Catherine II had become the most powerful Russian empress Russia had seen since the death of Peter the Great. Or at least that was how she liked to think. But at 67 years old, there was something that clouded her days. Under no circumstances could she allow her only son, Tsarevich Paul, to inherit the throne. She had built a legacy too large and ambitious for that madman, as she often saw him, to wear the imperial crown. But there was another option. Alexander, her beloved grandson, embodied everything her father never could be. He was kind, attentive, intelligent, cultured, and above all, loyal to his grandmother who had raised him from birth. What then should she do? Could she skip a generation and enthrone her grandson? Was it fair to her son? Being realistic, what did she care about Paul's feelings? What was at stake was her great work, an empire that had expanded its borders and connected with Europe more than ever before, which now called its sovereign the "Great."
On the morning of November 5, 1796, Catherine did not rise at her usual hour. When her chambermaid came to wake her, she found her unconscious in a bathroom adjacent to her dressing room. Without delay, doctors were called. In bed, the empress could neither speak nor move. It was then that her young favorite, Platon Zubov, ordered a message be sent to Tsarevich Paul: he was expected immediately in the capital. Of course, Paul knew nothing of what was happening in St. Petersburg. That day he had spent dining with some friends and loyalists near his residence, the palace at Gatchina. On his way home, a messenger stopped his sleigh.
The relationship between Paul and Catherine II had always been difficult, starting because there was never any real bond between them. Catherine herself recorded in her memoirs that Paul was not the fruit of her marriage to Tsarevich Peter (Cruse and Hoogenboom, 2005, p. 15). When Catherine deposed her husband in 1762 and proclaimed herself empress, her son was forced to grow up in a court that would never approve or understand him. The empress, besides being a great stateswoman, often kept an amanté by her side. Some of them had accompanied her on her path to glory. Added to this were the unsettling rumors about the murder of his father, which turned Paul's disdain into a near-pathological terror of being literally eliminated (Kaus, 1984, p. 283). These dark feelings towards his mother and his own insecurities built the personality of the heir prince. Nothing he thought or said was heard in the circle of the empress. In fact, Catherine was convinced that he was the worst possible option as future tsar. Yet now she lay wasting away in her bed, and no one seemed able to stop him from seizing the crown with his own hands, could they?
Rumors had long been circulating about succession. For example, it was said that Catherine had prepared a document she kept carefully locked in her office: in which she disinherited Paul and passed the crown to Alexander (Kaus, 1984, p. 351). Some even claimed she planned to announce it on November 24 of that year, her name day. But the empress had fallen into a coma only weeks before. On the other hand, Grand Duke Alexander also seemed unresponsive. While watching from afar the tints of madness affecting his father, he looked with suspicion at the presence of favorites around his grandmother (Troyat, 1980, p. 12). At this moment, different factions did not seem to know before whom they should kneel. Russia had lived through too many palace revolutions and coups d'état, which of course ended with deposed –or assassinated– tsars, tsarinas, and regents, for them not to worry.
Paul arrived at the Winter Palace at 8 p.m. As soon as he crossed the corridors, the main dignitaries paid their respects to him. Then father and son met face-to-face. To everyone's surprise, Alexander appeared dressed in the uniform of Gatchina troops, an unthinkable gesture during his imperial grandmother's time. In this way, the young prince announced that there was only one bearer of the crown and it wasn't him. Now it was time to put things in order and tie any loose ends. While his mother lay dying, Paul entered her private office and began searching through her desk and sealing important papers. There, in a small box, seemed to be deposited the document announcing his ruin. Although no trace of it remains, diplomats of the time made comments to their respective courts about such paper. In fact, most biographers of Catherine the Great tend to agree that it was probably destroyed (Troyat, 2005, p. 400). Even Robert K. Massie, who does not mention it in his biography on the empress, agrees that Catherine had intended to disinherit her son (Massie, 2012, p. 713). One thing was clear: there was no longer any proof of the true intentions of the empress.
On November 6, 1796, Catherine II died and Paul I ascended to the throne without rivers of blood. Henri Troyat would call him in his biography "the tsar no one loved" (Troyat, 2004). Alexander was the first to bow down and kneel before his father. After him, everyone else did so as well. As for Paul, he wasted little time initiating his own vendetta against all those who had despised him in the past. Twenty-four hours after ascending to the throne, Gatchina troops, always loyal to the new tsar and marginalized by Catherine II, entered the capital. The life of St. Petersburg suddenly assumed the air of a barracks, and any indecorous behavior was quickly translated into an order of imprisonment. The empress's own favorite, Platon Zubov, was rewarded with a beautiful mansion and numerous guarantees but only to witness how his new possessions were stripped away from him and he received orders for immediate exile. Even Catherine herself was "punished": by the tsar's command, her parents, who had hated each other in life, should lie together forever. Moreover, Paul imposed a Salic law to prevent future Romanov princesses from becoming empresses.
The absolute nature of the imperial scepter and his lack of preparation led Paul to build a disordered and unstable reign that was criticized by all in the shadows. In fact, it would not last long. Just four years after ascending to the throne, Paul I was assassinated during a palace revolution. Thus began the moment Catherine the Great had so dreamed of: the rise of Alexander I.
Conclusions
Paul I has been a figure constantly ignored by general historiography. The shadow of his mother and the triumphs of his son turned this tsar into an uncomfortable interlude. His tragic death during a palace insurrection in March 1801, with his own family keeping silent in a neighboring room, further darkened his legend. But one must also understand the circumstances under which this tormented man lived, constantly harassed by the shadow of his father's murder, his mother's suspicions, and a court that never had any interest in understanding him. Perhaps this explains why he seemed so unprepared to rule over such an immense empire. In the end, as numerous historians point out, he himself knew that his destiny had never been entirely clear.
Bibliography
Cruse, M. and Hoogenboom, H. (eds.) (2005). The Memoirs of Catherine the Great. Modern Library.
Kaus, Gina (1984). Catherine the Great. Ed. Juventud.
Massie, R. K. (2012). Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Critica.
Troyat, H. (1980). Alexander of Russia: The Napoleon's Conqueror. Grove Press.
Troyat, H. (2005). Catherine the Great. Vergara.
Troyat, H. (2004). Paul I: The Tsar No One Loved. El Ateneo.
.jpg){kind=link}
Comments