Paul I (1754-1801)

Russian Emperor Paul I, son of Peter III and Catherine II the Great, was born on September 20, 1754 in St. Petersburg. Pavel did not receive a serious education. From childhood he was distinguished by poor health, grew up extremely nervous, impressionable and excessively hot-tempered, suspicious of the people around him. In 1773, before reaching 20 years, he married the Hesse princess of Darmstadt Wilhelmina (in Orthodoxy Natalia Alekseevna), but three years later she died in childbirth, and in the same 1776 Pavel married again, to Princess Sophia of Württemberg Dorothea (in Orthodoxy Maria Feodorovna). In 1794, the empress decided to remove her son from the throne and hand him over to her eldest grandson Alexander Pavlovich, but did not meet with sympathy the highest state dignitaries. The death of Catherine II on November 6, 1796 opened the way for Paul to the throne. The new emperor immediately tried to cross out what had been done in the thirty-four years of the reign of Catherine II, and this became one of the most important motives of his policy.
Paul's policies, combined with his oppressive nature, unpredictability and eccentricity, caused discontent in a wide variety of social strata. Soon after his accession, a conspiracy began to ripen against him. On the night of 11 (23) March 1801, Paul I was strangled to death in his own bedroom at the Mikhailovsky Castle. The conspirators burst into the chambers of the emperor, demanding to abdicate the throne. As a result of the skirmish, Paul I was killed. It was announced to the people that the emperor had died of a stroke.