Paul 1 Russian Hamlet Why. Russian Hamlet

157. Paul I Petrovich, Emperor Son of Emperor Peter III Fedorovich, before the adoption of Orthodoxy Carl-Petra-Ulrich, Duke Schleswig-Hollytein-Gottorpsky (see 160), from marriage with great prince Alekseyevna, before the adoption of Orthodoxy Sophia-Tomb-FRIDERIC , prince

During his reign, Paul did not execute anyone

Historic science has not yet known such a large-scale falsification as the assessment of the personality and activities of the Russian emperor Paul first. After all, that John Grozny, Peter the first, Stalin, around which the polemical spears are mainly broken! Like a dispute, "objectively" or "binding" they killed their enemies, they still killed them. And Paul first did not execute anyone during his reign.

He ruled humane than his mother Catherine second, especially in relation to ordinary people. Why is he "crowned villain", according to Pushkin's expression? Because, without thinking, dismissed the negligent chiefs and even sent them to St. Petersburg (only about 400 people)? Yes, we now have many dream of such a "crazy ruler"! Or why he, in fact, "crazy"? Yeltsin, sorry, sent some need for publicly, and he was considered simply an uncompatible "original".

No decree or the law of Paul's first signs of madness does not contain, on the contrary, differ in reason and clarity. For example, they put an end to that madness, which was going on with the rules of the preclosure after Peter the first.

In the 45-Tomnet "Complete Court of Laws of the Russian Empire," published in 1830, 2248 documents of the Pavlovsky period (two and a half volume) were placed - and this is despite the fact that Paul reigned only 1582 days! It became, he released 1-2 of the law every day, and then there were not grotesque relations about the "suboroscience Kizh", but serious acts who later included in the "full set of laws"! Here you are and "crazy"!

It was Pavel I who legally secured the dominant role. Orthodox church Among other churches and denominations in Russia. The legislative acts of Emperor Paul said: "The primary and dominant faith in the Russian Empire is the Christian Orthodox Catolytic East Confession", "Emperor, the throne of the All-Russian possessing, cannot confess any other faith, except for the Orthodox." Approximately the same we will continue in the spiritual regulation of Peter I. These rules strictly observed until 1917. Therefore, I would like to ask our adept "multiculturalism": when Russia managed to become "multicole confessional", how do you now speak? In the atheistic period 1917-1991? Or after the 1991, when "fell off" from the country Catholic-Protestant Baltic States and the Muslim republics of Central Asia?

Many Orthodox historians are wary of the fact that Paul was a great Master of Maltese Order (1798-1801), considering this Order of the Paramasonal Structure.

But it is one of the main then masonic powers, England, overthrow the power of Paul in Malta, occupying the island on September 5, 1800. This is at least says that in the English Masonic Hierarchy (t. "Scottish rite") did not recognize Paul His. Maybe Paul was "his" in the French Masonic "Great East", if I wanted to "fit" with Napoleon? But it happened precisely after the seizure of the British Malta, and before Paul with Napoleon fought. It is necessary to understand that the title of grandmaster of the Maltese Order 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, Malta Island had to be marked by the Gubernia of the Russian Empire. Paul wanted to make the title of grandmaster hereditary, and Malta to join Russia. On the island he planned to create a naval base to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean and in the south of Europe.

Finally, it is known that Paul fagged to Jesuits. This is also placed by some Orthodox historians in guilt in the context of the complex relationship of Orthodoxy and Catholicism. But there is another particular historical context. In 1800, the Order of Jesuit was considered the main ideological enemy of Freemasonry in Europe. So the masons could in no way welcome the legalization of Jesuits in Russia and treat Paul I as a Mason.

THEM. The Muravyev-Apostol has repeatedly spoke to his children, the future Decembrists, "On the hugeness of the coup, which was accomplished with the entry of Paul first to the throne, - the coup so sharp, that he will not understand the descendants," and General Yermolov claimed that the "late emperor had great features , His historical character is not yet defined with us. "

For the first time since the times of Elizabeth, Petrovna, the oath of the new king is taken and serfs - and therefore they are considered subjects, and not slaves. Bornbishchina is limited to three days a week with the provision of weekends on Sunday and holidays, and since the Orthodox holidays in Russia have a lot, it was a great relief for the working people. The courtyard and fortress people Pavel first banned selling without land, and also apart, if they were from the same family.

As in the times of John Grozny, in one of the windows of the winter palace, a yellow box is installed, where everyone can throw a letter or a petition in the name of the sovereign. The key from the room with the box was located at the Paul himself, which every morning he himself read the requests of the subjects and the answers printed in newspapers.

"Emperor Paul had a sincere and firm desire to do good," A. Kotsebu wrote. - In front of him, as before the kind public, the poor and the rich, noble, and the peasant, everyone was equal. Grief is strong, who with arrogance he oppressed the wretched. The road to the emperor was opened for everyone; The title of his favorite did not defend anyone before him ... "Of course, we did not like it accustomed to impunity and life to the gift machine and the ricers did not like it. "The emperor loves only the lower classes of the urban population and peasants," said Count Broul in St. Petersburg.

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

However, the best and good beginnings of the king were crashing about the stone wall of indifference and even the obvious incompleteness of his nearest subjects, externally devotees and slave. Historians Gennady Obolensky in the book "Emperor Paul I" (M., 2001) and Alexander Bukhanov in the book "Pavel First" (M., 2010) convincingly prove that many of his orders were interpreted completely impossible and tremedy, causing the growth of hidden discontent with the king . "You know what my heart I have, but do not know what kind of people it is," Pavel Petrovich wrote with bitterness in one of the letters about his surroundings.

And these people had little killed him, 117 years old before the murder of the last Russian sovereign - Nikolai second. These events are certainly connected, the terrible crime of 1801 predetermined the fate of the Romanov dynasty.

Decembrist A.V. Podzhio wrote (by the way, it's curious that many objective testimonies about Pavel belong to the Decembrists): "... Drunk, the bright crowd of conspirators breaks down to him and disgustingly, without the slightest civilian goal, he drags him, soul, beats ... and kills! Having committed one crime, they tried it to others, still awful. They were inspired, carried away the son of the Son himself, and this unfortunate, having bought a crown with such a blood, and at all time his reign would be tomorrow, bent and unwittingly prepare the outcome unfortunate for themselves, for us, for Nicholas. "

But I would not, as many Fans of Paul do, directly oppose the reign of Catherine of the second and Paul first. Of course, the moral appearance of Paul for the better differed from the moral appearance of the loving empress, but the fact is that its favoritism was including the board, not always ineffective. The favorites were Catherine, not only for carnal joys. We were clusted by the Empress, they looked gave God, especially A. Orlov and Potemkin. The intimate proximity of the empress and favorites was a certain degree of confidence in them, a kind of initiation, or. Of course, there were loafers and typical Alphonsees like Lansky and Zudov, but they appeared in the last years of Catherine's life in recent years, when she had somewhat lost an idea of \u200b\u200breality ...

Another thing is the position of Paul as the heir to the throne under the system of favoritism. A. Buchanov writes: In November 1781, "Austrian emperor (1765-1790) Joseph II arranged a magnificent meeting (Paul. - A. B.. ), and in a series of solemn events was scheduled for the court play "Hamlet". The following happened: The leading actor Brockman refused to fulfill the main role, since he said, "two Hamlet will be in the hall." The emperor was grateful to the actor for wise warning and rewarded it with 50 duats. "Hamlet" Paul did not see; So it remained unclear whether he knew this tragedy of Shakespeare, the external plot of which was extremely reminded his own destiny. "

And the diplomat and historian S.S. Tatishchev spoke the famous Russian publisher and journalist A.S. Suvorin: "Paul was Hamlet in part, at least, his position was Hamlet," Hamlet "was banned with Catherine II," after which Suvorin concluded: "In fact, it is very similar. The only difference is that Catherine instead of Claudia had eagles and others ... ". (If you consider young Pavel Hamlet, and Alexey Orlova, who killed the father of Pavel Peter III, Claudius, then the unfortunate Peter will be in the role of Father Hamlet, and Ekaterina itself - in the role of Mother Herruda Hamlet, who married the murder of the first husband).

Position in Paul under Catherine really was Hamletovskoye. After his birth, he has a senior son Alexander, the future of Emperor Alexander I, Catherine considered the possibility of transferring the throne to the beloved grandchildly bypassing the unloved son.

The fears of Paul in such a development of events strengthened the early marriage of Alexander, after which the monarch was considered adults for the tradition. On August 14, 1792, Catherine II wrote his correspondent Baron Grimma: "At first, my Alexander marries, and there in time and will be crowned with all sorts of ceremonies, celebrations and people's festivities." Apparently, therefore, the celebrations on the occasion of the marriage of their son Paul demonstratively ignored.

On the eve of the death of Catherine, the courtiers were waiting for the promulgation of Manifesto on the removal of Paul, to conclude it in the Estland Castle of Lod and the proclamation of Alexander's heir. The opinion is common that while Paul was awaited by arrest, Manifesto (testament) Catherine personally destroyed the office-secretary A. A. Ibobodko, which allowed him to receive the highest rancceral with the new Emperor.

Having risen on the throne, Paul solemnly suffered as the father of his father from Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral simultaneously with the burial of Catherine II. At the funeral ceremony, detailed on a long picture of an unknown (apparently, Italian), the artist, the regalia of Peter III - the royal rod, the Scepter and the Greater Imperial Crown - carried ... Tsarubi residents - Count A.F. Orlov, Prince PB Baryatinsky and PB Parsec. In the Cathedral Paul, the rite of crust of Prachie Peter III was carried out (in the Petropavlovsky Cathedral, only crowned persons were buried). In the headplane slabs, Petra III and Catherine II carved the same burial date - December 18, 1796, why the uninitiated could have the impression that they lived together for many years and died in one day.

Invented in Hamletovski!

In the book of Andrey Rossomakhin and Denis Khrustaleva "Challenge the emperor Paul, or the first myth of the XIX century" (SPB, 2011) for the first time, the other "Hamletovsky" Act of Paul I is considered: a challenge to a fight that Russian Emperor sent all monarchs of Europe As an alternative to wars in which dozens and hundreds of thousands of people die. (This, by the way, exactly what rhetorically offered in the "war and the world" L. Tolstoy, who did not complain Paul first: they say, let the emperors and kings be fighting, instead of ruining their subjects in the wars).

What was perceived by contemporaries and descendants as a sign of "madness", shown by Rossomachin and Khrustalev as a thin game of "Russian Hamlet", having broken during the palace coup.

Also, the evidence of the English track of the conspiracy against Paul is also convincingly presented: so, in the book British Satyrian engravings and caricatures on Paul reproduced in color, the number of which has increased in the past three months of the emperor's life, when preparations for the conclusion of the Military Strategic Union Paul with Napoleon Bonaparte. As you know, shortly before the murder, Paul gave an order of the whole army of the Cossacks of Donskoy Troops (22,500 Sabel) under the command of Ataman Vasily Orlova to speak in a common campaign with Napoleon to India to "disturb" English possessions. The task of the Cossacks included the conquest of "passing" the Khiva and Bukhara. Immediately after the death of Paul I, the Orlova detachment was withdrawn from Astrakhan steppes, and negotiations with Napoleon were minimized.

I am sure that the "Hamlet Topic" in the life of Paul's first will still be the subject of attention of historical novelists. I think there will be a theater director who will supply Gamlet in Russian historical interpretation, where, while maintaining Shakespeare's text, the case will occur in Russia at the end of the XVIII century, and Paul will perform in the role of Prince Gamlet, as a ghost of Hamlet's father - Killed Peter III, as Claudia - Alexey Orlov, etc. And the episode with a performance played in the "Gamlet" by actors of the Stray Theater, can be replaced by the episode of the "Hamlet" in St. Petersburg by foreign pipe, after which Catherine II and Orlov will ban play . Of course, the real Cesarevich Paul, being in the position of Gamlet, and beat everyone, but still it was waiting for the fate of the Shakespearean hero in 5 years ...

"The emperor was a little growth, his facial features were ugly, with the exception of the eyes, which were very beautiful, and the expression of them, when he was not in anger, possessed attractiveness and endless softness ... He had beautiful manners and was very kind with women ; he possessed literary readiness and my mind and open, was inclined to joke and cheerle, loved art; french And the literature knew perfectly; His jokes never wore a bad taste, and it is difficult to imagine anything more elegant than the brief merciful words with which he applied to others in the minute benevolence. "This is a description. Pavel Petrovich, Belonging to Peru's light princes Darya Liven, like many other reviews of his people who knew him, did not fit into the usual image of a stupid, hysterical and cruel despot. But what a ten years after the death of Paul wrote one of the most thoughtful and impartial contemporaries - Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin : "... Russians looked at this monarch, as on a formidable meteor, counting minutes and looking forward to the last ... She came, and the news about that in the whole state was awarded atonement: in houses, on the streets, people cried from joy, Hugging each other as a day of light resurrection. "

There would be many other no less controversial evidence. Of course, we are accustomed to the fact that historical figures are rarely honored by unanimous admiration or unconditional condemnation. Estimates of contemporaries and descendants are too much dependent on their own addictions, tastes and political beliefs. But the case with Paul is different: as if woven from contradictions, it is poorly stacked in ideological or psychological schemes, it turns out more difficult than any shortcuts. Probably, that's why his life caused such deep interest Pushkin and Lev Tolstoy , Klyuchevsky and Khodsevich.

The fruit of dislike. He was born on September 20, 1754 in the family ... But just with the family of Cepe Sophia Frederica Augustus Anhalt-Crebst and Karl Peter Ulrich Holstein, who became Ekaterina Alekseevna and Peter Fedorovich, was very difficult to call. The spouses were so harmful to each other and had so little desire to demonstrate mutual loyalty that historians still argue who was the true father of Paul - the Grand Duke Peter or Camera Sergey Saltykov, the first one of the long turn of the favorites Catherine . However, the then Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was waiting for the appearance of the heir for so long, which left all doubts.

Immediately after the birth of the baby was unceremoniously selected from the mother: the Empress did not intend to risk, trusting the unloved daughter-in-law. Education of the future Russian monarch. Catherine was only occasionally allowed to see the Son - every time in the presence of the Empress. However, and later, when the mother got the opportunity to engage in his upbringing, she did not get closer to him. Easy not only parental heat, but also communicating with peers, but an excessively swelling by adults, the boy was very nervous and frightened. Showing non-cold abilities for learning and alive, mobile mind, it was then tears sensitive, then Caprician and his sentense. According to his beloved teacher, the seeds of the poroshina, well known the impatience of Paul: He was constantly afraid to be late somewhere, in a hurry and there was even more nervous, swallowed food, without burning, constantly looked at the clock. However, the Mode of the Day of the Little Grand Duke was indeed indeed a barren harsh: a rise in six and classes before the evening with small breaks for lunch and rest. Then - not at all children's court entertainment (masquerade, ball or theatrical presentation) and sleep.

Meanwhile, at the turn of the 1750-1760s, the atmosphere of the Petersburg courtyard was thickened: the health of Elizabeth Petrovna, undermined by violent sweating, was impaired, and the question of the successor was up. It seemed that he was obvious: didn't the nephew made a nephew from Germany, Peter Fedorovich, to convey to him the brazers of the board? However, by that time, she recognized Peter incapable of managing a huge country and besides the spirit-hated spirit of worship before Prussia, with which Russia led a heavy war. This originated the construction project for the throne of a small Paul with the regen of Catherine. However, he never realized, and on December 25, 1761, the power passed into the hands of the emperor Peter III .

For 186 days of his reign, he managed to do a lot. To conclude an inglorious world with Prussia with a concession to her of all the conquered and abolish the secret office, the decades who did the horror on all the inhabitants of the Empire. To demonstrate a full neglect of its traditions (first of all - to Orthodoxy) and free the nobility from the mandatory service. Ackless and gullible, quick-tempered and stubborn, devoid of every diplomatic tact and political alone - he was surprisingly anticipated by the nature of Paul. On June 28, 1762, the conspiracy, at the head of which Ekaterina and the Orlov brothers stood, committed to the short reign of Peter III. According to the Metakov, the comment is such a favorite Prussian King Friedrich the Great, "he allowed to overthrow himself from the throne, as a child whom to sleep." And on July 6, the Empress with a fading heart read the long-awaited news: her husband is no longer alive. Peter was indequained by the Karavyuty his jetty guards officers, headed by Fedor Baryatinsky and Alexey Orlovy . They buried him unnoticed, and not in the imperial tomb - Petropavlovsky Cathedral, and in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Formally, this was justified by the fact that Peter never was crowned. 34 years later, becoming the emperor, Paul shocks all the orders to extract the eliminated remains of the father from the grave, to crown and solemnly buried along with the remains of the mother. So he will try to restore the recharged justice.

Education of the Prince. The order of the prestiplotia in the Russian Empire was extremely confused yet Peter I. According to the decree whom the heir should appoint a reigning sovereign. It is clear that the legitimacy of the residence on the throne of Catherine was more than doubtful. Many saw her not by the autocratic sovereign, but only revenue with a small son, separating power with representatives of the noble elite. One of the convinced supporters of restriction of autocracy in this way was the influential head of the Foreign Affairs College and the tutor of the heir to Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin. It was he who until adulthood Paul played a decisive role in the formation of his political views.

However, Catherine was not intended to arrive at the completeness of his power in 1762, no later, when Paul matured. It turned out that the Son turns into a rival, which will place the hopes of all dissatisfied with it. It should be carefully followed by, warning and suppressing all his attempts to gain autonomy. Its natural energy should be sent to a safeway, allowing him to "play the soldiers" and reflect on the best state device. It would also be nice to take his heart.

In 1772, the Empress convinces the Grand Duke to postpone the celebration before the wedding about his age. The bride was already found - this is the 17-year-old Princess Wilhelmina Hesse-Darmstadt, who was named after Natalia Alekseevna in Baptism. Failure Paul was crazy about her. In September 1773, marriage was solemnly celebrated, at the same time, the Count Panin is removed from Cesarevich with numerous awards and awards. Nothing happens: the heir, as before, is almost completely suspended from participation in state affairs. Meanwhile, he burns with the desire to show his ability to be a worthy public. In 1774, "reasoning about the state in 1774, regarding the number of troops, demanding to protect it and regarding the defense of all limits" Paul proposes to abandon the conquest of new territories, reform the army based on clear regulations and strict discipline and establish "a long world that delivered We would be perfect peace. " At the Empress, in the mind of which at this time, a grandiose plan for the conquest of Constantinople was formed, such reasoning at best could cause only an indulgent smile ...

In his memoirs, the Decembrist M. A. Fonvizin sets out a family legend about the conspiracy, which was at that time around Paul. The conspirators allegedly wanted to build him to the throne and at the same time promulgate the "constitution" limiting the autocracy. In their number, Fonvizin calls Count Panin, his secretary - the famous playwright Denis Fonvizin, his brother Panina Peter, his cousin Prince N. V. Repnina, as well as the young wife Paul, known for its independence and his own way. Thanks to the basement about the venture, Ekaterina learned, and Paul, who did not stand her reproaches, confessed to everyone and was forgiven.

This story does not look too reliably, but it undoubtedly reflects the mood that prevailed in those years around the Grand Duke, the vague hopes and fears who worried about them and his loved ones. The situation has become even more severe after death at the first birth great Princess Natalia (rumored that she was poisoned). Paul was desperate. Under the pretext of the comfort of the son of Catherine, Catherine demonstrated him a love correspondence of the deceased wife with Count Andrei Razumovsky. It is easy to imagine that the Grand Duke survived then. However, the empire needed the continuation of the royal family, and the bride, as always, was found in the glorious abundance of the legacy of Germany.

"Private family"? Sophia Dodothea Augustus Vürttemberg, who became Maria Fedorovna, was the exact opposite of his predecessor. Soft, piercing and calm, she loved Paul immediately and with all his heart. In the "Instructions", specially written by him for the future wife, the Grand Duke warned frankly: "She will have to be primarily armed with patience and meekness to demolish my hotness and the changeable arrangement of the Spirit, but also my impatience." This task of Maria Fedorovna successfully carried out for many years, and later even gained an unexpected and strange ally in such a difficult matter. Freillina Catherine Nelidova was not distinguished by beauty and outstanding mind, however, it was she who began to play for Paul a kind of "psychotherapist": in her society heir, and then the emperor, apparently, received what he allowed him to cope with his phobias and flashes of anger.

Most of those who watched this unusual connection, of course, considered it an aduilter who, of course, could hardly shock the courts of the court sociable society of Catherine times. However, the relations of Paul and Nelidova, apparently, were Platonic. The favorite and the wife probably appeared in his mind as two different sides of the female start who for some reason was not destined to connect in one person. At the same time, Maria Fedorovna was not at all delighted with the relationship of her husband with Nelidova, but, having resigned with the presence of a rival, in the end, he could even find a common language with her.

The "small" cereal courtyard at first was located in a presented Catherine Son Pavlovsk. The local atmosphere seemed to be saturated with peace and tranquility. "Never a single private family has met so at ease, kindly and just guests: on dinners, balas, performances, festivities - on everyone lay an imprint of decency and nobility ..." - hurt, having visited Pavlovsk, French ambassador Count Segure. The problem, however, was that Paul was not satisfied with the role of the head of the "private family", imposed on his mother.

The fact that he himself completely does not fit into the Catherine "Scenario" created by Catherine, Paul had to become finally clear after the birth of the Son. The Empress unequivocally demonstrated that there are far-reaching plans with the firstborn, in which his parents simply did not have the place. Named Alexander in honor of at once two great commander - Nevsky and Macedonsky, - the child was immediately selected from the Grand-Magnish couple. The same thing happened with the second son, set up an even more significant name of the founder of the second Rome of Constantine. "Greek project" Empress and Grigory Potemkin He was created under the Scypter of Constantine of the New Byzantine Empire, which would be connected, on a member of the definition of the famous historian Andrei Zorin, "Uzami of Bratsk Friendship" with the "Northern" Empire of Alexander.

But what to do with Pavl? Having coped with the task of the "Supplier of the heirs", he, it turned out, has already played his role in the "delivered" by the will of Catherine Speak. True, Maria Fedorovna was not going to stop at reached. "Right, madam, you are the master of children to produce in the world," the Empress spoke with a mixed feeling, affected by the fecundity of the daughter-in-law (Paul and Mary had safely born ten children). Even in this matter, the son was only second ...

"Poor Paul" It is not surprising that it was vital for Paul to create a proper, alternative "scenario" of what is happening and approved by himself as an indispensable link in the chain of the rulers, as if revealed the providential meaning of the Russian Empire. The desire to be implemented in this capacity gradually becomes like an obsessive idea for him. In this case, the transparent enlightenment rationalism of Catherine, who prescribed to treat everything with irony and skepticism, Paul opposes other, baroque, understanding of reality. She appeared in front of him complex, full of mysterious meanings and omens. She was a book that was at the same time to read correctly, and re-write himself.

In the world, where Paul was deprived of all of himself right, he persistently searched for him and found signs of his chosenness. During a foreign trip 1781-1782, where he was under the name of the North Count sent by Mother as a certain compensation for everything taken away and disappeared, the Grand Duke diligently cultivates the image of the "rejected Prince", which the fate requested to exist on the verge between visible and other worlds .

In Vienna, by rumors, the presentation of the "Hamlet" was hurried, on which he should have been present. In France to the question Louis XVI. About the devotees to him by people Paul said: "Ah, I would be very annoyed if I even had a poodle, faithful to me, because my mother would be told him immediately after my departure from Paris." Finally, in Brussels, Zesarevich told the story in the secular salon, in which his mystical "quest" reflected in a drop of water.

It happened somehow during the night walk in St. Petersburg with Prince Kurakin, told the gathered Paul: "Suddenly, in the depths of one of the entrances, I saw a person's figure of a rather high growth, thin, in the Spanish raincoat, which closed him the lower part of the face, and in a military hat , sweeping on the eyes ... When we passed by him, he spoke out of the depths and silently went to the left of me ... At first I was very surprised; then I felt that my left side freezes, as if the stranger was made of ice ... "Of course , it was a ghost, invisible Kurakin. "Pavel! Poor Paul! Poor Tsarevich!" He said to "deaf and sad voice." - ... accepting my advice: do not tie a heart to anything about the earth, you are a short guest in this world, you will soon leave him. If you want a calm Death, live honestly and fairly, on conscience; Remember that remorse of conscience - the worst punishment for great souls. " Before parting, the ghost discovered himself: it was not a father, but the great-grandfather Paul - Peter the Great. He disappeared at the very place where Catherine a little later installed his Peter - a copper rider. "And I'm scared; it is terrible to live in fear: so far this scene stands in front of my eyes, and sometimes it is fading that I'm still standing there, on the square in front of the Senate," Cesarevich concluded his story.

It is not known whether Paul was familiar with the "Hamlet" (for obvious reasons, this play in Russia was not raised then), but the poetics of the image was recreated by the masterfully. It is worth adding that on the sophisticated Europeans, the Grand Duke made an impression of an absolutely adequate, sophisticated, secular, unlumous and educated young man.

Gatchina rejupp. In Russia, he probably returned as he returned from a festive idea where you unexpectedly got the main role and stormy applause, in the usual and post-catching household furnishings. The following one and a half decades of life passed in the sullen waiting in Gatchina, who had given him in 1783 after death Grigoria Orlova . Paul as he could tried to be an obedient son and act on the rules given by the mother. Russia fought hard with Ottoman EmpireAnd he rushed into battle at least a simple volunteer. But everything that he was allowed - to participate in harmless reconnaissance in the sluggish war with the Swedes. Catherine at the invitation of Potemkin made a solemn journey on the appended to the Empire of Novorossia, the participation of Cesarevich was not involved in it.

In the meantime, in Europe, a revolution was performed in such a delightful France and executed the king, and he tried to equip his little space in Gatchina. Justice, order, discipline - the less he noticed these qualities in the outside world, the more persistently tried to make them the basis of his world. Gatchina battalions, dressed in unusual unusual uniform uniforms of the Prussian sample and spent time on place parades in an infinite exhaustion of the strunker, became an on duty object of irony at the courtyard of Catherine. However, ridicule over all that was associated with Paul, were almost part of the court ceremony. The aim of Catherine, apparently, was to deprive the Cesarevich of that sacred halo, in spite of everything, the heir to the Russian throne was surrounded. On the other hand, the rejection of the Empress of the oddities, which Paul was famous for, his revolving in the situation of the year from the year "incolmental" was completely unparent. And the mother, and the son to the end remained hostages taken over the roles.

In such conditions, the intent of Catherine convey the throne of grandson Alexander had all the chances to embody into real actions. According to some memoirists, the corresponding decrees were prepared or even signed by the Empress, but something prevented publicly to make them.

Prince on the throne. At night, the eve of the death of Mother Cesarevich was repeatedly dreamed of the same dream: the invisible force picks up him and raises the sky. The adoption of the new Emperor Paul I occurred on November 7, 1796, on the eve of the day of the memory of the Terrible Archangel Mikhail - the leader of an infrequent heavenly man. For Paul, this meant that the heavenly military commander squeezed his reign by his garbage. The construction of the Mikhailovsky Palace on the spot mentioned, by legend, the Archangel itself, was carried out by feverish pace throughout the short reign. The architect Vincenzo Brenna was erected (according to the sketches of Paul himself) a real fortress.

The emperor was in a hurry. In his head, such a number of ideas have accumulated that they did not have time to settle down. Lies, devastation, rot and Lucchimita - with all this, he must end. How? Create an order from chaos only the strictest and strict and strict compliance with each role prescribed to him in the grand ceremonial play, where the role of the author is assigned to the Creator, and the role of the only conductor is to him, Paul. Each incorrect or unnecessary movement is like a fake note, destroying the sacred meaning of the whole.

The ideal of Paul was least reduced to the soldier Mushtra. The daily place parades held by him personally in any weather were only a private manifestation of a deliberately doomed attempt to establish the life of the country as they establish a mechanism for uninterrupted operation. Paul got up at five o'clock in the morning, and seven could already visit any "first place". As a result, in all St. Petersburg office, the work began to start three or four hours before the previous one. Unprecedented business: Senators from eight in the morning were sitting at the tables! Hundreds of unresolved cases, many of which were waiting for their turn for decades, unexpectedly received movement.

In sphere military service Changes were even more stripped. "Lifestyle, our officer, completely changed," recalled one of the brilliant Catherine Guardsmen. "With the Empress, we thought only about riding theaters, societies, went in the trees, and now from morning to evening they sat on the regimental yard and We taught us as recruits. " But all this was perceived by the elite as a gross violation of the "Rules of the game"! "To draw the Guards officers from the concedes in army soldiers, to introduce strict discipline, in a word, to turn everything upside down, meant to despise the general opinion and to break the entire existing order," says another memoirist.

Paul is not in vain claimed the Lavra of his great great grandfather. His politically repeated "universal mobilization" of Peter I, and the same concept of the "common good" was based on it. Just like Peter, he sought to do everything and control himself. However, at the end of the XVIII century, the nobility was much more independent, and the heir was much less than the Harizma and the mind compared to Prasur. And despite the fact that his idea turned out to be akin to utopia, it was not deprived of a kind of great grandeur, nor sequence. The intentions of Paul met at first much more sympathy than it could seem. The people referred to him as a kind of "delight". And it was not the case in symbolic benefits (such as the serfdom given to them, to bring the oath and complain about landowners) and not in doubtful attempts to regulate the attitude of the peasants and landowners from the point of view of "justice" (which manifested itself in the famous three-day bainst law). The simple people quickly caught that Paul's policies were essentially an egalitarian in relation to all, but the "gentlemen", because they are in sight, suffered from it to the greatest extent. One of the representatives of the "enlightened nobility" recalled that somehow, hiding (just in case) from Pavel behind the fence, he heard, as a soldier standing nearby says: "Here is a hundred of our Pugach!" - "I, turning to him, asked:" How dare you get angry about our sovereign? "He, looking at me without any embarrassment, answered:" And what, Barin, you can see, and you yourself think so, if you are hiding from Him. "There was nothing to answer."

The ideal of the disciplinary and ceremonial organization Paul found in medieval knightly orders. It is not surprising that he with such enthusiasm agreed to accept the ancient Order of John the title of Grandmaster proposed by the Maltese knights of the ancient Order of John the Title of the Grandmaster, not confused by the fact that the Catholic Order. Discipline the Razkanny Russian nobility, turning it into a demonish tank, is an idea that could not even continue the rationalistic mind of Peter! However, it was such an obvious anachronism that officers cracked into the knightly mantles caused smiles even each other.

The enemy of the revolution, friend of Bonaparte ... The knightness of Paul was not limited to the area of \u200b\u200bthe ceremonial. Deeply leaning "unfair" aggressive politics of the revolutionary France, offended by the French of Malta, he could not stand his own peace-loving principles, missed them into war. However, Veliko was his disappointment, when it turned out that the Allies - Austrians and the British - are ready to use the fruits of the victories of Admiral Ushakov and Field Marshal Suvorov But do not want not only to reckon with the interests of Russia, but simply to comply with the agreements reached.

Meanwhile, 18 Brother VIII in the revolutionary calendar (October 29, 1799 - on Russian) as a result of a military coup to power in Paris, a general came Bonaparte which almost immediately began to look for ways of reconciliation with Russia. The Eastern Empire seemed to him by the natural ally of France in the fight against the rest of Europe, and above all with England. In turn, Paul quickly realized that the revolutionary France comes an end, and "in this country in a short time, the king will spread, if not by name, then at least essentially." Napoleon and the Russian emperor exchange messages, and Paul expresses an unexpectedly sober and pragmatic look at the situation: "I do not say and is not going to discuss the human rights, nor different management methods existing in our countries. Let's try to return peace and silence, so It is necessary and so appropriate to the unchanged laws of providence. I am ready to listen to you ... "

The foreign policy turn was extremely cool - quite in the spirit of Paul. The intelligence of the emperor is already seized by the idea of \u200b\u200bthe establishment by the forces of Russia and France of a certain "European equilibrium", in which he, Paul, will play the role of the main and impartial arbitrator.

By the end of 1800, the relationship between Russia and Britain was aggravated to the limit. Now the British occupy the long-suffering Malta. Paul in response prohibits all trade with Britain and arrests all the British shopping ships in Russia along with their teams. From St. Petersburg, the English ambassador Lord Worth Worth, who stated that the Russian autocrat was crazy, and in the meantime actively and, without stinging for money, hesitated the opposition of Paul in the metropolitan society. Squada Admiral Nelson prepared for the campaign to the Baltic Sea, and don Cossacks They received an order to hit the most vulnerable, as it seemed, the place of the British Empire is India. In this opposition, the bet for foggy Albion was extremely high. It is not surprising that the "English Track" in the conspiracy organized against Paul is easy to distinguish. But still, the kingubius can hardly be considered a successful "special operation" of British agents.

"What I've done?" "He's smart head, but it has some kind of machine that keeps on a string. This thread will be born - the machine will turn out, and then the end of the mind and reason," once said one of the teachers of Paul. In the 1800th and in early 1801, it seemed to be very many people in the early 1801 of the emperor that the thread was about to be broken, if he had not yet broken. "Per last year Suspiciousness in the emperor developed to monstortion. Empty cases grew in his eyes to huge conspiracies, he drove people retired and referred to arbitrariness. Numerous sacrifices were translated into the fortress, and sometimes all of their wine boiled down to too long hair or too short kaftan ... "- recalled Princess Liven.

Yes, on the character of Paul skillfully played the most different people and with different goals. Yes, he was leaving and often deigned punished, and this feature was also used by his enemies. He knew his weaknesses and all his life with varying success fought with them. But by the end of life, this struggle clearly became unasing for him. Paul gradually handed over, and although to the verge, he did not reach the end of the end of the end, but it was quickly approaching her. The fatal role, probably played a rapid expansion of the usual and childhood of a very limited horizon of perception to the size of the real and infinite world. Consciousness of Paul never could accept and streamline it.

Not without the influence of true conspirators, the emperor raised his own family. Even before, Nelidov replaced the cute and narrowless Anna Lopukhin. The surroundings of Paul died in constant voltage and fear. The rumor has spread that he is preparing to deal with his wife and sons. The country froze ...

Of course, there is a colossal distance from Ropot to Distance. But hardly the second would have become possible without the first. Real (and remaining unnoticed Paul) The conspiracy was headed as people close to him - von Palen, N. P. Panin (nephew of the teacher of Paul) and his long-standing enemies - the brothers of the teeth, L. Bennigsen. Consent to the overthrow of his father from the throne (but not for the murder) gave the son Alexander. Forty days before the coup, the imperial family moved into the barely completed, still crude Mikhailovsky Palace. It is here on the night of March 11 to 12, 1801, the final scenes of the tragedy were played.

The crowd, pretended on the way to the rest of the emperor, the crowd of feebled wine of the conspirators found not immediately - he hid behind the mantelter shirma. The last words spoken by them were: "What did I do?"

"The emperor was a little growth, his features were ugly, with the exception of the eyes, which were very beautiful, and the expression of them, when he was not in anger, possessed attractiveness and endless softness ... He possessed beautiful manners and was very kind with women; He possessed literary readiness and the mind of a slaughter and open, was inclined to joke and cheerful, loved art; French and literature knew perfectly; His jokes never wore a bad taste, and it is difficult to imagine anything more elegant than the brief merciful words with whom he applied to others in the minute benevolence. " This description of Pavel Petrovich, belonging to Peru of the light princess Darya Liven, like many other reviews who knew him, not too fits into the usual image of a stupid, hysterical and cruel despot. But what a ten years after the death of Paul wrote one of the most thoughtful and impartial contemporaries - Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin: "... Russians looked at this monarch, like a formidable meteor, counting minutes and looking forward to the last ... she came, and the news In general, the state was a member of the redemption: in the houses, people cried on the streets from joy, hugging each other as a day of light resurrection. "

There would be many other no less controversial evidence. Of course, we are accustomed to the fact that historical figures are rarely honored by unanimous admiration or unconditional condemnation. Estimates of contemporaries and descendants are too much dependent on their own addictions, tastes and political beliefs. But the case with Paul is different: as if woven from contradictions, it is poorly stacked in ideological or psychological schemes, it turns out more difficult than any shortcuts. Probably, that's why his life caused such deep interest in Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy, Klyuchevsky and Khodsevich.

Fruit of dislike

He was born on September 20, 1754 in the family ... But just with the family of Cepe Sophia Frederica Augustus Anhalt-Crebst and Karl Peter Ulrich Holstein, who became Ekaterina Alekseevna and Peter Fedorovich, was very difficult to call. The spouses were so harmful to each other and had so little desire to demonstrate mutual loyalty that historians still argue who was the true father of Paul - the Grand Duke Peter or Camera Sergey Saltykov, the first series of Favorites of Catherine. However, the then Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was waiting for the appearance of the heir for so long, which left all doubts.

Immediately after the birth of the baby was unceremoniously selected from the mother: the Empress did not intend to risk, trusting the unloved daughter-in-law. Education of the future Russian monarch. Catherine was only occasionally allowed to see the Son - every time in the presence of the Empress. However, and later, when the mother got the opportunity to engage in his upbringing, she did not get closer to him. Easy not only parental heat, but also communicating with peers, but an excessively swelling by adults, the boy was very nervous and frightened. Showing non-cold abilities for learning and alive, mobile mind, it was then tears sensitive, then Caprician and his sentense. According to his beloved teacher, the seeds of the poroshina, well known the impatience of Paul: He was constantly afraid to be late somewhere, in a hurry and there was even more nervous, swallowed food, without burning, constantly looked at the clock. However, the Mode of the Day of the Little Grand Duke was indeed indeed a barren harsh: a rise in six and classes before the evening with small breaks for lunch and rest. Then - not at all children's court entertainment (masquerade, ball or theatrical presentation) and sleep.

Meanwhile, at the turn of the 1750-1760s, the atmosphere of the Petersburg courtyard was thickened: the health of Elizabeth Petrovna, undermined by violent sweating, was impaired, and the question of the successor was up. It seemed that he was obvious: didn't the nephew made a nephew from Germany, Peter Fedorovich, to convey to him the brazers of the board? However, by that time, she recognized Peter incapable of managing a huge country and besides the spirit-hated spirit of worship before Prussia, with which Russia led a heavy war. This originated the construction project for the throne of a small Paul with the regen of Catherine. However, he never realized, and on December 25, 1761, the authorities moved into the hands of Emperor Peter III.

For 186 days of his reign, he managed to do a lot. To conclude an inglorious world with Prussia with a concession to her of all the conquered and abolish the secret office, the decades who did the horror on all the inhabitants of the Empire. To demonstrate a full neglect of its traditions (first of all - to Orthodoxy) and free the nobility from the mandatory service. Ackless and gullible, quick-tempered and stubborn, devoid of every diplomatic tact and political alone - he was surprisingly anticipated by the nature of Paul. On June 28, 1762, the conspiracy, at the head of which Ekaterina and the Orlov brothers stood, committed to the short reign of Peter III. According to the Prussian King of Friedrich the Great Prussian King, "he allowed him to overthrow himself with the throne, as a child who was sent to sleep." And on July 6, the Empress with a fading heart read the long-awaited news: her husband is no longer alive. Peter was strangled by Kuaschy his jetty guards officers led by Fedor Baryatinsky and Alexey Orlov. They buried him unnoticed, and not in the imperial tomb - Petropavlovsky Cathedral, and in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Formally, this was justified by the fact that Peter never was crowned. 34 years later, becoming the emperor, Paul shocks all the orders to extract the eliminated remains of the father from the grave, to crown and solemnly buried along with the remains of the mother. So he will try to restore the recharged justice.

Parenting Prince

The order of the throne in the Russian Empire was extremely confused by Peter I, according to the decree of which the heir should appoint a reigning sovereign. It is clear that the legitimacy of the residence on the throne of Catherine was more than doubtful. Many saw her not by the autocratic sovereign, but only revenue with a small son, separating power with representatives of the noble elite. One of the convinced supporters of restriction of autocracy in this way was the influential head of the Foreign Affairs College and the tutor of the heir to Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin. It was he who until adulthood Paul played a decisive role in the formation of his political views.

However, Catherine was not intended to arrive at the completeness of his power in 1762, no later, when Paul matured. It turned out that the Son turns into a rival, which will place the hopes of all dissatisfied with it. It should be carefully followed by, warning and suppressing all his attempts to gain autonomy. Its natural energy must be sent to a safeway, allowing him to "play soldiers" and reflect on the best state device. It would also be nice to take his heart.

Best days

In 1772, the Empress convinces the Grand Duke to postpone the celebration before the wedding about his age. The bride was already found - this is the 17-year-old Princess Wilhelmina Hesse-Darmstadt, who was named after Natalia Alekseevna in Baptism. Failure Paul was crazy about her. In September 1773, marriage was solemnly celebrated, at the same time, the Count Panin is removed from Cesarevich with numerous awards and awards. Nothing happens: the heir, as before, is almost completely suspended from participation in state affairs. Meanwhile, he burns with the desire to show his ability to be a worthy public. In 1774, "reasoning about the state in general, regarding the number of troops, demanding to protect it and regarding the defense of all limits", Paul proposes to abandon the conquest of new territories, reform the army on the basis of clear regulations and strict discipline and establish a "long world that delivered We would be perfect peace. " At the Empress, in the mind of which at this time, a grandiose plan for the conquest of Constantinople was formed, such reasoning at best could cause only an indulgent smile ...

In his memoirs, Decembrist MA Fonvizin sets out a family legend about the conspiracy, which was at that time around Paul. The conspirators allegedly wanted to build him into the throne and at the same time promulgate the "Constitution" limiting the autocracy. Among them, Fononzin calls Count Panina, his secretary - the famous playwright of Denis Fonvizin, his brother Panina Peter, his cousin Prince N.V. Repnining, as well as the young wife Paul, known for its independence and his own way. Thanks to the basement about the venture, Ekaterina learned, and Paul, who did not stand her reproaches, confessed to everyone and was forgiven.

This story does not look too reliably, but it undoubtedly reflects the mood that prevailed in those years around the Grand Duke, the vague hopes and fears who worried about them and his loved ones. The situation has become even more severe after death at the first birth of the Great Princess Natalia (rumors went that she was poisoned). Paul was desperate. Under the pretext of the comfort of the son of Catherine, Catherine demonstrated him a love correspondence of the deceased wife with Count Andrei Razumovsky. It is easy to imagine that the Grand Duke survived then. However, the empire needed the continuation of the royal family, and the bride, as always, was found in the glorious abundance of the legacy of Germany.

"Private family"?

Sophia Dodothea Augustus Vürttemberg, who became Maria Fedorovna, was the exact opposite of his predecessor. Soft, piercing and calm, she loved Paul immediately and with all his heart. In the "instructions", specially written by him for the future wife, the Grand Duke warned frankly: "She will have to be primarily armed with patience and meekness to demolish my hotness and a changeable arrangement of the Spirit, but also my impatience." This task of Maria Fedorovna successfully carried out for many years, and later even gained an unexpected and strange ally in such a difficult matter. Freillina Ekaterina Nelidova was not distinguished by beauty and outstanding mind, however, it was she who began to play for Paul a kind of "psychotherapist": in her society heir, and then the emperor, apparently, received what he allowed him to cope with his phobias and flashes of anger.

Most of those who watched this unusual connection, of course, considered it an aduilter who, of course, could hardly shock the courts of the court sociable society of Catherine times. However, the relations of Paul and Nelidova, apparently, were Platonic. The favorite and the wife probably appeared in his mind as two different sides of the female start who for some reason was not destined to connect in one person. At the same time, Maria Fedorovna was not at all delighted with the relationship of her husband with Nelidova, but, having resigned with the presence of a rival, in the end, he could even find a common language with her.

"Small" The Blognya Dvor at first was located in the presented Catherine Son Pavlovsk. The local atmosphere seemed to be saturated with peace and tranquility. "Never a single private family has met so naturally, kindly and just guests: on dinners, balas, performances, festivals - on everyone lay an imprint of decency and nobility ..." - hurt, having visited Pavlovsk, French ambassador Count Segure. The problem, however, was that Paul was not satisfied with the role of the head of the "private family", imposed on his mother.

The fact that he himself completely does not fit into the Catherine "scenario" created by Catherine, Paul had to become finally clear after the birth of the Son. The Empress unequivocally demonstrated that there are far-reaching plans with the firstborn, in which his parents simply did not have the place. Named Alexander in honor of at once two great commander - Nevsky and Macedonsky, - the child was immediately selected from the Grand-Magnish couple. The same thing happened with the second son, set up an even more significant name of the founder of the second Rome of Constantine. The Greek Project of the Empress and Grigory Potemkin was to create under the Scypter of Constantine of the New Byzantine Empire, which would be connected, on the Metaching of the famous historian Andrei Zorin, "Uzami Bratsk Friendship" with the "Northern" Empire Alexander.

But what to do with Pavl? Having cope with the task of the "Supplier of the heirs", he turned out, already played his role in the "delivered" by the will of Catherine Specto. True, Maria Fedorovna was not going to stop at reached. "Right, madam, you are the master of children to produce," the Empress spoke with a mixed feeling, affected by the fecundity of the daughter-in-law (in all of Paul and Maria, ten children were born safely). Even in this matter, the son was only second ...

"Poor Paul"

It is not surprising that it was vital for Paul to create their own, alternative "scenario" of what is happening and approved by himself as an indispensable link in the chain of the rulers, as if revealed the providential meaning of the Russian Empire. The desire to be implemented in this capacity gradually becomes like an obsessive idea for him. In this case, the transparent enlightenment rationalism of Catherine, who prescribed to treat everything with irony and skepticism, Paul opposes other, baroque, understanding of reality. She appeared in front of him complex, full of mysterious meanings and omens. She was a book that was at the same time to read correctly, and re-write himself.

In the world, where Paul was deprived of all of himself right, he persistently searched for him and found signs of his chosenness. During a foreign trip, 1781-1782, where he was under the name of the North Count sent by the mother as a certain compensation for everything taken and the lack of charge, the Grand Duke diligently cultivates the image of a "loose prince", which the fate requested to exist on the verge of visible and other worlds .

In Vienna, according to rumors, the submission of "Hamlet" was hurried, on which he had to be present. In France, the Question Louis XVI on the people devoted to him, Pavel stated: "Ah, I would be very annoyed if there was even a poodle in my retinue, because my mother would be driving him immediately after my departure from Paris." Finally, in Brussels, Zesarevich told the story in a secular salon, in which his mystical "quest" reflected in a drop of water.

It happened somehow during the night walk in St. Petersburg with Prince Kurakin, told the gathered Paul: "Suddenly, in the depths of one of the entrances, I saw a figure of a person quite high growth, thin, in the Spanish raincoat, which closed him the lower part of the face, and in a military hat , sweeping on the eyes ... When we passed by him, he spoke out of the depths and silently went to the left of me ... At first I was very surprised; Then he felt that my left side would freeze, as if the stranger was made of ice ... "Of course, it was a ghost, invisible to Curakina. "Pavel! Poor Paul! Poor Tsarevich! He told a "deaf and sad voice." - ... accepting my advice: do not bring a heart to anything about the earth, you are a short guest in this world, you will soon leave him. If you want a calm death, we live honestly and rightly, according to conscience; Remember that conscience remorse - the worst punishment for great souls. " Before parting, the ghost discovered himself: it was not a father, but the great-grandfather Paul - Peter the Great. He disappeared at the very place where Catherine a little later installed his Peter - a copper rider. "And I'm scary; It is terrible to live in fear: so far this scene stands in front of my eyes, and sometimes I feel that I'm still standing there, in the square in front of the Senate, "Cesarevich concluded his story.

It is not known whether Paul was familiar with the "Hamlet" (for obvious reasons, this play in Russia was not raised then), but the poetics of the image was recreated by the masterfully. It is worth adding that on the sophisticated Europeans, the Grand Duke made an impression of an absolutely adequate, sophisticated, secular, unlumous and educated young man.

Gatchinsky replacement

In Russia, he probably returned as he returned from a festive idea where you unexpectedly got the main role and stormy applause, in the usual and post-catching household furnishings. The following one and a half of the decade of life passed in the sullen waiting in Gatchina, who had given him in 1783 after the death of Grigoria Orlov. Paul as he could tried to be an obedient son and act on the rules given by the mother. Russia fought hard with the Ottoman Empire, and he rushed into battle at least a simple volunteer. But everything that he was allowed - to participate in harmless reconnaissance in the sluggish war with the Swedes. Catherine at the invitation of Potemkin made a solemn journey on the appended to the Empire of Novorossia, the participation of Cesarevich was not involved in it.

In the meantime, in Europe, a revolution was performed in such a delightful France and executed the king, and he tried to equip his little space in Gatchina. Justice, order, discipline - the less he noticed these qualities in the outside world, the more persistently tried to make them the basis of his world. Gatchina battalions, dressed in unusual unusual uniform uniforms of the Prussian sample and spent time on place parades in an infinite exhaustion of the strunker, became an on duty object of irony at the courtyard of Catherine. However, ridicule over all that was associated with Paul, were almost part of the court ceremony. The aim of Catherine, apparently, was to deprive the Cesarevich of that sacred halo, in spite of everything, the heir to the Russian throne was surrounded. On the other hand, the rejection of the Empress of the strangests, which Paul was famous for, his revolving year from the year of "incolmental" was completely immortal. And the mother, and the son to the end remained hostages taken over the roles.

In such conditions, the intent of Catherine convey the throne of grandson Alexander had all the chances to embody into real actions. According to some memoirists, the corresponding decrees were prepared or even signed by the Empress, but something prevented publicly to make them.

Prince on the throne

At night, the eve of the death of Mother Cesarevich was repeatedly dreamed of the same dream: the invisible force picks up him and raises the sky. The adoption of the new Emperor Paul I occurred on November 7, 1796, on the eve of the day of the memory of the Terrible Archangel Mikhail - the leader of an infrequent heavenly man. For Paul, this meant that the heavenly military commander squeezed his reign by his garbage. The construction of the Mikhailovsky Palace on the spot mentioned, by legend, the Archangel itself, was carried out by feverish pace throughout the short reign. The architect Vincenzo Brenna was erected (according to the sketches of Paul himself) a real fortress.

The emperor was in a hurry. In his head, such a number of ideas have accumulated that they did not have time to settle down. Lies, devastation, rot and Lucchimita - with all this, he must end. How? Create an order from chaos only the strictest and strict and strict compliance with each role prescribed to him in the grand ceremonial play, where the role of the author is assigned to the Creator, and the role of the only conductor is to him, Paul. Each incorrect or unnecessary movement is like a fake note, destroying the sacred meaning of the whole.

The ideal of Paul was least reduced to the soldier Mushtra. The daily place parades held by him personally in any weather were only a private manifestation of a deliberately doomed attempt to establish the life of the country as they establish a mechanism for uninterrupted operation. Paul got up at five o'clock in the morning, and seven could already visit any "physician". As a result, in all St. Petersburg office, the work began to start three or four hours before the previous one. Unprecedented business: Senators from eight in the morning were sitting at the tables! Hundreds of unresolved cases, many of which were waiting for their turn for decades, unexpectedly received movement.

In the field of military service, the changes were even more decorated. "Lifestyle, our, officer, completely changed," recalled one of the brilliant Catherine Guardsmen. "With the Empress, we thought only about riding theaters, societies, went to the parations, and now from morning to evening they sat on the regimental yard and taught us as recruits." But all this was perceived by the elite as a gross violation of the "Rules of the game"! "To turn the Guards officers from the concedes into army soldiers, to introduce strict discipline, in a word, to turn everything upside down, meant to despise the general opinion and to disturb the entire existing order," says another memoirist.

Paul is not in vain claimed the Lavra of his great great grandfather. His politically repeated the "universal mobilization" of Peter I, and the same concept of "common good" was based on it. Just like Peter, he sought to do everything and control himself. However, at the end of the XVIII century, the nobility was much more independent, and the heir was much less than the Harizma and the mind compared to Prasur. And despite the fact that his idea turned out to be akin to utopia, it was not deprived of a kind of great grandeur, nor sequence. The intentions of Paul met at first much more sympathy than it could seem. The people referred to him as a kind of "ridder". And it was not the case in symbolic benefits (such as the serfdom given to them, they bring the oath and complain about the landowners) and not in doubtful attempts to regulate the attitude of the peasants and landowners from the point of view of "justice" (which manifested itself in the famous three-day bainst law). The simple people quickly caught that Paul's politician was essentially an egalitarian in relation to all, but the "gentlemen", because they are in sight, they suffered from it to the greatest extent. One of the representatives of the "enlightened nobility" recalled that somehow, hiding (just in case) from Pavl's passing by the fence, he heard, as a soldier standing nearby says: "Here is a hundred and Pugach rides!" - "I, turning to him, asked:" How do you dare to get back so about your sovereign? " He, glancing at me without any embarrassment, answered: "And what, Barin, you can see, and you yourself think so, Kohl are hiding from him." There was nothing to answer. "

The ideal of the disciplinary and ceremonial organization Paul found in medieval knightly orders. It is not surprising that he with such enthusiasm agreed to accept the ancient Order of John the title of Grandmaster proposed by the Maltese knights of the ancient Order of John the Title of the Grandmaster, not confused by the fact that the Catholic Order. Discipline the Razkanny Russian nobility, turning it into a demonish tank, is an idea that could not even continue the rationalistic mind of Peter! However, it was such an obvious anachronism that officers cracked into the knightly mantles caused smiles even each other.

The enemy of the revolution, friend of Bonaparte ...

The knightness of Paul was not limited to the area of \u200b\u200bthe ceremonial. Deeply leaning "unfair" aggressive politics of revolutionary France, an offended by the French by the French, he did not stand his own peace-loving principles, missed them into war. However, his disappointment was great when it turned out that the Allies - Austrians and the British are ready to use the fruits of the victories of Admiral Ushakov and Field Marshal Suvorov, but do not want not only to reckon with the interests of Russia, but simply observe the agreements reached.

Meanwhile, 18 Brother VIII in the revolutionary calendar (October 29, 1799 - according to Russian) as a result of a military coup to power in Paris, General Bonaparte came, who almost immediately began to look for ways of reconciliation with Russia. The Eastern Empire seemed to him by the natural ally of France in the fight against the rest of Europe, and above all with England. In turn, Paul quickly realized that the revolutionary France comes an end, and "In this country, the king will soon be spread, if not by name, then at least essentially." Napoleon and the Russian emperor exchange messages, and Paul expresses an unexpectedly sober and pragmatic look at the situation: "I'm not talking and is not going to discuss neither the right nor different management methods existing in our countries. Let's try to return peace and silence, so it is necessary and so appropriate to the unchanged laws of providence. I am ready to listen to you ... "

The foreign policy turn was extremely cool - quite in the spirit of Paul. The intelligence of the emperor is already seized by the ideas of establishing Russia and France of a certain "European equilibrium", in which he, Paul, will play the role of the main and impartial arbitrator.

By the end of 1800, the relationship between Russia and Britain was aggravated to the limit. Now the British occupy the long-suffering Malta. Paul in response prohibits all trade with Britain and arrests all the British shopping ships in Russia along with their teams. From St. Petersburg, the English ambassador Lord Worth Worth, who stated that the Russian autocrat was crazy, and in the meantime actively and, without stinging for money, hesitated the opposition of Paul in the metropolitan society. The squadron of Admiral Nelson was preparing for a campaign to the Baltic Sea, and the Don Cossacks received an order to hit the most vulnerable, as it seemed, the place of the British Empire - India. In this opposition, the bet for foggy Albion was extremely high. It is not surprising that the "English footage" in the conspiracy organized against Paul is easy to distinguish. But nevertheless, the rearbide can hardly be considered a successful "special operation" of British agents.

"What I've done?"

"He's smart head, but there is some typewriter in it that holds on a string. This thread breaks - the machine will turn out, and then the end of the mind and reason, "said one of the teachers of Paul once. In the 1800th and in early 1801, it seemed to be very many people in the early 1801 of the emperor that the thread was about to be broken, if he had not yet broken. "Over the past year, suspicion in the emperor developed to monstortion. Empty cases grew in his eyes to huge conspiracies, he drove people retired and referred to arbitrariness. Numerous sacrifices were not translated into the fortress, and sometimes all of their wines boiled down to too long hair or too short kaftan ... "- recalled Princess Liven.

Yes, the character of Paul skillfully played a variety of people and with different goals. Yes, he was leaving and often deigned punished, and this feature was also used by his enemies. He knew his weaknesses and all his life with varying success fought with them. But by the end of life, this struggle clearly became unasing for him. Paul gradually passed, and although to the versatility behind which the "end of the mind" begins, he did not reach, but quickly came to her. The fatal role, probably played a rapid expansion of the usual and childhood of a very limited horizon of perception to the size of the real and infinite world. Consciousness of Paul never could accept and streamline it.

Not without the influence of true conspirators, the emperor raised his own family. Even before, Nelidov replaced the cute and narrowless Anna Lopukhin. The surroundings of Paul died in constant voltage and fear. The rumor has spread that he is preparing to deal with his wife and sons. The country froze ...

Of course, there is a colossal distance from Ropot to Distance. But hardly the second would have become possible without the first. Real (and who remained unsubstituted Pavloma) Conspiracy was headed as people close to him - von Palen, N.P. Panin (nephew of the teacher of Paul) and his long-standing enemies - the brothers of the teeth, L. Bennigsen. Consent to the overthrow of his father from the throne (but not for the murder) gave the son Alexander. Forty days before the coup, the imperial family moved into the barely completed, still crude Mikhailovsky Palace. It is here on the night of March 11 to 12, 1801, the final scenes of the tragedy were played.