Peter III - short biography. Death of Peter III - Historical notes

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. Good health he was no different; 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, Major von Korff (husband of Countess Maria Karlovna Skavronskaya, cousin Empress) and with him G. von Korff, the Russian envoy to the Danish court, 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; made various mathematical models in small form and on big table made complete experiments out of them. From time to time he brought ancient Russian coins and, while explaining them, told ancient Russian history, and about the medals of Peter I recent history states. 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 removal of the Holstein heir to the throne, Brümmer and Berchholz, his upbringing was entrusted to the military general Vasily Repnin, who turned a blind eye to his duties and did not interfere young man devote 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 sincere loving friend friend married couple. 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 was 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.

Heir-baby, future Russian Emperor Paul I, 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 Grand Duke for some reason I 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 attempts to get to know the country, its people and history better; he neglected Russian customs, behaved inappropriately during church service, 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 the decision 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 actions, but he developed 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 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 implement 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 extremely exposed to its last danger by the change of 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 “run the whole foreign policy 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 conquered East Prussia (which by that time had already been in power for four years). integral part 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. Through 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 there was no longer any time to delay).

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 it, 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, have revealed that Peter III suffered bipolar disorder with a mildly expressed 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. Senate in in full force 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.

June 13, 2014 at German city Kiel erected the world's first monument to Peter III. 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 “he was with the army in the Crimean steppes former third Emperor Peter Feodorovich, who was previously kept under 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. The first time it emerged was 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 some friction they were installed friendly relations 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 Stephen, the ruler of Montenegro and Peter III, in Once again“Miraculously escaped from the hands of murderers,” a certain Stepan Zanovich tried to declare himself, 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)

There are such historical events, and there are not so few of them, which, for all their apparent certainty, do not want to become completely certain. For example, the sudden death of the Russian Emperor Peter III - for more than a hundred years, all textbooks have written in black and white that the autocrat did not die a natural death, but was strangled by rebel guards, and there is even irrefutable evidence of this. But if you take a closer look, you will find that the evidence is not so irrefutable, and alternative versions there are, but at the same time the death of Peter III is still highly suspicious.

I reigned for six months - that’s enough

In fact, no Peter Fedorovich Romanov, who went down in history as Peter III, did not exist for a long time, but there was a son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna (daughter of Peter I) named Karl Peter Ulrich, born in 1728 and until a certain point and not particularly interested in the huge mysterious country of Russia. However, he happened to be the nephew of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who had no heirs, so he had to become heir, change his name and at the same time rename the dynasty of Russian tsars (according to scientific rules, since the middle of the 18th century the Romanov dynasty has been called Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov).

True, Peter III remained on the throne for almost exactly six months, from December 25, 1761 to June 28, 1762. And foreign origin had nothing to do with it - after all, there was at least some Russian blood in him, and in his wife, the future Catherine II, who overthrew him from the throne, there was not a drop of Russian blood. However, Peter III was so disdainful of everything Russian, of all Russian customs and traditions (unlike Catherine, who in every possible way emphasized love for her new homeland), and besides, he pursued a foreign policy that clearly did not correspond to Russian interests, that conspiracies to to deprive him of power appeared back in the days when he was only an heir.

The conspiracy reached its decisive stage already in 1762, when it was led by guards officers, the Orlov brothers, and the empress became the figure around whom the conspirators rallied. Therefore, when on June 28, 1762 in St. Petersburg, the guard and the Senate swore allegiance to Catherine. Peter, who was in Peterhof, did not resist for long and soon signed an abdication of the throne in favor of his wife. After this, he, accompanied by guards, was sent to Ropsha (protected primarily from the guards who demanded his execution), where he spent the last days of his life, which ended on July 17, 1762.

Looks like they killed...

Starting from the end of the 19th century (when the death of Peter III could be discussed publicly), the classic version was considered to be the one according to which the overthrown emperor was trivially strangled in Orsha by the guards officers guarding him. And even proof was presented in the form of a letter from Alexei Orlov from Orsha, addressed to Catherine II. In this letter, Orlov, on the one hand, was confused, on the other, not without a certain eloquence, he described the death of Peter III. In general terms, the picture was as follows: in prison, the former emperor became sad and began to abuse alcohol and play cards with the guards. And on the evening of July 17, during a game, he got into an argument with one of the officers. The dispute quickly turned into a brawl, at the end of which the guards discovered with amazement and horror that Pyotr Fedorovich was lying dead.

The fact that Peter III was killed by his jailers is also stated by another version, which specifies that he was strangled. It is based on the fact that during the funeral of the former emperor it was clearly visible, despite all the attempts of the funeral organizers to hide this fact, that the face of the deceased had darkened almost beyond recognition, as often happens with those who were hanged and strangled. By the way, it was from here that the rumor was born that in fact “some kind of arap” was buried, and the sovereign himself was alive and disappeared (on this basis, numerous impostors then appeared). Here also, courtier Grigory Teplov, actor Fyodor Volkov and guardsman Shvanvich were named as candidates for the “honorary title” of the killer.

...Or maybe he himself died

In this regard, for a long time, another, official version of the death of Peter III was practically not considered, according to which he died from hemorrhoidal colic, which undermined his already poor health. In addition, according to the official results of the autopsy conducted on the orders of Catherine II, it turned out that the deceased had signs of apoplexy, cardiac dysfunction and intestinal inflammation. Currently, historians are wary of these reports: despite the fact that Peter actually suffered from hemorrhoidal colic for several years, there is no reason to unconditionally trust the official medical report - there is not enough information.

However, there is a circumstance that makes us take a closer look at the version of the natural death of Peter III and, accordingly, doubt the version of his murder. The main evidence of the murder of the former emperor, a letter from Alexei Orlov with an actual confession, is apparently a fake. It is known only from a copy compiled by another person, while the original was allegedly destroyed by Paul I after ascending the throne. This is already strange - Pavel always adhered to the version of the murder of his father, and it would be strange to destroy such proof of his innocence. In addition, there are two letters from Orlov, written earlier and whose authenticity has been established: they differ both in style and in the peculiarities of linguistic construction. In these letters, which are usually not mentioned, Orlov does report that Peter was seriously ill and was unlikely to survive.

That is, if the guards and Catherine II really wanted to quickly get rid of the unnecessary deposed monarch, they just had to wait. More and more historians are inclined to believe that Peter’s violent death was disadvantageous for Catherine II: it had a negative impact on her reputation, created her “fame” as a husband-killer, and subsequently ruined her relationship with her son. In addition, Peter III was so unpopular in Russia that there was no need to fear that he could organize a conspiracy and regain power. Finally, if Catherine II had wished for the death of her husband, she could have left him in Peterhof on the day of the coup, where he was threatened by the guards regiments; there was no need to hide the former emperor in Ropsha.

Alexander Babitsky

Emperor Peter III Fedorovich was named Karl Peter Ulrich at birth, since the future Russian ruler was born in the port city of Kiel, located in the north of the modern German state. Peter III lasted six months on the Russian throne (the official years of reign are considered to be 1761-1762), after which he became the victim of a palace coup staged by his wife, who replaced her deceased husband.

It is noteworthy that in subsequent centuries the biography of Peter III was presented exclusively from a derogatory point of view, so his image among people was clearly negative. But in Lately historians find evidence that this emperor had definite services to the country, and a longer period of his reign would have brought tangible benefits to the inhabitants of the Russian Empire.

Childhood and youth

Since the boy was born into the family of Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII, and his wife Anna Petrovna, the daughter of the tsar (i.e. Peter III was the grandson of Peter I), his fate was predetermined from infancy. As soon as he was born, the child became the heir to the Swedish throne, and in addition, in theory, he could lay claim to the Russian throne, although according to the plans of his grandfather Peter I this should not have happened.

The childhood of Peter the Third was not at all royal. The boy lost his mother early, and his father, fixated on reconquering the lost Prussian lands, raised his son like a soldier. Already at the age of 10, little Karl Peter was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, and a year later the boy was orphaned.

After the death of Karl Friedrich, his son went to the house of Bishop Adolf of Eitin, his cousin, where the boy became an object of humiliation, cruel jokes and where flogging was regularly carried out. Nobody cared about the Crown Prince's education, and by the age of 13 he could barely read. Karl Peter had poor health, he was a frail and fearful teenager, but at the same time kind and simple-minded. He loved music and painting, although because of the memories of his father, he also adored the “military”.

However, it is known that until his death, Emperor Peter III was afraid of the sound of cannon shots and gun salvos. Chroniclers also noted the young man’s strange predilection for fantasies and inventions, which often turned into outright lies. There is also a version that still in adolescence Karl Peter became addicted to alcohol.

The life of the future Emperor of All Russia changed when he was 14 years old. His aunt ascended the Russian throne and decided to assign the monarchy to the descendants of her father. Since Karl Peter was the only direct heir of Peter the Great, he was summoned to St. Petersburg, where young Peter The third, who already bore the title of Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, accepted Orthodox religion and received the Slavic name Prince Peter Fedorovich.

At the first meeting with her nephew, Elizabeth was amazed at his ignorance and assigned a tutor to the royal heir. The teacher noted excellent mental capacity ward, which debunks one of the myths about Peter III as a “feeble-minded martinet” and “mentally defective.”

Although there is evidence that the emperor behaved extremely strangely in public. Especially in temples. For example, during the service, Peter laughed and talked loudly. Yes and with foreign ministers behaved familiarly. Perhaps this behavior gave rise to the rumor about his “inferiority.”

Also in his youth, he suffered from a severe form of smallpox, which could have caused developmental disabilities. At the same time, Pyotr Fedorovich understood the exact sciences, geography and fortification, and spoke German, French and Latin. But I practically didn’t know Russian. But he didn’t try to master it either.

By the way, black smallpox greatly disfigured the face of Peter the Third. But not a single portrait shows this defect in appearance. And no one thought about the art of photography then - the world’s first photo appeared only more than 60 years later. So only his portraits, painted from life, but “embellished” by artists, reached his contemporaries.

Governing body

After the death of Elizabeth Petrovna on December 25, 1761, Pyotr Fedorovich ascended the throne. But he was not crowned; it was planned to do this after the military campaign against Denmark. As a result, Peter III was crowned posthumously in 1796.

He spent 186 days on the throne. During this time, Peter the Third signed 192 laws and decrees. And that's not even counting the award nominations. So, despite the myths and rumors surrounding his personality and activities, even in such a short period he managed to prove himself both externally and internally. domestic policy countries.

The most important document of the reign of Pyotr Fedorovich is the “Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility.” This legislation exempted nobles from the mandatory 25-year service and even allowed them to travel abroad.

Among other affairs of the emperor, it is worth noting a number of reforms on the transformation state system. He, being on the throne for only six months, managed to abolish the Secret Chancellery, introduce freedom of religion, abolish church supervision over the personal lives of his subjects, and prohibit giving away gifts to private property. state lands and most importantly - to make the court of the Russian Empire open. He also declared the forest a national treasure, established the State Bank and put the first banknotes into circulation. But after the death of Pyotr Fedorovich, all these innovations were destroyed.

Thus, Emperor Peter III had intentions to make the Russian Empire freer, less totalitarian and more enlightened.

Despite this, most historians believe short period and the results of his reign are among the worst for Russia. The main reason This is his actual annulment of the results of the Seven Years' War. Peter had a bad relationship with military officers since he ended the war with Prussia and withdrew Russian troops from Berlin. Some regarded these actions as betrayal, but in fact the victories of the guards in this war brought glory either to them personally or to Austria and France, whose side the army supported. But for the Russian Empire there was no benefit from this war.

He also decided to introduce Prussian rules into the Russian army - the guardsmen had new form, and the punishments were now also in the Prussian style - the stick system. Such changes did not add to his authority, but, on the contrary, gave rise to discontent and uncertainty about the future both in the army and in court circles.

Personal life

When the future ruler was barely 17 years old, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna hastened to marry him. The German princess Sophia Frederica Augusta was chosen as his wife, whom the whole world knows today under the name Catherine the Second. The heir's wedding was celebrated on an unprecedented scale. As a gift, Peter and Catherine were given the possession of the count's palaces - Oranienbaum near St. Petersburg and Lyubertsy near Moscow.

It is worth noting that Peter III and Catherine II could not stand each other and were considered a married couple only legally. Even when his wife gave Peter the heir Paul I, and then his daughter Anna, he joked that he did not understand “where she gets these children from.”

The infant heir, the future Russian Emperor Paul I, was taken from his parents after birth, and Empress Elizaveta Petrovna herself immediately took up his upbringing. However, this did not upset Pyotr Fedorovich at all. He was never particularly interested in his son. He saw the boy once a week, with the permission of the empress. Daughter Anna Petrovna died in infancy.

The difficult relationship between Peter the Third and Catherine the Second is evidenced by the fact that the ruler repeatedly quarreled publicly with his wife and even threatened to divorce her. Once, after his wife did not support the toast he made at a feast, Peter III ordered the arrest of the woman. Catherine was saved from prison only by the intervention of Peter's uncle, Georg of Holstein-Gottorp. But with all the aggression, anger and, most likely, burning jealousy towards his wife, Pyotr Fedorovich felt respect for her intelligence. In difficult situations, often economic and financial, Catherine’s husband often turned to her for help. There is evidence that Peter III called Catherine II “Lady Help.”

It is noteworthy that the lack of intimate relationships with Catherine did not affect the personal life of Peter III. Pyotr Fedorovich had mistresses, the main one of whom was the daughter of General Roman Vorontsov. Two of his daughters were presented to the court: Catherine, who would become a friend of the imperial wife, and later Princess Dashkova, and Elizabeth. So she was destined to become the beloved woman and favorite of Peter III. For her sake, he was even ready to dissolve the marriage, but this was not destined to happen.

Death

Pyotr Fedorovich remained on the royal throne for a little longer than six months. By the summer of 1762, his wife Catherine the Second inspired her henchman to organize a palace coup, which took place at the end of June. Peter, struck by the betrayal of his entourage, renounced the Russian throne, which he initially did not value or desire, and intended to return to home country. However, by order of Catherine, the deposed emperor was arrested and placed in a palace in Ropsha near St. Petersburg.

And on July 17, 1762, a week after that, Peter III died. The official cause of death was “an attack of hemorrhoidal colic”, aggravated by the abuse of alcoholic beverages. However, the main version of the death of the emperor is considered to be violent death at the hands of his older brother, Catherine’s main favorite at that time. It is believed that Orlov strangled the prisoner, although neither a later medical examination of the corpse nor historical facts this is not confirmed. This version is based on the “repentant letter” of Alexei, which has been preserved in a copy to our time, and modern scientists are sure that this paper is a fake, made by Fyodor Rostopchin, the right hand of Paul the First.

After the death of the former emperor, a misconception arose about the personality and biography of Peter III, since all conclusions were made on the basis of the memoirs of his wife Catherine II, an active participant in the conspiracy, Princess Dashkova, one of the main ideologists of the conspiracy, Count Nikita Panin, and his brother, Count Peter Panin . That is, based on the opinion of those people who betrayed Pyotr Fedorovich.

It was precisely “thanks to” the notes of Catherine II that the image of Peter III emerged as a drunkard husband who hanged a rat. Allegedly, the woman entered the emperor’s office and was amazed by what she saw. There was a rat hanging above his desk. Her husband replied that she had committed a criminal offense and was subjected to severe punishment under military law. According to him, she was executed and will hang in front of the public for 3 days. This “story” was repeated by both, and, when describing Peter the Third.

Whether this actually happened, or whether in this way Catherine II created her own positive image against his “unsightly” background, is now impossible to know.

Rumors of death have given rise to a considerable number of impostors calling themselves the “surviving king.” Similar phenomena have happened before; it is worth recalling at least the numerous False Dmitrievs. But in terms of the number of people posing as the emperor, Pyotr Fedorovich has no competitors. At least 40 people turned out to be “False Peters III”, including Stepan Maly.

Memory

• 1934 – feature film “The Loose Empress” (in the role of Peter III – Sam Jaffe)
• 1963 – feature film “Katerina from Russia” (in the role of Peter III – Raoul Grassili)
• 1987 – book “The Legend of the Russian Prince” – Mylnikov A.S.
• 1991 – feature film “Vivat, midshipmen!” (as Peter III – )
• 1991 – book “Temptation by Miracle. “Russian Prince” and impostors” - Mylnikov A.S.
• 2007 – book “Catherine II and Peter III: the history of the tragic conflict” – Ivanov O. A.
• 2012 – book “Heirs of the Giant” – Eliseeva O.I.
• 2014 – TV series “Catherine” (in the role of Peter III –)
• 2014 – monument to Peter III in the German city of Kiel (sculptor Alexander Taratynov)
• 2015 – TV series “Great” (in the role of Peter III –)
• 2018 – TV series “Bloody Lady” (in the role of Peter III –)

Peter III Fedorovich, Emperor of All Russia (1761 - 1762), son of the daughter of Peter I Anna and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich.

He was born on February 10, 1728 in Holstein and received the name Karl Peter Ulrich at birth. The death of the mother that followed 7 days later and messy life father's upbringing was reflected in the prince's upbringing, which was extremely stupid and absurd. 1739 he was left an orphan. Peter's teacher was a rude, soldier-like man, von Brumer, who could not give anything good to his pupil. Peter was intended to be the heir to the Swedish throne, as the great-nephew of Charles XII. He was taught the Lutheran catechism, and was instilled with hatred of Muscovy, the original enemy of Sweden. But Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, immediately after her accession to the throne, began to take care of her successor, which was necessary to strengthen the throne for herself due to the existence of the Brunswick family (Anna Leopoldovna and Ivan Antonovich). Peter was brought from his homeland to St. Petersburg at the beginning of January 1742. Here, in addition to the Holsteiners Brumaire and Berchholz, Academician Shtelin was assigned to him, who, despite all his labors and efforts, could not correct the prince and bring his upbringing to the proper level.

Peter III. Portrait by Pfanzelt, 1762

In November 1742, the prince converted to Orthodoxy and was named Peter Fedorovich, and in 1744 he was matched with Princess Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, later Catherine II. In the same year, during a trip with the empress to Kyiv, Peter fell ill with smallpox, which distorted his entire face with mountain ash. His marriage to Catherine took place on August 21, 1745. The life of the young couple in terms of the mutual relations of the spouses was most unsuccessful; At Elizabeth's court, their situation was quite difficult. In 1754, Catherine gave birth to a son, Pavel, who was separated from his parents and taken into care by the empress. In 1756, Catherine gave birth to another daughter, Anna, who died in 1759. At this time, Peter, who did not love his wife, became close to the maid of honor, Count. Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova. At the end of her life, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was very afraid for the future that lay ahead during the reign of her heir, but she died without making any new orders and without officially expressing her last will.

Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (future Peter III) and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (future Catherine II)

Peter III marked the beginning of his reign with a number of favors and preferential government orders. Minich, Biron, and Lestok, Lilienfelds, Natalya Lopukhina and others, a decree was given to abolish the oppressive salt duty, granted certificate of liberty of the nobility, the secret office and the terrible “word and deed” were destroyed, schismatics who fled persecution under the Empresses Elizabeth and Anna Ioannovna were returned, and now received complete freedom of faith. But the reason for taking these measures was not Peter III’s actual concern for his subjects, but his desire to initially gain popularity. They were carried out inconsistently and did not bring popular love to the new emperor. The military and clergy began to be especially hostile towards him. In the army, Peter III aroused displeasure with his passion for the Holsteins and Prussian order, the destruction of the noble guard, influential in St. Petersburg, the change of Peter's uniforms to Prussian ones, and the naming of regiments after the names of their chiefs, and not as before - according to the provinces. The clergy was dissatisfied with the attitude of Peter III towards schismatics, the emperor’s disrespect for the Orthodox clergy and icon veneration (there were rumors that he was going to change all Russian priests from cassocks into civilian dress - according to the Protestant model), and, most importantly, with the decrees on the management of bishops’ and monastic estates, turning the Orthodox clergy into salaried officials.

Added to this was general dissatisfaction with the foreign policy of the new emperor. Peter III was a passionate admirer of Frederick II and completely submitted to the influence of the Prussian ambassador in St. Petersburg, Baron Goltz. Peter not only stopped Russian participation in the Seven Years' War, which constrained the Prussians to the extreme, but concluded a peace treaty with them to the detriment of all Russian interests. The Emperor gave Prussia all the Russian conquests (i.e., its eastern provinces) and concluded an alliance with it, according to which the Russians and Prussians were to provide assistance in the event of an attack on either of them in the amount of 12 thousand infantry and 4 thousand cavalry. They say that the terms of this peace treaty, with the consent of Peter III, were personally dictated by Frederick the Great. By secret articles of the treaty, the Prussian king pledged to help Peter acquire the Duchy of Schleswig from Denmark in favor of Holstein, to assist Prince George of Holstein in occupying the Ducal throne of Courland and to guarantee the then constitution of Poland. Frederick promised that after the death of the reigning Polish king, Prussia would contribute to the appointment of a successor pleasing to Russia. Last point was the only one that gave some benefit not to Holstein, but to Russia itself. The Russian army, stationed in Prussia under the command of Chernyshev, was ordered to oppose the Austrians, who had previously been allies of Russia in the Seven Years' War.

The troops and Russian society were terribly outraged by all this. The Russians' hatred of the Germans and the new order intensified thanks to the cruelty and tactlessness of the Emperor's uncle Georg Holstein, who arrived in Russia and was promoted to field marshal. Peter III began to prepare for a war for Holstein interests with Denmark. Denmark responded by entering Mecklenburg and occupying the area around Wismar. In June 1762, orders were given to the guards to prepare to go to war. The Emperor wanted to open the campaign after his name day on the 29th, this time not listening to the advice of Frederick II: to be crowned before the start of the war.

Emperor Peter III. Portrait by Antropov, 1762

Meanwhile, Peter III's relationship with his wife Catherine became increasingly strained. The tsar was not a deeply vicious person, as his wife later wrote about him, but he barely maintained an officially correct relationship with her, interrupting them often with rude antics. There were even rumors that Catherine was threatened with arrest. On June 28, 1762, Peter III was in Oranienbaum, and a conspiracy had already been prepared against him among the troops, to which some prominent nobles also joined. The accidental arrest of one of its participants, Passek, precipitated the 28 June coup. On the morning of this day, Catherine went to St. Petersburg and declared herself empress, and her son, Paul, heir. On the evening of the 28th, at the head of the guard, she moved to Oranienbaum. Confused, Peter went to Kronstadt, which was occupied by supporters of the Empress, and was not allowed there. Not heeding Minich’s advice to retire to Revel, and then to Pomerania to join the troops, the emperor returned to Oranienbaum and signed his abdication.

On the same day, June 29, Peter III was brought to Peterhof, arrested and sent to Ropsha, his chosen place of residence, until decent apartments were prepared for him in the Shlisselburg fortress. Catherine left with Peter her lover Alexei Orlov, Prince Baryatinsky and three guards officers with a hundred soldiers. On July 6, 1762, the emperor died suddenly. The cause of the death of Peter III in the manifesto published on this occasion was clearly mockingly called “hemorrhoidal sockets and severe colic.” At the burial of Peter III, held in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Catherine was not at the request of the Senate, caused by the proposal of Count N. Panin, to postpone her intention to attend for the sake of health

Literature about Peter III

M. I. Semevsky, “Six months from Russian history of the 18th century.” (“Otech. Zap.”, 1867)

V. Timiryazev, “The six-month reign of Peter III” (“Historical Bulletin, 1903, Nos. 3 and 4)

V. Bilbasov, “The History of Catherine II”

"Notes of Empress Catherine"

Shchebalsky, " Politic system Peter III"

Brickner, “The Life of Peter III before Accession to the Throne” (“Russian Bulletin”, 1883).

Versions about the murder

Orlov

For a long time, the widespread version of the violent death of Peter III names Alexei Orlov as the murderer. Three letters from Alexei Orlov to Catherine of Ropsha are usually mentioned, but only the first two exist in the originals.

From the letters it only follows that the abdicated sovereign suddenly fell ill; The guards did not need to forcibly take his life (even if they really wanted to) due to the transience of the serious illness.

The third letter clearly states the violent nature of the death of Peter III:

The third letter is the only (known to date) documentary evidence of the murder of the deposed emperor. 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 disprove the authenticity of the document (the original, apparently, never existed, and the real author of the fake is Rostopchin).

The story of Alexei's letters is very mysterious. Despite the fact that in popular opinion he is forever branded as a murderer; from the point of view of historical fact, this version seems very doubtful. Numerous descriptions of the reburial of Peter and his posthumous coronation carried out by Paul mention that Alexey Orlov carried the crown on a pillow on December 3, 1796 at the head of the procession transporting the emperor’s ashes to the Winter Palace for farewell. And he cried with fear. Obviously, this is how Pavel tried to publicly punish Orlov. But for what exactly - murder? But if Pavel knew for sure that Alexey was a murderer, then why didn’t he arrest him and try him as an officer? Maybe Pavel punished Alexei only for participating in the coup? Then everything starts to fall into place.

Teplov, Volkov and Shvanvich

1. Hat of Emperor Peter III. 1760s. State Historical Museum 2. Uniform of chief officer of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment. Russia, 1756-62. Cloth, gold braid, silk. Belonged to Lieutenant A.F. Talyzin. In it, Catherine II led the guard's march to Peterhof on the day of the coup, June 28, 1762.

Rumors also called the killer of Peter the guards officer A. M. Shvanvich (son of Martin Shvanvits; A. M. Shvanvich’s son, Mikhail, went over to the side of the Pugachevites and became the prototype of Shvabrin in Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter”), who allegedly strangled him with a gun belt.

The German historian E. Palmer believes that no matter how dashing the guards were, it was still not easy for them, Russian soldiers, to raise their hands against the emperor to whom they swore allegiance. Arresting and executing openly is one thing. Adding poison or strangling is completely different. This would be against their code of honor. It is also very possible that Alexei himself experienced certain moral difficulties: although his comrade-in-arms in the coup Dashkova later called him a “non-human,” he was still a Russian officer. Obviously, Grigory Orlov, who himself knew the guards code of honor firsthand, understood that there was unlikely to be a volunteer among his guards. It was serious problem. This is how the idea arose to involve two civilians, Grigory Teplov and Fyodor Volkov, in this essentially military action. Who were they, how did they become participants in the events, and what role were they assigned to play? The assumption that it was Teplov who was tasked with physically destroying the emperor was expressed by both researchers and contemporaries of the events more than once.

Teplov Grigory Nikolaevich, went down in history as a statesman, composer, full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Russia. However, his main field was secretarial work at court, as he had a brilliant command of the pen and the word. Thanks to this skill, he earned the sympathy and patronage of the illiterate favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna Alexei Razumovsky. He drafted decrees and letters to the empress, in fact he was her secretary. Taking advantage of his closeness to the ruling couple, he carried out dirty deals, intrigued, stole, and became famous for his immorality. “Recognized by everyone as the most insidious deceiver of the entire state, however, he is very clever, insinuating, selfish, flexible, and allows himself to be used for all things because of money,” - this is how the Austrian Ambassador to Russia, Count Mercy d'Argento (A. von Arneth and J. Flammermont. Correspondance secrete de Mercy avec Joseph II et Kaunitz. Paris 1889-1891). In 1757, Teplov, who considered himself a great musician, turned to Peter with a request to allow him to participate in opera productions in Oranienbaum. Peter did not allow it, since the professional level of musicians and actors in the Oranienbaum Theater was extremely high, and the amateur Teplov had nothing to do there. Teplov was extremely offended and was rude to the Grand Duke, for which he was even subjected to a 3-day arrest.

Fyodor Grigorievich Volkov, an actor and director, received the same refusal for creative reasons. Arriving in Moscow in 1752 with his theater from Yaroslavl, Empress Elizabeth liked him and received an invitation to stay and work as a director of the court theater troupe. The Oranienbaum opera was extremely popular during these years, and Volkov was very vain. Perhaps he perceived the Grand Duke as his direct competitor on stage, or perhaps he simply wanted to take control of the Oranienbaum Theater. The fact is that Pyotr Volkov did not allow him near his theater and Volkov could not forgive him for this. He openly denigrated Peter's productions and Peter himself. The entire court knew about Volkov's hatred of the Grand Duke.

The inclusion of the actor Volkov from the very beginning in the Ropshin Guards group can only be explained if we assume that it was he who was given the task of killing the deposed emperor. The situation in Ropsha gradually escalated. One of the guards warned Peter that an order had been received to poison him, and he began to go out to get water in the garden, where there was a stream. On July 3, the court surgeon Paulsen arrives in Ropsha, with various surgical instruments, including a saw for opening corpses - Peter could not help but notice this. With the same carriage, on July 3, Petrovsky's footman Maslov was sent from Ropsha back to St. Petersburg - this is how they got rid of the witness. And yet the soldiers hesitate. The moral atmosphere is clearly not heroic. The whole operation is on the verge of collapse. And then Grigory Orlov sends Teplov to Ropsha, a man who, as mentioned above, knew how to speak well, and whose concepts of morality and honor were not particularly strict. It is unlikely that Teplov was tasked with strangling the emperor. He was an extremely gentle man, with a fragile, feminine build. Not to kill, but to persuade him to kill - that was his task. And, apparently, he coped with this delicate job. Considering all these factors, the assumption that actor Fyodor Volkov was Peter’s direct killer seems quite legitimate. The German historian E. Palmer, who first substantiated this version, writes: “The participation of the actor Volkov in the tragedy of Peter gives the whole drama Shakespearean depth.”

Emperor Paul I was convinced that his father was forcibly deprived of his life, but apparently he was unable to find any evidence of this.

Version about natural death

According to the official and unlikely version), the cause of death was an attack of hemorrhoidal colic, worsened by prolonged alcohol consumption and accompanied by diarrhea. During the autopsy (which was carried out on the orders and under the control of Catherine), it was discovered that Peter III had severe cardiac dysfunction, inflammation of the intestines, and there were signs of apoplexy.

Already today, a number of medical examinations have been carried out on the basis of surviving documents and evidence. For example, there is an assumption that Peter III suffered from manic-depressive psychosis in a weak stage (cyclothymia) with a mild depressive phase. Considering that this “diagnosis” is based on secondary sources, such as the Memoirs of Catherine the Second, and historical books copied from them, it is hardly possible to take it seriously. It is difficult to say how reliable the results of the autopsy carried out on Catherine’s orders are, which diagnosed hemorrhoids as a possible cause of death, or a “small heart,” which usually implies dysfunction of other organs, making circulatory disorders more likely, that is, creating the danger of a heart attack or stroke. The only primary and therefore reliable source of information about the state of health of Peter, as well as the rest of the members of the imperial family, that has come down to us are the original records of the court physicians Condoidi and Sanchez, stored in the state archive in Moscow. According to these records, Peter suffered from smallpox and pleurisy. No other ailments are mentioned.

Thus, it is almost impossible to accept the version of Peter’s natural death on faith. Firstly, Peter never had medical problems of this nature. Secondly, the emperor did not drink alcohol. Peter and alcohol are Catherine’s invention. Not a single other person from his immediate circle mentions his addiction to alcohol. Thirdly, as history teaches us, overthrown and arrested rulers do not die a natural death. It would be too convenient for those who overthrew them. So even if we assume that Peter really died from colic, then the most likely cause can only be poison. The fact that the plan to poison the prisoner certainly existed and was even discussed with the court doctors is mentioned by the same Mercy d’Argento (see above), a very punctual and reliable witness. However, the generally accepted version among the people says that Peter was strangled. Those who came to say goodbye to him noticed the blueness of his face - a sign of strangulation.