Paul I: The Mad Tsar Russia Would Rather Forget

The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History · May 2, 2026 · 6m · transcript

In the shadow of his mother Catherine the Great and his son Alexander I, Tsar Paul I ruled Russia for only four turbulent years before being strangled in his own bedroom. This episode unpacks Paul's bizarre reign — his obsessive militarism that turned St. Petersburg into a parody of a Prussian barracks, his chivalric obsession with the Knights of Malta, his unpredictable foreign policy that alienated every ally, and the aristocratic conspiracy that ended his life. We explore the Gatchina Palace where Paul drilled his own private army, the Mikhailovsky Castle he built like a paranoid…