Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 114: There is a conspiracy after the funeral
Tsar Paul also learned the news of Suvorov's critical illness in the palace. According to the rules of the Russian court, when visiting meritorious old ministers, a prince or an important official would usually be sent.

As for funerals, starting with the superstitious Elizabeth Petrovna, no Russian tsar had ever appeared at the funerals of these heroes, not even the Empress at Prince Potemkin's.

"Such an obituary must be drawn up in advance, but this document can be said to be still useful."

Although Prince Saltykov was at the Diplomatic Academy, he still had to draft an obituary, which was also to be shown to envoys from various countries.

As for the format, it was a very suitable format that Solovyov wrote when he was tested on official documents.

However, it seems like "Russia's great military strategist, marshal. Due to illness, medical treatment has failed." This format should be able to be used.

Suvorov spent his last day in a coma. When he breathed his last, he was called by God to meet the old friends he had always talked about.

It’s just that he always said that Hannibal, Caesar and others were his old friends, and I don’t know what kind of statement this is.

After intense discussions in the palace, the arrangements for the funeral were actually very clear. First, the bells of all the churches would ring to inform the citizens of St. Petersburg, but the announcement would only be read out by posting the Tsar's notice in every block. The body would be kept at 23 Kryukov Canal to receive mourners, and on May 5 (May 24 in the Russian calendar) he would be officially buried in the Church of the Annunciation in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

There was a problem. After the death of the Grand Marshal, the palace had been asking Tsar Paul not to attend the funeral.

Both the historical facts and the decision he has to make now are that the Tsar himself will go to the Church of the Annunciation to attend the funeral. This has no precedent among the Russian royal family since they moved to St. Petersburg.

This rule did not form during the reign of Peter the Great, mainly because during the period when several empresses came to power one after another, Empress Anna Ivanovna herself had the tastes of a Courland rich woman, and she was more concerned with her own enjoyment; and later Elizabeth and Catherine II did not attend, but Paul himself wanted to go, and his ministers could not stop him.

There is just one problem: there is no problem with parking the body at No. 23 Kryukovo Canal, but the entrance is too narrow.

When the coffin is brought in, it can be turned sideways, but when it is moved out, it becomes a huge problem.

The solution was to put the coffin on the second floor. On the night before, Solovyov called the engineers of the Guards and made a set of pulleys to lower the coffin from here.

Many soldiers attended the funeral. On the morning of the funeral, generals who participated in the Italian and Swiss expeditions, in addition to the generals who stayed behind in the legion led by General Rosenberg, also came, including Grand Duke Constantine, Prince Bagration, Count Nikolai Kamensky, General Miloradovich and others.

Suvorov had promoted many people in the army, and he had gained great prestige among the army and civilians because of his repeated victories. Many people from the Kryukov Canal embankment to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery at the confluence of the Neva River came to attend the funeral.

Tsar Paul himself planned to go directly to the monastery. He set out in the morning with a troop of guards, but when he arrived at the monastery, he became impatient with waiting.

The body was kept on the first floor, and then it was carried to the second floor, where the coffin was lowered and carried by veterans selected from the grenadiers.

The funeral procession was mainly composed of soldiers, and there was also a military band.

They had received the music scores during this week and had practiced together in advance.

What they got was the "Soldier's Narrative Song", a piece of music that was often used at funerals. It was played once at Kryukov No. 23 and once more at the burial.

A lot of time was wasted here. In the end, Paul decided to ride a horse to the continent to greet the funeral procession. This was an exception for the Tsar.

There are so many people buried here that they can make a list. Paul also saw that his daughter Olga, who died young, had a marble column as a tombstone, which was placed there.

The Russian royal family was later buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

After he returned, the funeral procession was moving very slowly, so he rode to the intersection of Little Sadovaya Street and Nevsky Avenue, where the procession had just arrived.

The Tsar himself was also seen in the crowd. It was rumored that Tsar Paul had a bad relationship with the Grand Marshal, but he made an exception and came here, which could be said to have shattered some false rumors.

Moreover, the entourage clearly saw that Tsar Paul took out his handkerchief and actually wiped his tears.

In this way, only he himself knows what is going on.

There was someone who cried even louder behind him. There was Major Zaitsev, a staff officer who followed Suvorov in the expedition. Today he was the Tsar's entourage. His crying triggered a chain reaction among the entourage and the crowd.

The funeral procession of such a funeral finally arrived at the Church of the Annunciation, which is also the final resting place of many people.

Strangely, after Tsar Paul cried bitterly on the corner of Nevsky Avenue, he went straight back to the Winter Palace. It is unknown why he did this.

The remaining mourners came to the church and watched Suvorov's coffin being slowly lowered into the tomb, followed by the shoveling of soil and the closing of the tomb lid.

As he himself wished, it is engraved with "Here lies Suvorov" instead of a string of complicated titles.

And one thing is that Suvorov always claimed that he was born in 1730, but his birthday was actually November 1729, 11 (November 24 in the Russian calendar). The reason was that Peter II died of an acute illness during this period, so the dates at that time were more or less adjusted.

The one who cried the loudest was Suvorov's old servant, but now the master gave him freedom and he could choose to go anywhere.

However, Uncle Proshka was worried about Master Arkady, so he asked to stay in St. Petersburg and be with the master for a while.

"The old master kept talking about the young master. Sergeyev and I agreed to accompany the young master until he got married and had children. Sergeyev is young and can accompany the young master for a longer time. I, the old man, will go to the country estate to look after the house and the yard."

He was still very loyal to his master, and even after being relieved of his duties, he still wanted to look after the house for his master.

That was probably how the funeral ended quickly. For the people in Petersburg, life continued and their respective tasks did not stop.

The Tsar himself went to the Gatchina training ground twice between April and May for exercises. This kind of review exercise was somewhat useful, but the Tsar himself came to a conclusion that seemed correct but was actually wrong.

After all, the conclusion he came to was from the training ground, and it was very mechanical, not the truth that could be seen on the battlefield.

It was on this basis that Count Peter von Paalen and Count Panin had the opportunity to seek allies among the army.

Among them were General Bennigsen, who was dismissed from his post while serving in the Izyum Hussar Regiment, and he was of German descent from Hanover, as well as three of the four Zubov brothers.
If anyone saw their conspiracy, they could only say that these people had some vested interests with the British.

Admiral de Ribas held an important position in the navy. His father-in-law was the Queen's secretary. The British provided long-term training to the Russian navy before 1793, and exchanges between the two sides were very frequent.

Count Panin was at the Diplomatic Academy, and he acted mainly as an instigator, while Count von Paaren selected the candidates and he did the persuasion.

They are ready to do anything at any time and use any means to end the rule of the "tyrant".

But what is strange is that Tsar Paul was actually quite nice to the common people. The ones who were really unlucky were the nobles. He was often taxed, and although it was within an affordable range, the nobles felt that their interests had been greatly damaged.

In fact, the Tsar and the Empress have already looked at this account, and according to the law, it is still legal. If it is audited, it will not cause the nobles to suffer too much loss of interests.

The irony is that the ones who wanted to kill Paul were not the nobles whose interests were more damaged, but those around Paul.

When they gathered at Count von Palen's house, they had to avoid the count's family. His son was very trusted by Paul and was in the Guards as the commander of the Cuirassiers Regiment all day long. Many of his family members didn't know what the purpose of inviting so many people was.

"Now the tyrant has begun to punish officers at will, which has caused widespread anger. What we need to do is to gather more people and use daggers and poison at an appropriate time."

"As for poison, that's something only women use!"

After the admiral said a few words, his plan was rejected, and it would be easy to go off topic if he talked about it with this group of uneducated Guards officers.

They felt that the emperor's treatment of officers had become worse, while the treatment of soldiers had become better. Soldiers could even receive medals, and the barber Kutaisov could even be made a count and serve as a state secretary.

If Solovyov saw these people, he could only say that they were a group of keyboard warriors from the year 1800, except that they wanted to do serious things. Officers from the Semenovsky Guards Regiment, officers from the headquarters of the Putin Regiment and the third and fourth battalions, some hussars and officers from the Izmailov Guards Regiment, all wanted to vent their dissatisfaction.

The duties required by the Tsar himself prevented them from socializing in Petersburg, drinking wine, playing with women, throwing policemen into the Moika Canal, tying them to bears, and doing many illegal things, such as having sex with married women and provoking duels to kill the male masters.
Although Dolokhov had done such absurd things, for some reason he was not drawn into this rebellious group of the Guards. Many of the people in this group still thought they were people with ideals or who performed well in normal times.

Even one of the five Tuchkov brothers, the surviving Pavel Tuchkov, joined the conspiracy as an artillery commander.

"We need to find a way to get the tyrant's most loyal soldiers and officers to leave, so that we can get rid of him."

Von Paaren said this, and many people nodded in agreement.

Among the four brothers of Count Zubov, one did not attend. The eldest brother Nikolai did not attend the meeting because of his big mouth and his wife could not hide any information.

"Then the First Battalion is the most difficult. The officers there were all promoted by the tyrant from lower-ranking officers, and they have very strict discipline. As for the Second Battalion, these two battalions often conduct night guards."

In 1799, there were two warnings from the Winter Palace and Pavlovsk. Paul knew that there was a conspiracy group in St. Petersburg, but a coup of this scale was really boring.

Moreover, Alexander and Constantine did not join in, and von Paalen was also analyzing other aspects one by one.

"Remove the officers he is familiar with, and then replace them with our people. Just let the guards rotate, that's enough. These soldiers will only mechanically obey orders, and they will think it is a rotation of guards and don't know what they are supposed to do."

"Yes, if you tell them what the purpose of the coup is, they won't move! Instead, these lowly country bumpkins will stab anyone who tells them about it with their bayonets!"

When they said this, some officers of the Guards began to laugh wildly. They also looked down on the serfs. Even among the elite soldiers in the Guards, many were recruited from serfs and civilians.

The officers, regardless of their rank, were all aristocrats, so there was a natural gap between them.

They also knew that they couldn't tell the soldiers what to do. In this case, as long as they solved the outer defense problem, they would be able to enter the palace and implement their plan.

However, Count von Paalen also knew one thing. He had to alienate the relationship between Paul and his son so that he could at least get Alexander to acquiesce in what they were going to do.

Then, Lieutenant General Tarejin did not have the power to transfer any officers, and he had to find a way to transfer all the loyal officers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the General's Regiment, either by promoting them or transferring them horizontally. In short, he had to think of some way.

In addition to these, they also rely on the help of the British.

In the past, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was able to gain not only the support of the Guards, but also the support of France for her coup.

The same goes for Count von Paalen, whose conspiracy group wants to have good relations with Lord Whitworth.

The Zubov brothers also have a sister, Olga, who is Lord Whitworth's mistress. This is too convenient, it only takes two steps.

(End of this chapter)