The accession to the throne of Paul I was marked by an extravagant ceremony of the double funeral, which became the most striking thanatological myth in Russian history. Burial of Catherine II (d. 6 November 1796) and the simultaneous reburial of the remains of murdered shortly after the Palace coup of 1762 34 years ago Peter III provoked a shock in the noble society. This ceremony marked the transformation of the «Russian Hamlet» in «crowned don Quixote». Carefully designed the script of the funeral has focused the attention of participants and spectators at the desire of Paul I to give back to the father and, however, meant a negative assessment of the past reign as «diabolical». The behavior of the Emperor was conditioned by motives of a psychological nature. According to the concept of E. From we can attribute him to the psychological type of people-necrophilia, which are characterized by the attraction to death and orientation to the past. For Paul I it was difficult to understand the present. This antinomy was the basis of many reflections on this subject among the Russians and the mythologization of the designated historic plot in memoirs and fiction.