Historical materials of the Presidential Library cast light on the reign of Paul I: “Of all Russian people emperor was the most miserable person”

"This sovereign was born in the unhappy time”, the emperor’s contemporary Count Fyodor Golovkin writes about Paul I in the rare publication “The Court and Reign of Paul I” (1912), which is available on the portal of the Presidential Library. "His father disowned him, and no affection for him was shown by his mother. For a long time there had been something uncertain, fragile in his life, as a result constant anxiety affected his nature”.

The 264th anniversary of the birth of Emperor Paul I (1754-1801) will be marked on October 1, 2018. Materials of the collections of the Presidential Library give an opportunity to find out the opinions of contemporaries about the autocrat, discover his complex nature, and also evaluate the results of the sovereign's activities. They feature a wide variety of electronic copies of historical documents and books dedicated to Catherine the Great’s heir: “Letters of Emperor Paul I”  (1785-1799), collections of decrees, concluded treaties, accounts of courtiers, biographical studies and other documents, which make up the extensive collection of the Presidential Library ”The Romanov Dynasty. Zemsky Sobor of 1613”.

Count Fyodor Golovkin, who was well-aware of the secrets of the imperial court, described the reign of the monarch in his memoirs: "During this troubled time, which seemed to be too long, though it had lasted just for five years, the most miserable of all Russian people was the emperor himself”.

And could it have been any different? From the first moments of his life Paul was separated from his mother, future Empress Catherine the Great. "His birth continued the line of Peter the Great. Empress Elizabeth believed that her baby grandson would guarantee the future of her empire and was the one to raise him”, Ye. Shumigorsky’s book “Paul I“ (1899) reads.

Many researchers agree that the character of Paul (Pavel Petrovich), who was called "willful, nervous and irritable" by the contemporaries, was a result of his grandmother’s total care, distance between him and his mother and the influence of "wrong" teachers. It is in particular proved by D. Kobeko’s historical study “Tsesarevich Paul (Pavel) Petrovich” (1882). "Catherine just watched while Paul was being spoiled",  F. Karatov’s  “Paul I: His Family Life, Favourites and Assassination” reads. "Paul was very good-natured as a child with all the qualities to become a good man: he was smart, frank, good-natured, diligent, hard-working. It was bad upbringing that made him a cunning, reserved, grim, stern and despotic person”.

Relations with mother remained complicated, Paul did not forgive her the death of his father Peter III after the palace coup, as a result of which Catherine ascended the throne. N. Schielder’s historical and biographical study “Emperor Paul I” (1901), which can be found on the portal of the Presidential Library, reads: "After the accession to the throne Catherine made attempts to become closer to her son, but the merciless fate led her efforts to more and more irrevocable discord. The 34-years-long gap between mother and son was widening”.

When Paul ascended the throne, he was already 42 years old. "Like a formidable meteor the reign of Emperor Paul I appeared on the horizon of Russia, his actions seemed to be even more striking as it (the reign) followed the reasonable “century” of Catherine II – the electronic copy of the collection of works “Materials of Biography of Emperor Paul I” edited by E. Kasprovich (1874, Leipzig) reads. Russia had begun to bear the fruits of the laws issued by this empress - when, suddenly, under the successor, the supremacy of laws began to give way to self-will, no respect was shown to long-term service, provoking competition; inadequate punishment for minor offenses contradicted the charter of the nobility, people without merits or abilities were highly honored, and new decrees, which were issued in abundance, contradicted each other.

The author of the abovementioned biographical essay “Paul I” Ye. S. Shumigorsky wrote: "Paul believed that the severe, even cruel ways of maintaining discipline and order were necessary to protect himself from conspiracies, which he feared so much even inside his own family, after Catherine's intention to remove him from the throne signaled threat”.

And yet, researchers acknowledge that Paul I ascended the throne with a sincere desire to achieve prosperity for his people. He believed that reforms he had drafted, would change the line of Russia's political and state life. In order to avoid coups and intrigues in 1788 Paul drafted  “The Act [of Succession], approved on the day .. of coronation [of Paul I] (1797). The document excluded the possibility of dethroning legitimate heirs. The act also contained an important provision, which read that a person who didn’t belong to the Orthodox Church was not entitled to access the Russian throne. The law of Paul I, which determined the order of succession, existed until 1917.

Paul's activities were versatile, he loved Russia in his own way and wished it to be prosperous, although he did not quite know how to achieve this. Perhaps the reason for that was the fact that Catherine did not allow him to participate in the discussion of state affairs as he grew up.

N. Schielder’s historical and biographical study “Emperor Paul I” (1901)  reads: “the new reign from the very first days was the exact opposite of the previous one; the splendid, luxurious court of the Empress was turned into a huge guardhouse”.

The attempts of the new monarch to introduce reforms in the army and the state apparatus following the model of the Prussian military system and Prussian police state failed. The reforms of Paul in this area was opposed by both - higher administration and lower classes: the repression against generals and middle-rank officers was too cruel, the proof of this is provided in the electronic copy of “The Highest Orders of the Emperor Paul I of 1800–1801”. “One day he dismissed: 3 generals, 3 lieutenant generals, 9 majors, 68 chief officers of the Guards regiments, 90 non-commissioned officers (sergeants) and 120 soldiers of Preobrazhensy regiment! The reason was unknown”. The introduction of an uncomfortable army uniform in the Prussian style evoked indignation among servicemen.

A conspiracy was thought of and prepared almost from the very beginning of his reign. On March 24, 1801, the emperor was killed by conspirators in his new residence - St. Michael's Castle in St. Petersburg. The events of the tragic night were described by Prince Adam Czartoryski in his memoirs.

Theodore Schieman’s “Assassination of Paul I and the Accession of Nicholas I” concludes: "The ruler of the world’s greatest state, a man, who showed very good natural abilities, was well-educated and had noble motives, was murdered. Why didn’t all these qualities save him from death? Because in the first place the person is to be able to take control of his own passions, and only then he will be able to control the others. Even the larger number of conspirators and a more cautious conspiracy could have failed, if there had been no general unspoken consent of the whole capital, the common wish of the whole Russia".