“Poor Pavel” : historical jokes and urban legends about the Emperor Paul I

The article is dedicated to the image of the Emperor Paul I in historical jokes and urban legends. From memoirs, diaries and epistolary sources it is clear that in the minds of his contemporaries Paul was and ambivalent figure, endowed with both positive and negative features. Prevailing opinion presents the emperor as a man of cruel, extravagant and selfish nature. It was the basis for a stereotype of Paul which is widely reflected in the Russian literature. The article attempts to trace the causes of the dominance of this stereotype.