Who ruled after Paul, the son of catherine. Son of the Great Catherine - Paul I

Paul I. Part 1.

Pavel I, Andrey Filippovich Mitrokhin

And so, on the Russian throne, the great-grandson of Peter the Great, in whose veins, there is very little Russian blood left. His wife, a purebred German woman, had given birth to him by that time already eight children. None of the monarchs of the House of Romanov has ever ascended the throne with such "wealth."

Pavel Romanov began his reign with the order to place sentry booths, painted in Prussian colors, white and black, along the streets of the city, and to put sentries in them. Policemen began to scurry about the city, tearing off the round hats from the passing men and cutting off the tailcoats, frock coats and overcoats - again in the Prussian style. The townspeople, albeit frightened by such drastic changes, did not hesitate, however, to show their joy and satisfaction in connection with the arrival of the new autocrat.

A few days after Paul's accession to the throne, a special window was made in the lower floor of the Winter Palace, through which everyone had the right to drop a petition addressed to the emperor. The key to the room where this window was located was kept by the emperor himself. Every morning Pavel opened the door to this room, collected all the letters and notes lowered into the window, read them carefully, made notes. He personally wrote the answers to the petitions and put his signature. Then they were published in newspapers. There were cases when the applicant was asked to apply to a court or other department, then notify the emperor about the result of this appeal. Thanks to such "correspondence" it was possible to expose the flagrant lawlessness and injustice. In such cases, the king severely punished the guilty.

S.G. Moskvitin. Emperor Paul I.

Having begun his reign with punitive orders, the new emperor, however, approved in office most of the high officials and officers who served at the court of his mother. Even Osterman, the youngest son of the same Osterman, who began his service under Peter I and was severely punished by his daughter, he did not remove from the management of foreign affairs entrusted to him by Catherine II, but appointed him chancellor.

But Paul I dismissed the servants of the former empress. Some were sent to prison, and some were generously rewarded. He also showed mercy to those who were convicted under his mother the queen, announcing a general amnesty, which, however, did not affect those who were serving sentences for especially grave crimes. Alexander Radishchev returned from exile. The disgraced comrades of Emperor Peter III were called to Petersburg, as well as officers who stood in the fateful year 1762 on the side of the sovereign. True, these were already old people, because almost thirty-five years had passed since that time. Now they were showered with honors and enjoyed the attention of the sovereign himself. Yes, times have changed ...

Emperor Paul I freeing Tadeusz Kościuszko.

Pavel also mercifully treated his half-brother Alexei Bobrinsky, who was born by his mother to Grigory Orlov. In 1764, Catherine nearly deprived Paul of the throne, intending to marry her lover and appoint his son as heir instead of her former husband's son Peter. But this did not happen. Alexey Bobrinsky for his unsightly behavior was deprived of the right to live in the capital and was in Livonia. Pavel returned him to Petersburg: he received him very cordially, granted him the title of count and presented him with an estate. Bobrinsky, having married in 1796 to Baroness Anna Ungern-Sternberg, daughter of the commandant Revel, moved to Estonia, where he ended his life, forgotten by everyone.

Alexey Bobrinsky in the 1800s

Count Alexey Grigorievich Bobrinsky (1762-1813)

Anna Vladimirovna Bobrinskaya (1769-1846), wife of A.G. Bobrinsky, nee Baroness Ungern-Sternberg

Sokolov Petr Fedorovich. Portrait of Countess A.V. Bobrinskaya. 1827

The attitude of the new emperor to Prince Platon Zubov can be called truly chivalrous. The last favorite, of course, had to leave the Winter Palace, but he settled in a house specially bought for him at the expense of His Majesty's office. After the prince moved to the new premises, Pavel, accompanied by his wife, visited Zubov, crossing the threshold of his new house with the words: "Whoever remembers the old will be out of sight." And when the champagne was served, the sovereign said: "How many drops here, so much I wish you all the best," and, having drunk everything to the bottom, smashed the glass on the floor. Zubov threw himself at the feet of the emperor, but was raised by him with the words: "I told you: whoever remembers the old, he will be out of sight." At the samovar, the sovereign said to the empress: "Spill the tea, because he has no mistress." But Pavel's favors were short-lived - in the fields in which Zubov was engaged, major violations were revealed, an investigation was appointed, and the prince was forced to resign. The last favorite of Catherine II became embittered against her son and dreamed of revenge.

His Serene Highness Prince (from 1796) Platoon Aleksandrovich Zubov

Opal at the beginning of the reign of Paul I touched a few. Princess Dashkova, one of the main accomplices of the June events of 1762, was instructed by Paul I to immediately leave Moscow and not appear again either in it or in St. Petersburg. This mission was carried out by the commander-in-chief of Moscow himself.

“At twenty-four o'clock? - asked the princess. "Report to the emperor that I left at twenty-four minutes." She immediately ordered the carriage to be pledged, and in the presence of the emperor who had given her the order, she left her Moscow home.

A ceremonial portrait of Vorontsova-Dashkova depicts her next to books, hinting at scholarship.

Paul, remembering that his father did not follow the advice of Frederick II - to put the crown on his head as soon as possible, hastened to appoint the day of the coronation. He ordered, however, that preparations for the celebrations should be made with the utmost frugality in spending money. But he did not want to put the mother's crown on his head. Therefore, the jeweler Duvall in a relatively short time made a large imperial crown and a new scepter, studded with precious stones. And its main decoration was a diamond presented to Catherine II by Grigory Orlov.

The red gate, through which the coronation cortege traditionally followed, lithographs by Arnoux J.-B. from the original by Vivien.

The royal wedding took place in April 1797, that is, four months after the death of Empress Catherine. The ceremonial entry into the ancient capital took place on Palm Sunday. The weather was excellent, the sun was shining like a spring. The emperor in a military uniform of a Prussian cut, with a powdered head and a scythe rode on horseback, and the empress in a carriage. Troops were lined up along the way with trellises. Covered galleries were erected for spectators. For the first time in the history of Russia, two persons were crowned on the same day: the emperor and the empress, his wife, whom Paul personally put on the head of another small crown.

Coronation of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna. Saratov State Art Museum

At the end of the church rite, Pavel read out the “Family Act on the Order of Succession” that he had drawn up right in the church and ordered to keep this act for eternity in the altar of the Assumption Cathedral - the place of coronation of Russian tsars, in a silver ark specially made for this purpose. Thus, he canceled the decree of his great-grandfather, Peter the Great, according to which the king himself determined his heir. From now on, the throne was to pass to the eldest in the family in the male line. Thus, once and for all, the main lawlessness in Russia was eliminated, the victim of which was himself, the natural heir of his father Peter III. Thanks to this decree, the Imperial House of the Romanovs will henceforth be represented only by males passing the throne down the descending line. The kingdom of women is in the past, although the spouses of Russian emperors performed some state and public functions. For example, Pavel entrusted Maria Feodorovna with the general management of educational institutions in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Portrait of Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828), Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky

The emperor settled in the Winter Palace, choosing for himself and his large family the rooms he occupied while he was still a young man. He ordered to furnish them as simply and modestly as possible, unlike the luxurious decoration of his mother's apartments.

Gerard von Kügelgen. Portrait of Paul I with his family. 1800. State Museum-Reserve "Pavlovsk"

Much has been written about the personality of Paul I, as about one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in history, some consider him mentally ill, others great. His birth caused jubilation at court, the Empress Elizabeth herself took upon herself the upbringing, death caused both joy and sadness.

Vladimir Borovikovsky Portrait of Paul I

Portrait of Paul I in White Dalmatic, Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky

He was eight years old when his father passed away. With a childish instinct, he realized that something was wrong. But understanding came later. Teachers were assigned to him, who developed in him, first of all, his innate passion for military exercises and even invented an alphabet for their student, where the letters were depicted in the form of soldiers. However, there was no clear lesson plan at court with its lavish festivities and entertainment. Classes were held when and how it was necessary, between walks, ceremonial dinners, masquerades, theatrical performances. They began to drive to the theater of the Grand Duke very early, indiscriminately, for each new performance. In general, in childhood, Paul was looked at as an adult, a future king.

Christinek Karl Ludwig. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel dressed as a Chevalier of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called

Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich

Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich in the study room. Around 1766. GE Vigilius Eriksen

Stefano Torelli Portrait of Pavel Petrovich with a little arapchon.

Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, made by an unknown artist in the 1770s.

As a ten-year-old boy, he already expressed his opinion: someone confidently praised, someone openly despised. He treated his servants harshly. Sometimes he dressed them up in the armor of the knights of the times crusades and arranged tournaments with them. In general, Pavel was a boy with fantasies, but not strong-willed and consistent enough. By nature, he was a kind, cheerful, playful child, but, unfortunately, he learned too early what fate befell his father, and this developed in him a complex of suspicion and fear. The disturbing visions of his father's death accompanied Paul all his life.

Peter III (in the uniform of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, 1762) Years of life: 1728-1762 Russian emperor in 1761-1762.

The personality of Nikita Panin had a positive impact on the upbringing of the Grand Duke. Already in adolescence, Panin's student amazed at the vastness of his knowledge, intelligence and ingenuity, worship of beauty and goodness. He was fluent in Russian, French and German, knew the works of European writers well, loved painting and architecture.

Nikita Ivanovich Panin (1718-1783) - Russian diplomat and statesman, Alexander Roslin

Having married, he became an impeccable spouse, although he had to endure the drama of death and, as he was persuaded, of the infidelities of his first wife, Natalya Alekseevna, whose marriage lasted a little over three years. But in his second marriage, Paul found true family happiness.

Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, the first wife of the future Paul I

Maria Feodorovna, Princess of Württemberg, turned out to be a wonderful wife, in love with her husband, and an impeccable mother. She had, of course, small flaws acquired in childhood.

For example, she was so thrifty that, having arrived in St. Petersburg, she did not hesitate to appropriate all the dresses of Pavel's first wife so as not to buy new ones. Why unnecessary spending ?!

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna, A. Roslin

Portrait of Maria Feodorovna, A. Roslin

I.-B. Lumpy. Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna.

It was not peculiar to her to dress magnificently and luxuriously, she rather preferred modesty and fit. Aware of her high role in society, Maria Feodorovna was always dressed in a formal dress, beautifully combed. Even during pregnancy, she wore a dress and not a hood like other women in her position. Tied in a corset, she was engaged in embroidery, sewing, reading German or French literature. Pavel's wife recorded all the impressions of the day in her diary, regularly wrote letters to relatives and friends.

I.-B. Lumpy. Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. 1795. Museum-Reserve "Pavlovsk".

I.-B. Lumpy Sr. Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna. 1792

Friedrich Eugene, father of Maria Feodorovna

Duchess Frederick Dorothea of ​​Württemberg with a portrait of her eldest son Frederick. Painting by Johann Georg Ciesenis, mother

She devoted a lot of time to charitable and educational institutions. Without interfering in state affairs during the life of her mother-in-law, Maria Feodorovna began to play a noticeable political role, becoming an empress. Unlike Catherine II, her daughter-in-law remained a real German; she even spoke Russian with a strong German accent. However, she never tried to bring her compatriots closer to the court; she did not maintain close contacts with the Germans. The only exceptions were, perhaps, her childhood friend Mrs. Benckendorff, taken by her from her native places, and the teacher of her daughters Charlotte Lieven, née von Gaugraben, a woman who, according to contemporaries, was gifted with a rare mind and a kind heart. She managed to force the emperor himself to respect her opinion and was elevated by him to the dignity of count.

Portrait of Anna-Juliana Benckendorff (1744-1797), ur. bar. Schilling von Kapstad. Miniature from the collection of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich

Charlotte Karlovna Lieven

A loving and devoted mother, Maria Feodorovna kept the children in strictness, raised them with a tough hand, although she loved with all her heart. Truly German technique! Even married daughters considered communication with their mother an ordeal for themselves, fearing her comments. Maria Feodorovna also had a rather strong influence on her husband. They were considered the perfect couple, although outwardly they were the complete opposite. Pavel is short, bald early, with a large mouth and thick lips, a snub nose and anxiously shifting eyes. He always walked with his head held high, probably to appear taller. His wife is a stately blonde with short-sighted eyes and a very kind smile. With all her appearance, she showed calmness and generosity. Paul was happy in his family life.

Portraits of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna

Portraits of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna I. Pullman, 1782 - 1787, (from the original by P. Batoni, 1782)

Nikolai ARGUNOV (1771 after 1829). Portrait of Emperor Paul I.

Large ceremonial portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna, Marie Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun

His daughter Anna later recalled how his father loved to be surrounded by children, how often he called the younger ones to play in his bedroom while he was combing his hair: this was his only free time, and he tried to spend it with the children, with whom he was always gentle and kind. If time allowed, he willingly played different games with them, especially blind man's buff. Children loved to visit their father.

Back in 1781, the couple under the name of Count and Countess Nord made a long trip abroad - first to Poland, and then to Vienna, Rome, Paris, Berlin, and visited many foreign courts. This trip had a decisive influence on Paul's outlook. And he himself made quite a favorable impression in the West, striking many with a lofty mindset, curiosity, vastness of his knowledge and simplicity of tastes. He was not fond of dancing, he preferred serious music and a good performance, he loved simple cuisine, especially sausages.

D. Fossati son. Triumphal chariots in Venice in honor of the Counts of the NorthItaly 1872. Engraving, painted with watercolors

A.-L.-R. Ducros. Conducted. book Pavel Petrovich andled. book Maria Feodorovna at the Roman Forum

Reception by Pope Pius VI of the Count and Countess of the North on February 8, 1782. 1801. Etching by A. Lazzaroni. GMZ "Pavlovsk"
At the European courts, the Grand Duke was perceived as a strict, abstinent person, but even then there was some duality in his character, as if there were two people in him: one - witty, cheerful, playing with dignity the role of the crown prince, the other - gloomy, capable of harsh antics and bitter remarks. He did not believe in his long life and even once said at one of the receptions that he probably would not live to be forty-five years old.

Francesco Guardi. Ladies' Concert in Honor of the Counts of the North. OK. 1782

Paul was suspicious all his life. Once, during dinner in Tsarskoe Selo, finding fragments of glass in the sausages, he began to shout that they wanted to kill him, took the dish to the empress and demanded the death of the guilty. And during a trip to Europe at one of the court banquets, the taste of wine seemed suspicious to him, and he demanded to replace his glass, saying that someone was plotting to poison him. The same story repeated itself a few months later. After drinking ice cold beer, he felt bad and began to reproach the owner of the house - one of the French princes - that he was encroaching on his life. A major political scandal almost came out.

Returning to Russia, Paul began to make extensive plans for future reforms. Even after the first trip to Berlin a few years ago, he was amazed and sincerely saddened: "These Germans have overtaken us by two centuries!" - he said.

Royal destinies

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"Thank God we are legal!"
/Published in "Russian Word", Prague /

They say that in 1754 the courtiers of the Russian imperial court whispered, which patronymic would be more suitable for newborn Pavel, the son of Grand Duchess Catherine - Petrovich or Sergeevich? Later, this rumor turned into a question whether the I bloodline of the Romanovs? You can answer it quite definitely - no, it was not interrupted. But definitely the history of the dynasty bent into the realm of fantasy and fiction.

There is a funny historical anecdote: as if Alexander III instructed Pobedonostsev, his teacher and respected adviser, to check the rumor that the father of Paul I was not Peter III, but Sergei Vasilyevich Saltykov, the first lover of the future Empress Catherine II. Pobedonostsev first informed the emperor that, in fact, Saltykov could be the father. Alexander III was delighted: "Thank God, we are Russians!" But then Pobedonostsev found facts in favor of Peter's paternity. The Emperor, however, rejoiced again: "Thank God, we are legitimate!"

The moral, if it can be deduced from the anecdote at all, is simple: the nature of power is not in blood, but in the ability and desire to rule, the rest can be adapted to this. At least, this is the nature of imperial power - each empire carries with it a huge number of unresolved contradictions, one more - no big deal.

However, how could this plot arise, and with it numerous variations on this theme? Strange as it may seem, but it was largely created by Catherine II. In her Notes, she writes about the beginning of her romance with Saltykov in the spring of 1752: “During one of these concerts (at the Choglokovs') Sergei Saltykov made me understand what was the reason for his frequent visits. I didn't answer him right away; when he again began to talk to me about the same, I asked him: what is he hoping for? Then he began to paint me as captivating as full of passion the picture of happiness he was counting on ... "

Further, all the stages of the novel are described in detail, up to the rather intimate ones - the rapprochement in the fall of 1752, a pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage on the way to Moscow in December, a new pregnancy and miscarriage in May 1753, the cooling of a lover, which made Catherine suffer, strict supervision established for the grand duchess in April 1754, which meant the removal of Sergei Saltykov. And Paul, as you know, was born on September 24, 1754. Peter is mentioned in this chapter of the notes only in connection with his drunkenness, courting the maids of honor of Catherine and other ladies, as well as the suspicions that arose in him in relation to Sergei Saltykov. From this whole story it follows that Saltykov could have been Paul's father. Moreover, the author of the Notes creates this impression on purpose.

However, Catherine does not have much to be trusted. After all, she had to justify her seizure of power in various ways. After the overthrow of her husband, she composed so many stories about him and their relationship that historians who analyze what is true and what is not will have enough work for a long time. (What is, say, Catherine's fable about a rat allegedly convicted and hanged by Peter on the gallows, who ate two of his toy soldiers. Hanging a rat like a man is impossible. The rat's neck is too powerful for that. And the rope will slip off of it. The bike is insignificant, Well, come on, historiographers since the time of S. Soloviev have been trustingly repeating it again and again.)

This story too - requires a study of the motives of Catherine, for some reason casts a shadow on her own son.

According to the historian S. Mylnikov, the author of the book about Peter III, Catherine was afraid of potential supporters of Paul, who could demand the throne for a ruler with royal blood in exchange for a foreigner who had usurped power and had no right to it. Before the coup, a proposal was made (N. Panin, Paul's mentor) to declare Catherine not empress, but regent of the minor heir until he comes of age. Although it was rejected, it was not completely forgotten.

The Empress's move was quite logical from the point of view of political struggle - she once again told her opponents that Pavel did not have this blood either - not a drop! And she has no more rights to the throne than her mother. But maybe Catherine was motivated by other considerations. Maybe she once again brought herself to the fore, her needs, desires and talents instead of some kind of royal blood that created a husband she despised and, in general, worthless.

And S. Mylnikov convincingly proves that Peter III undoubtedly considered Paul to be his son. He compares the notification of the birth of a son, sent by him to Frederick II, with a similar notification of the birth of Anna's daughter, who was definitely from Catherine's next lover, Stanislav Poniatovsky, of which Peter knew. Indeed, the difference between the two letters is great.

Another historian, N. Pavlenko, adheres to a different point of view. He writes: “Some courtiers, observing the family life of the grand ducal couple, said in a whisper that the baby should be called not Petrovich, but Sergeevich after the priest. It probably was. "

So who should you believe? Peter? Catherine's hints? The whispering of the courtiers long ago? Perhaps these paths are already too trodden down and will not give anything new.

I wonder what materials Pobedonostsev used. Aren't they portraits of the participants in the story? After all, facial features are inherited and belong to one of the parents - this was known even before the advent of genetics as a science. We can also do a little analysis using portraits.

They are in front of us - and "freak" (as Empress Elizabeth called her nephew in anger) Peter, and handsome Sergei and loving Catherine. The latter remembered herself young in the following way: “They said that I was as beautiful as day, and amazingly good; to tell the truth, I never considered myself extremely beautiful, but I liked me, and I believe that this was my strength. " The Frenchman Favier, who saw Catherine in 1760 (she was then 31 years old), subjected her appearance to a rather harsh assessment: “You cannot say that her beauty is dazzling: a rather long, in no way flexible waist, a noble posture, but a cutesy step, not graceful ; the chest is narrow, the face is long, especially the chin; constant smile on the lips, but the mouth is flat, depressed; slightly hunched nose; small eyes, but the look is lively, pleasant; traces of smallpox are visible on the face. She is more beautiful than ugly, but she cannot be carried away. "

These and other assessments can be found in N. Pavlenko's book "Catherine the Great". Interesting in themselves, they confirm the correspondence between the descriptions and the portrait, we can use it with confidence.

Sergey Vasilyevich Saltykov is also long-faced, his facial features are proportional, his eyes are almond-shaped, his lips are small, graceful, his forehead is high, his nose is straight and long. Catherine wrote about him: “he was as beautiful as day, and, of course, no one could equal him, either in a large court, and even less so in ours. He had no lack of intelligence, or that storehouse of knowledge, manners and techniques, which is given by the great light and especially the courtyard. "

Peter III Catherine Sergey Saltykov

Paul I (child portrait) Paul I adult (graphic sketch)

Fig. 1. "Parents" and son (fragments of portraits are used).

In comparison with them, Pyotr Fedorovich, of course, catastrophically loses outwardly - and differs in a number of features that only he could leave to his descendant. His face is quite round, even cheekbones. The forehead is sloping, the nose is shorter than that of Ekaterina and Sergei Saltykov, very wide at the bridge of the nose, the mouth is large, the eyes are narrow and set wide apart. And he was also cheeky.

Paul's portraits show a clear resemblance to Peter. Especially adult portraits. The same face shape, sloping forehead, large mouth, short nose - even remembering the possibility of the existence of recessive signs, Saltykov and Ekaterina (both "beautiful as day") of such an ugly descendant, whom Admiral Chichagov called "a snub-nosed Chukhon with the movements of a machine gun", would not have done. If Pavel's father were Sergei Saltykov, the shape of the face and forehead would have been different, the lips and nose would have been different - since they were similar in Ekaterina and Saltykov, sharply different from the features of Peter. And, one must think, the character would have been different. There is so much devil Peter in the face of Pavel that even a DNA analysis is not needed to say definitely - yes, Sergei Saltykov was not Pavel's father. It was Peter III.

By the way, according to the date of birth, it is clear that the heir turned out to be a typical fruit of the holidays - so Catherine recalls that she celebrated the New Year with the empress - of course, with her husband. Apparently, on that night, after the celebration, the future Paul was conceived.

The opinion of S. Mylnikov is confirmed that the paternity of Saltykov was deliberately played on by Catherine. Who was the real father of her son, no doubt - she knew very well. Probably for this reason she behaved extremely coldly towards Paul. As a child, she calmly left him in the care of nannies and did not see him for weeks. Already an adult son, she wanted to force him to renounce the right to the throne in favor of his grandson, Alexander.

This little story once again confirms the characterization given to Catherine by the historian Y. Barskov: “Lying was the tsarina's main tool: all her life from early childhood to ripe old age, she used this tool, wielded it like a virtuoso, and deceived her parents, lovers, subjects , foreigners, contemporaries and descendants ”. Records of Catherine's lies were her stories about the situation of the Russian peasants: "Our taxes are so easy that there is no peasant in Russia who does not have a chicken when he wants, and for some time they prefer turkeys to chickens" (letter to Voltaire, 1769) and “It used to be, when driving through the villages, you see little children in the same shirt, running barefoot in the snow; now there is no one who does not have an outer dress, sheepskin coat and boots. Although the houses are still wooden, they have expanded, and most of them are two stories ”(letter to Bjelke, mother's friend, 1774). Peasants living in two-story huts, with children dressed in sheepskin coats and boots, preferring turkeys to chickens - there is, of course, an almost Manilov dream and not only an element of deception, but also self-deception.

It was he who added to the two fathers of Pavel a third contender - Emelyan Pugachev. Amazing, I must say, the irony of history: three fathers from one future emperor. The phantom Potemkin villages for which his mother's reign became famous. The phantasmagoria of his own reign with the non-existent, but making a career Lieutenant Kizhe (even if this is Tynyanov's fiction, but quite, as they say, authentic). A parricide son who either died in Taganrog or in Siberia. Everything seems to be saturated with that initial fantasy of Catherine. Really, the lie has long legs.

But what was left for Catherine to do? Her role was that of a tightrope walker. Who in those daring times did not understand that power must be shared with a fairly wide circle, ended badly - take at least Catherine's husband and son. The empress with her big plans, will and hard work was, according to the results of her reign, not the worst of the Russian monarchs. But she had to give up most of her good aspirations. Nor should the merits of Russia at that time be attributed to her alone - the people with whom she had to get along and trust important posts were no less responsible for the country's successes.

However, the authorities, which must constantly resort to lies and create illusions, are skeptical. Acting well in the external sphere, Catherine proved to be decisively weak in solving internal problems. Having given the imperial framework, created by Peter the Great, an external splendor, she was unable to do anything with the negative aspects of his reforms. So I had to close my eyes to the state of the country, to deceive and deceive.

The heir was born. In 1796 he became king and went down in history as Paul 1.

Biography

His first tutor was a friend of the Bekhteev family, who was very strict with Pavel. He even started a special newspaper in which he published information about all the actions of his pupil.

The next mentor was Nikita Ivanovich Panin, a middle-aged man who shared the ideas of the Enlightenment. It was he who determined the list of numerous subjects that, in his opinion, the future emperor should have studied. Among them are the Law of God, dance, music and many others. This study began in and continued under Peter the Third II.

In his circle of communication, there were mainly highly educated people, for example, Grigory Teplov. Among their peers, there were only people from well-known families. Alexander Kurakin became one of the closest friends.

Catherine, the mother of the heir, acquired for her son a collection of books by Academician Korf for teaching. Paul the First studied geography, history, astronomy, arithmetic, the Law of God, different languages- German, French, Italian, Latin; in addition, the training program included Russian, drawing, dancing, and fencing. But all items related to military affairs were excluded, although this did not prevent young Paul from getting carried away with them.

Youth

In 1773 Paul the First married Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt. This marriage did not last long - she cheated on him, and just two years later she died in childbirth. Then the young man married a second time, to Sophia-Dorothea of ​​Württemberg (after baptism - Maria Fedorovna). One of the European traditions of that time was traveling abroad, which took place after the wedding. Pavel and his wife traveled incognito under the names of the Northern spouses.

Politics

On November 6, 1796, at the age of forty-two, Emperor Paul ascended the throne, and on April 5 of the following year, his coronation took place. Immediately after that, he began to abolish most of the orders and customs instituted by Catherine. For example, he released the radicals Radishchev and Kosciuszko from prison. In general, his entire reign passed under the sign of "anti-Catherine's" reforms.

On the day of his coronation, the newly-born emperor presented new law- now women could not inherit the Russian throne, and regency rights were also established. Other reforms include administrative, national and military.

The main direction of the emperor's foreign policy is the struggle against the First French Republic. Almost all efforts were directed towards this, among others - an alliance with Prussia, Denmark and Sweden. After Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France, the countries had common interests, and Paul I began attempts to conclude a military-strategic alliance with France, but this was not destined to take place.

Paul the First gave the impression of an unpredictable tyrant with grotesque manners and annoying habits. He wanted to carry out many reforms, but their direction and content were constantly changing, obeying the mood of an unpredictable autocrat. As a result, Paul had neither the support of the courtiers, nor the love of the people.

Death of the king

During the entire reign of the emperor, several conspiracies were uncovered, the purpose of which was the assassination of Paul. In 1800, a conspiracy of high dignitaries took shape, and Paul the First was treacherously killed by officers in his bedchamber on the night of March 12, 1801. His reign lasted only five years.

The news of death aroused barely contained exultation from both the people and the nobility. The official reason was given

Paul's son, Alexander, was well aware of the outlined conspiracy, but he was frightened and did not stop him, so he indirectly became the culprit in the death of his father. This event tormented the emperor all his life.

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 lands 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 Elizaveta 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 - Paul's significant portrait resemblance 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 finally 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, 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 an heir, but they forgot about his mother: "Lying in bed, I cried and groaned incessantly, I was alone 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 golden 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 caused him a cold and made him sick. In addition, they assigned to him many stupid old women and mothers 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 characterized 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 8 pm, or at 1 am. 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. Woke up in the morning - Paul was not in the cradle, they looked - he was lying on the floor and very rests soundly. "

Paul received an excellent education in the spirit of the French enlighteners. He knew foreign languages, possessed knowledge of mathematics, history, applied sciences. In 1758, Fyodor 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 Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Pavel's tutor and teacher of mathematics was Semyon Andreevich Poroshin, a former aide-de-camp of Peter III, and his law teacher (from 1763) was 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 birth of Natalya Alekseevna, who suffered from a curvature of the back, and the "large child" was in the wrong position. 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. she has his very sensitive and gentle ... Likes to be at home and practice reading and music, greedy to study in Russian ... "Having met the princess, Grand Duke passionately fell in love with her, and after parting, already on the way, he wrote her tender letters 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, went to big Adventure across Europe, lasting 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 gave Pavel 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 children."

Catherine II personally took care of the upbringing of all the older children of Pavel Petrovich and Maria Feodorovna, actually 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 34 she spent 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 his 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 the 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 business, filled his long hours of leisure with the training of 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 more 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 in 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 things 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 off the alliance with Austria, and Russian troops were withdrawn from Europe. Shortly before the assassination, Pavel sent the Don army on a campaign against India. These were 22,507 people without a wagon train, 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 the state's 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 a 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 ​​"depraved and criminal" France from entering Russia, the study of Russians abroad was completely prohibited, censorship was established on imported literature and sheet music, 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 the officer demoted 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 submitting petitions to 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 "applied" 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, Pavel laid the crown on the coffin 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 chamberlains 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 from the Lower Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the funeral cortege slowly set off. 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 Catherine's coffin. 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 ambiguous attitude to 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, long time was associated with Palestine. Under the onslaught of the Turks, the Johannites were forced to leave Palestine, to 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, willingly accepting the insignia of the new dignity. In front of Paul, an image of a knightly union was drawn, in which, in contrast to the ideas 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 in anticipation of 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. 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 piled 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 understood perfectly well that without murder palace coup will be impossible, since Paul I will 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.

For the rest of her life, Maria Feodorovna devoted 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 grieve 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 19th 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 was 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!

Distract, 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 remote 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.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a terrible shock befell the Russian throne: on the night of March 1801, a group of guards conspirators, led by the St. Petersburg governor-general and the head of the secret police P.A. as a result of which the sovereign's son Alexander ascended the throne.

A reign started with murder

The mother of the murdered tsar, Catherine II, wanted to make him the successor of her progressive undertakings. That is why the main educator of Paul was N. Panin - an outstanding statesman of his time. But fate decreed otherwise. Paul was willing to lead his own line. He was proud and ambitious, like many rulers of Russia. The years of this monarch's reign were short-lived, but he managed to earn universal hatred.

For the gallant guards, it was not new to overthrow the rulers they disliked from the throne. Both the temporary worker Biron and the young Antonovich, the formal tsar of Russia, are examples of this. It happened to them completely to knock the spirit out of the unlucky monarch - the blood of the murdered Tsar Peter III on their hands.

All Short story- from Peter 1 to Nicholas 2 - full of conspiracies and coups, but in this case there was one detail that gave the assassination attempt a special character. There is reason to believe that Paul's son, the heir to the throne, Alexander, was aware of the impending conspiracy. Even without personally participating in the committed villainy, in this case he became, albeit passive, but a paricide, and that night, March 12, 1801, his conscience burned throughout his subsequent life.

Alexander 1: years of reign

When she crowned the head of Alexander I, he was twenty-four years old. Despite his youth, he possessed a progressive mindset and carried out a series of moderate liberal reforms. By his nature, Alexander was a representative, like his grandmother Catherine II. He did not encroach on the stronghold of serfdom, but he saw the guarantee of progress in education. Several privileged educational institutions, including the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

Through the efforts of the young emperor, the system of state administration was transformed. In place of the old Peter's colleges, according to the European model, ministries were established. Was even undertaken real try to grant the subjects a constitution, but it remained only among the good intentions. Already in the second half of his reign, Alexander carried out a reform in the army, which supplemented the rather cumbersome system of recruiting with the notorious Arakcheev military settlements.

A talented politician and a bad commander

The years of this monarch's reign fell on the era Napoleonic Wars... Despite the fact that the troops created in 1905 were officially headed by M.I.Kutuzov, all decisions were made personally by Alexander, and he was to blame for the defeat of the Russian-Austrian army in the battle of Austerlitz. He was not an outstanding military leader, but he possessed the gift of an outstanding politician.

Skillfully using the situation, the sovereign concluded a profitable peace with Napoleon in 1808. In the same years, Finland, Bessarabia and Eastern Georgia were annexed to Russia. Despite the fact that the name of Alexander I is associated with us mainly with the war of 1812, his merit in the victory is limited, perhaps, only by the tough policy towards Napoleon and non-interference in the management of the army, brilliantly carried out by M.I.Kutuzov.

Death that gave birth to a legend

Alexander 1, whose years of reign were accompanied by a stormy domestic and foreign political life of the country, at the end of his reign often spoke of the desire to abdicate the throne and devote himself to God. This became the reason that after his death, which followed in 1725 during a trip to Taganrog, there were rumors that a coffin with the body of another person was delivered to the capital, and the sovereign himself, in remote forest monasteries under the name of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich, atone for sin parricide, which raised him to the pinnacle of power twenty-four years ago. Whether this version has a basis is unknown to this day.

A new reign that began with rebellion

All who ruled after Paul 1 in Russia were monarchs of a new European type. This fully applies to Emperor Nicholas I, who replaced his brother on the throne in 1825. Despite the harsh rule inherent in Eastern despotism, he made a lot of efforts to create a well-established administrative system of government in the country, using the progressive experience of foreign states.

Just like his brother, Nicholas I's title "Emperor of All Russia" was sprinkled with spilled blood. And again they were the guards, this time openly speaking on December 14 in the Senate Square of the capital. To eradicate possible later unrest, Nicholas took radical measures, which later created a reputation for him as a gendarme and a strangler of freedom. Under him, the notorious "Third Section" was founded - the secret police, which carried out total surveillance of dissidents.

His foreign policy was a complete reflection of his domestic one. Milestones in the history of the reign of Nicholas I were: the suppression of the Polish and Hungarian uprisings, the war with Turkey in 1828-1829, the war with Persia and, finally, the ineptly lost Crimean campaign, before the end of which he died on February 18, 1855.

Tsar reformer

Among those who ruled after Paul 1 in Russia, the fame of the most progressive reformer was acquired by the next anointed of God - Emperor Alexander II. Unlike his father, he tried to bring the spirit of freedom and humanism to his fatherland. The most historically significant act of his is the abolition of serfdom, proclaimed in 1861.

In addition, the history of his reign included: the elimination of military settlements and the reform of the armed forces, higher and secondary education, finance, as well as zemstvo and legal proceedings. Hardly one of those who ruled Russia after Paul the 1st managed to transform the appearance of the state in such a way, but nevertheless, the great reformer died at the hands of his own subjects. Seven assassination attempts were organized against him, of which the last one, committed on March 1, 1881 by the terrorist organization "Narodnaya Volya", cost him his life.

Tsar peacemaker and counter-reformer

His son, also Alexander, who ascended the throne after the death of his father, deservedly received the nickname of the king-peacemaker among the people. A unique case in the history of the Russian autocracy - during all the years of his reign, the country has not fought a single war, and not a single soldier has fallen on the battlefield. By his convictions, Alexander III was a Slavophile and a supporter of the "special path" of Russia's development. This forced him to implement a number of counter-reforms aimed at preserving the foundations of the former, alien to foreign influences, life in the country.

He passed away before reaching fifty years. Possessing a powerful physique and extraordinary energy, the king suffered from chronic kidney disease, which caused damage to the heart and blood vessels at the end of his life. His death on September 21, 1894 was the beginning of the reign of the last representative of the House of Romanov. The name and patronymic of the emperor who completed the three-hundred-year dynasty is Nicholas II Alexandrovich.

The last of the dynasty

His coronation, which took place in 1896, caused the tragedy that happened on the Khodynskoye field, where, as a result of the accumulation of thousands of people who came to receive the gifts promised for the celebration, a terrible crush formed, as a result of which 1,379 people died and about 1,000 were injured. Among the people, it was regarded as a bad omen, and the dark memory of the event was preserved throughout all the years of his reign.

Nicholas II, like all the rulers of Russia and Russia that preceded him, should be considered by us in the context of his century. It fell to his lot to rule a state that made up one sixth of the Earth during the most dramatic period of his history. These were the years when, along with the stormy economic development, social tension grew, resulting in three revolutions, the last of which became disastrous for the reigning dynasty and for the empire as a whole.

Influence of Rasputin

But at the same time, he, like all the rulers of Russia and Russia, is responsible for the state of the state, which was the result of his reign. The catastrophe that ended the era of the Romanov rule was largely caused by ill-considered decisions in the field of internal and foreign policy- this is the conclusion that most modern researchers come to.

Like the previous rulers of Russia, whose years of reign were marked by rebellions and unrest, Nicholas II was looking for support at the same time in military force, and in God's intercession. Hence his blind faith in the "holy elder" - Grigory Rasputin, whose influence in many respects aggravated the already critical state in which the empire found itself. The last years of the reign were characterized by a feverish line of successive ministers and senior government officials. These were desperate attempts to bring the country out of the crisis, guided by the advice of the elder, instilled in him through his wife, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.

The last empress of Russia

If we look at the list of empresses of Russia, we can be sure that many of them have left a good memory of themselves in history. These are Catherine who reigned in different years, and but the last of them - Alexandra Fedorovna - had a chance to drink the bitter cup of the people's hatred. She was unfoundedly accused of betrayal, and debauchery, and the fact that it was she who forced her husband to drag Russia into a war so unpopular with the common people. She completed the list of empresses of Russia.

The February Revolution of 1917 deprived Nicholas II of the throne. He disowned him and then, together with his family, was placed under house arrest in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. Soon they were sent into exile in Tobolsk, and in 1918 by the decision of the Bolsheviks royal family ended up in Yekaterinburg. There, in the basement of the Ipatiev house, on the night of July 17, 1918, the whole family was shot, along with the servants and accompanied by Dr. Botkin.