Back Pieter III van Rusland Afrikaans بيتر الثالث Arabic بيتر التالت ARZ III Pyotr Azerbaijani اۆچونجو پتر (روسیه) AZB Пётр III Byelorussian Пётар III BE-X-OLD Петър III (Русия) Bulgarian Petar III, car Rusije BS Pere III de Rússia Catalan
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| Peter III | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt, c. 1761 | |
| Emperor of Russia | |
| Reign | 5 January 1762 – 9 July 1762 |
| Predecessor | Elizabeth |
| Successor | Catherine II |
| Duke of Holstein-Gottorp | |
| Reign | 18 June 1739 – 9 July 1762 |
| Predecessor | Charles Frederick |
| Successor | Paul |
| Born | Karl Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp 21 February 1728 Kiel, Holstein-Gottorp, Duchy of Holstein |
| Died | 17 July 1762 (aged 34) Ropsha, Russian Empire |
| Burial |
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| Spouse | |
| Issue | |
| House | Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| Father | Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp |
| Mother | Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia |
| Religion | Russian Orthodox prev. Lutheran |
| Signature |  |
Peter III Fyodorovich (Russian: Пётр III Фёдорович, romanized: Pyotr III Fyodorovich; 21 February [O.S. 10 February] 1728 – 17 July [O.S. 6 July] 1762) was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when he was overthrown by his wife, Catherine II (the Great). He was born in the German city of Kiel as Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp (German: Karl Peter Ulrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp), the grandson of Peter the Great and great-grandson of Charles XI of Sweden.
After a 186-day reign, Peter III was overthrown in a palace coup d'état orchestrated by his wife and soon died under unclear circumstances. The official cause proposed by Catherine's new government was that he died due to hemorrhoids. However, this explanation was met with skepticism, both in Russia and abroad, with notable critics such as Voltaire and d'Alembert expressing doubt about the plausibility of death from such a condition.[1]
The personality and activities of Peter III were long disregarded by historians and his figure was seen as purely negative, but since the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more attention has been directed at the decrees he signed. His most notable reforms were the abolition of the secret police, exemption of nobles from compulsory military service, attempts to secularise church lands and create the first Russian state bank, and equalisation of all religions. He also put an end to the persecution of the Old Believers. Although he is mostly criticised for forming an alliance with Prussia (undoing Russian gains in the Seven Years' War), Catherine continued it and many of his other policies.
After Peter III's death, many impostors thrived, pretending to be him, the most famous of whom were Yemelyan Pugachev and the "Montenegerin Tsar Peter III" (Stephan the Little).[2]