In the modern Russian Federation, there are a lot of highly educated people who do not need to be explained that the Tsarevich is, first of all, a man who, after the death of his father-emperor, will inherit the throne. We are writing an article for schoolchildren.
How and when did this title come about
Peter the Great, having made his wife an empress, in 1721 gave his daughters Anna, Elizabeth and Natalia the title of princesses, but did not make them his heirs.
As you know, before his death, he did not transfer power to anyone. I could not find a person worthy of this honor who would continue his work.
For the Empress, this title sounded like a crown prince in those days, and her daughters were crown princes, respectively.
For the imperial son
Tsesarevich is the title of heir to the throne. It appeared in 1762, when the boy Pavel Petrovich was eight years old.
In principle, the prince and the crown prince are quite adequate words that come from the same Latin root “Caesar” or “Caesar”, that is, the emperor. And the crown prince is the one who has not yet grown to the throne. However, if the powerusurped, as was the case with Ekaterina Alekseevna, then the heir can wear this title for a very long time. Usurpers who have reached power do not seek to part with it voluntarily, and so they often get it after a crime.
The Tsarevich is by our standards (except that Great Britain is not an empire) the Prince of Wales, who lived all his life as an heir, but his mother Queen Elizabeth II is a long-lived and legally, successfully rules the country. And her son is already pretty old. Not only children have grown up with him, but grandchildren are growing up. This is how heirs to the throne sometimes do.
We will now return to times distant from us.
Poor Paul
For ten years, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna waited for the royal couple Peter and Catherine to give birth to her grandson. After the birth in 1764, rumors spread that the baby was not the son of Peter: the child was either changed, or he was the son of Count S altykov. But one way or another, is unknown.
Nevertheless, Peter recognized the child, and Empress Elizabeth took the baby from her parents. She wished that his upbringing went under her supervision. After her death, Catherine made a coup with the guards and became empress. She did not love her child, kept it away from her, but gave him an excellent education.
She didn't even celebrate his coming of age. Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich was not allowed to state affairs. Having married him, Catherine took away his two eldest sons Alexander and Konstantin from him and raised them, as she thought.right, allowing parents to occasionally meet with them. So Pavel Petrovich lived in Gatchina with his family, fearing that mother's guards were about to come and arrest him. Over the years, he became suspicious, sullen, incredulous and enthusiastically engaged only in his regiment.
The title of heir to the throne in the Russian Empire, Pavel Petrovich wore thirty-four years. He knew that his mother wanted to bypass him to transfer the throne to his beloved grandson Alexander. Therefore, upon learning of her death, he quickly destroyed all the papers relating to this issue, and finally became emperor.
He ruled for a short time (just over four years) and died after a palace conspiracy. In the memory of Russians, he remained in anecdotes, in the ridiculous laws that he often established, and is forgotten as a man who brought order to the succession to the throne in the imperial house, weakened the position of the nobility, improved the life of the peasants, resolved the issue of freedom of religion, introduced new military regulations that strengthened the army.
In exile
After the bloody and inhuman massacre of the royal family, the Romanovs had no direct heirs in the male line. In exile, monarchists argue over who is worthy of being called Tsarevich. They do not come to a common opinion, but Georgy Mikhailovich calls himself that, who has a relationship with the Romanovs on the maternal side.
