“- Why don't you write about the estate P …?
- Okay, a counter question. Why don't you write about Paul?"
(From correspondence with a friend)
Unrecognized by history. On the evening of November 5, 1796, at about 20:25, a short, lean man arrived at the Winter Palace. Passing under the gate, climbing a small staircase, with a quick step through the palace rooms, he proceeded to the inner apartments, where Empress Catherine II was dying. The newcomer himself was the Grand Duke Paul, the unloved son and unwanted heir …
The background to the appearance of the Grand Duke was as follows. This day in the Winter Palace began normally. The Empress woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning, drank coffee, and then, as she always did, wrote until 9 o'clock. But after half an hour, the valet Zotov will find her on the floor in the dressing room, lying on her back, and will call two colleagues in order to transfer her to the bedroom.
“They considered it their duty to lift her; but, devoid of feelings, she only half-opened her eyes, breathing weakly, and when she had to carry her, there was such a weight in her body that six people were hardly enough just to put her on the floor in the named room."
- so says the official record of the death.
Years, years - the empress got fat, and it became problematic to raise her. Catherine never regained consciousness, spending the rest of her life on the bedroom floor on a morocco mattress. The incident was reported to the favorite, Prince Platon Zubov. Good doctors under the command of the physician-in-chief John Rogerson conjured over the dying queen - they let blood, poured emetic powders, applied a Spanish fly, put in flushing; used all means - to no avail. Apoplectic stroke! The priests were also invited. Father Savva, the confessor of Catherine, could not commune her with the Holy Mysteries, because foam was coming from the autocrat's mouth; I had to confine myself to prayers. Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg advised to celebrate Holy Communion, and then to unleash, which he did at about 4 pm with the help of the court bishop Father Sergius. In general, the whole palace was on its ears, and among the audience was spreading despondency, bordering on panic. The first to fall into this panic was the very favorite of the juicy grandmother - Prince Platon Zubov. Hitherto omnipotent, he got scared, and, according to some information (A. E. Czartorizhsky), he destroyed a bunch of papers. So, away from sin …
Prior to that, there were already rumors in St. Petersburg that Catherine wanted to declare her grandson, not her son, but her grandson, Alexander Pavlovich, as her heir, but to remove his father, her son Pavel, from power and from society in general, imprisoning him in Lode's castle. Unfortunately, there are no papers left about this. But in the palace a certain meeting of nobles is gathering, who clearly know about Catherine's decision. There are suggestions that this meeting was attended by "favorite" Platon Zubov, his brother, Nikolai Zubov, politician Count Alexander Bezborodko, Metropolitan Gabriel, Prosecutor General Alexander Samoilov, Count Nikolai Saltykov and Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky. Everyone understood that the empress “would not get up”, so they could clearly imagine that now in Russia and in the very fate of those gathered, a lot of new and interesting things will soon come, and for some of them everything will end very badly …
It was Aleksey Orlov, a prominent naval commander, the winner of the Turks at Chesma, a possible accomplice in the assassination of Peter III, and offered to notify the Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, the Tsarina's son, of the incident. They decided to send Count Nikolai Zubov to the heir …
Since 1783, Pavel himself mainly lived in Gatchina, which is located at a distance of about 30 kilometers south of the border of modern Petersburg, for which he received the nickname “Gatchina hermit”. The creation of the city of Gatchina began with the fact that the former favorite of Catherine, Grigory Orlov, was presented in 1765 with the Gatchina manor with the nearest villages. Around there are forest lands teeming with animals and birds, and these places themselves are picturesque, because there are many rivers and lakes. Where else could a hunting castle be? The construction of the palace-castle is being carried out by Antonio Rinaldi. Irony of fate - more recently, the same Rinaldi erected buildings in the amusing fortress Petershtadt in Oranienbaum for Peter III, and now he is building a palace for the one who was one of the leaders of the conspiracy that destroyed the would-be king. The palace was completed in 1781. At the same time, under the leadership of Charles Sparrow and John Bush, a park "in the English style" was laid out near the palace, which is one of the first landscape parks in Russia. But in April 1783, Orlov dies, and Catherine buys these lands from his relatives to the treasury for half a million rubles. And then he gives it as a gift to Tsarevich Pavel. For “out of sight - out of mind,” and the queen herself never came to Gatchina again. Oryol gardeners continue to work under the new owner. The palace is being rebuilt under the leadership of the thieving Vincenzo Brenna.
What can a recluse do? Pavel is engaged in his own small army (about him - below) and, forgive, love with his wife - he became one of the most prolific of the Romanovs, and so many children - only for love! Thinks a lot. Some of his decrees seem to be documents that have been invented for a long time alone, simply "whitewashed on state paper" after accession. The Tsarevich also pays a lot of attention to his Gatchina - new halls appear in the palace, in which "there is more taste than splendor." At the same time, large-scale works are being carried out in the park, they are carried out at different times by James Hackett, the brothers Franz and Karl Helmholtz - pavilions, bridges and other buildings are being built, as well as sites with regular planning appear here.
The Gatchina entourage of the Grand Duke at first, in the 1780s, was his own Small Court - ladies and gentlemen; the housekeeper of the court was V. P. Musin-Pushkin, we will not list the rest. Sometimes Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin came. A friend of Pavel Petrovich since childhood, he will be sent into exile by Catherine for participating in the meetings of the Freemasons, and later will receive the Tsarina's permission to leave the place of exile and visit the country estates of the Grand Duke twice a year. We remember that Alexander Borisovich will receive the nickname "Diamond Prince" because of his love for jewelry … Guests from St. Petersburg also come to Gatchina, and the grand ducal court made a very pleasant impression on all of them. On solemn days, beds were prepared for guests, of whom almost two hundred people could come. If Pavel spent the morning on the watch parade of his troops, then at twelve o'clock they gathered in the hall, from dinner they dispersed at three in the afternoon, and until seven in the evening everyone found entertainment to their liking - there were cards, and loto, and playfulness in the garden, and theatre! Each guest received good food, "a complete set of tea, coffee, chocolate", each had his own number, and in the evenings games were arranged in the garden and music sounded. We went to bed at ten. Pavel went to bed very early as a child, and got up early - he was pathologically impatient, he wanted to do everything … Perhaps this was his most important feature, from which all other personality traits "grew"!
Pavel loved theater very much since childhood. Although, apparently, not all performances. For example, if Catherine went to the Opera House, where they staged an Italian opera, with pleasure, and advised her beloved grandson Alexander to visit it, then Paul, after accession, immediately ordered this very theater to be destroyed. Either he didn’t like the building itself, or the Italian opera didn’t impress, or there was so strong aversion to everything that mamma loved … God knows! The performances in Gatchina were initially given by the German court troupe, but the performances they performed seemed boring for everyone present. And then my wife, Maria Fedorovna, tried. Wanting to distract her husband from dark thoughts (in the sense of being removed from power and a general far from definite position), she tried to brighten up his life as best she could. There was no need to look for reasons for the holidays - the owner's birthday or namesake, the foundation of a hospital, or even the wedding of the residents of Gatchina! They had fun - they installed swings, made illumination, put on plays of the time - little known to the modern theatergoer. They put it on their own!
The Grand Duke also took part in "carousels" - a variety of certain knightly competitions, arranged according to the model of tournaments. Such performances were held in Gatchina during the reign of Grigory Orlov, both Grigory himself and his brother Alexei took part in them. Equestrian participants competed in the dexterity of wielding a spear and a sword, everything was furnished with medieval luxury - there were heralds, trumpeters, flags and flowers for the victorious knights.
But already in 1787 the main entertainment in Gatchina ceased, and in the 1790s Pavel began to pay special attention to his own small army - the "Gatchina". The foundations of these troops were laid back in the same 1783 year. It all started with two teams of thirty people each, recruited from the Baltic naval battalions. But then, by the time of Paul's accession, these troops had already reached the number of 2399 people and included infantry, cavalry and artillery. The form of the mini-army was copied from the Prussian (leaving the Russian green color of the uniform), the orders in it were also copied from the Prussians. This was due to the fact that in 1776 the heir visited Prussia, where he was warmly received by Frederick II, and had the opportunity to observe the maneuvers of the king's army. Apparently, Paul liked the German orders, and he transferred them to his subordinates. Therefore, the heir's personal troops constantly underwent drill training, systematically participated in maneuvers in the vicinity of Gatchina and Pavlovsk. Exercises were held in Gatchina every spring and autumn. And on the local lakes, maneuvers of the Gatchina flotilla were even played out - with boarding and landing. The Gatchina artillery was superior in its training to the rest of the artillery of the Russian army. In conducting the teachings, Pavel was assisted by A. A. Arakcheev, N. O. Kotlubitsky, F. V. Rostopchin. Arakcheev, a good scrupulous administrator, and formed an artillery company in 1792, after which he became the head of the officer classes; Russian language, calligraphy, geometry with arithmetic and, in fact, military sciences were taught there.
With all this, the Gatchina soldiers lived in barracks, which was largely absent in Russia by that time - the bulk of the troops in the country were stationed in the houses of "grateful inhabitants". And for the health of residents, neighboring peasants and soldiers, at the behest of the heir, medical institutions were created in Gatchina, which were used free of charge! What, however, is the “narrow-minded soldier” that “historians” have been portraying Paul with for two hundred years, right? In 1788, Paul took his only part in the war - he was present at the siege of the Swedish fortress of Friedrichsgam, where cannonballs flew over his head, and even with him a horse was killed. That's all his combat experience. By the way, before leaving for the campaign, he left his wife a touching letter of advice in case of his own death …
Pavel Petrovich, as a caring ruler, was also engaged in the industrial development of his "small country". The streets leading to the palace were partially paved, and lanterns and stone milestones were placed along them, birches were planted. To supply their court and their troops with uniforms, a Cloth Factory was established in 1795, which was supposed to produce as many as three types of cloth. But this case, unfortunately, did not receive the proper success, and after the murder of Pavel, the factory ceased to exist altogether. Pavel tried for the first time in Russia to start cheese making on the model of the Western (in 1792), but the Swiss cheese maker François Tengle hired by him once in 1799 got drunk and died of fever, and in seven years of his work in the required amount of cheese and did not present. So trust these talkative Europeans! But the sublime, romantic spirit of the Tsarevich's thoughts wanted something else. The "reluctant recluse" had the idea to create here something like a fortress city of knights. He came up with the name - Ingerburg. It was supposed to become a kind of small town, surrounded by ramparts and a moat, where Paul himself and his entourage were supposed to live. In 1793, the construction of the barracks began. But in the end, of all the buildings of the fortress city, only the house of Ekaterina Nelidova, the maid of honor of the Maly Dvor, Paul's favorite, was completed. They talked about their relationship all different, but no one "held a candle", so we will not assume. But after his accession at the end of 1796, Paul was busy as a monarch with many other problems, so he loses interest in Ingerburg, and the knightly fortress was never completed. But, to Pavel's honor, the very beautiful Gatchina remained after him, with a park, pavilions and ponds. By the way, for the second time Gatchina as a residence will become popular with Tsar Alexander III, where he will find his quiet family corner. Ironically, his wife will also be called Maria Fedorovna in Orthodoxy! A great man will often be great only when a loving woman stands behind him …
By the time of her death, the mother's relationship with her own son had reached the peak of hostility. She considered him almost insane, he remembered all the wrongs inflicted on him - and there were many of them. If for a normal Russian person the concept of “justice” is the main cornerstone of the worldview, then there was no such justice in relation to Paul. From the word "absolutely".
And here it is necessary to return to the 60s of the 18th century. After the coup, which brought Catherine to the reign, the little Tsarevich was brought up as a future sovereign, and he perfectly understood this. A truly great man, the wise Nikita Ivanovich Panin, was involved in the upbringing process. His teacher Semyon Poroshin tried to put a lot of good into Paul, he sincerely fell in love with the boy and was able to become his real, best friend. But Paul grew up, and did not receive the throne - the mama kept the reign for herself. And by and large she left it to her favorites, who received a lot of money for "love for the queen." And mother's minions did not particularly stand on ceremony with the heir. For example, he had conflicts with Potemkin, and Platon Zubov was generally much younger in age than Pavel, but behaved arrogantly and rudely with him.
In 1795, Catherine II writes the following:
“The heavy baggage (meaning Pavel and his wife, Maria Fedorovna) moved to Gatchina three days ago. Basta. When the cat is not at home, the mice dance on the tables and feel happy and contented."
Her son annoyed her. Of all the posts that he held, the title of admiral-general was the main one, but it meant nothing to anyone. Pavel rarely went to the court. He stayed mainly in Gatchina, but he was forced to live relatively modestly, because he was entitled to 120 thousand rubles a year for everything. Such a sum was simply extremely shameful for him, because the new favorite of his sworn beloved mother, “taking office,” received the same amount only for clothes! As an example, it is worth mentioning that from 1762 to 1783 the Orlov family received various tsatseks, money, palaces and other buns-gifts as much as 17 million rubles. And the Grand Duke, who was equipping his Gatchina, even got into debt … In general, Paul's resentment towards the behavior of the parent and her associates only increased. In the late 1780s, due to the wars with Turkey and Sweden, the ruble fell sharply, and prices increased. The expenses of the Maly Dvor (Paul's Dvor) were taken under control by Catherine: the chamberlain V. P. Musin-Pushkin was given a decree, “Who are ordered to give a strict account of the money spent during the presence of the Grand Duke in Gatchina; last year this amount was spent on this. The Grand Duke is grieved by this to the extreme."
It was with these words that the then favorite G. A. Potemkin. I wonder how much Potemkin himself received at the same time?.. To the humiliated requests of Pavel and his wife for the allocation of funds, the empress replied that, they say, they should not have a need, and if there is a need, then only from the fact that someone -that robs them. And it was true! Since 1793, a certain K. A. von Bork, who quietly appropriated for himself as much as 300 thousand rubles. In 1795, this theft was discovered, von Bork was expelled, and P. H. Obolyaninov - a native of the military "Gatchina".
The heir, removed from any state power, almost openly criticized Catherine's order. A capable, smart, kind boy over the decades of dislike has turned into an adult explosive, impulsive, suspicious middle-aged man. At the same time, Paul was very afraid of conspiracies and poisoning - the fate of some monarchs. Even Semyon Poroshin, Pavel's children's teacher, argued in his notes that the charm of the outer side of military service - commands, uniforms, march - is harmful to the sovereign. Unfortunately, in many ways this happened, but this is not the fault of those who raised the young Tsarevich, but those who drove him during the years of forced isolation and waiting for the throne! Live as reclusive children, unloved children, when everyone and sundry wipe their feet about you, but at the same time those who despise you (the favorites of the Empress Mother!) Will enjoy all the possible benefits of high society - you will also grow up with the wrong oddities … this was combined with a thirst for activity, and Paul was very active and, in addition, possessed a lofty knightly mindset, for the heir had his own concepts, different from mother and her associates - about honor, conscience and the prosperity of the country. An interesting fact: if we imagine that the greatest criticism of Catherine's orders in Russian literature came from Alexander Radishchev in his famous "Journey …", then it was Pavel who returned the rebel-truth-picker Radishchev from exile from exile - apparently in defiance of his mama …
The morning of November 5, 1796 for the "Gatchina Hamlet" also began quite usually, as he planned it for himself … But the long-awaited changes will meet him very soon!
