The political regime of Paul I in the estimates of modern Russian historical science

In the present article the authoranalyses the interpretations of the political regime of the Russian emperor Paul I, which appear in modern native history literature. Statingthe fact that the number of publications including the Internet resources is growing rapidly, the author highlights two trends in thedevelopment of modern historiography of the problem, i.e. popular and scientific. In quantitative terms, the first one dominates absolutely. Itforms the social background, the level of ordinary consciousness that is present in the reading public in terms of general knowledge aboutPaul's epoch, his reformatory activity, political system and so on. However, in works of the famous contemporary St.-Petersburg scientist,Doctor of Historical Science, E. V. Anisimov these highlighted trends come together to the greatest extent, at least, in his latest major essay"Imperial Russia" (St. Petersburg, 2011). The author cannot strongly agree with somecertain principles of the essay and considers thefollowing that the venerable professional historian should not disappear without a trace, dissolving in the author of a popular publication. Y.A. Sorokin does not accept some of the most important principles of E. V. Anisimov's essay. In particular, it seems to him that comparingEkaterina's bills with Paul's legislation is wrongful and incorrect (and thus the conclusion in this part), as well as Anisimov's excessivededication to the study of bills against the study of framework of laws and other standard regulations that the Empress gave. It seemed to theauthor of the article that in E. V. Anisimov's text there erased the distinction between the concepts "behaviour" and "activity". With the helpof one (behavior), the other one (activity) is directly evaluated. The author of the present article is not satisfied with the interpretations of thedifferences in the political regimes of mother and son, which were suggested by E. V. Anisimov in a part of the relation of the heir toEkaterina's governmental beginning, Ekaterina's liberal order in the whole, class freedom and the noble's privileges, Maltese epopee, theplot and regicide on 11 March, 1801. The final resume: in relation to the political regime of Paul Petrovich there are not enough grounds tobelieve E. V. Anisimov's work to contain "the full and comprehensive information".

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