Alien Tsar - Peter III. Peter III - short biography
Having married Duke Karl-Friedrich of Holstein, daughter Anna Petrovna lost her rights to the Russian throne. Her son, named Karl-Peter-Ulrich at birth, was luckier - he, however, for a very short time, became the Russian emperor under the name Peter III (02/10/1728-07/06/1762). His wife, who overthrew him in 1762, an impostor on the Russian throne, Catherine II, did everything to present her husband as a narrow-minded and petty person, largely slandering his memory.
Biography of Peter III
The boy lost both parents early: his mother died during childbirth, his father when the child was only 11 years old. He did not find a common language with his teachers and did not receive a systematic education either. Despite his high origins, the future Russian emperor was subjected to severe corporal punishment, which largely shaped his character, in which good nature and gentleness alternated with fits of anger. He was fond of playing the violin and achieved almost perfect performance. In 1742, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna remembered her nephew and ordered him to be brought to Russia. Soon after his arrival, he was proclaimed heir to the throne. The young man was also obliged to Elizabeth by converting to the Orthodox faith under the name of Peter Fedorovich. He was soon married to Princess Sophia Augusta-Frederike of Angelt-Zerb. This is how the future rulers of Russia met - Peter III and Catherine II. The marriage cannot be called successful; everyone in it was on their own. Moreover, Peter was deliberately cold with his wife, and she, in turn, sought solace in the arms of other gentlemen. It is not for nothing that the version that the father of the future Emperor Paul I was not Peter III at all, but Count Alexei Saltykov, one of Catherine’s many lovers, persists so stubbornly in Russian historiography. However, a simple glance at the portraits of both is enough to easily detect a direct relationship, not to mention similar features character. Peter became emperor after the death of Elizabeth Petrovna. His short reign left an ambivalent impression among his contemporaries and an ambiguous memory among his descendants. Peter did a lot, if not everything, in spite of, in spite of, the memory of the late empress. For too long his pride and lust for power had been infringed, and now nothing and no one could restrain them anymore. Ultimately, Peter turned the guard against himself, which turned out to be like death in the literal sense. The deposed emperor was taken to hunting lodge in Ropsha, where they were kept on guard. There he was most likely killed during lunch by one of the Orlov brothers.
Domestic policy of Peter III
Six months - that’s exactly how long Peter was given to bring his own plans to life. However, it is very difficult to say that he had any specific program for the reconstruction of Russia. The emperor was feverish and tossed from one extreme to another. Among the most significant events of that time, one can highlight the granting of freedom to the nobility through the highest Manifesto, the weakening of church land ownership, the cessation of persecution for faith (this especially affected the schismatic Old Believers), as well as the liquidation of the Secret Chancellery, which was hated by many. At the same time, Peter began to zealously rebuild the army in the Prussian manner, which ultimately became a fatal step for him.
Foreign policy of Peter III
If it is difficult to call Peter’s internal policy consistent, as noted above, then external, on the contrary, was quite definite. All of Russia's successes in the seven-year war with Prussia were, in fact, nullified by an alliance with the Prussian Emperor Frederick, Peter's idol since his youth.
- The emperor's body was initially buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, but Peter's son, Emperor Paul I, who came to power in 1796, ordered that the remains of both parents rest together in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In revenge, Pavel ordered one of the alleged murderers, Count Alexei Orlov, to accompany the coffin of his parent.
- The people did not have time to either love or hate Peter III, unlike the guard.
- Some refused to consider him killed, and on this wave of sentiment, the phenomenon of impostor revived again. The most famous impostor who took the name of Peter III, of course, was the Yaik Cossack Emelyan Pugachev.
In Russian history, there is, perhaps, no ruler more reviled by historians than Emperor Peter III. Even the authors of historical studies speak better about the crazy sadist Ivan the Terrible than about the unfortunate emperor. What kind of epithets did historians give to Peter III: “spiritual nonentity”, “reveler”, “drunkard”, “Holstein martinet” and so on and so forth. What did the emperor, who reigned for only six months (from December 1761 to June 1762), do wrong before the learned men?
Holstein Prince
The future Emperor Peter III was born on February 10 (21 - according to the new style) 1728 in German city Kiel. His father was Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, the ruler of the North German state of Holstein, and his mother was the daughter of Peter I, Anna Petrovna. Even as a child, Prince Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp (that was the name of Peter III) was declared heir to the Swedish throne.
Emperor Peter III
However, at the beginning of 1742, at the request of the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the prince was taken to St. Petersburg. As the only descendant of Peter the Great, he was declared heir to the Russian throne. The young Duke of Holstein-Gottorp converted to Orthodoxy and was named Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich.
In August 1745, the Empress married the heir to the German princess Sophia Frederica Augusta, daughter of the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was in the military service of the Prussian king. Having converted to Orthodoxy, Princess Anhalt-Zerbst began to be called Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna.
Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna - future Empress Catherine II
The heir and his wife could not stand each other. Pyotr Fedorovich had mistresses. His last passion was Countess Elizaveta Vorontsova, daughter of Chief General Roman Illarionovich Vorontsov. Ekaterina Alekseevna had three constant lovers - Count Sergei Saltykov, Count Stanislav Poniatovsky and Count Chernyshev.
Soon to be a favorite Grand Duchess became an officer of the Life Guards Grigory Orlov. However, she often had fun with other guards officers.
On September 24, 1754, Catherine gave birth to a son, who was named Pavel. It was rumored at court that the real father of the future emperor was Catherine’s lover, Count Saltykov.
Pyotr Fedorovich himself smiled bitterly:
- God knows where my wife gets her pregnancy from. I don't really know if this is my child and if I should take it personally...
Short reign
On December 25, 1761, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna rested in Bose. Peter Fedorovich, Emperor Peter III, ascended the throne.
First of all, the new sovereign ended the war with Prussia and withdrew Russian troops from Berlin. For this, Peter was hated by the guards officers, who craved military glory and military awards. Historians are also dissatisfied with the actions of the emperor: pundits complain that Peter III “negated the results of Russian victories.”
It would be interesting to know exactly what results the respected researchers have in mind?
As you know, the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 was caused by the intensification of the struggle between France and England for overseas colonies. For various reasons, seven more states were drawn into the war (in particular, Prussia, which was in conflict with France and Austria). But what interests the Russian Empire pursued when it acted on the side of France and Austria in this war is completely unclear. It turned out that Russian soldiers died for the French right to rob colonial peoples. Peter III stopped this senseless massacre. For which he received a “severe reprimand with a note” from grateful descendants.
Soldiers of the army of Peter III
After the end of the war, the emperor settled in Oranienbaum, where, according to historians, he “indulged in drunkenness” with his Holstein companions. However, judging by the documents, from time to time Peter was also involved in government affairs. In particular, the emperor wrote and published a number of manifestos on the transformation of the state system.
Here is a list of the first events that Peter III outlined:
Firstly, the Secret Chancellery was abolished - the famous secret state police, which terrified all subjects of the empire without exception, from commoners to high-born nobles. With one denunciation, agents of the Secret Chancellery could seize any person, imprison him in dungeons, subject him to the most terrible torture, and execute him. The emperor freed his subjects from this arbitrariness. After his death, Catherine II restored the secret police - called the Secret Expedition.
Secondly, Peter declared freedom of religion for all his subjects: “let them pray to whomever they want, but not to have them reproached or cursed.” This was an almost unthinkable step at that time. Even in enlightened Europe there was not yet complete freedom of religion.
After the death of the emperor, Catherine II, a friend of the French enlightenment and “philosopher on the throne,” repealed the decree on freedom of conscience.
Thirdly, Peter abolished church supervision over the personal lives of his subjects: “no one should condemn the sin of adultery, for Christ did not condemn.” After the death of the Tsar, church espionage was revived.
Fourthly, implementing the principle of freedom of conscience, Peter stopped persecuting the Old Believers. After his death state power resumed religious persecution.
Fifthly, Peter announced the liberation of all monastic serfs. He subordinated the monastic estates to civil colleges, gave arable land to the former monastic peasants for eternal use and imposed only ruble dues on them. To support the clergy, the tsar appointed “his own salary.”
Sixth, Peter allowed the nobles to travel abroad unhindered. After his death, the Iron Curtain was restored.
Seventh, Peter announced the introduction of Russian Empire public court. Catherine abolished the publicity of the proceedings.
Eighth, Peter issued a decree on the “silverlessness of service,” prohibiting the presentation of gifts of peasant souls and state lands to senators and government officials. Signs of encouragement senior officials nicknames were supposed to have only orders and medals. Having ascended the throne, Catherine first gifted her associates and favorites with peasants and estates.
One of the manifestos of Peter III
In addition, the emperor prepared a lot of other manifestos and decrees, including those on limiting the personal dependence of peasants on landowners, on the optionality of military service, on the optionality of observing religious fasts, etc.
And all this was done in less than six months of reign! Knowing this, how can one believe the fables about Peter III’s “heavy drinking”?
It is obvious that the reforms that Peter intended to implement were long ahead of their time. Could their author, who dreamed of establishing the principles of freedom and civic dignity, be a “spiritual nonentity” and a “Holstein martinet”?
So, the emperor was engaged in state affairs, in between which, according to historians, he smoked in Oranienbaum.
What was the young empress doing at this time?
Ekaterina Alekseevna and her many lovers and hangers-on settled in Peterhof. There she actively intrigued against her husband: she gathered supporters, spread rumors through her lovers and their drinking companions, and attracted officers to her side. By the summer of 1762, a conspiracy arose, the soul of which was the empress.
Influential dignitaries and generals were involved in the conspiracy:
Count Nikita Panin, actual privy councilor, chamberlain, senator, tutor of Tsarevich Pavel;
his brother Count Pyotr Panin, general-in-chief, hero of the Seven Years' War;
Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, nee Countess Vorontsova, Ekaterina’s closest friend and companion;
her husband Prince Mikhail Dashkov, one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Masonic organization; Count Kirill Razumovsky, marshal, commander of the Izmailovsky regiment, hetman of Ukraine, president of the Academy of Sciences;
Prince Mikhail Volkonsky, diplomat and commander of the Seven Years' War;
Baron Korf, chief of the St. Petersburg police, as well as numerous officers of the Life Guards led by the Orlov brothers.
According to a number of historians, influential Masonic circles were involved in the conspiracy. In Catherine’s inner circle, the “free masons” were represented by a certain mysterious “Mr. Odar.” According to an eyewitness to the events, the Danish envoy A. Schumacher, the famous adventurer and adventurer Count Saint-Germain was hiding under this name.
Events were accelerated by the arrest of one of the conspirators, Lieutenant Captain Passek.
Count Alexei Orlov - assassin of Peter III
On June 26, 1762, the Orlovs and their friends began to solder the soldiers of the capital's garrison. With the money that Catherine borrowed from the English merchant Felten, allegedly to buy jewelry, more than 35 thousand buckets of vodka were purchased.
On the morning of June 28, 1762, Catherine, accompanied by Dashkova and the Orlov brothers, left Peterhof and headed to the capital, where everything was ready. Deadly drunk soldiers of the guard regiments took the oath to “Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna,” and a very inebriated crowd of ordinary people greeted the “dawn of a new reign.”
Peter III and his retinue were in Oranienbaum. Having learned about the events in Petrograd, ministers and generals betrayed the emperor and fled to the capital. Only the old Field Marshal Minikh, General Gudovich and several close associates remained with Peter.
On June 29, the emperor, struck by the betrayal of his most trusted people and having no desire to get involved in the fight for the hated crown, abdicated the throne. He wanted only one thing: to be released to his native Holstein with his mistress Ekaterina Vorontsova and his faithful adjutant Gudovich.
However, by order of the new ruler, the deposed king was sent to the palace in Ropsha. On July 6, 1762, the brother of the Empress's lover Alexei Orlov and his drinking companion Prince Fyodor Baryatinsky strangled Peter. It was officially announced that the emperor “died of inflammation in the intestines and apoplexy”...
St. Petersburg poet Viktor Sosnora decided to look into this problem. First of all, he was interested in the question: from what sources did researchers draw (and continue to draw!) dirty gossip about the “feeble-mindedness” and “insignificance” of the emperor?
And this is what was discovered: it turns out that the sources of all the characteristics of Peter III, all these gossip and fables are the memoirs of the following persons:
Empress Catherine II - who hated and despised her husband, who was the mastermind of the conspiracy against him, who actually directed the hand of Peter's killers, who finally, as a result of the coup, became an autocratic ruler;
Princess Dashkova - a friend and like-minded person of Catherine, who hated and despised Peter even more (contemporaries gossiped: because Peter preferred her older sister, Ekaterina Vorontsova), who was the most active participant in the conspiracy, who after the coup became the “second lady of the empire” ;
Count Nikita Panin, a close employee of Catherine, who was one of the leaders and main ideologist of the conspiracy against Peter, and soon after the coup he became one of the most influential nobles and headed the Russian diplomatic department for almost 20 years;
Count Peter Panin - Nikita's brother, who was one of the active participants in the conspiracy, and then became a commander trusted and favored by the monarch (it was Peter Panin that Catherine instructed to suppress the uprising of Pugachev, who, by the way, declared himself "Emperor Peter III").
Even without being a professional historian and not being familiar with the intricacies of source study and criticism of sources, it is safe to assume that the above-mentioned persons are unlikely to be objective in assessing the person whom they betrayed and killed.
It was not enough for the Empress and her “accomplices” to overthrow and kill Peter III. To justify their crimes, they had to slander their victim!
And they zealously lied, piling up vile gossip and dirty lies.
Catherine:
“He spent his time in unheard of childish activities...” “He was stubborn and hot-tempered, and had a weak and frail build.”
"From the age of ten he was addicted to drinking." “He mostly showed disbelief...” "His mind was childish..."
“He fell into despair. This happened to him often. He was cowardly at heart and weak in head. He loved oysters...”
In her memoirs, the empress portrayed her murdered husband as a drunkard, a reveler, a coward, a fool, a slacker, a tyrant, a weak-minded person, a debauchee, an ignoramus, an atheist...
“What kind of slop does she pour on her husband just because she killed him!” - Viktor Sosnora exclaims.
But, oddly enough, the learned men who wrote dozens of volumes of dissertations and monographs did not doubt the veracity of the killers’ memories of their victim. To this day, in all textbooks and encyclopedias you can read about the “insignificant” emperor who “nullified the results of Russian victories” in the Seven Years’ War, and then “drank with the Holsteiners in Oranienbaum.”
In lies - long legs...
: https://www.softmixer.com
Peter III was a very extraordinary emperor. He did not know the Russian language, loved to play toy soldiers and wanted to baptize Russia according to the Protestant rite. His mysterious death led to the emergence of a whole galaxy of impostors.
Heir to two empires
Already from birth, Peter could lay claim to two imperial titles: Swedish and Russian. On his father's side, he was the great-nephew of King Charles XII, who himself was too busy with military campaigns to marry. Peter's maternal grandfather was Charles's main enemy, Russian Emperor Peter I.
The boy, who was orphaned early, spent his childhood with his uncle, Bishop Adolf of Eitin, where he was instilled with hatred of Russia. He did not know Russian and was baptized according to Protestant custom. True, he also did not know any other languages besides his native German, and only spoke a little French.
Peter was supposed to take the Swedish throne, but the childless Empress Elizabeth remembered the son of her beloved sister Anna and declared him heir. The boy is brought to Russia to meet the imperial throne and death.
Soldier games
In fact, no one really needed the sickly young man: neither his aunt-empress, nor his teachers, nor, subsequently, his wife. Everyone was only interested in his origins; even the cherished words were added to the official title of the heir: “Grandson of Peter I.”
And the heir himself was interested in toys, primarily soldiers. Can we accuse him of being childish? When Peter was brought to St. Petersburg, he was only 13 years old! Dolls attracted the heir more than state affairs or a young bride.
True, his priorities do not change with age. He continued to play, but secretly. Ekaterina writes: “During the day, his toys were hidden in and under my bed. Grand Duke he went to bed first after dinner and, as soon as we were in bed, Kruse (the maid) locked the door with a key, and then the Grand Duke played until one or two in the morning.”
Over time, toys become larger and more dangerous. Peter is allowed to order a regiment of soldiers from Holstein, whom the future emperor enthusiastically drives around the parade ground. Meanwhile, his wife is learning Russian and studying French philosophers...
"Mistress Help"
In 1745, the wedding of the heir Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna, the future Catherine II, was magnificently celebrated in St. Petersburg. There was no love between the young spouses - they were too different in character and interests. The more intelligent and educated Catherine ridicules her husband in her memoirs: “he doesn’t read books, and if he does, it’s either a prayer book or descriptions of torture and executions.”
Peter’s marital duty was also not going smoothly, as evidenced by his letters, where he asks his wife not to share the bed with him, which has become “too narrow.” This is where the legend originates that the future Emperor Paul was not born from Peter III, but from one of the favorites of the loving Catherine.
However, despite the coldness in the relationship, Peter always trusted his wife. In difficult situations, he turned to her for help, and her tenacious mind found a way out of any troubles. That’s why Catherine received the ironic nickname “Mistress Help” from her husband.
Russian Marquise Pompadour
But it was not only children's games that distracted Peter from his marital bed. In 1750, two girls were presented to the court: Elizaveta and Ekaterina Vorontsov. Ekaterina Vorontsova will be a faithful companion of her royal namesake, while Elizabeth will take the place of Peter III’s beloved.
The future emperor could take any court beauty as his favorite, but his choice fell, nevertheless, on this “fat and awkward” maid of honor. Is love evil? However, is it worth trusting the description left in the memoirs of a forgotten and abandoned wife?
The sharp-tongued Empress Elizaveta Petrovna found this love triangle very funny. She even nicknamed the good-natured but narrow-minded Vorontsova “Russian de Pompadour.”
It was love that became one of the reasons for the fall of Peter. At court they began to say that Peter was going, following the example of his ancestors, to send his wife to a monastery and marry Vorontsova. He allowed himself to insult and bully Catherine, who, apparently, tolerated all his whims, but in fact cherished plans for revenge and was looking for powerful allies.
A Spy in Her Majesty's Service
During the Seven Years' War, in which Russia took the side of Austria. Peter III openly sympathized with Prussia and personally with Frederick II, which did not add to the popularity of the young heir.
But he went even further: the heir gave his idol secret documents, information about the number and location of Russian troops! Upon learning of this, Elizabeth was furious, but she forgave her dim-witted nephew a lot for the sake of his mother, her beloved sister.
Why does the heir to the Russian throne so openly help Prussia? Like Catherine, Peter is looking for allies, and hopes to find one of them in the person of Frederick II. Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin writes: “The Grand Duke was convinced that Frederick II loved him and spoke with great respect; therefore, he thinks that as soon as he ascends the throne, the Prussian king will seek his friendship and will help him in everything.”
186 days of Peter III
After the death of Empress Elizabeth, Peter III was proclaimed emperor, but was not officially crowned. He showed himself to be an energetic ruler, and during the six months of his reign he managed, contrary to everyone’s opinion, to do a lot. Assessments of his reign vary widely: Catherine and her supporters describe Peter as a weak-minded, ignorant martinet and Russophobe. Modern historians create a more objective image.
First of all, Peter made peace with Prussia on terms unfavorable for Russia. This caused discontent in army circles. But then his “Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility” gave the aristocracy enormous privileges. At the same time, he issued laws prohibiting the torture and killing of serfs, and stopped the persecution of Old Believers.
Peter III tried to please everyone, but in the end all attempts turned against him. The reason for the conspiracy against Peter was his absurd fantasies about the baptism of Rus' according to the Protestant model. The Guard, the main support and support of the Russian emperors, took the side of Catherine. In his palace in Orienbaum, Peter signed a renunciation.
Life after death
Peter's death is one big mystery. It was not for nothing that Emperor Paul compared himself to Hamlet: throughout the entire reign of Catherine II, the shadow of her deceased husband could not find peace. But was the empress guilty of the death of her husband?
According to the official version, Peter III died of illness. He was not in good health, and the unrest associated with the coup and abdication could have killed a stronger person. But the sudden and so quick death of Peter - a week after the overthrow - caused a lot of speculation. For example, there is a legend according to which the emperor’s killer was Catherine’s favorite Alexei Orlov.
The illegal overthrow and suspicious death of Peter gave rise to a whole galaxy of impostors. In our country alone, more than forty people tried to impersonate the emperor. The most famous of them was Emelyan Pugachev. Abroad, one of the false Peters even became the king of Montenegro. The last impostor was arrested in 1797, 35 years after the death of Peter, and only after that the shadow of the emperor finally found peace.
Peter III Fedorovich |
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Coronation: |
Not crowned |
Predecessor: |
Elizaveta Petrovna |
Successor: |
Catherine II |
Birth: |
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Buried: |
Alexander Nevsky Lavra, in 1796 reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral |
Dynasty: |
Romanovs (Holstein-Gottorp branch) |
Karl Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp |
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Anna Petrovna |
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Ekaterina Alekseevna (Sofia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst) |
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Autograph: |
Pavel, Anna |
Heir
Sovereign
Palace coup
Life after death
Peter III (Pyotr Fedorovich, born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp; February 21, 1728, Kiel - July 17, 1762, Ropsha) - Russian emperor in 1761-1762, the first representative of the Holstein-Gottorp (Oldenburg) branch of the Romanovs on the Russian throne. Since 1745 - Sovereign Duke of Holstein.
After a six-month reign, he was overthrown as a result of a palace coup that brought his wife, Catherine II, to the throne, and soon lost his life. Personality and activities of Peter III for a long time historians unanimously regarded them negatively, but then a more balanced approach appeared, noting a number of the emperor’s public services. During the reign of Catherine, many impostors pretended to be Pyotr Fedorovich (about forty cases were recorded), the most famous of whom was Emelyan Pugachev.
Childhood, education and upbringing
Grandson of Peter I, son of Tsarevna Anna Petrovna and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich. On his father's side he was the great-nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII and was first raised as heir to the Swedish throne.
Mother of a boy named at birth Karl Peter Ulrich, died shortly after his birth, having caught a cold during fireworks in honor of the birth of her son. At the age of 11, he lost his father. After his death, he was brought up in the house of his paternal great-uncle, Bishop Adolf of Eiten (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 flogged several times; many times the boy was placed with his knees on the peas, and for a long time - so that his knees swollen and he could hardly walk; subjected to other sophisticated and humiliating punishments. The teachers cared little about his education: by the age of 13, he only spoke a little French.
Peter grew up fearful, nervous, impressionable, loved music and painting and at the same time adored everything military (however, he was afraid of cannon fire; this fear remained with him throughout his life). All his ambitious dreams were connected with military pleasures. He was not in good health, rather the opposite: he was sickly and frail. By character, Peter was not evil; often behaved innocently. Peter's penchant for lies and absurd fantasies is also noted. According to some reports, already in childhood he became addicted to wine.
Heir
Having become empress in 1741, Elizaveta Petrovna wanted to secure the throne through her father and, being childless, in 1742, during the coronation celebrations, declared her nephew (the son of her older sister) heir to the Russian throne. Karl Peter Ulrich was brought to Russia; he converted to Orthodoxy under the name Peter Fedorovich, and in 1745 he was married to Princess Catherine Alekseevna (née Sophia Frederik August) of Anhalt-Zerbst, the future Empress Catherine II. His official title included the words "Grandson of Peter the Great"; when these words were omitted from the academic calendar, Prosecutor General Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy considered this “an important omission for which the academy could be subject to a great response.”
At their first meeting, Elizabeth was amazed at her nephew’s ignorance and was upset appearance: thin, sickly, with an unhealthy complexion. His tutor and teacher was academician Jacob Shtelin, who considered his student quite capable, but lazy, at the same time noting in him such traits as cowardice, cruelty towards animals, and a tendency to boast. The heir's training in Russia lasted only three years - after the wedding of Peter and Catherine, Shtelin was relieved of his duties (however, he forever retained Peter's favor and trust). Neither during his studies, nor subsequently, Pyotr Fedorovich never really learned to speak and write in Russian. The Grand Duke's mentor in Orthodoxy was Simon of Todor, who also became a teacher of the law for Catherine.
The heir's wedding was celebrated on a special scale - so that before the ten-day celebrations, “all the fairy tales of the East faded.” Peter and Catherine were granted possession of Oranienbaum near St. Petersburg and Lyubertsy near Moscow.
Peter's relationship with his wife did not work out from the very beginning: she was intellectually more developed, and he, on the contrary, was infantile. Catherine noted in her memoirs:
(In the same place, Catherine mentions, not without pride, that she read the “History of Germany” in eight large volumes in four months. Elsewhere in her memoirs, Catherine writes about her enthusiastic reading of Madame de Sevigne and Voltaire. All memories are from about the same time.)
The Grand Duke's mind was still occupied with children's games and military exercises, and he was not at all interested in women. It is believed that until the early 1750s there was no marital relationship between husband and wife, but then Peter underwent some kind of operation (presumably circumcision to eliminate phimosis), after which in 1754 Catherine gave birth to his son Paul (the future Emperor Paul I) . However, the inconsistency of this version is evidenced by a letter from the Grand Duke to his wife, dated December 1746:
The infant heir, the future Russian Emperor Paul I, was immediately taken away from his parents after birth, and Empress Elizaveta Petrovna herself took up his upbringing. However, Pyotr Fedorovich was never interested in his son and was quite satisfied with the empress’s permission to see Paul once a week. Peter was increasingly moving away from his wife; Elizaveta Vorontsova (sister of E.R. Dashkova) became his favorite. Nevertheless, Catherine noted that for some reason the Grand Duke always had an involuntary trust in her, all the more strange since she did not strive for spiritual intimacy with her husband. In difficult situations, financial or economic, he often turned to his wife for help, calling her ironically "Madame la Resource"(“Mistress Help”).
Peter never hid his hobbies for other women from his wife; Catherine felt humiliated by this state of affairs. In 1756, she had an affair with Stanisław August Poniatowski, then the Polish envoy to the Russian court. For the Grand Duke, his wife’s passion was also no secret. There is information that Peter and Catherine more than once hosted dinners together with Poniatovsky and Elizaveta Vorontsova; they took place in the chambers of the Grand Duchess. Afterwards, leaving with his favorite to his half, Peter joked: “Well, children, now you don’t need us anymore.” “Both couples lived on very good terms with each other.” The grand ducal couple had another child in 1757 - Anna (died of smallpox in 1759). 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.
In the early 1750s, Peter was allowed to order a small detachment of Holstein soldiers (by 1758 their number was about one and a half thousand), and he spent all his free time engaging in military exercises and maneuvers with them. Some time later (by 1759-1760), these Holstein soldiers formed the garrison of the amusing fortress of Peterstadt, built at the residence of the Grand Duke Oranienbaum. Peter's other hobby was playing the violin.
During the years spent in Russia, Peter never made any attempt to better know the country, its people and history; he neglected Russian customs, behaved inappropriately during church services, and did not observe fasts and other rituals.
When in 1751 the Grand Duke learned that his uncle had become king of Sweden, he said:
Elizaveta Petrovna did not allow Peter to participate in resolving political issues, and the only position in which he could somehow prove himself was the position of director of the gentry corps. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke openly criticized the activities of the government, and during the Seven Years' War publicly expressed sympathy for the Prussian king Frederick II. Moreover, Peter secretly helped his idol Frederick, passing on information about the number of Russian troops in the theater of military operations.
Chancellor A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin explained the manic passion of the heir to the throne as follows:
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. In general, Peter shared his condemnation of anti-Prussian and pro-Austrian policies with his wife, but expressed it much more openly and boldly. However, the empress, despite her growing hostility towards her nephew, forgave him a lot as the son of his beloved sister who died early.
Sovereign
After the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on December 25, 1761 (January 5, 1762 according to the new style) he was proclaimed emperor. Ruled for 186 days. Didn't get crowned.
In assessing the activities of Peter III, two different approaches usually collide. The traditional approach is based on the absolutization of his vices and blind trust in the image that is created by the memoirists who organized the coup (Catherine II, E.R. Dashkova). He is characterized as ignorant, weak-minded, and his dislike for Russia is emphasized. Recently, attempts have been made to examine his personality and activities more objectively.
It is noted that Peter III was energetically involved in state affairs (“In the morning he was in his office, where he heard reports, then hurried to the Senate or collegiums. In the Senate, he took on the most important matters himself energetically and assertively”). His policy was quite consistent; he, in imitation of his grandfather Peter I, proposed to carry out a series of reforms.
Among the most important affairs of Peter III are the 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, the encouragement of commercial and industrial activities through the creation of the State Bank and the issuance of banknotes (Name Decree of May 25), adoption of a decree on freedom of foreign trade (Decree of March 28); it also contains a requirement to respect forests as one of the most important resources of Russia. Among other measures, researchers note a decree that allowed the establishment of factories for the production of sailing fabric in Siberia, as well as a decree that qualified the murder of peasants by landowners as “tyrant torture” and provided for lifelong exile for this. He also 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, 1762, Peter was blamed for this: “Our Greek Church has already remained extremely exposed to its last danger by changing the 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 Pyotr Fedorovich is the “Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility” (Manifesto of February 18, 1762), thanks to which the nobility became an exclusive privileged class of the Russian Empire. The nobility, being forced by Peter I to compulsory and universal conscription to serve the state all their lives, 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 service 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.
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 of them: 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. Noteworthy is the Manifesto of Peter III of June 19 regarding the riots in the Tver and Cannes districts: “We intend to inviolably preserve the landowners on their estates and possessions, and maintain the peasants in due obedience to them.” The riots were caused by a rumor spreading about the granting of “liberty to the peasantry”, a response to the rumors and a legislative act, which was not accidentally given the status of a manifesto.
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. (These do not include decrees on awards and ranks, monetary payments and regarding specific private issues).
However, some researchers stipulate that measures useful for the country were taken “by the way”; for the emperor himself they were not urgent or important. In addition, many of these decrees and manifestos did not appear suddenly: they were prepared under Elizabeth by the “Commission for the Drawing up of a New Code”, and were adopted at the suggestion of Roman Vorontsov, Pyotr Shuvalov, Dmitry Volkov and other Elizabethan dignitaries who remained at the throne of Pyotr Fedorovich.
Peter III was much more interested in internal affairs in the war with Denmark: out of Holstein patriotism, the emperor decided, in alliance with Prussia, to oppose Denmark (yesterday's ally of Russia), 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. 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, appointed personal librarian, formed the emperor's inner circle.
Heinrich Leopold von 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."
Once in power, Peter III immediately stopped military operations against Prussia and concluded the St. Petersburg Peace Treaty with Frederick II on extremely unfavorable terms for Russia, returning conquered East Prussia (which had been integral part Russian Empire); and abandoning all acquisitions during the actually won Seven Years' War. Russia's exit from the war once again saved Prussia from complete defeat (see also “The Miracle of the House of Brandenburg”). Peter III easily sacrificed the interests of Russia for the sake of his German duchy and friendship with his idol Frederick. The peace concluded on April 24 caused bewilderment and indignation in society; it was naturally regarded as a betrayal and national humiliation. The long and costly war ended in nothing; Russia did not derive any benefits from its victories.
Despite the progressiveness of many legislative measures, the 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 a powerful catalyst for the conspiracy that arose in the guard in favor of Ekaterina Alekseevna.
Palace coup
The first beginnings 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 the 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, Little Russian 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 (from Grigory Orlov; in April 1762 she gave birth to a 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 April 30, 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 to his wife across the table "foll"(stupid); 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, 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 namesake. The day before, a rumor spread throughout St. Petersburg that Catherine was being held under arrest. Great turmoil began in the guard; one of the participants in the conspiracy, Captain Passek, was arrested; the Orlov brothers feared that there was a threat of the conspiracy being discovered.
In Peterhof, Peter III was supposed to be met by his wife, who was the empress’s duty organizer of the celebrations, but by the time the court arrived, she had disappeared. After a short time, it became known that Catherine fled to St. Petersburg early in the morning in a carriage with Alexei Orlov (he arrived in Peterhof to see Catherine with the news that events had taken a critical turn and it was no longer possible 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 events of June 28, 1762 have significant differences from previous palace coups; firstly, the coup went beyond the “walls of the palace” and even beyond the boundaries of the guards barracks, gaining unprecedented widespread support from various layers of the capital’s population, and secondly, the guard became an independent political force, and not a protective force, but a revolutionary one, which overthrew the legitimate emperor and supported the usurpation of power by Catherine.
Death
The circumstances of the death of Peter III have not yet been fully clarified.
The deposed emperor 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 he died a week later. According to the official (and most probable) 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 by order of Catherine), it was discovered that Peter III had severe cardiac dysfunction, inflammation of the intestines, and there were signs of apoplexy.
However, the generally accepted version names Alexei Orlov as the killer. Three letters from Alexei Orlov to Catherine of Ropsha have survived, the first two are in the originals. 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). Rumors (unreliable) also called the killers Peter G.N. Teplov, Catherine’s secretary, and guards officer A.M. Shvanvich (son of Martin Shvanvits; A.M. Shvanvich’s son, Mikhail, went over to the Pugachev side and became the prototype of Shvabrin in “Captain’s daughter" of Pushkin), who allegedly strangled him with a gun belt. 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.
Orlov's first two letters from Ropsha usually attract less attention, despite their undoubted authenticity:
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.
Already today, a number of medical examinations have been carried out on the basis of surviving documents and evidence. Experts believe that Peter III suffered from manic-depressive psychosis in a weak stage (cyclothymia) with a mild depressive phase; suffered from hemorrhoids, which made him unable to sit in one place for a long time; A “small heart” found at autopsy usually suggests dysfunction of other organs and makes circulatory problems more likely, that is, creates a risk of heart attack or stroke.
Alexey Orlov personally reported to the Empress about the death of Peter. Catherine, according to the testimony of N.I. Panin, who was present, burst into tears and said: “My glory is lost! My posterity will never forgive me for this involuntary crime.” Catherine II, from a political point of view, was unprofitable by the death of Peter (“too early for her glory,” E.R. Dashkova). The coup (or “revolution”, as the events of June 1762 are sometimes defined), which took place with the full support of the guard, nobility and the highest ranks of the empire, protected it from possible attacks on power by Peter and excluded the possibility of any opposition forming around him. In addition, Catherine knew her husband well enough to seriously fear his political aspirations.
Initially, Peter III was buried without any honors in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, since only crowned heads were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the imperial tomb. The full Senate asked the Empress not to attend the funeral.
But, according to some reports, Catherine decided in her own way; She 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.
Life after death
Impostors have not been a new thing in the world community since the time of the False Nero, who appeared almost immediately after the death of his “prototype.” False tsars and false princes of the Time of Troubles are also known in Russia, but among all other domestic rulers and members of their families, Peter III is the absolute record holder for the number of impostors who tried to take the place of the untimely deceased tsar. During Pushkin's time there were rumors about five; According to the latest data, in Russia alone there were about forty false Peter III.
In 1764, he played the role of false Peter Anton Aslanbekov, a bankrupt Armenian merchant. 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, the name of the late emperor was appropriated by a fugitive recruit Ivan Evdokimov, who tried to raise an uprising in his favor among the peasants of the Nizhny Novgorod province and a Ukrainian Nikolay Kolchenko in Chernihiv region.
In 1765, a new impostor appeared in the Voronezh province, publicly declaring himself emperor. Later, arrested and interrogated, he “revealed himself as a private of the Lant-militia Oryol regiment Gavrila Kremnev.” Having deserted after 14 years of service, he managed to get himself a horse under saddle 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, a new impostor appeared in Slobodskaya Ukraine, in the settlement of Kupyanka, Izyum district. This time it turned out to be Pyotr Fedorovich Chernyshev, a fugitive soldier of the Bryansk regiment. This impostor, unlike his predecessors, turned out to be smart and articulate. Soon captured, convicted and exiled to Nerchinsk, he did not abandon his claims there either, 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. However, the impostor was unlucky. He 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, a 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 whipping.
In 1768, a second lieutenant of the Shirvan army regiment, held in the Shlisselburg fortress Josaphat Baturin in conversations with the soldiers on duty, he assured that “Peter Fedorovich is alive, but in a foreign land,” and even with one of the guards he tried to deliver 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, a fugitive soldier was caught near Astrakhan Mamykin, 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. Strictly speaking, he himself did not pretend to be the former emperor, but in March-June 1772 on the Volga, in the Tsaritsyn region, when his colleagues, due to the fact that Kazin-Bogomolov seemed to them too smart and intelligent, assumed that in front of them Emperor in hiding, 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, a robber ataman, who had escaped from Nerchinsk hard labor, tried to impersonate the emperor. Georgy Ryabov. 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 tried unsuccessfully to declare himself emperor. Nikolay Kretov.
In the same year, a certain Don Cossack, whose name has not been preserved in history, decided to benefit financially from the widespread belief in the “hiding emperor.” Perhaps, of all the applicants, this was the only one who spoke in advance with a purely fraudulent purpose. His accomplice, posing as the Secretary of State, traveled around the Tsaritsyn province, taking oaths and preparing the people to receive the “Father Tsar”, then the impostor himself appeared. The couple managed to profit enough at someone else’s expense before the news reached other Cossacks and they decided to give everything a political aspect. A plan was developed to capture the town of Dubrovka and arrest all the officers. However, the authorities became aware of the plot and one of the high-ranking military men showed sufficient determination to completely suppress the plot. Accompanied by a small escort, he entered the hut where the impostor was, hit him in the face and ordered his arrest along with his accomplice (“Secretary of State”). 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 1774, the future leader of the peasant war, Emelyan Pugachev, the most famous of the false Peter III, skillfully turned this story to his advantage, assuring that he himself was the “emperor who disappeared from Tsaritsyn” - and this attracted many to his side.
In 1774, another candidate for emperor came across, a certain Panicle. Same year Foma Mosyagin, who also tried to try on the “role” of Peter III, was arrested and exiled to Nerchinsk following the rest of the 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. The Voronezh governor Potapov, who managed to defeat the peasant freemen with some difficulty, during the investigation determined that the conspiracy was extremely extensive - at least 96 people were involved in it to one degree or another.
In 1778, a soldier of the Tsaritsyn 2nd battalion, Yakov Dmitriev, drunk, in a bathhouse, told everyone who would listen to him that “In the Crimean steppes, the former third emperor Peter Feodorovich is with the army, who was previously kept on guard, from where he was kidnapped 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 behind this except drunken recklessness and stupid chatter, 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 he again tried to raise the people, posing as “the miraculously saved Pugachev” - that is, Peter III. The number of his supporters began to grow rapidly, among them were peasants and rural priests, and a serious commotion began among those in power. However, on the Ilovlya River the challenger was captured and taken to Tsaritsyn. Astrakhan Governor-General I.V. Jacobi, who specially came to conduct the investigation, subjected the prisoner to interrogation and torture, during which Khanin admitted that back in 1778 he had met in Tsaritsyn with his friend named Oruzheinikov, and this friend convinced him that Khanin was “exactly “exactly” looks like Pugachev-“Peter”. The impostor was shackled and sent to Saratov prison.
His own Peter III was also in the scopal sect - 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 at least four times abroad and enjoyed considerable success there. For the first time it appeared in 1766 in Montenegro, which at that time was fighting for independence against the Turks and the Venetian Republic. Strictly speaking, this man, 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 (that was the name of the stranger) with requests to take power over the country, but he flatly refused until internal strife was stopped and peace was concluded between the tribes. Such unusual demands finally convinced the Montenegrins of his “royal origin” and, despite the resistance of the clergy and the machinations of the Russian general Dolgorukov, Stefan became the ruler of the country. He never revealed his real name, giving Y. V. Dolgoruky, who was seeking the truth, a choice of three versions - “Raichevich 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 - “ Stefan, small with small, good with good, evil with evil" Stefan turned out to be an intelligent and knowledgeable ruler. During the short time that he remained in power, civil strife ceased; after short friction, good neighborly relations with Russia were established and the country defended itself quite confidently against the onslaught from both the Venetians and the Turks. This could not please the conquerors, and Türkiye and Venice made repeated attempts on Stephen’s life. Finally, one of the attempts was successful: after five years of rule, Stefan Maly was stabbed to death in his sleep by his own doctor, a Greek by nationality, Stanko Klasomunya, bribed by the Skadar Pasha. The impostor’s belongings were sent to St. Petersburg, and his associates even tried to obtain a pension from Catherine for “valiant service to her husband.”
After the death of Stephen, a certain Zenovich tried to declare himself the ruler of Montenegro and Peter III, who once again “miraculously escaped from the hands of murderers,” but his attempt was unsuccessful. 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. How his epic ended is unknown.
The last foreign impostor, appearing in 1773, traveled all over Europe, corresponded with monarchs, and kept in touch with Voltaire and Rousseau. In 1785, in Amsterdam, the swindler was finally arrested and his veins were cut.
The last Russian “Peter III” was arrested in 1797, after which the ghost of Peter III finally disappeared from the historical scene.
In this article we'll talk O mysterious death overthrown Russian Emperor Peter III - grandson of Peter the Great, husband Catherine II and father Paul I.
There are still two main versions about the death of Emperor Peter III:
the main one - claims that a murder was committed in Ropsha (A.G. Orlov and F.S. Baryatinsky are traditionally considered the main murderers);
secondary - does not exclude the death of Peter III due to illness.
The lack of sources still does not allow us to fill the gap about what happened in Ropsha and it is filled with the conjectures of one or another author, however, the mysterious death of Peter III gives reason to suspect Catherine II of the murder of her husband...
So, everything in order...
June 29, 1796, the day after palace coup, Peter III signed a renunciation, after which he was taken to Peterhof.
On the way, he fainted. This is how the French diplomat Ruliere describes this event: “As soon as the army saw him, there were unanimous cries: “Long live Catherine!” - were heard from different sides, and among these new exclamations, frantically repeated, having passed all the regiments, he lost his memory. 4
Danish diplomat Andreas Schumacher adds: “The Emperor barely escaped the danger of being blown to pieces by a shot from one Shuvalov howitzer.” 6
The officer hit the gunner on the hand with his sword and he dropped the fuse, which saved the overthrown emperor from death...
Already in Peterhof, when Peter III’s favorite Vorontsova was leaving the carriage, the soldiers tore off the signs orders Saint Catherine. The emperor himself, when he was left alone, was ordered by the soldiers to undress and he “... tore off his ribbon, sword and dress, saying: “Now I am in your hands.” For several minutes he sat in his shirt, barefoot, to the ridicule of the soldiers...” 4
“The officers who were assigned to guard him insulted him in the most rude manner...
They assure me that the unbridled soldiers with particular malice took it out on the prisoner for all the stupidities and absurdities that Peter III had done,” - this is from the report to Paris of the French diplomat Laurent Beranger.
Nikita Panin, one of the conspirators and tutor of Tsarevich Pavel, personally selected “a battalion of three hundred people” to guard the deposed emperor, “in order to ward off drunken and tired soldiers from the possibility of an assassination attempt.”
The deposed Emperor Peter III, almost on his knees, begged Panin to leave his favorite Elizaveta Vorontsova with him, but he was denied this...
Why was the deposed Peter III sent from Peterhof to Ropsha and why did Catherine II not see him?
This can be explained by the situation that reigned in Peterhof after the coup, as clearly evidenced by Catherine herself in one of her letters to her former heart friend Stanislav Poniatovsky.
Here's what she writes: "Since it was the 29th, St. Peter's Day, a formal dinner at noon was necessary." However, while it was being cooked and the festive tables were being set, it seemed to the soldiers that one of the nobles was trying to reconcile Catherine II with her husband, who had been brought to the residence. Suspicion fell on the old field marshal Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy, whom the guards did not like.
“They began to pester everyone passing by - the hetman, the Orlovs” and demand the empress. The soldier’s logic was very simple: Prince Trubetskoy is trying “so that you die - and you and I, but we will tear him to pieces.”
Catherine emphasized that these were “their true words” and she ordered the field marshal to leave immediately while she herself “got around the troops on foot,” and he “rushed off into the city in horror” 3 .
What is important is that Trubetskoy had no doubt that the threat would be carried out, and Catherine II herself considered it feasible, since she went to personally calm the regiments. Who knows how events would have developed if the guards had found out that “Mother” was meeting with the deposed emperor?
The soldiers can be understood: peace could still be reborn in the august couple, and those who violated the oath would have to pay with their heads. Therefore, one rumor would be enough to provoke the drunken mass “dying with fear” to reprisal.
Then it would no longer be Trubetskoy who would be “torn into pieces”...
To prevent reprisals against the deposed emperor, Catherine sent Peter, accompanied by Alexei Orlov, four officers and a detachment of carefully selected soldiers to Ropsha, as she herself wrote, “to a place... secluded and very pleasant”...
However, the situation in Peterhof was not the only reason; there was another reason for the empress’s refusal to meet her husband. Before his abdication, Pyotr Fedorovich was given specific promises regarding his future.
“Peter, giving himself voluntarily into the hands of his wife, was not without hope,” 3 noted the secretary of the French embassy, Claude Ruliere.
In particular, Peter III believed that he would be released to Holstein, but the empress herself did not make any promises and already on June 29 in Peterhof she decided not to let her husband go to Germany, but to imprison him in Shlisselburg...
Therefore, Catherine II was in no hurry to meet her husband, since she would have to either confirm the obligations or refuse. A refusal could have aroused a storm of emotions in Peter, and he should have been sent out of the residence as quickly as possible and without scandal, where the safety of the monarch was not guaranteed in any way.
At this time, the deposed Emperor Peter III was in extremely difficult condition, since the coup had a terrible impact on the faint-hearted and very sensitive Peter.
None of the observers, no matter how he felt about what was happening, reported that the collapsed emperor behaved courageously or at least with dignity.
The Austrian ambassador Count Marcy d'Argenteau reported the following to Vienna: “In the world history there is no example where a sovereign, deprived of his crown and scepter, showed so little courage and good spirits as he, the king, who always tried to speak so arrogantly; When he was deposed from the throne, he acted so softly and cowardly that it is impossible even to describe.” 2
The Ropsha manor, which Catherine II chose to support her deposed husband, belonged to Hetman Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky. The house was small and consisted of an elongated suite of rooms on both sides of the central hall. Two of them were assigned to the prisoner, placing a pair of officers in his chambers - one at each door.
The external security of the building was carried out by soldiers.
There is every reason to believe that Catherine, sending the accompanying guard team, gave instructions to its commander and officers about the need for civilized treatment of the prisoner. 11
On the evening of June 29, 1762, the deposed emperor arrived at his place of imprisonment. Only one chamberlain, Alexey Maslov, remained with him, and the other two, so as not to accompany the deposed master, said they were sick.
June 30 at the Emperor's nervous soil Hemorrhoidal colic, which he had suffered from for a long time, began.
Added to this was an upset stomach. The day before, he ate practically nothing; in Peterhof, according to Schumacher, he only drank a glass of wine mixed with water.
“When he appeared in Ropsha, he was already weak and pitiful. He immediately stopped cooking food, which usually occurred several times a day, and he began to suffer from almost continuous headaches” 6 .
Peter had a very strict regime of detention: he was not allowed to walk in the garden or even look into the yard. The windows remained curtained at all times, and access to the adjacent room was also prohibited.
The prisoner even had to relieve himself in the presence of a sentry, which was especially difficult and humiliating when he had diarrhea...
Further, Schumacher reports on another case of bullying of Peter III.
“One evening... he was playing cards with Orlov. Having no money, he asked Orlov to give him some. Orlov took out an imperial coin from his wallet and handed it to the emperor, adding that he could have as many of them as he needed.
The Emperor... immediately asked if he could take a little walk in the garden to breathe fresh air. Orlov answered “yes” and went forward, as if to open the door, but at the same time he blinked at the guards, and they immediately drove the emperor back into the room with bayonets.
This brought the sovereign into such excitement that he cursed the day of his birth and the hour of his arrival in Russia, and then began to weep bitterly” 6.
The official version of the death of Peter III was set out in the Manifesto on July 7, 1762: “We announce this to all loyal subjects. On the seventh day after accepting Our All-Russian Throne, We received the news that the former Emperor Peter the Third fell into severe colic from an ordinary and often previously experienced hemorrhoidal attack...
To Our extreme sorrow and confusion of heart, yesterday We received another [news] that he died by the will of the Almighty God. Why did We order his body to be transferred to the Nevsky Monastery for burial.”
What happened in Ropsha?
“Mother gracious Empress. How can I explain, describe what happened: you won’t believe your faithful servant, but before God I will tell the truth.
Mother! I’m ready to die, but I don’t know how this disaster happened. We perished when you are not merciful.
Mother, he is not in the world.
But no one thought of this, and how can we think of raising our hands against the Emperor!
But, Empress, disaster has happened. We were drunk and so was he. He got into an argument at the table with Prince Fyodor, and before we had time to separate him, he was already gone.
We ourselves don’t remember what we did; but every single one of them is guilty, worthy of execution.
Have mercy on me, though for my brother.
I brought my confession to you, and there is nothing to look for.
Forgive me or tell me to finish soon.
The light is not kind, they have angered you and ruined your souls forever” 7 .
This letter, allegedly written by Alexei Orlov to Catherine II of Ropsha and preserved only in a copy, is very long time was considered a description the real reason death of Peter III.
After all, in fact, this is a very emotional text and Orlov described the accident itself, clearly not understanding how it happened...
A. B. Kamensky, the biographer of Catherine II, reconstructed the course of events as follows: during lunch, a quarrel and a fight broke out between the tipsy guards and the prisoner. By nature, Peter was cowardly and the attack on him by the hefty guards should have mortally frightened him, which resulted in an apoplexy.
Most likely, Catherine herself internally followed precisely this version, noting in her letter to Poniatovsky that on the fourth day Peter III “drank continuously, because he had everything except freedom.”
Perhaps angry complaints about his imprisonment, and then attacks on the officers: why they didn’t let him walk and harassed him, served as a pretext for the fight.
In 1768, Catherine II, in a letter to Denis Diderot, made the following conclusion about what happened: “There was no deceit in all this, but the whole reason was the bad behavior of a famous person, without which, of course, nothing could have happened to him.”
But there is one episode in this story that does not fit into this description of what happened. From the second, previous to the last, letter from Alexei Orlov dated July 3, we can conclude that Peter did not get up: “And he himself is now so sick that I don’t think he will live until the evening, and is almost completely unconscious.”
And then suddenly there was a feast, “continuous” drinking. With whom, with a person in a state of unconsciousness?
Therefore, quite rightly, the question arises: was there a meal?
And this is where Ruliere’s version, which explains everything, comes to the rescue: Alexei Orlov and State Councilor Grigory Nikolaevich Teplov, a close associate of Hetman Razumovsky, first tried to poison Peter III, and then strangled him.
It happened like this: they “came together to the unfortunate sovereign and announced that they intended to dine with him. As usual, the Russian was given a glass of vodka before dinner, and the one offered to the emperor was filled with poison.
Whether it was because they were in a hurry to deliver their news, or because the horror of the atrocity forced them to hurry, a minute later they poured him another.
Already the flame had spread through his veins, and the villainy depicted on their faces aroused suspicion in him - he refused the other; they used violence, and he defended himself against them...
Having tied and tied a napkin around the neck of this unfortunate emperor (while Orlov pressed on his chest with both knees and blocked his breath), they thus strangled him, and he gave up the ghost in their hands.”4
This description became known earlier than other sources and was used much more often.
Andreas Schumacher in his Notes insisted on his version. According to it, it turned out that “one of the former life-company Swedes who accepted the Russian faith, Schwanowitz, a very large and strong man, with the help of some other people, brutally strangled the emperor with a gun belt.
The fact that this unfortunate sovereign died just such a death was evidenced by the appearance of a lifeless body, whose face was black, as is usually the case with those hanged or strangled...
It is safe to say that other means were used to drive him away from the world, but they failed. So, State Councilor Dr. Kruse prepared a poisoned drink for him, but the emperor did not want to drink it. It is unlikely that I am mistaken in considering this state councilor and the current cabinet secretary of the Empress Grigory Teplov to be the main initiators of this murder...
On July 3, this vile man went to Ropsha to prepare everything for the already decided murder of the emperor.
On July 4, early in the morning, Lieutenant Prince Baryatinsky arrived from Ropsha and informed Chief Chamberlain Panin that the emperor was dead." 6
As a result of the hypothesis of the deliberate murder of the deposed Emperor Peter III, the question arose about Catherine’s involvement in what happened. After all, being afraid of restoring the deposed autocrat to the throne and giving the order to kill him are two different things.
In addition, the murder of Peter III cast a shadow not only on Catherine, but also on the Orlovs, her closest assistants, whose guilt deprived them of love and trust, and, consequently, the support of the soldiers...
And already on July 31, the Dutch resident Meinertzhagen reported to his homeland that during another night of unrest, Alexey Orlov, who went out to calm the raging soldiers, was scolded and almost beaten. They called him “a traitor and swore that they would never allow him to put on the royal cap.”
Although the Dutchman was mistaken - Alexei’s brother Grigory dreamed of marriage - this is still an illustrative example of the attitude towards the Orlovs after the assassination of Peter III: from yesterday’s idols they turned into “traitors”...
“I don’t believe,” Beranger wrote on July 23, “that this princess is so evil-hearted as to be involved in the death of the king. But since the deepest secret will always hide from society the true inspirer of this terrible assassination attempt, suspicions will remain on the empress, who received the fruits of the deed.” 8
Golden words...
Schumacher made an attempt to hint at the “mastermind”: “There is, however, not the slightest probability that it was the empress who ordered the murder of her husband. His strangulation was, without a doubt, the work of some of those who had entered into a conspiracy against the emperor and now wanted to insure themselves forever against the dangers that promised them and all new system his life, if it had lasted" 6.
According to many of Catherine II’s contemporaries, Peter’s death was beneficial to her, since it once and for all removed the issue of a potential coup in his favor.
However, as mentioned above, a simple and safe way to destroy the former emperor was during the coup, especially on June 29, after his abdication, upon his arrival in Peterhof. After all, a drunken crowd of soldiers could easily tear apart the deposed emperor, and in this case there would be no one to blame - the subjects rebelled...
Why didn’t Catherine take advantage of such a convenient and natural opportunity in terms of writing off responsibility for the murder, but, on the contrary, sent her deposed husband away from the angry crowd?
Perhaps Catherine hoped to get rid of Peter later, when time passed, the troops calmed down, and she strengthened her position on the throne?
Everything could be attributed to the poor health of the deposed husband, who could not stand his imprisonment in Shlisselburg...
There is also a version that Peter III was killed in a situation that threatened his release.
Instructions for the content of Peter III have not been preserved, but similar documents of that time were created in the likeness of previous ones with the same content. The only royal prisoner before Peter III was Ivan Antonovich, and as a result, Catherine’s decrees to Alexei Orlov regarding the prisoner in Ropsha should have at least partially repeated the instructions for supervising the “nameless convict” Ivan Antonovich...
In the personal decree of Peter III, Captain Prince Churmanteev was directly told to put an end to Ivan during an attempt to capture him: “If, beyond our aspirations, anyone would dare to take a prisoner from you, in this case, resist as much as possible and not give the prisoner alive into your hands "
It seems that a similar point was provided for in the instructions to Alexei Orlov regarding Peter III...
A. B. Kamensky reasoned: “Killing him... would make sense only in one case - in the case of an acute danger of a counter-coup, but there was clearly no such danger” 9.
However, many researchers do not agree with him: unrest among the regiments at that time continued and sometimes took on threatening forms.
Ruliere wrote: “Six days had already passed since the revolution: and this great incident seemed over so that no violence left any unpleasant impressions...
But the soldiers were surprised at their action and did not understand what led them to dethrone the grandson of Peter the Great and placed his crown on a German woman...
The sailors, who were not tempted by anything during the riot, publicly reproached the guards in the taverns for selling their emperor for beer...
One night, a crowd of soldiers loyal to the empress rioted out of empty fear, saying that their mother was in danger. She had to be woken up so they could see her.
The next night there was a new indignation, even more dangerous - in a word, while the life of the emperor gave rise to riots, they thought that peace could not be expected” 4.
Schumacher also reported on disagreements in the guards units during the coup itself: “Strong rivalry already reigned between the Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky regiments” 6 .
Returning to the capital, many cooled down. The Preobrazhensky Regiment was pushed away from its usual leadership; army units, naval crews and, as it soon turned out, the Artillery Corps did not speak out at all.
The situation was full of surprises...
Beranger, in a report on August 10, reported on the decision to eliminate Peter III: “This last decision was made due to the discovery of the conspiracy and especially because the Preobrazhensky Regiment had to rescue Peter III from prison and restore him to the throne.” 10
Today we have no information whether the diplomat’s information corresponded to reality, but it is known that at that time the capital continued to be in a fever.
Mere suspicion of the intention of the Preobrazhentsy or another regiment to free the emperor was enough to decide his fate...
Perhaps the conspirators decided the matter among themselves without informing the empress. After all, there was obvious excitement in the regiments, and in hand there were instructions with clear instructions.
Teplov went with Kruse and Shvanvich to Ropsha, where he informed Alexei Orlov about the situation in St. Petersburg, which corresponded to the point of the instruction “not to hand over a living person.”
The information that the Preobrazhensky Regiment is supposedly ready to free the Tsar pushed us to a denouement...
But it was not appropriate for an officer of noble birth to understand the tsar’s hand and Orlov had to ask who would carry out the deed. Kruse and Shvanvich were ready. Alexey let them see the prisoner, and that was his fault.
Probably, from the point of view of the killers, it would have been easier to give the prisoner a slow-acting poison under the guise of medicine, and then leave themselves, leaving Alexei to deal with the consequences. But, apparently, they were in a hurry, because when the instant poison did not work, they strangled the emperor.
Such haste speaks of a threat, and perhaps the danger of an attack on Ropsha seemed real at that time.
Beranger writes that he believed that Catherine did not know about what happened for 24 hours, Schumacher - for three days. Immediately after returning from Peterhof, Catherine II took part in meetings of the Senate on July 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Perhaps her absence at the meetings on July 5th is confirmed by the fact that on July 4th she learned of Peter’s death, and on July 5th she did not find the strength to appear before the Senate...
On July 4, Hetman Razumovsky was appointed to command the St. Petersburg garrison, from which we can conclude that Catherine continued to consider Kirill Grigorievich a reliable and personally devoted person to her.
On August 9, in a letter to Stanislav Poniatovsky, Catherine reported about her new secretaries of state: “Teplov serves me well,” and on September 12 about Razumovsky and Nikita Ivanovich: “The Hetman is with me all the time, and Panin is my most dexterous, most reasonable, most zealous courtier."
And then briefly: “Everyone is at peace, forgiven, showing their devotion to their homeland.”
Consequently, Empress Catherine II did not consider Teplov, Razumovsky and Panin to be malicious scoundrels.
The situation at that moment served as a justification for their actions.
Catherine II gained valuable experience in this story - not all documents can be marked with your name...
Several versions have been recorded in historical literature outlining the circumstances of the murder of the sovereign, but the most curious thing is that none of the memoirists was an eyewitness to the murder scene.
A copy of A. Orlov’s letter appeared 34 years after the death of Peter III, but not a word was said about the original itself during Catherine’s life.
For more than two centuries, A. Orlov was credited with the arbitrary villainous murder of the deposed Emperor Peter III, but publications recent years O.A. Ivanov, as well as the manuscript of the 19th century historian M. Korff, published for the first time under the title “Braungschweisskoe family,” allow us to take a completely different look not only at the copy of A. Orlov’s letter used as a historical document, in which he reported on the murder of Peter III, but also for the last minutes of the emperor's life.
In the historical study of O.L. Ivanov, which is based on authentic archival materials, notes, letters and memoirs of contemporaries, provides a large number of arguments to assert that, contrary to the traditional point of view, the famous letter of A. Orlov, allegedly kept in the casket of Catherine II all his life, is nothing more than fake...
Here are the main arguments of O.L. Ivanova:
1. The primary source (a letter from A. Orlov to Catherine II with a message about the murder of the emperor) was allegedly destroyed immediately after the death of Catherine II, and a copy of the letter taken by F. Rostopchin was also not found (there are lists from it, accepted as Rostopchin’s copy).
2. The commentary that accompanies the “Rostopchin copy” is silent about two previous letters from Alexei Orlov, the authenticity of which is beyond doubt.
3. Between June 29 and July 2 different sources They report Peter's growing sickness.
4. The extremely knowledgeable Danish envoy Schumacher, whose words were listened to by eminent historians and who was a very interested person in the isolation of Peter III, because military actions against his country by the will of Peter were about to begin, claims that on July 3 in Ropsha Goff surgeon Paulsen was sent. But what’s most interesting is that he had no medicine, but he had “tools and items necessary for opening and embalming a dead body”!
5. The spelling of the “copy of Rostopchin” is fundamentally different from the two original previous letters of A. Orlov. In the “copy” the unacceptable familiar way of addressing the empress as “you” is puzzling.
This fake, which was composed by F. Rostopchin, allowed Paul I, on the eve of his own coronation, to cleanse the crown of the Russian Empire, stained with the blood of his father.
What actually caused the death of the deposed Emperor Peter III now could hardly be determined by special medical research, since no documents on the results of the autopsy have been preserved, and it is not known whether there were such documents at all...
For farewell and veneration, the body of the former sovereign was brought and exhibited in the chambers, which had previously served for the same purpose during the funeral of Anna Leopoldovna and the stillborn Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Catherine’s daughter.
The late Emperor Peter III, who did not even have time to accept the coronation ceremony necessary for all who ascended the Russian kingdom, was dressed “in a light blue uniform of Holstein dragoons with white lapels,” his hands were hidden in leggings, orders They decided not to show it to the public.
Some of the eyewitnesses claimed that traces of strangulation were visible on Peter’s body, but it was forbidden to stop near the coffin; the officers on duty urged: “Come in, come in.”
The funeral service took place in the Annunciation Church of the monastery on July 10, and here Peter’s remains were interred, “opposite the royal doors, immediately behind the grave of Anna Leopoldovna.”
Catherine II followed the persistent advice of the Senate, which was concerned about her health, and was not present at the burial of Peter III...
Sources of information:
1. Eliseeva “Everyone is at peace, forgiven...”
2. Brickner “The History of Catherine the Second”
3. Poniatowski “Memoirs”
4. Ruliere “History and anecdotes of the revolution in Russia in 1762”
5. Website “Kaleidoscope of the secret, unknown and mysterious”
6. Schumacher “The History of the Deposition and Death of Peter III”
7. “Letters from Count A.G. Orlov to Catherine II”
8. Turgenev “Russian court in the 18th century”
9. Kamensky “Under the canopy of Catherine...”
10. RIO collection
11. Polushkin “Eagles of the Empress”
