Thanks to the measures taken, a huge number of accumulated cases were dismantled and resolved in a short time.

An example was the emperor himself, who did not tolerate laziness - he got up at 5 o'clock and, having prayed, from 6 in the morning began to receive officials with reports. If someone was late for an appointment, they were immediately fired. After that, the sovereign went to inspect the capital's institutions and troops. The idle life, to which many got used to during the reign of Catherine, ended, and soon all the inhabitants of the capital switched to the way of life set by the new emperor.

But, of course, not everyone liked it. With these changes, Paul made himself a considerable number of enemies, who began to spread all sorts of gossip and speculation about him, making him almost crazy.

Military reform

The military reform he was carrying out met with particular rejection. But Paul, despite resistance, steadily continued his struggle against the lack of discipline in the army and the ongoing lawlessness of the commanding staff.

Paul "." (memoirs of A. T. Bolotov). Now the officers, instead of dancing with the ladies at balls, marched on the parade ground.

For all nobles, military service became compulsory. If a nobleman - if you please serve the Fatherland! Those who were only listed in the army, but in fact did not serve, were brought to justice.

Ordinary soldiers and lower ranks, on the contrary, felt the emperor's concern for themselves - he increased their salaries, severely punished for delays in the payment of salaries, forbade them to be attracted as labor for personal purposes.

Each regiment had its own infirmary, the soldiers were fed much better. Pavel did not forget about clothes - greatcoats were introduced for wearing in cold weather. And those who took the guard were given felt boots and warm sheepskin coats.

For officers, the opposite is true. If earlier, under Catherine, each officer had several expensive uniforms and other outfits, now Pavel has defined a uniform for them at 22 rubles (the former cost 120 rubles each), banned fur coats altogether, in winter officers began to walk in fur-trimmed uniforms, under which sweatshirts were put on for warmth.

During the reign of Paul, the peasants, soldiers and lower military ranks even felt some relief. And his "despotism" mostly affected officers, nobles, court nobles.

By virtue of his character, he could not always control himself and his emotions. Often he behaved very unrestrained, not at all caring about what impression he made on people. And this behavior very much harmed both himself and the policy he was pursuing. The number of dissatisfied grew. During the four years of his reign, several attempts were made on his life.

Massacre at the Mikhailovsky Castle

On the night of March 11-12 (old style) in 1801, as a result of a conspiracy, Paul I was killed. A bunch of drunken conspirators perpetrated reprisals against him in revenge for some of their personal grievances.

Having penetrated into the Mikhailovsky Castle, they broke into the chambers of the emperor and demanded that he abdicate the throne. A fight ensued and Paul was killed. How this happened is not known exactly. According to one version, he was strangled with an army belt. They say Paul had a premonition of his death. In the evening, before leaving for the bedroom, he suddenly became thoughtful, turned pale and said: "What will be, will not be avoided …".

In the morning, the death of the emperor from an apoplectic stroke was announced. The assassins, trying to evade responsibility, began to create an unsightly image of Emperor Paul I, as a crazy tyrant and tyrant. And they succeeded in many ways, no one was punished. And given the indirect involvement in the murder of Paul's eldest son, Alexander, who soon became Emperor Alexander I, the materials on this case were completely classified. A whole hundred years passed before the Romanovs decided to announce that Paul I did not die a natural death, but was killed.

"" (Paul I)

And here are the words of the poet V. Khodasevich in defense of Paul I: "…".

And in continuation of the theme, a story about 7 Russian monarchs who were killed.