Peter III (brief biography)

The biography of Karl-Peter-Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp or Peter the Third is full of events and sharp turns. He was born on the twenty-first of February 1728 and was left without a mother at an early age. At the age of eleven he lost his father. The young man was prepared to rule Sweden, but everything changed when Elizabeth, who became the heir to her throne in 1741, declared her nephew Peter the Third Fedorovich.

Researchers claim that he was not a great intellectual, but he was quite fluent in Latin and the Lutheran Catechism (he also spoke a little French). The Empress forced Peter the Third to learn Russian and the basics of the Orthodox faith. In 1745, he was married to Catherine the Second, who gave birth to his heir, Paul the First. In 1761, after the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter was declared Russian Emperor without coronation.

The reign of Peter the Third lasted one hundred eighty-six days. In addition, he was not popular in Russian society at that time, since he openly expressed his positive attitude towards Frederick the Second during the Seven Years' War.

With his most important manifesto of February 18, 1762, ruler Peter the Third abolished the compulsory noble service, the Secret Chancellery, and also allowed schismatics to return to their homeland. However, even these measures did not bring the king people's love. During the short period of his reign, serfdom was strengthened. He also ordered the priests to cut their beards and dress in the manner of Lutheran pastors.

Without hiding his admiration for the ruler of Prussia (Frederick the Second), Peter the Third leads Russia out of the Seven Years' War, returning the conquered territories to Prussia. It is not surprising that very soon many in the king’s circle become participants in a conspiracy that was aimed at overthrowing such a ruler. The initiator of this conspiracy was Peter’s wife Ekaterina Alekseevna.

These events became the beginning of the palace coup of 1762, in which M. Volkonsky, K. Razumovsky, and G. Orlov took part.

Already in 1762, the Izmailovsky and Semenovsky regiments swore allegiance to Catherine. It is in their accompaniment that she goes to the Kazan Cathedral, where she is proclaimed empress.

Tsar Peter the Third was exiled to Ropsha, where he died on July 9, 1762.

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

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

Elizabeth did not have legitimate children, and therefore, an heir had to be looked for among other members of the Romanov family.

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

Bad experience Boris Godunov And Vasily Shuisky said that a monarch who does not have firm support can lead the country to turmoil and chaos. Likewise, the absence of an heir to the throne can lead to confusion and chaos.

To Russia, Karl!

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

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

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

At the age of 11, Karl Peter lost his father. His cousin took up raising the boy, future king of Sweden Adolf Frederick. The teachers assigned to train the boy focused on cruel and humiliating punishments, which made Karl Peter nervous and fearful.

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

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

Bride for a troubled teenager

Elizaveta Petrovna greeted her nephew with joy, but was struck by his thinness and sickly appearance. When it became clear that his training was carried out purely formally, it was time to grab his head.

During the first months, Karl Peter was literally fattened up and put in order. They began to teach him almost all over again, from the basics. In November 1742 he was baptized into Orthodoxy under the name Peter Fedorovich.

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

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

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

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

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

Ignorant and clever

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

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

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

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

Sometimes an irritated Peter would throw out phrases like: “They dragged me to this damned Russia.” And this also did not add to his supporters.

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

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

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

Empress Elizabeth's backup

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

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

Elizaveta Petrovna hatched a new plan - if it was not possible to re-educate her nephew, then she needed to properly raise her grandson, who would then be given power. But with the birth of a grandson, problems also arose.

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

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

If this did not excite Peter in any way, then Catherine tried to see her son more often, which greatly irritated the empress.

A conspiracy that failed

After the birth of Paul, the cooling between Peter and Catherine only intensified. Pyotr Fedorovich took mistresses, Catherine – lovers, and both parties were aware of each other’s adventures.

Pyotr Fedorovich, for all his shortcomings, was a rather simple-minded person who did not know how to hide his thoughts and intentions. Peter began to talk about the fact that with his accession to the throne he would get rid of his unloved wife several years before the death of Elizabeth Petrovna. Catherine knew that in this case, a prison awaited her, or a monastery no different from it. Therefore, she secretly begins to negotiate with those who, like herself, would not like to see Pyotr Fedorovich on the throne.

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

In December 1761, a new exacerbation of the disease led to the death of the empress. It was not possible to implement plans to transfer power to Pavel, since the boy was only 7 years old, and Pyotr Fedorovich became the new head of the Russian Empire under the name of Peter III.

Fatal world with an idol

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

His intention to secularize church lands and equalize the rights of representatives of all religious denominations alarmed Russian society. Peter's opponents spread a rumor that the emperor was preparing to introduce Lutheranism in the country, which did not add to his popularity.

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

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

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

During his short reign, Emperor Peter III managed to develop vigorous activity. During his reign, he signed almost 200 decrees! Some of the laws were extremely important.

Peter III carried out decrees that generally continued the line of his predecessors, and sometimes he went even further than them. Thus, many of the initiatives conceived by the emperor were subsequently implemented by his wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna, who took the throne later.

Manifesto on the freedom of the nobility

Decree on secularization

They were in a difficult situation in the 60s. XVIII century serfs of church and monastic lands. Over the course of 20 years, the number of peasant uprisings on monastic lands tripled. The peasants demanded that they be transferred to government positions. Peter III signed a decree on secularization: the lands of churches and monasteries were confiscated with the peasants inhabiting them and transferred to the ownership of the state. This meant improving the situation of hundreds of thousands of peasants and strengthening the state treasury.

Pictures (photos, drawings)

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There have been incomprehensible characters in Russian history. One of these was Peter III, who, by the will of fate, was destined to become the Russian emperor.

Peter-Ulrich was the son of Anna Petrovna, the eldest daughter, and the Duke of Holstein, Kal - Friedrich. The heir to the Russian throne was born on February 21, 1728.

Anna Petrovna died three months after the birth of the boy, from consumption. At the age of 11, Peter-Ulrich will lose his father.

Peter-Ulrich's uncle was the Swedish king Charles XII. Peter had rights to both the Russian and Swedish thrones. From the age of 11, the future emperor lived in Sweden, where he was brought up in the spirit of Swedish patriotism and hatred of Russia.

Ulrich grew up as a nervous and sickly boy. This was largely due to the manner of his upbringing.

His teachers often took humiliating and harsh punishments towards their charges.

The character of Peter-Ulrich was simple-minded; there was no particular malice in the boy.

In 1741, Peter-Ulrich's aunt became Empress of Russia. One of her first steps at the head of the state was the proclamation of an heir. The Empress named Peter-Ulrich as his successor.

Why? She wanted to establish the paternal line on the throne. And her relationship with her sister, Peter’s mother, Anna Petrovna, was very, very warm.

After the proclamation of the heir, Peter-Ulrich came to Russia, where he converted to Orthodoxy and at baptism received a new name Peter Fedorovich.

When Empress Elizaveta Petrovna first saw Peter, she was unpleasantly surprised. The heir had a mediocre mind, had a low level of education and an unhealthy appearance.

A teacher, Jacob Shtelin, was immediately assigned to Pyotr Fedorovich, who tried to instill in his student a love of Russia and teach the Russian language. In 1745, Peter III married Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst. At baptism, the lady received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna, and again, by the will of fate, after some time she took the Russian throne and went down in history under the name.

The relationship between Pyotr Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna immediately went wrong. Catherine did not like the immaturity and limitations of her husband. Peter did not intend to grow up, and continued to devote himself to children's amusements, playing with soldiers, and with great gusto. On December 25, 1761, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna died and Peter Fedorovich ascended the Russian throne, although it is worth noting that he did not have time to be crowned.

First of all, having ascended the Russian throne, he did an unprecedented thing. Let me remind you that Russia participated in the war, on the battlefields of which its military genius was tempered. The Seven Years' War developed so successfully that it was possible to put an end to the existence of the German state, or at least oblige Prussia to pay a huge indemnity and extract favorable trade agreements from it.

Peter III was a long-time and great admirer of Frederick II, and instead of benefiting from a successful war, the emperor concluded a gratuitous peace with Prussia. This could not please the Russian people, who, with their courage and blood, achieved success on the battlefields of that war. This step cannot be described as anything other than betrayal or tyranny.

In the domestic political field, Peter III launched active activities. In a short time, he issued a huge number of legal acts, among which stands out the manifesto on the freedom of the nobility - the liquidation of the Secret Chancellery, which dealt with political crimes and the fight against dissent. Under Peter, the persecution of Old Believers was stopped. In the army, he imposed Prussian orders, and in a short time turned a significant part of Russian society against himself.

Pyotr Fedorovich did not act within the framework of a specific political program. According to historians, most of his actions were chaotic. Society's dissatisfaction intensified, which ultimately resulted in a coup d'etat in 1762, after which Ekaterina Alekseevna, the wife of Peter III, ascended the throne, whom Russian history will remember as Catherine II.

Peter died in a suburb of St. Petersburg under mysterious circumstances. Some believe that he was overcome by a fleeting illness, others that conspirators - supporters of Catherine II - helped him die. The short reign of Peter III, which lasted about six months, from December 1761 to July 1762, can be described in one word - a misunderstanding.

1. In 1761, Peter III became Emperor of Russia, whom Elizaveta Petrovna appointed as her successor. Peter III (before baptism - Karya Friedrich Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp) - grandson of Peter I on the female side, nephew of Elizabeth Petrovna. Despite his relationship with Peter I, Charles (Peter III) was German by nationality and upbringing. Shortly before the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, he came to Russia from Germany (the Principality of Holstein) with his wife, also German, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, who took the name Catherine, and their young son Pavel.

The reign of Peter III was short - about six months, and is considered unsuccessful. The main reasons for his unpopularity among the Russian elite were:

- personal qualities - immaturity, hot temper, immaturity for governing the state;

— his dislike for Russia and everything Russian.

Peter III did not hide his German origin and admired the German order. He was also a passionate admirer of Prussia and King Frederick, with whom Russia was at war.

During his short reign, he took two steps that were unpopular among the people:

- issued the “Manifesto on the granting of liberties and freedom to the entire Russian nobility,” according to which, from 1762, nobles were exempted from all types of service (military service and from any other (civil) service to the state), which previously constituted the meaning of the institution of the nobility;

- stopped Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) a year before its end, which deprived Russia of the results of victory and saved Prussia from complete defeat.

These steps of Peter III caused indignation among patriotic nobles and military personnel.

2. On the night of June 28, 1762, three regiments - Semenovsky, Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky, which made up the elite of the Russian army (guard), carried out a palace coup. The 33-year-old wife of Peter III, who enjoyed authority among the military and nobles, was proclaimed the new Empress of Russia under the name of Catherine II.

On June 29, Peter III abdicated the throne and fled. A week later, on July 6, 1762, he was killed near Oranienbaum. 2 years later, in 1764, another contender for the throne was killed in the Shlisselburg fortress - Ivan Antonovich (1740 - 1764) - the former Emperor Ivan VI (1740 - 1741), who was imprisoned by Elizabeth in the fortress at the age of 1 year and was in it for a long time. for 24 years (my entire life).

Despite the unsuccessful reign of both, both Peter Fedorovich (Peter III) and Ivan Antonovich began to be perceived by the people as martyrs. Legends were made up about them, rumors that they were going to abolish serfdom (which was not true). This created the basis for the activities of a number of impostors, posing as either Peter III or Ivan VI. The most famous of them was Emelyan Pugachev, who 10 years later declared himself Emperor Peter III. The new Empress Catherine II - Sophia Frederika Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1729 - 1796), German by nationality, was the princess of the small German principality of Anhalt before her betrothal to Peter III and accession to the Russian throne. Despite her German origins, Catherine II embraced Russian culture and, unlike her late husband, gradually became Russified. The 34 years of her reign went down in history as the era of “enlightened absolutism” - the strengthening of imperial power and the flourishing of Russia in many spheres of life. At the same time, it was an era of unbridled corruption of the nobility, increased serfdom, and brutal repression of dissidents.