March 23: On This Day in World History … briefly
Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, though Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her lover Sergei Saltykov, who also had Romanov blood, being a descendant of the first Romanov tsar's sister Tatiana Feodorovna Romanova.
1801: Drunken officers strangle ‘mad Tsar’
In a brutal Kremlin coup, the mentally unbalanced Tsar Paul I was strangled in his bed by a group of drunken Russian army officers. They then proclaimed his Alexander the new emperor.
The Tsar’s harsh rule, and his alliance with Austria against Napoleon (although he later changed sides), alienated the military. He also alienated his people by repealing a law confining corporal punishment to serfs.
Paul I’s life was fraught with argument and instability – Catherine the Great conceived him in an adulterous love affair. Paul fought bitterly with Catherine and her policies and she isolated him from his sons. She also tried to disinherit him. After her death, he decreed that no woman ‘shall ever rule again’.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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