What happened
Paul I, son of Catherine the Great, was terrified of assassination. He had a castle built in Saint Petersburg surrounded by moats, with drawbridges and secret passages, and moved in at the beginning of 1801. It did not help: on the night of 11–12 March (Old Style), conspirators from Guards circles broke into the tsar's bedroom and killed him. Officially, he was said to have died of apoplexy. The castle was soon abandoned and later taken over by a military engineering school, which gave it its second name – the Engineers' Castle. Among the cadets and residents, stories circulated that the tsar's footsteps could be heard in the corridors and that a glowing figure could be seen in the windows at night. The ghost was also said to appear to soldiers and passers-by.
Witnesses
According to tradition, cadets of the engineering school, sentries and passers-by; the story was popularized by Nikolai Leskov in his tale “The Apparition in the Engineers' Castle” (1882).
Explanations and hypotheses
Historians note that stories of the ghost appear only in the late 1840s, although the legend claims they began right after the murder. According to accounts, senior cadets of the engineering school – whose students included Fyodor Dostoevsky – used the ghost to frighten younger boys, which is exactly what Leskov's story, a critique of school hazing, is about. Today the castle is a branch of the Russian Museum, and the legend of the tsar's ghost is a staple of Saint Petersburg guides.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Николай Лесков, Привидение в Инженерном замке (1882; Викитека)
- Русский музей – Михайловский (Инженерный) замок
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