The Russian emperor Pavel I the First was noted in the history by the fact that he made a lot of changes to the laws. Historians are still arguing over whether the country’s reforms were benefited, or vice versa, but one cannot but agree that Paul I was a prominent monarch. Some rulers do not linger in people’s memory, he was far from being like that.
It was this emperor who passed the law, according to which the inheritance of power became possible only through the male line. Because of the reforms of Paul I, who was trying to diminish the achievements of his mother, Empress Catherine the Great, some branches of the economy were significantly affected. Paul I reformed the army in the Prussian manner. Despite the fact that Paul the First openly opposed revolutionary France, he subsequently formed an alliance with the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
At a mature age, the emperor Paul received the title of master of the Knights of Malta order. Although Paul I did not abolish serfdom, he forbade separating families when selling and generally selling peasants without land. Before the reign of this emperor, the nobles did not pay taxes, but Paul I corrected this, at the same time depriving the nobility and some other privileges. After Paul came to power, the imperial court system greatly shifted toward militarism.
The first wife of Paul I died tragically during childbirth. Contemporaries described the character of Paul I as nervous, suspicious and despotic. Numerous reforms of the emperor were aimed at making the Russian nobility educated, trained, and fully engaged in military service. Separate decrees of Paul I forbade any specific hairstyle, styles of clothes and other trifles, as they seemed to the emperor too frivolous. In the conspiracy, in which the emperor was killed, took part and his eldest son.
