Page "Paul I of Russia" Paragraph 9

Paul's tutor, Count N. I.

Panin, was brutally honest about Paul's place in the Russian court, calling him " a bastard who owed his position to his mother ’ s sufferance ”.

Paul ’ s status in the court was never of great consequence until he ascended the throne.

Grigorii Orlov, one of Catherine ’ s favoured lovers, went into quarantine shortly following an outbreak of the Moscow plague.

For the period of his absence ( late 1772 to 1773 ) Catherine initiated a “ rapprochement ” with her son, granting him at last the motherly affection denied him throughout his entire life.

McGrew describes the new relationship as follows: “ They spent hours together, laughing, talking, and strolling arm in arm.

So enraptured was Paul … that he refused even at dinner to be separated from her .” On one occasion he was found altering the place-cards so that he could sit beside her for the evening.

Her motives may have been more political than maternal.

Paul would soon reach majority and a marriageable age ; the empress thought it best if she knew her son better.

When Paul turned eighteen, he was appointed Fleet Admiral of the Russian navy and colonel of the Cuirassier regiment, the latter of which was already granted him in 1762.

So these positions were of no real importance.