Paper, board and cardboard are produced by shearing the paper stock, adding a microparticle system comprising a cationic polymer and a finely divided inorganic component to the paper stock after the last shearing stage before the head box, draining the paper stock with sheet formation and drying the sheets, by a process in which cationic polyacrylamides, polymers containing vinylamine units and/or polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride having an average molar mass Mw of in each case at least 500 000 Dalton and a charge density of in each case not more than 4.0 meq/g are used as cationic polymers of the microparticle system.