2-489-304 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich of Russia, late 18th century. Paul I (1754-1801) became Emperor of Russia in 1796. He was determined to turn the Russian nobility, which he saw as decadent and corrupt, into a form of chivalric order, and dismissed and banished from court anyone who did not share his vision. This, together with his passing of reforms to improve the lot of the peasantry, brought Paul into conflict with much of the nobility and a plot was hatched to assassinate him. He was murdered in his bedroom at St Michael's Castle in St Petersburg by a group of dismissed army officers on the night of 23rd March 1801. Found in the collection of the State Open-air Museum of the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, Sergyev Possad.