Historical figures, especially when it comes to home country, are always studied with interest. The reigning persons who stood at the helm of power in Russia exerted their influence on the development of the country. Some of the kings ruled for many years, others for a short time, but all the personalities were noticeable and interesting. Emperor Peter 3 did not reign for long, died early, but left his mark on the history of the country.
Royal roots
The desire of Elizabeth Petrovna, who has reigned on the Russian throne since 1741, to strengthen the throne along the line led to her declaring her nephew as heir. She did not have her own children, but her older sister had a son who lived in the house of Adolf Frederick, the future king of Sweden.
Karl Peter, Elizabeth's nephew, was the son of Peter I's eldest daughter, Anna Petrovna. Immediately after giving birth, she fell ill and died soon after. When Karl Peter was 11 years old, he lost his father. Having lost short biography whom he speaks about this, began to live with his paternal uncle, Adolf Frederick. He did not receive proper upbringing and education, since the main method of educators was the “whip”.
He had to stand in the corner for a long time, sometimes on peas, and the boy’s knees swelled from this. All this left an imprint on his health: Karl Peter was a nervous child and was often sick. By character, Emperor Peter 3 grew up to be a simple-minded man, not evil, and was very fond of military affairs. But at the same time, historians note: being in adolescence, liked to drink wine.
Elizabeth's heir
And in 1741, she ascended the Russian throne. From that moment on, the life of Karl Peter Ulrich changed: in 1742 he became the heir of the Empress, and he was brought to Russia. He made a depressing impression on the empress: she saw in him a sickly and uneducated young man. Having converted to Orthodoxy, he was named Peter Fedorovich, and during the days of his reign his official name was Peter 3 Fedorovich.
For three years, educators and teachers worked with him. His main teacher was academician Jacob Shtelin. He believed that future emperor- a capable young man, but very lazy. After all, during three years of study, he mastered the Russian language very poorly: he wrote and spoke illiterately, and did not study traditions. Pyotr Fedorovich loved to brag and was prone to cowardice - these qualities were noted by his teachers. His official title included the words: “Grandson of Peter the Great.”
Peter 3 Fedorovich - marriage
In 1745, the marriage of Pyotr Fedorovich took place. The princess became his wife. She also received her name after accepting Orthodoxy: her maiden name was Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst. This was the future Empress Catherine II.
A wedding gift from Elizaveta Petrovna was Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, and Lyubertsy, Moscow Region. But the marital relationship between the newlyweds does not work out. Although in all important economic and business matters, Pyotr Fedorovich always consulted with his wife and felt trust in her.
Life before the coronation
Peter 3, his short biography speaks of this, did not have a marital relationship with his wife. But later, after 1750, he underwent surgery. As a result, they had a son, who in the future became Emperor Paul I. Elizaveta Petrovna was personally involved in raising her grandson, immediately taking him away from his parents.
Peter was pleased with this state of affairs and increasingly moved away from his wife. He was interested in other women and even had a favorite, Elizaveta Vorontsova. In turn, to avoid loneliness, she had a relationship with Polish Ambassador- Stanislaw August Poniatowski. The couples were on friendly terms with each other.
Birth of a daughter
In 1757, Catherine’s daughter is born, and she is given the name Anna Petrovna. Peter 3, whose short biography proves this fact, officially recognized his daughter. But historians, of course, have doubts about his paternity. In 1759, at the age of two, the child fell ill and died of smallpox. Peter had no other children.
In 1958, Pyotr Fedorovich had a garrison of soldiers numbering up to one and a half thousand under his command. And all his free time he devoted himself to his favorite pastime: training soldiers. The reign of Peter 3 has not yet begun, but he has already aroused the hostility of the nobility and people. The reason for everything was undisguised sympathy for the King of Prussia, Frederick II. His regret that he became the heir of the Russian Tsar, and not the Swedish king, his reluctance to accept Russian culture, his poor Russian language - all together turned the masses against Peter.
Reign of Peter 3
After the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, at the end of 1761, Peter III was proclaimed emperor. But he had not yet been crowned. What policy did Peter Fedorovich begin to pursue? In his domestic policy, he was consistent and took as a model the policy of his grandfather, Peter I. Emperor Peter 3, in short, decided to become the same reformer. What he managed to do during his time short reign, laid the foundation for the reign of his wife, Catherine.
But he made a number of mistakes in foreign policy: he stopped the war with Prussia. And he returned those lands that the Russian army had already conquered to King Frederick. In the army, the emperor introduced the same Prussian rules, was going to carry out the secularization of the lands of the church and its reform, and was preparing for war with Denmark. With these actions of Peter 3 (a short biography proves this), he turned the church against himself.
Coup
Reluctance to see Peter on the throne was expressed before his ascension. Even under Elizaveta Petrovna, Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin began to prepare a conspiracy against the future emperor. But it so happened that the conspirator fell out of favor and did not finish his job. Against Peter, shortly before the death of Elizabeth, an opposition was formed, consisting of: N.I. Panin, M.N. Volkonsky, K.P. Razumovsky. They were joined by officers of two regiments: Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky. Peter 3, in short, was not supposed to ascend to the throne; instead, they were going to elevate Catherine, his wife.
These plans could not be realized due to Catherine’s pregnancy and childbirth: she gave birth to a child from Grigory Orlov. In addition, she believed that the policies of Peter III would discredit him, but would give her more comrades. According to established tradition, Peter went to Oranienbaum in May. On June 28, 1762, he went to Peterhof, where Catherine was to meet him and organize celebrations in his honor.
But instead she hurried to St. Petersburg. Here she took the oath of allegiance from the Senate, the Synod, the guard and the masses. Then Kronstadt swore allegiance. Peter III returned to Oranienbaum, where he signed his abdication of the throne.
End of the reign of Peter III
He was then sent to Ropsha, where he died a week later. Or was deprived of his life. No one can prove or disprove this. Thus ended the reign of Peter III, which was very short and tragic. He ruled the country for only 186 days.
He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra: Peter was not crowned, and therefore he could not be buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. But the son, becoming emperor, corrected everything. He crowned the remains of his father and reburied them next to Catherine.
While still alive in 1742, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna declared her nephew, the son of Anna Petrovna's late elder sister, Karl-Peter-Ulrich Duke of Holstein-Gothorp, to be the legal heir to the Russian throne. 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 the Holstein Guards Regiment in Oranienbaum “for fun.” 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 Elizaveta Petrovna on January 5, 1762 Grand Duke Peter III Fedorovich was officially crowned king. However, he did not stop those timid economic and administrative changes, which 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 main form The protest of serfs, schismatics and sectarians led to mass escapes 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.”
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 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. Nothing but invaluable military experience, well-deserved authority, military ranks and orders Russian officers as a result of bloodshed Seven Years' War have not received.
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. The 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 their natural right, and own solutions- law for 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 citizens, 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 Apraksin that after the victory over the Prussian troops near Memel in 1757 he should not join East Prussia to enable Frederick the Great to recover from defeat. 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 stated to the Empress: “What is some de Brogny like in comparison with the Great 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 grandfather did, great 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 catch phrase of his 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 view of St. Petersburg, where among the dugouts and “chicken huts” of state serfs and townspeople assigned to the settlement, towered Peter-Pavel's Fortress The Winter Palace and the house of the governor-general of the capital, Menshikov, with its cluttered, dirty streets, disgusted 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 clear the cluttered construction site in front of the Winter Palace for many years, through which the courtiers made their way to the front entrance, as if through the ruins of Pompeii, tearing camisoles and dirtying boots. 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. New city blocks behind the Moika, where commoners opened " apartment buildings“Sometimes they 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 of Prussian-style military uniforms. 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 in the old days, 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 Chancery, and its archive “to eternal oblivion” was transferred to the Governing Senate for permanent storage. The formula “Word and deed!”, fatal for any Russian, 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.
Russian nobility was shocked by the public trial in the case of General Maria Zotova, whose estates were sold at auction for the inhumane treatment of serfs in favor of disabled soldiers and crippled peasants. The Prosecutor General of the Senate, Count Alexei Ivanovich Glebov, was ordered to begin an investigation into the case of many fanatical nobles. 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 were granted Cossack dignity in 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 privately owned serfs were written off. Cathedral Code Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. 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 monetary system countries. 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. Church hierarchs met these measures with open dissatisfaction, and joined 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, what to do Holy Synod obedient to his 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 careful attitude energetic nobles and merchants towards the forest as the national wealth of the 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 by ceremonial train Emperor, the carriage with Sergeant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Alexei Grigorievich Orlov and Count Alexander Ilyich Bibikov turned to Mauplaisir, took Catherine and galloped off to St. Petersburg. Everything was already prepared here. Money for organization palace coup were again borrowed from 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 a 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?!” Followed by the exact terrible power a 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: “ Former Emperor by the will of God, he 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 arranged a magnificent “funeral” for a simple wooden coffin, without any decorations, which was placed in 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 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 senior clergy, then their plans became known even to 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, while 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 Alexey Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky, hero of the first Russian-Turkish war, was relieved of his post as commander of the 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 inexplicable - from the point of view of common sense - actions of Emperor Paul I was the solemn act of the second “wedding” of the two most august dead in their coffins - 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 had the most hostile feelings. He was especially irritated by the fact that future ruler openly sympathizes 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 become 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 Alexey Orlov. Peter was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Subsequently, several dozen people pretended to be the surviving emperor, the most famous of them being the leader of the Peasant War, Emelyan Pugachev.
The TV series “Catherine” was released, and in connection with this, there is a surge of interest in the controversial figures of Russian history, Emperor Peter III and his wife, who became Empress Catherine II. Therefore, I present a selection of facts about the life and reign of these monarchs of the Russian Empire.
Peter and Catherine: a joint portrait by G.K. Groot
Peter III (Peter Fedorovich, born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp) was a very extraordinary emperor. He did not know the Russian language, loved to play toy soldiers and wanted to baptize Russia according to the Protestant rite. His mysterious death led to the emergence of a whole galaxy of impostors.
Already from birth, Peter could lay claim to two imperial titles: Swedish and Russian. On his father's side he was the great-nephew of the king Charles XII, who himself was too busy with military campaigns to get married. Peter's maternal grandfather was main enemy Carla, Russian Emperor Peter I.
The boy, who was orphaned early, spent his childhood with his uncle, Bishop Adolf of Eitin, where he was instilled with hatred of Russia. He did not know Russian and was baptized according to Protestant custom. True, he also did not know any other languages besides his native German, and only spoke a little French.
Peter was supposed to take the Swedish throne, but the childless Empress Elizabeth remembered the son of her beloved sister Anna and declared him heir. The boy is brought to Russia to meet the imperial throne and death.
In fact, no one really needed the sickly young man: neither his aunt-empress, nor his teachers, nor, subsequently, his wife. Everyone was only interested in his origins; even the cherished words were added to the official title of the heir: “Grandson of Peter I.”
And the heir himself was interested in toys, primarily toy soldiers. Can we accuse him of being childish? When Peter was brought to St. Petersburg, he was only 13 years old! Dolls attracted the heir more than state affairs or a young bride.
True, his priorities do not change with age. He continued to play, but secretly. Ekaterina writes: “During the day, his toys were hidden in and under my bed. The Grand Duke went to bed first after dinner and, as soon as we were in bed, Kruse (the maid) locked the door, and then the Grand Duke played until one or two in the morning.”
Over time, toys become larger and more dangerous. Peter is allowed to order a regiment of soldiers from Holstein, whom the future emperor enthusiastically drives around the parade ground. Meanwhile, his wife is learning Russian and studying French philosophers...
In 1745, the wedding of the heir Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna, the future Catherine II, was magnificently celebrated in St. Petersburg. There was no love between the young spouses - they were too different in character and interests. The more intelligent and educated Catherine ridicules her husband in her memoirs: “he doesn’t read books, and if he does, it’s either a prayer book or descriptions of torture and executions.”
Letter from the Grand Duke to his wife. on the obverse lower left: le .. fevr./ 1746
Madam, this night I ask you not to inconvenience yourself by sleeping with me, since the time to deceive me has passed. After living apart for two weeks, the bed became too narrow. This afternoon. Your most unfortunate husband, whom you will never deign to call Peter.
February 1746, ink on paper
Peter’s marital duty was also not going smoothly, as evidenced by his letters, where he asks his wife not to share the bed with him, which has become “too narrow.” This is where the legend originates that the future Emperor Paul was not born from Peter III, but from one of the favorites of the loving Catherine.
However, despite the coldness in the relationship, Peter always trusted his wife. In difficult situations, he turned to her for help, and her tenacious mind found a way out of any troubles. That’s why Catherine received the ironic nickname “Mistress Help” from her husband.
But it was not only children's games that distracted Peter from his marital bed. In 1750, two girls were presented to the court: Elizaveta and Ekaterina Vorontsov. Ekaterina Vorontsova will be a faithful companion of her royal namesake, while Elizabeth will take the place of Peter III’s beloved.
The future emperor could take any court beauty as his favorite, but his choice fell, nevertheless, on this “fat and awkward” maid of honor. Is love evil? However, is it worth trusting the description left in the memoirs of a forgotten and abandoned wife?
The sharp-tongued Empress Elizaveta Petrovna found this love triangle very funny. She even nicknamed the good-natured but narrow-minded Vorontsova “Russian de Pompadour.”
It was love that became one of the reasons for the fall of Peter. At court they began to say that Peter was going, following the example of his ancestors, to send his wife to a monastery and marry Vorontsova. He allowed himself to insult and bully Catherine, who, apparently, tolerated all his whims, but in fact cherished plans for revenge and was looking for powerful allies.
During the Seven Years' War, in which Russia took the side of Austria. Peter III openly sympathized with Prussia and personally with Frederick II, which did not add to the popularity of the young heir.
Antropov A.P. Peter III Fedorovich (Karl Peter Ulrich)
But he went even further: the heir handed over to his idol secret documents, information about the number and location of Russian troops! Upon learning of this, Elizabeth was furious, but she forgave her dim-witted nephew a lot for the sake of his mother, her beloved sister.
Why does the heir to the Russian throne so openly help Prussia? Like Catherine, Peter is looking for allies, and hopes to find one of them in the person of Frederick II. Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin writes: “The Grand Duke was convinced that Frederick II loved him and spoke with great respect; therefore he thinks that as soon as he ascends the throne, then Prussian king will seek his friendship and will help him in everything.”
After the death of Empress Elizabeth, Peter III was proclaimed emperor, but was not officially crowned. He showed himself to be an energetic ruler, and during the six months of his reign he managed, despite general opinion, a lot to do. Assessments of his reign vary widely: Catherine and her supporters describe Peter as a weak-minded, ignorant martinet and Russophobe. Modern historians create a more objective image.
First of all, Peter made peace with Prussia on terms unfavorable for Russia. This caused discontent in army circles. But then his “Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility” gave the aristocracy enormous privileges. At the same time, he issued laws prohibiting the torture and killing of serfs, and stopped the persecution of Old Believers.
Peter III tried to please everyone, but in the end all attempts turned against him. The reason for the conspiracy against Peter was his absurd fantasies about the baptism of Rus' according to the Protestant model. The Guard, the main support and support of the Russian emperors, took the side of Catherine. In his palace in Orienbaum, Peter signed a renunciation.
Tombs of Peter III and Catherine II in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The head slabs of the buried bear the same date of burial (December 18, 1796), which gives the impression that Peter III and Catherine II lived together for many years and died on the same day.
Peter's death is one big mystery. It was not for nothing that Emperor Paul compared himself to Hamlet: throughout the entire reign of Catherine II, the shadow of her deceased husband could not find peace. But was the empress guilty of the death of her husband?
According to the official version, Peter III died of illness. He was not in good health, and the unrest associated with the coup and abdication could have killed a stronger person. But the sudden and so quick death of Peter - a week after the overthrow - caused a lot of speculation. For example, there is a legend according to which the emperor’s killer was Catherine’s favorite Alexei Orlov.
The illegal overthrow and suspicious death of Peter gave rise to a whole galaxy of impostors. In our country alone, more than forty people tried to impersonate the emperor. The most famous of them was Emelyan Pugachev. Abroad, one of the false Peters even became the king of Montenegro. The last impostor was arrested in 1797, 35 years after the death of Peter, and only after that the shadow of the emperor finally found peace.
During his reign Catherine II Alekseevna the Great(nee Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst) from 1762 to 1796 the empire's possessions expanded significantly. Of the 50 provinces, 11 were acquired during her reign. The amount of government revenue increased from 16 to 68 million rubles. 144 new cities were built (more than 4 cities per year throughout the reign). The army and the number of ships have almost doubled Russian fleet grew from 20 to 67 battleships, not counting other ships. The army and navy won 78 brilliant victories, strengthening the international authority of Russia.
Anna Rosina de Gasc (née Lisiewski) Princess Sophia Augusta Friederike, future Catherine II 1742
Access to the Black and Azov Seas was won, Crimea, Ukraine (except for the Lvov region), Belarus, Eastern Poland, and Kabarda were annexed. The annexation of Georgia to Russia began. Moreover, during her reign, only one execution was carried out - the leader of the peasant uprising, Emelyan Pugachev.
Catherine II on the balcony Winter Palace, greeted by the guards and people on the day of the coup on June 28, 1762
The Empress's daily routine was far from the ordinary people's idea of royal life. Her day was scheduled by the hour, and its routine remained unchanged throughout her reign. Only the time of sleep changed: if in mature years Catherine got up at 5, then closer to old age - at 6, and towards the end of her life at 7 o'clock in the morning. After breakfast, the Empress received high-ranking officials and secretaries of state. The days and hours of reception for each official were constant. The working day ended at four o'clock, and it was time to rest. Hours of work and rest, breakfast, lunch and dinner were also constant. At 10 or 11 pm Catherine finished the day and went to bed.
Every day, 90 rubles were spent on food for the Empress (for comparison: a soldier’s salary during the reign of Catherine was only 7 rubles a year). The favorite dish was boiled beef with pickles, and currant juice was consumed as a drink. For dessert, preference was given to apples and cherries.
After lunch, the Empress began to do needlework, and Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy read aloud to her at this time. Ekaterina “masterfully sewed on canvas” and knitted. Having finished reading, she went to the Hermitage, where she sharpened bone, wood, amber, engraved, and played billiards.
Artist Ilyas Faizullin. Visit of Catherine II to Kazan
Catherine was indifferent to fashion. She didn’t notice her, and sometimes quite deliberately ignored her. IN weekdays the empress wore a simple dress and did not wear jewelry.
By her own admission, she did not have a creative mind, but she wrote plays, and even sent some of them to Voltaire for “review.”
Catherine came up with a special suit for the six-month-old Tsarevich Alexander, the pattern of which was asked from her for her own children by the Prussian prince and the Swedish king. And for her beloved subjects, the empress came up with the cut of a Russian dress, which they were forced to wear at her court.
Portrait of Alexander Pavlovich, Jean Louis Veil
People who knew Catherine closely note her attractive appearance not only in her youth, but also in her mature years, her exceptionally friendly appearance, and ease of manner. Baroness Elizabeth Dimmesdale, who was first introduced to her along with her husband in Tsarskoe Selo at the end of August 1781, described Catherine as: “a very attractive woman with lovely expressive eyes and an intelligent look.”
Catherine was aware that men liked her and she herself was not indifferent to their beauty and masculinity. “I received from nature great sensitivity and appearance, if not beautiful, then at least attractive. I liked it the first time and did not use any art or embellishment for this.”
The Empress was quick-tempered, but knew how to control herself, and never made decisions in a fit of anger. She was very polite even with the servants, no one heard a rude word from her, she did not order, but asked to do her will. Her rule, according to Count Segur, was “to praise out loud and scold quietly.”
Rules hung on the walls of the ballrooms under Catherine II: it was forbidden to stand in front of the empress, even if she approached the guest and spoke to him while standing. It was forbidden to be in a gloomy mood and insult each other.” And on the shield at the entrance to the Hermitage there was an inscription: “The mistress of these places does not tolerate coercion.”
Catherine II and Potemkin
Thomas Dimmesdale, an English doctor was called from London to introduce vaccinations against smallpox. Knowing about the resistance of society to innovation, Empress Catherine II decided to file personal example and became one of Dimmesdale's first patients. In 1768, an Englishman inoculated her and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich with smallpox. The recovery of the empress and her son became a significant event in the life of the Russian court.
The Empress was a heavy smoker. The cunning Catherine, not wanting her snow-white gloves to become saturated with a yellow nicotine coating, ordered the tip of each cigar to be wrapped in a ribbon of expensive silk.
The Empress read and wrote in German, French and Russian, but made many mistakes. Catherine was aware of this and once admitted to one of her secretaries that “I could only learn Russian from books without a teacher,” since “Aunt Elizaveta Petrovna told my chamberlain: it’s enough to teach her, she’s already smart.” As a result of this, she made four mistakes in a word from three letters: instead of “yet” she wrote “ischo”.
Johann Baptist the Elder Lampi, 1793. Portrait of Empress Catherine II, 1793
Long before her death, Catherine composed an epitaph for her future tombstone:
“Here lies Catherine the Second. She arrived in Russia in 1744 to marry Peter III.
At the age of fourteen, she made a threefold decision: to please her husband, Elizabeth and the people.
She left no stone unturned to achieve success in this regard.
Eighteen years of boredom and loneliness prompted her to read many books.
Climbing Russian throne, she made every effort to give her subjects happiness, freedom and material well-being.
She easily forgave and did not hate anyone. She was forgiving, loved life, had a cheerful disposition, was a true Republican in her convictions and had a kind heart.
She had friends. The work was easy for her. She liked social entertainment and the arts."