Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 8 The Policy of Tsar Paul

The two Michaels, one is the son of a prince, and his family is noble for generations. He almost had a relative who married the empress of Tsar Peter II, but it didn't work out in the end. The girl later remarried a noble duke, but she didn't enjoy the blessing and died of pneumonia soon. The other one, no matter how you look at it, is the descendant of a nouveau riche. It has only been passed down for three generations. Sometimes some people even call them "grooms" or "steward barons", but they forget that sometimes "steward" is also a position that only noble people can hold in the court. Moreover, both families can be involved in the period of Catherine I, Peter II, Empress Anna, and Elizabeth Petrovna. The most unstable period of the Russian court was during this period. It was not until Catherine II, the queen from the German state, deposed Peter III that the country stabilized.

But these things happened several decades ago. If it had happened 70 years ago, the ancestors of the two families might have fought to the death and would not stop until the winner was determined. But now they are talking to each other.

"You are Mikhail, and so am I. We were named by coincidence, and there is a year difference between our names. Sometimes you have to believe in fate." (You are Mikhail, and so am I. We were named by coincidence, and there is a year difference between our names. Sometimes you have to believe in fate.)
As the young prince said this, he had been fiddling with an eyebrow pencil in his hand. This color was very interesting, and it seemed to be prepared for his sweetheart, because most of the people in Prince Dolgorukov's family were close ministers of the emperor, and their children were often around the Crown Prince and Grand Duke Constantine. The hair and eyebrows of this color were darker, so if he was to associate it with her, it must be Ekaterina Pavlovna, the noble Princess of Russia, the one most beloved by the Crown Prince among her sisters. However, at this moment, this noble Grand Duchess was still a child.

So, it is not necessarily this person. You should know that among the Russian aristocracy, only a small number of aristocratic women are pious and abide by the rules of women. There are also many who are lovers and loved ones of each other. Even at this moment, Mikhail Petrovich suggested that Mikhail Solovyov pursue a young girl. They even started to stop speaking French when talking, so as not to worry about being eavesdropped by those who do not speak Russian.

"Misha, listen to me. Grenadier officers and hussar officers are very popular. We, the Guards Light Cavalry, haha, all come here for our good family background. You are so smart, and you made this thing. You will definitely have a way to please girls in the future. What kind do you like?"

"Why do you ask me this question? Your Highness, you know, if we talk about family background, it's okay in the countryside of Ryazan. When we arrived in Moscow, no one mentioned us. Only my father's old superior and his relatives remembered us. In St. Petersburg, if we talk about the nobles who were conferred titles in 1727, they are all called "Menshikovs". Think about it, this is not very good. Some people also say that we are "horsemen" and "smugglers." "

"Who cares! Misha, they are just making excuses. This stuff is good. I will bring some to the palace. I guarantee that I can help you find a market. The emperor is currently implementing the 'New Deal' and he has a lot of things to do."

Speaking of Tsar Paul, if we follow the stereotype, he is Peter III's Unit 2, and his actions are definitely those of Peter III's biological child. They are very similar in interests, hobbies and behaviors. And because of his persecution of Suvorov and Peter III's Unit 2 (more because he was against his mother Ye Er), he has a very bad reputation in later generations. However, this Tsar, the Emperor of All Russia, did more progressive things after he ascended the throne than his mother's "enlightened despotism".

Because this Tsar, in addition to being crowned together with the Empress for the first time at the coronation ceremony, first announced an amnesty, and those who had previously opposed the Empress's ruling methods, whether they were Poles who advocated freedom of speech, the Enlightenment, or who had directly rebelled, a total of 87 people of status and position regained their freedom. They did not even need to swear allegiance to the emperor himself. They could be released as long as they signed a document guaranteeing their support for the Tsar and the Crown Prince. Among them was a famous "rebel", a hero of the American War of Independence, a leader of many Polish uprisings, a pen pal of U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, General Andrzej Tadeusz Bonaventura Kościuszko, who had rebelled so many times was even allowed to settle freely in the United States and France. No matter how you look at it, Paul, who was known as "dictator", was even more civilized than his so-called "enlightened" mother. 2 Polish political prisoners who were imprisoned and living in poor conditions were released. Although they were exiled to Western Siberia, they were at least given a place to make a living by themselves. This did not seem bad, and they could not cause any trouble for the Russian emperor.

In addition to this, the emperor seemed to be a bit too far ahead in judicial issues. He did not like the death penalty, and during his reign he added the following words to death sentences: "Thank God, there is no death penalty in Russia. I did not introduce it."

This death sentence was the only one during his reign.

As for the status of serfs, Russia has always been extremely backward on this issue. Although Tsar Paul's military reforms were somewhat ridiculous, he should have sincerely wanted to improve the treatment of serfs. When he was the crown prince, he often took a carriage and took the Gatchina guards on the road and between various manors, and he had realized some problems. And out of the idea of ​​​​opposing some great nobles and twisting his deceased mother, in the end, at the time of the coronation, there was no mention of the treatment of nobles, the treatment of the army, and the treatment of free people. Even the royal documents were not released. Tsar Paul issued the "Three-Day Corvée Declaration". Since the emergence of Russian serfdom, this bill legally restricted the use of peasant labor for the first time to support the court, the state and the landowners to rest three days a week, and prohibited forced peasants from working on Sundays. The declaration has religious and social significance because it prohibits self-employed farmers from working on Sundays (this day is for them to relax and go to church) and promotes the development of independent peasant farms. The declaration clearly stipulates that the remaining three working days are for farmers to work for their own interests.

Although some people always say that he was a mentally ill emperor, just like his father Peter III, but judging from the actions of an autocratic monarch, at least he still had the idea of ​​improving the living conditions of serfs in his heart (this proves that he was not a bad person by nature. His mother's approach was just to win over the ruling class, and he himself was more or less thinking about the issue of serfs and put the edict first). Compared with his mother Catherine II's approach, he wanted to start liberating serfs. This was also the beginning of the 64-year-long tug-of-war within the Russian ruling class, which eventually led to the abolition of feudal serfdom during the reign of Alexander II.

What the Tsar wanted to do was gradually reflected in his policies. Some enlightened nobles and large landowners still supported this issue, but they were always a minority.

There were very few people who treated serfs as human beings like Count Tolstoy did. The Volkonsky family only thought of improving the treatment of the serfs they saw around them. Most of them used whips to solve problems, like Marshal Kamensky and his eldest son. Even the serf theater, which was no longer a production enterprise, had to use whips to solve problems.
In the eyes of some people, serfs should be tied to the land, and it doesn't matter even if they are beaten to death. It seems that this is not Europe, but old Dixie in the southern United States. However, even old Dixie still has to pay attention to the living environment of black slaves. This is personal property, and the serfs are clearly under the "feudal serfdom", but the situation is extremely bad, which led to Tsar Paul having to write it more clearly in his edict to prevent the people below from not understanding.

When selling slaves (serfs), landlords were prohibited from breaking up families, selling people on the manor, or selling serfs without land.

Paul issued a three-day corvée proclamation, prohibiting landlords from forcing slaves to do corvée (exploiting slaves) on Sundays, holidays, and more than three days a week. For the first time, slaves (serfs) had their own day of freedom - Sunday.

The grain tax, which had been devastating to the serfs, was abolished, and arrears of the poll tax were waived.

Salt, which was the most important and scarce food resource at that time, began to be sold at a preferential price.

They began selling bread from state reserves to reduce high prices, a measure that led to a significant drop in bread prices.

Various high-ranking officials and local governors were ordered to monitor the attitude of landlords towards slaves (serfs), and if any cases of cruel treatment of serfs were found, they were ordered to report to the emperor.

From this perspective, it seems that the peasants and serfs really waited for a "Little Tsar" who was willing to improve their treatment. When he traveled to Italy in his early years, he also saw the way the locals petitioned, so he began to implement this petition system in Russia and began to carry out postal reforms. He planned to set up petition boxes and mailboxes in Russia to listen to the voices of all classes. However, at this time, it was obvious that the nobles had louder voices, but Tsar Paul was not very friendly to them, because the following new policy also included related content:
追加的关于农奴地位的政策：1797年9月19日（30日）颁布法令，废除了农奴为军队饲养马匹和提供食物的义务；取而代之的是，他们开始领取“每人15戈比，在按人头计算的工资之外”。1797年10月21日（11月1日）法令确认了国有（国家）农民登记为商人和市侩的权利。

At the same time, Tsar Paul was also cutting court expenses, cutting the expenses of the Russian royal family to one-tenth at a time; at the same time, he melted the gold and silver furniture in the palace into gold and silver coins and put them on the market to stabilize inflation. Because these currencies were heavy and significantly exceeded the currencies of other countries, they received a good response in the market; finally, he publicly burned nearly 500 million banknotes that could not support circulation in the Winter Palace Square, which was his main policy to reduce inflation.

As for his terrible mother, the fact that she was able to kill his father had a lot to do with Russia's inheritance law. What he did next was to deprive women of the right to inherit the throne and also formulate regency rules. When the Tsar was not in the country, the royal family or ministers were always needed to act as regent.

The previous ones were actually beneficial to everyone, except for the serfdom reform, which harmed the interests of the nobles and landlords. However, the subsequent projects were where "the laws passed down by our ancestors could not be changed." Tsar Paul dared to take action and directly introduced the New Deal. If he were from the same era as Yongzheng, he would have had a lot in common. No matter how you look at it, these two people did the same thing, although there were many differences due to differences in national conditions.

What the nobles fear more is the following policies:

Paul I ordered trials for nobles who evaded civil and military service, and the emperor strictly restricted the transition from the military to the civil service.

On January 1797 (1), 2, Paul abolished the clause in the charter that prohibited the use of corporal punishment against the nobility. Corporal punishment was imposed for murder, robbery, drunkenness, debauchery and violations of official regulations.

1797年4月24日（5月5日），保罗一世剥夺了贵族向君主、元老院和地方总督提出集体申诉的权利。

On May 1797 (5), 4, the Emperor issued a decree prohibiting the nobility from petitioning collectively. Paul thus limited the nobility's ability to represent themselves and to present their complaints. This was only possible with the permission of a high official.

The Emperor issued a decree on November 1797 (11), 15, prohibiting nobles who had been dismissed for misconduct from standing for election. The number of voters decreased, and high officials were given the right to interfere in elections.

根据1797年12月 18日（29日）的法令，贵族有义务缴纳税收以维持各省的地方政府。1799年，税收数额增加。

In 1798, Paul I prohibited nobles who had served as officers for less than a year from resigning.

In 1799, the nobles began to pay a tax of 20 rubles "from the heart".

Also in 1799, the provincial parliament of nobles was abolished.

1800年8月23日（9月4日），贵族社会选举司法陪审员的权利被废除。

No wonder, where have you ever seen such a Russian tsar, who gave benefits to the serfs, but began to criticize the masters. This tsar, who may be "mentally ill", is like a German Kaiser with a disabled hand, but that one wanted to increase the wages of the workers in front of the capitalists.
As for other aspects, there were many things that the Russian emperor wanted to do, but his "enlightened" series of policies affected the interests of many people, forcing him to use the most extremely authoritarian means to solve the problems. After all, he was the emperor of all Russia.

The most ridiculous thing is that some nobles slandered him by saying that he exiled tens of thousands of people during his reign. Maybe when the heads were counted, most of them were Poles, but the number of Russians who were actually exiled and executed, including nobles, free people and serfs, was actually not that large.

It seems that this man really touched the interests of the great nobles. He had to demolish the load-bearing walls to renovate the house. Otherwise, some conspiracy organizations would not have appeared after the coronation ceremony to overthrow him.

It was now May 1797, and Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov was solemnly explaining to Baron Mikhail about Tsar Paul's policies. The two young men seemed to get along very well when talking about politics, but Solovyov was worried about his family's income. Supporting a French stepmother like this, plus the expenses of his father and sister, and the expenses of the estate, were not a small amount.

In this regard, although the young prince was the youngest son in the family, his knowledge was no less than that of his elder brother. He even suggested that the Solovyov family should really develop some industries.

(End of this chapter)