Despising his mother's memory, he proceeded to repeal her laws and undo so far as possible the things which she had done in the regulation of affairs at court. He even went so far as to abolish the words "society" and "citizen," a term which Catherine had delighted to roll off the end of her tongue in imitation of the custom at Paris under the Revolutionary leaders.
If he had been brought up right, Paul might easily have been a great man. Through all his youth, however, and up to the time of his accession, when over forty, he had been subject to a policy of suppression. He had been forbidden the court, kept out of the army and in every way possible treated with contumely by his mother and the aristocracy which surrounded her.
It was scarcely his fault then that he came to the throne without knowledge of his empire, of the science of government, or the art of war. The result was that he did many foolish things and throughout his reign of less than five years was always an uncertain character in domestic and foreign policies.
He began his reign with an evident intention to make his administration one of peace and he publicly proclaimed that Russia, rent and exhausted by half a century of almost constant warfare, needed peace for recuperation.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
