The Presidential Library’s materials help to reveal contradictions of Paul I’s reign

“Catherine just watched as Paul was being corrupted”, – F. Karatov’s book Paul I: His Family Life, Favourites and Assassination (1902), which is available in the Presidential Library’s electronic collections, reads in part. "Paul was a lovely child showing all the necessary qualities to become a good man in the future: he was smart, frank, good-natured, diligent, hard-working. It was bad upbringing that made him a cunning, reserved, grim, stern and despotic person”.

October 1, 2019 marks the 265th anniversary of the birth of the Russian Emperor Paul I (1754–1801). Materials of the Presidential Library’s collections spotlight opinions of contemporaries about the sovereign, give some insights into his personality, which was badly affected by palace intrigues, and also give an opportunity to evaluate the results of his activities. The collections feature electronic copies of historical documents and books dedicated to Catherine the Great’s heir: Letters of Emperor Paul I (1785-1799), collections of decrees, treaties, memoirs of courtiers, biographical studies and other documents, which make up the Presidential Library’s extensive collection The House of Romanov. The Zemsky Sobor of 1613.

Right after birth, Paul was separated from his mother, future Empress Catherine the Great. Ye. Shumigorsky’s book Paul I (1899) provides a more detailed account of his upbringing. The relations with his mother had remained complicated for a long time, however, according to some Presidential Library’s sources, after the accession to the throne Catherine made attempts to become closer to her son and discuss key political issues with him.

The publication Empress Catherine II, Tsesarevich Paul Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna: Letters, Sketches and Extracts (1874) features Paul’s account of his conversation with the Empress about the accession of Crimea to Russia.

When Paul ascended the throne, he was already 42 years old. He spent half of his life anxiously waiting for the crown, because he feared he would suffer the same fate as his father, who died as a result of a palace coup.

N. Schielder’s historical and biographical essay Emperor Paul I (1901) reads in part: “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 field caused discontent: a policy of repression towards generals and middle-rank officers was too cruel. You can find out more about it in the electronic copy of Orders of Emperor Paul I. 1800 - 1801. The introduction of an uncomfortable Prussian-style uniform provoked indignation among servicemen.

The electronic copy of the collected Materials on the Biography of Emperor Paul I, published in Leipzig in 1874, also features a judgment about the sovereign’s activities.

And yet, researchers acknowledge that Paul I ascended the throne with a sincere desire to do everything for the prosperity of his people. He believed that reforms he had drafted, would change the course 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] (published in 1797). The document excluded the possibility of dethroning legitimate heirs. The law drafted by Paul I, which determined the order of succession in Russia, had been in force until 1917.

As to finances, the monarch believed that state revenues belonged to the state, and not the emperor. Paul I ordered to melt down some of silver sets of the Winter Palace into coins and destroy up to two million assignation roubles to reduce the state debt. The decree on the three-day corvée (unpaid labour) prohibited the use of peasant labour on weekends. The emperor ordered to re-open the university in Dorpat (present-day Tartu), established the Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, and opened a lot of schools.

Paul's policy was many-sided, he deeply loved Russia in his own way and longed for its prosperity, although he did not gain support of his subjects.

A conspiracy against Paul I was thought of and prepared almost from the very beginning of his reign. On the night of March 24-25, 1801, the emperor was killed by conspirators in his new residence - St. Michael's Castle in St. Petersburg. The details of the tragic event were described by Prince Adam Czartoryski in his memoirs The Time of Paul and His Death. Accounts of Contemporaries and Participants in the Events of March 11, 1801 and in A. Brueckner’s book Death of Paul I (1907).  

F. Golovkin, the author of the rare publication The Court and Reign of Paul I (1912) wrote: “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”. Theodore Schiemann, the author of the book Assassination of Paul I and Accession of Nicholas I (1902) concludes: “Even the greater number of conspirators and a more cautious conspiracy would have failed, if there hadn’t been an unspoken consent of the whole capital city, the common wish of the whole of Russia".