RuHistory

Parents:  Peter the Great's daughter Anna Petrovna and Duke Carl Friedrich IV of Holstein.


Wife:
Empress Catherine II Alexeyevna, Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst.
Married:21 August 1745.


Important events:

• After ruling Russia for 186 days, Peter III was buried in the Annunciation Burial Vault of the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Although Catherine II later attempted to portray everything done by Peter III  in a bad light, several important projects were nevertheless begun by the emperor and continued by his widow. These include the rebirth of the Russian navy, the abolition of the Secret Chancellery of Investigations, which had struck fear into the population, and a decree freeing the nobility from their obligation to serve the state.

Peter was born in the city of Kiel in Holstein on 10 February 1728. His mother died when he was three months old and he lost his father when he was eleven. The future emperor of Russia was educated by a marshal of the Holstein court. Bullied and harshly punished for the slightest misdemeanor, the sickly child developed a lifelong hatred of learning.

When Elizabeth Petrovna seized power in 1741, she invited her nephew to St Petersburg to ensure that the throne passed to her father's descendants.  Carl Peter Ulrich converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and was proclaimed Elizabeth's heir on 7 November 1742. Peter was horrified at the idea of becoming emperor of Russia. He disliked everything about Russia and this irritated the empress. Elizabeth gave him Russian tutors, but his antipathy towards learning meant that he preferred to spent his time in the company of servants.  After looking round for a suitable bride, Elizabeth settled on Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste of the minor principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. They were married on 21 August 1745 in St Petersburg. When Elizabeth died in 1761, her nephew ascended the throne as Peter III. This signaled the start of the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia until 1917.

Peter made a disastrous start to his reign by withdrawing Russia from the Seven Years War and concluding peace with his idol, King Frederick II of Prussia, when the Prussians were on the point of suing for peace. All the Russian victories and sacrifices were in vain. Eastern Prussia was returned to Frederick and Russia received no indemnities or compensations. The Russian army seethed with indignation at having to make peace with Prussia and then join a military alliance against their former allies. Peter also made himself unpopular by freeing Munnich, Biron and the other Germans. A plot was soon hatched in St Petersburg to replace Peter with his wife Catherine. She cunningly portrayed herself as the innocent victim of a despotic husband. When one of the conspirators was arrested on 27 June, they made their move. Accompanied by a group of officers and supported by the guards regiments, Catherine arrested Peter on 28 June and declared herself empress. The grandees, dignitaries, courtiers and  statesmen all swore a new oath of loyalty to her. On 6 July 1762, Peter III was officially claimed to have died of "haemorrhoidal  colic".

Династия Романовых  1613-1917