busy only with strengthening their own autocracy."
2) who are we talking about in this passage?:
“Before his death, Vasily 3 told the boyars.....”a man who came to us,” the boyars should consider him “for a local native,” for he is a “direct servant” of the sovereign.
“Mother, our gracious empress. I don’t know what to start now, I’m afraid of anger from your majesty, lest you deign to think something violent against us, and lest we be the cause of the death of your villain and all of Russia, as well as our law.”
4) about which of his mentors did Ivan the Terrible write these lines?:
“following the biblical commandment, he submitted to the good mentor without any reasoning. He was a strict and demanding teacher.”
5)Who are we talking about in this passage?:
“To the credit of the new tsar, it should be noted that no one fell into disgrace, not a single person was executed, but everyone had the opportunity to show what they were capable of in the revival of Russia.”
Insert the missing numbers or words 1. St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv was built during the reign of ... 2. Author of the “Sermon on Law and Grace” ...3. Christianity in Rus' was adopted in... 4. Painting on wet plaster is called... 5. Who in his work tried to answer the question “Where did the Russian land come from?” 6. Poetic tales about the past, glorifying the exploits of heroes, are called ... 7. In 989. Construction of the Tithe Church began in... 8. In which cathedral were frescoes depicting the family of Yaroslav the Wise painted? 9. What were the names of illustrations in handwritten books? 10. The creators of the Russian alphabet were... and... The technique of soldering a pattern of small beads onto a piece of jewelry is called...
please help urgently1. Which of the ancient Russian princes paid with their lives for trying to collect repeated tribute from the Drevlyans?
2. Which city was the final destination on the way “from the Varangians to the Greeks”?
3. Who was the author of "The Word of Law and Grace"?
4. Which of the Moscow princes was the first to receive the right to collect in favor of the Mongols from all Russian lands?
5. Are the following statements true?
A. Ryadovich is a category of dependent population in Rus'.
B. Smerd was a peasant who was personally dependent on the feudal lord; his position was close to that of a slave.
6. Which of the listed principalities had the strongest veche traditions?
A. In Moscow
B. In Smolensk
V. In Kiev
G. In Novgorod
7. Under which prince was St. Sophia Cathedral built in Kyiv?
8. "St. George's Day" was introduced...
9. Sofya Vitovtovna was the wife...
10. Are the following statements true?
A. Vasily 3 divorced Elena Glinskaya, so she could not bear him an heir.
B. Anna Yaroslavovna was the wife of the Norwegian king Harold
11. Find contemporaries
A.. Alexey Adashaev, Malyuta Skuratov
B. Ivan Fedorov, Andrey Rublev
C. Yaroslav the Wise, Alexander Peresvet
D.Vladimir Monomakh, Dionysius
12. Who painted the walls of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow with frescoes?
13. Which monastery was opened in honor of the annexation of Smolensk?
14. Which of the great princes became the first Russian Tsar?
15. Are the following statements true?
A. Ivan 3 annexed Novgorod, Tver and Pskov to Moscow.
B. The stand on the Ugra ended with the complete defeat of the Horde army.
busy only with strengthening their own autocracy."
2) who are we talking about in this passage?:
“Before his death, Vasily 3 told the boyars.....”a man who came to us,” the boyars should consider him “for a local native,” for he is a “direct servant” of the sovereign.
“Mother, our gracious empress. I don’t know what to start now, I’m afraid of anger from your majesty, lest you deign to think something violent against us, and lest we be the cause of the death of your villain and all of Russia, as well as our law.”
4) about which of his mentors did Ivan the Terrible write these lines?:
“following the biblical commandment, he submitted to the good mentor without any reasoning. He was a strict and demanding teacher.”
5)Who are we talking about in this passage?:
“To the credit of the new tsar, it should be noted that no one fell into disgrace, not a single person was executed, but everyone had the opportunity to show what they were capable of in the revival of Russia.”
Insert the missing numbers or words 1. St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv was built during the reign of ... 2. Author of the “Sermon on Law and Grace” ...3. Christianity in Rus' was adopted in... 4. Painting on wet plaster is called... 5. Who in his work tried to answer the question “Where did the Russian land come from?” 6. Poetic tales about the past, glorifying the exploits of heroes, are called ... 7. In 989. Construction of the Tithe Church began in... 8. In which cathedral were frescoes depicting the family of Yaroslav the Wise painted? 9. What were the names of illustrations in handwritten books? 10. The creators of the Russian alphabet were... and... The technique of soldering a pattern of small beads onto a piece of jewelry is called...
please help urgently1. Which of the ancient Russian princes paid with their lives for trying to collect repeated tribute from the Drevlyans?
2. Which city was the final destination on the way “from the Varangians to the Greeks”?
3. Who was the author of "The Word of Law and Grace"?
4. Which of the Moscow princes was the first to receive the right to collect in favor of the Mongols from all Russian lands?
5. Are the following statements true?
A. Ryadovich is a category of dependent population in Rus'.
B. Smerd was a peasant who was personally dependent on the feudal lord; his position was close to that of a slave.
6. Which of the listed principalities had the strongest veche traditions?
A. In Moscow
B. In Smolensk
V. In Kiev
G. In Novgorod
7. Under which prince was St. Sophia Cathedral built in Kyiv?
8. "St. George's Day" was introduced...
9. Sofya Vitovtovna was the wife...
10. Are the following statements true?
A. Vasily 3 divorced Elena Glinskaya, so she could not bear him an heir.
B. Anna Yaroslavovna was the wife of the Norwegian king Harold
11. Find contemporaries
A.. Alexey Adashaev, Malyuta Skuratov
B. Ivan Fedorov, Andrey Rublev
C. Yaroslav the Wise, Alexander Peresvet
D.Vladimir Monomakh, Dionysius
12. Who painted the walls of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow with frescoes?
13. Which monastery was opened in honor of the annexation of Smolensk?
14. Which of the great princes became the first Russian Tsar?
15. Are the following statements true?
A. Ivan 3 annexed Novgorod, Tver and Pskov to Moscow.
B. The stand on the Ugra ended with the complete defeat of the Horde army.
Reign of Paul
Observing the activities of his father, Alexander soon identifies two lines in the policy of the new emperor: to eradicate what was created by his mother, the very memory of whom he hates, and to remake Russia according to the model of Gatchina. The strict order introduced in his personal residence near St. Petersburg, Pavel wants to impose throughout Russian Empire. Alexander, although a liberal, is not against some discipline: the nation will only benefit if all his compatriots begin to wear a uniform. With enthusiasm, he accompanies his father to Moscow for the coronation, scheduled for April 5, 1797. During this journey, Alexander discovers real Russia: When they pass through towns and villages, they are met by men, not courtiers.
In Moscow, the streets are still covered with snow. A piercing wind hits the motorcade as it slowly enters the city. Higher ranks and dignitaries curse the hardships of service. Despite the frost, people poured into the streets and welcomed the new sovereign. In front of the procession, horsemen gallop with shouts, ordering them to bare their heads and take off their gloves and mittens. When the emperor approaches, everyone falls on their faces. Pavel responds to greetings, holding his hat in his hand. When Alexander appears, a reverent whisper is heard from the crowd. Alexander rides on horseback, looks around at the people and eagerly listens to the music of praise. He knows that he is beautiful, understands that he arouses general admiration and love. He is flattered by popularity. After all, the sympathies of the masses are from that type of wine that easily goes to the head. Once you have tasted such a drink, how can you do without it?
On the days of the coronation celebrations, Paul announces new law on succession to the throne, establishing inheritance by male line by right of birthright. This act strengthens the position of the Grand Duke-heir. Precisely in order to kindle his thirst for power, the king showers him with honors. He appoints him commander of the famous Semenovsky regiment, inspector of cavalry, military governor of St. Petersburg, chairman of the military department. Soon Alexander will sit in the Senate. The young man, satisfied with the distinctions he receives, little by little forgets about his dream of withdrawing from the world and settling with his wife in some secluded corner of Switzerland or Germany. Some of the emperor's innovations earn his approval. It seems to him that the dawn of justice has risen: his father reorganizes the Senate, creates food reserves in case of lean years, provides subsidies to entrepreneurs, prohibits the import of luxury goods, establishes a Higher Medical School, issues a decree according to which peasants are not the property of landowners, but “attached to the land.” serfs,” which, however, does not in the least shake the very principle of serfdom, limits corvee to three days a week, prohibits landowners from forcing peasants to work on Sundays, reduces the price of salt and, finally, orders a mailbox to be nailed to the door of the palace, where each subject may omit the request or complaint. The king keeps the key to the box. He expects to glean a lot of information about what is happening in the country from this intimate correspondence with his empire. But not even a year has passed before disappointment befalls him, and he orders the box to be removed: too many offensive lampoons, satirical pamphlets and caricatures were thrown there every day. Let Russia open its lips, and instead of thanking you, it will spit on you. This nation cannot be consulted; it must dictate its will.
The honeymoon with the empire has been somewhat delayed, and irritation accumulates in Pavel from the inability to please everyone, to satisfy both nobles and peasants. His upset mind is clouded. His subjects appear to him as puppets that he can control as he pleases. Excessively suspicious, he senses a treacherous spirit even in fashionable clothes and, by decree of January 13, 1797, prohibits the wearing of round hats, long trousers, shoes with bows and boots with cuffs. Two hundred dragoons, divided into pickets, rush through the streets of St. Petersburg, attack passers-by whose costume does not comply with the emperor’s orders, tear off hats, cut vests, and confiscate shoes. The offenders, and almost all of them belong to high society, return home with their clothes torn to shreds, change clothes and walk around the city transformed: in kaftans with a stiff collar, short trousers, shoes with buckles and cocked hats on powdered hair. Officials are ordered to appear everywhere only in uniform.
Having established supervision over the cut of his subjects' dresses, Paul naturally wants to control their reading. By decree of February 16, 1797, he introduced secular and church censorship in St. Petersburg and Moscow and ordered the sealing of private printing houses. Banishes the waltz as a French and, therefore, Jacobin dance. Crosses out the words “citizen”, “club”, “society” from dictionaries. At nine o'clock in the evening after the evening dawn, the main streets of the capital are closed to pedestrians and the outposts are allowed to open only for doctors and midwives.
The specter of revolution haunts Paul; Freemasons and Martinists appear everywhere to him, although, as a Grand Duke, he himself spoke approvingly of their humane goals. Some nobles and high-ranking courtiers, whom he treated in a friendly manner, suddenly fall out of favor. However, any independent thought that arose in one of his close associates irritates Pavel, as if it were an attack on his genius.
Overwhelmed by a thirst for activity, wanting to delve into everything and do everything himself, he gets to work at six o’clock in the morning and forces all government officials to comply with this schedule. It is still dark in the pre-dawn St. Petersburg fog, officials of all ranks, clutching briefcases under their arms, rush to their offices and colleges, where chandeliers and chandeliers are already lit. At the end of the morning, Pavel, dressed in a dark green uniform and boots, goes, accompanied by his sons and adjutants, to the parade ground. A garnet-colored velvet dalmatic, embroidered with pearls, was thrown over the uniform so that His Majesty would not get lost in the crowd of generals. His balding head is uncovered, his brows furrowed; He holds one hand behind his back, the other raises and lowers the cane, beating time. In the most severe frost, he does not wear a fur hat - this is a matter of honor for him. “Soon,” says Masson, “not a single military man dared to appear in a fur coat, and the old generals, tormented by cough, gout and rheumatism, were dressed in the same way as him in the presence of their master.” Paul, as the commander-in-chief of the army, arbitrarily makes promotions and appointments, himself dismisses officers on leave and himself gives them permission to marry. He drives out well-deserved, but not pleasing, generals, and replaces them with unknown and uneducated people, but ready to fulfill the most absurd whim. Demotion is carried out publicly, in front of the line. Once, angry at the regiment, which failed to clearly carry out his command, Pavel orders him to march straight from the parade to Siberia. The punished regiment, together with its officers, goes into exile, and the king’s associates beg him to have mercy. Finally, he reluctantly gives in to persuasion and sends after him an order to return. The soldiers, already far from the capital, obey the order with dull obedience, turn and march back to St. Petersburg.
One of Paul's first measures was to re-equip the entire army into Prussian uniforms. military uniform, introduced in Gatchina. Before each exercise, hairdressers work hard on the hairstyles of officers and soldiers, lubricating their hair with a mixture of flour and lard to make it easier to braid. Everyone knows: for the slightest omission in service, you are threatened with imprisonment in a fortress or exile. The fate of people literally hangs by a thread or a belt buckle, and officers, going to the review, say goodbye to loved ones and stock up on money.
In the hearts of young guardsmen from noble families, hatred bubbles up for the Gatchina “scoundrels,” rootless and cruel people, from whom, according to Paul’s will, they should take an example. They remember with regret the beautiful uniforms with lush epaulettes that were worn under Catherine, the elegant scarves and sword belts, and are ashamed to resemble “Prussian monkeys.” A new circular dated November 29, 1796 elevated precision of formation, precision of intervals and goose step to the main principles of military affairs. From mouth to mouth, from salons to barracks, fear-inducing remarks from the emperor are transmitted. He likes to repeat: “A nobleman in Russia is only the one with whom I speak and while I speak to him.” To Prince Repnin, who decided to give him some advice, he shouts: “Mr. Field Marshal, do you see this guardhouse? There are four hundred people here. One word from me, and they will all become marshals.” And he teaches his sons, Alexander and Konstantin: “Aren’t you convinced, my children, that people must be treated like dogs.” In fact, Paul punishes for no reason and has mercy for no reason out of the sole pleasure of being convinced of his omnipotence again and again.
Alexander, like others, is affected by the sudden changes in the emperor’s mood. Despite all his honorary titles, he is under his father's thumb. Contrary to appearances, he does not have any power and cannot make a single independent decision. Nothing depends on him; all his time is strictly regulated. For any reason, his father calls him into the office, Alexander reports in detail about the changing of the guard and in one case out of two he is scolded for a malfunction. He, the twenty-year-old heir to the throne, trembles with fear before the formidable ruler, like a weak-minded child who constantly feels guilty, not understanding what to do to please his teacher. One day, having irritated his father with some minor omission, he asks his mother, Maria Feodorovna, to draft a letter of apology in French, which he will then rewrite: “The reproach you made to me, dear father, struck me to the very heart. During my upbringing, I was instilled with a deep sense of... reverence, tenderness and submission to the one who gave me life. As long as I live, I will keep in my heart this symbol of faith, which I am ready to sign with my blood.”
Maria Feodorovna rarely manages to protect her sons from her husband’s wrath. It is quite natural that Alexander is looking for a more powerful ally and chooses Arakcheev, the “Gatchina corporal.” This lightning rod, Alexander hopes, will divert the lightning of the imperial wrath from him. Indeed, Pavel really appreciates Arakcheev. Promoted first to colonel, then to major general of the Preobrazhensky regiment, Arakcheev receives the title of baron, the ribbon of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, the Gruzino estate with two thousand peasants as a gift, and will end his career as a commander of the Order of Malta and a count. Alexander, in order to protect himself in advance from his father’s nagging, forces this exemplary servant, who enjoys the unlimited trust of the tsar, to sign all his orders. Arakcheev’s cruelty towards his inferiors does not disturb the conscience of the heir to the throne, who is completely absorbed in how to protect his peace. He knows that Arakcheev beats soldiers, twists their noses, pulls out their mustaches, that he hits officers in the face, that he drove his associate Suvorov to suicide. Despite all this, Alexander opens his heart to him, asks him for advice and feels lost when this beast is not next to him. Separated from Arakcheev, he writes short notes to him, full of humility and love: “I have received an abyss of cases, of which those for which I do not know what decisions to make, I am sending to you, considering it is better to ask good advice rather than do nonsense”... “Forgive me, my friend, for bothering you, but I’m young, and I still need advice, and so I hope that you won’t leave me with it”... “Take care of yourself, if not for yourself , then at least for me. I am extremely pleased to see your affection for me. I think that you do not doubt mine and know how much I love you sincerely.”
So the meek disciple of La Harpe effortlessly adapts to this monster in uniform for the benefit that he derives from his friendship. True, he rewards himself by communicating with friends of a different kind, young intellectuals inspired by the ideas of progress. At the center of this community is Prince Adam Czartoryski. The entire court admires the beauty, elegance, and European education of the twenty-seven-year-old Polish magnate, a native of the regions annexed to Russia after the partition of Poland. Czartoryski is concerned about the fate of his humiliated homeland, and he has the courage not to hide his freedom-loving convictions. Alexander renews his confidential friendship with Viktor Kochubey, who returned to St. Petersburg, with whom he exchanged letters when he was ambassador to Constantinople. Kochubey is passionate about putting things in order and giving society fair laws. Nikolai Novosiltsev is “almost a scientist” in this group. He acquired a thorough knowledge of law, political economy and general history and often has the upper hand in discussions. The fourth member of the friendly circle is Pavel Stroganov. His father, the richest Russian Freemason, does not remember exactly how many lands and serfs he had; owns the largest collection of paintings in Russia; having traveled all over Europe, he makes friends with the most brilliant minds of his time; obeying his own whim, he entrusts the upbringing of his son French teacher Gilbert Romm, a future member of the Convention, and allows him to take the young man to France. Teacher and student arrive in Paris at the height of french revolution. Pavel, or Popo, as his friends call him, became infected revolutionary ideas, renounces his title, takes the name “Citizen Paul Ocher,” visits the Jacobin Club, joins the “Friends of the Law” society founded by Gilbert Romm, generously supplies his French friends with Russian gold, becomes the lover of the “shameless Judith” - Théroigne de Mericourt - and walks around through the streets of Paris in a red Phrygian cap. Simolin, the Russian ambassador in Paris, lost his head at Popo's antics, notifies Catherine. She orders Nikolai Novosiltsev to be immediately sent to France with the order to return “Popo” to the bosom of the family by any means and, as punishment, exiles this brilliant Russian sans-culotte to his estate near Moscow. He spends several years there and, having come to his senses, again enters favor, shines in St. Petersburg drawing rooms and marries Princess Sofya Golitsyna. Meanwhile, his tutor Gilbert Romm votes for the execution of the king, presents a project for an optical telegraph to the Convention, invents a revolutionary calendar, demands that the ashes of Jean-Paul Marat be transferred to the Pantheon, fights the Thermidorian reaction and, after the fall of the Jacobins, ends his days by stabbing himself with a dagger. Pavel Stroganov, who safely emerged from the whirlpool of these tragic events, writes: “I saw a people who raised the banner of freedom and threw off the shackles of slavery; no, I will never forget those moments. Yes, I do not close my eyes to the fact that despotism exists in my country, and I peer with horror into its ugly face... All my blood and all my fortune belong to my fellow citizens.” Pavel Stroganov never tires of repeating these generous words to his Russian friends. But soon the sophisticated entertainments of the capital social life capture him. He marries the smartest and most educated woman in St. Petersburg and leads with her the life of an enlightened and idle nobleman. He does not know Russia at all, speaks Russian with difficulty, and regains his former revolutionary fervor only in the company of Alexander. Alexander wants to know the point of view of his liberal-minded friends on the possibility of change in Russia. Secretly, they draw up notes where they set out their projects in the most general form: the introduction of civil liberties, equality of citizens before the law, a society based on the principles of justice and fraternity - and pass them on to the heir to the throne. Warmly approving of the noble views of his like-minded people, Alexander hides their notes in a box and never thinks about them again. His kingdom is a dream, not a reality. Czartoryski, offended by the neglect with which the project was treated, which cost him so much work, writes: “I do not know the further fate of this paper. I think Alexander never showed it to anyone, and he never spoke about it to me again. He probably burned it."
Secret meetings, where Alexander conferred with his too smart friends, displeased the king. He seems to smell the scent of a democratic conspiracy emanating from them. All revolutions begin with childish games. We need to separate these talkers before they decide to move from words to action. However, the emperor is in no hurry to act, preferring to let the abscess ripen. Father and son live in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and hidden hatred. Concerned Alexander on September 27, 1797 writes Laharpe a long message - a real confession - and instructs Novosiltsev, who is leaving abroad, to deliver a letter to his beloved teacher: “My father, upon ascending the throne, wanted to change everything decisively. His first steps were brilliant, but subsequent events did not match them. Everything was immediately turned upside down, and therefore the disorder, which already dominated affairs to too great a degree, only increased even more. The military loses almost all of its time exclusively at parades. In all other respects there is absolutely no strictly defined plan. Today they are ordering something that will be canceled in a month. No arguments are allowed, except when all the evil has been accomplished. Finally, to put it in one word, the welfare of the state does not play any role in the management of affairs: there is only unlimited power, which creates everything topsy-turvy. It is impossible to list all the follies that were committed here... My unfortunate fatherland is in a situation that defies description. The farmer is offended, trade is constrained, freedom and personal well-being are destroyed. Here's a picture modern Russia, and judge by it how much my heart must suffer. I myself, obliged to obey all the little things military service, I lose all my time performing the duties of a non-commissioned officer, absolutely not having any opportunity to devote myself to my scientific studies, which constitute my favorite pastime: I have now become the most unhappy person.”
Having described the chaos to which Paul's extravagant rule brought the country, Alexander comes to the most delicate part of the letter. For the first time, he, who has always been burdened by the thought of power, admits that perhaps the day will come when he will have to rule Russia. His youthful dream of an unknown existence “in a hut on the banks of the Rhine” is replaced by a new one - the dream of the fate of an emperor who dedicated his life to serving the Fatherland, bringing goodness and enlightenment to his people. He is aware of the full weight of responsibility that such a goal imposes, and evaluates his strength. He does not reject the monarchical principle, but intends to limit it by the constitution. It seems to him that the very word “constitution,” brought to Russia from France, contains a magical power that strengthens the virtues of the monarch. With absolute sincerity, he continues: “You have long known my thoughts, which tended to leave my homeland. At present, I do not foresee the slightest possibility of carrying them out, and then the unfortunate situation of my fatherland forces me to give my thoughts a different direction. I thought that if my turn to reign ever came, then instead of voluntarily exiling myself, I would do incomparably better by devoting myself to the task of giving the country freedom and thereby preventing it from becoming a toy in the future in the hands of some madmen. This made me change my mind about many things, and it seems to me that this would be the best example of a revolution, since it would be carried out by a legitimate authority, which would cease to exist as soon as the constitution was completed and the nation elected its representatives. That's my point. I shared it with enlightened people who, for their part, thought a lot about it. In total there are only four of us, namely: Novosiltsev, Count Stroganov, young Prince Czartoryski - my adjutant, an outstanding young man, and me!
When my turn comes, then it will be necessary to try, it goes without saying, gradually to form a popular representation, which, duly guided, would draw up a free constitution, after which my power would completely cease, and I, if Providence blesses our work, retired would go to some corner and live there happy and contented, seeing the prosperity of his fatherland and enjoying it. These are my thoughts, my dear friend. How happy I would be if the opportunity arose to have you next to me then!.. God only grant that we could ever achieve our goal - to grant Russia freedom and protect it from the encroachments of despotism and tyranny.”
Until this new political dawn has risen, Alexander, suppressing disgust, carries out many small tasks that his father entrusts to him. He spends the whole day outside the house, busy with work, returns exhausted, haggard and does not show his wife the tenderness or attention that she so expects. She suffers from her husband’s indifference and gradually grows cold towards him. Rare meetings alone leave only bitterness and disappointment in their souls. They see each other sporadically in the evenings, when, dressed in court clothes, they attend official receptions, dinners, balls, performances, and concerts. These duties imposed by etiquette are all the more burdensome for Elizabeth because she has to endure in public the treatment of her father-in-law that is humiliating to her dignity. At first he treated her politely, but now he insults her with harsh words and rude antics. “The day goes well if you have the honor of not seeing the emperor,” she writes to her mother. - I confess, mother, this man is widerw"artig to me. The very sound of his voice is unpleasant to me and his presence in society is even more unpleasant, when anyone, no matter who he is and no matter what he says, may not please His Majesty and run into rude shout. I assure you, everyone, with the exception of a few of his supporters, hates him: they say that the peasants are beginning to murmur. Abuses have become twice as many as a year ago, and cruel reprisals are being carried out right in front of the emperor. Imagine, mother, one day he ordered the officer in charge of the imperial kitchen to be beaten because he did not like the meat served for dinner; he ordered that the strongest cane be chosen and then, in his presence, be beaten. He put an innocent man under arrest, and when my husband said that he was guilty the other replied: “It doesn’t matter, they are at the same time.” Oh, mom, how hard it is to look at the injustice and violence happening around, to see so many unfortunate people (how many of them are already on his conscience?) and pretend that you respect and honor such a person. Even if I act like the most respectful daughter-in-law, I harbor different feelings in my soul. However, he doesn’t care whether they love him, as long as they fear him, he said so himself. And this will of his is completely fulfilled: he is feared and hated.”
Elizabeth is outraged by the humiliation to which, by order of the emperor, the best officers and bravest soldiers are subjected, and she secretly hopes that one fine day they will rebel. “Never has a more suitable opportunity presented itself,” she writes, “but here they are too accustomed to the yoke and will not try to throw it off. At the first firmly given order, they become quieter than water, lower than the grass. Oh, if only someone could be found to lead them!”
In scribbling these lines, is it her husband she has in mind? Yes, without a doubt, although she is tied to him only by marital habit. Elizabeth’s feelings are looking for a way out, and at first she rushes into a childishly passionate friendship with the beautiful Countess Golovina, to whom she sends tender notes written in French: “Away from you, I feel sad... I constantly think about you, my thoughts run wild, and I don’t feel anything.” I can get busy...” “I love you... Oh, if this continues, I’ll go crazy. Thoughts about you fill my whole day until the minute I fall asleep. If I wake up at night, my thoughts turn to you again...” “My God, the memory of those two moments stirs up all my senses!.. Ah, I hope you understand how dear to me is that day when I gave myself entirely to you.” . Alexander is aware of this ambiguous intimacy between his wife and Countess Golovina and encourages it. Elizabeth confesses this to the young woman in a letter dated December 12, 1794: “I will love you no matter what happens. No one can forbid me to love you, and the one who has the right to do so ordered me to love you. You understand me, I hope." This half-love, half-friendship with a twenty-five-year-old woman cannot fill Elizabeth’s feelings. By her own admission, she does not have a fiery temperament, but is overly nervous. When they comb her hair, sparks fly out of it: “It’s better not to touch my hair,” she says, “it’s so electrified.” In the dark, when the chandeliers are turned off, a luminous halo seems to surround her head. Elizabeth yearns for male love, exciting, all-consuming, which she dreamed of in the first days of her marriage. There was no need to wait long - the comforter of the abandoned wife was found nearby. This is Alexander's best friend, the seductive prince Adam Czartoryski with a sharp mind like a sword strike and a velvety gaze. She succumbs to the charms of a Polish nobleman. Alexander is amused by this love affair, and he helps its heroes get closer. Since the courtship of Platon Zubov, he became convinced that he was not jealous of his wife: then she remained faithful to him, but this time, intoxicated with happiness and gratitude, she could not resist. So be it, Alexander turns a blind eye to everything. Does he really care about his wife’s infidelity, or does he experience a perverse pleasure in sharing Elizabeth with his favorite? He closely follows the development of their relationship, which the whole court is gossiping about. Cheating on his wife frees him from any duty towards her, and, while not taking advantage of his freedom, he simply rejoices in it. For three years, he watches the vicissitudes of this love story with the condescension of an outsider. However, court licentiousness justified the ease of morals. Paul himself sets the example. After many years of marital fidelity, this devoted husband is at once freed from both his wife Maria Fedorovna and his favorite Ekaterina Nelidova. After the birth of the tenth child (Grand Duke Michael), doctors forbade the empress from performing marital duties, and immediately Kutaisov, formerly a barber and valet, and now His Majesty’s pimp and chief equerry, introduces the forty-four-year-old sovereign to a sixteen-year-old girl, Anna Lopukhina, whose freshness captivates the eyes of the monarch. Ekaterina Nelidova is dismissed without ceremony, and the new girl, “not beautiful and not amiable,” but simple-minded, like a child, captures Pavel’s heart. He showers her with gifts, elevates the people for whom she is busy, disgraces those she dislikes, and, protecting her from court gossip, marries her to Prince Gagarin, who is destined to play the role of a screen. Upon completion of the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, he arranges for his favorite in the apartment located under his own chambers, and in the evenings he goes down the secret staircase to her, unnoticed by anyone. But in vain he surrounds his visits to the beauty with a shroud of secrecy: the whole court knows where the emperor disappears to. Who dares to condemn him? In any case, not Elizabeth, whose affair with Adam Czartoryski is being slandered by the entire court.
On May 18, 1799, she gives birth to a black-haired and black-eyed girl, little Maria. This is a reason for outright gloating of the courtiers. During the christening, the emperor, turning to Countess Lieven, who showed him the newborn, remarks dryly: “Madam, do you believe that a blonde wife and a blonde husband can have a brunette child?” Confused for a moment, Countess Lieven replies: “Sir, God is almighty.”
This time Adam Czartoryski is completely compromised, his career in Russia is interrupted. Paul entrusts him with a diplomatic mission at the court of the King of Sardinia. “Send immediately,” he orders Rostopchin, who enters his words in the Diary of the Verbal Commands of Emperor Paul. The farewell of Adam Czartoryski and Alexander was heartbreaking.
A little later after her lover's departure, Elizabeth suffers a new blow: she loses her child. “This morning I lost my child, she died,” she writes to her mother on July 27, 1800. “I cannot express how terrible it is to lose a child; I am unable to write to you today about this misfortune.” And a little later: “It’s been a long time since I wrote to you about Mauschen, every hour I think about her, every day I mourn her. It can’t be otherwise while I’m alive, even if I have two dozen other children.”
Alexander also feels lost, but more because of the separation from the irreplaceable Adam Czartoryski than because of the death of the child. Meanwhile, his group of friends was dispersed: Kochubey, suspected of liberalism, fell out of favor; Novosiltsev, who was in bad standing with the emperor, himself left Russia and went to England; Stroganov is removed from the courtyard. Left alone, Alexander becomes close to his wife. Elizabeth, the target of ridicule from court scoffers, writes to her mother: “I don’t like to owe anything to the emperor... Or to be an instrument of some people’s revenge on the Grand Duke and his friends. These people are doing everything to ruin my reputation; I don’t know what they are trying to achieve, and I don’t care, as it should be when there is nothing to reproach myself with. If they want to quarrel between me and the Grand Duke, then they are trying in vain: he knows my thoughts, and no action of mine will ever quarrel between us.”
Alexander and Elizabeth have not been attracted to each other for a long time. “Yes, mom, I like him,” she writes confidentially to her mother. “Once upon a time I liked him to the point of madness, but now, as I get to know him better, I notice small traits, really small... And some of these small traits are not to my taste... they have cooled my excessive love to him. I still love him very much, but in a different way." Young people are connected not by love, but by friendship, common interests, and mutual trust. Left alone behind closed doors, away from prying eyes and ears, they discuss in low voices what surprises and trials the future has in store for them.
Paul's foreign policy is even more inconsistent than his domestic one. He stopped the war with Persia started by Catherine, but, angry at Bonaparte, who suddenly captured the island of Malta, he proclaimed himself Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta, declared war on France and sent three armies against it: one to Italy, another to Holland, and a third to Switzerland. Despite Suvorov's brilliant victories in Italy, the expedition failed. Beside himself with rage, Pavel quarreled with his Austrian allies, who did not support Suvorov, and changed his mind about eradicating the legacy of the revolution in Europe. He changes course abruptly foreign policy, and the hated Bonaparte, like Frederick II, becomes for him an example to follow and an enlightened friend. Isn't the First Consul going to rein in the sans-culottes? Paul, without hesitation, expels the Bourbons from Mitau, where he himself allowed them to settle, seeks ways of rapprochement with France and breaks off diplomatic relations with England, which, contrary to its promise, did not want to cede Malta to the Knights of Malta dear to his heart. British ships anchored in Russian waters are captured and the crew taken into custody. But this is not enough for Pavel. In order to break the pride of the arrogant Albion, the emperor gives the troops a fantastic order - to immediately march to Orenburg, from there to Khiva and Bukhara and, having traveled thousands of miles across the deserted steppes, begin the conquest of India. The regiments that came out first were placed under the command of Major General Platov, who on this occasion was released from Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was imprisoned for some minor offense.
His Majesty's extravagant policy causes acute discontent in court circles. A small group of conspirators gathers in the salon of the beautiful Olga Zherebtsova, sister of Platon Zubov, and discusses plans to overthrow the crazy sovereign from the throne and replace him with Alexander. Lord Charles Whitworth, England's ambassador to St. Petersburg and Olga Zherebtsova's lover, willingly helps them: St. James's cabinet is extremely interested in the speedy overthrow of the monarch who is thwarting British projects. The main roles in the conspiracy are played by Vice-Chancellor Nikita Panin, a brilliant nobleman and a clever diplomat, the Zubov brothers and the Neapolitan adventurer Joseph Ribas, an admiral in Russian service. Despite all their efforts, the conspirators do not have enough time to develop their plan in detail. After the rupture of diplomatic relations with England, Whitworth was ordered to leave the capital along with the entire staff of the English embassy. Soon Nikita Panin falls into disgrace, the Zubov brothers are sent into exile, Ribas dies of a serious illness, and Olga Zherebtsova wisely goes into the shadows.
It seemed that the very idea of the conspiracy was under threat, but then the sophisticated courtier Count Pyotr Alekseevich Palen, cold, energetic, purposeful, and also endowed with a prepossessing appearance, appeared on stage and took matters into his own hands. Returning to the capital from the army, where he carried out the orders of the tsar, he again takes the post of governor-general of St. Petersburg and decides to act without delay. Pavel, he reasons, is about to plunge the country into a disastrous war with England; the British fleet, significantly superior to the Russian one, will appear in Kronstadt and force Russia to a shameful surrender. Paul's repressive measures against the United Kingdom hit Russian landowners, closing the main market for grain and timber. During the four years of Paul's reign, the oppression over the people trembling with fear intensified; both the most downtrodden of the serfs and the highly exalted nobleman are equally afraid of the unpredictable whims of this crowned despot. Harassment, nagging, and humiliation are multiplying every day. Having become painfully suspicious, Pavel strengthens postal censorship and extends it even to the correspondence of his family members. He brings the Jesuit Father Gruber closer to him and, to the great indignation of church and court circles, is thinking about reuniting the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Police agents enter private homes, receptions, musical evenings, and balls. One of the decrees orders everyone, not excluding ladies, when meeting the emperor in any weather to get out of the carriage and fall on their faces, and people run away as soon as they see him approaching. Count F. Golovkin writes: “Our beautiful capital, through which we walked as freely as the air circulates through it, which had neither gates, nor sentries, nor customs guards, turned into a huge prison, which can only be entered through gates; fear has settled in the palace, and even in the absence of the monarch it is impossible to pass by without discovering the head; the beautiful and wide streets were deserted; old dignitaries are allowed into the palace for service only after presenting police passes in seven different places.”
Countess Lieven laments: “The fortress is overcrowded; over the past six weeks more than a hundred guards officers have been thrown into prison.” Prince Eugene of Württemberg would say a few years later: “The Emperor was not mentally ill in the full sense of the word, but he was constantly in a tense and exalted state, which is more dangerous than real madness, for every day he arbitrarily disposed of the welfare and lives of millions of people.” Memoirist Wigel notes: “Suddenly we are thrown into the very depths of Asia and must tremble before the eastern ruler, dressed, however, in a uniform of Prussian cut, with claims to the latest French courtesy and the knightly spirit of the Middle Ages.” Young Osten-Sacken claims that “there was only one way out for a reasonable man - death.” And according to Adam Czartoryski, the whole country is in a conspiracy, without realizing it, “out of fear, out of conviction or with hope.”
Palen, confident that he will find wide support for his plans, uses all his cunning to infiltrate the trust of the victim. He supports any actions of the emperor and zealously carries out his most absurd orders. When his son, who served in the army, was put under arrest, he does not ask Paul to pardon him, he says: “Sir, your fair decision will benefit the young man.” With such tactics he soon wins the respect of his master. Moving from manic suspicion to excessive gullibility, Pavel initiates his new adviser into the most important state affairs. On February 18, 1801, he made him director of the postal department, and two days later - president of the College of Foreign Affairs. The honors did not turn Palen's head and did not force him to give up the goal he had set for himself. Having waited for a favorable moment, he gives Paul the idea of striking the world with generosity by declaring a general amnesty and returning to the capital officials and officers who had been dismissed or exiled over the past four years. Delighted that he could appear as merciful as he was menacing, Paul accepts the offer. Soon, one after another, some in a carriage, some in a cart, some on foot, depending on the means, hundreds of different people return to the capital. The king believes that he can count on their gratitude, but in fact, by forgiving them, he only increases the number of dissatisfied people who are harboring plans for revenge. It is among these people who harbor a grudge that Palen recruits his main accomplices. His closest associate is General Bennigsen, a dry, serious German, known for his composure and determination. All three Zubov brothers, returning from exile, join them. Having been at the height of power during their last reign, they are only concerned with how to regain what they have lost. Palen, a skilled intriguer, advises Platon Zubov to woo the daughter of Kutaisov, a former barber and now Pavel’s favorite. Flattered in his vanity by the upstart, Kutaisov already sees himself becoming related to the family of the famous favorite of the empress. He turns to His Majesty at the appropriate moment and begs him to deal mercifully with the Zubov brothers who have returned from exile. His request is heard: Prince Platon and Count Valerian are appointed chiefs of the 1st and 2nd cadet corps, and Count Nikolai Zubov again receives the position of chief groom and becomes the chief of the Sumy Hussar Regiment. The first task of the Zubovs, who received royal forgiveness, was to win over the guard officers and turn them against the sovereign. Among these young people there are many hotheads; they understand nothing about politics, laugh at the constitution, but can hardly bear the rigors of military service with its Prussian-style drills. They revile and imitate Pavel, like some evil sergeant major. One of the most furious is the Georgian prince Yashvil, an artillery officer, whom the tsar hit with a cane during the parade. For his part, Palen, showing the greatest prudence, enlists the support of the generals occupying key posts in the capital; among them are the commander of the Preobrazhensky regiment P.A. Talyzin, the commander of the Semenovsky regiment L.I. Depreradovich, the commander of the cavalry regiment F.A. Uvarov and the regimental adjutant of the Mikhailovsky castle A.V. Argamakov and many others. Soon there are more than fifty of them, venting their anger in secret meetings where pipe smoke mingles with the flames of punch.
It remains to secure the consent of the heir to the throne. During the first conspiracy, led by Olga Zherebtsova, Panin, having initiated Alexander into his project, was met with fearful refusal. Hiding behind his filial respect, Grand Duke did not want to know anything about the suspicious intrigues of his supporters. Later, Panin would write to Alexander: “I will go to my grave with the deep conviction that I served my homeland, being the first to dare to open your eyes to the depressing picture of the dangers that threatened to destroy the empire.”
Will Palen, the head of the second conspiracy, prepared much more carefully than the previous one, be able to overcome Alexander’s noble resistance? The development of events seemed favorable to the implementation of his plans. At the beginning of 1801, Paul invites from Germany the young Prince Eugene of Württemberg, the nephew of Maria Feodorovna, is delighted with this sixteen-year-old boy and publicly declares: “You know, this boy has conquered me.” His other statements, less harmless, make everyone around the king tremble. He is credited with the intention to marry his daughter Catherine to Eugene, adopt him and declare him heir to the throne instead of Alexander. It was as if he had already decided to imprison his entire family in the fortress. “I am the master in my house!” - he shouts. Palen immediately conveys these words to Alexander, who, although exhausted with fear, still avoids a direct answer. As if to confirm Palen's warnings, Pavel suddenly enters Alexander's room one day and grabs an open book lying on the table. This is Voltaire's tragedy "Brutus". Paul reads the final verse:
Rome is free.
Enough. Let us thank the Gods.
An angry grimace distorts his monkey face. Without saying a word, he returns to his room, takes out “The Life of Peter the Great” from the bookcase, opens it to a page that describes the death under torture of Tsarevich Alexei, who opposed his father, and orders Kutaisov to take the book to the Grand Duke and force him to read this passage.
This time Alexander is so frightened that the conspirators find in him a more understanding interlocutor. With sly insinuation, Palen inspires the heir to the throne that the country is on the verge of destruction, the people are driven to the extreme, England is threatening war, and that by removing the emperor from power, his son will only fulfill his patriotic duty. He assures that nothing threatens the sovereign’s life; he will simply be required to abdicate the throne in favor of the Grand Duke, the legal heir. After his abdication, he will be provided with a prosperous life in one of his estates near St. Petersburg, where he can retire with his wife Maria Fedorovna, or with his mistress Princess Gagarina, or with both. This idyllic picture calms Alexander somewhat: if there is no violence, he will be only half guilty. However, he is not required to directly participate in the case. If only he allowed others to act and did not betray anyone. When the throne becomes vacant, he will ascend to the throne and continue to honor his father and make his people happy. No one can blame him for anything. Alexander gives in to persuasion, but does not want to know anything about the preparation of the coup. He washes his hands beforehand.
Meanwhile, the imperial family moves to the newly built, gloomy, fortress-like Mikhailovsky Castle. The plaster in the halls has not yet dried. Despite the warnings of doctors who explained the health hazards of damp walls covered with quicklime, paint and varnish, Pavel is delighted with his new residence. He orders three thousand invitations to be sent to the capital's nobility to a celebration with dinner and a masquerade ball in honor of the resettlement. Thousands of wax candles are lit in the castle, but the dampness fills the halls with such a thick fog that their reddish wavering flames only flicker dimly in the twilight. The dancers move slowly in this unsteady darkness, and the fogged mirrors endlessly repeat the silhouettes of ceremonially bowing phantoms. Alexander, surrounded by a round dance of these ghostly visions, is tormented by ominous premonitions. It seems to him that this evening all of Russia is involved in the dance of death and will spin until it is swept away by a hurricane...
A few days later, the emperor summons Palen to Mikhailovsky Castle. Entering the office, Palen notices that the sovereign looks gloomy. Paul is warned about a conspiracy against his person. Fixing an inquisitorial gaze on the governor of St. Petersburg, he directly asks if he knows about the conspiracy in which members of the imperial family are involved. Without losing his presence of mind, Palen bursts out laughing and replies: “Yes, Your Majesty, I know and hold all the threads of the conspiracy in my hands... You have nothing to fear. I answer for everything with my head.”
Half reassured, Pavel nevertheless sends a courier to Gruzino with an order to Arakcheev, who had recently fallen out of favor, to immediately return to St. Petersburg. He is convinced that Arakcheev is devoted to him to the grave. Until this Cerberus arrives, he strengthens the castle's security. Doubles the number of sentries. Cancels all official receptions.
An icy wind blows through the huge enfilades of the castle. Despite the fire constantly maintained in stoves and fireplaces, dampness corrodes the walls. There is mildew on the velvet upholstery. The frescoes are covered with cracks. The air is saturated with moisture vapor, and in order to protect itself from harmful fumes, the walls are covered with wooden panels, but dampness comes through the cracks.
The imperial family lives in isolation, in an atmosphere of sadness and uncertainty. Empress Maria Feodorovna writes to her confidant: “Our existence is joyless, because our dear ruler is not joyful. His soul suffers, and this undermines his strength; he has lost his appetite, and a smile rarely appears on his face.”
The whole of St. Petersburg seems to be numb in unsteady anticipation, the continuously drizzling rain fills hearts with despondency. “...and the weather is kind of dark and boring,” a contemporary writes in a private letter. – For weeks the sun is not visible; I don’t want to leave the house, and it’s not safe... It seems that God has abandoned us.”
Palen feels that the time has come to take decisive action. The conspirators set the time for the coup. The night from March 11 to 12 seems suitable, since at night the protection of the Mikhailovsky Castle will be carried out by the third battalion of the Semenovsky regiment, whose chief is Alexander. He himself informed Palen about this: without being directly involved in the conspiracy, he wants the conspiracy to succeed. Just a few days of waiting... Alexander is consumed with impatience and fear. He guesses that somewhere behind his back, in the shadows, secret meetings of rebel generals are taking place, officers appear and disappear, delivering the latest instructions to different parts of the city - he guesses all this suspicious fuss of the conspirators and watches with a mixture of vengeful resentment and pity for his father , against whom the secret hatred of the entire nation accumulates.
Sunday, March 10, ends with an evening concert. The Tsar listens to music absent-mindedly, despite the efforts of the French singer Madame Chevalier, who has a beautiful voice and pleasant appearance. Leaving the concert hall and heading to the dining room, Pavel stops in front of his wife and, crossing his arms over his chest and smiling mockingly, looks at her point-blank. He breathes loudly, his nostrils flare, his pupils constrict, as always happens to him in moments of anger. Then, with the same threatening grimace on his face, he glares at Alexander and Konstantin. Finally, he turns sharply to Palen and, with an ominous look, whispers something in his ear.
Dinner takes place in deathly silence. Pavel barely touches the food, casting suspicious glances at everyone. After dinner, family members want to thank him, according to Russian custom, but he pushes them away and, smiling sarcastically, leaves without saying goodbye to anyone. The Empress bursts into tears. Her sons console her.
The next day, March 11, as agreed, the third battalion of the Semenovsky regiment, loyal to the conspirators, carries out external security of the castle. Soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, as well as guardsmen, are on duty inside. Pavel, as usual, is present at the parade ground and at the changing of the guard and scolds the soldiers’ bearing. On his orders, Palen calls the guard officers and announces that His Majesty is dissatisfied with their service and expects that they will finally restore order, otherwise he will send them to “where the raven did not bring bones.”
In the evening, Pavel's mood changes again. At a dinner attended by 19 people, Pavel is unusually cheerful and amiable. He admires the new table service, on the plates of which there are pictures different types Mikhailovsky Castle, but notices that all the mirrors are damaged. “Look,” he turns to General Kutuzov, “my neck is definitely broken.” Suddenly he gives his eldest son a piercing look. He lowers his head. Knowing what awaits him that night, Alexander is unable to hide his nervousness. The father asks in French: “What is the matter with you, sir?” “Your Majesty,” Alexander says barely audibly, “I’m not feeling very well.” “We need to get treatment,” the emperor grumpily advises, “you can’t let the disease get worse.” And, when Alexander sneezes into a handkerchief, he adds: “For the fulfillment of all your desires.”
At half past nine dinner ends. Pavel leaves the dining room without saying goodbye to anyone, and walks past the guards standing on guard, frozen like statues in front of his private chambers. Noticing Colonel N.A. Sablukov, the squadron commander on guard duty, he says to him in French: “You are a Jacobin!” Confused, he, without thinking, answers: “Yes, Your Majesty!” Pavel irritably objects: “Not you, but your regiment.” Then Sablukov, having mastered himself, corrects himself: “I may be, but the regiment is not!” The Emperor, dressed in a green uniform with red lapels, stands in front of him with his chest puffed out. His flat, Kalmyk-like face under his powdered and braided hair breathes mistrust. He speaks in Russian: “But I know better. Call up the guard! Sablukov commands: “Circle to the right, march!” When the thirty guards leave, clicking their heels on the parquet floor, the emperor announces to his interlocutor that he orders the regiment to be withdrawn from the city and quartered in the villages, and Sablukov’s squadron, as a special favor, is allowed to stand in Tsarskoe Selo. Then, seeing two footmen dressed in hussar uniforms, he orders them to stand guard at the door of his office and goes to the bedroom. His beloved dog, yapping, gets under his feet.
That same evening, around eleven o’clock, the conspirators in groups go to General Talyzin, who occupies luxurious apartments in the barracks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, adjacent to the Winter Palace. In the hall, footmen take away the cloaks and cocked hats of those who have arrived and invite them to go up the main staircase. Upstairs, in the living room, there is a real display of uniforms, baldrics, swords, and medal badges. All regiments of the capital's garrison are represented - grenadiers, artillerymen, sailors, horse guards, cavalry guards, about fifty people in total. Their faces are glowing either from alcohol or from patriotic enthusiasm. They drink champagne and punch and, without mincing words, mock the Tsar. Platon Zubov sets the tone. Both his brothers, Nikolai and Valerian, echo him. Alexander, they assure, is ready to accept the crown, as soon as his father is eliminated. You need to go to the emperor and demand his abdication. According to the latest information, Arakcheev, whom Pavel called from exile as a reliable defender, was detained, by order of Palen, at the city outpost at the entrance to the capital. The double door swings open and Palen himself appears in a ceremonial uniform with the blue ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called over his shoulder. Behind him comes the tall, lean General Bennigsen. They are respectfully surrounded. They look collected and determined. “We are here among our own, gentlemen,” says Palen, “we understand each other. Are you ready? We are going to drink champagne to the health of the new sovereign. The reign of Paul I ended. It is not the spirit of vengeance that guides us, no! We want to put an end to the unheard-of humiliation and shame of our fatherland. We are the ancient Romans. We know the meaning of the Ides of March... All precautions have been taken. We are supported by two guards regiments and the regiment of Grand Duke Alexander.” At this moment, someone shouts in a half-drunk voice: “What if the tyrant resists?” Palen calmly replies: “You all know, gentlemen: you can’t cook an omelet without breaking eggs.”
After this speech, Palen divides the officers present into two detachments, taking command of the first himself, and transferring command of the second to Bennigsen and Platon Zubov... Deep night. Rare snowflakes, slowly swirling, fall on the city. In the silence of the night, two battalions silently move along the avenue leading from the Preobrazhensky Barracks to the Mikhailovsky Castle. A battalion of the Semenovsky Regiment is heading there from Nevsky Prospekt. The soldiers do not know where or why they are being led, but they are trained not to reason, but to obey blindly. However, this nightly anxiety causes them vague anxiety. The column of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, led by Platon Zubov and Bennigsen, is the first to arrive at the scene. Palen and his men are delayed. Maybe the governor of St. Petersburg is not eager to personally intervene in the coup and is deliberately stalling for time, hoping to keep his hands clean? Be that as it may, we cannot wait for him. Troops surround the castle. The Zubov brothers and Bennigsen, accompanied by officers, approach the side drawbridge and tell the sentry the password. The drawbridge lowers. The conspirators stealthily make their way into the castle through the back door, silently climb the narrow spiral staircase and enter the guardhouse leading to the emperor's apartments. Instead of the guards sent by Pavel a few hours ago, there are only two dozing lackeys. One of them, awakened by the noise, screams and, having received a blow to the head with a saber, falls, bleeding; the other, frightened, flees for his life. The path is clear.
But most of the officers, suddenly sobered up at the thought of the blasphemy they are about to commit, run away. A total of ten people rush after the Zubov brothers and Bennigsen into the royal bedroom. The candle dimly illuminates huge paintings in gilded frames, tapestries donated by Louis XVI, and a narrow camp bed. The bed is empty. No doubt the Emperor, hearing the footman's exclamation, fled through the other door. Enraged Platon Zubov shouts: “The bird has flown away!” Bennigsen calmly touches the sheets and concludes: “The nest is warm, the bird is not far.” The officers are rummaging around in the corners. Their long, broken shadows dart along the walls and ceiling. Suddenly Bennigsen notices bare legs sticking out from under the Spanish screen blocking the fireplace. With a drawn sword in his hand, he rushes there, pushes away the thin screen and discovers the emperor. Pavel stands in front of him in a white shirt and nightcap with a face twisted in horror and a wandering gaze. Pressed by guards hung with medals, he asks in a voice broken with fear: “What do you want? What are you doing here?" “Sir, you are under arrest,” Bennigsen replies. Pavel tries to fight back this drunken gang: “Arrested? What do you mean, arrested? - he yells. Platon Zubov interrupts him: “We came on behalf of the fatherland to ask Your Majesty to abdicate. The safety of your person and your appropriate maintenance are guaranteed by your son and the state.” Bennigsen adds: “Your Majesty cannot continue to rule over millions of subjects. You are making them unhappy. You must renounce. No one will dare to encroach on your life: I will protect the person of Your Majesty. Sign the act of renunciation immediately.” The Emperor is pushed to the table, one of the officers unfolds the document of abdication in front of him, the other holds out a pen. Pavel struggles. Suppressing his fear, he squeals: “No, no, I won’t sign.” Beside themselves, Platon Zubov and Bennigsen leave the bedroom, perhaps in search of Palen, who alone is capable of breaking the monarch’s stubbornness. In their absence, discordant noise comes from the hallway. Who came: new conspirators or supporters of the emperor? There's not a minute to waste! The officers remaining in the room urge Pavel to make a decision. Crowded around him, they gesticulate, shout, threaten. And the more brazen their tone, the more stubborn Pavel becomes, pathetic and ridiculous in his nightwear. During the dump, the night light tips over and goes out. In the twilight it is difficult to distinguish faces. Who was the first to raise his hand against the emperor? Isn't Nikolai Zubov a giant? Thrown by a strong hand, massive golden snuff box hits Pavel in the temple. He falls, and the whole gang of conspirators, trembling with fear and hatred, pounces on him. He fights back, screaming loudly. Then one of the officers grabs a scarf, throws it around Pavel’s neck and strangles him. Half-suffocated, Pavel notices among the killers a young man in a red guards uniform. He mistakes him for his son Konstantin and begs in his death rattle: “Have mercy, Your Highness, have mercy! Air, air! A few moments later, Bennigsen returns and sees the disfigured corpse of Pavel in a bloody white shirt at the feet of the huddled officers. Following him, Palen arrives and is convinced that it has happened. Everything happened as he foresaw. By delaying, he avoided direct participation in the murder.
A woman with wild hair rushes into Pavel's room. This is Empress Maria Feodorovna. She heard the sound of a struggle. She wants to know everything. She calls loudly: “Paulchen, Paulchen!” The guards, hastily sent by Bennigsen, with crossed bayonets, block her way. She throws herself on her knees before the officer and begs him to let her see her husband. He does not let her in: they are hastily putting the body in order, trying to hide, as far as possible, the traces of violent death.
Meanwhile, Alexander, hiding in his apartment on the first floor, neither alive nor dead, awaits developments. He does not close his eyes all night and, ready for any surprise, does not take off his uniform. Listening intently, he hears the tramp of boots and screams above him. Then the noise subsides. What happened? Did the father sign the renunciation? Has he already left for Gatchina or some other country residence of his?.. Is he alive? Crushed by remorse, he sits next to his wife, clinging to her and hiding his face, he seeks consolation from her and does not find it. Palen finds him in this position when he enters to deliver the terrible news. After his first words, Alexander, struck by horror, bursts into sobs. He didn't want bloodshed. And yet he is guilty: others only realized what he secretly hoped for. From now on and forever there will be an indelible mark on him. An innocent criminal. A parricide with clean hands. The worst of people. Alexander sobs convulsively, and Palen calmly watches him and wonders: did he make a mistake by betting everything on this insignificance? Finally, with a kind of dismissive compassion, the governor of St. Petersburg, in the tone of a stern mentor, says: “Stop being childish. Go reign. Show yourself to the guards." Elizabeth begs Alexander to pull himself together. According to all eyewitnesses, in this hour of difficult trials, Elizabeth shows as much courage as Alexander showed cowardice. “Everything happened as if in a dream,” she later wrote to her mother. “I asked for advice, I spoke to people with whom I had never spoken before and with whom, perhaps, I would never speak again, I implored the Empress to calm down, I did a thousand things at once, made a thousand different decisions. I will never forget this night."
Having risen with difficulty, Alexander follows Palen into the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Castle, where the detachments that guarded the imperial home at night were lined up. Deathly pale, barely moving his legs, he tries to stay right in front of the soldiers lined up, shouting greetings. Palen, Bennigsen, Zubov surround him. His accomplices. And he should still be grateful to them! Overcoming disgust, grief, exhaustion, he exclaims in a voice trembling with tears: “Father suddenly died of an apoplexy. Everything with me will be the same as with my grandmother, Empress Catherine.” He is answered with a loud “Hurray!” “Maybe everything is for the best,” Alexander reassures himself, while the officers who killed his father congratulate him. Later, he accepts Konstantin’s congratulations, rude and unbridled, he is happy about the accession of his older brother. Only Empress Maria Feodorovna sincerely mourns the death of the hated monarch.
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Secret meetings, where Alexander conferred with his too smart friends, displeased the king. He seems to smell the scent of a democratic conspiracy emanating from them. All revolutions begin with childish games. We need to separate these talkers before they decide to move from words to action. However, the emperor is in no hurry to act, preferring to let the abscess ripen. Father and son live in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and hidden hatred. Concerned Alexander on September 27, 1797 writes Laharpe a long message - a real confession - and instructs Novosiltsev, who is leaving abroad, to deliver a letter to his beloved teacher: “My father, upon ascending the throne, wanted to change everything decisively. His first steps were brilliant, but subsequent events did not match them. Everything was immediately turned upside down, and therefore the disorder, which already dominated affairs to too great a degree, only increased even more. The military loses almost all of its time exclusively at parades. In all other respects there is absolutely no strictly defined plan. Today they are ordering something that will be canceled in a month. No arguments are allowed, except when all the evil has been accomplished. Finally, to put it in one word, the welfare of the state does not play any role in the management of affairs: there is only unlimited power, which creates everything topsy-turvy. It is impossible to list all the follies that were committed here... My unfortunate fatherland is in a situation that defies description. The farmer is offended, trade is constrained, freedom and personal well-being are destroyed. Here is a picture of modern Russia, and judge from it how much my heart must suffer. I myself, obliged to obey all the details of military service, lose all my time performing the duties of a non-commissioned officer, absolutely not having any opportunity to devote myself to my scientific studies, which constitute my favorite pastime: I have now become a most unhappy person.”
Having described the chaos to which Paul's extravagant rule brought the country, Alexander comes to the most delicate part of the letter. For the first time, he, who has always been burdened by the thought of power, admits that perhaps the day will come when he will have to rule Russia. His youthful dream of an unknown existence “in a hut on the banks of the Rhine” is replaced by a new one - the dream of the fate of an emperor who dedicated his life to serving the Fatherland, bringing goodness and enlightenment to his people. He is aware of the full weight of responsibility that such a goal imposes, and evaluates his strength. He does not reject the monarchical principle, but intends to limit it by the constitution. It seems to him that the very word “constitution,” brought to Russia from France, contains a magical power that strengthens the virtues of the monarch. With absolute sincerity, he continues: “You have long known my thoughts, which tended to leave my homeland. At present, I do not foresee the slightest possibility of carrying them out, and then the unfortunate situation of my fatherland forces me to give my thoughts a different direction. I thought that if my turn to reign ever came, then instead of voluntarily exiling myself, I would do incomparably better by devoting myself to the task of giving the country freedom and thereby preventing it from becoming a toy in the future in the hands of some madmen. This made me change my mind about many things, and it seems to me that this would be the best example of a revolution, since it would be carried out by a legitimate authority, which would cease to exist as soon as the constitution was completed and the nation elected its representatives. That's my point. I shared it with enlightened people who, for their part, thought a lot about it. In total there are only four of us, namely: Novosiltsev, Count Stroganov, young Prince Czartoryski - my adjutant, an outstanding young man, and me! 10
Viktor Kochubey is not mentioned in the letter.
When my turn comes, then it will be necessary to try, it goes without saying, gradually to form a popular representation, which, duly guided, would draw up a free constitution, after which my power would completely cease, and I, if Providence blesses our work, retired would go to some corner and live there happy and contented, seeing the prosperity of his fatherland and enjoying it. These are my thoughts, my dear friend. How happy I would be if the opportunity arose to have you next to me then!.. God only grant that we could ever achieve our goal - to grant Russia freedom and protect it from the encroachments of despotism and tyranny.”
Until this new political dawn has risen, Alexander, suppressing disgust, carries out many small tasks that his father entrusts to him. He spends the whole day outside the house, busy with work, returns exhausted, haggard and does not show his wife the tenderness or attention that she so expects. She suffers from her husband’s indifference and gradually grows cold towards him. Rare meetings alone leave only bitterness and disappointment in their souls. They see each other sporadically in the evenings, when, dressed in court clothes, they attend official receptions, dinners, balls, performances, and concerts. These duties imposed by etiquette are all the more burdensome for Elizabeth because she has to endure in public the treatment of her father-in-law that is humiliating to her dignity. At first he treated her politely, but now he insults her with harsh words and rude antics. “The day goes well if you have the honor of not seeing the emperor,” she writes to her mother. – I confess, mother, this man is wider to me. 11
Disgusting (German).
The very sound of his voice is unpleasant to me, and even more unpleasant is his presence in society, when anyone, no matter who he is and no matter what he says, may not please His Majesty and run into a rude shout. I assure you that everyone, with the exception of a few of his supporters, hates him: they say that the peasants are beginning to grumble. Abuses have doubled compared to a year ago, and brutal reprisals are being carried out right in front of the emperor. Imagine, mom, one day he ordered the officer in charge of the imperial kitchen to be beaten because he didn’t like the meat served for dinner; he ordered to choose the strongest cane and immediately, in his presence, beat him. He put an innocent man under arrest, and when my husband said that someone else was guilty, he replied: “It doesn’t matter, they are together.” Oh, mom, how hard it is to look at the injustice and violence happening around, to see so many unfortunate people (how many of them are already on his conscience?) and pretend that you respect and honor such a person. Even if I act like the most respectful daughter-in-law, I harbor different feelings in my soul. However, he doesn’t care whether they love him, as long as they fear him, he said so himself. And this will of his is completely fulfilled: he is feared and hated.”
Elizabeth is outraged by the humiliation to which, by order of the emperor, the best officers and bravest soldiers are subjected, and she secretly hopes that one fine day they will rebel. “Never has a more suitable opportunity presented itself,” she writes, “but here they are too accustomed to the yoke and will not try to throw it off. At the first firmly given order, they become quieter than water, lower than the grass. Oh, if only someone could be found to lead them!”
In scribbling these lines, is it her husband she has in mind? Yes, without a doubt, although she is tied to him only by marital habit. Elizabeth’s feelings are looking for a way out, and at first she rushes into a childishly passionate friendship with the beautiful Countess Golovina, to whom she sends tender notes written in French: “Away from you, I feel sad... I constantly think about you, my thoughts run wild, and I don’t feel anything.” I can get busy...” “I love you... Oh, if this continues, I’ll go crazy. Thoughts about you fill my whole day until the minute I fall asleep. If I wake up at night, my thoughts turn to you again...” “My God, the memory of those two moments stirs up all my senses!.. Ah, I hope you understand how dear to me is that day when I gave myself entirely to you.” . Alexander is aware of this ambiguous intimacy between his wife and Countess Golovina and encourages it. Elizabeth confesses this to the young woman in a letter dated December 12, 1794: “I will love you no matter what happens. No one can forbid me to love you, and the one who has the right to do so ordered me to love you. You understand me, I hope." This half-love, half-friendship with a twenty-five-year-old woman cannot fill Elizabeth’s feelings. By her own admission, she does not have a fiery temperament, but is overly nervous. When they comb her hair, sparks fly out of it: “It’s better not to touch my hair,” she says, “it’s so electrified.” In the dark, when the chandeliers are turned off, a luminous halo seems to surround her head. Elizabeth yearns for male love, exciting, all-consuming, which she dreamed of in the first days of her marriage. There was no need to wait long - the comforter of the abandoned wife was found nearby. This is Alexander's best friend, the seductive prince Adam Czartoryski with a sharp mind like a sword strike and a velvety gaze. She succumbs to the charms of a Polish nobleman. Alexander is amused by this love affair, and he helps its heroes get closer. Since the courtship of Platon Zubov, he became convinced that he was not jealous of his wife: then she remained faithful to him, but this time, intoxicated with happiness and gratitude, she could not resist. So be it, Alexander turns a blind eye to everything. Does he really care about his wife’s infidelity, or does he experience a perverse pleasure in sharing Elizabeth with his favorite? He closely follows the development of their relationship, which the whole court is gossiping about. Cheating on his wife frees him from any duty towards her, and, while not taking advantage of his freedom, he simply rejoices in it. For three years, he watches the vicissitudes of this love story with the condescension of an outsider. However, court licentiousness justified the ease of morals. Paul himself sets the example. After many years of marital fidelity, this devoted husband is at once freed from both his wife Maria Fedorovna and his favorite Ekaterina Nelidova. After the birth of her tenth child (Grand Duke Mikhail), doctors forbade the empress from performing marital duties, and Kutaisov immediately 12
He will become a baron, and then a count.
Formerly a barber and valet, and now His Majesty's pimp and chief equerry, he introduces the forty-four-year-old sovereign to a sixteen-year-old girl, Anna Lopukhina, whose freshness captivates the monarch's eyes. Ekaterina Nelidova is dismissed without ceremony, and the new girl, “not beautiful and not amiable,” but simple-minded, like a child, captures Pavel’s heart. He showers her with gifts, elevates the people for whom she is busy, disgraces those she dislikes, and, protecting her from court gossip, marries her to Prince Gagarin, who is destined to play the role of a screen. Upon completion of the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, he arranges for his favorite in the apartment located under his own chambers, and in the evenings he goes down the secret staircase to her, unnoticed by anyone. But in vain he surrounds his visits to the beauty with a shroud of secrecy: the whole court knows where the emperor disappears to. Who dares to condemn him? In any case, not Elizabeth, whose affair with Adam Czartoryski is being slandered by the entire court.
On May 18, 1799, she gives birth to a black-haired and black-eyed girl, little Maria. This is a reason for outright gloating of the courtiers. During the christening, the emperor, turning to Countess Lieven, who showed him the newborn, remarks dryly: “Madam, do you believe that a blonde wife and a blonde husband can have a brunette child?” Confused for a moment, Countess Lieven replies: “Sir, God is almighty.”
This time Adam Czartoryski is completely compromised, his career in Russia is interrupted. Paul entrusts him with a diplomatic mission at the court of the King of Sardinia. “Send immediately,” he orders Rostopchin, who enters his words in the Diary of the Verbal Commands of Emperor Paul. The farewell of Adam Czartoryski and Alexander was heartbreaking.
A little later after her lover's departure, Elizabeth suffers a new blow: she loses her child. “This morning I lost my child, she died,” she writes to her mother on July 27, 1800. “I cannot express how terrible it is to lose a child; I am unable to write to you today about this misfortune.” And a little later: “It’s been a long time since I wrote to you about Mauschen, 13
Mashenka (German). – Approx. translation.
Every hour I think about her, every day I mourn her. It can’t be otherwise while I’m alive, even if I have two dozen other children.”
Alexander also feels lost, but more because of the separation from the irreplaceable Adam Czartoryski than because of the death of the child. Meanwhile, his group of friends was dispersed: Kochubey, suspected of liberalism, fell out of favor; Novosiltsev, who was in bad standing with the emperor, himself left Russia and went to England; Stroganov is removed from the courtyard. Left alone, Alexander becomes close to his wife. Elizabeth, the target of ridicule from court scoffers, writes to her mother: “I don’t like to owe anything to the emperor... Or to be an instrument of some people’s revenge on the Grand Duke and his friends. These people are doing everything to ruin my reputation; I don’t know what they are trying to achieve, and I don’t care, as it should be when there is nothing to reproach myself with. If they want to quarrel between me and the Grand Duke, then they are trying in vain: he knows my thoughts, and no action of mine will ever quarrel between us.”
Alexander and Elizabeth have not been attracted to each other for a long time. “Yes, mom, I like him,” she writes confidentially to her mother. “Once upon a time I liked him to the point of madness, but now, as I get to know him better, I notice small traits, really small... And some of these small traits are not to my taste... they have cooled my excessive love to him. I still love him very much, but in a different way." Young people are connected not by love, but by friendship, common interests, and mutual trust. Left alone behind closed doors, away from prying eyes and ears, they discuss in low voices what surprises and trials the future has in store for them.
Paul's foreign policy is even more inconsistent than his domestic one. He stopped the war with Persia started by Catherine, but, angry at Bonaparte, who suddenly captured the island of Malta, he proclaimed himself Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta, declared war on France and sent three armies against it: one to Italy, another to Holland, and a third to Switzerland. Despite Suvorov's brilliant victories in Italy, the expedition failed. Beside himself with rage, Pavel quarreled with his Austrian allies, who did not support Suvorov, and changed his mind about eradicating the legacy of the revolution in Europe. He abruptly changes the course of foreign policy, and the hated Bonaparte, like Frederick II, becomes for him an example to follow and an enlightened friend. Isn't the First Consul going to rein in the sans-culottes? Paul, without hesitation, expels the Bourbons from Mitau, where he himself allowed them to settle, seeks ways of rapprochement with France and breaks off diplomatic relations with England, which, contrary to its promise, did not want to cede Malta to the Knights of Malta dear to his heart. British ships anchored in Russian waters are captured and the crew taken into custody. But this is not enough for Pavel. In order to break the pride of the arrogant Albion, the emperor gives the troops a fantastic order - to immediately march to Orenburg, from there to Khiva and Bukhara and, having traveled thousands of miles across the deserted steppes, begin the conquest of India. The regiments that came out first were transferred to the command of Major General Platov, who on this occasion was released from the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he had been imprisoned for some minor offense.
His Majesty's extravagant policy causes acute discontent in court circles. A small group of conspirators gathers in the salon of the beautiful Olga Zherebtsova, sister of Platon Zubov, and discusses plans to overthrow the crazy sovereign from the throne and replace him with Alexander. Lord Charles Whitworth, England's ambassador to St. Petersburg and Olga Zherebtsova's lover, willingly helps them: St. James's cabinet is extremely interested in the speedy overthrow of the monarch who is thwarting British projects. The main roles in the conspiracy are played by Vice-Chancellor Nikita Panin, a brilliant nobleman and a clever diplomat, the Zubov brothers and the Neapolitan adventurer Joseph Ribas, an admiral in Russian service. Despite all their efforts, the conspirators do not have enough time to develop their plan in detail. After the rupture of diplomatic relations with England, Whitworth was ordered to leave the capital along with the entire staff of the English embassy. Soon Nikita Panin falls into disgrace, the Zubov brothers are sent into exile, Ribas dies of a serious illness, and Olga Zherebtsova wisely goes into the shadows.
It seemed that the very idea of the conspiracy was under threat, but then the sophisticated courtier Count Pyotr Alekseevich Palen, cold, energetic, purposeful, and also endowed with a prepossessing appearance, appeared on stage and took matters into his own hands. Returning to the capital from the army, where he carried out the orders of the tsar, he again takes the post of governor-general of St. Petersburg and decides to act without delay. Pavel, he reasons, is about to plunge the country into a disastrous war with England; the British fleet, significantly superior to the Russian one, will appear in Kronstadt and force Russia to a shameful surrender. Paul's repressive measures against the United Kingdom hit Russian landowners, closing the main market for grain and timber. During the four years of Paul's reign, the oppression over the people trembling with fear intensified; both the most downtrodden of the serfs and the highly exalted nobleman are equally afraid of the unpredictable whims of this crowned despot. Harassment, nagging, and humiliation are multiplying every day. Having become painfully suspicious, Pavel strengthens postal censorship and extends it even to the correspondence of his family members. He brings the Jesuit Father Gruber closer to him and, to the great indignation of church and court circles, is thinking about reuniting the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Police agents enter private homes, receptions, musical evenings, and balls. One of the decrees orders everyone, not excluding ladies, when meeting the emperor in any weather to get out of the carriage and fall on their faces, and people run away as soon as they see him approaching. Count F. Golovkin writes: “Our beautiful capital, through which we walked as freely as the air circulates through it, which had neither gates, nor sentries, nor customs guards, turned into a huge prison, which can only be entered through gates; fear has settled in the palace, and even in the absence of the monarch it is impossible to pass by without discovering the head; the beautiful and wide streets were deserted; old dignitaries are allowed into the palace for service only after presenting police passes in seven different places.”
Countess Lieven laments: “The fortress is overcrowded; over the past six weeks more than a hundred guards officers have been thrown into prison.” Prince Eugene of Württemberg would say a few years later: “The Emperor was not mentally ill in the full sense of the word, but he was constantly in a tense and exalted state, which is more dangerous than real madness, for every day he arbitrarily disposed of the welfare and lives of millions of people.” Memoirist Wigel notes: “Suddenly we are thrown into the very depths of Asia and must tremble before the eastern ruler, dressed, however, in a uniform of Prussian cut, with claims to the latest French courtesy and the knightly spirit of the Middle Ages.” Young Osten-Sacken claims that “there was only one way out for a reasonable man - death.” And according to Adam Czartoryski, the whole country is in a conspiracy, without realizing it, “out of fear, out of conviction or with hope.”
Palen, confident that he will find wide support for his plans, uses all his cunning to infiltrate the trust of the victim. He supports any actions of the emperor and zealously carries out his most absurd orders. When his son, who served in the army, was put under arrest, he does not ask Paul to pardon him, he says: “Sir, your fair decision will benefit the young man.” With such tactics he soon wins the respect of his master. Moving from manic suspicion to excessive gullibility, Pavel initiates his new adviser into the most important state affairs. On February 18, 1801, he made him director of the postal department, and two days later - president of the College of Foreign Affairs. The honors did not turn Palen's head and did not force him to give up the goal he had set for himself. Having waited for a favorable moment, he gives Paul the idea of striking the world with generosity by declaring a general amnesty and returning to the capital officials and officers who had been dismissed or exiled over the past four years. Delighted that he could appear as merciful as he was menacing, Paul accepts the offer. Soon, one after another, some in a carriage, some in a cart, some on foot, depending on the means, hundreds of different people return to the capital. The king believes that he can count on their gratitude, but in fact, by forgiving them, he only increases the number of dissatisfied people who are harboring plans for revenge. It is among these people who harbor a grudge that Palen recruits his main accomplices. His closest associate is General Bennigsen, a dry, serious German, known for his composure and determination. All three Zubov brothers, returning from exile, join them. Having been at the height of power during their last reign, they are only concerned with how to regain what they have lost. Palen, a skilled intriguer, advises Platon Zubov to woo the daughter of Kutaisov, a former barber and now Pavel’s favorite. Flattered in his vanity by the upstart, Kutaisov already sees himself becoming related to the family of the famous favorite of the empress. He turns to His Majesty at the appropriate moment and begs him to deal mercifully with the Zubov brothers who have returned from exile. His request is heard: Prince Platon and Count Valerian are appointed chiefs of the 1st and 2nd cadet corps, and Count Nikolai Zubov again receives the position of chief equerry and becomes chief of the Sumy Hussar Regiment. The first task of the Zubovs, who received royal forgiveness, was to win over the guard officers and turn them against the sovereign. Among these young people there are many hotheads; they understand nothing about politics, laugh at the constitution, but can hardly bear the rigors of military service with its Prussian-style drills. They revile and imitate Pavel, like some evil sergeant major. One of the most furious is the Georgian prince Yashvil, an artillery officer, whom the tsar hit with a cane during the parade. For his part, Palen, showing the greatest prudence, enlists the support of the generals occupying key posts in the capital; among them are the commander of the Preobrazhensky regiment P.A. Talyzin, the commander of the Semenovsky regiment L.I. Depreradovich, the commander of the cavalry regiment F.A. Uvarov and the regimental adjutant of the Mikhailovsky castle A.V. Argamakov and many others. Soon there are more than fifty of them, venting their anger in secret meetings where pipe smoke mingles with the flames of punch.
It remains to secure the consent of the heir to the throne. During the first conspiracy, led by Olga Zherebtsova, Panin, having initiated Alexander into his project, was met with fearful refusal. Hiding behind his filial respect, the Grand Duke did not want to know anything about the suspicious intrigues of his supporters. Later, Panin would write to Alexander: “I will go to my grave with the deep conviction that I served my homeland, being the first to dare to open your eyes to the depressing picture of the dangers that threatened to destroy the empire.”
Will Palen, the head of the second conspiracy, prepared much more carefully than the previous one, be able to overcome Alexander’s noble resistance? The development of events seemed favorable to the implementation of his plans. At the beginning of 1801, Paul invites from Germany the young Prince Eugene of Württemberg, the nephew of Maria Feodorovna, is delighted with this sixteen-year-old boy and publicly declares: “You know, this boy has conquered me.” His other statements, less harmless, make everyone around the king tremble. He is credited with the intention to marry his daughter Catherine to Eugene, adopt him and declare him heir to the throne instead of Alexander. It was as if he had already decided to imprison his entire family in the fortress. “I am the master in my house!” - he shouts. Palen immediately conveys these words to Alexander, who, although exhausted with fear, still avoids a direct answer. As if to confirm Palen's warnings, Pavel suddenly enters Alexander's room one day and grabs an open book lying on the table. This is Voltaire's tragedy "Brutus". Paul reads the final verse:
Rome is free.
Enough. Let us thank the Gods.
An angry grimace distorts his monkey face. Without saying a word, he returns to his room, takes out “The Life of Peter the Great” from the bookcase, opens it to a page that describes the death under torture of Tsarevich Alexei, who opposed his father, and orders Kutaisov to take the book to the Grand Duke and force him to read this passage.
This time Alexander is so frightened that the conspirators find in him a more understanding interlocutor. With sly insinuation, Palen inspires the heir to the throne that the country is on the verge of destruction, the people are driven to the extreme, England is threatening war, and that by removing the emperor from power, his son will only fulfill his patriotic duty. He assures that nothing threatens the sovereign’s life; he will simply be required to abdicate the throne in favor of the Grand Duke, the legal heir. After his abdication, he will be provided with a prosperous life in one of his estates near St. Petersburg, where he can retire with his wife Maria Fedorovna, or with his mistress Princess Gagarina, or with both. This idyllic picture calms Alexander somewhat: if there is no violence, he will be only half guilty. However, he is not required to directly participate in the case. If only he allowed others to act and did not betray anyone. When the throne becomes vacant, he will ascend to the throne and continue to honor his father and make his people happy. No one can blame him for anything. Alexander gives in to persuasion, but does not want to know anything about the preparation of the coup. He washes his hands beforehand.
Meanwhile, the imperial family moves to the newly built, gloomy, fortress-like Mikhailovsky Castle. The plaster in the halls has not yet dried. Despite the warnings of doctors who explained the health hazards of damp walls covered with quicklime, paint and varnish, Pavel is delighted with his new residence. He orders three thousand invitations to be sent to the capital's nobility to a celebration with dinner and a masquerade ball in honor of the resettlement. Thousands of wax candles are lit in the castle, but the dampness fills the halls with such a thick fog that their reddish wavering flames only flicker dimly in the twilight. The dancers move slowly in this unsteady darkness, and the fogged mirrors endlessly repeat the silhouettes of ceremonially bowing phantoms. Alexander, surrounded by a round dance of these ghostly visions, is tormented by ominous premonitions. It seems to him that this evening all of Russia is involved in the dance of death and will spin until it is swept away by a hurricane...
A few days later, the emperor summons Palen to Mikhailovsky Castle. Entering the office, Palen notices that the sovereign looks gloomy. Paul is warned about a conspiracy against his person. Fixing an inquisitorial gaze on the governor of St. Petersburg, he directly asks if he knows about the conspiracy in which members of the imperial family are involved. Without losing his presence of mind, Palen bursts out laughing and replies: “Yes, Your Majesty, I know and hold all the threads of the conspiracy in my hands... You have nothing to fear. I answer for everything with my head.”
Half reassured, Pavel nevertheless sends a courier to Gruzino with an order to Arakcheev, who had recently fallen out of favor, to immediately return to St. Petersburg. He is convinced that Arakcheev is devoted to him to the grave. Until this Cerberus arrives, he strengthens the castle's security. Doubles the number of sentries. Cancels all official receptions.
An icy wind blows through the huge enfilades of the castle. Despite the fire constantly maintained in stoves and fireplaces, dampness corrodes the walls. There is mildew on the velvet upholstery. The frescoes are covered with cracks. The air is saturated with moisture vapor, and in order to protect itself from harmful fumes, the walls are covered with wooden panels, but dampness comes through the cracks.
The imperial family lives in isolation, in an atmosphere of sadness and uncertainty. Empress Maria Feodorovna writes to her confidant: “Our existence is joyless, because our dear ruler is not joyful. His soul suffers, and this undermines his strength; he has lost his appetite, and a smile rarely appears on his face.”
The whole of St. Petersburg seems to be numb in unsteady anticipation, the continuously drizzling rain fills hearts with despondency. “...and the weather is kind of dark and boring,” a contemporary writes in a private letter. – For weeks the sun is not visible; I don’t want to leave the house, and it’s not safe... It seems that God has abandoned us.”
Palen feels that the time has come to take decisive action. The conspirators set the time for the coup. The night from March 11 to 12 seems suitable, since at night the protection of the Mikhailovsky Castle will be carried out by the third battalion of the Semenovsky regiment, whose chief is Alexander. He himself informed Palen about this: without being directly involved in the conspiracy, he wants the conspiracy to succeed. Just a few days of waiting... Alexander is consumed with impatience and fear. He guesses that somewhere behind his back, in the shadows, secret meetings of rebel generals are taking place, officers appear and disappear, delivering the latest instructions to different parts of the city - he guesses all this suspicious fuss of the conspirators and watches with a mixture of vengeful resentment and pity for his father , against whom the secret hatred of the entire nation accumulates.
Sunday, March 10, ends with an evening concert. The Tsar listens to music absent-mindedly, despite the efforts of the French singer Madame Chevalier, who has a beautiful voice and pleasant appearance. Leaving the concert hall and heading to the dining room, Pavel stops in front of his wife and, crossing his arms over his chest and smiling mockingly, looks at her point-blank. He breathes loudly, his nostrils flare, his pupils constrict, as always happens to him in moments of anger. Then, with the same threatening grimace on his face, he glares at Alexander and Konstantin. Finally, he turns sharply to Palen and, with an ominous look, whispers something in his ear.
Dinner takes place in deathly silence. Pavel barely touches the food, casting suspicious glances at everyone. After dinner, family members want to thank him, according to Russian custom, but he pushes them away and, smiling sarcastically, leaves without saying goodbye to anyone. The Empress bursts into tears. Her sons console her.
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The king had absolutely no control over himself. There was little common sense in his head and even less in his behavior; it is impossible to look at everything he does without pity and fear. He seemed to be inventing reasons for people to feel disgust towards him. He got it into his head that they despised him and tried to be disrespectful to him; He picked on everyone and punished indiscriminately. The slightest delay, the slightest contradiction made him lose his composure, and he boiled over. Every day all that was heard was about fits of rage, about petty quibbles that any ordinary person would be ashamed of.
He did not love his son Alexander, since he learned from informers that Catherine wanted to directly leave him the throne. He hated his daughter-in-law because she was chosen by the late queen. Alexander was in such despair that on September 27, 1797, he wrote a letter to Laharpe, his tutor, secretly passing it through his friend, Count Novosiltsev, who was going to Switzerland:
“My father, upon ascending the throne, wanted to change everything decisively. His first steps were brilliant, but subsequent events did not match them. The military loses almost all of its time exclusively at parades. In all other respects there is absolutely no strictly defined plan. Today they are ordering something that will be canceled in a month. The welfare of the state does not play any role in the management of affairs: there is only unlimited power, which creates everything topsy-turvy. It is impossible to list all the follies that were committed here. My unfortunate fatherland is in a situation that defies description. The farmer is offended, trade is constrained, freedom and personal well-being are destroyed. This is a picture of modern Russia, and judge from it how much my heart must suffer.” .
Alexander's wife Elizabeth wrote to her mother that Paul I ordered the officer responsible for supplying the royal kitchen to be whipped because the porridge seemed bad to him; he was beaten in front of their eyes with a rather thick stick chosen by the king himself. It hurt, it hurt terribly to see so much injustice and rudeness every day, she complained.
Pavel got up between four and five o'clock and worked in his office until nine, receiving official reports and giving audiences. Then he rode out on horseback, accompanied by one of his sons, usually Grand Duke Alexander, to visit some institution or inspect the work. From eleven to twelve there was a divorce, then classes until lunch on the parade ground. The Emperor personally gave orders, received official reports and inspected the regiments. He examined the hairstyle of each soldier separately, measured the length of the braids, checked the quality and quantity of powder in the hair. The remarkable historian Boris Muravyov wrote: “Every day Pavel was present at the parade of the Horse Guards. And if any officer made a mistake, the tsar whipped him with his cane, demoted him, exiled him to Siberia, or immediately and forever forced him to put on a uniform simple soldier! For a mistake they were punished with a whip, prison, and even had their nostrils torn out, their tongue or ears cut off, and they were subjected to other tortures.
He watches the lesson, surrounded by his sons and adjutants, kicking his feet to keep warm, with his head uncovered and bald, with his nose upturned, one hand clasped behind his back, - like that great man, - and the other, raising and lowering his stick to the beat, he hits the ball - once, twice! one, two! - and creates glory for himself by the fact that he does all this without a fur coat, despite fifteen or twenty degrees of frost.”
Pavel had lunch at exactly one o'clock. The table was set for only eight places. After a short rest, a new round followed and again classes from four to seven hours, then the court circle gathered. The sovereign often forced himself to wait for a long time, but he himself did not allow those who were late. When he appeared, he was given a list of those present, and he used a pencil to mark the names of those whom he wanted to leave for dinner. Sometimes, going around the crowd, he addressed certain people, but conversations between those present were prohibited. At that moment, when the clock struck nine, the door to the dining room opened. The sovereign entered first, sometimes, but not always, giving his hand to the sovereign. Throwing invariably stern and often angry glances around himself, he with a sharp movement handed over the gloves and hat to the page on duty, who was supposed to accept them.
He sat in the middle of the table, with the empress on his right hand, and his eldest son on his left. At this moment the order of silence was canceled, but no one dared to take advantage of this, except to answer the emperor, who usually addressed only his son or Count Stroganov and talked to them in the presence of silent guests. Most often, between meals, he limited himself to looking around those sitting around the table, examining faces and noticing poses. After dinner, if Pavel was in a good mood, he amused himself by scattering dessert from the table, cakes and sweets in the corners of the room, which he tried to catch. well, interrupting each other's best pieces. At ten o'clock in the evening the day ended, and the emperor retired to his room.
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