ended him to the cesarevich Paul Petrovich as the
artillery officer most capable of reorganizing the army corps maintained
by the prince at Gatchina. Arakcheev speedily won the entire confidence
of Paul by his scrupulous zeal and undeniable technical ability. His
inexorable discipline (magnified into cruelty by later legends) soon
made the Gatchina corps a model for the rest of the Russian army. On the
accession of Paul to the throne Arakcheev was promptly summoned to St
Petersburg, appointed military commandant in the capital, and
major-general in the grenadier battalion of the Preobrazhenskoe Guard.
On the 12th of December 1796, he received the ribbon of St Anne and a
rich estate at Gruzina in the government of Novgorod, the only
substantial gift ever accepted by him during the whole of his career. At
the coronation (5th of April 1797) Paul created him a baron, and he was
subsequently made quartermaster-general and colonel of the whole
Preobrazhenskoe Guard. It was to Arakcheev that Paul entrusted the
reorganization of the army, which during the latter days of Catherine
had fallen into a state of disorder and demoralization. Arakcheev
remorselessly applied the iron Gatchina discipline to the whole of the
imperial forces, beginning with the Guards. He soon became generally
detested by the army, but pursued his course unflinchingly and
introduced many indispensable hygienic reforms. "Clean barracks are
healthy barracks," was his motto. Nevertheless, the opposition of the
officers proved too strong for him, and on the 18th of March 1798 he was
dismissed from all his appointments. Arakcheev's first disgrace only
lasted six months. On the 11th of August he was received back into
favour, speedily reinstated in all his former offices, and on the 5th of
May 1799 was created a count, the emperor himself selecting the motto:
"Devoted, not servile." Five months later he was again in disgrace, the
emperor dismissing him on the strength of a denunciation subsequently
proved to be false. It was a fatal step on Paul's part, for everything
goes to prove that he would never have been assassinated had Arakcheev
continued by his side. During the earlier years of Alexander, Arakcheev
was completely overlooked. Only on the 27th of April 1803, was the count
recalled to St Petersburg, and employed as inspector-general of the
artillery. His wise and thorough reorganization of the whole department
contributed essentially to the victories of the