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PAUL I (PAVEL PETROVICH) 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 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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