1801 - The assassination of the Russian Emperor Paul 1 in Europe caused a real shock. Generally speaking, throughout the 18th century, palace coups were a very regular phenomenon, and the townsfolk were quite accustomed to the fact that the almighty courtiers at any moment could strangle the monarch in his bed, add arsenic or imprison him forever in the fortress. But the motive for the assassination attempt on the august persons has always been the ambitions of impatient heirs.
Paul 1 was perhaps the only Russian emperor who was killed not for political reasons, but for money: he tried to get in the way of streamlined raw materials exports.
Embargo for the Jacobins
All foreign trade of Russia in the second half of the 18th century was built on the export of agricultural products to European countries. The "oil and gas" of those times was wheat, flax and hemp seeds, which had practically no sales on the domestic market. There was no demand for wheat, because the people ate cheap rye bread, and flax and hemp in large quantities could only be used in the textile industry, which was then just emerging in the country.
The main trading partner of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine the Great, Paul's mother, was England. She bought more than a third of all Russian agricultural products. A number of reasons contributed to this.
Firstly, the British had the most developed merchant fleet, in addition, hundreds of pirate ships raged on the main trade routes, which were under the auspices of the British crown and therefore robbed all merchants except the English.
Secondly, England willingly paid for wheat that was in short supply in Britain with manufactured goods in short supply in Russia, and the merchant increased his capital 2-3 times in one trade trip.
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In the end, after the victory of the Jacobin Revolution in France and the execution of the Bourbons, Catherine had a strong dislike for her second most important customer. She considered all post-revolutionary French "respondents" from Robespierre to Napoleon Bonaparte to be plebeians, usurpers and regicides. As a result of her hatred of the republic, the manifesto of 1793 became, which prohibited the export of all Russian goods from Russia to France and the import of any French products into the country. However, this practically did not affect the Russian economy.
The French market has long ceased to be of interest to Russian merchants: the Jacobins managed to destroy not only the Bastille, but also practically the entire French industry and the country for a long time became almost insolvent. For the republic itself, the economic embargo from Russia threatened complete bankruptcy and hunger. There was only one hope for the speedy death of the Russian empress and that her heir would be more loyal to the revolutionary dictators.
Hello from Malta
Events surpassed even the wildest expectations of French politicians: the Russian throne was inherited by Paul, who openly hated his mother, her favorites and the policies they pursued. This hatred was mutual: Catherine exiled the Tsarevich as an infant to the village of Pavlovskoye, because he was a living reproach to her for participating in the conspiracy and murder of her own husband, Emperor Peter III.
When the empress was already on her deathbed, almost no one except herself doubted that the young Alexander, her beloved grandson, would be appointed heir to the throne in the will, and either her adviser Count Panin, or one of her last favorites, the Zubov brothers, would be the regent. But the dying Catherine did not dare to violate the principle of majority succession to the throne and handed over power to her son. With his coming to power in 1796, the European policy of the empire, which, however, is not surprising, turned 180 degrees.
Napoleon presented the young tsar with a rather peculiar gift. Having seized in 1798 the island of Malta, the last stronghold of chivalry in Europe, and knowing the romantic nature of Paul 1, he presented the Russian heir with the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta, having previously plundered all the knightly treasures.
In addition to the White Cross, armor and the staff of the Grand Master, Bonaparte sent Paul a certain Father Huber, who “thoroughly knew all the rites of chivalry,” and several more of the same high-class French spies disguised as Maltese, who over time successfully lobbied for Napoleon's interests at the Russian court … Huber, according to all the rules, made Paul a knight, which made him ecstatic, and literally the next day Russia lifted the French trade embargo, and all the courtiers who showed discontent, including the Zubov brothers, were exiled to remote settlements.
It remains to add that in Europe "Napoleon's gift" was recognized as the best joke of the century: the Russian emperor, who, as the head of the Synod, was the leader of the Orthodox Church, becoming a master of the Catholic order, passed into the direct subordination of the Pope.
Dead souls from commerce advisor
The era of the reign of Paul I is remembered mainly from anecdotes. Paul considered himself a great reformer and tried to innovate in every area without exception. Each time it all ended quite funny - just to tears. For example, to solve the problem of inflation of paper money, which at that time was exchanged for silver at the rate of 1: 1.5, he publicly burned paper notes worth 5 million rubles on Palace Square.
To compensate for the deficit in the treasury, he ordered the Mint to pour all the silverware of the royal family into coins. "I will eat on a tin until general prosperity comes in Russia!" - declared the young emperor.
The result is somewhat reminiscent of the later story of the transfer of Russian officials to the Volga. The market value of highly artistic silver sets from the tsar's table was about 800,000 rubles, of which about 50,000 rubles were minted. Since the revenues of the budget under Paul I did not exceed 50 million, one can imagine how the system of offsetting developed in the country.
The "brilliant" solution was proposed by the advisor to the commercial college "dreamy theorist" Woot, a former international adventurer. On his initiative, an "auxiliary bank for the nobility" was created, where the nobles could lay serf souls. Loans were issued with newly printed paper notes, which immediately depreciated and were instantly squandered by borrowers. The bank had to be liquidated even before the maturity date of the loans was due to wild inflation and the general bankruptcy of the nobles. But another result of this adventure can be considered "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol.
Sequestration
Meanwhile, France, not without the help of Russian credit supplies, managed to recover from the post-revolutionary devastation and again became an active player in European politics. In particular, Napoleon initiated the so-called continental blockade of England.
Trade relations between Russia and England stood in the way of Bonaparte to world domination. Without them, British soldiers could not get a full supply of food. In addition, more than half of British textile factories processed Russian raw materials. If events continued to unfold as Bonaparte expected, and trade relations between England and Russia ceased for at least 4-5 years, in the battle of Austerlitz, British and Austrian soldiers would have come out against him naked and hungry.
1800, summer - through Napoleon's agents, the Russian emperor received an offer to join the anti-British coalition. The strategy of involving Russia in the war was developed by perhaps the best diplomat of those times, Talleyrand.
In convincing Paul 1, he focused not so much on the economic benefits that victory over England would bring to his country, but on the fact that Paul would accomplish a myriad of feats shoulder to shoulder with the greatest commander of all times and peoples.
For the Russian emperor, who had dreamed of military glory since childhood, this proposal had an effect no less intoxicating than before - the Maltese rod. 1800, October 23 - the Prosecutor General and the Board of Commerce were ordered to "impose a sequestration on all British goods and ships located in Russian ports." In connection with the confiscation of goods, a complex issue arose about settlements and credit transactions between British and Russian merchants.
On this occasion, on November 22, 1800, the highest decree of the commercial board was issued: "The debts of the English on Russian merchants should be left until calculation, and the English goods available in shops and stores should be banned and described for sale." Then, at the request of Russian merchants, the British manufactory, which had been supplied with an advance payment, was allowed to be sold. The fate of the rest of the goods that the British imported in the form of a commodity credit were to be decided by specially established liquidation offices in St. Petersburg, Riga and Arkhangelsk.
As a result, on the advice of one of the "Knights of Malta" at the Russian court, Paul decided to arrest English goods and ships located in ports, and then use them to pay off the external Russian debt, which first arose under Elizabeth Petrovna, and increased during the reign of Paul I up to 124 million rubles. Napoleon assisted him in this operation. Loyal to him, the banking house Gole in Amsterdam bought Russian bills worth about 15 million rubles from England and secretly repaid them at the expense of funds received from St. Petersburg from the sale of English goods.
The British, realizing that they had paid off with their own money, without hesitation, seized Paul's "favorite toy" - Malta. The emperor was furious: "The shameless British have captured my Malta and are not giving it back, no matter how much I turned to them." 1800, November - he gave a general order to ban the import of British goods and the export of domestic agricultural products to Britain.
The second was much more difficult to accomplish. As already mentioned, England was at that time the only developed market for the sale of Russian grain crops, prices on the oversaturated domestic market fell by 4-5 times. This manifesto ruined not only unrequited serfs and merchants, but also large landowners-nobles who could fend for themselves.
The first conspiracy against Paul 1 was organized by Admiral de Ribas, who had huge land holdings. He was also interested in trade with Britain for the reason that he received a considerable bribe from every merchant ship that passed through his customs. Together with him, Count Pierre von der Palen, an adviser to the emperor and owner of thousands of hectares of Ukrainian land planted with hemp and winter wheat, as well as another prominent courtier, Count Panin, who, due to falling prices for wheat and broken contracts, could lose almost a third, took part in the conspiracy. your condition.
The renowned commander Field Marshal Suvorov also indirectly participated in the conspiracy. He also suffered from the continental blockade of Britain financially, but at the time he was already of little interest in money. Suvorov, who recently returned from another victorious campaign, received a heavy insult from the envious Pavel. The emperor forbade him to appear at the court and issued a manifesto in which, under pain of a public flogging, he forbade calling Prince Suvorov "his lordship", which, in fact, could be equated with deprivation of the nobility.
The main task of the first conspiracy was the destruction of the French party at the Russian court. The conspirators were even able to recruit the "Maltese" Father Huber, who managed to persuade Paul 1 to mysticism, as a result of which the emperor made the most important political decisions based on his horoscopes.
Huber was forced to guess to the emperor that he was not in any danger for the next 4 years. As a result, many disgraced nobles and Catherine's favorites returned from exile to the court, who immediately joined the conspiracy. But even their joint efforts failed to convince Paul 1 to renew relations with England. 1801, March 11 - on the last day of his life, the emperor learned that Russian merchants continued to secretly export grain to England through Prussia.
Then he signed a fatal decree that turned the country into a closed economic zone: "… so that no Russian goods should be released anywhere from Russian ports and border land customs offices and outposts without a special order from the Supreme."
Assassination of Emperor Paul 1
The murder of Paul 1 took place at the Mikhailovsky Castle in the center of St. Petersburg. It was erected on the site of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth. It was in the Summer Palace that Pavel was born. It so happened that the emperor was killed in the same place where he was born 46 and a half years ago.
1801, March 11, evening - about 50 conspirators gathered at Palen. At first, no one knew the purpose of the visit, but Platon Zubov began to speak to the audience. He announced that the dethroning of the emperor would take place that night. The sanction for this was given by his son Alexander. It is he who is the legitimate ruler of Russia, since Catherine II initially wanted to transfer power to her grandson. When asked what would have to be done with the deposed emperor, Zubov replied that he would be arrested and escorted to Shlisselburg.
Half an hour before midnight, the conspirators went to the Mikhailovsky Castle in two groups. One was headed by Peter Palen. With his men he went to the main entrance to the palace. Their task was to stop any unwanted accidents. For Pahlen, this was an easy task, because he was the military governor of the capital and could essentially arrest anyone.
The second group was headed by Platon Zubov. They went to the Christmas Gate of the Mikhailovsky Palace. This group was to arrest the emperor. They got inside and went up to the second floor, where the imperial chambers were. But a large number of strangers caused a noise in the palace. He was heard by the soldiers guarding the palace. However, the soldiers were reassured by the conspiratorial officers who were their commanders.
It was the first hour of the night, that is, on March 12, a dozen intruders were near the emperor's chambers. A sentry was on duty at the door of Pavel's bedroom. It was a certain Agapeev. Nikolai Zubov crept up behind him and hit him on the head with a saber. The sentry collapsed to the floor and lost consciousness.
The intruders tried to open the bedroom door, but it was locked from the inside. This fuss was heard by Pavel's room man by the name of Kirillov. He opened the door to find out what the noise was. He was immediately attacked with several blows to the head. Fortunately, both Agapeev and Kirillov survived.
The regimental adjutant of the Emperor Argamakov stepped forward, he had the right of access to the imperial chambers, and knocked on the last door that separated the conspirators from their ultimate goal. Now the valet answered the knock. Argamakov said that it was already six in the morning, and he came with a report to the emperor. The valet was very surprised, since he had recently gone to bed, but he opened the door. The conspirators pounced on him, there were shouts and noise.
The emperor heard all this. He jumped out of bed and began to rush about the room, and the conspirators were already breaking into his chambers. Pavel had no choice but to hide behind a curtain. According to another version, he dived into the fireplace and hid there.
The officers, who were no less than a dozen, burst into the emperor's bedroom, but the bed was empty. The intruders were overcome with a feeling of panic. They frantically searched the room and, to their indescribable joy, found the emperor hiding from them. He appeared before flushed officers in a nightgown and boots.
Platon Zubov began to demand that Paul I sign the abdication and show the sovereign the finished text. However, he completely refused to do it. The autocrat grabbed the sheet of renunciation, crumpled it and threw it in Zubov's face. The situation was heated to the limit. The officers suddenly realized clearly that even if the emperor signed everything now, then in the morning he would be freed by the loyal Gatchina regiments, and they would not be able to take their heads off.
Meanwhile, Paul 1 tried to turn the tide. He began to talk about legality, about justice, thereby intending to involve those present in the dispute. However, many of them were intoxicated, because before the start of the rebellion they drank for courage. Nikolai Zubov himself was in a state of strong alcoholic intoxication. He was a physically strong man. A golden snuffbox turned up under his arm. With it, he hit Paul 1 in the left temple. He fell to the floor and lost consciousness.
Everyone pounced on the person who was lying and began to beat him. A conspirator by the name of Skaryatin grabbed a scarf that hung near the autocrat's bed. With this scarf, Emperor Paul 1 was strangled. In time, the murder of the sovereign was committed at approximately 1: 40-1: 50 at night. Throughout the next day, the famous artist and architect Carl Rossi made up the disfigured face of the dead emperor, and in the morning the frightened Alexander 1 announced that "papa died of an apoplectic stroke, everything will be like grandmother's with me."
On the same day, Russian wheat went unhindered to Britain. Napoleon, who was just recovering after the assassination attempt by the British mercenaries, upon learning of what had happened, shouted: "The British could not kill me in Paris, but they killed me in Petersburg!" In fact, according to many historians, the secret coordinator and financial center of the conspiracy was the head of the Bank of England, William Pitt, who played the interests of Russian exporters and the life of Paul 1 as a card in the big European political game.
P. Zhavoronkov