Alexander I was born at Pavlovsk, just outside St. Petersburg, in December 1777; he was the eldest son of the Czarevich Paul and his consort, Maria. His education was personally supervised by his grandmother, Empress Catherine II.
Alexander grew up in a strange world where he was adrift and without any real roots. Before her death in November 1796, Catherine II had attempted to persuade Alexander to ascend the throne when she died but to his credit, the youth would have none of the plan. Catherine resigned herself to being followed by her son Paul, who hated his mother with a passion.
Paul’s dislike for his mother stemmed from the fact that she had been a conspirator in the plot in which his father, Peter III, was murdered by Gregor Orlov at a drunken brawl in June 1762. Orlov claimed later that Peter had been strangled by accident, an argument accepted by virtually no one, then or now. In particular, Paul did not believe this trumped-up story.
When Paul became czar in November 1796, he came with a burning ambition to undo much of what his mother had done. While he had some brilliant ideas, he was also given to fits of despondency where he imagined enemies on
