The biography of Peter the 3rd (Karl-Peter-Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp) is full of sharp turns. He was born on February 10 (21), 1728 and was left without a mother early. At the age of 11, he lost his father. The young man was being prepared for the Swedish throne. However, everything changed when Elizabeth, who became Empress in 1741, without having any children of her own, in 1742 declared her nephew Peter 3rd Fedorovich heir to the Russian throne. He was not very educated and, apart from Latin grammar and the Lutheran catechism, he only knew a little French. forced Peter to study the basics of the Orthodox faith and Russian. In 1745, he was married to the future Empress Catherine 2nd Alekseevna, who gave birth to his heir -. In 1761 (1762 according to the new calendar), after the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter Fedorovich was declared emperor without coronation. His reign lasted 186 days. Peter the 3rd, who openly expressed sympathy for the King of Prussia, Frederick the 2nd, during the Seven Years' War, was not popular in Russian society.
With his most important manifesto of February 18, 1762 (Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility), Tsar Peter the 3rd abolished compulsory service for nobles, abolished the Secret Chancellery and allowed schismatics to return to their homeland. But these decrees did not bring popularity to the king. During the short time of his reign, serfdom strengthened. He ordered the clergy to shave their beards, dress in the manner of Lutheran pastors, and leave only icons of the Mother of God and the Savior in churches. The tsar’s attempts to remake the Russian army in the Prussian style are also known.
Admiring the ruler of Prussia, Frederick the 2nd, Peter the 3rd led Russia out of the Seven Years' War and returned all the conquered territories to Prussia, which caused nationwide indignation. It is not surprising that many of his entourage soon became participants in a conspiracy aimed at overthrowing the Tsar. The initiator of this conspiracy, supported by the guards, was the wife of Peter the 3rd, Ekaterina Alekseevna. Thus began 1762. G. Orlov, K.G. took an active part in the conspiracy. Razumovsky, M.N. Volkonsky.
In 1762, the Semenovsky and Izmailovsky regiments swore allegiance to Catherine. Accompanied by them, she arrived at the Kazan Cathedral, where she was proclaimed autocratic empress. On the same day, the Senate and Synod swore allegiance to the new ruler. The reign of Peter the 3rd ended. After the tsar signed his abdication, he was exiled to Ropsha, where he died on July 9, 1762. Initially, his body was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, but later, in 1796, his coffin was placed next to Catherine’s coffin in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. It is worth noting that during the reign
Historical figures, especially when it comes to their native country, are always studied with interest. The reigning persons who stood at the helm of power in Russia exerted their influence on the development of the country. Some of the kings ruled for many years, others for a short time, but all the personalities were noticeable and interesting. Emperor Peter 3 did not reign for long, died early, but left his mark on the history of the country.
Royal roots
The desire of Elizabeth Petrovna, who has reigned on the Russian throne since 1741, to strengthen the throne along the line led to her declaring her nephew as heir. She did not have her own children, but her older sister had a son who lived in the house of Adolf Frederick, the future king of Sweden.
Karl Peter, Elizabeth's nephew, was the son of Peter I's eldest daughter, Anna Petrovna. Immediately after giving birth, she fell ill and died soon after. When Karl Peter was 11 years old, he lost his father. Having lost his short biography, he began to live with his paternal uncle, Adolf Frederick. He did not receive proper upbringing and education, since the main method of educators was the “whip”.
He had to stand in the corner for a long time, sometimes on peas, and the boy’s knees swelled from this. All this left an imprint on his health: Karl Peter was a nervous child and was often sick. By character, Emperor Peter 3 grew up to be a simple-minded man, not evil, and was very fond of military affairs. But at the same time, historians note: when he was a teenager, he loved to drink wine.
Elizabeth's heir
And in 1741, she ascended the Russian throne. From that moment on, the life of Karl Peter Ulrich changed: in 1742 he became the heir of the Empress, and he was brought to Russia. He made a depressing impression on the empress: she saw in him a sickly and uneducated young man. Having converted to Orthodoxy, he was named Peter Fedorovich, and during the days of his reign his official name was Peter 3 Fedorovich.
For three years, educators and teachers worked with him. His main teacher was academician Jacob Shtelin. He believed that the future emperor was a capable young man, but very lazy. After all, during three years of study, he mastered the Russian language very poorly: he wrote and spoke illiterately, and did not study traditions. Pyotr Fedorovich loved to brag and was prone to cowardice - these qualities were noted by his teachers. His official title included the words: “Grandson of Peter the Great.”
Peter 3 Fedorovich - marriage
In 1745, the marriage of Pyotr Fedorovich took place. The princess became his wife. She also received her name after accepting Orthodoxy: her maiden name was Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst. This was the future Empress Catherine II.
A wedding gift from Elizaveta Petrovna was Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, and Lyubertsy, Moscow Region. But the marital relationship between the newlyweds does not work out. Although in all important economic and business matters, Pyotr Fedorovich always consulted with his wife and felt trust in her.
Life before the coronation
Peter 3, his short biography speaks of this, did not have a marital relationship with his wife. But later, after 1750, he underwent surgery. As a result, they had a son, who in the future became Emperor Paul I. Elizaveta Petrovna was personally involved in raising her grandson, immediately taking him away from his parents.
Peter was pleased with this state of affairs and increasingly moved away from his wife. He was interested in other women and even had a favorite, Elizaveta Vorontsova. In turn, in order to avoid loneliness, she had a relationship with the Polish ambassador - Stanislav August Poniatowski. The couples were on friendly terms with each other.
Birth of a daughter
In 1757, Catherine’s daughter is born, and she is given the name Anna Petrovna. Peter 3, whose short biography proves this fact, officially recognized his daughter. But historians, of course, have doubts about his paternity. In 1759, at the age of two, the child fell ill and died of smallpox. Peter had no other children.
In 1958, Pyotr Fedorovich had a garrison of soldiers numbering up to one and a half thousand under his command. And all his free time he devoted himself to his favorite pastime: training soldiers. The reign of Peter 3 has not yet begun, but he has already aroused the hostility of the nobility and people. The reason for everything was undisguised sympathy for the King of Prussia, Frederick II. His regret that he became the heir of the Russian Tsar, and not the Swedish king, his reluctance to accept Russian culture, his poor Russian language - all together turned the masses against Peter.
Reign of Peter 3
After the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, at the end of 1761, Peter III was proclaimed emperor. But he had not yet been crowned. What policy did Peter Fedorovich begin to pursue? In his domestic policy, he was consistent and took as a model the policy of his grandfather, Peter I. Emperor Peter 3, in short, decided to become the same reformer. What he managed to do during his short reign laid the foundation for the reign of his wife, Catherine.
But he made a number of mistakes in foreign policy: he stopped the war with Prussia. And he returned those lands that the Russian army had already conquered to King Frederick. In the army, the emperor introduced the same Prussian rules, was going to carry out the secularization of the lands of the church and its reform, and was preparing for war with Denmark. With these actions of Peter 3 (a short biography proves this), he turned the church against himself.
Coup
Reluctance to see Peter on the throne was expressed before his ascension. Even under Elizaveta Petrovna, Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin began to prepare a conspiracy against the future emperor. But it so happened that the conspirator fell out of favor and did not finish his job. Against Peter, shortly before the death of Elizabeth, an opposition was formed, consisting of: N.I. Panin, M.N. Volkonsky, K.P. Razumovsky. They were joined by officers of two regiments: Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky. Peter 3, in short, was not supposed to ascend to the throne; instead, they were going to elevate Catherine, his wife.
These plans could not be realized due to Catherine’s pregnancy and childbirth: she gave birth to a child from Grigory Orlov. In addition, she believed that the policies of Peter III would discredit him, but would give her more comrades. According to established tradition, Peter went to Oranienbaum in May. On June 28, 1762, he went to Peterhof, where Catherine was to meet him and organize celebrations in his honor.
But instead she hurried to St. Petersburg. Here she took the oath of allegiance from the Senate, the Synod, the guard and the masses. Then Kronstadt swore allegiance. Peter III returned to Oranienbaum, where he signed his abdication of the throne.
End of the reign of Peter III
He was then sent to Ropsha, where he died a week later. Or was deprived of his life. No one can prove or disprove this. Thus ended the reign of Peter III, which was very short and tragic. He ruled the country for only 186 days.
He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra: Peter was not crowned, and therefore he could not be buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. But the son, becoming emperor, corrected everything. He crowned the remains of his father and reburied them next to Catherine.
The TV series “Catherine” was released, and in connection with this, there is a surge of interest in the controversial figures of Russian history, Emperor Peter III and his wife, who became Empress Catherine II. Therefore, I present a selection of facts about the life and reign of these monarchs of the Russian Empire.
Peter and Catherine: a joint portrait by G.K. Groot
Peter III (Peter Fedorovich, born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp) was a very extraordinary emperor. He did not know the Russian language, loved to play toy soldiers and wanted to baptize Russia according to the Protestant rite. His mysterious death led to the emergence of a whole galaxy of impostors.
Already from birth, Peter could lay claim to two imperial titles: Swedish and Russian. On his father's side, he was the great-nephew of King Charles XII, who himself was too busy with military campaigns to marry. Peter's maternal grandfather was Charles's main enemy, Russian Emperor Peter I.
The boy, who was orphaned early, spent his childhood with his uncle, Bishop Adolf of Eitin, where he was instilled with hatred of Russia. He did not know Russian and was baptized according to Protestant custom. True, he also did not know any other languages besides his native German, and only spoke a little French.
Peter was supposed to take the Swedish throne, but the childless Empress Elizabeth remembered the son of her beloved sister Anna and declared him heir. The boy is brought to Russia to meet the imperial throne and death.
In fact, no one really needed the sickly young man: neither his aunt-empress, nor his teachers, nor, subsequently, his wife. Everyone was only interested in his origins; even the cherished words were added to the official title of the heir: “Grandson of Peter I.”
And the heir himself was interested in toys, primarily toy soldiers. Can we accuse him of being childish? When Peter was brought to St. Petersburg, he was only 13 years old! Dolls attracted the heir more than state affairs or a young bride.
True, his priorities do not change with age. He continued to play, but secretly. Ekaterina writes: “During the day, his toys were hidden in and under my bed. The Grand Duke went to bed first after dinner and, as soon as we were in bed, Kruse (the maid) locked the door, and then the Grand Duke played until one or two in the morning.”
Over time, toys become larger and more dangerous. Peter is allowed to order a regiment of soldiers from Holstein, whom the future emperor enthusiastically drives around the parade ground. Meanwhile, his wife is learning Russian and studying French philosophers...
In 1745, the wedding of the heir Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna, the future Catherine II, was magnificently celebrated in St. Petersburg. There was no love between the young spouses - they were too different in character and interests. The more intelligent and educated Catherine ridicules her husband in her memoirs: “he doesn’t read books, and if he does, it’s either a prayer book or descriptions of torture and executions.”
Letter from the Grand Duke to his wife. on the obverse lower left: le .. fevr./ 1746
Madam, this night I ask you not to inconvenience yourself by sleeping with me, since the time to deceive me has passed. After living apart for two weeks, the bed became too narrow. This afternoon. Your most unfortunate husband, whom you will never deign to call Peter.
February 1746, ink on paper
Peter’s marital duty was also not going smoothly, as evidenced by his letters, where he asks his wife not to share the bed with him, which has become “too narrow.” This is where the legend originates that the future Emperor Paul was not born from Peter III, but from one of the favorites of the loving Catherine.
However, despite the coldness in the relationship, Peter always trusted his wife. In difficult situations, he turned to her for help, and her tenacious mind found a way out of any troubles. That’s why Catherine received the ironic nickname “Mistress Help” from her husband.
But it was not only children's games that distracted Peter from his marital bed. In 1750, two girls were presented to the court: Elizaveta and Ekaterina Vorontsov. Ekaterina Vorontsova will be a faithful companion of her royal namesake, while Elizabeth will take the place of Peter III’s beloved.
The future emperor could take any court beauty as his favorite, but his choice fell, nevertheless, on this “fat and awkward” maid of honor. Is love evil? However, is it worth trusting the description left in the memoirs of a forgotten and abandoned wife?
The sharp-tongued Empress Elizaveta Petrovna found this love triangle very funny. She even nicknamed the good-natured but narrow-minded Vorontsova “Russian de Pompadour.”
It was love that became one of the reasons for the fall of Peter. At court they began to say that Peter was going, following the example of his ancestors, to send his wife to a monastery and marry Vorontsova. He allowed himself to insult and bully Catherine, who, apparently, tolerated all his whims, but in fact cherished plans for revenge and was looking for powerful allies.
During the Seven Years' War, in which Russia took the side of Austria. Peter III openly sympathized with Prussia and personally with Frederick II, which did not add to the popularity of the young heir.
Antropov A.P. Peter III Fedorovich (Karl Peter Ulrich)
But he went even further: the heir gave his idol secret documents, information about the number and location of Russian troops! Upon learning of this, Elizabeth was furious, but she forgave her dim-witted nephew a lot for the sake of his mother, her beloved sister.
Why does the heir to the Russian throne so openly help Prussia? Like Catherine, Peter is looking for allies, and hopes to find one of them in the person of Frederick II. Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin writes: “The Grand Duke was convinced that Frederick II loved him and spoke with great respect; therefore, he thinks that as soon as he ascends the throne, the Prussian king will seek his friendship and will help him in everything.”
After the death of Empress Elizabeth, Peter III was proclaimed emperor, but was not officially crowned. He showed himself to be an energetic ruler, and during the six months of his reign he managed, contrary to everyone’s opinion, to do a lot. Assessments of his reign vary widely: Catherine and her supporters describe Peter as a weak-minded, ignorant martinet and Russophobe. Modern historians create a more objective image.
First of all, Peter made peace with Prussia on terms unfavorable for Russia. This caused discontent in army circles. But then his “Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility” gave the aristocracy enormous privileges. At the same time, he issued laws prohibiting the torture and killing of serfs, and stopped the persecution of Old Believers.
Peter III tried to please everyone, but in the end all attempts turned against him. The reason for the conspiracy against Peter was his absurd fantasies about the baptism of Rus' according to the Protestant model. The Guard, the main support and support of the Russian emperors, took the side of Catherine. In his palace in Orienbaum, Peter signed a renunciation.
Tombs of Peter III and Catherine II in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The head slabs of the buried bear the same date of burial (December 18, 1796), which gives the impression that Peter III and Catherine II lived together for many years and died on the same day.
Peter's death is one big mystery. It was not for nothing that Emperor Paul compared himself to Hamlet: throughout the entire reign of Catherine II, the shadow of her deceased husband could not find peace. But was the empress guilty of the death of her husband?
According to the official version, Peter III died of illness. He was not in good health, and the unrest associated with the coup and abdication could have killed a stronger person. But the sudden and so quick death of Peter - a week after the overthrow - caused a lot of speculation. For example, there is a legend according to which the emperor’s killer was Catherine’s favorite Alexei Orlov.
The illegal overthrow and suspicious death of Peter gave rise to a whole galaxy of impostors. In our country alone, more than forty people tried to impersonate the emperor. The most famous of them was Emelyan Pugachev. Abroad, one of the false Peters even became the king of Montenegro. The last impostor was arrested in 1797, 35 years after the death of Peter, and only after that the shadow of the emperor finally found peace.
During his reign Catherine II Alekseevna the Great(nee Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst) from 1762 to 1796 the empire's possessions expanded significantly. Of the 50 provinces, 11 were acquired during her reign. The amount of government revenue increased from 16 to 68 million rubles. 144 new cities were built (more than 4 cities per year throughout the reign). The army almost doubled, the number of ships in the Russian fleet increased from 20 to 67 battleships, not counting other ships. The army and navy won 78 brilliant victories that strengthened Russia's international authority.
Anna Rosina de Gasc (née Lisiewski) Princess Sophia Augusta Friederike, future Catherine II 1742
Access to the Black and Azov Seas was won, Crimea, Ukraine (except for the Lvov region), Belarus, Eastern Poland, and Kabarda were annexed. The annexation of Georgia to Russia began. Moreover, during her reign, only one execution was carried out - the leader of the peasant uprising, Emelyan Pugachev.
Catherine II on the balcony of the Winter Palace, greeted by the guards and people on the day of the coup on June 28, 1762
The Empress's daily routine was far from the ordinary people's idea of royal life. Her day was scheduled by the hour, and its routine remained unchanged throughout her reign. Only the time of sleep changed: if in her mature years Catherine got up at 5, then closer to old age - at 6, and towards the end of her life even at 7 o'clock in the morning. After breakfast, the Empress received high-ranking officials and secretaries of state. The days and hours of reception for each official were constant. The working day ended at four o'clock, and it was time to rest. Hours of work and rest, breakfast, lunch and dinner were also constant. At 10 or 11 pm Catherine finished the day and went to bed.
Every day, 90 rubles were spent on food for the Empress (for comparison: a soldier’s salary during the reign of Catherine was only 7 rubles a year). The favorite dish was boiled beef with pickles, and currant juice was consumed as a drink. For dessert, preference was given to apples and cherries.
After lunch, the Empress began to do needlework, and Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy read aloud to her at this time. Ekaterina “masterfully sewed on canvas” and knitted. Having finished reading, she went to the Hermitage, where she sharpened bone, wood, amber, engraved, and played billiards.
Artist Ilyas Faizullin. Visit of Catherine II to Kazan
Catherine was indifferent to fashion. She didn’t notice her, and sometimes quite deliberately ignored her. On weekdays, the Empress wore a simple dress and did not wear jewelry.
By her own admission, she did not have a creative mind, but she wrote plays, and even sent some of them to Voltaire for “review.”
Catherine came up with a special suit for the six-month-old Tsarevich Alexander, the pattern of which was asked from her for her own children by the Prussian prince and the Swedish king. And for her beloved subjects, the empress came up with the cut of a Russian dress, which they were forced to wear at her court.
Portrait of Alexander Pavlovich, Jean Louis Veil
People who knew Catherine closely note her attractive appearance not only in her youth, but also in her mature years, her exceptionally friendly appearance, and ease of manner. Baroness Elizabeth Dimmesdale, who was first introduced to her along with her husband in Tsarskoe Selo at the end of August 1781, described Catherine as: “a very attractive woman with lovely expressive eyes and an intelligent look.”
Catherine was aware that men liked her and she herself was not indifferent to their beauty and masculinity. “I received from nature great sensitivity and appearance, if not beautiful, then at least attractive. I liked it the first time and did not use any art or embellishment for this.”
The Empress was quick-tempered, but knew how to control herself, and never made decisions in a fit of anger. She was very polite even with the servants, no one heard a rude word from her, she did not order, but asked to do her will. Her rule, according to Count Segur, was “to praise out loud and scold quietly.”
Rules hung on the walls of the ballrooms under Catherine II: it was forbidden to stand in front of the empress, even if she approached the guest and spoke to him while standing. It was forbidden to be in a gloomy mood and insult each other.” And on the shield at the entrance to the Hermitage there was an inscription: “The mistress of these places does not tolerate coercion.”
Catherine II and Potemkin
Thomas Dimmesdale, an English doctor was called from London to introduce smallpox vaccinations in Russia. Knowing about society's resistance to innovation, Empress Catherine II decided to set a personal example and became one of Dimmesdale's first patients. In 1768, an Englishman inoculated her and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich with smallpox. The recovery of the empress and her son became a significant event in the life of the Russian court.
The Empress was a heavy smoker. The cunning Catherine, not wanting her snow-white gloves to become saturated with a yellow nicotine coating, ordered the tip of each cigar to be wrapped in a ribbon of expensive silk.
The Empress read and wrote in German, French and Russian, but made many mistakes. Catherine was aware of this and once admitted to one of her secretaries that “I could only learn Russian from books without a teacher,” since “Aunt Elizaveta Petrovna told my chamberlain: it’s enough to teach her, she’s already smart.” As a result, she made four mistakes in a three-letter word: instead of “yet,” she wrote “ischo.”
Johann Baptist the Elder Lampi, 1793. Portrait of Empress Catherine II, 1793
Long before her death, Catherine composed an epitaph for her future tombstone:
“Here lies Catherine the Second. She arrived in Russia in 1744 to marry Peter III.
At the age of fourteen, she made a threefold decision: to please her husband, Elizabeth and the people.
She left no stone unturned to achieve success in this regard.
Eighteen years of boredom and loneliness prompted her to read many books.
Having ascended the Russian throne, she made every effort to give her subjects happiness, freedom and material well-being.
She easily forgave and did not hate anyone. She was forgiving, loved life, had a cheerful disposition, was a true Republican in her convictions and had a kind heart.
She had friends. The work was easy for her. She liked social entertainment and the arts."
Peter III Fedorovich (born Karl Peter Ulrich, German Karl Peter Ulrich). Born on February 10 (21), 1728 in Kiel - died on July 6 (17), 1762 in Ropsha. Russian Emperor (1762), the first representative of the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty on the Russian throne. Sovereign Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1745). Grandson of Peter I.
Karl Peter, the future Emperor Peter III, was born on February 10 (21 according to the new style) 1728 in Kiel (Holstein-Gottorp).
Father - Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp.
Mother - Anna Petrovna Romanova, daughter.
In the marriage contract concluded by his parents back under Peter I in 1724, they renounced any claims to the Russian throne. But the king reserved the right to appoint as his successor “one of the princes born by Divine blessing from this marriage.”
In addition, Karl Friedrich, being the nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII, had rights to the throne of Sweden.
Shortly after Peter's birth, his mother died, catching a cold during a fireworks display in honor of her son's birth. The boy grew up in the provincial surroundings of a tiny North German duchy. The father loved his son, but all his thoughts were aimed at returning Schleswig, which Denmark occupied at the beginning of the 18th century. Having neither military strength nor financial resources, Karl Friedrich pinned his hopes on either Sweden or Russia. Marriage to Anna Petrovna was a legal confirmation of Karl Friedrich's Russian orientation. But after Anna Ioannovna ascended the throne of the Russian Empire, this course became impossible. The new empress sought not only to deprive her cousin Elizaveta Petrovna of the rights to the inheritance, but also to assign it to the Miloslavsky line. Growing up in Kiel, the grandson of Peter the Great was a constant threat to the dynastic plans of the childless Empress Anna Ioannovna, who repeated with hatred: “The little devil still lives.”
In 1732, by a demarche of the Russian and Austrian governments, with the consent of Denmark, Duke Karl Friedrich was asked to renounce the rights to Schleswig for a huge ransom. Karl Friedrich categorically rejected this proposal. The father placed all hopes for restoring the territorial integrity of his duchy on his son, instilling in him the idea of revenge. From an early age, Karl Friedrich raised his son in a military way - in the Prussian way.
When Karl Peter was 10 years old, he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, which made a huge impression on the boy; he loved military parades.
At the age of eleven he lost his father. After his death, he was brought up in the house of his paternal cousin, Bishop Adolf of Eitinsky, later King Adolf Fredrik of Sweden. His teachers O.F. Brummer and F.V. Berkhgolts were not distinguished by high moral qualities and more than once cruelly punished the child. The Crown Prince of the Swedish Crown was repeatedly flogged and subjected to other sophisticated and humiliating punishments.
The teachers cared little about his education: by the age of thirteen he only spoke a little French.
Peter grew up fearful, nervous, impressionable, loved music and painting and at the same time adored everything military - however, he was afraid of cannon fire (this fear remained with him throughout his life). All his ambitious dreams were connected with military pleasures. He was not in good health; on the contrary, he was sickly and frail. By character, Peter was not evil; he often behaved simple-mindedly. Already in childhood he became addicted to wine.
Elizabeth Petrovna, who became Empress in 1741, wanted to secure the throne through her father and ordered her nephew to be brought to Russia. In December, soon after the accession of Empress Elizabeth to the throne, she sent Major von Korff (husband of Countess Maria Karlovna Skavronskaya, cousin of the Empress) and with him G. von Korff, the Russian envoy to the Danish court, to Kiel to take the young duke to Russia .
Three days after the Duke's departure, they learned about this in Kiel; he was traveling incognito, under the name of the young Count Duker. At the last station before Berlin they stopped and sent the quartermaster to the local Russian envoy (minister) von Brakel, and began to wait for him at the post station. But the night before, Brakel died in Berlin. This accelerated their further journey to St. Petersburg. In Keslin, in Pomerania, the postmaster recognized the young duke. Therefore, they drove all night to quickly leave the Prussian borders.
On February 5 (16), 1742, Karl Peter Ulrich arrived safely in Russia, to the Winter Palace. There was a large crowd of people to see the grandson of Peter the Great. On February 10 (21), the 14th anniversary of his birth was celebrated.
At the end of February 1742, Elizaveta Petrovna went with her nephew to Moscow for her coronation. Karl Peter Ulrich was present at the coronation in the Assumption Cathedral on April 25 (May 6), 1742, in a specially arranged place, next to Her Majesty. After his coronation, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Preobrazhensky Guard and wore the uniform of this regiment every day. Also colonel of the First Life Cuirassier Regiment.
At the first meeting, Elizabeth was struck by the ignorance of her nephew and upset by his appearance: thin, sickly, with an unhealthy complexion. Academician Jacob Shtelin became his tutor and teacher, who considered his student quite capable, but lazy. The professor noticed his inclinations and tastes and organized his first classes based on them. He read picture books with him, especially those depicting fortresses, siege weapons, and engineering weapons; He made various mathematical models in small form and arranged complete experiments from them on a large table. From time to time he brought ancient Russian coins and, while explaining them, told ancient Russian history, and, based on the medals of Peter I, the modern history of the state. Twice a week I read newspapers to him and quietly explained to him the basis of the history of European states, while entertaining him with the land maps of these states and showing their position on the globe.
In November 1742, Karl Peter Ulrich converted to Orthodoxy under the name Peter Fedorovich. His official title included the words “Grandson of Peter the Great.”
Peter III (documentary)
Height of Peter III: 170 centimeters.
Personal life of Peter III:
In 1745, Peter married Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna (née Sophia Frederica Augusta) of Anhalt-Zerbst, the future empress.
The heir's wedding was celebrated on a special scale. Peter and Catherine were granted possession of palaces - Oranienbaum near St. Petersburg and Lyubertsy near Moscow.
After the Holstein heir Brummer and Berchholtz were removed from the throne, his upbringing was entrusted to the military general Vasily Repnin, who turned a blind eye to his duties and did not prevent the young man from devoting all his time to playing toy soldiers. The heir's training in Russia lasted only three years - after the wedding of Peter and Catherine, Shtelin was relieved of his duties, but forever retained Peter's favor and trust.
The Grand Duke's immersion in military fun caused increasing irritation of the Empress. In 1747, she replaced Repnin with the Choglokovs, Nikolai Naumovich and Maria Simonovna, in whom she saw an example of a married couple who sincerely loved each other. In accordance with the instructions drawn up by Chancellor Bestuzhev, Choglokov tried to limit his ward’s access to games and replaced his favorite servants for this.
Peter's relationship with his wife did not work out from the very beginning. Catherine noted in her memoirs that her husband “bought himself German books, but what books? Some of them consisted of Lutheran prayer books, and the other - of the stories and trials of some highwaymen who were hanged and wheeled.”
It is believed that until the early 1750s there was no marital relationship between husband and wife at all, but then Peter underwent some kind of operation (presumably circumcision to eliminate phimosis), after which in 1754 Catherine gave birth to his son Paul. At the same time, the Grand Duke’s letter to his wife, dated December 1746, suggests that the relationship between them took place immediately after the wedding: “Madam, I ask you this night not to bother yourself at all to sleep with me, since it is too late to deceive me , the bed has become too narrow, after a two-week separation from you, this afternoon your unfortunate husband, whom you never honored with this name. Peter".
Historians cast great doubt on the paternity of Peter, calling S. A. Poniatovsky the most likely father. However, Peter officially recognized the child as his own.
The infant heir, the future Russian emperor, was immediately taken away from his parents after birth, and Empress Elizaveta Petrovna herself took up his upbringing. Pyotr Fedorovich was never interested in his son and was quite satisfied with the empress’s permission to see Paul once a week. Peter increasingly moved away from his wife; Elizaveta Vorontsova, E.R.’s sister, became his favorite. Dashkova.
Elizaveta Vorontsova - mistress of Peter III
Nevertheless, Catherine noted that for some reason the Grand Duke always had an involuntary trust in her, all the more strange since she did not strive for spiritual intimacy with her husband. In difficult situations, financial or economic, he often turned to his wife for help, calling her ironically “Madame la Ressource” (“Lady Help”).
Peter never hid his hobbies for other women from his wife. But Catherine did not at all feel humiliated by this state of affairs, having by that time a huge number of lovers. For the Grand Duke, his wife’s hobbies were also no secret.
After Choglokov’s death in 1754, General Brockdorff, who arrived incognito from Holstein and encouraged the militaristic habits of the heir, de facto became the manager of the “small court.” In the early 1750s, he was allowed to write out a small detachment of Holstein soldiers (by 1758 their number was about one and a half thousand). Peter and Brockdorff spent all their free time doing military exercises and maneuvers with them. Some time later (by 1759-1760), these Holstein soldiers formed the garrison of the amusing fortress of Peterstadt, built at the residence of the Grand Duke Oranienbaum.
Peter's other hobby was playing the violin.
During the years spent in Russia, Peter never made any attempt to better know the country, its people and history; he neglected Russian customs, behaved inappropriately during church services, and did not observe fasts and other rituals. When in 1751 the Grand Duke learned that his uncle had become the king of Sweden, he said: “They dragged me to this damned Russia, where I must consider myself a state prisoner, whereas if they had left me free, now I would be sitting on the throne civilized people."
Elizaveta Petrovna did not allow Peter to participate in resolving political issues, and the only position in which he could somehow prove himself was the position of director of the gentry corps. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke openly criticized the activities of the government, and during the Seven Years' War publicly expressed sympathy for the Prussian king Frederick II.
The defiant behavior of Peter Fedorovich was well known not only at court, but also in wider layers of Russian society, where the Grand Duke enjoyed neither authority nor popularity.
Personality of Peter III
Jacob Staehlin wrote about Peter III: “He is quite witty, especially in disputes, which was developed and supported in him from his youth by the grumpiness of his chief marshal Brümmer... By nature he judges quite well, but his attachment to sensual pleasures frustrated him more than it developed him judgments, and therefore he did not like deep thinking. Memory is excellent down to the last detail. He willingly read travel descriptions and military books. As soon as a catalog of new books came out, he read it and noted for himself many books that made up a decent library. He ordered his late parent’s library from Kiel and bought Melling’s engineering and military library for a thousand rubles.”
In addition, Shtelin wrote: “Being a Grand Duke and not having room for a library in his St. Petersburg palace, he ordered it to be transported to Oranienbaum and kept a librarian with it. Having become emperor, he instructed State Councilor Shtelin, as his chief librarian, to build a library on the mezzanine of his new winter palace in St. Petersburg, for which four large rooms were assigned and two for the librarian himself. For this, in the first case, he assigned 3,000 rubles, and then 2,000 rubles annually, but demanded that not a single Latin book be included in it, because pedantic teaching and coercion had disgusted him with Latin from an early age...
He was not a hypocrite, but he also did not like any jokes about faith and the word of God. He was somewhat inattentive during external worship, often forgetting the usual bows and crosses and talking to the ladies-in-waiting and other persons around him.
The Empress did not like such actions very much. She expressed her disappointment to Chancellor Count Bestuzhev, who, on her behalf, on similar and many other occasions, instructed me to give the Grand Duke serious instructions. This was carried out with all care, usually on Monday, regarding such indecency of his actions, both in church and at court or at other public meetings. He was not offended by such remarks, because he was convinced that I wished him well and always advised him how to please Her Majesty as much as possible and thus create his own happiness...
Alien to all prejudices and superstitions. Thoughts regarding faith were more Protestant than Russian; therefore, from an early age, I often received admonitions not to show such thoughts and to show more attention and respect for worship and the rites of faith.”
Shtelin noted that Peter “always had with him a German Bible and a Kiel prayer book, in which he knew by heart some of the best spiritual songs.” At the same time: “I was afraid of thunderstorms. In words he was not at all afraid of death, but in reality he was afraid of any danger. He often boasted that he would not be left behind in any battle, and that if a bullet hit him, he was sure that it was intended for him,” wrote Shtelin.
Reign of Peter III
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1761 (January 5, 1762), at three o'clock in the afternoon, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna died. Peter ascended the throne of the Russian Empire. Imitating Frederick II, Peter was not crowned, but planned to be crowned after the campaign against Denmark. As a result, Peter III was posthumously crowned Paul I in 1796.
Peter III did not have a clear political program of action, but he had his own vision of politics, and, imitating his grandfather Peter I, planned to carry out a number of reforms. On January 17, 1762, Peter III, at a meeting of the Senate, announced his plans for the future: “The nobles continue to serve of their own free will, as much and where they wish, and when wartime comes, they must all appear on the same basis as in Livonia with sacrificed by the nobles.”
Several months in power revealed the contradictory nature of Peter III. Almost all contemporaries noted such character traits of the emperor as a thirst for activity, tirelessness, kindness and gullibility.
Among the most important reforms of Peter III:
Abolition of the Secret Chancellery (Chancery of Secret Investigative Affairs; Manifesto of February 16, 1762);
- the beginning of the process of secularization of church lands;
- encouragement of commercial and industrial activities through the creation of the State Bank and the issuance of banknotes (Nominal Decree of May 25);
- adoption of a decree on freedom of foreign trade (Decree of March 28); it also contains a requirement to respect forests as one of the most important resources of Russia;
- a decree that allowed the establishment of factories for the production of sailing fabric in Siberia;
- a decree that qualified the murder of peasants by landowners as “tyrant torture” and provided for lifelong exile for this;
- stopped the persecution of the Old Believers.
Peter III is also credited with the intention to carry out the reform of the Russian Orthodox Church according to the Protestant model (In the Manifesto of Catherine II on the occasion of her accession to the throne dated June 28 (July 9), 1762, Peter was blamed for this: “Our Greek Church is already extremely exposed to its last danger of change ancient Orthodoxy in Russia and the adoption of a heterodox law").
Legislative acts adopted during the short reign of Peter III largely became the foundation for the subsequent reign of Catherine II.
The most important document of the reign of Peter Fedorovich - “Manifesto on the freedom of the nobility” (Manifesto of February 18 (March 1), 1762), thanks to which the nobility became the exclusive privileged class of the Russian Empire.
The nobility, having been forced by Peter I to compulsory and universal conscription to serve the state all their lives, and under Anna Ioannovna, having received the right to retire after 25 years of service, now received the right not to serve at all. And the privileges initially granted to the nobility, as a serving class, not only remained, but also expanded. In addition to being exempt from service, nobles received the right to virtually unhindered exit from the country. One of the consequences of the Manifesto was that the nobles could now freely dispose of their land holdings, regardless of their attitude to service (the Manifesto passed over in silence the rights of the nobility to their estates; while the previous legislative acts of Peter I, Anna Ioannovna and Elizaveta Petrovna regarding noble service, linked official duties and landownership rights).
The nobility became as free as a privileged class could be free in a feudal country.
Under Peter III, a broad amnesty was carried out for persons who had been subjected to exile and other punishments in previous years. Among those returned were the favorite of Empress Anna Ioannovna E.I. Biron and Field Marshal B.K. Minich, close to Peter III.
The reign of Peter III was marked by the strengthening of serfdom. The landowners were given the opportunity to arbitrarily resettle the peasants who belonged to them from one district to another; serious bureaucratic restrictions arose on the transition of serfs to the merchant class; During the six months of Peter's reign, about 13 thousand people were distributed from state peasants to serfs (in fact, there were more: only men were included in the audit lists in 1762). During these six months, peasant riots arose several times and were suppressed by punitive detachments.
The legislative activity of the government of Peter III was extraordinary. During the 186-day reign, judging by the official “Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire,” 192 documents were adopted: manifestos, personal and Senate decrees, resolutions, etc.
Peter III was much more interested in internal affairs in the war with Denmark: the emperor decided, in alliance with Prussia, to oppose Denmark in order to return Schleswig, which it had taken from his native Holstein, and he himself intended to go on a campaign at the head of the guard.
Immediately upon his accession to the throne, Peter Fedorovich returned to the court most of the disgraced nobles of the previous reign, who had languished in exile (except for the hated Bestuzhev-Ryumin). Among them was Count Burchard Christopher Minich, a veteran of palace coups and a master of engineering of his time. The Emperor's Holstein relatives were summoned to Russia: Princes Georg Ludwig of Holstein-Gottorp and Peter August Friedrich of Holstein-Beck. Both were promoted to field marshal general in the prospect of war with Denmark; Peter August Friedrich was also appointed governor-general of the capital. Alexander Vilboa was appointed Feldzeichmeister General. These people, as well as the former teacher Jacob Shtelin, who was appointed personal librarian, formed the emperor's inner circle.
Bernhard Wilhelm von der Goltz arrived in St. Petersburg to negotiate a separate peace with Prussia. Peter III valued the opinion of the Prussian envoy so much that he soon began to “direct the entire foreign policy of Russia.”
Among the negative aspects of the reign of Peter III, the main one is his actual annulment of the results of the Seven Years' War. Once in power, Peter III, who did not hide his admiration for Frederick II, immediately stopped military operations against Prussia and concluded the Peace of St. Petersburg with the Prussian king on extremely unfavorable terms for Russia, returning the conquered East Prussia (which by that time had already been a constituent part of part of the Russian Empire) and abandoning all acquisitions during the Seven Years' War, which was practically won by Russia. All the sacrifices, all the heroism of the Russian soldiers were crossed out in one fell swoop, which looked like a real betrayal of the interests of the fatherland and high treason.
Russia's exit from the war once again saved Prussia from complete defeat. The peace concluded on April 24 was interpreted by the ill-wishers of Peter III as a true national humiliation, since the long and costly war, by the grace of this admirer of Prussia, ended in literally nothing: Russia did not derive any benefits from its victories. However, this did not prevent Catherine II from continuing what Peter III had started, and the Prussian lands were finally liberated from the control of Russian troops and given to Prussia by her. Catherine II concluded a new treaty of alliance with Frederick II in 1764. However, Catherine’s role in ending the Seven Years’ War is usually not advertised.
Despite the progressive nature of many legislative measures and unprecedented privileges for the nobility, Peter’s poorly thought-out foreign policy actions, as well as his harsh actions towards the church, the introduction of Prussian orders in the army not only did not add to his authority, but deprived him of any social support. In court circles, his policy only generated uncertainty about the future.
Finally, the intention to withdraw the guard from St. Petersburg and send it on an incomprehensible and unpopular Danish campaign served as the “last straw”, a powerful catalyst for the conspiracy that arose in the guard against Peter III in favor of Ekaterina Alekseevna.
Death of Peter III
The origins of the conspiracy date back to 1756, that is, to the time of the beginning of the Seven Years' War and the deterioration of Elizabeth Petrovna's health. The all-powerful Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin, knowing full well about the pro-Prussian sentiments of the heir and realizing that under the new sovereign he was threatened with at least Siberia, hatched plans to neutralize Peter Fedorovich upon his accession to the throne, declaring Catherine an equal co-ruler. However, Alexey Petrovich fell into disgrace in 1758, hastening to implement his plan (the chancellor’s intentions remained undisclosed; he managed to destroy dangerous papers). The Empress herself had no illusions about her successor to the throne and later thought about replacing her nephew with her great-nephew Paul.
Over the next three years, Catherine, who also came under suspicion in 1758 and almost ended up in a monastery, did not take any noticeable political actions, except that she persistently multiplied and strengthened her personal connections in high society.
In the ranks of the guard, a conspiracy against Pyotr Fedorovich took shape in the last months of Elizaveta Petrovna’s life, thanks to the activities of three Orlov brothers, officers of the Izmailovsky regiment brothers Roslavlev and Lasunsky, Preobrazhensky soldiers Passek and Bredikhin and others. Among the highest dignitaries of the Empire, the most enterprising conspirators were N. I. Panin, teacher of the young Pavel Petrovich, M. N. Volkonsky and K. G. Razumovsky, Ukrainian hetman, president of the Academy of Sciences, favorite of his Izmailovsky regiment.
Elizaveta Petrovna died without deciding to change anything in the fate of the throne. Catherine did not consider it possible to carry out a coup immediately after the death of the Empress: she was five months pregnant (in April 1762 she gave birth to her son Alexei). In addition, Catherine had political reasons not to rush things; she wanted to attract as many supporters as possible to her side for complete triumph. Knowing well the character of her husband, she rightly believed that Peter would soon turn the entire metropolitan society against himself.
To carry out the coup, Catherine preferred to wait for an opportune moment.
Peter III's position in society was precarious, but Catherine's position at court was also precarious. Peter III openly said that he was going to divorce his wife in order to marry his favorite Elizaveta Vorontsova. He treated his wife rudely, and on June 9, during a gala dinner on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with Prussia, a public scandal occurred. The Emperor, in the presence of the court, diplomats and foreign princes, shouted “folle” (fool) to his wife across the table. Catherine began to cry. The reason for the insult was Catherine’s reluctance to drink while standing the toast proclaimed by Peter III. The hostility between the spouses reached its climax. On the evening of the same day, he gave the order to arrest her, and only the intervention of Field Marshal Georg of Holstein-Gottorp, the emperor's uncle, saved Catherine.
By May 1762, the change of mood in the capital became so obvious that the emperor was advised from all sides to take measures to prevent a disaster, there were denunciations of a possible conspiracy, but Pyotr Fedorovich did not understand the seriousness of his situation. In May, the court, led by the emperor, as usual, left the city, to Oranienbaum. There was a calm in the capital, which greatly contributed to the final preparations of the conspirators.
The Danish campaign was planned for June. The emperor decided to postpone the march of the troops in order to celebrate his name day. On the morning of June 28 (July 9), 1762, on the eve of Peter's Day, Emperor Peter III and his retinue set off from Oranienbaum, his country residence, to Peterhof, where a gala dinner was to take place in honor of the emperor's name day.
The day before, a rumor spread throughout St. Petersburg that Catherine was being held under arrest. Violent unrest began in the guard; one of the participants in the conspiracy, Captain Passek, was arrested. The Orlov brothers feared that the conspiracy was in danger of being exposed.
In Peterhof, Peter III was supposed to be met by his wife, who, in the duty of the empress, was the organizer of the celebrations, but by the time the court arrived, she had disappeared. After a short time, it became known that Catherine fled to St. Petersburg early in the morning in a carriage with Alexei Orlov - he arrived in Peterhof to see Catherine with the news that events had taken a critical turn and it was impossible to delay any longer).
In the capital, the Guard, the Senate and the Synod, and the population swore allegiance to the “Empress and Autocrat of All Russia” in a short time. The guard moved towards Peterhof.
Peter's further actions show an extreme degree of confusion. Rejecting Minich's advice to immediately head to Kronstadt and fight, relying on the fleet and the army loyal to him stationed in East Prussia, he was going to defend himself in Peterhof in a toy fortress built for maneuvers, with the help of a detachment of Holsteins. However, having learned about the approach of the guard led by Catherine, Peter abandoned this thought and sailed to Kronstadt with the entire court, ladies, etc. But by that time Kronstadt had already sworn allegiance to Catherine. After this, Peter completely lost heart and, again rejecting Minich’s advice to go to the East Prussian army, returned to Oranienbaum, where he signed his abdication of the throne.
The circumstances of the death of Peter III have not yet been fully clarified.
The deposed emperor on June 29 (July 10), 1762, almost immediately after the coup, accompanied by a guard of guards led by A.G. Orlov was sent to Ropsha, 30 versts from St. Petersburg, where a week later, on July 6 (17), 1762, he died. According to the official version, the cause of death was an attack of hemorrhoidal colic, worsened by prolonged alcohol consumption and diarrhea. During the autopsy, which was carried out by order of Catherine, it was discovered that Peter III had severe cardiac dysfunction, inflammation of the intestines and signs of apoplexy.
However, according to another version, Peter’s death is considered violent and Alexei Orlov is called the murderer. This version is based on Orlov’s letter to Catherine from Ropsha, which was not preserved in the original. This letter has reached us in a copy taken by F.V. Rostopchin. The original letter was allegedly destroyed by Emperor Paul I in the first days of his reign. Recent historical and linguistic studies refute the authenticity of the document and name Rostopchin himself as the author of the forgery.
A number of modern medical examinations, based on surviving documents and evidence, revealed that Peter III suffered from bipolar disorder with a mild depressive phase, suffered from hemorrhoids, which is why he could not sit in one place for a long time. Microcardia discovered at autopsy usually suggests a complex of congenital developmental disorders.
Initially, Peter III was buried without any honors on July 10 (21), 1762 in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, since only crowned heads were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the imperial tomb. The full Senate asked the Empress not to attend the funeral. According to some reports, Catherine nevertheless arrived at the Lavra incognito and paid her last debt to her husband.
In 1796, immediately after the death of Catherine, by order of Paul I, his remains were transferred first to the house church of the Winter Palace, and then to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Peter III was reburied simultaneously with the burial of Catherine II.
At the same time, Emperor Paul personally performed the ceremony of coronation of the ashes of his father. The head slabs of the buried bear the same date of burial (December 18, 1796), which gives the impression that Peter III and Catherine II lived together for many years and died on the same day.
On June 13, 2014, the world's first monument to Peter III was erected in the German city of Kiel. The initiators of this action were the German historian Elena Palmer and the Kiel Royal Society (Kieler Zaren Verein). The sculptor of the composition was Alexander Taratynov.
Impostors under the name of Peter III
Peter III became the absolute record holder for the number of impostors who tried to take the place of the untimely deceased king. According to the latest data, in Russia alone there were about forty false Peter III.
In 1764, Anton Aslanbekov, a bankrupt Armenian merchant, played the role of false Peter. Detained with a false passport in the Kursk district, he declared himself emperor and tried to rouse the people in his defense. The impostor was punished with whips and sent to eternal settlement in Nerchinsk.
Soon after this, the name of the late emperor was appropriated by the fugitive recruit Ivan Evdokimov, who tried to raise an uprising in his favor among the peasants of the Nizhny Novgorod province, and Nikolai Kolchenko in the Chernigov region.
In 1765, a new impostor appeared in the Voronezh province, publicly declaring himself emperor. Later, arrested and interrogated, he called himself Gavrila Kremnevoy, a private in the Lant-militia Oryol Regiment. Having deserted after 14 years of service, he managed to get himself a horse and lure two serfs of the landowner Kologrivov to his side. At first, Kremnev declared himself “a captain in the imperial service” and promised that from now on, distilling would be prohibited, and the collection of capitation money and recruitment would be suspended for 12 years, but after some time, prompted by his accomplices, he decided to declare his “royal name.” For a short time, Kremnev was successful, the nearest villages greeted him with bread and salt and the ringing of bells, and a detachment of five thousand people gradually gathered around the impostor. However, the untrained and unorganized gang fled at the first shots. Kremnev was captured and sentenced to death, but was pardoned by Catherine and exiled to eternal settlement in Nerchinsk, where his traces were completely lost.
In the same year, shortly after Kremnev’s arrest, in Sloboda Ukraine, in the settlement of Kupyanka, Izyum district, a new impostor appears - Pyotr Fedorovich Chernyshev, a fugitive soldier of the Bryansk regiment. This impostor, unlike his predecessors, was captured, convicted and exiled to Nerchinsk, did not abandon his claims, spreading rumors that the “father-emperor,” who incognito inspected the soldier’s regiments, was mistakenly captured and beaten with whips. The peasants who believed him tried to organize an escape by bringing the “sovereign” a horse and providing him with money and provisions for the journey. The impostor got lost in the taiga, was caught and cruelly punished in front of his admirers, sent to Mangazeya for eternal work, but died on the way there.
In the Iset province, the Cossack Kamenshchikov, previously convicted of many crimes, was sentenced to have his nostrils cut out and eternal exile to work in Nerchinsk for spreading rumors that the emperor was alive, but imprisoned in the Trinity Fortress. At the trial, he showed as his accomplice the Cossack Konon Belyanin, who was allegedly preparing to act as emperor. Belyanin got off with whippings.
In 1768, a second lieutenant of the Shirvan army regiment, Josaphat Baturin, who was kept in the Shlisselburg fortress, in conversations with the soldiers on duty, assured that “Peter Fedorovich is alive, but in a foreign land,” and even with one of the guards he tried to convey a letter for the allegedly hiding monarch. By chance, this episode reached the authorities, and the prisoner was sentenced to eternal exile to Kamchatka, from where he later managed to escape, taking part in the famous enterprise of Moritz Benevsky.
In 1769, near Astrakhan, the fugitive soldier Mamykin was caught, publicly announcing that the emperor, who, of course, managed to escape, “will take over the kingdom again and will give benefits to the peasants.”
An extraordinary person turned out to be Fedot Bogomolov, a former serf who fled and joined the Volga Cossacks under the name Kazin. In March-June 1772 on the Volga, in the Tsaritsyn region, when his colleagues, due to the fact that Kazin-Bogomolov seemed too smart and intelligent to them, suggested that the emperor was hiding in front of them, Bogomolov easily agreed with his “imperial dignity.” Bogomolov, following his predecessors, was arrested and sentenced to have his nostrils pulled out, branded and eternal exile. On the way to Siberia he died.
In 1773, the robber ataman Georgy Ryabov, who had escaped from the Nerchinsk penal servitude, tried to impersonate the emperor. His supporters later joined the Pugachevites, declaring that their deceased chieftain and the leader of the peasant war were one and the same person. The captain of one of the battalions stationed in Orenburg, Nikolai Kretov, unsuccessfully tried to declare himself emperor.
In the same year, a Don Cossack, whose name has not been preserved in history, decided to benefit financially from the widespread belief in the “hiding emperor.” His accomplice, posing as a secretary of state, traveled around the Tsaritsyn district of the Astrakhan province, taking oaths and preparing the people to receive the “father-tsar”, then the impostor himself appeared. The duo managed to profit enough at someone else's expense before the news reached the other Cossacks, and they decided to give everything a political aspect. A plan was developed to capture the town of Dubovka and arrest all the officers. The authorities became aware of the plot, and one of the high-ranking military men, accompanied by a small convoy, arrived at the hut where the impostor was located, hit him in the face and ordered his arrest along with his accomplice. The Cossacks present obeyed, but when the arrested were taken to Tsaritsyn for trial and execution, rumors immediately spread that the emperor was in custody, and muted unrest began. To avoid an attack, the prisoners were forced to be kept outside the city, under heavy escort. During the investigation, the prisoner died, that is, from the point of view of ordinary people, he again “disappeared without a trace.”
In 1773, the future leader of the peasant war, Emelyan Pugachev, the most famous of the false Peter III, skillfully turned this story to his advantage, asserting that he himself was the “emperor who disappeared from Tsaritsyn.”
In 1774, another candidate for emperor came across, a certain Metelka. In the same year, Foma Mosyagin, who also tried to try on the “role” of Peter III, was arrested and deported to Nerchinsk along with the other impostors.
In 1776, the peasant Sergeev paid for the same thing, gathering a gang around himself that was going to rob and burn the landowners' houses. Voronezh governor Ivan Potapov, who managed to defeat the peasant freemen with some difficulty, determined during the investigation that the conspiracy was extremely extensive - at least 96 people were involved in it to one degree or another.
In 1778, a drunken soldier of the Tsaritsyn 2nd battalion, Yakov Dmitriev, told everyone in the bathhouse that “in the Crimean steppes the former third emperor Peter Feodorovich is with the army, who was previously kept on guard, from where he was kidnapped by the Don Cossacks; under him, the Iron Forehead is leading that army, against whom there was already a battle on our side, where two divisions were defeated, and we are waiting for him like a father; and on the border Pyotr Aleksandrovich Rumyantsev stands with the army and does not defend against it, but says that he does not want to defend from either side.” Dmitriev was interrogated under guard, and he stated that he heard this story “on the street from unknown people.” The Empress agreed with Prosecutor General A.A. Vyazemsky that there was nothing more than drunken recklessness and stupid chatter behind this, and the soldier punished by the batogs was accepted into his former service.
In 1780, after the suppression of the Pugachev rebellion, the Don Cossack Maxim Khanin in the lower reaches of the Volga again tried to raise the people, posing as “the miracle of Pugachev’s escape.” The number of his supporters began to grow rapidly, among them were peasants and rural priests, and panic began among the authorities. On the Ilovlya River, the challenger was captured and taken to Tsaritsyn. Astrakhan Governor-General I.V., who came specially to conduct the investigation. Jacobi subjected the prisoner to interrogation and torture, during which Khanin confessed that back in 1778 he had met in Tsaritsyn with his friend named Oruzheinikov, and this friend convinced him that Khanin was “exactly” like Pugachev-“Peter”. The impostor was shackled and sent to Saratov prison.
The scopal sect had its own Peter III - it was its founder, Kondraty Selivanov. Selivanov wisely neither confirmed nor denied rumors about his identity with the “hidden emperor.” A legend has been preserved that in 1797 he met with Paul I and when the emperor, not without irony, inquired, “Are you my father?” Selivanov allegedly replied, “I am not the father of sin; accept my work (castration), and I recognize you as my son.” What is thoroughly known is that Paul ordered that the osprey prophet be placed in a nursing home for the insane at the Obukhov hospital.
The Lost Emperor appeared abroad at least four times and enjoyed considerable success there. For the first time it appeared in 1766 in Montenegro, which at that time was being fought for independence against the Turks by the Venetian Republic. This man named Stefan, who came from nowhere and became a village healer, never declared himself emperor, but a certain captain Tanovich, who had previously been in St. Petersburg, “recognized” him as the missing emperor, and the elders who gathered for the council managed to find a portrait of Peter in one from Orthodox monasteries and came to the conclusion that the original is very similar to its image. A high-ranking delegation was sent to Stefan with requests to take power over the country, but he flatly refused until internal strife was stopped and peace was concluded between the tribes. Unusual demands finally convinced the Montenegrins of his “royal origin” and, despite the resistance of the Church and the machinations of the Russian general Dolgorukov, Stefan became the ruler of the country.
He never revealed his real name, leaving Yu.V. Dolgoruky has three versions to choose from - “Raicevic from Dalmatia, a Turk from Bosnia and finally a Turk from Ioannina.” Openly recognizing himself as Peter III, he, however, ordered to be called Stefan and went down in history as Stefan the Small, which is believed to come from the impostor’s signature - “Stephen, small with small ones, good with good, evil with evil.” Stefan turned out to be an intelligent and knowledgeable ruler. In the short time he remained in power, civil strife ceased. After short friction, friendly relations were established with Russia, and the country defended itself quite confidently against the onslaught from both the Venetians and the Turks. This could not please the conquerors, and Turkey and Venice made repeated attempts on Stephen’s life. Finally, one of the attempts succeeded and after five years of rule, Stefan Maly was stabbed to death in his sleep by his own doctor, Stanko Klasomunya, bribed by the Skadar Pasha. The impostor's belongings were sent to St. Petersburg, and his associates tried to receive a pension from Catherine for “valiant service to her husband.”
After the death of Stefan, a certain Stepan Zanovich tried to declare himself the ruler of Montenegro and Peter III, who once again “miraculously escaped from the hands of murderers,” but his attempt was unsuccessful. After leaving Montenegro, Zanovich corresponded with monarchs from 1773 and kept in touch with Voltaire and Rousseau. In 1785 in Amsterdam, the swindler was arrested and his veins were cut.
Count Mocenigo, who was at that time on the island of Zante in the Adriatic, wrote about another impostor in a report to the Doge of the Venetian Republic. This impostor operated in Turkish Albania, in the vicinity of the city of Arta.
The last impostor was arrested in 1797.
The image of Peter III in the cinema:
1934 - The Loose Empress (actor Sam Jaffe as Peter III)
1934 - The Rise of Catherine the Great (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.)
1963 - Catherine of Russia (Caterina di Russia) (Raoul Grassili)
February 21, 1728 Count Heinrich Friedrich Bassevich, the first minister of the Holstein court, left a note: “Born between noon and the first hour of the day, healthy and strong. It was decided to call him Karl Peter" The newborn in question will be destined to become Russian Emperor Peter III.
We have a wrong idea about this figure. So much so that one wonders: how did “a national traitor and frankly weak-minded drunkard” even last on the Russian throne for such a short time? Many people have the impression that the main and even the only historical role of Peter III was to marry his future wife on time. Catherine the Great, and then die to clear the way for the brilliant “Mother Empress.”
1. Works and days
Some people find the language of numbers most persuasive. In some ways they are right: this is how you can determine offhand, if not the effectiveness, then the efficiency and activity of the ruler. If you look at Peter III from this point of view, you get an interesting proportion. He spent 186 days on the throne. During this time, he signed 192 laws and decrees: this is not counting all the little things like nominations for awards. On average, about 30 decrees are issued per month, even a little more. Thus, he is confidently among the top 3 rulers of the 18th century. And he even takes an honorable second place in it after his son Paul I. He issued an average of 42 legislative acts per month. For comparison: Catherine the Great issued 12 laws per month, and Peter the Great- according to 8. A curious fact should be especially noted: some of these laws are attributed to the “philanthropy and enlightenment” of Catherine II, his widow. In particular, the “Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility”, giving the murder of serfs by masters the status of “tyrannical torment” and the abolition of the sinister Secret Chancellery. Although in fact, Catherine’s entire merit lies only in the fact that she did not cancel the orders of her late husband.
2. Not from relatives, but into relatives
One of the hook phrases Bulgakov— Woland’s words from “The Master and Margarita”: “Yes, how intricately the deck is shuffled! Blood!" It is fully applicable to Peter III. In his case, however, the deck was shuffled by hand. Several dynastic marriages that seemed promising - and then, if you please, our hero was born. By the way, remember the name given to him at birth? It is also from this series. Karl Peter. Peter - in honor of his maternal grandfather, Russian Emperor Peter I. And Karl - for the reason that on his father’s side the baby was the great-nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII. Two great grandfathers who fought each other for almost a quarter of a century and redrew the map of Europe. Peter III was well aware of this. Moreover, he behaved in such a way that many noticed his similarity with both Peter I and Charles XII. For example, a French diplomat in Russia Jean-Louis Favier:“He imitates both in the simplicity of his tastes and in his clothes... The courtiers, immersed in luxury and inaction, fear the time when they will be ruled by a sovereign who is equally harsh towards himself and towards others.”
3. Coronation after death: late or never?
We can agree with those who say that Peter III was inferior. But only in one thing. He, perhaps, really was not a full-fledged emperor during his lifetime. Because he never lived to see the coronation, which marks the fullness of power. In June 1762, the proclaimed but not crowned emperor signed his abdication.
The situation was corrected by Paul I, his son. He committed a unique, unprecedented act. 34 years after the death of Peter III, the new emperor opened his coffin and crowned the remains of the late priest according to all the rules. A neat touch: the Great Imperial Crown was forced to be held Alexey Orlov, one of the alleged murderers of Peter III. According to the recollections of contemporaries, Count Orlov after this “went into a dark corner and burst into tears, his hands trembling.” The coronation of the deceased and at the same time revenge on his killers - Russian history has never seen anything like this. Peter III is the only Russian Tsar who truly became such after his death.
Exhumation of Peter III. Allegorical engraving by Nicholas Anselen. Source: Public Domain
4. Won Seven Years
The most controversial issue is the end of the war with Prussia. That same Seven Years' War, where the genius of the future brilliant commanders of the “golden age of Catherine” manifested itself: Petra Rumyantseva And Alexandra Suvorova. The claims are something like this: “Ours took Berlin a year earlier, and all of Prussia was in our pocket. Even Koenigsberg had been a Russian city for four years, and Russian students studied at its university. And then Peter III appeared, subservient to the Prussian order and the Prussian personally King Frederick. And he let everything go down the drain: ours pledged to withdraw their troops and give back everything they had conquered.”
In fact, it was almost the opposite. At the time of the death of Peter III, Russian troops still occupied this entire territory. Moreover, food warehouses and ammunition were replenished, and a Russian squadron was sent to Konigsberg.
In addition, according to the agreement, Frederick undertook to recapture the province of Schleswig from Denmark and transfer it to Russia. But Peter retained the right to stop the withdrawal of Russian troops “in view of the ongoing unrest in Europe.”
Both the withdrawal of troops from East Prussia and the fact that Russia never got what Frederick promised it were entirely the work of Catherine II. Or rather, the consequences of her inaction. She was so busy first with the coup and the elimination of her husband, and then with strengthening her own power, that she did not monitor compliance with the terms of the agreement.
5. The failed Russian breakthrough
Peter remained in the status of heir to the Russian throne for almost twenty years. And, speaking frankly, during this time he did not show himself to be anything other than a penchant for drunkenness, playing toy soldiers and drilling according to the Prussian model. In any case, that is what is commonly believed. As a rule, details are avoided when describing a short time period: from February 1759 to January 1762.
Meanwhile, this was, perhaps, the brightest stage in the life of the heir. He was finally admitted to the real case. Yes, with a lot of creaking and the matter seems to be small. But still. In February 1759, Peter was appointed director general of the Land Noble Corps.
Documents associated with this educational institution and signed by the heir to the throne clearly show that he was a reasonable, sober, sensible person, capable of thinking on a national scale. The fact that he is primarily concerned with the material base of the corps goes without saying. Expansion and reconstruction of the barracks-dormitory, the establishment of a corps printing house, “in order to print all the necessary books in Russian, German and French,” careful attention to food and uniforms... And, besides this, far-reaching plans. In particular, a large-scale project to create “a complete geographical and historical description of Russia, so that the young people brought up in this building not only know the geography of foreign lands that they are actually taught, but also have a clear understanding of the state of their fatherland.”
