Mikhailovsky (St.Michael's) Castle. Impatience
Someone dreams to marry a Russian woman, someone wishes to write a good story, someone is longing to move to a new palace in a hope that a new life will begin after that. Tsar Pavel The First, the son of Catherine the Great (her statue is in front of Alexandrinsky theatre in Nevsky avenue) was born when his mother was 25, she died being 67, he was 42 by that time and had looked forward to the reign for long-long years. An unhappy child whose father Peter III was assassinated by his mother's will or a secret desire since she had dethroned him, Pavel is unloved by his mother as he reminds her criminal past, he hates his mother too for her success and glory, he strives for changing all the social structure created by mother, he is both a madman and the Fatherland zealot. He tries to arrange for justice for everyone, special boxes are hung around St.Petersburg in which all the citizens can drop their petitions and complaints which the Tsar personally reads. But having received a complaint about a drunken cabman who ran over a passer-by Pavel exiles all the city cabmen, but when life in the city is paralyzed he returns them.
As all madmen he keenly feels a secret malevolence surrounding him, he strives for hiding himself, for barricading himself in the inaccessible castle amidst the city, close to The Summer Gardens. Playing the knights he surrounds it with raising bridges and the ditches with water, he tries his best to move sooner though it is still cold and wet in the castle, it is March yet. And everything happens exactly as he foresaw: neither thick walls nor raising bridges save him: the crowd of drunken officers lead by the person whom he had trusted most of all, Count Palen, rushes into his room on the night of the 11th March and kills him, His 24 y.o. son Alexandre prays and cries, the same Count Palen convinces him that he should overcome the parricide for the Fatherland's benefit as the madman on the throne can destroy the country. His wife, mother of his numerous children two of whom will become the Emperors, sobs, accusing the castle which has ruined her husband, and his own impatience. I ran home along a slippery road being in a hurry to finish the story for the paper, I've slipped and nearly fell down. Someone rushes to Russia to find their destiny here sooner. One should learn to tame heart, the madness of brave ones is not always rewarded, time, patience and a sober view are. The apartment #2-11 is located not far from The Summer Gardens and Mikhailovsky Castle.
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