Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich

[violetta]

it may sound strange but i like konstantin pavlovich to some extent.probably because we live in the same country-poland. gd konstantin spent 16 years here. that`s why i`m so interested in his personality and life. he was nervous,brutal at times, prone to changes of moods.he tormented people mentally and physically. a few polish officers committed suicide because of him. but he was not a villain, he DID have positive features. a human being isn`t ALL BLACK or ALL WHITE. his personality was more complex that it is commonly thought.

1. Though Konstantin was his father`s favorite and hence suffered a little less from paul I`s anger, he shared liberal views of his brother alexander. grand duke alexander trusted him. in fact, when konstantin moved to warsaw, he always behaved very modestly during is brother`s visits clearly showing who was superior. before these visits he was so nervous that he lost a lot of weight.suddenly his belts and uniforms became loose.

2. He WAS often cruel towards officers but NEVER cruel towards soldiers. soldiers in the polish army recieved four times as much money as in the rest of the empire.

3. but at the same time he paid his officers` debts

4.his attitude towads soldiers was quite democratic:he attended soldies` weddings and financed school fo their children

[violetta]

in many historical books here it is said that konstantin hated poland and poles, that hated his stay here. IT`S NOT TRUE!!!!

i don`t know why he loved poland.probably because here he had an independent position and became poweful. he also got used to his life here.probably it was a combination of factors.
 for example, authorities in st petersburg didn`t encourage marriages between catholics and orthodox. konstantin DID encourage such marriages.what`s more,he didn`t force such couples to bring up their children as orthodox thus objecting to the official policy of petersburg authorities

[violetta]

Konstantin pavlovich fanatically loved the army. He drilled the Polish army incessantly trying to achieve perfection during numerous parades. His troops exercised every day on the Saxon squire in Warsaw. His troops exercised under any weather, if the temperature was below - 18 degrees GD konstantin allowed his military in the barracks. but some members of his staff  broke down termometres because they didn`t want konstantin to be dissapointed.

[violetta]

Konstantin was a very demanding commander,even cruel at times. But it was not because of his inherent cruelty or ,at least, only partly due to it. One has to remember that Konstantin spent a lot of time in Gatchina, with his father. Gatchina was more like military Prussia, and Paul I was a huge fan of Prussia and Prussian military. It is clear that KP was strongly influenced by what he experienced in Gatchina.
Much as he loved the army he didn`t like wars because wars brought disorder into perfectly trained armies.

[Ally Kumari]