At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian throne suffered a terrible shock: on a March night in 1801, a group of guards conspirators led by the St. Petersburg governor general and head of the secret police P. A. Palen entered the chambers of Emperor Pavel Petrovich and killed him, thereby committing a palace coup, in as a result of which the sovereign's son Alexander ascended the throne.
A reign that started with murder
The mother of the murdered tsar, Catherine II, wanted to make him the successor of her progressive endeavors. That is why N. Panin, an outstanding statesman of his time, was Pavel’s main educator. But fate decreed otherwise. Paul wanted to lead his own line. He was proud and ambitious, like many Russian rulers. The reign of this monarch was short-lived, but he managed to earn universal hatred.
It was not new for the brave guards to overthrow rulers they disliked from the throne. Both the temporary worker Biron and the young Antonovich, the formal Tsar of Russia, are examples of this. It happened that they completely knocked the spirit out of an unlucky monarch - the blood of the murdered Tsar Peter III was on their hands.
The entire short history - from Peter 1 to Nicholas 2 - is full of conspiracies and coups, but in this case there was one detail that gave the assassination attempt a special character. There is reason to believe that Paul’s son, the heir to the throne, Alexander, was aware of the impending conspiracy. Even without personally participating in the crime committed, in this case he became, albeit passive, a parricide, and that night, March 12, 1801, burned his conscience for the rest of his life.
Alexander 1: years of reign
When Alexander I was crowned, he was twenty-four years old. Despite his youth, he had progressive thinking and carried out a number of moderate liberal reforms. By nature, Alexander was a representative, like his grandmother Catherine II. He did not encroach on the stronghold of serfdom, but he saw the key to progress in education. Under him, several privileged educational institutions were opened, including the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
Through the labors of the young emperor, the system of administrative management of the state was transformed. In place of the old Peter's colleges, according to the European model, ministries were established. There was even a real attempt to grant the subjects a constitution, but it remained only among good intentions. Already in the second half of his reign, Alexander carried out a reform in the army, which supplemented the very cumbersome recruitment system with the notorious Arakcheev military settlements.
A talented politician and a bad commander
The reign of this monarch fell during the era of the Napoleonic wars. Despite the fact that the troops created in 1905 were officially led by M.I. Kutuzov, all decisions were made personally by Alexander, and he bears the blame for the defeat of the Russian-Austrian army in the Battle of Austerlitz. He was not an outstanding commander, but he had the gift of an extraordinary politician.
Skillfully using the current situation, the sovereign concluded a profitable peace with Napoleon in 1808. During these same years, Finland, Bessarabia and Eastern Georgia were annexed to Russia. Despite the fact that we associate the name of Alexander I mainly with the war of 1812, his merit in the victory is limited, perhaps, only to his tough policy towards Napoleon and non-interference in the administration of the army, brilliantly carried out by M. I. Kutuzov.
The death that gave birth to a legend
Alexander 1, whose years of reign were accompanied by a turbulent domestic and foreign political life of the country, at the end of his reign often spoke of his desire to abdicate the throne and devote himself to God. This was the reason that after his death, which followed in 1725 during a trip to Taganrog, rumors began to spread claiming that a coffin with the body of another person had been delivered to the capital, and that the sovereign himself was atone for sin in a remote forest hermitage under the name of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich parricide, which twenty-four years ago elevated him to the pinnacle of power. Whether this version has any basis is unknown to this day.
A new reign that began with a rebellion
All who ruled after Paul 1 in Russia were monarchs of the new European type. This fully applies to Emperor Nicholas I, who in 1825 succeeded his brother on the throne. Despite the rigidity of rule inherent in Eastern despotism, he made a lot of efforts to create a clearly established administrative system of government in the country, using the progressive experience of foreign countries.
Just like his brother, Nicholas I’s title “Emperor of All Russia” was sprinkled with shed blood. And again it was the guards, this time speaking openly on December 14 on Senate Square in the capital. To eradicate possible future unrest, Nicholas took radical measures, which later created for him the reputation of a gendarme and a strangler of freedom. Under him, the notorious “Third Department” was founded - a secret police that carried out total surveillance of dissidents.
His foreign policy was a complete reflection of his domestic one. Milestones in the history of the reign of Nicholas I were: the suppression of the Polish and Hungarian uprisings, the war with Turkey of 1828-1829, the war with Persia and, finally, the mediocre lost Crimean campaign, before the end of which he died on February 18, 1855.
Tsar-reformer
Among those who ruled after Paul 1 in Russia, the next anointed of God, Emperor Alexander II, gained fame as the most progressive reformer. Unlike his father, he tried to bring the spirit of freedom and humanism to his fatherland. His most historically significant act was the abolition of serfdom, proclaimed in 1861.
In addition, the history of his reign included: the liquidation of military settlements and reforms of the armed forces, higher and secondary education, finance, as well as zemstvos and legal proceedings. Hardly any of those who ruled Russia after Paul the 1st managed to transform the appearance of the state in such a way, but nevertheless, the great reformer died at the hands of his own subjects. Seven assassination attempts were organized on his life, of which the last, committed on March 1, 1881 by the terrorist organization "People's Will", cost him his life.
Tsar peacemaker and counter-reformer
His son, also Alexander, who ascended the throne after the death of his father, deservedly received the nickname of the peacemaker king among the people. A unique case in the history of the Russian autocracy - during all the years of his rule, the country did not wage a single war, and not a single soldier fell on the battlefield. According to his convictions, Alexander III was a Slavophile and a supporter of a “special path” for the development of Russia. This forced him to carry out a number of counter-reforms aimed at preserving the foundations of the old life in the country, alien to foreign influences.
He passed away before reaching fifty years of age. Possessing a powerful physique and extraordinary energy, the king suffered from chronic kidney disease, which caused damage to the heart and blood vessels at the end of his life. His death on September 21, 1894 marked the beginning of the reign of the last representative of the House of Romanov. The name and patronymic of the emperor who ended the three-hundred-year dynasty is Nicholas II Alexandrovich.
Last of the dynasty
His coronation, which took place in 1896, became the cause of the tragedy that occurred on the Khodynskoe field, where, as a result of the accumulation of thousands of people who came to receive gifts promised for the celebration, a terrible crush formed, as a result of which 1,379 people died and about 1,000 were injured. It was regarded by the people as a bad omen, and the gloomy memory of the event persisted throughout the years of his reign.
Nicholas II, like all the rulers of Rus' and Russia who preceded him, must be considered by us in the context of his century. It fell to his lot to rule a state that constituted a sixth of the Earth during the most dramatic period of its history. These were the years when, along with rapid economic development, social tension grew, resulting in three revolutions, the last of which became disastrous both for the reigning dynasty and for the empire as a whole.
Rasputin's influence
But at the same time, he, like all the rulers of Rus' and Russia, is responsible for the state of the state that was the result of his reign. The catastrophe that ended the era of Romanov rule was largely caused by ill-conceived decisions in the field of domestic and foreign policy - this is the conclusion that most modern researchers come to.
Like the previous rulers of Russia, whose years of reign were marked by rebellions and unrest, Nicholas II sought support both in military strength and in God's intercession. Hence his blind faith in the “holy elder” - Grigory Rasputin, whose influence largely aggravated the already critical state in which the empire found itself. The last years of the reign were characterized by a feverish succession of changing ministers and senior government officials. These were desperate attempts to bring the country out of the crisis, guided by the advice of the elder, instilled in him through his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Last Empress of Russia
If we look at the list of empresses of Russia, we can see that many of them left a good memory of themselves in history. These included Catherine, who reigned in different years, and the last of their number, Alexandra Feodorovna, had a chance to drink the bitter cup of popular hatred. She was unfoundedly accused of betrayal, debauchery, and the fact that it was she who forced her husband to drag Russia into a war so unpopular among the common people. She completed the list of empresses of Russia.
The February Revolution of 1917 deprived Nicholas II of the throne. He renounced him and then, together with his family, was placed under house arrest in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. Soon they were sent into exile in Tobolsk, and in 1918, by decision of the Bolsheviks, the royal family ended up in Yekaterinburg. There, in the basement of Ipatiev’s house, on the night of July 17, 1918, the entire family was shot along with the servants and Doctor Botkin who accompanied them.
He could not have children due to chronic alcoholism and, interested in the birth of an heir, turned a blind eye to the closeness of her daughter-in-law, first with Choglokov, and then with the chamberlain of the Grand Duke’s court, Saltykov. A number of historians consider Saltykov’s paternity to be an undoubted fact. Later they even claimed that Paul was not Catherine’s son. In "Materials for the biography of Emperor Paul I" (Leipzig, 1874) it is reported that Saltykov allegedly gave birth to a dead child, who was replaced by a Chukhon boy, that is, Paul I is not only not the son of his parents, but not even Russian.
In 1773, not even 20 years old, he married Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (in Orthodoxy - Natalya Alekseevna), but three years later she died in childbirth, and in the same 1776 Pavel married a second time, to Princess Sophia of Württemberg. Dorothea (in Orthodoxy - Maria Feodorovna). Catherine II tried to prevent the Grand Duke from participating in discussions of state affairs, and he, in turn, began to evaluate his mother’s policies more and more critically. Pavel believed that this policy was based on love of fame and pretense; he dreamed of introducing strictly legal governance in Russia under the auspices of the autocracy, limiting the rights of the nobility, and introducing the strictest, Prussian-style, discipline in the army.
Biography of Empress Catherine II the GreatThe reign of Catherine II lasted more than three and a half decades, from 1762 to 1796. It was filled with many events in internal and external affairs, the implementation of plans that continued what was done under Peter the Great.In 1794, the Empress decided to remove her son from the throne and hand him over to her eldest grandson Alexander Pavlovich, but did not meet with sympathy from the highest state dignitaries. The death of Catherine II on November 6, 1796 opened the way for Paul to the throne.
The new emperor immediately tried to undo what had been done during the thirty-four years of Catherine II’s reign, and this became one of the most important motives of his policy.
The emperor sought to replace the collegial principle of organizing management with an individual one. An important legislative act of Paul was the law on the order of succession to the throne, published in 1797, which was in force in Russia until 1917.
In the army, Paul sought to introduce Prussian military order. He believed that the army is a machine and the main thing in it is the mechanical coherence of the troops and efficiency. In the field of class politics, the main goal was to transform the Russian nobility into a disciplined, fully serving class. Paul's policy towards the peasantry was contradictory. During the four years of his reign, he gave away gifts to about 600 thousand serfs, sincerely believing that they would live better under the landowner.
In everyday life, certain styles of clothing, hairstyles, and dances, in which the emperor saw manifestations of freethinking, were banned. Strict censorship was introduced and the import of books from abroad was prohibited.
The foreign policy of Paul I was unsystematic. Russia constantly changed allies in Europe. In 1798, Paul joined the second coalition against France; At the insistence of the allies, he placed Alexander Suvorov at the head of the Russian army, under whose command the heroic Italian and Swiss campaigns were carried out.
The capture by the British of Malta, which Paul took under his protection, accepting the title of Grand Master of the Order of St. in 1798. John of Jerusalem (Order of Malta), quarreled him with England. Russian troops were withdrawn, and in 1800 the coalition finally collapsed. Not content with this, Paul began to draw closer to France and conceived a joint struggle against England.
On January 12, 1801, Pavel sent the ataman of the Don Army, General Orlov, an order to march with his entire army on a campaign against India. A little over a month later, the Cossacks began their campaign, numbering 22,507 people. This event, accompanied by terrible hardships, was, however, not completed.
Paul's policies, combined with his despotic character, unpredictability and eccentricity, caused discontent in various social strata. Soon after his accession, a conspiracy began to mature against him. On the night of March 11 (23), 1801, Paul I was strangled in his own bedroom in the Mikhailovsky Castle. The conspirators burst into the emperor's chambers demanding that he abdicate the throne. As a result of the skirmish, Paul I was killed. It was announced to the people that the emperor had died of apoplexy.
The body of Paul I was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Pavel was born in 1754. Immediately after his birth, Catherine 2 took him into her care in order to prepare Pavel to be a good manager for the country. However, Pavel did not love Catherine, and blamed her for separating him from his mother. This resentment will live in the heart of the future emperor for the rest of his life. As a result, feelings were born in Paul that forced him to do the opposite of what Catherine 2 did.
On November 5, 1796, Catherine 2 died, and Emperor Paul 1 led the country. Having come to power, the first thing Paul did was change the order of succession to the throne. From that time on, the throne belonged not to the one named by the previous ruler, but to a member of the royal dynasty in the male line in order of seniority. The next step taken by Emperor Paul 1 was the complete replacement of the entire top government of the country. The new emperor excommunicated from power all those who were loyal to Catherine 2. He himself appointed 35 senators and 500 officials.
Catherine 2 pursued an active policy of expanding Russian possessions. Emperor Paul 1, who did everything in defiance of Catherine, believed that aggressive campaigns were detrimental to Russia. In his opinion, the country should have limited itself to exclusively defensive wars. In foreign policy, cool relations with all countries remained for a long time. But soon Emperor Paul 1, believing in the sincerity of the friendship between England and Austria, joined the anti-French coalition. The Austrians by that time did not have a strong army, and could not fight Napoleon. The British have never been good at war. Russia and its gullible emperor had to take the rap for everyone. The allies demanded. For Russia to provide an army for a campaign in Italy, in order to liberate this region from Napoleon’s troops. The Russian army, numbering 45 thousand people, went to Italy. The army was led by the great commander Alexander Suvorov.
Suvorov won victory after victory. His army was truly invincible. Suvorov almost completely ousted all French forces from Italy and was preparing a campaign against France. The allies convinced Pavle 1 of the need to transfer Suvorov’s army to Switzerland in order to suppress the French resistance there too. Pavel 1, despite the protests of Suvorov, who, unlike the emperor, understood what was in store for him in the Swiss Alps, agreed and the Russian army went to Switzerland. The “Allies” sent this army to its death. Suvorov was given maps with non-existent routes. The Austrians completely withdrew their troops from Switzerland, which was overrun by French troops. Suvorov found himself among the French, without food and without support. This is what forced him to make the famous crossing of the Alps to save his army. Along the way, Suvorov won victories over the French, but the situation had already changed. It wasn't the victories that mattered. It was important to get out of Switzerland alive in order to save the army that the British and Austrians had sent to their death.
After these events, Emperor Paul 1 said that his “allies” had betrayed Russia and wanted to destroy its army. The Emperor broke off all diplomatic relations with England and Austria. Their ambassadors were expelled from Russia. After this, Paul's rapprochement with Napoleon began. The French emperor repeatedly said that he only wanted peace with Russia, that France and Russia were friendly countries that should dominate the world together.
However, the rapprochement of the countries was not destined to materialize. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, the conspirators broke into the emperor's bedroom and demanded that he abdicate the throne. When Emperor Paul 1 refused, he was killed. A few days earlier in France they tried to blow up the carriage in which Napoleon was traveling. The French emperor survived. After the death of Paul 1, Napoleon wrote the following about these events: “THEY missed me in Paris, but got me in Russia.” This is how the great French commander described the murder of Paul 1.
Although, because of his father’s jokes on the topic “it’s unknown where his wife got her children from,” many consider the father of Paul I to be Ekaterina Alekseevna’s favorite, Sergei Saltykov. Moreover, the first-born was born only after 10 years of marriage. However, the external similarity between Paul and Peter should be considered as a response to such rumors. The childhood of the future autocrat cannot be called happy. Because of the political struggle, the current Empress Elizabeth I Petrovna was afraid for Paul the First, protected him from communication with his parents and surrounded him with a real army of nannies and teachers who curry favor with high-ranking officials rather than worry about the boy.
Pavel the First in childhood | Runiverse
The biography of Paul I claims that he received the best education that was possible at that time. The extensive library of Academician Korf was placed at his personal disposal. Teachers taught the heir to the throne not only the traditional Law of God, foreign languages, dancing and fencing, but also painting, as well as history, geography, arithmetic and even astronomy. It is interesting that none of the lessons included anything related to military affairs, but the inquisitive teenager himself became interested in this science and mastered it at a fairly high level.
Pavel the First in his youth | Arguments and Facts When Catherine II ascended the throne, she allegedly signed an obligation to transfer the reign to her son Paul I when he reached adulthood. This document has not reached us: perhaps the empress destroyed the paper, or maybe it is just a legend. But it was precisely such a statement that all the rebels dissatisfied with the rule of the “Iron German,” including Emelyan Pugachev, always referred to. In addition, there was talk that already on her deathbed, Elizaveta Petrovna was going to transfer the crown to her grandson Paul I, and not to her nephew Peter III, but the corresponding order was not made public and this decision did not affect the biography of Paul I.
Emperor
Paul the First sat on the throne of the Russian Empire only at the age of 42. Right during the coronation, he announced changes in the succession to the throne: now only men could rule Russia, and the crown was passed on only from father to son. By this, Paul unsuccessfully hoped to prevent the palace coups that had become more frequent recently. By the way, for the first time in history, the coronation procedure took place simultaneously for both the emperor and the empress on the same day.
The disgusting relationship with his mother led to the fact that Paul I chose the method of leading the country to actually contrast his decisions with its previous ones. As if “to spite” the memory of Ekaterina Alekseevna, Pavel the First returned freedom to convicted radicals, reformed the army and began to fight serfdom.
Pavel the First | Petersburg stories But in reality, all these ideas did not lead to anything good. The liberation of the radicals would come back many years later in the form of a Decembrist uprising, the reduction of the corvee remained only on paper, and the fight against corruption in the army grew into a series of repressions. Moreover, both the highest ranks, who one after another were deprived of their positions, and ordinary military personnel remained dissatisfied with the emperor. They grumbled about the new uniform, modeled on the Prussian army, which turned out to be incredibly uncomfortable. In foreign policy, Paul the First became famous for his fight against the ideas of the French Revolution. He introduced the strictest censorship in book publishing; French books and French fashion, including round hats, were banned.
Pavel the First | Wikipedia During the reign of Paul the First, thanks to commander Alexander Suvorov and Vice Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, the Russian army and navy achieved many significant victories, collaborating with Prussian and Austrian troops. But later Paul I showed his fickle character, broke off relations with his allies and formed an alliance with Napoleon. It was in Bonaparte that the Russian emperor saw the force that could stop the anti-monarchist revolution. But he was mistaken strategically: Napoleon did not become a winner even after the death of Paul the First, but because of his decision and the economic blockade of Great Britain, Russia lost its largest sales market, which had a very significant impact on the standard of living in the Russian Empire.
Personal life
Officially, Pavel the First was married twice. His first wife, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, was by birth the German Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt. She died two years after the wedding during childbirth. The first son of Paul I was born dead. That same year, the future emperor married again. The wife of Paul the First, Maria Feodorovna, was called Sophia Maria Dorothea of Württemberg before marriage, and she was destined to become the mother of two rulers at once, Alexander I and Nicholas I.
Princess Natalya Alekseevna, first wife of Paul I | Pinterest It is interesting that this marriage was not just beneficial for the state, Pavel really fell in love with this girl. As he wrote to his family, “this blonde with a pleasant face captivated the widower.” In total, in union with Maria Feodorovna, the emperor had 10 children. In addition to the two above-mentioned autocrats, it is worth noting Mikhail Pavlovich, who founded the first Russian Artillery School in St. Petersburg. By the way, he is the only child born during the reign of Paul the First.
Paul I and Maria Feodorovna surrounded by children | Wikipedia But falling in love with his wife did not stop Paul the First from following the generally accepted rules and having favorites. Two of them, ladies-in-waiting Sofya Ushakova and Mavra Yuryeva, even gave birth to illegitimate children from the emperor. It is also worth noting Ekaterina Nelidova, who had enormous influence on the emperor and it is believed that she tried to lead the country with the hands of her lover. The personal life of Paul I and Ekaterina Nelidova was more intellectual than carnal in nature. In it, the emperor realized his ideas of romantic chivalry.
Favorites of Paul I, Ekaterina Nelidova and Anna Lopukhina When those close to the court realized how much the power of this woman had increased, they arranged a “replacement” for the favorite of Paul I. Anna Lopukhina became his new lady of the heart, and Nelidova was forced to retire to Lode Castle, in the territory of present-day Estonia. It is curious that Lopukhina was not happy with this state of affairs, she was burdened by the status of the mistress of the ruler Paul the First, his “knightly” manifestations of attention, and was annoyed that these relationships were being put on display.
Death
During the several years of Paul the First's reign, despite the change in succession, at least three conspiracies were organized against him, the last of which was successful. Almost a dozen officers, commanders of the most famous regiments, as well as government officials on the night of March 24, 1801 entered the emperor’s bedroom in the Mikhailovsky Castle and committed the murder of Paul I. The official cause of his death was apoplexy. It is worth noting that nobles and ordinary people greeted the news of death with poorly controlled glee.
Engraving "The Assassination of Emperor Paul I", 1880 | Wikipedia The perception of Paul the First by subsequent generations is ambiguous. Some historians, especially during the reign of his successor Alexander I, and then in Soviet times, created the image of a tyrant and tyrant. Even the poet in his ode “Liberty” called him “a crowned villain.” Others try to emphasize Paul the First’s heightened sense of justice, calling him “the only romantic on the throne” and “the Russian Hamlet.” The Orthodox Church even at one time considered the possibility of canonizing this man. Today it is generally accepted that Paul the First does not fit into the system of any known ideology.
Pavel 1 Petrovich (born September 20 (October 1), 1754 - death March 12 (24, 1801) - Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia since 1796, son of the emperor and. Having ascended the throne, he sought to oppose the “disastrous” policies of Empress Catherine II, which, as he believed, weakened the autocracy, with a firm line on strengthening the foundations of absolutist power. He introduced strict censorship, closed private printing houses, banned the import of foreign books, and reorganized the army along the Prussian model.
He limited the privileges of the nobility, reducing the exploitation of the peasants. Opposition to power was persecuted by police measures. The reign of Paul 1, who was distinguished by inconsistency and impulsiveness, caused discontent among the highest nobility. He was killed as a result of a palace conspiracy.
early years
Pavel was born in the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna, in St. Petersburg. During the first years of his life, Pavel grew up under the supervision of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna; his parents were almost not allowed to see him, and he actually did not know his mother’s affection. 1761 - N.I. was assigned to him as a teacher. Panin. A supporter of the Enlightenment, he was sincerely attached to the Grand Duke and tried to educate him into an ideal sovereign.
Pavel received a good education and, as his contemporaries testify, was a capable, knowledge-seeking, romantically inclined boy with an open character who sincerely believed in the ideals of goodness and justice. At first, his relationship with his mother after her accession to the throne in 1762 was quite close. But over time, their relationship worsened. Catherine was wary of her son, who had more legal rights to the throne than herself.
Reign of Paul 1
Ascension to the throne
Paul the First became emperor in November 1796, at the age of 42, after the death of his mother, Empress Catherine II. He began his reign by restoring the rights of his father, who was overthrown as a result of a conspiracy more than 30 years ago. The new sovereign returned from exile many subjects who were displeasing to Catherine.
Wanting to protect once and for all his rights and the rights of his heirs to the kingdom, Emperor Paul 1 published in 1797 the “Institution on the Imperial Family,” in which for the first time in the history of Russia a firm and unshakable order of succession to the throne was established in the country. From then on, only a direct descendant of the emperor in the male line could ascend to the throne, and the empress had the right to only be a regent for the minor heir. Women could gain the right to succession to the throne only when there were no more male representatives of the dynasty. Since that time, there has not been a single woman on the Russian throne.
Emperor Paul 1 ruled despotically, imposed centralization in the state apparatus, carried out radical reforms in the army, and tried to limit the power of the nobles. Attempts were made to stabilize the financial situation of the state (including the famous action of melting down palace services into coins).
The rights of the nobility were significantly narrowed, and the most severe discipline and unpredictability of the sovereign’s behavior led to the massive dismissal of nobles from the army, especially the officers of the guard.
In the interests of trade, domestic industry was encouraged to fill the domestic market. As a result, a ban was introduced on the import of a number of foreign goods, such as silk, paper, linen and hemp fabrics, steel, salt... In addition, with the help of subsidies, privileges, and government orders, domestic manufacturers were encouraged to produce goods not only for the treasury, but also for free trade. This was the case, for example, in relation to cloth and mountain breeders.
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During Paul's reign, trade with Persia, Bukhara, India and China expanded. With regard to industry, as well as trade, the government pursued a moderate protective policy. Particular attention was paid to cloth factories, which supplied their products to the treasury. This is because the products of this industry were almost entirely used for army needs, to which the emperor himself was far from indifferent.
Paul the First contributed to the strengthening of serfdom, distributing more than 600 thousand peasants during his reign. The decree of 1797, which limited corvee to three days, did little to alleviate the situation of the peasantry, since it was more a recommendation than a guide to action.
Under the reign of Paul 1, the requirements for noble service were tightened: the practice of long vacations and the registration of nobility in the army immediately after birth were prohibited. Fearing the “revolutionary infection,” Pavel took such measures as closing private printing houses (1797), banning the import of foreign books (1800), and tightening censorship.
The emperor was able to more fully implement his plans in the army and carried out army reform. Positive aspects (improved regiment staffing and maintenance of soldiers) coexisted with negative ones (the “stick” discipline of punishment was introduced; unjustified imitation of the Prussian army). 
After ascending the throne, Paul, in order to emphasize the contrast with his mother, began to declare peacefulness and non-interference in European affairs. But, when in 1798 there was a threat of Napoleon re-establishing an independent Polish state, Paul’s government took an active part in organizing the anti-French coalition.
In the same year, the Emperor assumed the duties of Master of the Order of Malta, thereby challenging the Emperor of France, who had captured Malta. 1798-1800 - the Russian army successfully fought in Italy, and the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, which could not but cause concern on the part of Austria and England. Relations with these states completely deteriorated in the spring of 1800. At the same time, a rapprochement with France began, and a plan for a joint campaign against India was even discussed. Without waiting for the corresponding agreement to be signed, the sovereign ordered the Don Cossacks, who had already been stopped, to set out on a campaign.
Initially, the plans included the overthrow of Paul 1 and the accession of an English regent. The conspiracy was discovered, Lindener and Arakcheev were summoned, but this only contributed to the acceleration of the execution of the conspiracy and signed the death warrant for the emperor. According to one version, he was killed by Nikolai Zubov (Suvorov’s son-in-law, Platon Zubov’s older brother), who hit him in the temple with a heavy gold snuffbox. According to another version, the sovereign was strangled with a scarf or he was crushed by a group of conspirators who, leaning on Paul and each other, did not know exactly what was happening. Mistaking one of the conspirators for the son of Constantine, he shouted: “Your Highness, are you here too? Have mercy! Air, Air!.. What have I done wrong to you?” These were his last words.
The question of whether Alexander Pavlovich could have known or sanctioned the palace coup and the murder of his father remained unclear for a long time. According to the memoirs of Prince A Czartoryski, the idea of a conspiracy appeared almost in the first days of the reign of Paul 1, but its implementation became possible only after it became known about the consent of Alexander, who signed the corresponding secret manifesto, in which he recognized the need for a coup and pledged not to persecute conspirators after coming to power.
Most likely, Alexander himself was well aware that without a palace coup it would be impossible, since the emperor would not abdicate the throne of his own free will, and leaving him alive - even in prison - would mean causing a revolt of the troops trained by the sovereign. Thus, by signing the manifesto, Alexander thereby signed the death warrant for his father.