246 Gentlemen to Officers
which were renamed after them. The abolition of territorial designations for
regiments^78 was a reversion to seventeenth-century practice and led to much
1.:onfusion, nol ieast because there was a rapid turnover of person~) at senior
level. The upper echelons of the officer corps were swollen by an influx of
freshly-appointed generals-' promotion went very rapidly for those with
strong nerves', one of them recalled later^79 -while a purge was conduct~ of
those identified as proteges of Potemkin or P. A. Zubov, favourites of
Catherine who were blamed for the 'slackness' that Paul detected in the armed
forces. In all 340 generals and 2,261 staff officers were discharged during his
reign. Many of them were soon rehabilitated, but such acts of monarchical
clemency only confirmed the general impression that the country was in the
grip of an irresponsible and arbitrary tyrant. so
From the start the emperor's military reforms met with antagonism. Nostal-
gia for the easy-going ways of the recent past was mingled wi~ chauvinism
and concern for one's personal career prospects. There was a good deal of
sullen grumbling. Some critics poked fun at the ruler's foibles.^81 Others, more
pertinently, invoked the law to protect their rights. A. certain Captain Hoff-
mann, m_enaced with discharge because he had been kept in detention, which
in his superiors' eyes 'dishonoured' him and rendered him unfit for further
service, requested an inquiry 'according to the laws' and was duly vindicated
by the Military Commission. Paul, however, overruled the commissioners and
reprimanded them.^82 In what may be seen as a mass gesture of protest, no less
then 3,500 officers, about one-quarter of the entire "Officer corps, tendered
their resignation from the service during his reign.^83 We do not know what the
normal rate of discharges was, but it is fair to assume that this action, coming
on top of the purge, must have had a serious destabilizing effect.
Some officers, and many more soldiers, deserted. This called forth repressive
measures reminiscent of those adopted by Peter I. Like the great tsar, but with
less justification, Paul encouraged delation. In at least one case that has been
documented he took action on the denunciation of a captain by a private.^84
Punishments became more severe, and were sometimes revised upw~ds when
they were submitted to the sovereign for confirmation.^8 ' Even noblemen might
be flogged, after revocation of their noble status in order not to infringe too
blatantly the privilege accorded to them in 1785. All this engendered an atmos-
phere of fear and suspicion which led some officers to take to the path of
conspiracy.
78 PSZ xxiv. 17587 (29 Nov. 1796), §I; xxiv. 17720 (9 Jan. 1797).
79 Sablukov, 'lz zapisok'. col. 1903.
80 On Paul's military policies see now Duffy, Russia's Military Way, pp. 202-8; of the earlier
literature the following are informative: Petrov, Russkaya voyennaya sila, ii. 242-6S; Lebedev,
'Preobrazovateli'; Volkonsky, 'Rasskazy'. pp. 179-87; Vorontsov, 'Zapiska'. pp. 474-87.
81 Lebedev, 'Preobrazovateli'. p. 583; Dzhedzhula, Rossiya, p. 183.
82 Vish, 'Telcsnye nakazaniya', p. 141. SJ Beskrovnyy, Russkaya armiya, p. 433.
84 [lgel'strom], • Arkhiv', p. 485; [Mosolov] 'Zapiski', p. 149. But he also ordered an officer to
be dismissed for delation: Sokolovsky, 'lz pyli arkhivov'. p. 288.
85 Sokolovsky, 'lz voyenno-ugolov. stariny'; Vish, 'Telesnyc nakazaniya', 10, pp. 139-41.
wang
(Wang)
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