The book shows the main direction of the autocracy's internal policy at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries: attempts by Paul I, with the help of centralization of power and "stick regulation" of the whole way of life, to protect Russia from the influence of the ideas of the French Revolution, to stop the country's progressive movement "towards freedom, towards light." The author reveals the reasons for the collapse of this policy and the death of its "crowned ruler."