The murder of a Russian knight on the throne
As a result, the Russian Empire challenged the British spider swelling from the blood of hundreds of peoples and tribes, which then claimed a leading position in the Western project. The union of Russia and weakened France could weaken the power of Britain. For a long history Russia was practically the first attempt at direct confrontation with England. It is known that for centuries, Britain continued the policy of ancient Rome: "divide, control, and rule." The British pitted European and Asian nations with each other, while they themselves reaped the fruits of other people's victories. It was the same before Paul and after him, when, for example, England poisoned Napoleonic France and Russia, who for many years in bloody wars destroyed their best sons, spending resources not on development, but on war. England regularly incited Persia, Turkey, Sweden, Japan to Russia, and in the twentieth century, two of the greatest Aryan nations — the Russians and the Germans — blew away with the USA twice. In fact, these were fratricidal wars (especially considering that the territories of Germany and Austria are the indigenous lands of the Slavorus, and the “Germans” are largely assimilated, the Silent Russ, the Slavs lost their language and culture), which greatly weakened the potential of Russian civilization and fully consistent with the interests of the owners of the West.
Pavel Petrovich, at the beginning of the 19th century, was the first to raise his hand to the monstrous western octopus - the union of the British crown and international capital. It was a knightly deed. The campaign of the Russian Cossacks to India was a kind of challenge thrown to England by a knight’s glove. And the owners of the West responded in a standard manner for them - the best of the opponents should die. With the help of British gold and local hangers-on, the “invisible hand” of the West’s masters struck down the seemingly all-powerful Russian autocrat.
The reign of Paul was distorted, hidden in the darkness, a lot of garbage was thrown on his grave. The organizers of the murder and their agents and ideological periphery in Russia created such a powerful information cover for the operation to eliminate one of the most sensible rulers of Russia, so far most of the inhabitants believe Paul I to be a tyrant, a despot, a petty tyrant, almost mentally ill person. The myth of Paul's “madness” was written. As a result, Pavel found himself in the line with such rulers as Ivan the Terrible and Stalin, although it was under their rule that the vector of development of the state was closest to the interests of the people.
His time still requires careful study. However, one thing is certain, the Russian emperor was a real knight, possessed of iron will and uncompromising determination. Had he lived 20-30 for years and Russia could reach the southern seas, have a solid position in Asia Minor, the Mediterranean Sea, Persia and India, and Napoleon would never have reached Moscow.
Milestones of the board
The correct assessment of Pavel’s activity was given by the Russian historian VO Klyuchevsky. He noted: “Having collected all the jokes, you will think that all this is some kind of motley and rather incoherent tale; meanwhile At the heart of the government policy (Emperor Paul), both external and internal, lay serious thoughts and principles that deserve our complete sympathy. ” Klyuchevsky wrote that Pavel Petrovich was the first “counter-noble king” of this era, and “the rule of the nobility and rule based on injustice was a sore point for a Russian hostel in the second half of the century”. Guiding the work of Paul was a sense of order, discipline, and equality. It was a kind of “knight on the throne” who tried to restore order and social justice in the empire.
Pavel challenged degraded Russian nobility (especially its metropolitan, court part), which his predecessors freed from compulsory service. Pavel tried to restore discipline, breathe "knightly spirit" into the nobility, discard luxury. The rights of the nobles were sharply curtailed. Many of the military were fired - a significant part of them, having rank and receiving salaries, did not serve at all. The emperor dismissed for negligence and licentiousness, for brutal treatment of soldiers, tore off epaulettes and exiled to Siberia.
His negative attitude towards Catherine II was based not only on personal experiences and the tragedy of the death of his father, but on the mode of action, the behavior of the mother empress. According to Paul, Catherine was only a "noble queen" and completely depended on the nobility. This led to a distortion of the political system of the Russian kingdom. Having ascended the throne, Pavel Petrovich decided to put in the basis of his state activity not the abstract philosophical and political ideas of Western thinkers and their Russian imitators, but the interests of the Russian people. He sought to improve the socio-political situation of most of his subjects. The granted letter to the nobility from 1784 of the year, which created the privileged position of the nobility not only in personal rights, but also in local government, was canceled. Pavel tried to crush class privileges, restore truth and legality in the Russian state. Hence the order that the serfs swore allegiance to him along with the other estates of the Russian Empire. By this, he showed that they are for him the same subjects as the landowners. The governors were instructed to monitor how the owners treated the serfs and immediately report all abuses to the sovereign. In one of the windows of the Winter Palace they even put an iron box in which everyone could throw a complaint or petition. This "iron box" has become a whole symbol of the era. The first nobles and dignitaries were afraid of him.
It is clear that a narrow group of higher aristocracy, accustomed to parasitizing on the people, could not forgive the sovereign. He became her enemy. The higher strata of the nobility expected further privileges, and not the restoration of a healthy hierarchy, order and law. They did not want to serve, but only wanted to enjoy the fruits of their high position.
In April, 1797, a decree was issued on the succession to the throne and the imperial family, and he had to remove the "soil" of palace coups. The law eliminated the free interpretation of the right to supreme power, eliminated the root cause of unrest. Now the throne could be inherited only through the male line: after the death of the king, he passed on to the eldest son or next brother, if there were no children. A woman could occupy the throne only when interrupting the male line.
Pavel respected the peasantry with great respect, understanding its importance for Russia. In his Manual to the children, he noted that the peasantry contains all the other parts of the state with its works, therefore it is "worthy of special respect." In February, 1797, the emperor Paul banned the sale of yard people and serfs without land. He forbade to force the peasants to work on holidays. State-owned farmers received self-government, on 15, acres of land, they were forgiven for 7 million arrears. The grain duty, which was a heavy burden on the peasants, was replaced by monetary. To reduce the price of bread, the sovereign ordered him to sell it at special prices from state-owned bread stores. The price of bread fell. A decree was issued on limiting serfdom (the work of the peasants for the nobility) three days a week. In fact, it was the first attempt to limit serfdom. Researchers note that these decrees have caused great gratitude among millions of people in Russia. Even a century after the murder of Paul, the peasants came to worship the tomb of the people's king and put candles to him. The people remembered Paul as a benefactor, despite the brevity of his rule. It is clear that Paul managed to do a little. However, the peasantry (the overwhelming part of the population of Russia) in this short time received more than all the long reign of Catherine II.
In the sphere of religion, Pavel Petrovich also proved to be a tolerant and kind person. He stopped the persecution of the Old Believer Christians, who, despite the heavy repression, preserved the identity of the Russian way. At the beginning of 1798, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, which was considered the center of the Old Believers, they even allowed to open their churches. When one of the schismatic hermitages on Kerzhents burned down, the Old Believers asked for help from the sovereign and received it. Pavel allocated benefits from his personal funds. Pressure was also extinguished on the Orthodox Church, which in the 18th century was turned into a “spiritual ministry”, an appendage of the state. Paul began to return to the church the selected property, estates. Partially returned rights and privileges. First of all it concerned the monasteries.
Pavel paid much attention to the financial position of the empire. When Empress Catherine II finances were very upset. The Russian Empress spent too recklessly on state funds for unnecessary celebratory, entertaining events and for her favorites. Pavel had a different attitude towards state funds. The sovereign considered state revenues to be the wealth of the state, and not the personal treasury of the king. Costs were to be measured by parishes and used according to state needs, so as not to burden the population. Paper money (introduced because of financial problems) was collected and burned in the square in front of the Winter Palace. Total burned paper money worth more than 5 million rubles. To restore the value of money, many court silver sets and things were melted down and minted a coin. The cost of money has recovered.
Pavel was still thinking about Western informational influence on the Russian youth. Raising children and young people determined the future of the country. In the spring of 1800, some western books were banned from importing into Russia. Banned sending abroad young people to study in foreign educational institutions. This immediately gave results. Passion for all foreigners has decreased. The highest circles of society began to switch from French to Russian (at that time “native” was French for the highest nobility).
Having become the head of the Order of Malta, Paulhotel wanted to solve two main problems. First of all, he understood that it was necessary to fight against harmful ideas with ideas too, physical struggle alone was not enough. Pavel decided to oppose revolutionary ideas and Freemasonry with a religious-political structure, a religious-secular order, uniting the best forces of Europe. In this regard, the Order of Malta, having hundreds of years of hard, heroic struggle against the enemies of Christian Europe, seemed like a suitable structure. Russian resources and capabilities could bring the order to a completely different level. The Russian emperor cherished the idea of concentrating all the healthy spiritual and military forces of Europe without distinction of nationality and religion around the renewed Order of Malta, in order to suppress the revolutionary forces behind which the masters of the Western project stood.
Secondly, the principles underlying the Order of Malta: strict Christian piety, helping others, defending justice with weapons in the hands, both the unconditional obedience of the younger elders (a healthy hierarchy), as well as the knightly way and his mystically religious direction, fully corresponded to the emperor's worldview. Paul wanted to create a Russian spiritual order that would be able to resist decomposition, which gradually spread across Europe. Under Stalin, this idea will be remembered when they compare the Bolsheviks with the "Order of the Sword," which will have to switch to ideological and educational work (the idea will not have time to realize). The spiritual-secular order was supposed to serve the revival of the Russian nobility, its essence and at the same time bring to the service of Russia the best representatives from other classes and social groups of the population. The highest circles of the nobility, spiritually and intellectually, were badly corrupted and infected with various Western ideas. Paul was not opposed to the nobility as such. But he wanted the nobility not only to be considered the highest and noble class, but to be so. It was necessary to force the Russian nobles to follow the ideals of chivalry. To such people as Suvorov, Ushakov, Lazarev, Kornilov and Nakhimov were not the exception to the rule, but the typical representatives of the “Russian chivalry”. In fact, Pavel planned to form a new national elite.
The development of the Russian army. For a long time, Pavel was criticized for failing to appreciate the originality of the Russian military school of Rumyantsev and Suvorov, turned a blind eye to his achievements and introduced the Prussian orders. However, this is only part of the truth. Subjecting Paul to fair criticism in the sphere of Prussian orders, they simultaneously forgotten or deliberately concealed the good things that Paul did for the army.
The Russian army of the times of Rumyantsev, Potemkin and Suvorov was radically different from the European armies: it was a national army with high morale, not European soulless discipline, with slender tactics, with the training of soldiers only that they could be useful in the march and combat, convenient "Potemkin" form ". However, the unhealthy political and moral atmosphere that prevailed in Russia during the times of the epoch of palace coups, could not but have an impact on the army, especially on the morals of the officers. If in the units that were directly subordinate to Rumyantsev and Suvorov, real military spirit and tough discipline reigned, then other units were far from ideal. The military genius of Suvorov was not used to transform the entire army, although it would have been a reasonable step. Under Catherine II, Suvorov was not allowed to tackle the most important issues of the organization of military affairs. Alexander Suvorov was a “magic wand”, a genius commander who was used only for solving crisis phenomena - war with the Turks, suppressing the unrest of the Poles. They even threw out the fire of the Pugachev region.
The brain of the army — the general staff (its chief was then called the quartermaster general) was disorganized and was powerless to change anything. The commanders-in-chief (local senior military commanders) completely disregarded him, relying on their connections at court. A significant part of the army was used for other purposes - tens of thousands of soldiers were dragged as servants and serfs. Theft reigned. Meanwhile, the revolutionary French army was victorious after victory, actively promoting talented commanders (including commoners) and raising a number of brilliant generals.
It is therefore not surprising that Emperor Paul firmly took over the establishment of order in the army. On the first day of his reign, the emperor dismissed the old General Staff and on the fourth day he formed him from new people. Then the “purge” of the command began: during the reign of Pavel, 7 field marshals, more than 300 generals and over 2000 headquarters officers and chief officers were sent out. Massive dismissal of officers from the army tried to explain the tyranny of Paul. However, Paul’s actions are more like the “purge” of the army under Stalin, when most of the officers were simply dismissed for disciplinary offenses, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, low qualifications, etc. Pavel I conducted a similar purge of the army at the turn of the 18th – 19th centuries. He fought with embezzlement, violations of military discipline, the transformation of soldiers into serfs. He dismissed the generals and officers for the fact that they could not answer basic questions about military affairs. He fired officers for the so-called. "Long holidays", the nobles were listed in the shelves, but in fact they were absent. They cleaned the rows from the undead, children who were recorded in the officers. From now on, the leave for officers and generals should not exceed one month per year. Paul, like Peter I, demanded that the nobles serve their state.
Pavel paid much attention to the rank and file. For officers, a real disciplinary and criminal liability for the life and health of soldiers was introduced. Corporal punishment was allowed only in extreme cases, and it was specifically stipulated that they should not cripple, but correct negligent soldiers. For the lower ranks of the introduced vacation - 28 days a year. For the lower ranks, a cloth overcoat with sleeves for winter and cold time was introduced as the subject of the uniform (before this instruction, the soldiers had only a uniform for all seasons, under which they could put what they could). For the guard in the winter time introduced sheepskin coats and felt boots. Moreover, in the guardroom in the guardroom, the boots should be as long as necessary for each change of soldiers to wear dry felt boots. Under the fear of penal servitude, Paul forbade to make deductions from the soldiers' salary and not to give it out at all. The salaries and salaries themselves were increased. The soldiers were distributed awards orders: for 20 years of immaculate service began to issue signs of St.. Anne.
In each regiment were established hospitals. Only those persons who passed the exam at the Medical College could be doctors in them. The king introduced soldiers to service 25 for years and retired from service because of injuries to pensions containing them in disabled teams. The soldiers who died and died were ordered to be buried with military honors, and their teams were to be looked after by disabled teams. The soldier was forbidden to use as a labor in the interests of commanders. The massive construction of the barracks began to rid the army of the harmful effects of permanent residence.
Paul tried to stop the process of turning the nobility into social parasites. He tried to put an end to the era of sybarism and hedonism. Pavel forced all the officers to work hard to turn the army into a powerful combat unit. It is clear that representatives of aristocracy, accustomed to hedonism, simply hated the emperor. Subsequently, many of them tried to trample his name in the dirt.
Pavlovskaya Mushtra, a military historian A. Kersnovsky (“The History of the Russian Army”) recognized this, “strongly pulled up a brilliant, but disbanded army, especially the guard of the end of the reign of Catherine. The dandies and sybarites, who skimped on their duties, looked at the service as a pleasant sinekur, and considered that “it is not a bear — it will not run away into the forest”, it is given to understand (and feel) that service is primarily service ... Order, clarity in “uniformity everywhere were brought exemplary.
Fyodor Rostopchin noted that the Russian infantry had been greatly transformed within one year. He wrote to S. Vorontsov: “I saw that (infantry), which cost so much work to the late Prussian king (Frederick the Great), and I assure you that it would be ours.” The historian Schilder, who wrote an extensive study about Pavel I and who had a negative opinion about him, nevertheless noted: "The way of life of the guards officers has changed completely." Now they were not driving around theaters and societies, but were engaged in military training from morning to evening.
Another anti-hero of the pro-Western and liberal-minded public - Arakcheev, in a short time turned the Russian artillery into a formidable type of military force, which would play a huge role in future victories of the Russian army. I must say that the principles of the organization of artillery, laid Arakcheev, lasted until the First World War (!).
Paul did a lot for the development of the military and commercial fleet. Russia owes him patronage of the merchant fleet, assistance to the Siberian industrialist Shelikhov and the founding of the Russian-American Company.
It is clear that there were mistakes. The main mistake of Pavel in military construction was that while reforming the Russian army, the sovereign took not the ingenious principles of Rumyantsev and Suvorov, but the best European system - the military system of the Prussian king Frederick the Great, as the basis for its reorganization. Apparently, this was due to the upbringing of the Russian monarch. Although Catherine did not like her son, she nevertheless tried to educate and give him an education in the European spirit. Paul did not become a fan of the ideas of "enlightenment" and an atheist, but still he was able to inspire the idea of the superiority of some European orders over the Russians. Pavel Petrovich was well aware of the diseases of the Russian army of the era of palace coups, when only the genius of individual commanders and unyielding resilience, the self-sacrifice of Russian soldiers saved the army and the state from a number of military catastrophes. Therefore, Paul began to build an army on the basis of the principles of the Prussian king. Hence, a meaningless drill, uncomfortable uniforms and boots, braids, wigs, powder and other attributes of the Russian army of the Paul I era. If in domestic politics Pavel Petrovich tried to return Russia to the traditional historical path, he tried to rebuild the army in Prussian mode, which was a mistake.
Thus, as can be seen from the activities of the king, Paul tried to correct the imbalances that appeared in the empire during the so-called. "Golden Age" Catherine II. All of them are reasonable and no trace of the “crazy tyrant” is observed. On the whole, a harmonious and internally integral system was seen in the events of Paul. If Paul had not been killed, Russia could have made a serious development breakthrough. Moreover, it was precisely along the “Russian path” that gradually freed from the Western fetters that hampered the development of Russia.
England's challenge
Pavel Petrovich is often blamed for the fact that his foreign policy was contradictory and inconsistent. Like, he began to destroy the achievements of the mother, rushing from side to side. The reason for the "inconsistency" of Paul's foreign policy is also seen in his "abnormality." However, this is an obvious deception.
As heir to the throne, Paul traveled extensively throughout Europe and was well acquainted with the political situation and the interests of various countries. Therefore, his foreign policy was sober. She was contradictory only at first glance. Paul was a staunch enemy of revolutionary France. And it was quite reasonable. The French Revolution was a project of the Freemasons and the Illuminati, who followed the path of the revolutionary transformation of Europe, the destruction of the former political systems, religion, tradition and morality, up to their complete demolition. In fact, they were the forerunners of the internationalist revolutionaries who, after 1917, staged a bloody massacre in Russia that claimed millions of Russian lives. What will happen to revolutionary Europe is a good example of France. A brutal terror was arranged in the country. Thousands of people were shot, their heads cut off and drowned in barges. At the same time a bunch of speculators and bankers fabulously enriched. This bloody orgy and financial and economic degradation put an end to the military dictatorship of Napoleon.
It is clear that with such a plague it was necessary to fight. And better on the far lines. Therefore, Paul became an ally of Austria and England in the fight against revolutionary France. However, the Russian emperor soon realized that Vienna and London wanted to use Russian soldiers as cannon fodder and care not so much about fighting France as about using the victories of the Russian troops and navy for their own strategic interests. The unselfish impulse of the “emperor-knight,” who desired the welfare of all Europe, was crushed. Austria at the expense of Russian victories wanted to gain a foothold in Italy, and England - in the Mediterranean. In addition, so-called. The "partners" intrigued against the Russian army, which almost led to its defeat. Only the miracle that Alexander Suvorov accomplished with his heroes saved the Russian army from defeat and captivity. In addition, London was in no hurry to fulfill its financial obligations and seized Malta from the French, which legally belonged to the Russian Empire, since Paul was the grandmaster of the Order of Malta. The demands to transfer it to Russia were ignored and eventually Malta was annexed to the British Empire. That is, London formally seized our island, which could become a Russian strategic base in the Mediterranean.
Naturally, such "partners" of Russia were not needed. Pavel decided to withdraw from the anti-French coalition and withdraw troops from Western Europe. There was another important reason, apart from the treachery of the coalition allies, which forced Paul to radically reconsider his foreign policy. Pavel I studied the situation in France attentively and saw that the young first consul of the French Republic Napoleon was striving to suppress the most destructive consequences of the revolution, to establish order and restore the monarchy. When Napoleon broke up the Directory, and then the Council of Five Hundreds, it became obvious that the revolution in France came to an end. Tens of thousands of immigrant royalists were allowed to return to France. The country gradually returned to its traditional monarchy, albeit under the authority of another dynasty. Further events confirmed this conclusion.
Napoleon was a visionary man and also constantly sought to establish friendly relations with Russia. He was the first to take a step towards reconciliation - he said that he wanted to release all the captured Russian soldiers to the homeland (about 6 thousand people). As a result, Paul agreed to peace, in order to restore "peace and quiet" to Europe. It was a sensible decision, since with France we did not have any serious contradictions, for example, as a century-long antagonism between England and France. In his instructions to his representative in France, Count Sprengporten, Paul wrote: “Since the two states are mutually mutual, France and the Russian Empire, being far from each other, can never be forced to harm each other, they can, by joining and constantly maintaining friendly relations, prevent , so that others with their striving for conquest and domination could not harm their interests. ”
The case went to the conclusion of the Russian-French strategic alliance directed against England, Russia planned to strike at the "pearl" of the British colonial empire - India, for this purpose the Don regiments were sent. Initially, the Cossacks were to conquer Khiva and Bukhara, thereby annexing Central Asia to the Russian Empire. A joint Russian-French expedition to India was planned to take place through Persia.
Almost simultaneously, Russian diplomacy effortlessly concluded in December 1800 of the year an agreement with Sweden and Denmark on a joint struggle against England. This is how the League of the Northern Powers appeared, with an anti-British orientation. Prussia joined the union. A powerful coalition was created against England. In Europe, a new political alliance emerged, which allowed to isolate England and stop its expansion.
Thus, Russia challenged the British Empire, which claimed the role of "king of the mountains" on the planet. Russia could join Central Asia earlier than it finally happened (under Alexander II), go to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. That is, Russia could start its globalization project by creating an alternative to the Western project.
It is worth noting that Napoleon’s view of the campaign in India and Paul completely refutes the inventions of those who diligently turned the Russian emperor into a caricature, “a fool on a throne”. It is foolish to blame Paul for “madness” when the idea of going to India was the most beloved project of Napoleon. He even dreamed of leading the combined Russian-French army, which was to march from southern Russia. Apparently, it is more useful to reckon with Napoleon’s authority than with the conclusions of those who accused Paul of insanity when he planned to go to India. Napoleon respected Pavel with great respect and spoke to the Russian envoy Sprengporten: "Together with your sovereign, we will change the face of the world." Upon learning of the murder of Paul, Napoleon was furious, his cherished dreams collapsed: "They missed me ... but they hit me in Petersburg." Later, already in exile, the French emperor, recalling the death of Paul, with whom he established such warm relations, always associated this tragedy with the name of the British ambassador.
Thus, Pavel Petrovich was a great historical figure, a man who with all his heart worked for the Russian cause and tried to bring benefit to the people and Russia. For this he was slandered and blackened, like many other Russian devotees.
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