During his reign, Paul the First did not execute anyone

Historical science has not yet known such a large-scale falsification as an assessment of the personality and activities of the Russian Emperor Paul the First. After all, what is there Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Stalin, around whom polemical spears are now basically breaking! No matter how you argue, "objectively" or "non-objectively" they killed their enemies, they still killed them. And Paul the First did not execute anyone during his reign.

He ruled more humanely than his mother Catherine II, especially in relation to ordinary people. Why is he a "crowned villain," as Pushkin puts it? Because, without hesitation, he fired negligent bosses and even expelled them from St. Petersburg (about 400 people in total)? Yes, many of us now dream of such a “crazy ruler”! Or why is he, in fact, "crazy"? Yeltsin, excuse me, sent some needs in public, and he was considered simply an ill-mannered "original".

Not a single decree or law of Paul the First contains signs of insanity - on the contrary, they are distinguished by reasonableness and clarity. For example, they put an end to the madness that was going on with the rules of succession to the throne after Peter the Great.

The 45-volume Complete Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, published in 1830, contains 2,248 documents of the Pavlovsk period (two and a half volumes), despite the fact that Paul reigned for only 1,582 days! Therefore, he issued 1-2 laws every day, and these were not grotesque reports about "Lieutenant Kizha", but serious acts that later became part of the "Complete Code of Laws"! Here's "crazy" for you!

It was Paul I who legally secured the dominant role of the Orthodox Church among other churches and confessions in Russia. In the legislative acts of Emperor Paul it is said: "The leading and dominant faith in the Russian Empire is the Christian Orthodox Catholic Eastern Confession", "The Emperor, who possesses the Throne of All Russia, cannot profess any other faith than the Orthodox." We will read approximately the same thing in the Spiritual Regulations of Peter I. These rules were strictly observed until 1917. Therefore, I would like to ask our adherents of “multiculturalism”: when did Russia manage to become “multi-confessional”, as you tell us now? During the atheistic period 1917-1991? Or after 1991, when the Catholic-Protestant Baltic States and the Muslim republics of Central Asia "fell off" from the country?

Many Orthodox historians are wary of the fact that Paul was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1798-1801), regarding this order as a "paramasonic structure".

But it was precisely one of the then main Masonic powers, England, that overthrew Paul's power in Malta, occupying the island on September 5, 1800. This at least suggests that Paul was not recognized in the English Masonic hierarchy (the so-called "Scottish Rite") his. Maybe Paul was "one of his own" in the French Masonic "Great East" if he wanted to "make friends" with Napoleon? But this happened precisely after the capture of Malta by the British, and before that Paul fought with Napoleon. One must also understand that the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta was required by Paul I not only for self-affirmation in the company of European monarchs. In the calendar of the Academy of Sciences, according to his instructions, the island of Malta was to be designated as the "province Russian Empire". Pavel wanted to make the title of grandmaster hereditary, and to annex Malta to Russia. On the island, he planned to create a naval base to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean Sea and in southern Europe.

Finally, Paul is known to have favored the Jesuits. This is also blamed on him by some Orthodox historians in the context of the complex relationship between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. But there is also a specific historical context. In 1800, it was the Jesuit Order that was considered the main ideological enemy of Freemasonry in Europe. So the Freemasons could in no way welcome the legalization of the Jesuits in Russia and treat Paul I as a Freemason.

THEM. Muravyov-Apostol repeatedly spoke to his children, future Decembrists, “about the enormity of the coup that took place with the accession of Paul the First to the throne - a coup so sharp that descendants would not understand it,” and General Yermolov argued that “the late emperor had great features , its historical character has not yet been determined with us.

For the first time since the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, serfs also take the oath to the new tsar, which means that they are considered subjects, not slaves. The corvée is limited to three days a week with the provision of days off on Sundays and holidays, and since there are many Orthodox holidays in Russia, this was a great relief for the working people. Paul the First forbade the sale of courtyards and serfs without land, as well as separately if they were from the same family.

As in the time of Ivan the Terrible, a yellow box is installed in one of the windows of the Winter Palace, where everyone can drop a letter or petition addressed to the sovereign. Pavel himself had the key to the room with the box, and every morning he himself read the requests of his subjects and printed the answers in the newspapers.

“Emperor Paul had a sincere and firm desire to do good,” A. Kotzebue wrote. - Before him, as before the kindest sovereign, the poor and the rich, the nobleman and the peasant, all were equal. Woe to the mighty one who arrogantly oppressed the wretched. The road to the emperor was open to everyone; the title of his favorite did not protect anyone before him ... ” Of course, the nobles and the rich, who were accustomed to impunity and life for free, did not like this. “Only the lower classes of the urban population and the peasants love the Emperor,” testified the Prussian envoy in St. Petersburg, Count Brühl.

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

However, the best and good undertakings of the king were broken against a stone wall of indifference and even obvious hostility of his closest subjects, outwardly devoted and servile. Historians Gennady Obolensky in the book "Emperor Paul I" (M., 2001) and Alexander Bokhanov in the book "Paul the First" (M., 2010) convincingly prove that many of his orders were reinterpreted in a completely impossible and treacherous way, causing an increase in hidden dissatisfaction with the king . “You know what my heart is, but you don’t know what kind of people they are,” Pavel Petrovich wrote bitterly in one of his letters about his entourage.

And these people meanly killed him, 117 years before the murder of the last Russian sovereign - Nicholas II. These events are certainly connected, the terrible crime of 1801 predetermined the fate of the Romanov dynasty.

Decembrist A.V. Poggio wrote (by the way, it is curious that many objective testimonies about Paul belong to the Decembrists): “... a drunken, violent crowd of conspirators rushes in to him and disgustingly, without the slightest civilian purpose, drags him, strangles, beats ... and kills him! Having committed one crime, they completed it with another, even more terrible. They frightened, captivated the son himself, and this unfortunate one, having bought a crown with such blood, will languish, abhor and involuntarily prepare an outcome unhappy for himself, for us, for Nicholas throughout his reign.

But I would not, as many admirers of Paul do, directly contrast the reigns of Catherine the Second and Paul the First. Of course, the moral character of Paul in better side differed from the moral image of the loving empress, but the fact is that her favoritism was, among other things, a method of government, far from always ineffective. Catherine needed favorites not only for carnal pleasures. Favored by the empress, they worked hard, God forbid, especially A. Orlov and G. Potemkin. The intimate closeness of the empress and favorites was a certain degree of trust in them, a kind of initiation, or something. Of course, there were idlers and typical gigolos like Lansky and Zubov next to her, but they appeared already in last years Catherine's life, when she somewhat lost her grasp of reality ...

Another thing is the position of Paul as heir to the throne under the system of favoritism. A. Bokhanov writes: in November 1781, “the Austrian Emperor (1765-1790) Joseph II arranged a magnificent meeting (for Paul. - A. B. ), and in a series of ceremonial events, the play "Hamlet" was scheduled at the court. Then the following happened: the leading actor Brockman refused to play the main role, because, according to him, "there will be two Hamlets in the hall." The emperor was grateful to the actor for his wise warning and rewarded him with 50 ducats. Paul did not see Hamlet; it remained unclear whether he knew this tragedy of Shakespeare, the external plot of which was extremely reminiscent of his own fate.

And the diplomat and historian S.S. Tatishchev spoke to the famous Russian publisher and journalist A.S. Suvorin: "Pavel was Hamlet in part, at least his position was Hamletian," Hamlet "was banned under Catherine II", after which Suvorin concluded: "Indeed, it is very similar. The only difference is that instead of Claudius, Catherine had Orlov and others…”. (If we consider the young Pavel Hamlet, and Alexei Orlov, who killed Paul's father Peter III, Claudius, then the unfortunate Peter will be in the role of Hamlet's father, and Catherine herself will be in the role of Hamlet's mother Gertrude, who married the murderer of her first husband).

Paul's position under Catherine was indeed Hamletian. After the birth of his eldest son Alexander, the future Emperor Alexander I, Catherine considered the possibility of transferring the throne to her beloved grandson, bypassing her unloved son.

Paul's fears in such a development of events were strengthened by the early marriage of Alexander, after which, according to tradition, the monarch was considered an adult. On August 14, 1792, Catherine II wrote to her correspondent, Baron Grimm: “First, my Alexander will marry, and there, in time, he will be crowned with all kinds of ceremonies, celebrations and folk festivals.” Apparently, therefore, Pavel defiantly ignored the celebrations on the occasion of the marriage of his son.

On the eve of Catherine's death, the courtiers were waiting for the publication of a manifesto on the removal of Paul, his imprisonment in the Estonian castle of Lod and the proclamation of Alexander's heir. It is widely believed that while Pavel was waiting for his arrest, Catherine's manifesto (testament) personally destroyed the cabinet-secretary of A. A. Bezborodko, which allowed him to receive the highest rank of chancellor under the new emperor.

Having ascended the throne, Pavel solemnly transferred the ashes of his father from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral simultaneously with the burial of Catherine II. At the funeral ceremony, depicted in detail on a long picture-tape by an unknown (apparently Italian) artist, the regalia of Peter III - the royal baton, scepter and large imperial crown - were carried by ... regicides - Count A.F. Orlov, Prince P.B. Baryatinsky and P.B. Passek. In the cathedral, Paul personally performed the ceremony of crowning the ashes of Peter III (only crowned persons were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral). In the headstones of the tombstones of Peter III and Catherine II, the same date of burial was carved - December 18, 1796, which is why the uninitiated may get the impression that they lived together for many years and died on the same day.

Invented in Hamlet style!

In the book by Andrei Rossomahin and Denis Khrustalev "The Challenge of Emperor Paul, or the First Myth of the 19th Century" (St. Petersburg, 2011), for the first time, another "Hamlet" act of Paul I is examined in detail: a challenge to a duel that the Russian emperor sent to all the monarchs of Europe as an alternative to wars in which tens and hundreds of thousands of people die. (This, by the way, is exactly what L. Tolstoy rhetorically suggested in War and Peace, who himself did not favor Paul the First: they say, let emperors and kings personally fight instead of destroying their subjects in wars).

What was perceived by contemporaries and descendants as a sign of "madness" is shown by Rossomahin and Khrustalev as a subtle game of the "Russian Hamlet" that broke off during the palace coup.

Also, for the first time, evidence of the “English trace” of the conspiracy against Paul is convincingly presented: for example, the book reproduces in color English satirical engravings and caricatures of Paul, the number of which increased precisely in the last three months of the emperor’s life, when preparations began for the conclusion of a military-strategic alliance between Paul and Paul. Napoleon Bonaparte. As you know, shortly before the assassination, Pavel ordered an entire army of Cossacks of the Don Cossacks (22,500 sabers) under the command of ataman Vasily Orlov to set out on a campaign agreed with Napoleon on India in order to "alarm" the English possessions. The task of the Cossacks was to conquer Khiva and Bukhara "in passing". Immediately after the death of Paul I, Orlov's detachment was withdrawn from the Astrakhan steppes, and negotiations with Napoleon were curtailed.

I am sure that the "Hamlet theme" in the life of Paul the First will still become the subject of attention of historical novelists. I think that there will also be a theater director who will stage Hamlet in a Russian historical interpretation, where, while maintaining the Shakespearean text, the action will take place in Russia at the end of the 18th century, and Tsarevich Pavel will act as Prince Hamlet, and as the ghost of Hamlet's father - the murdered Peter III, in the role of Claudius - Alexei Orlov, etc. Moreover, the episode with the performance played in Hamlet by the actors of a traveling theater can be replaced with an episode of the production of Hamlet in St. Petersburg by a foreign troupe, after which Catherine II and Orlov will ban the play . Of course, the real Tsarevich Pavel, finding himself in the position of Hamlet, outplayed everyone, but anyway, after 5 years, the fate of Shakespeare's hero was waiting for him ...

The reign of Catherine II was far from the darkest era in the history of Russia. Sometimes they are even called the "golden age", although the reign of the empress took less than half of the eighteenth century. Assuming the throne, she outlined the following tasks for herself, as for the Russian Empress:
« It is necessary to educate the nation, which must govern.
It is necessary to introduce good order in the state, to support society and force it to comply with the laws.
It is necessary to establish a good and accurate police force in the state.
It is necessary to promote the flourishing of the state and make it abundant.
It is necessary to make the state formidable in itself and inspire respect for its neighbors.
Every citizen must be brought up in the consciousness of his duty to the Supreme Being, to himself, to society, and he must be taught certain arts, without which he almost cannot do in everyday life.».
Catherine tried to pursue a policy of "enlightened absolutism", corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot. However, in practice, her liberal views were bizarrely combined with cruelty and increased serfdom. Serfdom, inhuman in its essence, was so convenient both for the empress herself and for the highest circles of society that it was perceived as something natural and unshakable. Even a slight indulgence for the peasants would affect the interests of all those on whom Catherine relied. Therefore, talking a lot about the welfare of the people, the empress not only did not alleviate the situation of the peasantry, but even worsened it by introducing discriminatory decrees, in particular, on the ban on peasants to complain about the landowners.
However, under the rule of Catherine II, Russia was changing. Reforms were carried out in the country, favorable conditions for entrepreneurship were created, new cities were built. Catherine established educational homes and women's institutes, opened public schools. She initiated the creation of the Academy of Russian Literature. Petersburg began to publish literary and artistic magazines. Medicine developed, pharmacies appeared. To stop the spread of epidemics, Catherine II was the first in the country to inoculate herself and her son with smallpox, setting an example for her subjects.

The foreign policy of Catherine and the major military victories of the commanders of Catherine's time raised Russia's prestige in the world. Through the efforts of P. A. Rumyantsev, A. V. Suvorov, F. F. Ushakov, Russia established itself on the Black Sea, annexed Taman, Crimea, Kuban, Western Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Belarusian lands to its possessions. The development of the distant outskirts of the Russian Empire continued. The Aleutian Islands were conquered; Russian settlers landed in Alaska.
Catherine had a strong character, knew how to influence people. IN. Klyuchevsky wrote: “Catherine's mind was not particularly subtle and deep, but flexible and cautious, quick-witted. She did not have any outstanding ability, one dominant talent that would give all the other powers, breaking the balance of the spirit. But she had one happy gift that made the strongest impression: memory, observation, ingenuity, a sense of position, the ability to quickly grasp and summarize all available data in order to choose the right tone in time.
Catherine II was a connoisseur of art: she encouraged artists and architects, collected a unique collection of art objects, representing a significant part of the Hermitage's treasures, and patronized theaters. She herself was gifted with literary abilities, she wrote comedies, librettos for comic operas, children's fairy tales, and historical compositions. The autobiographical "Notes" of the Empress serve as the most valuable source of study of the initial period of her reign.
There were legends about the courtly adventures of Catherine. She was very loving, although she was critical of her appearance: “To tell you the truth, I never considered myself extremely beautiful, but I liked it, and I think that was my strength”. With age, the empress gained weight, but did not lose her attractiveness. Possessing a passionate temperament, she retained the ability to be carried away by young men until old age. When another favorite swore in love and dedicated enthusiastic verses to her:

If you take the whitest ivory,
To cover with the thinnest color of roses,
That can be your most tender flesh
To portray yourself in beauty.., - the heart of the Empress trembled, and to herself she seemed to be a gentle nymph, worthy of the most sincere admiration.
Maybe her unhappy youth and memories of being married to an unloved person made her look for “joys of the heart”, or maybe she, like every woman, just needed love. loved one. And what to do if she had to look for this love in the society of men dependent on the royal favor? Not all of them were disinterested in this love...

It is known that she had illegitimate children from Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Among the favorites of the Empress in different time were: the future (and last) King of Poland Stanislav-August Poniatowski, officer Ivan Korsakov, horse guard Alexander Lanskoy, captain of the guard Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov ... In total, in the list of Catherine's obvious lovers, according to Secretary of State Alexander Vasilyevich Khrapovitsky, there were 17 " boys." The last favorite of the aging empress was the 22-year-old captain Platon Zubov, who was immediately granted the rank of colonel and appointed adjutant wing. After meeting with Zubov, Catherine confessed in a letter to Georgy Potemkin, who preserved her friendship: “I came back to life like a fly after hibernation… I am cheerful and healthy again”.
With such a diverse and very intense activity, Catherine had almost no time to communicate with her son Pavel. Having ascended the throne, she from afar monitored the upbringing of the boy, which was done by strangers, and regularly communicated with Count Nikita Panin, chief chamberlain in the presence of the young Grand Duke and his main teacher, in order to keep abreast of the news. But the love that she could not give to her son when there were artificial barriers between them, now, when these barriers collapsed, was no longer found in her soul.

Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Pavel's tutor and chief adviser

The boy was tormented by severe headaches, which could not but affect the state of his nervous system, but his mother practically did not pay attention to such “little things”. Meanwhile, Paul himself adolescence I learned to understand my own condition and take measures to alleviate it. One of the teachers of the Grand Duke, Semyon Poroshin, left the following testimony: “His Highness woke up at six o’clock, complained of a headache and stayed in bed until ten ... Later we talked with him about the classification that the Grand Duke made for his migraines. He distinguished four migraines: circular, flat, common, and crushing. "Circular" is the name he gave to the pain in the back of the head; "flat" - the one that caused pain in the forehead; a "common" migraine is mild pain; and "crushing" - when the whole head ached badly.
How the poor fellow needed at such moments the attention and help of his mother! But Catherine was always busy, and the courtiers surrounding Paul turned out to be too indifferent even to the “crushing” headaches of the heir ...
The Empress and the Grand Duke were, first of all, prominent figures on the political scene, and then mother and son. Moreover, the mother, without special right, took the throne and was not going to release him. Sooner or later, the heir-tsarevich could remember his own rights to power. From this perspective, many contemporaries considered everything that happened in the royal family and looked for the germs of a future conflict. Sir George McCartney, who had been the English envoy in St. Petersburg since 1765, informed London: “Now everything shows that the Empress sits firmly on the throne; I am convinced that her government will hold out without change for at least a few years, but it is impossible to foresee what will happen when the Grand Duke approaches maturity.... The fact that the Grand Duke, having matured, would not want to settle scores with his mother, seemed to European politicians simply unbelievable. They expected a new coup d'état in Russia.

Paul was far from such thoughts. Growing up, he was drawn to his mother, listened to her advice, meekly carried out her orders. In the early 1770s, those close to him were sure that the relationship between mother and son would finally improve and become kindred cordial. Catherine, who celebrated the anniversary of Paul's accession to the throne and the name day of Paul in Tsarskoe Selo in the summer of 1772, wrote to her foreign friend Madame Bjölke: “We have never enjoyed Tsarskoye Selo more than during the nine weeks that I spent with my son. He becomes a handsome boy. In the morning we had breakfast in a nice saloon by the lake; then, laughing, they dispersed. Everyone went about their own business, then we dined together; at six o'clock they took a walk or attended a performance, and in the evening they arranged tram-rams - to the delight of all the violent brethren who surrounded me and which was quite a lot.
This idyll, like the tender friendship between mother and son, was spoiled by the unpleasant news of an officer conspiracy in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. The aim of the conspirators was the removal of Catherine from power and the enthronement of Paul. The plot was not well prepared; in general, it was more like a child's game ... But the empress was shocked. The Prussian envoy Count Solms described this event in a letter to Frederick II: “A few young rowdy nobles… got bored with their existence. Imagining that the shortest way to the zenith would be the organization of the revolution, they drew up an absurd plan for the enthronement of the Grand Duke.
Catherine, who knew from her own experience that the most ridiculous conspiracy of several guards officers in Russia could lead to unpredictable consequences, thought about the strength of her power and that a competitor was growing up in the face of Pavel. The same Count Solms noticed that the relations between the Empress and her son were not so sincere: “I can’t believe that this demonstrative adoration does not contain some pretense - at least on the part of the Empress, especially when discussing the topic of the Grand Duke with us, foreigners”.

Peter III, father of Paul, deposed by Catherine II and subsequently killed

On September 20, 1772, Grand Duke Paul turned eighteen years old. The birthday of the heir was not celebrated magnificently (Catherine, with all her love for celebrations, did not want once again emphasize that the son "come of age"), and the celebration went completely unnoticed in court circles. Pavel received one important gift - the right to manage his hereditary estates in Holstein. His father, Peter III, was the son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and now Paul entered into the right of inheritance in a straight line. Catherine delivered a speech to her son about the rights and duties of sovereigns in the lands subject to them, although the ceremony was held privately and, apart from the Empress, the Grand Duke and Count Panin, only two people were present.
However, Paul's joy was premature - he could not rule even in his tiny state. A year later, in the autumn of 1773, Catherine transferred the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp to Denmark, depriving her son of power in these lands. But in the soul of the empress, various feelings fought, the son remained a son, and she considered the arrangement of Paul's personal fate to be a necessary matter for herself ...

Tsarskoye Selo. Walk of Catherine II

Pavel, whose education began at the age of four, did not lose his taste for learning over time, loved to read, spoke fluently several languages. foreign languages and demonstrated special talents in the exact sciences. Semyon Andreevich Poroshin, who taught mathematics to the heir to the throne, spoke of his student as follows: “If His Highness were a particular person and could completely indulge in mathematical teaching alone, then, in terms of his sharpness, he could very conveniently be our Russian Pascal.”
But Catherine was worried about something else. Since Pavel was fourteen years old, his mother had been thinking that in time the heir would have to be married. Being a pedantic person, she could not let things take their course, and decided to pick up a bride for her son herself. To do this, it was necessary to get to know better those princesses who in the future could enter the family of the Russian Empress. However, the frequent visits of the Russian empress to the courts of foreign monarchs would have caused great commotion in Europe. A reliable person was needed who would conduct the initial study of the dynastic "fair of brides." And such a person was found. The diplomat Asseburg, who for many years served as the envoy of the Danish king in Russia, lost his post as a result of political intrigues and offered his services to the Russian court.
Achatz Ferdinand Asseburg managed to visit different countries, where he acquired useful contacts at the royal and ducal courts. Catherine gave the retired diplomat a delicate assignment - under a worthy pretext, to visit the European sovereign houses, in which there were young princesses, and take a closer look at potential brides. Having received the rank of real Privy Councilor and a considerable amount for travel and entertainment expenses, the agent of the Empress enthusiastically set to work. True, Mr. Asseburg was one of the “servants of two masters” and on his journey he simultaneously carried out the orders not only of the Russian Empress, but also of King Frederick of Prussia.

King Frederick of Prussia, nicknamed the Great

Frederick the Great, who was above all a great intriguer, saw his political interest in the marriage of the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire. How nice it would be to introduce an agent of influence into the highest court circles of Russia under the guise of the wife of the heir! The story of Catherine II (who once, when she was the bride of the Russian Tsarevich, Frederick, was assigned a similar role) did not teach him anything. Mr Asseburg, “a foreign snake that Russia warmed on its chest”(according to the figurative expression of one of the experts on the issue), in choosing a bride for Paul, he was primarily guided by instructions received from the Prussian king. But for Catherine, it was necessary to create the appearance of the "breadth of coverage" of the marriage market and get acquainted with the largest possible number of princesses, so that Asseburg's reports on the labors of the righteous would not cause claims in Russia.
One of the first places he went on his secret mission was the home of Prince Friedrich Eugene of Württemberg. It was a formal visit - Friedrich Eugene, having two older brothers, at that time could not even count on the title of duke, served for a salary in the army of the Prussian king and commanded a garrison in the provincial Stettin. He had twelve children, and the descendant of a noble ducal family had to lead the life of a poor provincial officer, burdened with a large family, debts and, at the same time, overly busy drilling on the garrison parade ground. No one could have imagined that Friedrich Eugene was destined to outlive his brothers, who claimed the ducal crown, and become the Duke of Württemberg himself, entering the circle of European monarchs on an equal footing.

Princess Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg (future second wife of Pavel Petrovich) in childhood

The secret ambassador of Catherine, being in the house of the future duke in Treptow near Stettin, nevertheless looked closely at the daughters of the family. And little Sophia Dorothea completely won his heart. Contrary to his own plans and, most importantly, the plans of his high patron, the Prussian king, Asseburg sent an enthusiastic report to Russia, appreciating the makings of a nine-year-old girl who promised to turn into a real beauty. But his path lay in another house - the castle of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, whose daughter Wilhelmina, in the opinion of the Prussian king, was much more suitable for the role of the bride of Tsarevich Paul. King Friedrich Asseburg was instructed to convince Empress Catherine at any cost that girls could not be better than Wilhelmina of Hesse. But the matter had to be done subtly and diplomatically so that Catherine II would not suspect that she was being manipulated.
For three years, Mr. Asseburg traveled to the capitals of European states, visited the houses of representatives of noble dynasties and looked closely at the little princesses - how they grow, what they get sick with, how much they managed to get prettier and smarter. He asked people close to the court about the characters and inclinations of the girls, regularly sending reports to Russia. The Empress was sent not only descriptions, but also portraits of those princesses who drew special attention to themselves. former diplomat. The image of Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt was the main one in the collection, but the portrait of Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg also found a place in it.
Catherine, in spite of all the arguments of her messenger, leaned rather in favor of Sophia Dorothea. She even thought that the little princess should be invited to the Russian court, while she was still small and able to easily learn new things. The girl will have the best teachers, she will be brought up in the Russian spirit, in love for Russia and the Orthodox faith, and most importantly, she will be helped to get rid of the miserable habits of her parents' poor house and sympathy for everything Prussian. That's when Sophia Dorothea in the future will be able to become a worthy wife of the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire. True, the empress did not want to receive the numerous relatives of the princess at her court - the invitation could only be addressed to Sophia Dorothea. In May 1771 Catherine wrote to Asseburg: I return to my favorite Princess of Württemberg, who will be twelve next October. Her doctor's opinion of her health and strong constitution draws me to her. She also has a disadvantage, namely the fact that she has eleven brothers and sisters.…»

Mother of Sophie Dorothea, Duchess Frederick of Württemberg

The cunning diplomat, at the instigation of Frederick of Prussia, did everything to ensure that the arrival of the Princess of Württemberg in St. Petersburg did not take place. It was impossible to invite a little girl without relatives, and Catherine did not want friendly contacts with them and, moreover, their long stay in Russia. Assebourg described the habits of the little princess's parents as "philistine", and their estate in Montbéliard, on the border with France, as extremely wretched. Catherine was not surprised. For her, who knew the German dukes and kings well, it was no secret that the girl’s grandfather, the sovereign Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg, had a penchant for riotous life and managed to squander more than a million thalers over the three years of his reign, devastating the already poor treasury of the duchy and completely undermined the well-being of the family. So what do you want to do with these Württemberg? Invite another company of beggars to St. Petersburg, who will eagerly look into her hands? No, it's useless! Catherine and her relatives did not attach; even her own brother, Prince Wilhelm Christian Friedrich of Anhalt-Zerbst received neither an invitation to move to Russia, nor help, nor even significant gifts, after his sister became the empress of the largest empire in the world. He vegetated like an ordinary general in the service of the King of Prussia.
Contrary to gossip, the father of Princess Sophie Dorothea of ​​Württemberg did everything to give his children a decent life and a decent education. For children near Montbéliard, in the picturesque place of Etupe, magnificent parks and gardens were laid out with rose gazebos, bamboo bridges and the Temple of Flora - a pavilion richly decorated with plants in honor of the goddess of flowers. Princesses were taught music, singing, painting, stone carving, and most importantly, the ability to understand and appreciate beauty. True, the parks required maintenance, and the duke could not afford to keep a large staff of gardeners. Therefore, the duke himself, and his wife, the daughter of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwerin, and their children themselves were engaged in decorative gardening - they dug the earth, planted flowers and looked after them according to all the rules of science. Sophia Dorothea from childhood knew well botany and the basics of agronomic rules, applying them in practice. Each of the children was assigned a section of the park, and Sophia Dorothea, who was distinguished by such a rare quality for a princess as diligence, was considered the main assistant to her father, and her garden surpassed in beauty everything that the other children of the duke managed to grow.

Montbéliard

People who knew Princess Sophia Dorothea noted not only her intelligence, but also her extraordinary kindness. She often visited the poor and the sick, took care of the orphans. Thinking about the future, she wrote: “I will become very frugal, without, however, being stingy, because I think that stinginess is the most terrible vice for a young person, it is the source of all vices.».
In Russia, the desire of a potential bride of the heir to be "very economical" it was perceived rather as a disadvantage ... Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt, who did not think about saving, seemed preferable, besides, she was older, and therefore more suitable for a bride. Asseburg's policy bore fruit. After a whole year of reflection, Catherine wrote to Count Nikita Panin: “I despair of seeing the Princess of Württemberg, because it is impossible to show here the father and mother in the state in which, according to Asseburg’s report, they are: this would mean putting the girl in an indelibly ridiculous position from the very first step; and then, she is only 13 years old, and then another blowjob in eight days ”.
The rest of the brides, for one reason or another, did not suit the Russian Empress at all. Willy-nilly, Catherine had to choose Princess Wilhelmina, although she did not feel much sympathy for the girl. “The Princess of Darmstadt is described to me, especially from the kindness of her heart, as the perfection of nature, but besides the fact that perfection, as I know, does not exist in the world, you say that she has a reckless mind, prone to contention, she wrote to Asseburg not without irony. “This, combined with the mind of her sir-priest and with a large number of sisters and brothers, some already attached, and some still waiting to be attached, prompts me to be careful in this regard ... "

Coat of arms of the Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt on the palace in Darmstadt

The Russian Empress did not hide from the interested participation of King Frederick in choosing a bride for Paul. Nevertheless, she invited Wilhelmina and her three sisters, along with their mother, Caroline, Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt, to the bride in St. Petersburg. Princesses from this family were given an equal chance to win the heart of the heir to the Russian throne. At the beginning of October 1772, the Empress wrote to Count Panin: “... The Landgravine, thank God, has three more marriageable daughters; let's ask her to come here with this swarm of daughters... Let's look at them, and then decide... which he likes could hardly please us. In his opinion, those who are more stupid are better: I saw and knew those chosen by him..
While the empress was occupied with the personal problems of her son, and even her own (she just changed her intimate friend Grigory Orlov, convicted of treason, for a new favorite, the young prince Alexander Vasilchikov, which cost her mental confusion and tears), problems of a different kind were ripening in the Urals . A certain Cossack named Emelyan Pugachev declared himself Tsar Peter III, who miraculously escaped the conspirators, wandered in a foreign land and now returned to Russia to restore justice. Dissatisfied with life, Cossacks, deserter soldiers, fugitive peasants, Old Believers and other people offended during the reign of Catherine began to gather under his hand.

Catherine at first did not know about the looming danger - the local authorities believed that they themselves could easily cope with the rebels. This was not the first case of imposture - by the time the "sovereign" Pugachev appeared, there were already nine imaginary kings Petrov III, "defenders of the people from the German she-devil", and all of them were either killed or went to Siberia in shackles ... But unlike his predecessors, Pugachev turned out to be too smart and strong opponent, who was clearly underestimated.
Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, where Princess Wilhelmina and her sisters were supposed to be brought, preparations for the bride were in full swing. Catherine decided to generously pay the Hessian ladies for travel expenses, and even provided them with funds to adjust their wardrobe - they, the poor things, should not be messy to the luxurious Russian court.

Princess Augusta Wilhelmina Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt (Mimi)

The Hessian family from Russia received 80,000 “lifting” guilders, and at the beginning of June 1773, the princesses, together with their mother and brother Ludwig, set off. Three Russian frigates were sent from St. Petersburg to Lübeck for them. Among the nobles of the honorary escort was the young Count Andrei Razumovsky (nephew of the beloved and secret spouse of the late Empress Elizabeth Petrovna Alexei Razumovsky). From the time of the reign of Elizabeth, the Razumovskys occupied a prominent place at court, and Paul considered Count Andrei, who grew up with the heir, a friend and simply idolized. The Tsarevich was under the influence of the young count for a long time, although by nature from his youth he was not inclined to trust people. In one of his letters to Razumovsky, Pavel confessed: “Your friendship has produced a miracle in me: I am beginning to renounce my former suspicion. But you are fighting against a ten-year habit and overcoming what timidity and ordinary shyness have ingrained in me. Now I have made it a rule for myself to live in harmony with everyone as much as possible. Away with chimeras, away with anxious worries! Behavior even and consistent with the circumstances - that's my plan. I restrain my liveliness as much as I can: daily I choose objects in order to make my mind work and develop my thoughts, and I draw a little from books.

Count Andrei Razumovsky

Considering Count Andrei to be such a close person that he would not betray, Pavel allowed himself to be completely frank with him, even talking about the mother empress. Indignant at Catherine's desire for everyone to always and unquestioningly obey her will, Paul reasoned: “This misfortune very often befalls monarchs in their private lives; exalted above that sphere where other people must be reckoned with, they imagine that they have the right to constantly think about their pleasures and do whatever they like, and do not restrain their desires and whims and force others to obey them; but these others, having eyes for their part to see, having, moreover, a will of their own, can never, out of a sense of obedience, become so blind as to lose the ability to distinguish that will is will, and whim is whim ... "(Needless to say, this young man had amazing inclinations and he promised to become a wise ruler; how long it took to break his character so that the reign of Pavel Petrovich turned out to be one of the most unhappy in the history of Russia!).
Such frankness could cost the heir to the throne dearly if the letter came into the eyes of the empress. However, Andrei Razumovsky did not betray his friend in this case. But when he saw Pavel's possible bride, Princess Wilhelmina, Andrei found her pretty and considered it necessary to flirt. In the end, the issue of the Tsarevich's marriage had not yet been finally resolved, so the conscience did not prevent the young count from giving free rein to his heart.
Upon arrival in Revel (Tallinn), the Hessian family continued their journey to the capital of Russia by land. The mutual interest of Princess Wilhelmina, or Mimi, as her relatives called her, and Andrei Razumovsky not only did not go out, but continued to grow ...
The romance of Mimi and Andrey broke out even before their arrival in St. Petersburg.

Russian Hamlet was called the contemporaries of Paul I.

Pavel Petrovich was born on September 20 (October 1), 1754, in the family of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (future Peter III) and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (future Catherine II). The place of his birth was the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg.

Portrait by G. H. Groth. Peter III Fedorovich (Karl Peter Ulrich) The State Tretyakov Gallery

Louis Caravaca. Portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (Sophia Augusta Frederick of Anhalt-Zerbst). 1745. Portrait gallery of the Gatchina Palace

Pavel Petrovich's childhood began here

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. 18th century engraving

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna expressed her goodwill towards the mother of the newborn by the fact that after the christening she herself brought her on a golden platter the decree of the cabinet on the issuance of 100,000 rubles to her. After the baptism at the court, a series of solemn holidays began on the occasion of the birth of Paul: balls, masquerades, fireworks lasted about a year. Lomonosov, in an ode written in honor of Pavel Petrovich, wished him to compare in business with his great great-grandfather, prophesied that he would liberate the Holy Places, step over the walls separating Russia from China.

***
Whose son was he?
Since 1744, Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov was at the small court as a chamberlain of the Grand Duke and heir to the throne, Peter Fedorovich.
Why, then, in 1752, chamberlain Sergei Vasilyevich suddenly began to enjoy success with the wife of the heir to the Russian throne? What happened then at the Russian court?

By 1752, the patience of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna snapped, who had long and unsuccessfully waited for an heir from the grand ducal couple. She kept Catherine under vigilant supervision, but now she has changed tactics. The Grand Duchess was granted some freedom, of course, with a known purpose. A medical fuss was organized around Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, and rumors began to spread about his resolution from forced celibacy. Saltykov, who himself participated in both the fuss and the spread of rumors, was quite well aware of the real situation, he decided that his hour had come.

According to one version, he was the father of the future Emperor Paul I

Portrait of S. V. Saltykov
When Catherine II gave birth to Paul, Bestuzhev-Ryumin reported to the Empress:
« ... that what was inscribed, according to the wise consideration of Your Majesty, took on a good and desirable beginning, - the presence of the executor of Your Majesty's highest will is now not only not necessary here, but even to achieve an all-perfect fulfillment and concealment for eternity of mystery would be harmful. With respect for these considerations, kindly, most merciful empress, order Chamberlain Saltykov to be Your Majesty's ambassador in Stockholm, under the King of Sweden.

Catherine II herself contributed to Saltykov's fame as "the first lover"; she, of course, counted on the domestic use of this image and did not want to spread such fame to a wider sphere. But the genie could not be kept in the lamp, a scandal erupted.

On the way to his destination, Saltykov was honored in Warsaw, warmly and cordially greeted in the homeland of Catherine II - in Zerbst. For this reason, rumors about his paternity grew stronger and spread throughout Europe. On July 22, 1762, two weeks after Catherine II came to power, she appointed Saltykov as Russian ambassador to Paris, and this was taken as confirmation of his closeness to her.

After Paris, Saltykov was sent to Dresden. Deserving from Catherine II the unflattering description of the "fifth wheel of the carriage." He never again appeared at court and died in almost total obscurity. He died in Moscow with the rank of major general in late 1784 or early 1785.

And now about one more legend about the birth of Tsarevich Paul.

She was resurrected in 1970 by the historian and writer N. Ya. Eidelman, who published in the journal “ New world» Historical essay "Reverse Providence". Having studied the evidence about the circumstances of the birth of Pavel Petrovich, Eidelman does not exclude that Catherine II gave birth to a dead child, but this was kept secret, replacing him with another newborn, Chukhonian, that is, Finnish, a boy born in the village of Kotly near Oranienbaum. The parents of this boy, the family of the local pastor and all the inhabitants of the village (about twenty people) were sent under strict guard to Kamchatka, and the village of Kotly was demolished, and the place on which it stood was plowed up.

Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of Emperor Paul I as a child. 1761 Russian Museum

To this day no one knows whose son he is. Russian historian G.I. Chulkov in the book "Emperors: Psychological Portraits" wrote:
"He himself was convinced that Peter III was indeed his father. "

Surely, in early childhood, Paul heard gossip about his birth. So, he also knew that the most different people considered him "illegitimate". It left an indelible mark on his soul.

***
Empress Elizabeth loved her great-nephew, she visited the baby twice a day, sometimes got out of bed at night and came to watch the future emperor.

And immediately after birth, she tore him from his parents. She herself began to lead the upbringing of the newborn.
The Empress surrounded her great-nephew with maids of honor, nannies and wet nurses, the boy got used to female affection.
Pavel liked to play with soldiers, firing cannons and models of warships.

Porcelain soldiers. Meissen model guns on a field gun carriage from

porcelain manufactory. Model J. Kendler collection of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich

Such a gun was an exact copy of a real one and could fire both small cannonballs (buckshot bullets were used for this) and produce blank shots, i.e. shoot with ordinary gunpowder. Naturally, these amusements of the little Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich took place under the watchful eye of both educators and a specially appointed batman from the artillery team.
(Napoleon also played such soldiers with his son and nephews, and the composer Johannes Brahms simply adored this activity. Our famous compatriot A.V. Suvorov also loved this game very much)

Pavel enjoyed the company of peers, of which Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin, Panin's nephew, and Count Andrei Kirillovich Razumovsky enjoyed his special disposition. It was with them that Pavel played with soldiers.

A.K. Razumovsky L. Guttenbrunn. Portrait of A.B. Kurakina
At the age of 4, he was taught to read and write.
As a child, Pavel had three Russian teachers who took care of his education and upbringing - Fedor Bekhteev, Semyon Poroshin and Nikita Panin.

F. Bekhteev - the first tutor of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna punished "pupil of the "women's chamber" suggest that he is a future man and King ..». Immediately upon arrival, he began to teach Pavel to read Russian and French in a very original alphabet.
During his studies, Bekhteev began to apply a special method that combined fun with learning, and quickly taught the Grand Duke to read and arithmetic with the help of toy soldiers and a folding fortress.
F. Bekhteev gave the prince a map Russian state with the inscription: “Here you see, sovereign, the inheritance that your glorious grandfathers spread with victories.”
Under Bekhteev, the first textbook, specially compiled for Pavel, “A Brief Concept of Physics for Use by His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich” was printed (St. Petersburg, 1760).

Semyon Andreevich Poroshin - the second educator of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, in the period 1762-1766, i.e. when Paul was 7-11 years old. Since 1762 he has been a permanent knight under Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. Poroshin treated the Grand Duke with the loving warmth of his older brother (he was 13 years older than Paul), took care of the development in him spiritual qualities and hearts and gained more and more influence over him; the Grand Duke, in turn, was on friendly terms with him.

And in 1760, when Paul was 6 years old, the empress appointed a chamberlain Nikita Ivanovich Panin chief chamberlain (mentor) under Paul. Panin was then forty-two years old. For some reason, he seemed to the little Tsarevich a gloomy and terrible old man.

Paul rarely saw his parents.

On December 20, 1762, Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich was granted the rank of Admiral General by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna Russian fleet. His mentors in the difficult naval wisdom were I.L. Golenishchev-Kutuzov (father of the famous Russian commander), I.G. Chernyshev and G.G. Kushelev, who managed to instill in the heir a love for the fleet, which he retained for the rest of his life.

Delapier N.B. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich in an admiral's uniform.

When Paul was 7 years old,
Empress Elizaveta Petrovna died and he got the opportunity to constantly communicate with his parents. But Peter paid little attention to his son. Only once did he wander into his son's lesson and, after listening to his answer to the teacher's question, exclaimed not without pride:
"I see this rascal knows things better than we do."
As a token of his goodwill, he immediately granted Pavel the rank of corporal of the guard.

Pavel was a very sensitive boy, shuddering fearfully at any unexpected knock and quickly hid under the table. For several years now, a strange fear haunted Paul. It was difficult even for patient Panin to get used to Pavel's fears, to his constant tears at dinner.

The ghost of the strangled father, Peter III, stands before the eyes of little Pavel. He does not tell anyone about this memory of his. Pavel Petrovich matured early and at times even seemed like a little old man.

Peter III Fedorovich

Now the fate of Paul more and more resembled the fate of Hamlet. The father was overthrown by the mother from the throne and, with her consent, was killed. The murderers were not punished, but enjoyed all the benefits at court. In addition, the mental health of the unbalanced Paul resembled the madness of Hamlet.

Fate did not deprive Pavel Petrovich of the ability to science.
Here is a list of subjects mastered by him: history, geography, mathematics, astronomy, Russian and German languages, Latin, French, drawing, swordsmanship and, of course, Holy Scripture.

His teacher of the law was Father Platon (Levshin), one of the most educated people of his time, the future Metropolitan of Moscow. Metropolitan Platon, recalling the training of Paul, wrote that his
“The high pupil, fortunately, was always disposed to piety, and whether reasoning or conversation about God and faith was always pleasant to him.”

The education of the Tsarevich was the best one could get at that time.

Once in a history class, the teacher listed about 30 names of bad monarchs. At this time, five watermelons were brought into the room. Only one of them was good. Pavel Petrovich surprised everyone:
"Out of 30 rulers - not a single good one, and out of five watermelons - one is good."
The boy was humorous.

Pavel Petrovich read a lot.
Here is a list of books that the Grand Duke got acquainted with: works of French enlighteners: Montesquieu, Rousseau, D "Alembert, Helvetius, works of Roman classics, historical works of Western European authors, works of Cervantes, Boileau, La Fontaine. works of Voltaire, "The Adventures of Robinson" by D. Defoe , M. V. Lomonosov.

Pavel Petrovich knew a lot about literature and theater, but most of all he loved mathematics. Educator S.A. Poroshin spoke highly of the successes of Pavel Petrovich. He wrote in his Notes:
"If His Highness was a particular person and could completely indulge in mathematical teaching alone, then, in terms of his sharpness, he could very conveniently be our Russian Pascal"

Pavel Petrovich himself felt these abilities in himself. And as a gifted person, he could have an ordinary human desire to develop in himself those abilities to which his soul was drawn. But he couldn't do it. He was the heir. Instead of his favorite activities, he was forced to attend long dinners, dance at balls with ladies-in-waiting, and flirt with them. The atmosphere of almost outright debauchery in the palace oppressed him.

***
1768
Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich is 14 years old.

A well-known doctor who arrived from England inoculates Pavel Petrovich with smallpox. Before that, he conducts a detailed examination of Paul. Here is his conclusion:

"... I was glad to see that the Grand Duke was beautifully built, vigorous, strong and without any natural ailment. ... Pavel Petrovich ... is of medium height, has excellent facial features and is very well built ... he is very dexterous, affable, cheerful and very reasonable, which is not difficult to notice from his conversations, in which there is a lot of wit."

Vigilius Eriksen. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich. 1768 Museum, Sergiev Posad

His mother, Empress Catherine II, decided to replace Russian teachers with foreign ones.

The teachers were: Osterwald, Nicolai, Lafermière and Leveque. All of them were ardent supporters of the Prussian military doctrine. Pavel Petrovich fell in love with parades, like his father Peter III. Catherine called it military tomfoolery.

Alexander Benois. Parade under Paul I. 1907

Catherine the Great is to blame for the fact that her son did not receive a Russian military education- the best in Europe. And she didn't do it by accident. The Empress understood that Russian generals and officers knew their worth, they won military victories more than once. And visiting emperors and empresses, in order to maintain their influence in the country, need to lower this price by all means, including by invited foreign experts to train the crown princes.

Carl Ludwig Christinek. Portrait of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich in the costume of a holder of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. 1769

At this time, Nikita Ivanovich Panin, a zealous freemason, gave Paul mysterious manuscripts to read, including "The History of the Order of the Knights of Malta." And the Tsarevich caught fire with the theme of chivalry. The writings proved that the emperor should look after the welfare of the people, as a kind of spiritual leader. The emperor must be initiated. He is the anointed one. It is not the church that should lead him, but he the church. These crazy ideas mingled in Paul's unfortunate head with that childlike faith in God's providence, which he learned from infancy from Queen Elizabeth, mothers and nannies who once cherished him.

And so Paul began to dream of true autocracy, of a true kingdom for the good of the people.

***
1772
Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich came of age.

Some courtiers said that Catherine II should involve Pavel Petrovich in the management of the state. Pavel Petrovich himself told his mother about this! But Catherine II won the throne not to yield it to Paul. She decided to distract her son with marriage.

Catherine II began to look for a suitable daughter-in-law. Such that she would bind Russia by dynastic ties with the reigning houses of Europe, and at the same time be submissive and devoted to Catherine II.

Back in 1768, she instructed the Danish diplomat Asseburg to find a bride for the heir. Asseburg drew Catherine's attention to the Princess of Württemberg - Sophia - Dorothea - Augusta, who at that time was only ten years old. He was so captivated by her that he constantly wrote to Catherine II about her. But she was too young for her age.

Unknown artist. Portrait of Princess Sophia Dorothea Augusta Louise of Württemberg. 1770. Alexander Palace-Museum, Pushkin.

Asseburg sent a portrait of Louise of Saxe-Gotha to Catherine, but the proposed matchmaking did not take place. The princess and her mother were zealous Protestants and did not agree to convert to Orthodoxy.

Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Assenburg offered Princess Wilhelmina of Darmstadt to Catherine. He wrote:
"... the princess is described to me, especially from the kindness of the heart, as the perfection of nature; ... that she has a reckless mind prone to contention ..."

The King of Prussia Frederick II was very eager that the marriage of the Tsarevich with the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt took place. Catherine II was very unhappy with this and at the same time wished for the soonest end of the courtship of the Tsarevich.

She invited the Landgravine and her three daughters to Russia. These daughters: Amalia-Frederica - 18 years old; Wilhelmina - 17; Louise - 15 years old

Friederike Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt

Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt

Louise Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt

A Russian warship was sent for them. The empress sent 80,000 guilders to raise her. Asseburg accompanied the family. In June 1773 the family arrived in Lübeck. Three Russian frigates were waiting for them here. The princesses were placed on one of them, on the rest their retinue was located.

Catherine II wrote:
“My son from the first meeting fell in love with Princess Wilhelmina; I gave three days to the deadline to see if he hesitated, and since this princess is superior to her sisters in every respect ... the older one is very meek; the younger one seems to be very smart; in the middle, all the qualities we desire: her face is charming, her features are regular, she is affectionate, intelligent; I am very pleased with her, and my son is in love ... then on the fourth day I turned to the landgravine ... and she agreed ... "

Among the documents of the Ministry of Justice for more than a hundred years, the diary of the 19-year-old Grand Duke was kept in a sealed bag. In it, he recorded his experiences while waiting for the bride:
"..joy mixed with anxiety and awkwardness, who is and will be the friend of all life ... a source of bliss in the present and in the future "

***
1773

First marriage
On August 15, 1773, Princess Wilhelmina received holy anointing with the title and name of Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna.
On September 20, 1773, a solemn marriage took place in the Kazan Cathedral of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna. The groom is 19 years old, the bride is 18 years old.

Alexander Roslin. Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1776 State Hermitage Museum

The wedding celebrations lasted 12 days and ended with fireworks on the square near the Summer Palace.
Catherine's generosity was great. The Landgravine was presented with 100,000 rubles and, in addition, 20,000 rubles for expenses on the return trip. Each of the princesses received 50,000 rubles, each of the retinue received 3,000 rubles. Thanks to the graces of Catherine, the dowries of the princesses were secured.

Only one event overshadowed the wedding celebrations: as in Shakespeare's play, the shadow of the murdered father of Pavel Petrovich, Emperor Peter Fedorovich, appeared at the wedding. As soon as the reflections of the festive fireworks went out, the rebel Pugachev appeared, declaring himself Peter III.

Emelyan Pugachev. Ancient engraving.

The honeymoon of the young spouses was overshadowed by the anxieties of the peasant war.
But despite this, everyone in the family circle was happy. Pavel Petrovich was pleased with his wife. The young wife turned out to be an active person. She dispelled her husband's fears, took him on country walks, to ballet, arranged balls, created her own theater, in which she herself played in comedies and tragedies. In a word, the closed and unsociable Pavel came to life with a young wife, in whom he did not have a soul. Grand Duke never dared to change her.

Natalia Alekseevna did not feel love for her husband, but, using her influence, she tried to keep him away from everyone except a narrow circle of her friends. According to contemporaries, the Grand Duchess was a serious and ambitious woman, with a proud heart and a strong temper. They had been married for two years, but there was still no heir.

In 1776, the court of Empress Catherine was agitated: the long-awaited pregnancy of Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna was announced. On April 10, 1776, at four in the morning, the Grand Duchess began to experience the first pains. She had a doctor and a midwife with her. The contractions lasted for several days, and soon the doctors announced that the child was dead. Catherine II and Pavel were nearby.

The baby could not be born naturally, and the doctors did not use either obstetric forceps or caesarean section. The child died in the womb and infected the mother's body.
After five days of torment, at 5 am on April 15, 1776, Grand Duchess Natalia Alekseevna died.
The empress did not like Natalya Alekseevna, and the diplomats gossiped that she did not let the doctors save her daughter-in-law. The autopsy, however, showed that the woman in labor suffered from a defect that would have prevented her from giving birth to a child naturally, and that the medicine of the time was powerless to help her.
The funeral of Natalya Alekseevna took place on April 26 at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Paul could not find the strength to attend the ceremony.

Catherine wrote to Baron Grimm:
"I started by suggesting travel, changing places, and then I said: the dead cannot be resurrected, we must think about the living and go to Berlin for our treasure."
And then she found in the box of the deceased her love notes by Andrey Rozumovsky and handed them to her son.
And Pavel Petrovich quickly consoled himself.

***
1776
Second marriage

It had only been about three months of his widowhood!

Pavel Petrovich goes to Berlin to propose to the Princess of Württemberg Sophia-Dorotea-August. Throughout the journey, Paul wrote to his mother:
“I found my bride the way I could only wish myself mentally: not bad-looking, great, slender, not shy, answers intelligently and quickly ...”

The princess was baptized according to the Orthodox rite, taking the name Maria Feodorovna. She began to learn Russian zealously.
On September 26, 1776, the wedding took place in St. Petersburg.

The next day, Paul wrote to his young wife:
"Every manifestation of your friendship, my dear friend, is extremely precious to me and I swear to you that every day I love you more and more. May God bless our union just as He created it."

Alexander Roslin. Maria Feodorovna shortly after the wedding. The State Hermitage Museum

Maria Feodorovna turned out to be a worthy wife. She gave birth to Pavel Petrovich 10 children, of which only one died in infancy, and of the remaining 9, two, Alexander and Nikolai, became Russian autocrats.

When their first child was born in 1777, Catherine II dealt a strong blow to the soul of Pavel Petrovich, a kind family man, and prevented him from becoming a happy parent.

Catherine II only from a distance showed the parents of the born boy and took him to her forever. She did the same with his other children: sons Konstantin and Nikolai and two daughters.

K. Hoyer (?) Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna with their sons Alexander and Konstantin. 1781

I.-F.Anting. Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna with their sons in the park. 1780. Black ink and gilded bronze on glass. State Hermitage

***
1781
Travel to Europe
In 1780, Catherine II broke close ties with Prussia and moved closer to Austria. Pavel Petrovich did not like such diplomacy. And in order to neutralize Paul and his entourage, Catherine II sends her son and his wife on a long journey.
They traveled under fictitious names - Count and Countess Severny.

When in 1781, passing through Vienna, Pavel Petrovich was supposed to attend a court performance and it was decided to give Hamlet, the actor Brockman refused to play this role, saying that he did not want to so that there are two Hamlets in the hall. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II sent the actor 50 chervonets in gratitude for his tact.

They visited Rome, where they were received by Pope Pius VI.

Reception by Pope Pius VI of the Count and Countess of the North on February 8, 1782. 1801. Etching by A. Lazzaroni. GMZ "Pavlovsk"

In April they visited Turin. In Italy, the grand ducal couple begins to acquire antique sculpture, Venetian mirrors. All this will soon be included in the decoration of the Pavlovsk Palace.

About his position "Hamlet" Pavel Petrovich was silent for the first time. But once in a friendly (promising to become related) circle, he stopped holding back. Pavel Petrovich began to speak sharply about his mother and her politics.

These statements reached Catherine. In anticipation of the troubles threatening Russia, she said:

"I see in what hands the empire will fall after my death."

In the summer of 1782 they visited Paris. At Versailles, the grand ducal couple was received by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, in Paris by the Prince of Orleans, and at Chantilly by the Prince of Condé. According to contemporaries in Paris, they said that
"The king received the Count of the North in a friendly way, the Duke of Orleans - in a bourgeois way, the Prince of Condé - in a royal way."
The Grand Ducal couple visited the workshops of artists, got acquainted with hospitals, manufactories, and government agencies.
From Paris they brought furniture, Lyon silks, bronzes, porcelain and luxurious gifts from Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette: tapestries and a unique Sèvres toilet set.

Parisian service. France 1782. Sevres manufactory

A gift from Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich.

Toilet utensil. France. Sevr. 1782. GMZ "Pavlovsk".

We visited Holland, the house of Peter the Great in Zaandam.

Unknown artist. External view of the House of Peter the Great in Zaandam.

Then Pavel Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna spent almost a month visiting her parents in Montbéliard and Etupe.
The young people returned home in November 1782.

***
Gatchina
In 1783, Catherine II gave her son the Gatchina estate.
In 1765, Catherine II bought the estate in order to give her favorite, Count G.G. Orlov. It was for him, according to the project of A. Rinaldi, that the palace was built in the form of a hunting castle with towers and an underground passage. The laying of the Gatchina Palace took place on May 30, 1766; the construction of the palace was completed in 1781.

Palace facades. 1781 drawing

Big Gatchina Palace. Painting on porcelain. Author unknown. Second half of XIX

Having left the capital for Gatchina, Pavel adopted customs that were sharply different from those in St. Petersburg. In addition to Gatchina, he owned the Pavlovskaya estate near Tsarskoye Selo and a summer cottage on Kamenny Island. Pavlovsk and Gatchina became grand ducal residences for 13 long years.

In order to occupy himself with at least something, Pavel Petrovich turned here into an exemplary landowner-owner. The day started early. Exactly at seven in the morning, the emperor, together with the grand dukes, was already riding on horseback to meet the troops, was present at the exercises of the Gatchina troops and parades, which took place daily on a huge parade ground in front of the palace and ended with the divorce of the guard.

Schwartz. Parade in Gatchina

At five o'clock the whole family went for a daytime walk: on foot in the garden, or in "karatai" or lines in the park and the Menagerie, where the children especially liked to visit. There, wild animals were kept in special enclosures: deer, fallow deer, guinea fowl, pheasants and even camels.

In general, life was full of conventions and saturated with strict observance of the regulations, which everyone, without exception, had to follow - both adults and children. Getting up early in the morning, walking or riding, lunches, dinners that began at the same time, performances and evening meetings - all this was subject to strict etiquette and went according to the order once and for all established by the emperor.

Pavel I, Maria Feodorovna and their children. Artist Gerhardt Kugelgen

In the Gatchina period of life, the prince:
* *creates his own mini-army.
The army of Pavel Petrovich grows here every year and acquires an increasingly clear organization. The manor itself soon turned into "Gatchina Russia".

Infantry, cavalry, consisting of their gendarmerie, dragoon, hussar and Cossack regiments, as well as a flotilla with the so-called "naval artillery" were represented here. In total, by 1796 - 2,399 people. And the flotilla by this time consisted of 24 ships.
The only case of the participation of Gatchina troops in hostilities was the 1788 campaign in the Russo-Swedish War.
Despite the small number, by 1796 the Gatchina troops were one of the most disciplined and well-trained units of the Russian army.

** prepares the Charter of the navy, which entered into force in 1797.

The charter introduced new positions in the fleet - a historiographer, professor of astronomy and navigation, and a drawing master. An important direction in the policy of Paul I in relation to the fleet was the assertion of the principle of unity of command. The double subordination of one private to several chiefs of the same rank was excluded.

The Grand Duke had two libraries in the Gatchina Palace.
The basis of the Gatchina library of Pavel Petrovich was the library of Baron I.A. Korfa, which Catherine II acquired for her son. There was also a library formed by Paul I himself.
The library was located in the Tower Study, and consisted of books that he used, which were constantly at his fingertips.

This collection is relatively small: 119 titles, 205 volumes; of them in Russian 44 titles, 60 volumes. With a small number of books, their extraordinary diversity in content attracts attention. Nearby are a variety of compositions:

"Atlas of the Russian Empire", "Diplomatic ceremonial of European courts", "Modern knowledge of horses", "Discourses on sea signals",

"A detailed description of the ore business", "The Charter of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Turin",

"A General History of the Ceremonies, Customs, and Religious Practices of All the Peoples of the World", "General Studies on the Fortification, Attack, and Defense of Fortresses."

In addition, there was historical literature.

Gatchina became Pavel Petrovich's favorite place to stay. And the word "Gatchinets" has become almost a household word. It meant a disciplined, executive, honest and devoted person.

***
1796
long-awaited throne
On the night of November 7, 1796, in the palace church, Metropolitan Gabriel announced to the capital's nobles, generals and top dignitaries of the state about the death of Catherine II and the accession to the throne of Paul I. Those present began to swear allegiance to the new emperor.

A few hours have passed since the announcement of Paul I as emperor. He went for a walk in Petersburg. Passing by the theater building, built at the behest of Catherine II, Paul I shouted: "Remove it!"
500 people were sent to the building, by the morning the theater was razed to the ground.

The day after the accession of Paul I to the throne, a thanksgiving service was served in the Winter Palace. To the horror of those present, in deathly silence, the protodeacon proclaimed: “To the most pious, most autocratic great sovereign, our Emperor Alexander Pavlovich ...” - and then he only noticed a fatal mistake. His voice broke off. The silence became ominous. Pavel I quickly approached him: “I doubt, father Ivan, that you will live to see the solemn commemoration of Emperor Alexander».
On the same night, having returned home half-dead from fear, the protodeacon dies.

Thus, under the sign of a mystical omen, the short reign of Paul I began.

Pavel Petrovich was crowned in Moscow. The crornation took place on April 27, 1797, the celebration was held very modestly, not like his mother. He was crowned with his wife. This was the first joint coronation of an emperor and an empress in the history of the Russian Empire.

After the coronation, the emperor traveled around the southern provinces for two months, and returning to St. Petersburg, he laid on himself the crown of the Grand Master of the spiritual-knightly order of St. John of Jerusalem. The Order needed military assistance. And Paul I took over the patronage of the Order of Malta .. Europe did not like this, and for the Russian people the order was alien. This did not add authority to Paul I.

Paul I in the crown, dalmatics and signs of the Order of Malta. Artist V. L. Borovikovsky. Around 1800.
After accession to the throne, Paul I resolutely set about breaking the rules established by his mother.

He transferred the ashes of his father Peter III to the imperial tomb - the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

He ordered the release of the writer N.I. Novikov, to return A.N. Radishchev from exile. He carried out a provincial reform, reducing the number of provinces and liquidating the Yekaterinoslav province. Special mercy was shown to the rebel Kosciuszko: the emperor personally visited the prisoner in prison and granted him freedom, and all the Poles arrested in 1794 were soon released. Pavel I completely rehabilitated Kosciuszko, gave him financial assistance and allowed him to leave for America.

Paul I adopted a new law on succession to the throne, which drew a line under the centenary palace coups and women's government in Russia. Now power legitimately passed to the eldest son, in his absence to the eldest man in the family.

With his first manifesto, Emperor Paul reduced peasant labor for landlords (“corvée”) to three days a week, that is, by half. On Sunday, as the day of the Lord, it was forbidden to force the peasants to work.
Paul I perfectly understood the role of the book in the life of society, its influence on the mood of the minds.

In 1800, a decree of Paul I to the Senate was published, which stated:
"So how corruption of faith, civil law and morality is inflicted through various books exported from abroad, then from now on, until the decree, we order to prohibit the entry from abroad of all kinds of books, in whatever language they may be, without exception, into our state, uniformly and music.

Under Paul I, three monuments were erected: the statue of Peter the Great, the obelisk "Rumyantsev's Victories" designed by Brenna on the Field of Mars and the monument to A.V. Suvorov in the form of the god of war Mars, which was replaced by Emperor Paul I, ordered by Emperor Paul I to the sculptor M. Kozlovsky, but already installed after the death of the emperor.
In 1800, the construction of the Kazan Cathedral was started according to the project of A. Voronikhin.

During his reign, the General Armorial was compiled and approved. Under him, the distribution of princely titles began, which was almost never practiced before.

During the reign of Paul I, 17 new ships were launched in the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets. battleships, 8 frigates, construction of another 9 large vessels has begun. In St. Petersburg, at the end of Galernaya Street, a new shipyard was built, called the New Admiralty.

The results of the activities of Paul I in the maritime department were significantly higher than the results of the activities carried out in the previous reign.

In memoirs and history books, dozens and thousands of those exiled to Siberia during the Pavlovian time are often mentioned. In fact, the number of those exiled does not exceed ten people in the documents. These people were exiled for military and criminal offenses: bribes, theft in especially large sizes and others.

Literature:

1.I.Chizhova. Immortal triumph and mortal beauty. EKSMO.2004.
2.Toroptsev A.P. the rise and fall of the Romanov dynasty. Olma Madia Group.2007
3.Ryazantsev S. Horns and crown Astrel-SPb.2006

4 Chulkov G. Emperors (Psychological portraits)

5. Schilder N.K. Emperor Paul the First. SPb. M., 1996.

6. Pchelov E. V. The Romanovs. History of the dynasty. - OLMA-PRESS.2004.

7. Grigoryan V. G. The Romanovs. Biographical guide. —AST, 2007

8.photo from the website Our heritage magazine website http://www.nasledie-rus.ru

9. Photo from the website of the State Hermitage http://www.hermitagemuseum.org

During his reign, Paul the First did not execute anyone

Historical science has not yet known such a large-scale falsification as an assessment of the personality and activities of the Russian Emperor Paul the First. After all, what is there Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Stalin, around whom polemical spears are now basically breaking! No matter how you argue, "objectively" or "non-objectively" they killed their enemies, they still killed them. And Paul the First did not execute anyone during his reign.

He ruled more humanely than his mother Catherine II, especially in relation to ordinary people. Why is he a "crowned villain," as Pushkin puts it? Because, without hesitation, he fired negligent bosses and even expelled them from St. Petersburg (about 400 people in total)? Yes, many of us now dream of such a “crazy ruler”! Or why is he, in fact, "crazy"? Yeltsin, excuse me, sent some needs in public, and he was considered simply an ill-mannered "original".

Not a single decree or law of Paul the First contains signs of insanity - on the contrary, they are distinguished by reasonableness and clarity. For example, they put an end to the madness that was going on with the rules of succession to the throne after Peter the Great.

The 45-volume "Complete Code of Laws of the Russian Empire", published in 1830, contains 2248 documents of the Pavlovsk period (two and a half volumes), and this despite the fact that Paul reigned for only 1582 days! Therefore, he issued 1-2 laws every day, and these were not grotesque reports about "lieutenant Kizha", but serious acts that later became part of the "Complete Code of Laws"! Here's "crazy" for you!

It was Paul I who legally secured the dominant role of the Orthodox Church among other churches and confessions in Russia. In the legislative acts of Emperor Paul it is said: "The leading and dominant faith in the Russian Empire is the Christian Orthodox Catholic Eastern Confession", "The Emperor, who possesses the Throne of All Russia, cannot profess any other faith than the Orthodox." We will read approximately the same thing in the Spiritual Regulations of Peter I. These rules were strictly observed until 1917. Therefore, I would like to ask our adherents of “multiculturalism”: when did Russia manage to become “multi-confessional”, as you tell us now? During the atheist period 1917–1991? Or after 1991, when the Catholic-Protestant Baltic States and the Muslim republics of Central Asia "fell off" from the country?

Many Orthodox historians are wary of the fact that Paul was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1798-1801), regarding this order as a "paramasonic structure".

But it was precisely one of the then main Masonic powers, England, that overthrew Paul's power in Malta, occupying the island on September 5, 1800. This at least suggests that Paul was not recognized in the English Masonic hierarchy (the so-called "Scottish Rite") his. Maybe Paul was "one of his own" in the French Masonic "Great East" if he wanted to "make friends" with Napoleon? But this happened precisely after the capture of Malta by the British, and before that Paul fought with Napoleon. One must also understand that the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta was required by Paul I not only for self-affirmation in the company of European monarchs. In the calendar of the Academy of Sciences, according to his instructions, the island of Malta was to be designated as a "province of the Russian Empire." Pavel wanted to make the title of grandmaster hereditary, and to annex Malta to Russia. On the island, he planned to create a naval base to ensure the interests of the Russian Empire in the Mediterranean Sea and in southern Europe.

Finally, Paul is known to have favored the Jesuits. This is also blamed on him by some Orthodox historians in the context of the complex relationship between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. But there is also a specific historical context. In 1800, it was the Jesuit Order that was considered the main ideological enemy of Freemasonry in Europe. So the Freemasons could in no way welcome the legalization of the Jesuits in Russia and treat Paul I as a Freemason.

THEM. Muravyov-Apostol repeatedly spoke to his children, future Decembrists, “about the enormity of the coup that took place with the accession of Paul the First to the throne - a coup so sharp that descendants would not understand it,” and General Yermolov argued that “the late emperor had great features , its historical character has not yet been determined with us.

For the first time since the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, the serfs also take the oath to the new tsar, which means that they are considered subjects, not slaves. The corvée is limited to three days a week with the provision of days off on Sundays and holidays, and since there are many Orthodox holidays in Russia, this was a great relief for the working people. Paul the First forbade the sale of courtyards and serfs without land, as well as separately if they were from the same family.

As in the time of Ivan the Terrible, a yellow box is installed in one of the windows of the Winter Palace, where everyone can drop a letter or petition addressed to the sovereign. Pavel himself had the key to the room with the box, and every morning he himself read the requests of his subjects and printed the answers in the newspapers.

“Emperor Paul had a sincere and firm desire to do good,” A. Kotzebue wrote. - Before him, as before the kindest sovereign, the poor and the rich, the nobleman and the peasant, all were equal. Woe to the mighty one who arrogantly oppressed the wretched. The road to the emperor was open to everyone; the title of his favorite did not protect anyone before him ... ” Of course, the nobles and the rich, who were accustomed to impunity and life for free, did not like this. “Only the lower classes of the urban population and the peasants love the emperor,” testified the Prussian envoy in St. Petersburg, Count Brühl.

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

However, the best and good undertakings of the king were broken against a stone wall of indifference and even obvious hostility of his closest subjects, outwardly devoted and servile. Historians Gennady Obolensky in the book "Emperor Paul I" (M., 2001) and Alexander Bokhanov in the book "Paul the First" (M., 2010) convincingly prove that many of his orders were reinterpreted in a completely impossible and treacherous way, causing an increase in hidden dissatisfaction with the king . “You know what my heart is, but you don’t know what kind of people they are,” Pavel Petrovich wrote bitterly in one of his letters about his entourage.

And these people vilely killed him, 117 years before the murder of the last Russian sovereign - Nicholas II. These events are certainly connected, the terrible crime of 1801 predetermined the fate of the Romanov dynasty.

Decembrist A.V. Poggio wrote (by the way, it is curious that many objective testimonies about Paul belong to the Decembrists): “... a drunken, violent crowd of conspirators rushes in to him and disgustingly, without the slightest civilian purpose, drags him, strangles, beats ... and kills him! Having committed one crime, they completed it with another, even more terrible. They frightened, captivated the son himself, and this unfortunate one, having bought a crown with such blood, will languish, abhor and involuntarily prepare an outcome unhappy for himself, for us, for Nicholas throughout his reign.

But I would not, as many admirers of Paul do, directly contrast the reigns of Catherine the Second and Paul the First. Of course, the moral character of Paul for the better differed from the moral character of the loving empress, but the fact is that her favoritism was, among other things, a method of government, far from always ineffective. Catherine needed favorites not only for carnal pleasures. Favored by the empress, they worked hard, God forbid, especially A. Orlov and G. Potemkin. The intimate closeness of the empress and favorites was a certain degree of trust in them, a kind of initiation, or something. Of course, there were idlers and typical gigolos like Lansky and Zubov next to her, but they appeared already in the last years of Catherine's life, when she somewhat lost her grasp of reality ...

Another thing is the position of Paul as heir to the throne under the system of favoritism. A. Bokhanov writes: in November 1781, “the Austrian Emperor (1765–1790) Joseph II arranged a magnificent meeting (for Paul. - A. B. ), and in a series of ceremonial events, the play "Hamlet" was scheduled at the court. Then the following happened: the leading actor Brockman refused to play the main role, because, according to him, "there will be two Hamlets in the hall." The emperor was grateful to the actor for his wise warning and rewarded him with 50 ducats. Paul did not see Hamlet; it remained unclear whether he knew this tragedy of Shakespeare, the external plot of which was extremely reminiscent of his own fate.

And the diplomat and historian S.S. Tatishchev spoke to the famous Russian publisher and journalist A.S. Suvorin: "Pavel was Hamlet in part, at least his position was Hamletian," Hamlet "was banned under Catherine II", after which Suvorin concluded: "Indeed, it is very similar. The only difference is that instead of Claudius, Catherine had Orlov and others…”. (If we consider the young Pavel Hamlet, and Alexei Orlov, who killed Paul's father Peter III, Claudius, then the unfortunate Peter will be in the role of Hamlet's father, and Catherine herself will be in the role of Hamlet's mother Gertrude, who married the murderer of her first husband).

Paul's position under Catherine was indeed Hamletian. After the birth of his eldest son Alexander, the future Emperor Alexander I, Catherine considered the possibility of transferring the throne to her beloved grandson, bypassing her unloved son.

Paul's fears in such a development of events were strengthened by the early marriage of Alexander, after which, according to tradition, the monarch was considered an adult. On August 14, 1792, Catherine II wrote to her correspondent, Baron Grimm: “First, my Alexander will marry, and there, in time, he will be crowned with all kinds of ceremonies, celebrations and folk festivals.” Apparently, therefore, Pavel defiantly ignored the celebrations on the occasion of the marriage of his son.

On the eve of Catherine's death, the courtiers were waiting for the publication of a manifesto on the removal of Paul, his imprisonment in the Estonian castle of Lod and the proclamation of Alexander's heir. It is widely believed that while Pavel was waiting for his arrest, Catherine's manifesto (testament) personally destroyed the cabinet-secretary of A. A. Bezborodko, which allowed him to receive the highest rank of chancellor under the new emperor.

Having ascended the throne, Pavel solemnly transferred the ashes of his father from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral simultaneously with the burial of Catherine II. At the funeral ceremony, which was depicted in detail on a long ribbon-painting by an unknown (apparently Italian) artist, the regalia of Peter III - the royal baton, scepter and large imperial crown - were carried by ... regicides - Count A.F. Orlov, Prince P.B. Baryatinsky and P.B. Passek. In the cathedral, Paul personally performed the ceremony of crowning the ashes of Peter III (only crowned persons were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral). In the headstones of the tombstones of Peter III and Catherine II, the same date of burial was carved - December 18, 1796, which is why the uninitiated may get the impression that they lived together for many years and died on the same day.

Invented in Hamlet style!

In the book by Andrei Rossomahin and Denis Khrustalev "The Challenge of Emperor Paul, or the First Myth of the 19th Century" (St. Petersburg, 2011), for the first time, another "Hamlet" act of Paul I is examined in detail: a challenge to a duel that the Russian emperor sent to all the monarchs of Europe as an alternative to wars in which tens and hundreds of thousands of people die. (This, by the way, is exactly what L. Tolstoy rhetorically suggested in War and Peace, who himself did not favor Paul the First: they say, let emperors and kings personally fight instead of destroying their subjects in wars).

What was perceived by contemporaries and descendants as a sign of "madness" is shown by Rossomahin and Khrustalev as a subtle game of the "Russian Hamlet" that broke off during the palace coup.

Also, for the first time, evidence of the “English trace” of the conspiracy against Paul is convincingly presented: for example, the book reproduces in color English satirical engravings and caricatures of Paul, the number of which increased precisely in the last three months of the emperor’s life, when preparations began for the conclusion of a military-strategic alliance between Paul and Paul. Napoleon Bonaparte. As you know, shortly before the assassination, Pavel ordered an entire army of Cossacks of the Don Cossacks (22,500 sabers) under the command of ataman Vasily Orlov to set out on a campaign agreed with Napoleon on India in order to "alarm" the English possessions. The task of the Cossacks was to conquer Khiva and Bukhara "in passing". Immediately after the death of Paul I, Orlov's detachment was withdrawn from the Astrakhan steppes, and negotiations with Napoleon were curtailed.

I am sure that the "Hamlet theme" in the life of Paul the First will still become the subject of attention of historical novelists. I think there will also be a theater director who will stage Hamlet in a Russian historical interpretation, where, while preserving the Shakespearean text, the action will take place in Russia at the end of the 18th century, and Tsarevich Pavel will act as Prince Hamlet, and as the ghost of Hamlet's father - killed Peter III, in the role of Claudius - Alexei Orlov, etc. Moreover, the episode with the performance played in Hamlet by the actors of a traveling theater can be replaced with an episode of the production of Hamlet in St. Petersburg by a foreign troupe, after which Catherine II and Orlov will ban the play . Of course, the real Tsarevich Pavel, finding himself in the position of Hamlet, outplayed everyone, but anyway, after 5 years, the fate of Shakespeare's hero was waiting for him ...

Special for the Centenary

Emperor Paul I: the fate of the Russian Hamlet

During a visit to Vienna by the heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich in 1781, it was decided to arrange a grand performance in honor of the Russian prince. Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was chosen, but the actor refused to play the main role: "You're crazy! There will be two Hamlets in the theater: one on the stage, the other in the imperial box!”

Indeed, the plot of Shakespeare's play was very reminiscent of the story of Paul: his father, Peter III, was killed by his mother, Catherine II, next to her was the all-powerful temporary worker, Potemkin. And the prince, removed from power, is exiled, like Hamlet, to travel abroad ...

Indeed, the play of Paul's life unfolded like a drama. He was born in 1754 and was immediately taken from his parents by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who decided to raise the boy herself. The mother was allowed to see her son only once a week. At first she yearned, then she got used to it, calmed down, especially since a new pregnancy came. Here we can see that first, imperceptible crack, which later turned into a gaping abyss that forever separated Catherine and the adult Pavel. The separation of a mother from a newborn child is a terrible trauma for both. Over the years, the mother became alienated, but Pavel never had the first sensations of the warm, tender, perhaps obscure, but unique image of the mother with which almost every person lives ...

Of course, the child was not left to the mercy of fate, he was surrounded by care and affection, in 1760, the educator N.I. Panin appeared next to Pavel, an intelligent, educated man who greatly influenced the formation of his personality. It was then that the first rumors spread that Elizabeth wanted to raise her heir from Paul, and send the boy’s parents hated by her to Germany. Such a turn of events for the ambitious, dreaming of the Russian throne, Catherine was impossible. The imperceptible crack between mother and son, again against their will, expanded: Catherine and Paul, albeit hypothetically, on paper, as well as in gossip, became rivals, competitors in the struggle for the throne. This affected their relationship. When Catherine came to power in 1762, she could not, looking at her son, not feel anxiety and jealousy: her own position was precarious - a foreigner, a usurper, a man-killer, the mistress of her subject. In 1763, a foreign observer noted that when Catherine appeared, everyone fell silent, “and a crowd always runs after the Grand Duke, expressing their pleasure with loud cries.” In addition, there were people who were happy to drive new wedges into the crack. Panin, as a representative of the aristocracy, dreamed of limiting the power of the empress and wanted to use Paul for this, putting the ideas of the constitution into his head. At the same time, he imperceptibly, but consistently set his son against his mother. As a result, having not firmly mastered Panin's constitutional ideas, Pavel was used to rejecting the principles of his mother's government, and therefore, having become king, he so easily went to overthrow the fundamental foundations of her policy. In addition, the young man learned the romantic idea of ​​chivalry, and with it - love for the outside of the matter, decorativeness, lived in a world of dreams far from life.

1772 is the time of Paul's coming of age. The hopes of Panin and others that Pavel would be admitted to management did not come true. Catherine was not going to transfer power to the legitimate heir of Peter III. She took advantage of her son's majority to remove Panin from the palace. Soon the empress found a bride for her son. In 1773, at the behest of his mother, he married Princess Augusta Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (in Orthodoxy - Natalya Alekseevna) and was quite happy. But in the spring of 1776, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna died in severe labor pains. Pavel was inconsolable: his Ophelia was no longer in the world ... But the mother cured her son of grief in the most cruel way, similar to amputation. Having found the love correspondence of Natalya Alekseevna and Andrei Razumovsky, a courtier and close friend of Paul, the empress handed these letters to Paul. He was immediately cured of grief, although one can imagine what a cruel wound was then inflicted on the thin, fragile soul of Paul ...

Almost immediately after the death of Natalia, a new bride was found for him - Sophia Dorothea Augusta Louise, Princess of Württemberg (Maria Feodorovna in Orthodoxy). Pavel, unexpectedly for himself, immediately fell in love with his new wife, and the young people lived in happiness and peace. In the autumn of 1783, Pavel and Maria moved to the former estate of Grigory Orlov, Gatchina (or, as they wrote then, Gatchino), donated to them by the empress. Thus began the long Gatchina epic of Pavel ...

In Gatchina, Pavel built himself not just a nest, a cozy house, but built a fortress for himself, opposing it in everything to St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo, the “lecherous” court of Empress Catherine. Prussia, with its cult of order, discipline, strength, and drill, was chosen as a model for imitation by Paul. In general, the Gatchina phenomenon did not appear immediately. Let's not forget that Paul, becoming an adult, did not receive any power and his mother deliberately kept him away from public affairs. Waiting in line for the throne lasted for Paul for over twenty years, and the feeling of his worthlessness did not leave him. Gradually, he found himself in military affairs. A thorough knowledge of all the subtleties of the statutes led to strict adherence to them. Linear tactics, built on regular, rigorous training in well-coordinated movement techniques, required complete automatism. And this was achieved by continuous exercises, divorces, parades. As a result, the elements of the parade ground completely captured Pavel. This specific form of life of the then military man became the main one for him, turned Gatchina into a small Berlin. Paul's small army was dressed and drilled according to the charters of Frederick II, the heir himself lived the harsh life of a warrior and ascetic, not like these libertines from the ever-celebrating nest of vice - Tsarskoye Selo! But here, in Gatchina, there is order, work, business! The Gatchina model of life, built on strict police supervision, seemed to Pavel the only worthy and acceptable one. He dreamed of spreading it to all of Russia, for which he set about becoming emperor.

Toward the end of Catherine's life, the relationship between son and mother went wrong irreparably, the crack between them became a gaping abyss. The character of Paul gradually deteriorated, suspicions grew that the mother who never loved him could deprive him of his inheritance, that her favorites want to humiliate the heir, are watching him, and the hired villains are trying to poison - here, once even stacks (glass. - E.A.) put in sausages.

Finally, on November 6, 1796, Empress Catherine died. Paul came to power. In the first days of his reign, it seemed that a foreign power landed in St. Petersburg - the emperor and his people were dressed in unfamiliar Prussian uniforms. Pavel immediately transferred the Gatchina order to the capital. Black-and-white striped booths brought from Gatchina appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg, the police furiously attacked passers-by, who at first took lightly the strict decrees banning tailcoats and vests. In the city that lived a midnight life under Catherine, a curfew was established, many officials and military men who did not please the sovereign in some way, lost their ranks, titles, positions in the blink of an eye and went into exile. The divorce of the palace guards - a familiar ceremony - suddenly turned into an important event on a national scale with the presence of the sovereign and the court. Why did Paul become such an unexpectedly harsh ruler? After all, when he was young, he once dreamed of the reign of law in Russia, he wanted to be a humane ruler, to reign according to irrevocable (“indispensable”) laws, containing goodness and justice. But not everything is so simple. Paul's philosophy of authority was complex and contradictory. Like many rulers in Russia, he tried to combine autocracy and human freedoms, "power of the individual" and "executive power of the state", in a word, he tried to combine the incompatible. In addition, over the years of waiting for his turn to the throne, a whole icy mountain of hatred and revenge has grown in Paul's soul. He hated his mother, her orders, her favorites, her leaders, in general, the whole world created by this extraordinary and ingenious woman, called the descendants of the Catherine era. You can rule with hatred in your soul, but not for long ... As a result, no matter what Paul thought about law and law, ideas of tougher discipline and regulation began to prevail in his entire policy. He began to build only one "executive state". Probably, this is the root of his tragedy... The fight against the licentiousness of the nobles meant, first of all, the infringement of their rights; restoring order, sometimes necessary, in the army and the state apparatus led to unjustified cruelty. Undoubtedly, Paul wished well for his country, but he was drowning in "small things." And they are just the most remembered people. So, everyone laughed when he forbade the use of the words "snub-nosed" or "Masha". In pursuit of discipline and order, the king knew no measure. His subjects heard many wild decrees of the sovereign. So, in July 1800, all printing houses were ordered to "seal up so that they do not print anything." Well said! True, this ridiculous order soon had to be canceled - labels, tickets and labels were needed. It was also forbidden for the audience to applaud in the theater, if this was not done by the sovereign sitting in the royal box, and vice versa.

Communication with the emperor became painful and dangerous for others. In place of the humane, tolerant Catherine was a strict, nervous, uncontrollable, absurd person. Seeing that his wishes remained unfulfilled, he was indignant, punished, scolded. As N.M. Karamzin wrote, Pavel, “to the inexplicable surprise of the Russians, began to dominate the general horror, not following any charters, except for his own whim; considered us not subjects, but slaves; executed without guilt, rewarded without merit, took away the shame from the execution, the charm from the award, humiliated the ranks and ribbons with wastefulness in them ... Heroes accustomed to victories, he taught to march. 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; thought to build himself an impregnable palace and built a tomb. In other words, it didn't end well. A conspiracy arose against Paul among the officers and among the aristocracy, on March 11, 1801, a night coup took place, and in the newly built Mikhailovsky Castle, Paul was killed by conspirators who burst into the royal bedroom. This text is an introductory piece.

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