“For twelve years now, he (Constable Gaucher de Chatillon - author's note) firmly adhered to his previous opinion about the rights of women's succession to the throne. Indeed, it was he who proclaimed the Salic law, having managed to unite the peers around him and throwing the famous phrase: ""."
(Maurice Druon, Lily and the Lion)
From the first part of our cycle “Steps of the Emperor. Gatchina Hamlet”we remember the blow that happened to Catherine the Great and the life of her unloved son, Pavel, in Gatchina. Today we will get acquainted with the subsequent events of this difficult biography of this man …
Unrecognized by history. The most common entertainments in Gatchina were walks and trips through their own "little principality", because parks, forests and lakes were directly inclined to this. They often went to the Gatchina mill, which had been rented since 1791 by the miller Johann Stackenschneider, the father of the future architect A. I. Stackenschneider - the one who will build for Pavel's granddaughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, and the city mansion (the Mariinsky Palace, the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg is now sitting there), and a country dacha (the Sergievka estate). At the miller's estate, Pavel Petrovich dined for the last time as Tsarevich …
The day of November 5, 1796 began in an ordinary way for the heir himself. Pavel got up very early from childhood. At eight o'clock he already made a sleigh ride with his retinue, returned at half past nine; at 10:30 he went to the local parade ground, left with the arriving battalion to the arena, where they conducted an exercise, and then divorced. In the afternoon he gathered his entourage, and at 12:30 he left with all those present in a sleigh to the aforementioned mill.
Before dinner, the Grand Duke told the audience about a wonderful dream that night. In this dream, an invisible supernatural force lifted him to the sky, which made him wake up, fall asleep, but the dream was repeated over and over again with the same consequences. Opening his eyes and seeing his waking wife, he learned from her that she saw the same thing and experienced the same sensations …
After dinner, Pavel Petrovich with his retinue returned to his residence. His fate was already rushing to meet him - in the form of a Gatchina hussar.
The fact is that during the walk of the Grand Duke, first a certain officer arrived in Gatchina - an envoy from the court, then - the equestrian Count Nikolai Zubov. Both with reports of what had happened to my mother. Nikolai Osipovich Kotlubitsky, close to Pavel, described in an interesting way what happened next. According to him, Zubov sent two hussars from the Gatchina troops in search of the Tsarevich along two different roads - to report his arrival, because he did not know where Pavel was and which way he would return (and they had not yet invented telephones in everyday life). One of them found the retinue, caught up with the sleigh. Since all the hussars were from Little Russians, Pavel Petrovich turned to the messenger, to his honor, in a dialect that was understandable to that …
- Who is there like this?
- Having crammed your teeth, your highness.
- And how rich are they? The heir asked.
The hussar, according to Kotlubitsky's recollections, heard the Russian proverb "One is like a finger", but he understood it in a peculiar way …
“One yak dog, your highness.
“Well, one can be dealt with,” Pavel answered, took off his hat and crossed himself.
Paul ordered to go to the palace as soon as possible. To say that he was very excited is to say nothing. The purpose of the arrival of the brother of the sworn favorite, he did not know … Various thoughts wandered in the head of the recluse. He could be worried that the Swedish king Gustav IV Adolf still decided to marry his daughter Alexandra. Before that, magnificent negotiations were arranged, the king even arrived in Petersburg, but they were crowned with nothing - the Swedish monarch refused! Catherine was extremely annoyed with this outcome, and this became one of the reasons for the blow that struck her … The second reason for the excitement of the Grand Duke was even more vital for the Tsarevich - the fear that they had come to arrest him.
Upon the arrival of Pavel Petrovich at the Gatchina Palace, at about 15:45, Nikolai Zubov was summoned to his office and told all the details of what had happened to the empress-mother. Already at 16:00, the Grand Duke and his wife left for Petersburg, and Zubov rushed ahead in order to order the preparation of horses for replacement for the Tsarevich's carriage.
Fyodor Rostopchin at 18:00 arrived in Sofia - a former district town on the territory of modern Pushkin, near the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. There he witnessed an interesting scene, for Nikolai Zubov, who had already arrived there, had a row with a drunken assessor about horses.
Zubov, not accustomed to stand on ceremony with those who were below him, yelled:
- Horses, horses! I'll harness you under the emperor.
Interesting, right? The brother of the favorite of the dying empress has already "changed his shoes" and called his unloved heir his sovereign!
In response, the assessor, relatively respecting manners, but at the same time rude and courteous at the same time, answered the count:
- Your Excellency, harnessing me is not a curiosity, but what is the use? After all, I'm not lucky, even if you will kill me to death. What is an emperor? If there is an emperor in Russia, then God bless him; If our mother is gone, then he is vivat!
Golden words from the mouth of a drunken man!
Nobody got used to a male ruler over the past decades … Soon the heir's crew showed up. Pavel invited Rostopchin to go together, and he followed him in a sleigh, following the carriage. And before that, from Gatchina to Sofia, according to the same Rostopchin, the Grand Duke was met by five or six couriers sent from the sons of Paul - Alexander and Constantine, and from other persons.
According to the story of the same Rostopchin, then, having passed the Chesme Palace (now in the Moskovsky district of St. Petersburg), the heir deigned to get out of the carriage. Rostopchin stood by. The night was calm, quiet and bright, no more than three degrees of cold. Paul's eyes, fixed on the moon, were filled with tears … After a little chat about the importance of everything that was happening in French, the interlocutors went on. Paul really waited too long for the throne, and, apparently, he himself was stunned by what had happened. In any case, he was definitely overwhelmed with a variety of feelings - from deep grief to euphoria …
At 20:25, Paul, as already mentioned, arrived at the Winter Palace. I entered not through the main entrance, but along a small staircase under the gate. I went into my room in the palace, after which I went to my dying mother. He showed a courteous and affectionate appearance to all those gathered, and the reception itself turned out to be not like a hated heir, but like a new Emperor. How quickly people change … Pavel talked with the doctors, after which he went with his wife to the coal office (near Catherine's bedroom), where he called those with whom he wanted to talk, and from where he gave orders. Together with the heir, the people of his retinue arrived. Nobody knew them in the Petersburg "high society" that filled the palace, but their presence irritated all of Catherine's nobility. Thus the night passed. The courtiers of Catherine were in sadness and despondency …
By morning, the heir's "Gatchina guards" arrived at the Winter Palace. The soldiers marched in marching order all night. Their uniform, copied from the Prussians of Frederick II, surprised those around them - for such uniforms were fashionable almost fifty years ago.
Also on the morning of November 6, the eldest sons of the Tsarevich, Alexander and Constantine, appeared in the inner chambers of Catherine. The empress's condition left no hope of recovery. The body was lying on the same mattress on which it was laid after the attack; the eyes were closed, the doctors were wiping the liquid coming out of the mouth every minute. Count Rostopchin will write in his memoirs later that in one of the rooms he will find Platon Zubov's favorite, hitherto all-powerful, sitting in a corner, sitting in a corner, while “”. Nobody wanted a retired pet. All those who did Russian state affairs together with the late Empress immediately became utterly meek and obedient! Some of them only yesterday intended to remove the legitimate heir from affairs, to put him in the castle, but now no one even had the courage to make a displeased grimace. All expressed the greatest respect to the heir … This is the essence of the "nobility", in whatever centuries it may live!
Pavel, having gathered together the chief-chamberlain, Count Bezborodko, Prosecutor General Samoilov and Alexander and Konstantin, proceeded to seal his mother's papers. The documents were collected, placed in her office, sealed with the imperial seal; the doors were locked, and the keys to the locks were handed over to Pavel personally. Then, when analyzing these papers, the new emperor, according to rumors and recollections, will find a number of very “interesting” documents for himself …
At nine o'clock in the evening on November 6, 1796, the good doctor Rogerson, entering the office where Pavel and his wife were, announced that Catherine was "ending." Everyone was invited to farewell. Pavel came with his wife and children, favorite Platon Zubov, a number of courtiers. At 21:45, the Grand Empress died. ("Wikipedia" at the moment, August 2021, is shamelessly lying - it happened not in the morning, but in the evening!). Pavel sobbed, went into another room, and the assembled ladies, who had hitherto served Catherine, burst out with a cry of mourning …
Count Samoilov went into the duty room and announced the death of the empress to the audience. And also that now it was Pavel Petrovich who ascended the throne. At 23:15, the new sovereign entered the assembly, where all the interested officials of the state and those who joined them were present. The audience began to pretend to express the greatest degree of respect. It seems that at the same time many of Catherine's nobles worried about their future in anticipation of the punishment of the new emperor - "for all the good, who deserved what!" Then the procession went to the court church, where Prosecutor General Samoilov read out a manifesto on the death of Catherine and the accession to the throne of her son, Pavel Petrovich, after which the oath began to the new ruler. The first to swear allegiance was his wife, Maria Feodorovna, the next began to kiss the hand of the new Emperor, the eldest sons and their spouses, then the rest of the children of the newly-made emperor; after the Right Reverend Gabriel, then - all the other persons gathered. The ceremony ended only at two in the morning. After that, Paul returned to his mother's body, and then went to his chambers. But that was in the palace. But in Russia - since then, the era of male rule began, by the way, which has not changed until now!
