Peter III, born Karl Peter Ulrich, was born on February 21, 1728 in Kiel, in the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. The only son of Anna Petrovna and Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the boy was also the grandson of two emperors, Peter the Great and Charles XII of Sweden. Karl's parents died when the boy was still a child, leaving him in the care of educators and the nobility of the Holstein court, who prepared him for the Swedish throne. Karl grew up among the cruelty of his mentors, who severely punished him for poor academic performance: the boy, showing an interest in art, lagged behind in almost all academic sciences. He loved military parades and dreamed of becoming a world famous warrior. When the boy was 14 years old, his aunt Catherine, who became the empress, transports him to Russia and, giving him the name Pyotr Fedorovich, declares him the heir to the throne. Peter did not like living in Russia, and he often complained that the Russian people would never accept him.

Reckless marriage

August 21, 1745 Peter marries Sophia Frederick Augusta, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst in Saxony, who takes the name Catherine. But the marriage, arranged by Peter's aunt for political purposes, becomes a disaster from the very beginning. Catherine turned out to be a girl of amazing intelligence, while Peter was just a child in a male body. They had two children: a son, the future Emperor Paul I, and a daughter who did not live to be 2 years old. Later, Catherine will state that Paul is not Peter's son, and that she and her husband never entered into a marital relationship. For 16 years of marriage, both Catherine and Pavel had numerous lovers and mistresses.

It is believed that Empress Elizabeth fenced off Peter from public affairs, probably suspecting the paucity of his mental abilities. He hated life in Russia. He remained loyal to his homeland and Prussia. He did not have the slightest concern for the Russian people, and the Orthodox Church was disgusting. Nevertheless, after the death of Elizabeth, on December 25, 1961, Peter ascends the throne of the Russian Empire. Most of what we know about Peter III comes from the memoirs of his wife, who described her husband as an idiot and drunkard, prone to cruel jokes, with the only love in life - to play a soldier.

Controversial politics

Once on the throne, Peter III radically changes the foreign policy of his aunt, withdrawing Russia from the Seven Years' War and entering into an alliance with her enemy, Prussia. He declares war on Denmark and wins back the lands of his native Holstein. Such actions were regarded as a betrayal of the memory of those who died for the Motherland, and were the cause of the alienation that arose between the emperor and the military and powerful palace cliques. But while conventional history sees such actions as betraying the country's interests, recent scholarship has suggested that this was only part of a highly pragmatic plan to expand Russia's influence westward.

Peter III carries out a number of internal reforms, which, from the point of view of today, can be called democratic: he declares freedom of religion, dissolves the secret police and imposes punishment for the murder of serfs by landowners. It was he who opens the first state bank in Russia and encourages the merchants, increasing the export of grain and imposing an embargo on the import of goods that can be replaced by domestic ones.

A lot of controversy arises around his abdication. It is traditionally believed that with his reforms he causes dissatisfaction with the Orthodox Church and a good half of the nobility, and that, since his politics, as well as his personality, were seen as alien and unpredictable, representatives of the church and noble cliques go to Catherine for help and collude with her. against the emperor. But recent studies of history expose Catherine as the mastermind behind the conspiracy, who dreamed of getting rid of her husband, fearing that he might divorce her. On June 28, 1762, Peter III was arrested and forced to abdicate by force. He is transported to the town of Ropsha near St. Petersburg, where he is allegedly killed on July 17 of the same year, although the fact of the murder has never been proven and there is evidence that the former emperor could have committed suicide.

Portrait of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov

• Years of life: February 21 (10), 1728 - July 17 (6), 1762
• Years of government: January 5 (December 25, 1761) 1762 - July 9 (June 28), 1762
• Father and mother: Karl Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna.
• Spouse: .
• Children: Pavel (Paul I), Anna.

The future emperor Peter III Fedorovich (Karl Peter Ulrich at birth) was born on February 21 (10 according to the old calendar) in February 1728 in the city of Kiel in Holstein (on the territory of present-day Germany). Karl's mother was Anna Petrovna (daughter), and his father was the nephew of the King of Sweden Charles XII - Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich.

Childhood of Peter III Fedorovich

A month after the birth of the boy, his mother caught a cold and died. Even as a child, the prince was given the rank of non-commissioned officer, from a young age he was taught to march and hold a gun. Officers who had previously served in the Prussian army served at the court, so the boy grew up in an environment where service and military affairs were often discussed. At the age of 9, he was promoted to second lieutenant, which he was incredibly happy and very proud of.

When Karl was 11 years old, his father died, and the prince was taken in by his paternal cousin, Bishop Adolf of Eitinsky, who later became King of Sweden. The upbringing of the prince was carried out by the nobles F. V. Berkhholz and O. F. Brummer. They were not too involved in the education of Karl, in addition, they often punished him: they put him in a corner, flogged and applied other cruel and humiliating punishments. As a result, at the age of 13, he spoke only a little French. The prince grew up as a restless, even nervous child, he was fond of painting and music, and still loved military affairs.

Peter III Fedorovich in Russia

In 1741, Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden died, and Adolf Eitinsky received the throne. In fact, Charles could claim the Swedish throne. But in the same year she became empress in Russia, she had no children, so the very next year at her coronation she announced her elder sister's son, Karl Peter Ulrich, as her heir.

The Empress sent Major von Korff to Kiel to bring the Duke to Russia. February 5, 1742 Karl arrived in St. Petersburg. Elizabeth, seeing her successor for the first time, was struck by his thinness, not too healthy appearance and low level of education. She appointed Academician Jakob Stehlin as his tutor. Shtelin believed that his student had the ability, but laziness interfered with him. He tried in every possible way to interest Karl, but he was reluctant to study. The prince did not even learn to calmly express himself in Russian and did not master Russian traditions. He also had Brummer and Berchholtz with him, who, as usual, were not particularly involved in his training.

In November 1742, Karl was baptized according to the Orthodox custom, after which he was called Peter Fedorovich.

In 1745, Peter III married Princess Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, who later became Catherine II. Shtelin, Berchholz and Brummer stopped teaching Peter, I.P. Veselovsky began to teach him the Russian language, the military general Vasily Repnin was also assigned to him, and Simon Todorsky became a mentor in Orthodox matters for him and his wife. But Peter was not lucky with the teacher, Repnin did not fulfill his duties, so Elizaveta Petrovna removed him from his post and appointed the Choglokovs in his place.

From the very beginning of the marriage, relations between Peter and Catherine did not develop. She actively studied Russian traditions, the Russian language, studied various sciences in every possible way, while Peter was only interested in military affairs. There was no marital relationship between them until the 1750s, but on October 1 (September 20), 1754, Catherine gave birth to her husband's son Paul who later became the Russian Emperor. After his birth, Elizaveta Petrovna immediately took Pavel away to raise him herself. She allowed her parents to occasionally visit the child.

After the relationship between the spouses began to deteriorate even more, Peter had a favorite - Elizaveta Vorontsova, Catherine also had novels. At the same time, on important economic and economic issues, Peter turned to his wife for advice, which caused dissatisfaction with Elizabeth.

On December 9, 1757, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Anna. At first, Peter doubted that the child was his, but in the end he recognized the girl as his daughter. Anna lived only a couple of years, after which she died of smallpox.

The Empress did not allow her successor to participate in government, but he was entrusted with being the director of the gentry corps. Peter III opposed the actions of the authorities and even during the time he took the side of Frederick II, the King of Prussia.

In the mid 1750s. Peter was allowed to discharge the garrison of Holstein soldiers, whose number by 1758 had reached 1.5 thousand. All the time, Peter, together with Brockdorf, was engaged in training the military.

The reign of Peter III

January 5, 1762 (December 25, 1761) Elizabeth Petrovna died, and Peter III became emperor. His reign did not last long, only 186 days, and there was no coronation. When Peter became emperor, he returned to the court many nobles who were in exile, significantly increased the privileges of the nobility. In addition, under Peter, the Secret Chancellery was liquidated.

In the same period, serfdom intensified, now the landlords could move their serfs from one county to another, a huge number of state peasants became serfs, all this led to periodic riots. Peter III began the secularization of church lands, which caused strong discontent among the clergy. In the army, he began to introduce orders, as in the Prussian military units, which, of course, was not to the liking of the guard.

Foreign policy also caused discontent, first of all, Peter III stopped the war with Prussia and returned the conquered lands to her. This decision nullified all the costs and sacrifices of the Russian army and the entire people, in addition, such an action prevented the defeat of Prussia. Thus, for Russia, the Seven Years' War ended in nothing. Peter III also started a war with his former ally - Denmark.

Such actions led to plots being planned against the emperor.

Conspiracies against Peter III

Talk that Peter should not govern the country arose during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin planned a conspiracy, but in 1758 his plan was discovered.

Shortly before the death of Elizabeth, another conspiracy was formed, the instigators were: N.I. Panin, M.N. Volkonsky, K.P. Razumovsky, the Orlov brothers, and with them the officers of the Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky regiments. But when Elizabeth died, it became obvious that a coup should not be carried out, since at that time Catherine II was pregnant by Grigory Orlov, in addition, the position of the emperor’s wife was not strong enough, so she wanted to wait until Peter’s popularity became even less, and the number her allies will increase.

Relations between the spouses deteriorated greatly, Peter III spoke openly about the possibility of a divorce, later he even planned to arrest her, but his uncle, Field Marshal Georg of Holstein-Gottorp intervened in the matter.

After these events, Peter was periodically informed about possible conspiracies, but he paid no attention to this. On June 28, 1762, the emperor went to Peterhof for a gala dinner, where, as he thought, his wife would meet him. At this time, Catherine left for St. Petersburg, where the Senate, the Synod, the guards and the people swore allegiance to her.

After the guards moved towards Peterhof, Peter went to Kronstadt, who had already sworn allegiance to his wife.

As a result, Peter III decided to return to Oranienbaum, where he abdicated the Russian throne.

Peter III: death

After the coup, Peter was sent to Ropsha, accompanied by guards, led by A. G. Orlov. But already on July 17, 1762, he died. The true cause of death is currently unknown, but there are different points of view. There is an opinion that health problems led to a lethal outcome.

There is another point of view: the cause of death was the murder of Peter III by his own guards, when he was plotting against Catherine.

He was buried on July 21, 1762 in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, because. Peter was not crowned, he could not be buried where other emperors were. But when Paul I became head of state, he ordered the remains of his father to be transferred to the church at the Winter Palace, and then to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and he himself crowned the ashes of Peter III.

After the death of Peter, many impostors appeared, they tried to overthrow Catherine, introducing themselves to them. Greater success was achieved by Emelyan Pugachev, who in 1773 became the leader Peasants' War which, however, ultimately ended in defeat.

Years of life : February 21 1 728 - June 28, 1762.

(Peter-Ulrich) Emperor of All Russia, son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl-Friedrich, son of the sister of Charles XII of Sweden, and Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great (born in 1728); he is thus the grandson of two rival sovereigns and could, under certain conditions, be a contender for both the Russian and the Swedish throne. In 1741, after the death of Eleonora Ulrika, he was elected the successor of her husband Frederick, who received the Swedish throne, and on November 15, 1742, he was declared by his aunt Elizaveta Petrovna heir to the Russian throne.

Weak physically and morally, Pyotr Fedorovich was brought up by Marshal Brummer, who was more of a soldier than a teacher. The barracks order of life, established by the latter for his pupil, in connection with severe and humiliating punishments, could not but weaken the health of Pyotr Fedorovich and interfered with the development in him of moral concepts and a sense of human dignity. The young prince was taught a lot, but so clumsily that he got a complete aversion to the sciences: Latin, for example, he got tired of so much that later in St. Petersburg he forbade placing Latin books in his library. They taught him, moreover, preparing him mainly for the occupation of the Swedish throne and, therefore, brought him up in the spirit of the Lutheran religion and Swedish patriotism - and the latter, at that time, was expressed, by the way, in hatred of Russia.

In 1742, after the appointment of Peter Fedorovich as heir to the Russian throne, they began to teach him again, but in a Russian and Orthodox way. However, frequent illnesses and marriage to the princess of Anhalt-Zerbst (the future Catherine II) prevented the systematic conduct of education. Pyotr Fedorovich was not interested in Russia and superstitiously thought that he would find his death here; Academician Shtelin, his new tutor, despite all efforts, could not inspire him with love for his new fatherland, where he always felt like a stranger. Military affairs - the only thing that interested him - was for him not so much a subject of study as fun, and his reverence for Frederick II turned into a desire to imitate him in small things. The heir to the throne, already an adult, preferred fun to business, which every day became more and more strange and unpleasantly amazed everyone around him.

"Peter showed all the signs of a stopped spiritual development," says S.M. Solovyov; "He was a grown child." The empress was struck by the underdevelopment of the heir to the throne. The question of the fate of the Russian throne seriously occupied Elizabeth and her courtiers, and they came up with various combinations. Some wanted the Empress, bypassing her nephew, to transfer the throne to his son Pavel Petrovich, and to appoint Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna, the wife of Pyotr Fedorovich, as regent until he came of age. That was the opinion of Bestuzhev, Nick. Iv. Panina, Iv. Iv. Shuvalov. Others stood for the proclamation of Catherine the heir to the throne. Elizabeth died without having time to decide on anything, and on December 25, 1761, Peter Fedorovich ascended the throne under the name of Emperor Peter III. He began his work by decrees, which, under other conditions, could have won him popular favor. Such is the decree of February 18, 1762, on the freedom of the nobility, which removed compulsory service from the nobility and was, as it were, the direct predecessor of Catherine's letter of commendation to the nobility of 1785. This decree could make the new government popular among the nobility; another decree on the destruction of the secret office that was in charge of political crimes, it would seem, should have contributed to its popularity among the masses.

It happened, however, differently. Remaining a Lutheran in his soul, Peter III treated the clergy with disdain, closed home churches, addressed insulting decrees to the Synod; by this he aroused the people against him. Surrounded by the Holsteiners, he began to remake the Russian army in the Prussian way and thus armed the guard against him, which at that time was almost exclusively noble in composition. Prompted by his Prussian sympathies, Peter III, immediately after his accession to the throne, refused to participate in the Seven Years' War and, at the same time, from all Russian conquests in Prussia, and at the end of his reign he began a war with Denmark because of Schleswig, which he wanted to acquire for Holstein . This aroused the people against him, who remained indifferent when the nobility, in the person of the guard, openly rebelled against Peter III and proclaimed Empress Catherine II (June 28, 1762). Peter was removed to Ropsha, where he died on July 7.

Russian Biographical Dictionary / www.rulex.ru / Cf. Brikner "History of Catherine the Great", "Notes of Empress Catherine II" (L., 1888); "Memoirs of the princesse Daschcow" (L., 1810); "Shtelin's Notes" ("Reading the Society of Russian History and Antiquities", 1886, IV); Bilbasov "History of Catherine II" (vols. 1 and 12). M. P-ov.

Even during her lifetime in 1742, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna declared her nephew, the son of Anna Petrovna's late elder sister, Karl-Peter-Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gotorp, to be the legitimate heir to the Russian throne. He was also a Swedish prince, as he was the grandson of Queen Ulrika Eleonora, who inherited the power of Charles XII, who had no children. Therefore, the boy was brought up in the Lutheran faith, and his tutor was the military marshal Count Otto Brumenn to the marrow of his bones. But according to the peace treaty signed in the city of Abo in 1743 after the actual defeat of Sweden in the war with Russia, Ulrika-Eleonora was forced from plans to crown her grandson to the throne, and the young duke moved to St. Petersburg from Stockholm.

After the adoption of Orthodoxy, he received the name of Peter Fedorovich. His new teacher was Jacob von Stehlin, who considered his student a gifted young man. He clearly excelled in history, mathematics, if it concerned fortification and artillery, and music. However, Elizaveta Petrovna was dissatisfied with his success, because he did not want to study the foundations of Orthodoxy and Russian literature. After the birth of Pavel Petrovich's grandson on September 20, 1754, the Empress began to draw the smart and determined Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna closer to her, and allowed her stubborn nephew to create the Holstein Guards Regiment in Oranienbaum "for fun". Without a doubt, she wanted to declare Paul heir to the throne, and proclaim Catherine regent until he came of age. This further worsened the relationship of the spouses.

After the sudden death of Elizabeth Petrovna on January 5, 1762, Grand Duke Peter III Fedorovich officially married the kingdom. However, he did not stop those timid economic and administrative reforms that the late empress began, although he never felt personal sympathy for her. Quiet, cozy Stockholm, presumably, remained a paradise for him in comparison with the crowded and unfinished St. Petersburg.

By this time, a difficult domestic political situation had developed in Russia.

In the Code of 1754, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna spoke of the monopoly right of nobles to own land and serfs. The landlords just did not have the opportunity to take their lives, punish them with a cattle whip and torture them. The nobles received an unlimited right to buy and sell peasants. In Elizabethan times, the main form of protest by serfs, schismatics and sectarians was the mass escape of peasants and townspeople. Hundreds of thousands fled not only to the Don and Siberia, but also to Poland, Finland, Sweden, Persia, Khiva and other countries. There were other signs of the crisis - the country was flooded with "robber bands". The reign of the "daughter of Petrova" was not only a period of flourishing of literature and art, the emergence of the noble intelligentsia, but at the same time, when the Russian tax-paying population felt an increase in the degree of their lack of freedom, human humiliation, impotence against social injustice.

“Development stopped before its growth; in the years of courage, he remained the same as he was in childhood, he grew up without maturing, - he wrote about the new emperor V.O. Klyuchevsky. “He was a grown man, forever remaining a child.” The outstanding Russian historian, like other domestic and foreign researchers, awarded Peter III with many negative qualities and offensive epithets that can be argued with. Of all the previous sovereigns and sovereigns, perhaps only he held out on the throne for 186 days, although he was distinguished by independence in making political decisions. The negative characterization of Peter III is rooted in the times of Catherine II, who made every effort to discredit her husband in every possible way and inspire her subjects with the idea of ​​what a great feat she accomplished in saving Russia from the tyrant. “More than 30 years have passed since the sad memory of Peter III went to the grave,” wrote N.M. Karamzin in 1797 - and deceived Europe all this time judged this sovereign from the words of his mortal enemies or their vile supporters.

The new emperor was small in stature, with a disproportionately small head, and snub-nosed. He was disliked immediately because after the grandiose victories over the best Prussian army in Europe, Frederick II the Great in the Seven Years' War and the capture of Berlin by Count Chernyshev, Peter III signed a humiliating - from the point of view of the Russian nobility - peace, which returned to defeated Prussia all the conquered territories without any preconditions . It was said that he even stood under the gun "on guard" for two hours in the January frost as a token of apology in front of the empty building of the Prussian embassy. Duke George of Holstein-Gottorp was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian army. When the emperor’s favorite, Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova, asked him about this strange act: “What did this Friedrich give you, Petrusha - after all, we beat him in the tail and mane?”, He sincerely replied that “I love Friedrich because I love everyone! » However, most of all, Peter III valued a reasonable order and discipline, considering the order established in Prussia as a model. Imitating Frederick the Great, who played the flute beautifully, the emperor diligently studied violin skills!

However, Pyotr Fedorovich hoped that the king of Prussia would support him in the war with Denmark in order to regain Holstein, and even sent 16,000 soldiers and officers under the command of cavalry general Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev to Braunschweig. However, the Prussian army was in such a deplorable state that Frederick the Great did not dare to draw it into a new war. Yes, and Rumyantsev was far from delighted to have the Prussians beaten by him many times as allies!

Lomonosov reacted in his pamphlet to the accession of Peter III:

“Have any of those born into the world heard,

So that the triumphant people

Surrendered into the hands of the vanquished?

Oh shame! Oh, strange twist!

Frederick II the Great, in turn, awarded the emperor the rank of colonel in the Prussian army, which further outraged the Russian officers, who defeated the previously invincible Prussians near Gross-Jägersdorf, and near Zorndorf, and near Kunersdorf, and captured Berlin in 1760. As a result of the bloody Seven Years' War, Russian officers received nothing but invaluable military experience, well-deserved authority, military ranks and orders.

And frankly and without hiding it, Peter III did not love his “skinny and stupid” wife Sophia-Frederick-August, Princess von Anhalt-Zerbst, in Orthodoxy, Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna. Her father Christian-Augustin was in active Prussian service and was the governor of the city of Stettin, and her mother Johanna-Elisabeth came from an old noble family of Holstein-Gottorp. The Grand Duke and his wife turned out to be distant relatives, and even were similar in character. Both were distinguished by rare purposefulness, fearlessness bordering on insanity, unlimited ambition and exorbitant vanity. Both husband and wife considered monarchy their natural right, and their own decisions - the law for subjects.

And although Ekaterina Alekseevna gave the heir to the throne a son, Pavel Petrovich, relations between the spouses always remained cool. Despite court gossip about his wife's countless adulteries, Paul was very much like his father. But this, nevertheless, only alienated the spouses from each other. Surrounded by the emperor, the Holstein aristocrats invited by him - Prince Holstein-Becksky, Duke Ludwig of Holstein and Baron Ungern - willingly gossiped about Catherine's love affairs either with Prince Saltykov (according to rumors, Pavel Petrovich was his son), then with Prince Poniatovsky, then with Count Chernyshev, then with Count Grigory Orlov.

The emperor was annoyed by Catherine's desire to become Russified, to comprehend the Orthodox religious sacraments, to learn the traditions and customs of future Russian subjects, which Peter III considered pagan. He said more than once that, like Peter the Great, he would divorce his wife and become the husband of the chancellor's daughter, Elizaveta Mikhailovna Vorontsova.

Catherine paid him in full reciprocity. The reason for the desired divorce from his unloved wife was the “letters” fabricated in Versailles by Grand Duchess Catherine to Field Marshal Apraksin that after the victory over the Prussian troops near Memel in 1757 he should not enter East Prussia in order to enable Frederick the Great to recover from defeat. On the contrary, when the French ambassador in Warsaw demanded that Elizaveta Petrovna remove the King of the Commonwealth, Stanislav-August Poniatowski, from St. Petersburg, alluding to his love affair with the Grand Duchess, Catherine frankly declared to the Empress: Russian empress and how dare he impose his will on the mistress of the strongest European power?

Chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov did not have to prove the forgery of these papers, but, nevertheless, in a private conversation with the St. Petersburg police chief Nikolai Alekseevich Korf, Peter III expressed his innermost thoughts: Peter, with his first wife - let him pray and repent! And I will put them with my son in Shlisselburg ... ". Vorontsov decided not to rush things with slander against the emperor's wife.

However, this catchphrase of his about “universal Christian love” and the performance of Mozart’s works on the violin at a very decent level, with which Peter III wanted to enter Russian history, did not add to his popularity among the domestic nobility. In fact, brought up in a strict German atmosphere, he was disappointed with the morals that reigned at the court of his compassionate aunt with her favorites, ministerial leapfrog, eternal ball ceremonies and military parades in honor of Peter's victories. Peter III, having converted to Orthodoxy, did not like to attend church services in churches, especially at Easter, make pilgrimages to holy places and monasteries and observe obligatory religious fasts. The Russian nobles believed that at heart he always remained a Lutheran, if not even "a freethinker in the French manner."

The Grand Duke at one time laughed heartily at the rescript of Elizabeth Petrovna, according to which “the valet, who is on duty at the door of Her Majesty at night, is obliged to listen and, when the mother empress screams from a nightmare, put her hand on her forehead and say “white swan” , for which this valet complains to the nobility and receives the surname Lebedev. As she grew older, Elizaveta Petrovna constantly dreamed of the same scene, how she was raising the deposed Anna Leopoldovna from her bed, by that time long dead in Kholmogory. It didn't help that she changed her bedroom almost every night. There were more and more noble Lebedevs. For simplicity, they began to be called such people from the peasant class after another passportization in the reign of Alexander II by the landowners Lebedinsky.

In addition to "universal kindness" and the violin, Peter III adored subordination, order and justice. Under him, the nobles disgraced under Elizabeth Petrovna - Duke Biron, Count Minich, Count Lestok and Baroness Mengden - were returned from exile and restored in rank and condition. This was perceived as the threshold of a new "Bironism"; the appearance of a new foreign favorite was simply not yet looming. Lieutenant-General Count Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich, military to the marrow of his bones, was clearly not suitable for this role, the toothless and idiotically smiling Minich and the forever frightened Biron were not taken into account by anyone, of course.

The very sight of St. Petersburg, where among the dugouts and "smoky huts" of state serfs and townspeople assigned to the settlement, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Winter Palace and the house of the governor-general of the capital Menshikov, with cluttered dirty streets, towered, disgusted the emperor. However, Moscow looked no better, standing out only for its numerous cathedrals, churches and monasteries. Moreover, Peter the Great himself forbade building up Moscow with brick buildings and paving the streets with stone. Peter III wanted to slightly ennoble the appearance of his capital - "Northern Venice".

And he, together with the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Prince Cherkassky, gave the order to clean up the construction site in front of the Winter Palace, littered for many years, through which the courtiers made their way to the main entrance, as if through the ruins of Pompeii, tearing camisoles and soiling boots. Petersburgers sorted out all the rubble in half an hour, taking for themselves broken bricks, and trimmings of rafters, and rusty nails, and the remains of glass and fragments of scaffolding. The square was soon ideally paved by Danish masters and became the decoration of the capital. The city began to gradually rebuild, for which the townspeople were extremely grateful to Peter III. The same fate befell the construction dumps in Peterhof, Oranienbaum, at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and on Strelna. The Russian nobles saw this as a bad sign - they did not like foreign orders and were afraid from the time of Anna Ioannovna. The new urban quarters beyond the Moika, where commoners opened "commercial houses" sometimes looked better than the town's wooden huts, as if transferred from the boyar Moscow past.

The emperor was also disliked for the fact that he adhered to a strict daily routine. Getting up at six o'clock in the morning, Peter III raised the commanders of the guards regiments on alarm, and arranged military reviews with mandatory exercises in stepping, shooting and combat rebuilding. The Russian guardsmen hated discipline and military exercises with every fiber of their soul, considering it their privilege to free order, sometimes appearing in regiments in home dressing gowns and even in nightgowns, but with a charter sword at the waist! The last straw was the introduction of a Prussian-style military uniform. Instead of the Russian dark green army uniform with red standing collars and cuffs, uniforms of orange, blue, orange, and even canary colors should have been worn. Wigs, aiguillettes and espantons became obligatory, because of which the “Preobrazhenets”, “Semyonovtsy” and “Izmailovtsy” became almost indistinguishable, and narrow boots, in the tops of which, as of old, flat German vodka flasks did not fit. In a conversation with his close friends, the brothers Razumovsky, Alexei and Cyril, Peter III said that the Russian "guards are the current Janissaries, and they should be liquidated!"

Reasons for a palace conspiracy in the guard accumulated enough. Being a smart man, Peter III understood that it was dangerous to trust the “Russian Praetorians” with his life. And he decided to create his personal guard - the Holstein Regiment under the command of General Gudovich, but managed to form only one battalion of 1,590 people. After the strange end of Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War, the Holstein-Gothorp and Danish nobles were in no hurry to Petersburg, which clearly sought to pursue an isolationist policy that did not promise any benefits to the professional military. Desperate rogues, drunkards and people of dubious reputation were recruited into the Holstein Battalion. And the peacefulness of the emperor alarmed the mercenaries - double salaries were paid to Russian military personnel only during the period of hostilities. Peter III was not going to deviate from this rule, especially since the state treasury was thoroughly devastated during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna.

Chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov and Actual Privy Councilor and at the same time Life Secretary Dmitry Ivanovich Volkov, seeing the liberal mood of the emperor, immediately began to prepare the highest manifestos, which Peter III, unlike Anna Leopoldovna and Elizabeth Petrovna, not only signed, but also read. He personally corrected the text of the draft documents, inserting his own rational critical judgments into them.

So, according to his Decree of February 21, the sinister Secret Chancellery was liquidated, and its archive "to eternal oblivion" was transferred to the Governing Senate for permanent storage. Fatal for any Russian filed formula "Word and deed!", Which was enough to "test on the rack" of anyone, regardless of his class affiliation; it was forbidden even to pronounce it.

In his program “Manifesto on the Liberty and Freedom of the Russian Nobility” dated February 18, 1762, Peter III generally abolished physical torture of representatives of the ruling class and provided them with guarantees of personal immunity, if this did not concern treason to the Fatherland. Even such a "humane" execution for the nobles as cutting the tongue and exile to Siberia instead of cutting off the head, introduced by Elizaveta Petrovna, was prohibited. His decrees confirmed and expanded the noble monopoly on distillation.

The Russian nobility was shocked by the public process in the case of General Maria Zotova, whose estates were sold at auction in favor of disabled soldiers and crippled peasants for the inhuman treatment of serfs. The Prosecutor General of the Senate, Count Alexei Ivanovich Glebov, was ordered to begin an investigation into the case of many fanatical nobles. In this regard, the emperor issued a separate decree, the first in Russian legislation, qualifying the murder of their peasants by landlords as "tyrannical torment", for which such landowners were punished with life exile.

From now on, it was forbidden to punish peasants with batogs, which often led to their death - "for this, use only rods, with which to whip only in soft places in order to prevent self-mutilation."

All fugitive peasants, Nekrasov sectarians and deserters, who fled in tens of thousands mostly to the border river Yaik, beyond the Urals, and even to the distant Commonwealth and Khiva in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, were amnestied. By Decree of January 29, 1762, they received the right to return to Russia not to their former owners and to the barracks, but as state serfs or were granted Cossack dignity in the Yaik Cossack army. It was here that the most explosive human material accumulated, from now on fiercely devoted to Peter III. The Old Believers-schismatics were exempted from the tax for dissent and could now live their way. Finally, all debts accumulated from the Cathedral Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich were written off from privately owned serfs. There was no limit to the rejoicing of the people: prayers were offered to the emperor in all rural parishes, regimental chapels and schismatic sketes.

The merchant class also turned out to be treated kindly. By personal decree of the emperor, duty-free export of agricultural goods and raw materials to Europe was allowed, which significantly strengthened the country's monetary system. To support foreign trade, the State Bank was established with a loan capital of five million silver rubles. Merchants of all three guilds could get a long-term loan.

Peter III decided to complete the secularization of church land holdings, begun shortly before his death by Peter the Great, by decree of March 21, 1762, limiting the immovable property of all rural parishes and monasteries to their fences and walls, leaving them the territory of cemeteries, and was also going to forbid representatives of the clergy to own serfs and artisans. Church hierarchs greeted these measures with frank discontent, and joined the noble opposition.

This led to the fact that between the parish priests, who were always closer to the masses, and the provincial nobles, who held back government measures that in one way or another improved the situation of the peasants and working people, and the "white clergy", who constituted a stable opposition to the growing absolutism from Patriarch Nikon, lay the abyss. The Russian Orthodox Church no longer represented a single force, and society was split. Having become Empress, Catherine II canceled these decrees in order to make the Holy Synod obedient to her authority.

The decrees of Peter III on the all-round encouragement of commercial and industrial activities were supposed to streamline monetary relations in the empire. His "Decree on Commerce", which included protectionist measures to develop grain exports, contained specific instructions on the need for energetic nobles and merchants to take care of the forest as the national wealth of the Russian Empire.

What other liberal plans swarmed in the head of the emperor, no one will be able to find out ...

By a special resolution of the Senate, it was decided to erect a gilded statue of Peter III, but he himself opposed this. The flurry of liberal decrees and manifestos shook noble Russia to its foundations, and touched patriarchal Russia, which had not yet completely parted with the remnants of pagan idolatry.

On June 28, 1762, the day before his own name day, Peter III, accompanied by the Holstein battalion, together with Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova, left for Oranienbaum to prepare everything for the celebration. Ekaterina was left in Peterhof unattended. Early in the morning, having missed the solemn train of the emperor, the carriage with the sergeant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Alexei Grigorievich Orlov and Count Alexander Ilyich Bibikov turned to Moplesir, took Ekaterina and rushed to St. Petersburg at a gallop. Here everything was already prepared. The money for the organization of the palace coup was again borrowed from the French ambassador Baron de Breteuil - King Louis XV wanted Russia to start hostilities again against Prussia and England, which was promised by Count Panin in the event of the successful overthrow of Peter III. Grand Duchess Catherine, as a rule, remained silent when Panin colorfully outlined to her the appearance of a “new Europe” under the auspices of the Russian Empire.

Four hundred "Preobrazhentsev", "Izmailovtsy" and "Semenovtsy", fairly warmed up by vodka and unrealizable hopes to eradicate everything foreign, welcomed the former German princess as an Orthodox Russian empress as a "mother"! In the Kazan Cathedral, Catherine II read out the Manifesto about her own accession, written by Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, where it was reported that due to the severe mental disorder of Peter III, reflected in his frantic republican aspirations, she was forced to take state power into her own hands. The Manifesto contained a hint that after the coming of age of her son Paul, she would resign. Catherine managed to read this paragraph so indistinctly that no one in the jubilant crowd really heard anything. As always, the troops willingly and cheerfully swore allegiance to the new empress and rushed to the barrels of beer and vodka previously placed in the doorways. Only the Horse Guards Regiment tried to break through to the Nevsky, but on the bridges, wheel to wheel, guns were placed tightly under the command of the zalmeister (lieutenant) of the guards artillery and the lover of the new empress, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, who vowed to lose his life, but not to let the coronation be disrupted. It turned out to be impossible to break through the artillery positions without the help of the infantry, and the horse guards retreated. For his feat in the name of his beloved, Orlov received the title of count, the title of senator and the rank of adjutant general.

In the evening of the same day, 20,000 cavalry and infantry, led by Empress Catherine II, dressed in the uniform of a colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, moved to Oranienbaum to overthrow the legitimate descendant of the Romanovs. Peter III simply had nothing to defend against this huge army. He had to silently sign the act of renunciation, arrogantly extended by his wife straight from the saddle. On the maid of honor, Countess Elizaveta Vorontsova, the Izmaylovo soldiers tore her ball gown to tatters, and his goddaughter, the young princess Vorontsova-Dashkova, boldly shouted to Peter in the face: “So, godfather, don’t be rude to your wife in the future!” The deposed emperor sadly replied: “My child, it does not hurt you to remember that driving bread and salt with honest fools like your sister and I is much safer than with great wise men who squeeze the juice from a lemon and throw the peel under their feet.”

The next day, Peter III was already under house arrest in Ropsha. He was allowed to live there with his beloved dog, a Negro servant and a violin. He only had a week to live. He managed to write two notes to Catherine II with a plea for mercy and a request to let him go to England together with Elizaveta Vorontsova, ending with the words “I hope for your generosity that you will not leave me without food according to the Christian model”, signed “your devoted lackey”.

On Saturday, July 6, Peter III was killed during a card game by his voluntary jailers Alexei Orlov and Prince Fyodor Baryatinsky. Guardsmen Grigory Potemkin and Platon Zubov, who were privy to the plans of the conspiracy and witnessed the bullying of the disgraced emperor, carried the guard without interruption, but they were not hindered. In the morning, Orlov wrote in a drunken and swaying hand from insomnia, probably right on the flag officer’s drum, a note to “our All-Russian mother” Catherine II, in which he said that “our freak is very sick, no matter how he died today.”

The fate of Pyotr Fedorovich was a foregone conclusion, all he needed was a pretext. And Orlov accused Peter of distorting the map, to which he shouted indignantly: "Who are you talking to, serf?!" An exact terrible blow followed in the throat with a fork, and with a wheeze, the former emperor fell back. Orlov was at a loss, but the resourceful Prince Baryatinsky immediately tightly tied the throat of the dying man with a silk Holstein scarf, so much so that the blood did not drain from the head and baked under the skin of the face.

Later, the sober Alexei Orlov wrote a detailed report to Catherine II, in which he pleaded guilty to the death of Peter III: “Mother merciful Empress! How can I explain, describe what happened: you will not believe your faithful slave. But as before God I will tell the truth. Mother! I am ready to go to my death, but I myself do not know how this trouble happened. We died when you do not have mercy. Mother - he is not in the world. But no one thought of this, and how can we think of raising our hands against the sovereign! But disaster struck. He argued at the table with Prince Fyodor Boryatinsky; before we [with Sergeant Potemkin] had time to separate them, he was already gone. We ourselves do not remember what we did, but we are all guilty and worthy of execution. Have mercy on me for my brother. I brought you a confession, and there is nothing to look for. Forgive me or tell me to finish soon. The light is not sweet - they angered you and ruined your souls forever.

Catherine shed a "widow's tear", and generously rewarded all participants in the palace coup, at the same time conferring extraordinary military ranks on the guards officers. The Little Russian hetman, Field Marshal Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky began to receive "in addition to his hetman's income and the salary he received" 5,000 rubles a year and the real state councilor, senator and chief officer Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin - 5,000 rubles a year. Actual chamberlain Grigory Grigorievich Orlov was granted 800 souls of serfs, and the same number of seconds-major of the Preobrazhensky regiment Alexei Grigorievich Orlov. Lieutenant-Captain of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Pyotr Passek and Lieutenant of the Semenovsky Regiment Prince Fyodor Boryatinsky were awarded 24,000 rubles each. The attention of the Empress was also attended by Lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Prince Grigory Potemkin, who received 400 souls of serfs, and Prince Pyotr Golitsyn, who was given 24,000 rubles from the treasury.

On June 8, 1762, Catherine II publicly announced that Peter III Fedorovich had died: "The former emperor, by the will of God, suddenly died of hemorrhoidal colic and severe pain in the intestines" - which was absolutely incomprehensible to most of those present due to widespread medical illiteracy - and even staged magnificent " funeral" of a simple wooden coffin, without any decorations, which was placed in the Romanov family vault. At night, the remains of the murdered emperor were secretly placed inside a simple wooden domina.

The real burial took place in Ropsha the day before. The assassination of Emperor Peter III had unusual consequences: because of the neck tied with a scarf at the time of death, a black man lay in the coffin! The soldiers of the guard immediately decided that instead of Peter III they had put a "black arap", one of the many palace jesters, all the more so because they knew that the guards of honor were preparing for the funeral the next day. This rumor spread among the guards, soldiers and Cossacks stationed in St. Petersburg. There was a rumor throughout Russia that Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich, kind to the people, miraculously escaped, and twice they interred not him, but some commoners or court jesters. And therefore, more than twenty “miraculous deliverances” of Peter III took place, the largest of which was the Don Cossack, retired cornet Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, who organized a terrible and merciless Russian revolt. Apparently, he knew a lot about the circumstances of the double burial of the emperor and that the Yaik Cossacks and runaway schismatics were ready to support his “resurrection”: it was no coincidence that the Old Believer cross was depicted on the banners of Pugachev’s army.

The prophecy of Peter III, expressed to Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova, turned out to be true. All those who helped her become empress soon had to be convinced of the great "gratitude" of Catherine II. Contrary to their opinion, in order for her to declare herself regent and rule with the help of the Imperial Council, she declared herself empress and was officially crowned on September 22, 1762 in the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin.

A terrible warning for the probable noble opposition was the restoration of the detective police, which received the new name of the Secret Expedition.

Now a conspiracy was drawn up against the Empress. The Decembrist Mikhail Ivanovich Fonvizin left a curious note: “In 1773 ... when the Tsarevich came of age and married a Darmstadt princess named Natalya Alekseevna, Count N.I. Panin, his brother Field Marshal P.I. Panin, Princess E.R. Dashkova, Prince N.V. Repnin, one of the bishops, almost Metropolitan Gabriel, and many of the then nobles and guards officers entered into a conspiracy to overthrow Catherine II, who reigned without [legal] right [to the throne], and instead of her raise her adult son. Pavel Petrovich knew about this, agreed to accept the constitution proposed to him by Panin, approved it with his signature and took an oath that, having reigned, he would not violate this fundamental state law that limited autocracy.

The peculiarity of all Russian conspiracies was that the oppositionists, who did not have such experience as their Western European associates, constantly sought to expand the limits of their narrow circle. And if the case concerned the higher clergy, then their plans became known even to the parish priests, who in Russia had to immediately explain to the common people the changes in state policy. It is impossible to consider the appearance of Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev precisely in 1773 as an accident or a mere coincidence: he could learn about the plans of high-ranking conspirators precisely from this source and in his own way use the opposition moods of the nobility against the empress in the capital, fearlessly moving towards the regular regiments of the imperial army in the Ural steppes, inflicting defeat after defeat on them.

No wonder Pugachev, like them, constantly appealed to the name of Pavel as the future successor of the "father's" work and the overthrow of the hated mother. Catherine II found out about the preparations for the coup, which coincided with the "Pugachevshchina", and spent almost a year in the admiral's cabin of her yacht Shtandart, which was constantly standing at the Vasilyevsky Spit under the protection of two newest battleships with faithful crews. In a difficult moment, she was ready to sail to Sweden or England.

After the public execution of Pugachev in Moscow, all the high-ranking St. Petersburg conspirators were sent into honorable retirement. The overly energetic Ekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova went to her own estate for a long time, Count Panin, formally remaining the President of the Foreign Collegium, was actually removed from public affairs, and Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, allegedly secretly married to the Empress, was no longer allowed to attend an audience with Catherine II, and later exiled to his own fiefdom. General-Admiral Count Aleksey Grigoryevich Orlov-Chesmensky, the hero of the first Russian-Turkish war, was dismissed from the post of commander of the Russian fleet and sent to the diplomatic service abroad.

The long and unsuccessful siege of Orenburg also had its reasons. Infantry General Leonty Leontievich Bennigsen later testified: “When the Empress lived in Tsarskoe Selo during the summer season, Pavel usually lived in Gatchina, where he had a large detachment of troops. He surrounded himself with guards and pickets; patrols constantly guarded the road to Tsarskoye Selo, especially at night, in order to prevent her from any unexpected undertaking. He even determined in advance the route along which he would withdraw with the troops if necessary; the roads along this route were studied by trusted officers. This route led to the land of the Ural Cossacks, from where the famous rebel Pugachev appeared, who in ... 1773 managed to make himself a significant party, first among the Cossacks themselves, assuring them that he was Peter III, who had escaped from the prison where he was held, falsely announcing his death. Pavel counted very much on the kind reception and devotion of these Cossacks... But he wanted to make Orenburg the capital.” Probably, Paul got this idea in conversations with his father, whom he loved very much in infancy. It is no coincidence that one of the first little-explained - from the point of view of common sense - actions of Emperor Paul I was the solemn act of the second "marriage" of the two most august dead in their coffins - Catherine II and Peter III!

Thus, palace coups in the “temple unfinished by Peter the Great” created a constant ground for imposture, which pursued the interests of both noble Russia and serf Orthodox Russia, and even took place almost simultaneously. This has been the case since the Time of Troubles.

In the 18th century in the Russian Empire, the stability of the transfer of power from monarch to monarch was seriously disrupted. This period went down in history as the “epoch of palace coups”, when the fate of the Russian throne was decided not so much by the will of the monarch as by the support of influential dignitaries and guards.

In 1741, as a result of another coup, the empress became daughter of Peter the Great Elizaveta Petrovna. Despite the fact that at the time of her accession to the throne, Elizabeth was only 32 years old, the question arose of who would become the heir to the imperial crown.

Elizabeth had no legitimate children, and therefore, the heir had to be sought among other members of the Romanov family.

According to the "Decree on the Succession to the Throne", issued by Peter I in 1722, the emperor received the right to choose his successor himself. However, it was not enough just to name the name - it was necessary to create a solid ground for the heir to be recognized by both the highest dignitaries and the country as a whole.

Bad experience Boris Godunov and Vasily Shuisky He spoke about the fact that a monarch who does not have a solid support can lead the country to confusion and chaos. Similarly, the absence of an heir to the throne can lead to confusion and chaos.

To Russia, Carl!

Elizaveta Petrovna, in order to strengthen the stability of the state, decided to act quickly. She was chosen as her heir sister's son, Anna Petrovna, Karl Peter Ulrich.

Anna Petrovna was married to Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich and in February 1728 bore him a son. Karl Peter lost his mother just a few days after the birth - Anna Petrovna, who had not departed after a difficult birth, caught a cold during fireworks in honor of the birth of her son and died.

Who came as a great-nephew Swedish king Charles XII Karl Peter was originally seen as the heir to the Swedish throne. At the same time, no one was seriously involved in his upbringing. From the age of 7, the boy was taught marching, handling weapons and other military wisdom and traditions of the Prussian army. It was then that Karl Peter became a fan of Prussia, which subsequently had a detrimental effect on his future.

At the age of 11 Karl Peter lost his father. The boy's upbringing was taken up by his cousin, future king of Sweden Adolf Frederick. The caregivers assigned to educate the boy focused on cruel and humiliating punishments, which made Karl Peter nervous and fearful.

Pyotr Fedorovich when he was the Grand Duke. Portrait by G. H. Groot

The envoy of Elizabeth Petrovna, who arrived for Karl Peter, took him to Russia under a false name, secretly. Knowing the difficulties with the succession to the throne in St. Petersburg, the opponents of Russia could well prevent this in order to subsequently use Karl Peter in their intrigues.

Bride for a troubled teenager

Elizaveta Petrovna met her nephew with joy, but was struck by his thinness and sickly appearance. When it turned out that his training was purely formal, it was just right to grab his head.

The first months of Karl Peter were literally fattened and put in order. They began to train him almost anew, from the very beginning. In November 1742 he was baptized into Orthodoxy under the name Petr Fedorovich.

The nephew turned out to be completely different from what Elizaveta Petrovna expected to see him. However, she continued the line of strengthening the dynasty, deciding to marry the heir as soon as possible.

Considering the candidates for brides for Peter, Elizaveta Petrovna opted for Sophia Augusta Frederick, daughter of Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, a representative of an ancient princely family.

father fike, as the girl was called at home, there was nothing but a high-profile title. Like her future husband, Fike grew up in Spartan conditions, even though both her parents were in perfect health. Home schooling was caused by a lack of funds, noble entertainment for the little princess replaced street games with boys, after which Fike went to darn her own stockings.

The news that the Russian Empress chose Sophia Augusta Frederica as a bride for the heir to the Russian throne shocked Fike's parents. The girl herself very quickly realized that she had a great chance to change her life.

In February 1744 Sophia Augusta Frederica and her mother arrived in St. Petersburg. Elizaveta Petrovna found the bride quite worthy.

Ignorant and smart

On June 28, 1744, Sophia Augusta Frederica converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna. On August 21, 1745, 17-year-old Pyotr Fedorovich and 16-year-old Ekaterina Alekseevna were married. The wedding celebrations were held on a grand scale and lasted 10 days.

It seemed that Elizabeth achieved what she wanted. However, the result was rather unexpected.

Despite the fact that the phrase “grandson of Peter the Great” was included in the official name of Pyotr Fedorovich, it was not possible to instill in the heir a love for the empire created by his grandfather.

All efforts by educators to fill the gaps in education have failed. The heir preferred to spend time in entertainment, playing soldiers, rather than in training sessions. He never learned to speak Russian well. His hobby Prussian King Friedrich, which already did not add sympathy to him, became completely obscene with the beginning of the Seven Years' War, in which Prussia acted as an opponent of Russia.

Sometimes, annoyed, Peter threw phrases like: “They dragged me into this damned Russia.” And it also did not add to his supporters.

Catherine was the complete opposite of her husband. She studied Russian with such zeal that she almost died from pneumonia, earned while studying with the window wide open.

Having converted to Orthodoxy, she zealously observed church traditions, and the people soon started talking about the piety of the heir's wife.

Ekaterina was actively engaged in self-education, read books on history, philosophy, jurisprudence, essays Voltaire, Montesquieu, Tacitus, Bayle, a large number of other literature. The ranks of admirers of her mind grew as rapidly as the ranks of admirers of her beauty.

Fallback Empress Elizabeth

Elizabeth, of course, approved of such zeal, but did not consider Catherine as the future ruler of Russia. She was taken so that she would give birth to heirs for the Russian throne, and there were serious problems with this.

The marital relationship between Peter and Catherine did not go well at all. The difference in interests, the difference in temperaments, the difference in outlook on life alienated them from each other from the first day of marriage. It did not help that Elizabeth introduced to them as educators a married couple who had lived together for many years. In this case, the example was not contagious.

Elizaveta Petrovna hatched a new idea - if it was not possible to re-educate her nephew, then it is necessary to properly educate her grandson, to whom power will then be transferred. But with the birth of a grandson, problems also arose.

Grand Duke Pyotr Fedorovich and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna with a page. Source: Public Domain

Only on September 20, 1754, after nine years of marriage, Catherine gave birth to a son Paul. The Empress immediately took the newborn away, limiting the communication of parents with the child.

If Peter was not excited at all, then Catherine tried to see her son more often, which greatly annoyed the empress.

The plot that failed

After the birth of Paul, the cooling between Peter and Catherine only intensified. Pyotr Fedorovich made mistresses, Ekaterina - lovers, and both sides were aware of each other's adventures.

Pyotr Fedorovich, for all his shortcomings, was a rather simple-hearted man, unable to hide his thoughts and intentions. The fact that with accession to the throne he would get rid of his unloved wife, Peter began to talk a few years before the death of Elizabeth Petrovna. Catherine knew that in this case a prison awaits her, or a monastery that is no different from her. Therefore, she secretly begins to negotiate with those who, like herself, would not like to see Peter Fedorovich on the throne.

In 1757, during a serious illness of Elizabeth Petrovna Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin prepared a coup with the aim of removing the heir immediately after the death of the empress, in which Catherine was also involved. However, Elizabeth recovered, the plot was revealed, and Bestuzhev-Ryumin fell into disgrace. Catherine herself was not touched, since Bestuzhev managed to destroy the letters compromising her.

In December 1761, a new aggravation of the disease led to the death of the Empress. Paul failed to implement plans to transfer power, since the boy was only 7 years old, and Pyotr Fedorovich became the new head of the Russian Empire under the name of Peter III.

Fatal world with an idol

The new emperor decided to start large-scale state reforms, many of which historians consider very progressive. The Secret Chancellery, which was an organ of political investigation, was liquidated, a decree on freedom of foreign trade was adopted, and the killing of peasants by landowners was prohibited. Peter III issued the "Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility", which abolished the compulsory military service for the nobles introduced by Peter I.

His intention to carry out the secularization of church lands and equalize the rights of representatives of all religious denominations alerted Russian society. Opponents of Peter spread a rumor that the emperor was preparing to introduce Lutheranism in the country, which did not add to his popularity.

But the biggest mistake of Peter III was the conclusion of peace with his idol, King Frederick of Prussia. During the Seven Years' War, the Russian army utterly defeated the vaunted army of Frederick, forcing the latter to think about renunciation.

And at this very moment, when the final victory of Russia was already actually won, Peter not only makes peace, but without any conditions returns to Frederick all the territories he has lost. The Russian army, and especially the guard, was offended by this step of the emperor. In addition, his intention, together with Prussia, to start a war against yesterday's ally, Denmark, did not find understanding in Russia.

Portrait of Peter III by artist A.P. Antropov, 1762.