Peter III of Russia

Immediately following his baptism to the Russian Orthodox Church, his aunt, Empress Elizabeth arranged Peter’s marriage to Sophia Augusta Frederica who later became Catherine the Great. The marriage took place on August 21, 1745. They had two children, a son and daughter.

The marriage of Peter and Catherine was essentially a political alliance and had nothing personal. The two were extremely opposite of each other; she was prodigiously talent while Peter was of low intellect. Catherine is said to have claimed that the marriage between the two never consummated and that Peter did not father her children. Both of them had numerous lovers outside marriage.

Emperor Peter III’s accession to the Russian throne was not welcomed by the society who abhorred his modernized laws and policies. The nobility and the Church feared losing the control and thus turned to his wife, Catherine for help. She, in turn, supported them by becoming the mastermind behind his dethronement. On June 28, 1762 she successfully overthrew him to become the Empress Catherine of Russia.

Peter III was born as Karl Peter Ulrich to Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna on February 21, 1728 in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp. He was the only child born to the couple. While his maternal grandfather was Peter the Great of Russia, his paternal grandfather was Charles XII of Sweden.

Young Peter lost his parents early, his mother having died only three months after his birth and his father passed away in 1739. Upon the death of his father, he became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp as Charles Peter Ulrich.

Orphaned at an early age, Peter was put under the care of marshals and warriors in the court of Holstein. Academically weak, Peter was cruelly raised by his mentors who often punished him for his inept aptitude. Since it was known that Peter would inherit the Swedish throne in future, they trained him accordingly.

Though Peter was not so good in academics, he had an intense passion for arts. He was fond of music and painting and showed an appetite for military parades and uniforms. He longed to become a world-famous military warrior.

In 1742, when his aunt Elizabeth took over as the Empress of Russia, she brought the fourteen-year old Peter to Russia and proclaimed him as the heir presumptive to the Russian throne. Same year, Peter was proclaimed as the King of Finland, a position originally held by Charles XII of Sweden.

During Empress Elizabeth’s rule, she isolated Peter from government affairs and hardly allowed him to participate in the politics of the country, as she suspected his capabilities as a leader. This led to a growing sense of resentment in Peter against Russian government.

Peter hated being in Russia and continued to show his allegiance towards his homeland and Prussia by criticizing the Russian government and the Empress. His sympathetic attitude towards Prussia gained him negative publicity as he was condemned by the people and became highly unpopular.

Upon the death of Empress Elizabeth on December 25, 1761, Peter succeeded to the Russian throne. Pressed to prove his worth to the Russian people, Peter who was then Peter III brought forth a number of domestic and foreign policies, though none were worthy.

Immediately after taking up the throne, he withdrew the Russian forces from the Seven Years’ War by signing a peace treaty with Prussia. Furthermore, he gave up Russian conquests in Prussia and instead made an alliance with the Prussian King by offering 12000 troops. This alliance made Prussia most powerful in Europe.

During his reign, he planned war against Denmark to regain the native land of Holstein that once belonged to his father. With the help of Frederick of Prussia, he planned war against Denmark. The move was seen as a betrayal of Russian war sacrifices and alienated him politically among the military and powerful court cliques.

In his short span of service as the Emperor of Russia, Peter carried out several military and domestic reforms. While the former were unpopular for his pro-Prussian ways, the latter seemed way too advanced for the people of those times. He allowed religious freedom to his subjects, abolished the secret police and established public litigation to fight corruption, outlawed the killing of serfs by the landowners, made education obligatory and established the first state bank in Russia. However, his most important contribution came in when he released the gentry from compulsory state and military service. Also, he gave the state greater powers than the church, a move that was highly detested.