F. Rokotov "Portrait of Peter III"

“But nature was not as favorable to him as fate: the likely heir to two foreign and large thrones, his abilities were not suitable for his own small throne” (V. Klyuchevsky)

Childhood

Before adopting Orthodoxy, the All-Russian Emperor Peter III Fedorovich bore the name Karl-Peter-Ulrich. He was the son of Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp and Tsarevna Anna Petrovna (daughter of Peter I). Thus, he was the grandson of Peter I and the great-nephew of King Charles XII of Sweden. Born in Kiel, the capital of Holstein. He was only 3 weeks old when his mother died and 11 years old when his father died.

His upbringing was entrusted to Court Marshal Brumaire; it was reduced to barracks order and training with the help of a whip. Nevertheless, he was being prepared to take the Swedish throne, and therefore the spirit of Swedish patriotism was instilled in him, i.e. spirit of hatred towards Russia.

The current Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was childless, but wanted the throne to be inherited by a descendant of Peter I, so for this purpose she brings her nephew, Karl-Peter-Ulrich, to Russia. He converts to Orthodoxy and, under the name of Peter Fedorovich, is declared Grand Duke, heir to the throne with the title of Imperial Highness.

L. Pfantselt "Portrait of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich"

In Russia

Peter was sickly and did not receive proper upbringing and education. In addition, he had a stubborn, irritable and deceitful character. Elizaveta Petrovna was amazed at her nephew’s ignorance. She assigned a new teacher to him, but he never achieved significant success from him. And a sharp change in lifestyle, country, situation, impressions and religion (before accepting Orthodoxy, he was a Lutheran) led to the fact that he was completely disoriented in the world around him. V. Klyuchevsky wrote: “... he looked at serious things with a child’s gaze, and treated children’s undertakings with the seriousness of a mature husband.”

Elizaveta Petrovna did not abandon her intention to secure the throne for the descendant of Peter I and decided to marry him. She herself chose his bride - the daughter of an impoverished German prince - Sophia Friederike Augusta (in the future Catherine II). The marriage took place on August 21, 1745. But their family life things didn't work out from the very first days. Peter insulted his young wife, repeatedly announced that she would be sent abroad or to a monastery, and was carried away by Elizabeth Petrovna’s ladies-in-waiting. He developed a passion for carousing. However, Peter III had two children: a son, Paul ( future emperor Paul I) and daughter Anna. Rumor has it that the children were not his.

G.-K. Groot "Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna"

Peter's favorite pastimes were playing the violin and war games. Already being married, Peter did not stop playing with soldiers; he had a lot of wooden, wax and tin soldiers. His idol was the Prussian King Frederick II and his army; he admired the beauty of Prussian uniforms and the bearing of the soldiers.

Elizaveta Petrovna, according to V. Klyuchevsky, was in despair at the character and behavior of her nephew. She herself and her favorites were concerned about the fate of the Russian throne; she listened to proposals to replace the heir with Catherine or Pavel Petrovich while maintaining the regency for Catherine until he came of age, but the empress could not finally decide on any proposal. She died - and on December 25, 1761, Peter III ascended the Russian throne.

Domestic policy

The young emperor began his reign by pardoning many criminals and political exiles (Minich, Biron, etc.). He abolished the Secret Chancellery, which had been in operation since the time of Peter I and was engaged in secret investigation and torture. He announced forgiveness to the repentant peasants who had previously disobeyed their landowners. He forbade the persecution of schismatics. Issued a Decree of February 18, 1762, according to which compulsory military service for the nobles, introduced by Peter I. Historians doubt that all these innovations were dictated by the desire for the good of Russia - most likely, there were more actions of court dignitaries who tried in this way to increase the popularity of the new emperor. But it continued to remain very low. He was accused of disrespect for Russian shrines (he did not honor the clergy, ordered house churches to be closed, priests to take off their vestments and dress in secular clothes), as well as concluding a “shameful peace” with Prussia.

Foreign policy

Peter led Russia out of the Seven Years' War; during the hostilities, East Prussia was annexed to Russia.

The negative attitude towards Peter III intensified after he announced his intention to move to recapture Schleswig from Denmark. In his opinion, she oppressed his native Holstein. The guards, who, in fact, supported Catherine in the upcoming coup, were especially worried.

Coup

Having ascended the throne, Peter was in no hurry to be crowned. And although Frederick II in his letters persistently advised Peter to carry out this procedure as quickly as possible, for some reason the emperor did not listen to the advice of his idol. Therefore, in the eyes of the Russian people, he was, as it were, a fake tsar. For Catherine, this moment was the only chance to take the throne. Moreover, the emperor has publicly stated more than once that he intends to divorce his wife and marry Elizaveta Vorontsova, Elizaveta Petrovna’s former maid of honor.

On June 27, 1762, P. Passek, one of the main organizers of the conspiracy, was arrested in the Izmailovo barracks. Early in the morning, the brother of Catherine’s favorite A. Orlov brought Catherine from Peterhof to St. Petersburg, where the Izmailovsky and Semenovsky regiments swore allegiance to her, and her Manifesto was urgently read out in the Winter Palace. Then the rest swore allegiance to her. Peter III at this time was in his favorite castle in Oranienbaum. Having learned about the events that had taken place, he hurried to Kronstadt (on the advice of Minich), but by that time the soldiers there had already sworn allegiance to Catherine. He returned lost and, despite the fact that Minich offered him various ways way out of the situation, did not dare to take any action and rewrote the act of abdication drawn up by Catherine. He was sent first to Peterhof, and then to Ropsha, where he was taken under arrest. While Catherine was thinking about what to do with the deposed emperor, her entourage killed him (by strangulation). It was announced to the people that Peter III died of “hemorrhoidal colic.”

L. Pfanzelt "Portrait of Emperor Peter III"

Frederick II commented on his death: “ He allowed himself to be overthrown like a child being sent to bed.”

Peter III served as Russian Emperor for only 186 days.

While still alive in 1742, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna declared her nephew, the son of the deceased, the legal heir to the Russian throne older sister Anna Petrovna, Karl-Peter-Ulrich Duke of Holstein-Gothorp. He was also a Swedish prince, as he was the grandson of Queen Ulrika Eleonora, who succeeded Charles XII and had no children. Therefore, the boy was raised in the Lutheran faith, and his teacher was the military to the core, Marshal Count Otto Brumenn. But according to the peace treaty signed in the city of Abo in 1743 after the actual defeat of Sweden in the war with Russia, Ulrika-Eleanor was forced to abandon plans to crown her grandson on the throne, and the young duke moved to St. Petersburg from Stockholm.

After accepting Orthodoxy, he received the name Peter Fedorovich. His new teacher was Jacob von Staehlin, who considered his student a gifted young man. He clearly excelled in history, mathematics, if it concerned fortification and artillery, and music. However, Elizaveta Petrovna was dissatisfied with his successes, since he did not want to study the basics of Orthodoxy and Russian literature. After the birth of her grandson Pavel Petrovich on September 20, 1754, the Empress began to bring the intelligent and determined Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna closer to her, and allowed her stubborn nephew to create a Holstein Palace in Oranienbaum “for fun.” guards regiment. Without a doubt, she wanted to declare Paul heir to the throne, and proclaim Catherine as regent until he came of age. This further worsened the couple's relationship.

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

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

The Code of 1754 of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna spoke about the monopoly right of nobles to own land and serfs. The landowners only did not have the opportunity to take their lives, punish them with a cattle whip, or torture them. The nobles received unlimited rights to buy and sell peasants. In Elizabethan times, the main form of protest among serfs, schismatics and sectarians was the mass escape of peasants and townspeople. Hundreds of thousands fled not only to the Don and Siberia, but also to Poland, Finland, Sweden, Persia, Khiva and other countries. Other signs of crisis appeared - the country was flooded with “bands of robbers.” The reign of “Petrova’s daughter” was not only a period of flourishing of literature and art, the emergence of a noble intelligentsia, but at the same time, when the Russian tax-paying population felt the increasing degree of their lack of freedom, human humiliation, and powerlessness against social injustice.

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

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

However, Pyotr Fedorovich hoped that the King of Prussia would support him in the war with Denmark in order to regain Holstein, and even sent 16,000 soldiers and officers under the command of cavalry general Pyotr Aleksandrovich Rumyantsev to Brunswick. However, the Prussian army was in such a deplorable state that it was impossible to drag it into new war Frederick the Great did not dare. And Rumyantsev was far from delighted to have the Prussians, whom he had beaten many times, as his allies!

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

“Has any of those born into the world heard,

So that the triumphant people

Surrendered into the hands of the vanquished?

Oh, shame! Oh, strange turn!

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

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

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

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

Catherine paid him in full reciprocity. The reason for the desired divorce from his unloved wife was the “letters” of Grand Duchess Catherine fabricated in Versailles to Field Marshal General Apraksin that after the victory over the Prussian troops near Memel in 1757 he should not enter East Prussia in order to allow Frederick the Great to recover from defeats. On the contrary, when the French ambassador in Warsaw demanded from Elizabeth Petrovna the removal of the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislav-August Poniatowski from St. Petersburg, hinting at his love affair with the Grand Duchess, Catherine frankly declared to the Empress: “What is some de Bronny like compared to the Grand Duchess?” Russian empress and how dare he impose his will on the mistress of the strongest European power?

It did not cost Chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov anything to prove the forgery of these papers, but, nevertheless, in a private conversation with the St. Petersburg Police Chief General Nikolai Alekseevich Korf, Peter III expressed his innermost thoughts: “I will tonsure my wife as a nun, as my great grandfather did.” Peter, with his first wife, let him pray and repent! And I will put them and their son in Shlisselburg...” Vorontsov decided not to rush things with slandering the emperor’s wife.

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

The Grand Duke at one time laughed heartily at Elizabeth Petrovna’s rescript, according to which “the valet who is on duty at Her Majesty’s door at night is obliged to listen and, when the Mother Empress screams from a nightmare, put her hand on her forehead and say “white swan” , for which this valet complains to the nobility and receives the surname Lebedev.” As Elizaveta Petrovna grew older, she constantly saw in her dreams the same scene of her raising the deposed Anna Leopoldovna, who by that time had long since rested in Kholmogory, from her bed. It didn't help that she changed bedrooms almost every night. The Lebedev nobles became more and more numerous. To make it easier to distinguish them from the peasant class, they began to be called such after the next passportization during the reign of Alexander II by the Lebedinsky landowners.

In addition to “universal kindness” and the violin, Peter III adored subordination, order and justice. Under him, the nobles disgraced under Elizabeth Petrovna - Duke Biron, Count Minich, Count Lestocq and Baroness Mengden - were returned from exile and restored to their ranks and status. This was perceived as the threshold of a new “Bironovism”; the appearance of a new foreign favorite had simply not yet emerged. Military to the core, Lieutenant General Count Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich was clearly not suitable for this role; the toothless and idiotically smiling Minikh and the forever frightened Biron, of course, were not taken into account by anyone.

The very sight of St. Petersburg, where among the dugouts and “church huts” of state serfs and townspeople assigned to the settlement, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Winter Palace and the house of the capital’s governor-general Menshikov rose, with cluttered dirty streets, aroused disgust in the emperor. However, Moscow looked no better, standing out only for its numerous cathedrals, churches and monasteries. Moreover, Peter the Great himself forbade the construction of Moscow with brick buildings and the pavement of streets with stone. Peter III wanted to slightly improve the appearance of his capital - “Venice of the north”.

And he, together with the Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Prince Cherkassky, gave the order to clean up the cluttered construction site in front of the Winter Palace, through which the courtiers made their way to the main entrance, as if through the ruins of Pompeii, tearing their camisoles and getting their boots dirty. The residents of St. Petersburg cleared all the rubble in half an hour, taking away broken bricks, rafters, rusty nails, glass remains and fragments of scaffolding. The square was soon perfectly paved by Danish craftsmen and became a decoration of the capital. The city began to be gradually rebuilt, for which the townspeople were extremely grateful to Peter III. The same fate befell construction landfills in Peterhof, Oranienbaum, near the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and Strelna. The Russian nobles saw this as a bad sign - they did not like foreign orders and were afraid of them since the time of Anna Ioannovna. The new city blocks behind the Moika, where commoners opened “tenement houses,” sometimes looked better than the townspeople’s wooden huts, as if transferred from the boyar Moscow past.

The emperor was also disliked because he adhered to a strict daily routine. Rising at six o'clock in the morning, Peter III alerted the commanders of the guards regiments and organized military reviews with mandatory exercises in stepping, shooting and combat formation. The Russian guards hated discipline and military exercises with every fiber of their soul, considering free orders their privilege, sometimes appearing in regiments in dressing gowns and even nightgowns, but with a statutory sword at the waist! The last straw was the introduction military uniform Prussian model. Instead of the Russian dark green army uniform with red stand-up collars and cuffs, uniforms in orange, blue, orange and even canary colors were to be worn. Wigs, aiguillettes and expanders became mandatory, because of which the “Preobrazhentsy”, “Semyonovtsy” and “Izmailovtsy” became almost indistinguishable, and narrow boots, the tops of which, as of old, could not fit flat German vodka flasks. In a conversation with his close friends, the Razumovsky brothers, Alexei and Kirill, Peter III said that the Russian "guard are the current Janissaries, and they should be eliminated!"

Enough reasons were accumulating for a palace conspiracy among the guards. Being an intelligent man, Peter III understood that trusting the “Russian Praetorians” with his life was dangerous. And he decided to create his own personal guard - the Holstein regiment under the command of General Gudovich, but managed to form only one battalion consisting of 1,590 people. After the strange end of Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War, the Holstein-Gothorp and Danish nobles were in no hurry to St. Petersburg, which clearly sought to pursue an isolationist policy that did not promise any benefits to the professional military. Desperate scoundrels, drunkards and people of dubious reputation were recruited into the Holstein battalion. And the emperor’s love of peace alarmed the mercenaries - double salaries were paid to Russian military personnel only during the period of hostilities. Peter III was not going to deviate from this rule, especially since the state treasury was thoroughly emptied during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna.

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

Thus, according to his Decree of February 21, the sinister Secret Chancellery was liquidated, and its archive “to eternal oblivion” was transferred to the Governing Senate for permanent storage. The formula “Word and deed!”, fatal for any Russian citizen, was enough to “test on the rack” everyone, regardless of his class affiliation; it was forbidden to even pronounce it.

In his programmatic “Manifesto on the liberty and freedom of the Russian nobility” dated February 18, 1762, Peter III generally abolished physical torture of representatives of the ruling class and provided them with guarantees of personal integrity, unless it concerned treason against the Fatherland. Even such a “humane” execution for nobles as cutting the tongue and exile to Siberia instead of cutting off the head, introduced by Elizaveta Petrovna, was prohibited. His decrees confirmed and expanded the noble monopoly on distillation.

The Russian nobility was shocked by the public trial of General Maria Zotova, whose estates were sold at auction in favor of disabled soldiers and crippled peasants for their inhumane treatment of serfs. The Prosecutor General of the Senate, Count Alexei Ivanovich Glebov, was ordered to begin an investigation into the case of many fanatical noblemen. The Emperor issued a separate decree in this regard, the first in Russian legislation, qualifying the murder of their peasants by landowners as “tyrant torture,” for which such landowners were punished with lifelong exile.

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

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

The merchants were also treated kindly. The emperor's personal decree allowed duty-free export of agricultural goods and raw materials to Europe, which significantly strengthened the country's monetary system. For support foreign trade The State Bank was created with a loan capital of five million silver rubles. Merchants of all three guilds could receive long-term credit.

Peter III decided to complete the secularization of church land holdings, begun by Peter the Great shortly before his death, by decree of March 21, 1762, limiting the real estate of all rural parishes and monasteries to their fences and walls, leaving them the territory of cemeteries, and also intended to prohibit representatives of the clergy from owning serfs and serfs. artisans. Church hierarchs greeted these measures with open dissatisfaction and joined the noble opposition.

This led to a situation between the parish priests, who were always closer to the masses, and the provincial nobles, who restrained government measures that somehow improved the situation of the peasants and working people, and the “white clergy,” who constituted a stable opposition to the strengthening absolutism since Patriarch Nikon, an abyss has opened. Russian Orthodox Church now did not represent a single force, and society was divided. Having become empress, Catherine II canceled these decrees in order to make the Holy Synod obedient to her authority.

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

No one will be able to find out what other liberal plans were swarming in the emperor’s head...

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

On June 28, 1762, the day before his own name day, Peter III, accompanied by the Holstein battalion, together with Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova, left for Oranienbaum to prepare everything for the celebration. Catherine was left in Peterhof unattended. Early in the morning, having missed the Emperor's ceremonial train, the carriage with Sergeant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov and Count Alexander Ilyich Bibikov turned to Mauplaisir, took Catherine and galloped off to St. Petersburg. Everything was already prepared here. Money for organizing the palace coup was again borrowed from the French ambassador Baron de Breteuil - King Louis XV wanted Russia to again begin military operations against Prussia and England, which was promised by Count Panin in the event of the successful overthrow of Peter III. Grand Duchess Catherine, as a rule, remained silent when Panin colorfully outlined to her the appearance of a “new Europe” under the auspices of the Russian Empire.

Four hundred “Preobrazhentsy”, “Izmailovtsy” and “Semyonovtsy”, pretty much warmed up by vodka and unrealistic hopes of eradicating everything foreign, greeted the former German princess as an Orthodox Russian Empress, as “Mother”! In the Kazan Cathedral, Catherine II read the Manifesto on her own accession, written by Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, which stated that due to the severe mental disorder of Peter III, reflected in his frantic republican aspirations, she was forced to accept state power into your own hands. The Manifesto contained a hint that after her son Paul came of age, she would resign. Catherine managed to read this point so vaguely that no one in the jubilant crowd really heard anything. As always, the troops willingly and cheerfully swore allegiance to the new empress and rushed to the barrels of beer and vodka that had been previously placed in the gateways. Only the Horse Guards Regiment tried to break through to Nevsky, but guns were positioned tightly wheel to wheel on the bridges under the command of the master (lieutenant) of the guards artillery and the lover of the new empress, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, who vowed to lose his life, but not to let the coronation be disrupted. It turned out to be impossible to break through the artillery positions without the help of infantry, and the Horse Guards retreated. For his feat in the name of his beloved, Orlov received the title of count, the rank of senator and the rank of adjutant general.

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

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

On Saturday, July 6, Peter III was killed during card game by his voluntary jailers Alexei Orlov and Prince Fyodor Baryatinsky. Guardsmen Grigory Potemkin and Platon Zubov were constantly on guard, who were privy to the plans of the conspiracy and witnessed the abuse of the disgraced emperor, but were not interfered with. Even in the morning, Orlov wrote, drunk and swaying from insomnia, in handwriting, probably right on the flag officer’s drum, a note to “our All-Russian Mother” Catherine II, in which he reported that “our freak is very ill, as if he would not die today.”

The fate of Pyotr Fedorovich was predetermined; all that was needed was a reason. And Orlov accused Peter of distorting the map, to which he shouted indignantly: “Who are you talking to, slave?!” There followed a precise, terrible blow to the throat with a fork, and with a wheeze, the former emperor fell backward. Orlov was confused, but the resourceful Prince Baryatinsky immediately tied the dying man’s throat tightly with a silk Holstein scarf, so much so that the blood did not drain from the head and clotted under the skin of the face.

Later, Alexei Orlov, who had sobered up, wrote a detailed report to Catherine II, in which he pleaded guilty to the death of Peter III: “Merciful Mother 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 did not have mercy. Mother - he is not in the world. But no one thought of this, and how can we think of raising our hands against the sovereign! But disaster struck. He argued at the table with Prince Fyodor Boryatinsky; Before we [Sergeant Potemkin and I] had time to separate them, he was already gone. We ourselves don’t remember what we did, but we are all guilty and deserve to be executed. Have mercy on me at least for my brother. I brought you a confession, and there is nothing to look for. Forgive me or tell me to finish soon. The light is not nice - they angered you and destroyed your souls forever.”

Catherine shed a “widow’s tear” and generously rewarded all participants in the palace coup, while simultaneously assigning extraordinary titles to the guards officers. military ranks. The Little Russian Hetman, Field Marshal General Count Kirill Grigoryevich Razumovsky began to receive “in addition to his hetman’s income and the salary he receives” 5,000 rubles a year, and the actual state councilor, senator and chief captain Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin - 5,000 rubles a year. The actual chamberlain Grigory Grigorievich Orlov was granted 800 souls of serfs, and the same number of seconds to the major of the Preobrazhensky regiment Alexei Grigorievich Orlov. Captain-lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky regiment Pyotr Passek and lieutenant of the Semenovsky regiment Prince Fyodor Boryatinsky were awarded 24,000 rubles each. Second Lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Prince Grigory Potemkin, who received 400 serf souls, and Prince Pyotr Golitsyn, who was given 24,000 rubles from the treasury, were not deprived of the empress’s attention.

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

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

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

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

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

The peculiarity of all Russian conspiracies was that the oppositionists, who did not have the same experience as their Western European like-minded people, constantly sought to expand the boundaries of their narrow circle. And if it concerned the higher clergy, then their plans became known even to the parish priests, who in Russia had to immediately explain to the common people changes in state policy. The appearance of Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev in 1773 cannot be considered an accident or a mere coincidence: he could have learned about the plans of the high-ranking conspirators from this very source and, in his own way, used the opposition sentiments of the nobility against the empress in the capital, fearlessly moving towards the regular regiments of the imperial army in the Ural steppes, inflicting defeat after defeat on them.

No wonder Pugachev, like them, constantly appealed to the name of Pavel as the future successor of his “father’s” work and the overthrow of his hated mother. Catherine II learned about the preparation of a coup that coincided with the Pugachev war, and spent almost a year in the admiral’s cabin of her yacht “Standard,” which was constantly stationed at the Vasilyevskaya Spit, guarded by two new battleships with loyal crews. In difficult times, she was ready to sail to Sweden or England.

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

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

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

The relationship between Catherine and Peter III did not work out from the very beginning. The husband not only took numerous mistresses, but also openly declared that he intended to divorce his wife for the sake of Elizaveta Vorontsova. There was no need to expect support from Catherine.

Peter III and Catherine II

A conspiracy against the emperor began to be prepared even before his ascension to the throne. Chancellor Alexei Bestuzhev-Ryumin harbored the most hostile feelings towards Peter. He was especially irritated by the fact that the future ruler openly sympathized with the Prussian king. When Empress Elizaveta Petrovna became seriously ill, the chancellor began to prepare the ground for a palace coup and wrote to Field Marshal Apraksin to return to Russia. Elizaveta Petrovna recovered from her illness and deprived the chancellor of her ranks. Bestuzhev-Ryumin fell out of favor and did not finish his work.

During the reign of Peter III, Prussian rules were introduced in the army, which could not but cause indignation among the officers. It is worth noting that the emperor made no attempts to get acquainted with Russian customs and ignored Orthodox rituals. The conclusion of peace with Prussia in 1762, according to which Russia voluntarily gave up East Prussia, became another reason for dissatisfaction with Peter III. In addition, the emperor intended to send the guard on a Danish campaign in June 1762, the goals of which were completely unclear to the officers.

Elizaveta Vorontsova

The conspiracy against the emperor was organized by guard officers, including Grigory, Fedor and Alexei Orlov. Due to the controversial foreign policy Peter III, many officials joined the conspiracy. By the way, the ruler received reports of an impending coup, but he did not take them seriously.

Alexey Orlov

On June 28, 1762 (old style), Peter III went to Peterhof, where his wife was supposed to meet him. However, Catherine was not there - early in the morning she left for St. Petersburg with Alexei Orlov. The guard, the senate and the synod swore allegiance to her. In a critical situation, the emperor was confused and did not follow sound advice to flee to the Baltic states, where units loyal to him were stationed. Peter III signed the abdication of the throne and, accompanied by guards, was taken to Ropsha.

On July 6, 1762 (old style) he died. Historians are unanimous in the opinion that Catherine did not give the order to kill Peter, while at the same time experts emphasize that she did not prevent this tragedy. By official version, Peter died of illness - during the autopsy, signs of heart dysfunction and apoplexy were allegedly discovered. But most likely his killer was Alexei Orlov. Peter was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Subsequently, several dozen people pretended to be the escaped emperor, the most famous of them became the leader Peasant War Emelyan Pugachev.

Reign of Peter III (briefly)

Reign of Peter 3 (short story)

There are many sharp turns in the biography of Peter the Third. He was born on the tenth of February 1728, but very soon he lost his mother, and eleven years later his father. From the age of eleven, the young man was prepared to rule Sweden, but everything changed when the new ruler of Russia, Empress Elizabeth, declared him her successor in 1742. Contemporaries note that Peter the Third himself was not very educated for a ruler and knew only a little Latin, French and Lutheran catechism.

At the same time, Elizabeth insisted on re-education of Peter and he persistently studied the Russian language and the foundations of the Orthodox faith. In 1745, he was married to Catherine II, the future Russian empress, who bore him a son, Paul I, the future heir. Immediately after the death of Elizabeth, Peter was declared Russian Emperor without coronation. However, he was destined to rule for only one hundred and eighty-six days. During his reign, Peter the Third openly expressed sympathy for Prussia during the era of the Seven Years' War and for this reason was not very popular in Russian society.

With his most important manifesto of February 18, 1762, the monarch abolishes compulsory noble service, dissolves the Secret Chancellery, and also issues permission for schismatics to return to their homeland. But even such innovative, bold orders could not bring Peter popularity in society. During the short period of his reign, serfdom was significantly strengthened. In addition, according to his decree, the clergy were to shave their beards, leaving only icons of the Savior and the Mother of God in the churches, and from now on dress like Lutheran shepherds. Also, Tsar Peter the Third tried to remake the charter and way of life Russian army in the Prussian manner.

Admiring Frederick the Second, who was the ruler of Prussia at that time, Peter the Third withdraws Russia from the Seven Years' War on unfavorable terms, returning to Prussia all the lands conquered by the Russians. This caused general outrage. Historians believe that it was after this important decision that most of the king’s entourage became participants in a conspiracy against him. The initiator of this conspiracy, which was supported by the guards, was the wife of Peter the Third herself, Ekaterina Alekseevna. It was with these events that the palace coup of 1762 began, which ended with the overthrow of the Tsar and the accession of Catherine II.

Russian Emperor Peter III (Peter Fedorovich, born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein Gottorp) was born on February 21 (10 old style) February 1728 in the city of Kiel in the Duchy of Holstein (now a territory of Germany).

His father is Duke of Holstein Gottorp Karl Friedrich, nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII, his mother is Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter I. Thus, Peter III was the grandson of two sovereigns and could, under certain conditions, be a contender for both the Russian and Swedish thrones .

In 1741, after the death of Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, he was chosen to succeed her husband Frederick, who received the Swedish throne. In 1742, Peter was brought to Russia and declared heir to the Russian throne by his aunt.

Peter III became the first representative of the Holstein-Gottorp (Oldenburg) branch of the Romanovs on the Russian throne, which ruled until 1917.

Peter's relationship with his wife did not work out from the very beginning. All free time he spent his time engaged in military exercises and maneuvers. During the years spent in Russia, Peter never made any attempt to better know this country, its people and history. Elizaveta Petrovna did not allow him to participate in resolving political issues, and the only position in which he could prove himself was the position of director of the Gentry Corps. Meanwhile, Peter openly criticized the activities of the government, and during the Seven Years' War publicly expressed sympathy for the Prussian king Frederick II. All this was widely known not only at court, but also in wider layers of Russian society, where Peter enjoyed neither authority nor popularity.

The beginning of his reign was marked by numerous favors to the nobility. The former regent Duke of Courland and many others returned from exile. The Secret Investigation Office was destroyed. On March 3 (February 18, old style), 1762, the emperor issued a Decree on the liberty of the nobility (Manifesto “On the granting of liberty and freedom to the entire Russian nobility”).

The material was prepared based on information from open sources