Pavel I. Part 1.

Pavel I, Andrei Filippovich Mitrokhin

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

Pavel Romanov began his reign with an order to place guard boxes painted in Prussian colors, white and black, along the streets of the city, and put sentries in them. The police began to scurry around the city, tearing off the round hats of passers-by men and cutting off the hems of tailcoats, frock coats and overcoats - again according to the Prussian model. The townspeople, although frightened by such drastic changes, did not hesitate, however, to show their joy and satisfaction in connection with the arrival of a 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 anyone 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 sovereign himself. Every morning, Pavel opened the door to this room, collected all the letters and notes dropped into the window, carefully read them, made notes. He wrote answers to petitions personally and put his signature. Then they were published in newspapers. There were cases when the petitioner was asked to apply to the court or other department, then notify the emperor of the result of this appeal. Thanks to such "correspondence" it was possible to reveal 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 approved, however, most of the senior 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 management foreign affairs entrusted to him by Catherine II, and appointed 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 queen, declaring a general amnesty, which, however, did not apply to those serving sentences for especially serious crimes. Alexander Radishchev returned from exile. Disgraced comrades of the emperor were called to Petersburg Peter III, as well as the officers who stood in the fateful 1762 on the side of the sovereign. True, they 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 was also merciful to his half-brother Alexei Bobrinsky, who was born by his mother from Grigory Orlov. In 1764, Catherine almost dethroned Paul, intending to marry her lover and appoint his son as heir instead of the son of Peter, her ex-husband. But this did not happen. Alexey Bobrinsky was deprived of the right to live in the capital for his unsightly behavior and was in Livonia. Pavel returned him to Petersburg: he received him very cordially, bestowed the title of count and presented the estate. Bobrinsky, having married in 1796 Baroness Anna Ungern-Sternberg, the daughter of the commandant of Revel, moved to Estonia, where he ended his life, forgotten by everyone.

Alexei Bobrinsky in the 1800s

Count Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky (1762-1813)

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

Sokolov Petr Fyodorovich Portrait of Countess A.V. Bobrinsky. 1827

The attitude of the new emperor towards Prince Platon Zubov can be called truly chivalrous. Of course, the last favorite 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 a new building, Pavel, accompanied by his wife, visited Zubov, crossing the threshold of his new house with the words: "Whoever remembers the old, get out of his sight." And when champagne was served, the emperor said: “How many drops are here, so much I wish you all the best,” and, having drunk everything to the bottom, he broke the glass on the floor. Zubov threw himself at the emperor's feet, but was raised by him with the words: "I told you: whoever remembers the old, get out of his eye." Behind the samovar, the sovereign said to the empress: "Pour tea, because he has no mistress." But Paul's favors were short-lived - major violations were uncovered in the industries that Zubov was involved in, 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 (since 1796) Platon Aleksandrovich Zubov

Opala 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 given the order of 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 hours? the princess asked. “Report to the sovereign that I left at twenty-four minutes.” Immediately, she ordered the carriage to be laid down and, even in the presence of the emperor who had conveyed the command to her, left her Moscow house.

The 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 set the day for the coronation. He gave instructions, however, that preparations for the festivities should be made with the utmost frugality in spending money. But he did not want to put his mother's crown on his head. Therefore, the jeweler Duval in a relatively short term a large imperial crown and a new scepter studded with precious stones were made. And its main decoration was a diamond presented to Catherine II by Grigory Orlov.

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

The crowning of the kingdom took place in April 1797, that is, four months after the death of Empress Catherine. The solemn entry into the ancient capital took place on Palm Sunday. The weather was perfect, the sun shone like spring. The emperor, in a Prussian-style military uniform, with a powdered head and a scythe, rode on horseback, and the empress in a carriage. Troops were lined up all along the way. Covered galleries were built 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, to whom Paul personally placed another small crown on her head.

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

At the end of the church ceremony, Paul read right in the church the “Family Act on the Order of Succession” that he had drawn up and ordered this act to be kept forever in the altar of the Assumption Cathedral - the place of the 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 tsar 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 Romanov will henceforth be represented only by males, passing the throne down the line. The kingdom of women remained in the past, although the spouses of Russian emperors performed some state and public functions. Maria Feodorovna, for example, Pavel entrusted 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 when he was still a young man. He ordered them to be furnished as simply and modestly as possible, unlike the luxurious decoration of his mother's apartments.

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

A lot 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 rejoicing at court, Empress Elizabeth herself took care of his upbringing, death caused both joy and sadness.

Vladimir Borovikovsky Portrait of Paul I

Portrait of Paul I in a white dalmatic, Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky

He was eight years old when his father passed away. With a childlike instinct, he knew 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 teachings and even came up with an alphabet for their student, where the letters were depicted in the form of soldiers. However, there was no clear lesson plan at the court with its magnificent festivities and entertainment. Classes were held when and how 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, already in childhood, Paul was looked upon as an adult, a future king.

Christinek Karl Ludwig. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel in the costume of a Knight 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. GEVigilius Eriksen

Stefano Torelli Portrait of Pavel Petrovich with a black chick.

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: he confidently praised someone, openly despised someone. 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, frisky child, but, unfortunately, he learned too early what fate befell his father, and this developed in him a complex of suspicion and fear. Disturbing visions associated with the death of his father accompanied Paul all his life.

Peter III (in the uniform of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky 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 his youth, Panin's student impressed with the vastness of his knowledge, intelligence and ingenuity, worship of beauty and goodness. He was fluent in Russian, French and German, well knew the works of European writers, 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 convinced, the infidelity of his first wife, Natalya Alekseevna, whose marriage lasted a little more than three years. But in the second marriage, Paul found true family happiness.

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

Maria Fedorovna, 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.

She, for example, 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 the extra 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 typical for her to dress luxuriously and luxuriously, she rather preferred modesty and smartness. Conscious of her high role in society, Maria Fedorovna was always dressed in full dress and beautifully combed her hair. Even during her pregnancy, she wore a dress and not a bonnet like other women in her position. Tucked into a corset, she was engaged in embroidery, sewing, reading German or French literature. Pavel's wife recorded all the impressions of the day in a diary, regularly wrote letters to relatives and friends.

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

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

Friedrich Eugene, father of Maria Feodorovna

Duchess Frederica Dorothea of ​​Württemberg with a portrait of her eldest son Friedrich. Painting by Johann Georg Zizenis, 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 prominent political role, becoming 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 countrymen closer to court; did not maintain close contacts with the Germans. The only exceptions were, perhaps, her childhood friend, Mrs. Benckendorff, who she had taken away from her native places, and the teacher of her daughters, Charlotte Lieven, nee von Gaugreben, a woman who, according to her contemporaries, was gifted with a rare mind and kind heart. She managed to force the emperor himself to respect her opinion and was elevated by him to the dignity of a count.

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

Charlotte Karlovna Lieven

A loving and devoted mother, Maria Fedorovna kept her children in strictness, raised them with a hard hand, although she loved with all her heart. True German technique! Even married daughters considered communication with their mother an ordeal for themselves, fearing her remarks. Maria Fedorovna also had a rather strong influence on her husband. They were considered an ideal couple, although outwardly they were the complete opposite. Pavel is short, balding early, with a large mouth and thick lips, a snub nose and anxious shifting eyes. He always walked with his head held high, probably to appear taller. His wife is a stately blonde with myopic eyes and a very kind smile. With all her appearance, she showed calmness and generosity. Pavel 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)

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

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

His daughter Anna later recalled how her 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 children, with whom he always was gentle and kind. If time permitted, he would gladly play games with them. different games, especially in hide and seek. The 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, visited many foreign courts. This trip had a decisive influence on Paul's horizons. Yes, and he himself made a quite favorable impression in the West, striking many with his lofty mentality, curiosity, the vastness of his knowledge and simplicity of tastes. He was not fond of dancing, preferred serious music and a good performance, loved simple kitchen especially the sausages.

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

A.-L.-R. Ducrot. Vel. 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, temperate person, but even then there was some kind of duality in his character, as if there were two people in him: one is witty, cheerful, playing with dignity the role of the crown prince, the other is gloomy, capable of sharp 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

Suspicion was characteristic of Paul all his life. Once, during a dinner in Tsarskoye Selo, having found glass fragments in sausages, he began to shout that they wanted to kill him, took the dish to the empress and demanded the death of those responsible. 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 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 encroached on his life. Almost got a major political scandal.

Returning to Russia, Pavel 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 overtook us by two centuries!” he said.

Royal destinies

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- a rather bright person in the history of Russia. Due to her appearance, charisma, flexible mind and cheerful disposition, she was popular with men and had a stormy personal life. Catherine gave birth to 4 children, two boys and two girls.

Anna Petrovna was born in 1757. Many believed that Peter III was not the girl's father, despite the fact that he recognized her as his daughter. There were rumors that the real father was Catherine's lover Stanislav Poniatowski. The girl, unfortunately, lived a little over a year, and died of smallpox in infancy.

The only surviving legitimate child of Catherine the Great is, although in this case there is a lot of controversy and gossip about the origin of the young man. He was born in 1754, and after his birth, Empress Elizabeth immediately took care of him. The boy received an excellent education, was spoiled by his grandmother, and lived in abundance. Pavel was unhappy in the future, his first wife died in childbirth, and relations with the second did not work out, despite the fact that they had 10 children. The young man ascended the throne at the age of 42, but he ruled for only 4 years, after which he was killed by conspirators.

Elizabeth Temkina was an illegitimate child of Catherine 2. The Empress gave birth to a girl at a rather late age - at 46 years old. Her father would be Count Potemkin (it was in his honor that she was given such a surname), after whose death his estates passed to the girl, and she lived a happy life without need. The daughter of the Empress happily married Ivan Calageorgi, and gave birth to 10 children. Elizabeth died at the age of 76.

Alexey Bobrinsky- Another child of Catherine the Great, born out of wedlock in 1762 from Grigory Orlov. Catherine did not participate in the upbringing of her son (she first saw him a year after birth), the boy was brought up to the age of 12 by chamberlain Shkurin, after which he was sent to the cadet corps. The young man found out about his origin only after the death of his mother, and was unexpectedly good-naturedly received by Paul 1. Alexei received the title of count and was close friends with his brother. He was interested in alchemy, science and agriculture. The son of Catherine the Great died in 1813.

Russian monarchs are credited with a considerable number of illegitimate children, most of whom never really existed. There are very real historical people who were considered imperial children, but who in fact were not.

But there are people over the mystery of whose origin historians are still puzzled. One of these is Elizaveta Grigoryevna Tyomkina.

At Catherine the Great there were many favorites Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin stands alone. He managed to become not only the lover of the Empress, but also her close friend, right hand, assistant in all matters and undertakings.

Changed as favorite Grigory Orlov, his namesake turned out to be wiser, more far-sighted, more active.

Relations between Potemkin and Catherine II in a certain period of time were so close that there was even a version of their secret wedding.

As you know, from Grigory Orlov, Catherine gave birth to a son, Alexei. Considering the empress's affection for Potemkin, the version that Catherine decided to have a child from him looks quite realistic.

Secret childbirth

On July 13, 1775, a girl was secretly born in Moscow, named Elizabeth. The baby was taken by Potemkin to his sister Maria Alexandrovna Samoilova, and his nephew was appointed guardian of the girl Alexander Nikolaevich Samoilov.

When the girl grew up, in the 1780s they picked up another guardian for her - they became personal physician Ivan Filippovich Beck who treated the grandchildren of the Empress. In the future, the girl was given for training and education in a boarding school.

The question of the paternity of Grigory Potemkin in this case does not arise - direct evidence is the name "Tyomkina" given to the girl.

According to the then tradition, the surname of the illegitimate offspring of a noble father was formed by removing the first syllable from the parent's surname. So the Betskys, Pnins and Litsyns appeared in Russia - illegitimate descendants of the princes Trubetskoy, Repnin and Golitsyn. So there is no doubt that Liza Tyomkina was the daughter of Grigory Potemkin, no.

But was the Empress her mother?

For some time before and after July 13, 1775, Catherine did not appear in public. According to the official version, Catherine got an upset stomach due to unwashed fruits. During this period, she really was in Moscow, where the celebration of the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace treaty took place, which completed Russian-Turkish war. That is, Catherine had all the conditions for secretly giving birth to a child.

"Now is the time to have children"

There were many skeptics, however, both then and now. Most of all, the age of Catherine herself caused doubts: by the time of the alleged birth, she was already 46 years old, which is quite a lot in terms of childbearing today, and by the standards of the 18th century, it seemed to be beyond the age.

King of France Louis XVI, the one who was about to lose his head from the guillotine knife, ironically: "Mrs. Potemkina is a good forty-five: it's time to give birth to children."

The second reason for doubt is Catherine's attitude towards Elizabeth Tyomkina. Or rather, the absence of any relationship whatsoever. Against the background of first care, and then anger towards Orlov's son Alexei Bobrinsky, such indifference of the Empress looks strange.

It cannot be said that the father spoiled the girl with attention, although Elizabeth, of course, had everything she needed.

There is an assumption that the mother of Elizabeth could be one of the favorites of Potemkin himself, who, of course, could not compete with the Empress and about whom little is known. However, there is no convincing evidence for this version either.

"The family lived together, cheerfully and noisily"

According to contemporaries, Elizabeth Tyomkina herself knew from childhood that she was the daughter of Grigory Potemkin and Catherine the Great.

After the death of her father, Elizaveta Tyomkina was granted large estates in the Kherson region - a region, the development and arrangement of which gave a lot of effort to the Most Serene Prince.

In 1794, a 19-year-old rich bride was married off as a 28-year-old Second Major Ivan Khristoforovich Kalageorgi.

The son of a Greek nobleman, guardsman-cuirassier Ivan Kalageorgi was a prominent person. From childhood, he was brought up with the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich and therefore was one of the close associates of the imperial family.

This marriage turned out to be happy - Ivan and Elizabeth had ten children, 4 sons and 6 daughters. Ivan Kalageorgi himself rose to the rank of governor of the Yekaterinoslav province.

The character of Elizabeth Tyomkina was described in different ways - some called her spoiled, self-confident and uncontrollable, others - a modest woman and a good mother.

Great-grandson of Elizabeth Tyomkina, famous literary critic and linguist Dmitry Nikolaevich Ovsyaniko-Kulikovskiy, he described the life of his ancestors in this way: “The family lived together, cheerfully and noisily, but at the same time somehow very restless, expecting at times all sorts of troubles and misfortunes.”

Portrait from the Tretyakov Gallery

After Elizabeth got married, one of her former guardians, Alexander Samoilov, ordered the famous artist Vladimir Borovikovsky her portrait. “What I need most... is to have a portrait of Elizaveta Grigorievna Kalageorgieva... I want the painter Borovikovsky to copy it... let Elizaveta Grigorievna be painted in such a way that her neck was open and her hair, disheveled with curls, lay on it without order.. . ”, Samoilov gave instructions in a letter to his representative.

Portrait of Elizabeth Grigoryevna Tyomkina as Diana. 1798. Photo: Public Domain

The portrait was ready in a year. Borovikovsky also performed his miniature repetition on zinc. On it, Elizabeth was depicted in the image of the ancient Greek goddess Diana, bare-chested, with a crescent-shaped decoration in her hair.

The portrait and miniature were donated to the Calageorgi family.

Elizaveta Grigorievna Tyomkina-Kalageorgi lived a life far from political storms, and died in May 1854, at the age of 78.

In 1884 the son of Elizabeth Konstantin Ivanovich Kalageorgi offered to purchase a portrait of his mother to a collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov for 6 thousand rubles.

Tretyakov considered the price too high. Then the grandson of Elizabeth and the son of Constantine, the justice of the peace, joined the bargaining Nikolai Konstantinovich Kalageorgi, who wrote to the collector: "The portrait of my grandmother has a triple historical significance - in the personality of the artist, in the personality of my grandmother and as a type of beauty of the eighteenth century, which makes its value completely independent of the fashionable trends of contemporary art."

Tretyakov, however, was not convinced by this argument either. As a result, the portrait remained in the Calageorgi family.

In 1907, the widow of Judge Calageorga sold the portrait to the Moscow collector Tsvetkov. 18 years later, the Tsvetkov collection became part of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The miniature with Elizaveta Tyomkina as Diana was acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery in 1964.

The portrait of the daughter of Grigory Potemkin today can be seen by all visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery. See and try to independently conclude whether she was the daughter of Catherine II. After all, historians did not have one hundred percent evidence of the correctness or fallacy of this version, and still do not.

LECTURE III

The reign of Paul I. - His place in history. - Biographical information. —The general character of Paul's governmental activities. - The peasant question under Paul. - Paul's attitude towards other estates. - The attitude of society towards Paul. - The state of finance in the reign of Paul and his foreign policy. - Results of the reign.

Significance of Paul's reign

Portrait of Emperor Paul. Artist S. Schukin

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries lies the four-year reign of Paul.

This short period, which until recently was in many respects under the censorship ban, has long aroused the curiosity of the public, like everything mysterious and forbidden. On the other hand, historians, psychologists, biographers, playwrights, and novelists were naturally attracted to the original personality of the married psychopath and the exceptional setting in which his drama, which ended so tragically, took place.

From the point of view from which we consider historical events, this reign is, however, of secondary importance. Although it lies at the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries. and separates the “age of Catherine” from the “age of Alexander”, in no case can it be considered as transitional. On the contrary, in historical process development of the Russian people, which interests us, it is some kind of sudden invasion, some kind of unexpected storm that swooped in from outside, confused everything, turned everything temporarily upside down, but could not interrupt or profoundly change the natural course of the ongoing process for a long time. In view of the significance of the reign of Paul and Alexander, as soon as he ascended the throne, there was no choice but to cross out almost everything done by his father and, having quickly healed the shallow but painful wounds inflicted by him on the state organism, to start from the place where Ekaterina's hand, weakened and wavering under old age, stopped.

Such a view of this reign does not at all prevent us, of course, from being fully aware of the profound influence that his horrors had personally on the emperor Alexander and on the final formation of his character. But more on that ahead. We also do not deny the significance of some individual government acts of Paul and do not deny the unfortunate influence on Alexander, and then on Nicholas, of that court-military parade ground system that has since been established at the Russian court. But even these circumstances do not, of course, convey to the reign of Paul the significance of a transitional, connecting era between two adjacent reigns ...

In any case, the reign of Paul itself is interesting for us not for its tragicomic phenomena, but for the changes that nevertheless took place at that time in the position of the population, and for the movement in the minds that the terror of government power caused in society. Even more important for us is international relations, which were conditioned, on the one hand, by the peculiarities of Paul's character, and, on the other hand, by the great events that took place in the West.

Personality of Emperor Paul

Therefore, we will not deal here with a detailed presentation of the biography of Paul and refer everyone who is interested in it to the well-known work of Schilder, who dealt specifically with the personal biography of Paul, and to another, more short biography, compiled to a large extent according to Schilder, Mr. Shumigorsky. Actually, for our purposes, the following brief biographical information will suffice. Pavel was born in 1754, eight years before Catherine's accession to the throne. His childhood passed in completely abnormal conditions: Empress Elizabeth took him away from his parents as soon as he was born, and took up his upbringing herself. As a child, he was surrounded by various mothers and nannies, and all his upbringing was of a hothouse character. Soon, however, a person was assigned to him, who in himself was an outstanding personality, namely c. Nikita Ivanovich Panin. Panin was a statesman, with a very broad mind, but he was not a thoughtful teacher and was not attentive enough to his work.

Catherine was distrustful of Panin, and it was clear to her that he was a bad teacher, but she was afraid to eliminate him, because, having taken the throne not by right, she was afraid of those rumors that circulated in well-known circles that she wanted to eliminate Paul completely . Fearing to give rise to these rumors and knowing that public opinion was such that Pavel was safe as long as he was in Panin's care, Catherine did not dare to eliminate Panin, and he remained Pavel's tutor with her. Pavel grew up, but Catherine did not feel any closeness to him, she had a low opinion of his mental and spiritual properties. She did not allow him to participate in state affairs; she even removed him from the affairs of military administration, to which he had a great inclination. Paul's first marriage was short-lived and unsuccessful, and his wife, who died from childbirth, managed to further spoil the already bad relationship between Paul and Catherine. When Pavel married for the second time to the Württemberg princess, who received the name Maria Feodorovna during the transition to Orthodoxy, Catherine gave Gatchina to the young couple and left them to lead the lives of private people in it; but when they had children, she acted towards Paul and his wife in the same way as Elizabeth had done to her herself, that is, she selected the children from the very birth of them and brought them up herself. The removal of Paul from public affairs and the disrespectful treatment of him by the empress's favorites, especially Potemkin, constantly added fuel to the fire and aroused in Paul hatred for the entire Catherine's court. He waited impatiently for thirty years when, finally, he himself would have to reign and manage in his own way.

Portrait of Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Paul. Painter Jean-Louis Voile, 1790s

It must be added that at the end of the reign of Catherine, Paul even began to fear that Catherine would remove him from the throne; it is now known that such a plan was indeed outlined and did not materialize, apparently only because Alexander did not want or did not dare to ascend the throne in addition to his father, and this circumstance made it difficult to implement Catherine's already ripened intentions.

When Paul ascended the throne, then the hatred accumulated in his soul for everything that his mother did began to be realized. Not having a clear idea of ​​the real needs of the state, Pavel began to indiscriminately cancel everything that his mother had done, and with feverish speed to carry out his semi-fantastic plans, worked out by him in Gatchina seclusion. In appearance, in some respects, he was returning to the old. Thus, he restored almost all the old economic boards, but did not give them a properly delimited competence, and meanwhile their old competence was completely destroyed by the establishment of state chambers and other local institutions. He had long ago come up with a special plan for the reorganization of the entire central administration; but this plan, in essence, amounted to the abolition of all state institutions and the concentration of the entire administration directly in the hands of the sovereign himself, and could hardly be carried out in practice.

Emperor Paul's reign

At the beginning of Paul's reign, however, two serious government measures were taken, the significance of which has been preserved for the future. The first of these measures was the law on the succession to the throne, which Pavel worked out when he was his heir and which was published by him on April 5, 1797. This law had in mind to eliminate that arbitrariness in the appointment of the heir to the throne, which had dominated Russia since the time of Peter and thanks to which happened in the 18th century. so many palace coups. The law issued by Paul, which was in force with minor additions until recently, introduced a really strict procedure for the succession to the imperial throne in Russia, mainly through the male line. In this regard, a detailed regulation on the imperial family was issued, and in the form of material support for its members, a special economic institution was formed under the name "destinies", in whose jurisdiction were those palace peasants who had previously been exploited for the needs of the imperial court and to whom individual estates belonging to members of the royal family were now included. All these peasants received the name "appanage", and special institutions and special rules were created to manage them, thanks to which their situation later turned out to be more satisfactory than that of ordinary serfs and even state peasants, who were in charge of the zemstvo police shamelessly exploiting them.

Especially persistently Paul sought to destroy all those rights and privileges that were granted by Catherine to certain estates. So, he canceled letters of grant to cities and the nobility and not only destroyed the right of noble societies to file petitions about their needs, but even canceled the release of nobles from corporal punishment by court.

There is an opinion that Paul, being completely negative about the privileges of the upper classes, was sympathetic to the people and even allegedly sought to free the people from the arbitrariness of the landlords and oppressors.

Measures of Emperor Paul against the peasants

Perhaps he had some good intentions, but one can hardly ascribe to him any seriously thought-out system in this respect. Usually, as proof of the correctness of such a view of Paul, they point to the manifesto of April 5, 1797, which established Sunday rest and a three-day corvee, but this manifesto is not quite accurately conveyed. They were categorically forbidden only to work on holidays for the landowner, and then, already in the form of a maxim, it was said that even three days of corvée was enough to maintain the landowner's economy. The very form of expression of this desire, in the absence of any sanction, indicates that it was not in essence a specific law establishing a three-day corvee, although it was subsequently interpreted as such. On the other hand, it must be said that, for example, in Little Russia, a three-day corvee would not have been beneficial for the peasants, since there, according to custom, a two-day corvee was practiced. Another law issued by Paul on the initiative of Chancellor Bezborodko in favor of the peasants - on the prohibition of the sale of serfs without land - applied only to Little Russia.

Extremely characteristic is the position that Paul took in relation to the peasant unrest and the complaints of the serfs about the oppression of the landowners. At the beginning of Paul's reign, peasant unrest broke out in 32 provinces. Pavel sent whole large detachments to pacify them with Field Marshal Prince. Repnin at the head. Repnin very quickly pacified the peasants, taking extremely drastic measures. When pacified in Oryol province 12 thousand peasant landowners Apraksin and Prince. Golitsyn, a whole battle took place, and from the peasants there were 20 people killed and up to 70 wounded. Repnin ordered the dead peasants to be buried outside the cemetery fence, and on a stake placed over their common grave, he wrote: “Here lie criminals before God, the sovereign and the landowner, justly punished according to the law of God.” The houses of these peasants were destroyed and razed to the ground. Pavel not only approved all these actions, but also issued a special manifesto on January 29, 1797, which, under the threat of such measures, ordered the uncomplaining obedience of the serfs to the landowners.

In another case, the yard people of some landowners living in St. Petersburg tried to complain to Pavel about the cruelty and oppression they were suffering from. Pavel, without investigating the case, ordered the complainants to be sent to the square and punished with a whip "as much as their landlords themselves want."

In general, Paul is hardly guilty of striving to seriously improve the position of the landowning peasants. He looked at the landlords as if they were free police chiefs - he believed that as long as there were 100 thousand of these police chiefs in Russia, the peace of the state was guaranteed, and he was not averse to even feasibly increasing this number, distributing state peasants to private individuals with a wide hand: in four years he managed to in this way, distribute 530 thousand souls of both sexes of state peasants to various landowners and officials, seriously asserting that he is doing these peasants a good deed, since the position of the peasants under state administration, in his opinion, was worse than under landownership, with which, of course, could not agree. The significance of the given figure of state peasants distributed into private hands can be judged from the data that are given above on the number of peasants. different categories; but this figure is even more striking if we remember that Catherine, who willingly rewarded her favorites and other persons with peasants, nevertheless managed to distribute no more than 800 thousand souls of both sexes in all 34 years of her reign, and Paul distributed 530 thousand .

To this it should be added that at the very beginning of Paul's reign, another act was issued against the freedom of the peasants: by a decree on December 12, 1796, the transfer of peasants who settled on private lands among the Cossack lands in the Don region and in the provinces: Yekaterinoslav, Voznesenskaya, Caucasian and Tauride.

Russian education and clergy in the reign of Paul

Of the rest of the estates, the clergy, to whom Paul favored, or at least wanted to favor, had more reason to be pleased with Paul than others. Being a religious man and considering himself to be the head of the Orthodox Church, Paul cared about the position of the clergy, but even here the results were sometimes strange. These concerns of his were sometimes ambiguous, so that one of his former mentors, his clergyman - and at that time already the Moscow metropolitan - Platon, to whom Paul in his youth, and even then, after his accession to the throne, treated with great respect, was among the protesters against some of the measures that Paul took. The protest with which Plato had to speak concerned, among other things, a strange innovation - the awarding of clergy with orders. It seemed to Plato that from a canonical point of view it was completely unacceptable for civil authorities to reward the ministers of the church, not to mention the fact that wearing orders in general does not at all correspond to the significance of the priestly, and even more so, the monastic dignity. The Metropolitan asked on his knees that Paul not award him the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, but in the end he had to accept it. In itself, this circumstance does not seem to be particularly important, but it is characteristic of Paul's attitude towards the class that he most honored.

Much more important in a positive sense is Paul's attitude towards spiritual educational institutions. He did quite a lot for them - he allocated a significant amount of money for them from the income from the estates that previously belonged to bishops' houses and monasteries and confiscated by Catherine.

Under him, two theological academies were reopened - in St. Petersburg and Kazan - and eight seminaries, both newly opened and former educational establishments were provided with regular amounts: academies began to receive from 10 to 12 thousand rubles. per year, and seminaries on average from 3 to 4 thousand, i.e., almost twice as much as compared to what was released to them under Catherine.

Here we should also note the favorable attitude of Paul towards the non-Orthodox clergy, even non-Christian ones, and in particular his favorable attitude towards the Catholic clergy. This is due, perhaps, to his sincere religiosity in general and his lofty conception of pastoral duties; as for the Catholic clergy proper, their attitude towards the Maltese spiritual order of chivalry was still of great importance. Pavel not only assumed the supreme patronage of this order, but even allowed him to form a special priory in St. Petersburg. This circumstance, explained by the strange fantasies of Paul, later led, as we shall see, to very important consequences in the field of international relations.

Portrait of Paul I in the crown, attire and insignia of the Order of Malta. Artist V. L. Borovikovsky, circa 1800

Another important fact in the sphere of church life under Paul was his rather peaceful attitude towards schismatics. In this one respect, Paul continued the policy of Catherine, the traces of whose reign he tried with such energy to destroy with all his other measures. At the request of Metropolitan Platon, he agreed to take a rather important measure - namely, he allowed the Old Believers to publicly celebrate divine services in the so-called congregational churches, thanks to which, for the first time, a serious opportunity was opened for reconciliation of the most peaceful groups of the Old Believers with the Orthodox Church.

As for Paul's attitude to secular education, his activity in this direction was clearly reactionary and, one might say, downright destructive. Even at the end of the reign of Catherine, private printing houses were closed, and then the publication of books was already extremely reduced. Under Paul, the number of published books was reduced, especially in the last two years of his reign, to a completely negligible number, and the very nature of the books also changed a lot - textbooks and books of practical content began to be published almost exclusively. The import of books published abroad was completely banned at the end of the reign; since 1800, everything printed abroad, regardless of content, even musical notes, had no access to Russia. Even earlier, at the very beginning of the reign, the free entry of foreigners into Russia was prohibited.

Another measure was even more important - namely, the call to Russia of all young people who studied abroad, of which there were 65 people in Jena, 36 in Leipzig, and the prohibition of young people to travel to foreign lands for educational purposes, in return for which it was supposed to open a university in Dorpat.

Government oppression in the reign of Paul

Out of hatred for revolutionary ideas and for liberalism in general, Paul, with the persistence of a maniac, persecuted all sorts of external manifestations liberalism. Hence the war against the round hats and cuffed boots worn in France, against tailcoats and tricolor ribbons. Quite peaceful persons were subjected to the most serious punishments, officials were expelled from service, individuals were arrested, many were deported from the capitals and even sometimes to places more or less remote. The same penalties were imposed for violating that strange etiquette, the observance of which was mandatory when meeting with the emperor. Thanks to this etiquette, a meeting with the sovereign was considered a misfortune, which they tried to avoid in every possible way: when they saw the sovereign, subjects hurried to hide behind gates, fences, etc.

Under such circumstances, those exiled, imprisoned and in fortresses, and in general those who suffered under Paul for trifles, were considered thousands, so that when Alexander, upon accession to the throne, rehabilitated such persons, according to some sources, they turned out to be 15 thousand, according to others - more than 12 thousand people.

The oppression of the Pavlovian reign was especially hard on the army, starting with soldiers and ending with officers and generals. Endless drill, harsh punishments for the slightest error in the fruit, senseless teaching methods, the most uncomfortable clothes, extremely embarrassing for common man, especially when marching, which was then supposed to be brought almost to the ballet art; finally, the obligatory wearing of curls and braids, smeared with lard and sprinkled with flour or brick powder - all this complicated the difficulty of the already difficult soldier's service, which then lasted 25 years.

Officers and generals had to tremble every hour for their fate, since the slightest malfunction of one of the subordinates could lead to the most cruel consequences for them if the emperor was out of sorts.

Assessment of Paul's reign by Karamzin

Such were the manifestations of government oppression, which developed under Paul to its highest limits. An interesting review about Pavel, made 10 years after his death by a strict conservative and a staunch supporter of the autocracy N.M. Karamzin in his Note on the Ancient and new Russia”, presented to Alexander I in 1811 in the form of an objection to the liberal reforms that Alexander then planned. Being an antagonist of the liberal emperor, Karamzin, however, described the reign of his predecessor as follows: “Paul came to the throne at that time, favorable for autocracy, when the horrors of the French Revolution cured Europe of the dreams of civil liberty and equality; but what the Jacobins did in relation to the republics, Paul did in relation to the autocracy; forced to hate the abuse thereof. By a miserable delusion of mind and as a result of many personal displeasures he endured, he wanted to be John IV; but the Russians already had Catherine II, they knew that the sovereign must fulfill his sacred duties no less than his subjects, the violation of which destroys the ancient covenants of power with obedience and overthrows the people from the degree of citizenship into the chaos of private natural law. The son of Catherine could be strict and deserve the gratitude of the fatherland; to the inexplicable surprise of the Russians, he began to reign in general horror, not following any charters, except for his whim; considered us not subjects, but slaves; he executed without guilt, rewarded without merit, took away the shame from the execution, from the reward - the charm, humiliated the ranks and ribbons with wastefulness in them; frivolously destroyed the long-term fruits of state wisdom, hating in them the work of his mother; killed in our regiments the noble spirit of the military, brought up by Catherine, and replaced it with the spirit of corporalism. Heroes accustomed to victories, taught to march, turned the nobles away from military service; despising the soul, respected hats and collars; having, like a man, a natural inclination for doing good, he fed on the bile of evil: daily he invented ways to frighten people and he himself was more afraid of everyone; I thought of building an impregnable palace for myself - and built a tomb ... Let's note, - adds Karamzin, - a feature that is curious for the observer: in this reign of horror, according to foreigners, Russians were even afraid to think; No! they spoke and boldly, falling silent only from boredom and frequent repetition, trusted each other and were not deceived. Some spirit of sincere brotherhood dominated the capitals; the common calamity brought the hearts together, and the generous frenzy against the abuse of power drowned out the voice of personal caution. There are similar comments in the notes of Vigel and Grech, also people of the conservative camp...

It should, however, be said that the "generous frenzy" by no means turned into action. Society did not even try to express its attitude towards Paul by any public protest. It hated in silence, but, of course, it was precisely this mood that gave the few leaders of the coup on March 11, 1801, the courage to suddenly eliminate Paul.

The economic and financial situation of Russia in the reign of Paul

The economic situation of the country could not change too much under Paul, in view of the brevity of his reign; the financial position of Russia under him was highly dependent on his foreign policy and those bizarre changes that took place in it. Paul began by making peace with Persia and abolishing the enlistment of Catherine; refused to send 40 thousand army against the French Republic, to which Catherine agreed in 1795 thanks to the insistence of the English ambassador Whitworth, and demanded back the Russian ships sent to help the English fleet. Then a start was made on the repayment of the assigned debt. The government decided to withdraw part of the banknotes put on the market; a solemn burning took place in the presence of Paul himself of banknotes in the amount of 6 million rubles. Thus, the total number of banknotes issued decreased from 157 million rubles. to 151 million rubles, i.e., by less than 4%, but in this area, of course, any, even a small, reduction is important, because it indicates the government's intention to pay off debts, and not increase them. At the same time, measures were taken to establish a stable exchange rate for the silver coin; a constant weight of the silver ruble was established, which was recognized as equal to the weight of four silver francs. Then the restoration of the relatively free customs tariff of 1782 was of great importance. At the same time, Paul was guided, however, not by sympathy for free trade, but did so out of a desire to destroy the tariff of 1793 issued by Catherine.

The introduction of a new tariff was supposed to serve to develop trade relations. For large-scale industry, the discovery of hard coal in the Donets Basin. This discovery, made in the south of Russia, in a country poor in forests, immediately affected the state of industry in the Novorossiysk Territory. Of great importance for the development of internal trade relations and for the transportation of certain products to the ports was the digging of new canals under Paul, partly begun under Catherine. In 1797, the Oginsky Canal was started and completed under Paul, connecting the Dniester basin with the Neman; Sievers dug a channel to bypass about. Ilmen; one of the Ladoga Syassky canals was started and work continued on the construction of the Mariinsky Canal. Under him, a porto franco was established in the Crimea, beneficial for the revival of the Southern Territory.

The foreign policy of Emperor Paul

But the improvement in the economic situation of the country did not last long, and public finances soon had to experience new fluctuations. In 1798, the peaceful course of affairs suddenly stopped. Just at this time, Napoleon Bonaparte went on his campaign to Egypt and in passing captured the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Malta, which belonged to the Order of Malta, had an impregnable fortress, but the grand master of the order, for unknown reasons (treason was suspected), surrendered the fortress without a fight, took the archive, orders and jewelry and retired to Venice, the St. for some time, to everyone's surprise, Paul, who considered himself the head of the Orthodox Church, personally assumed the grand mastership in this Catholic order, subordinate to the pope. There was a tradition that this strange step in Paul's mind was connected with a fantastic enterprise - with the universal destruction of the revolution at the root by uniting all the nobles of all countries of the world in the Order of Malta. Whether this was so is difficult to decide; but, of course, this idea did not come to fruition. Declaring war on France and not wanting to act alone, Paul helped the English minister Pete to create a fairly strong coalition against France. He entered into an alliance with Austria and England, which were then in hostile or strained relations with France, then the kingdom of Sardinia and even Turkey, which suffered from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria, were drawn into the coalition. The alliance with Turkey was concluded on very favorable terms for Russia and, with a consistent policy, could be of great importance. In view of the fact that various Turkish lands were occupied by French troops (among others, the Ionian Islands), it was decided to expel the French from there by combined forces, and for this, the Port agreed to let through and for the future let through the Straits of Constantinople and the Dardanelles not only Russian merchant ships, but also warships, at the same time assuming the obligation not to let foreign warships into the Black Sea. The force of this treaty was to last eight years, after which it could be renewed by mutual agreement of the contracting parties. The Russian fleet immediately took advantage of this right and, having carried a significant landing force through the straits on warships, occupied the Ionian Islands, which after that were under the rule of the Russians until the Treaty of Tilsit (that is, until 1807).

On the continent of Europe, it was necessary to act against the French armies in alliance with the Austrians and the British. Pavel, following the advice of the Austrian emperor, appointed Suvorov to command the combined armies of Russia and Austria. Suvorov at that time was in disgrace and lived on his estate under police supervision: he had a negative attitude towards Paul's military innovations and knew how to let him feel it under the guise of jokes and foolishness, for which he paid with disgrace and exile.

Now Pavel turned to Suvorov on his own behalf and on behalf of the Austrian emperor. Suvorov gladly accepted command of the army. This campaign was marked by brilliant victories in northern Italy over the French troops and the famous crossing of the Alps.

But when northern Italy was cleared of the French, Austria decided that this was enough for her, and refused to support Suvorov in his further plans. Thus, Suvorov could not carry out his intention to invade France and march on Paris. This "Austrian betrayal" led to the defeat of the Russian detachment of General Rimsky-Korsakov by the French. Pavel became extremely indignant, withdrew the army, and thus the war between Russia and France actually stopped here. The Russian corps sent against the French in Holland was not sufficiently reinforced by the British, who did not pay timely and monetary subsidies, to which they were obliged by the agreement, which also aroused the indignation of Paul, who withdrew his troops from this point.

Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte returned from Egypt to carry out his first coup d'etat: on Brumaire 18, he overthrew the legitimate government of the directory and became the first consul, that is, in essence, the actual sovereign in France. Paul, seeing that things were thus moving towards the restoration of monarchical power, albeit from the side of a "usurper", changed his attitude towards France, expecting that Napoleon would deal with the remnants of the revolution. Napoleon, for his part, deftly pleased him, sending without exchange all Russian prisoners to their homeland at the French expense and providing them with gifts. This touched the knightly heart of Paul, and, hoping that Napoleon would turn out to be his like-minded person in all other matters, Paul entered into negotiations with him about peace and an alliance against England, to which Paul attributed the failure of his troops in Holland. It was all the easier for Napoleon to restore it against England, because at that time the British took Malta from the French, but did not return it to the order.

Immediately, ignoring all international treatises, Paul imposed an embargo (arrest) on all English merchant ships, introduced drastic changes in the customs tariff, and in the end completely banned the export and import of goods into Russia, not only from England, but also from Prussia, since Prussia was in contact with England. With these measures directed against the English, Paul caused a shock in all Russian trade. He did not confine himself to customs restraints, but ordered even in the shops to seize all English goods, which was never done in similar circumstances. Instigated by Napoleon and not content with this series of hostile actions against England, Paul finally decided to stab her in the most painful place: he decided to conquer India, believing that he would do it easily by sending only Cossacks there. And so, on his orders, 40 regiments of Don Cossacks suddenly set off to conquer India, taking with them a double set of horses, but without fodder, in winter, without true maps, through impenetrable steppes. Of course, this army was doomed to perish. The senselessness of this act was so obvious to Paul's contemporaries that Princess Liven, the wife of Pavel's close adjutant general, even claims in her memoirs that this undertaking was undertaken by Paul with the aim of deliberately destroying the Cossack army, in which he suspected a freedom-loving spirit. This assumption, of course, is wrong, but it shows what thoughts could be attributed to Paul by his associates. Fortunately, this campaign began two months before the elimination of Paul, and Alexander, having barely ascended the throne, on the very night of the coup, hastened to send a courier to return the ill-fated Cossacks; it turned out that the Cossacks had not yet managed to reach the Russian border, but had already managed to lose a significant part of their horses ...

This fact especially vividly depicts the madness of Paul and the terrible consequences that the measures that he took could have had. On the state of finances, all these campaigns and wars of the last two years of Paul's reign, of course, were reflected in the most detrimental way. At the beginning of his reign, Paul burned, as we have seen, 6 million banknotes, but the war required emergency expenses. Paul had to resort again to issuing banknotes, since there were no other means for waging war. Thus, by the end of his reign, the total amount of banknotes issued from 151 million rose to 212 million rubles, which finally dropped the exchange rate of the paper ruble.

Results of the reign of Paul

Summing up now the results of Paul's reign, we see that the borders of the state territory remained under him in their former form. True, the Georgian king, pressed by Persia, in January 1801 declared his desire to become Russian citizenship, but the final annexation of Georgia took place already under Alexander.

As for the condition of the population, however harmful many of the measures taken by Paul were, they could not produce profound changes in four years. The saddest change in the position of the peasants was, of course, the transfer from state peasants to serfs of those 530 thousand souls that Pavel managed to distribute to private individuals,

As for trade and industry, despite a number of favorable conditions at the beginning of his reign, towards the end of his reign, foreign trade was completely ruined, while the internal one was in the most chaotic state. Even greater chaos turned out in the state of higher and provincial government.

Such was the state of the state when Paul ceased to exist.

See Paul's note about this, found in 1826 in the papers of imp. Alexandra. It is printed in vol. 90. “Collection. Rus. ist. general.», pp. 1–4. Currently, Paul's government activities are being re-examined and revised in the book prof. V. M. Klochkova, treated her very favorably. Despite the significant material collected by Mr. Klochkov in support of his apologetic attitude towards this activity, I cannot recognize his conclusions as convincing and, in general, I remain with my previous view of Paul's reign. I expressed my opinion on the work of Mr. Klochkov in a special review published in Russian Thought, 1917, No. 2.

Here it should be mentioned, however, that among the cancellations of the measures taken by Catherine were good deeds. These include: the release of Novikov from Shlisselburg, the return of Radishchev from exile to Ilimsk, and the solemn release from captivity with special honors of Kosciuszka and other captive Poles held in St. Petersburg.

Pavel really sought to regulate and improve the position of the state peasants, as can be seen from the study of Mr. Klochkov, but all the assumptions related to this remained, in essence, only on paper until the formation under imp. Nicolae of the Ministry of State Property with c. Kiselev at the head.

The first volume of Op. Storch's "Gemälde des Russischen Reichs" was published in 1797 in Riga, the rest of the volumes were printed abroad; but Storch was persona grata at the court of Paul: he was the personal reader of imp. Maria Fedorovna and dedicated his book (volume 1) to Pavel.

"Russian Archive" for 1870, pp. 2267–2268. There is a separate edition, ed. Sipovsky. SPb., 1913.

Illegitimate children of monarchs, as a rule, were the fruit of their love affair outside of marriage. Eldest son of the Russian emperor Paul I even less fortunate - he was born as a result of an experiment started by his grandmother Catherine the Great.

After the empress ascended the Russian throne in 1762 as a result of a coup Catherine II, the situation with the question of succession to the throne was rather delicate. Catherine had practically no chances to enter into a new legal marriage, which would be recognized by Russian society. The only heir to the throne in this situation was the 8-year-old Pavel Petrovich, the son of the Empress from her deposed husband.

Young Pavel was no different good health, and this worried the empress's entourage. Of course the decree Peter I of 1722 on the succession to the throne allowed the monarch to appoint anyone as his successor, but this did not strengthen the stability of power in any way.

The monarchy needed a "natural" heir, or rather several - as a guarantee against any accidents.

Alexey Bobrinsky. Photo: Public Domain

In the most extreme case, if Paul's illness had brought him to the grave, Catherine was ready to declare her second son the heir, Alexey Bobrinsky born from a favorite Grigory Orlov.

This was especially actively discussed in Russia in 1771, when Pavel Petrovich was struck down by a serious illness that forced his mother, who usually did not spoil her son with attention, to spend a lot of time at his bedside.

Catherine II was aware that such an heir as Alexei Bobrinsky could cause grumbling even among those close to him, and hoped for Paul's recovery.

Woman for the Tsarevich

The heir really recovered, and the royal mother decided that her son should be married immediately so that the ruling dynasty would continue in a natural way.

But here arose new problem- there was a suspicion that as a result of the illness, Pavel could lose the reproductive functions of the body. This issue had to be clarified before the official marriage, so as not to create new difficulties.

Catherine II as Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice. Reproduction/ Dmitry Levitsky

AT late XVIII centuries, doctors did not have the ability to conduct appropriate tests, and this could only be verified in a natural way.

Catherine II ordered that Paul should be brought with a woman who should give birth to a child from him.

Historians in the tsarist era wrote rather ornately about a person close to Paul, calling her "a kind of complaisant widow." Renowned Russian philologist and publisher Nikolay Grech He described the situation as follows: “Before the emperor Paul entered into his first marriage, they gave him some kind of maiden to initiate him into the mysteries of Hymen. The student showed success, and the teacher became knocked up.

The name was "The Compliant Widow". Daughter of the St. Petersburg governor and senator Stepan Ushakov in her first marriage she was married to the adjutant wing of Peter III, major general Mikhail Petrovich Chartoryzhsky. The husband, suffering from consumption, died early, leaving his wife childless.

Sofia Czartoryzhskaya loved luxury, balls, entertainment and willingly had affairs with men.

Catherine II decided that the 25-year-old widow - the best way in order to test the male abilities of a 17-year-old son.

To the delight of the Empress, the worst fears did not come true - in 1772, a boy was born to Sophia Czartoryzhskaya, who was named Semyon.

Sofia Stepanovna Chartoryzhskaya. Photo: reproduction

Midshipman the Great

Satisfied, Catherine began to speed up the process of Paul's marriage.

In gratitude for the service, Sofya Chartoryzhskaya was married to the chief chamberlain Peter Kirillovich Razumovsky, rewarding her with an impressive dowry.

The son of the Tsarevich and Sophia Czartoryzhskaya received the surname Veliky, and he was given a patronymic in honor of his godfather - Afanasyevich.

Initially, the empress was not going to give her grandson to her mother, but then, at the request of those close to her, she changed her mind.

About early years Seeds of the Great little is known. At the age of 8, he was placed in a closed Peter and Paul school, and the teachers were instructed to give the boy "the best education."

After leaving school, Semyon received the rank of sergeant of the Izmailovsky regiment, but said that he was dreaming of a career as a naval officer. This desire of his was fulfilled, and Semyon the Great was sent for further education to the Naval Cadet Corps.

Pavel the First. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Meeting with grandma

While the young man was studying marine science, in Russia the first trip around the world, which was headed by the captain Grigory Ivanovich Mulovsky.

Semyon the Great got excited about this idea and achieved his inclusion in the crew of one of the ships of the Mulovsky expedition.

The expedition, however, failed - it was prevented by the beginning of the first Russian-Turkish, and then the Russian-Swedish wars. Captain Mulovsky died in 1789 in a battle near the island of Elanda.

In the Russian-Swedish war, as an officer of the Russian warship "Do not touch me", a graduate of the cadet corps, midshipman Semyon Veliky, also took part.

After the battle on June 22, 1790, the Great Officer was sent with a report to the Empress. So Catherine II met with her grown grandson. It is not known for certain whether the 18-year-old officer knew the truth about his origin.

A few days after this meeting, Catherine promoted Semyon the Great to lieutenant commander of the fleet.

Semyon the Great served in the Russian fleet for another three years, until on October 17, 1793, the Admiralty Board issued a decree to send a group of officers to the Russian envoy in London, Count Vorontsov, for subsequent entry into the English fleet. Among the seconded was the illegitimate son of the heir to the throne.

Semyon instead of Alexander

For Semyon the Great, this business trip became fatal. On August 13, 1794, the English ship Vanguard was caught in a severe storm in the Antilles region and was shipwrecked. Among those who went missing was the Russian officer Semyon Veliky.

The sea did not give up his body, and this gave rise to new rumors and versions.

According to one of them, perhaps the most fascinating, Semyon did not drown, but returned safely to Russia, where he met his father. Pavel was struck by the resemblance of Semyon to his eldest legitimate son Alexander.

Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich. Photo: Public Domain

Since Pavel hated Alexander, raised by his grandmother, he allegedly carried out a combination - having organized the secret murder of the heir, he replaced him with Semyon. As a result, not Alexander came to power in 1801, but Semyon, who spoke under his name, lived all his life under the weight of guilt from what had happened.

In reality, everything, of course, is not so bright and colorful. The life of another Russian bastard, born at the behest of his crowned grandmother, turned out to be short and tragic.

Paul hardly remembered the firstborn. After the death of the first wife, who died during childbirth, in a second marriage with Maria Fedorovna he produced as many as four heirs for the Russian throne, not counting six girls.

As for Sofia Czartoryzhskaya-Razumovskaya, Semyon remained her only son. The reason for this was her illness, for which she was almost continuously treated abroad. Having survived both Semyon and Paul I, Countess Razumovskaya died in St. Petersburg on September 26, 1803 and was buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.