Paul I of Russia - Childhood

Childhood

Paul was born in the Palace of Empress Elisabeth in St Petersburg. He was the son of Elizabeth's heir, her nephew, the Grand Duke Peter, later Emperor Peter III, and his wife, the Grand Duchess Catherine, later Empress Catherine II 'The Great'. In her memoirs, Catherine strongly implies that Paul's father was not Peter, but her favorite at the time, Sergei Saltykov. Peter's behavior was infantile and immature and he chose other favorites among Catherine's ladies in waiting but he was not sterile as many believed; he later sired an illegitimate child with one lover. However, it was no secret that Peter and Catherine were estranged through much of their marriage. Paul does seem to have physically resembled the Grand Duke (Peter III), which might cast doubt on claims of illegitimacy.

During his infancy, Paul was taken immediately from his mother by the Empress Elizabeth, whose overwhelming attention may have done him more harm than good. As a boy, he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking. His pug-nosed facial features in later life are attributed to an attack of typhus, from which he suffered in 1771. Some claim that his mother Catherine hated him, and was restrained from putting him to death. Massie is more compassionate towards Catherine; in his 2011 biography of her he claims that Paul was taken from his mother at birth and withheld from her presence except during very limited moments, that having done her duty in providing an heir to the throne, Elizabeth had no more use for Catherine, who was then forbidden from seeing the child. Paul was put in the charge of a trustworthy governor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin, and of competent tutors. It is interesting to note that Panin's nephew went on to become one of Paul's assassins.

The Russian Imperial court, first of Elizabeth and then of Catherine, was not an ideal home for a lonely, needy and often sickly boy. However, Catherine took great trouble to arrange his first marriage with Wilhelmina Louise (who acquired the Russian name "Natalia Alexeievna"), one of the daughters of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, in 1773, and allowed him to attend the Council in order that he might be trained for his work as Emperor. His tutor, Poroshin, complained that he was "always in a hurry," acting and speaking without reflection. There is no doubt that there was considerable pressure on the young Paul to be, and look, and act the part of a young Tsar and that his refusal or inability to do so concerned those in power.