PAUL I (PAVEL PETROVICH)
1754-1801
EMPEROR OF ALL RUSSIA 1796-1801
The Son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, Paul was born on September 20,
1754, and brought up at the court of his grandmother,
Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who intended to appoint him her heir instead of
Peter Feodorovich (Peter III). After the overthrow of Peter III, he lived with
his family in Gatchina Palace, given to him by his mother, where he had his own
court and a small army. The violent events of his childhood and his estrangement
from his mother made him irritable and suspicious of those around him.
On the day of Catherine the Great's death, the 42-year-old Paul declared
himself Emperor.
Historians are equivocal about his short reign. He was unpopular at court and
extremely hostile toward his mother. His coronation signaled a break with the
stability of Catherine's reign. Paul I freed those imprisoned by the Privy
Council, liberated the Poles, abolished conscription and limited the power of
landowners over the serfs. On April 5, 1797, he issued a decree on rights of
succession that established procedures for the transfer of power from one monarch
to the next. In foreign policy, he performed an abrupt reversal, changing from
war with France to union with her. This was probably one of the main reasons for
his murder.
Paul I was married twice; secondly in 1776 to Princess Sophia Dorothea of
Württemberg (Maria Feodorovna). He had 10 children from the second
marriage.
On the night of March 12, 1801, he was suffocated by conspirators. He was
buried in the Cathedral of the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress in St.
Petersburg.
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Text compiled by Alexei K. Levykin
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