The order of succession to the throne elaborated by Paul I approached the fall of the Romanovs dynasty

October 1, 1754 marks the 261^st anniversary of birth of the Russian Emperor Paul I, who was born in a family of Crown Prince Peter Fedorovich and his wife, Catherine I, the future Catherine the Great. The Presidential Library collection of electronic copies of materials, dedicated to Paul Petrovich, there are many rare books that characterize this figure as the most controversial among the heirs to the throne of the Romanovs.

The electronic copy of the collected works "Materials for the biography of Emperor Paul I” edited by E. Kasprovich, published in 1874 in Leipzig, includes in particular the following assessment of his activities, "The reign of Emperor Paul I appeared on the Russian horizon as a terrible meteor; his actions seemed even more striking considering the fact that his reign followed the age of Catherine II, full of prudence. Russia had already started to enjoy the statutes published by the Empress, when suddenly the rule of laws began to give way to self-will, respect for the long service, generating competition, disappeared; disparate punishments for lighter offenses were applied contrary to patent of nobility; people without merit, without skills were granted the highest honors, new regulations contradicting each other were constantly released."

The very first law developed by Paul contained hidden but a real threat to the dynasty, indicating the inability of the monarch to think several moves ahead. Having inherited the throne after his mother's death in 1796, Paul, in order to prevent coups and intrigue in the future, decided to replace by his act the previous system introduced by Peter the Great. Paul promulgated it during his coronation on April 5th, 1797 at the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

His Law on the order of succession to the throne excluded the possibility of dismissal of the legal heirs from the throne. Crown prince introduced a legal succession, as he put it in the act, "so there was no doubt who inherits the throne, in order to maintain the rights of families in inheriting, without violating the natural rights, and to avoid difficulties in the transfer of power from generation to generation." The act also contained an important clause on the impossibility of accession to the throne of a person not belonging to the Orthodox Church. The law of Paul I, which defined the procedure for the transfer of supreme state power in Russia, was in effect until 1917.

However, it contained a significant flaw - the act provided for a preferential right to inherit the throne for the male members of the imperial family. With regard to the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, this law deprived his daughters of the prospect of succession, while Tsarevich Alexei was terminally ill with hemophilia (a hereditary disease inherited by the child from his mother Alexandra Feodorovna; Nicholas was fairly warned about it before the marriage, but love for Alexandra outweighed everything). This fact motivated partly the difficult decision of Nicholas to renounce the throne of Russia in March 1917 and condemned Russia to a fratricidal civil war.

The attempts of the new emperor to reform the army and state apparatus "on the patterns" of the Prussian military system and the Prussian police state also proved unsuccessful. Paul’s reforms in this area caused resistance of the top management: repressions against the generals and officers were too brutal, which is confirmed by an electronic copy of "The orders of the Emperor Paul I of 1800-1801."  

Sometimes it happened that "in one day there were fired three full generals, three lieutenant-generals, 9 majors, 68 senior officers of the Guards regiments, 90 non-commissioned officers and 120 men of the Preobrazhensky Regiment! No one knew what for." Even the hero-generalissimo, who conquered the Alps, was unable to avoid the unjust persecution: among the orders of Paul there was also "a reprimand to Suvorov for unauthorized vacation of Colonel Baturin," and then the "exclusion from the service."

Introduction of the uncomfortable army uniform after the Prussian model caused a murmur among the military. Injured officers resigned in large numbers.

The policy of Paul I in combination with his despotic nature and unpredictability caused discontent among the court and in the army leading to another coup. On the night of March 25^th, 1801 the Emperor was killed by conspirators in his new residence, the Mikhailovsky Palace in St. Petersburg.