So, on February 5, 1742, the Crown Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig Karl Peter Ulrich arrived in St. Petersburg. Here he converted to Orthodoxy, received a new name - Peter Fedorovich, the title of Grand Duke and was appointed heir to the throne of the Russian Empire.
The most curious thing is that all historians describing the events of those years use the same sources. However, as if under the hypnosis of the "Catherine Tradition", most of them carefully select from the memoirs and memoirs of their contemporaries only facts that should confirm the established opinion about this Grand Duke and Emperor. Or they freely interpret in the same vein the facts that testify rather in favor of Peter III. They are much more lenient towards other characters. Here are some examples.
French diplomat Claude Ruliere in his "Notes" tells about a resourceful guard who says to a high-ranking official passing by him: "Who does not recognize you? twilight, silhouette of a protected person).
For this simple flattery, the soldier received a gold coin. One can imagine what a hail of ridicule and derogatory reviews would follow in the commentaries of historians if it were about Peter III. But Catherine turned out to be a lover of such compliments, and therefore this episode is interpreted as proof of "the soldiers' love for the mother empress."
And here is the evidence that one of the Russian emperors (named Peter), at the sight of a cockroach, shied away and even fainted. Can you imagine what a flurry of scoffing would have risen if this Peter was "the third in a row"? But we are talking about Peter I, and therefore the fact is classified as a "whim of a genius".
Another comparison of these emperors: one of them plays the violin very well (almost professionally), the other beats marching "rolls" on the drum. But, since Peter I is a fan of drumming, he is not a soldier at all - how could you even think of that? And about Peter III, Pikul will write: he played along with Frederick II "on his stupid violin."
And who is this about?
"Two of his closest favorites, promising to intercede with him for money, were severely beaten from his own hands; he took the money from them and continued to treat them with the same mercy."
(K. Ruhliere.)
About Peter III. Do you think the author admires? You will not wait! First, this was written when the "Catherine's Legend" was already created and established, the French encyclopedists corresponded with "Semiramis of the North". Secondly, accustomed to the fact that at royal courts everything is sold and everything is bought, the courteous Frenchman comments on the emperor's act as follows:
"A wonderful combination of justice and deep-rooted evil, greatness and stupidity, was evident at his court."
And everyone happily repeats these words, pronouncing "justice" and emphasizing "stupidity".
The intellectual level of the Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich
It is often necessary to read that the not too educated (to put it mildly) Empress Elizabeth was horrified by the level of development and education of the boy who came to Russia. What can I say here? If she asked him about Parisian fashions and new ballroom dances, then Karl Peter Ulrich could, of course, "fail the entrance exam."
But Peter's mentor in secular sciences, academician J. Shtelin, wrote that the heir has high learning abilities and an excellent memory - "excellent, down to the last detail."
Soon Peter already "knew firmly the main foundations of Russian history, could count on the fingers of all the sovereigns from Rurik to Peter I" (Shtelin). In Russian, Peter spoke tolerably a year later (NI Panin's assertion that "Peter hardly spoke Russian" is false and serves the purpose of denigrating the deposed emperor). But Catherine II, who loved to emphasize her patriotism at every opportunity, never really learned to speak Russian - she retained a terrible German accent until the end of her life, and there is no need to even talk about numerous mistakes when writing. But she survived her murdered husband by 34 years. The heir raised in Kiel, of course, could not become Russian overnight. Despite the widespread misconception, Catherine II did not become Russian either. The difference between the spouses was that Peter felt like a "German in the Russian service," while Catherine felt like a German who had conquered Russia. Hence the wild spending on the maintenance of her Court, and some crazy, puzzling inappropriateness, gifts for "nights of love", so that any favorite in a few days became a "croesus". This also explains the transformation of the overwhelming majority of the population of a foreign country into disenfranchised slaves, who had to pay for the "beautiful life" of Catherine and her favorites.
But back to Peter and his training in Russia. He preferred the humanities to the exact ones, often asking Stehlin to replace the lesson in history, geography, or the study of Latin with a lesson in mathematics. But, most of all, he was attracted by fortification and artillery work. According to the inventory of the heir's library, it contained books in German, French, Italian and English, including the first French edition of Voltaire's works. There was only one book printed in Russian, but what a book! The first and only issue of the St. Petersburg scientific journal "Brief Description of the Comments of the Academy of Sciences". There were no books in Latin, to which Peter from childhood abhorred.
Everyone knows about the great interest that Peter showed from childhood in everything related to military affairs and the army. However, in St. Petersburg, the Grand Duke learned to play the violin and, according to Shtelin, could be a partner of professional musicians (although he sometimes made a fake in some, especially difficult, places). At least once a week, big concerts were held with his participation. The memoirist AT Bolotov, who is extremely critical against Peter, also admits that he "played the violin … rather well and fluently." At the same time, the heir "became the owner of a valuable collection of violins from Cremona, Amati, Steiner and other famous masters" (Stelin). And in 1755, Peter also opened a singing and ballet school in Oranienbaum to train Russian artists. So the stories of the enemies of the heir about the hopeless martyrdom of Pyotr Fedorovich, to put it mildly, do not fully correspond to reality.
The eccentric Elizabeth greatly interfered with the systematic and regular training of the heir. The Empress demanded that Peter be present at all court balls and holidays (and they very often took place at night) and accompanied her on trips - to Moscow, Kiev, on pilgrimages to various monasteries.
The learned monk Simon Todorsky was appointed as Peter's mentor in Orthodoxy (he later taught the Grand Duke's bride, the future Catherine II).
With this teacher, the heir conducted the most real, and very emotional, theological disputes - literally on every dogma, which is also evidence of the boy's good education and high erudition. But his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna did not argue with her mentor - either the level of education did not allow, or she was afraid that the teacher would say bad things about her under Elizabeth.
Probably, these disputes between Peter and his spiritual mentor served as a source of gossip that the heir intends to introduce Lutheranism in Russia. We do not know the content of these discussions, but they argue that very similar thoughts about reforming the Orthodox Church (and not the faith) were expressed at that time by M. V. Lomonosov, whom no one accused of treason. And we know about Lomonosov's ideas: they are set out in his letters to Elizabeth's favorite I. I. Shuvalov. What did Lomonosov offer? Do not limit widowers in the number of marriages, prohibit the tonsure of people who are still capable of having children in monasteries, baptize babies not in cold, but in warm water. In addition, taking into account the difficult climate of Russia, he proposed to postpone the time of Great Lent to late spring or early summer, since "fasts were established not for suicide with harmful foods, but for abstaining from excess."
The marriage of the heir
On May 7, 1745, Peter, who had come of age, was officially declared the sovereign duke of Holstein. And in August of the same year, the wedding of Peter and the German princess Sophia Frederica Augusta took place. Anhalt-Zerbst, who received the Russian name Ekaterina Alekseevna at baptism.
From the point of view of Elizabeth, the main advantage of this candidate was her artistry: the empress hoped that the girl grateful to her would become a good wife and obedient daughter-in-law. Having come to power as a result of a palace coup, she was terribly afraid of a new conspiracy. Therefore, Elizabeth did not trust the heir to the throne, whom she removed from any state affairs and, in fact, kept under house arrest (later, in the same way, Catherine II would not trust her son). That is why Elizabeth rejected very interesting options with Peter's marriage to a French or Saxon princess (whose father was also a Polish king), and, on the recommendation of Frederick II, "wrote" him a seedy German girl, the daughter of one of the generals of this king. And, as we know, she was severely mistaken in her calculations. The future Catherine II was grateful not to her, but to Frederick II. Here is what she wrote to him on the eve of the wedding from Moscow:
"Rest assured that I will only consider it glorious for myself when I have a chance to convince you of my gratitude and devotion."
So, the heir to the Russian throne, Peter Fedorovich, only openly admires the talents of Frederick II (and he is not alone, Frederick is a very bright personality, a strong and extraordinary person, he has many fans throughout Europe). And his wife, at the same time, sends secret letters to Frederick II, in which she pledges "to be grateful." What's worse, worse, more dangerous?
Peter and Catherine had known each other since 1739, and even had family ties - Sophia Frederick Augusta was Karl Peter Ulrich's second cousin. In the first version of Catherine's "Notes", about her acquaintance with Peter in 1739 (still in Germany) it is written:
"For the first time I saw the Grand Duke, who was really handsome, kind and well-mannered. Miracles were told about an eleven-year-old boy."
As you can see, there is no question of any idiot or degenerate. But, in the edited version, we read:
"The relatives interpreted among themselves that the young duke was inclined to drunkenness, that those close to him did not allow him to get drunk at the table."
Let me remind you that we are talking about an 11-year-old boy. Who, according to the old empress, who edited her "Notes", was already at this age a complete alcoholic.
The spouses turned out to be very different people, the relationship between them did not work out. In her "Notes" Catherine did not hide that from the very beginning, she dreamed of one thing - to become the autocratic empress of Russia. On the way to this goal were two people - the ruling empress Elizabeth and her nephew, the legitimate heir to the throne, the husband of Catherine. Elizaveta Petrovna had to be reckoned with and maintain decency, but the "liveliness of character", nevertheless, forced her through Chancellor Bestuzhev to enter into a risky relationship with the British envoy Williams (Elizabeth for some time was even close to expelling her daughter-in-law from the country, saved her birth of an heir). But her husband Ekaterina Alekseevna, from the very beginning, demonstratively despised, and after the death of Elizabeth, immediately arranged a conspiracy that cost the emperor his life. In order, in the face of her descendants, to justify herself and denigrate her spouse, Catherine created a myth about the Russian idiot-emperor who hated everything. She presented herself as a meek sufferer, forced to endure for many years the unfair insults of her forever drunken fool-husband. Who, moreover, was never a full-fledged man (it was necessary to somehow explain the presence of such a number of lovers in the "exemplary wife"). In particular, she argued that, in his development, her husband was a child, and after the wedding, she spent the nights with him not in bed, but playing with tin soldiers, remaining a virgin for either 5 or 9 years. However, Peter's note to Catherine, written in French, has reached our time:
"Madam, please do not worry that you will have to spend this night with me, because the time to deceive me is over."
This was written in 1746, a year after the wedding, Peter reproaches his wife for infidelity. What kind of virginity here, preserved for 9 years!
The intimate relationship between the spouses continued at least until the beginning of 1754, since before the birth of Paul, Catherine became pregnant several times (these pregnancies ended in miscarriages). After the beginning of a relationship with Sergei Saltykov (who became the first of Catherine's many favorites), another pregnancy ended, finally, with the birth of her first child, Pavel (September 20, 1754). Peter did not doubt the legality of the origin of this boy. In a letter to the King of Sweden (with whom, incidentally, Count Saltykov was sent to Stockholm), announcing the birth of Paul, Peter calls him "my son". But the next child - daughter Anna, born by Catherine in 1757, he does not call "his" in a letter to the same addressee.
Peter responded about the birth of Anna as follows:
"God knows where my wife gets her pregnancy from. I don't really know if this is my baby or if I should take it personally."
Thus, Peter was confident that Paul was his son. But he strongly doubted that he was Anna's father.
The new title of Paul, given to him by Emperor Peter III, also speaks volumes: he became not just the Grand Duke, but the first Tsarevich in Russia - in France this title corresponded to "Dauphin", in Sweden - "Crown Prince". Let us recall that, according to the law established by Peter I, the emperor was free to appoint a successor himself, regardless of the degree of kinship. Peter III indicated in advance to his subjects who would be their next emperor.
Catherine did not hide these pregnancies. But the pregnancy from Grigory Orlov was hidden by her from everyone, and the birth was secret. This suggests that by this time she had no intimacy with her husband for a long time, and, therefore, there was no opportunity to marry the child off to the son of Peter.
So, Pyotr Fedorovich himself had no doubts about the origin of Paul. But the court gossips attributed the birth of the first-born of the grand-ducal family to the "love zeal" of Count Sergei Saltykov (and Catherine in her "Notes" gives very serious reasons to think about it).
Pikul, in his novel "Pen and Sword", mistakenly calls Pavel Stanislav August Poniatowski's father, who took his place in the bed of the Grand Duchess later - in 1755.
Apparently, Anna became the daughter of Poniatovsky (she died at the age of two). And Peter at this time was carried away by the maid of honor of Catherine - Elizaveta Vorontsova, who was 11 years younger than him.
Elizaveta Petrovna and her relationship with the heir
As for Elizabeth, who herself summoned Peter to Russia, she immediately disliked her nephew brought up in an alien German environment. And this was felt by the court sycophants, who, in order to please the empress, told all kinds of nasty things about the heir. Elizabeth listened to this gossip quite favorably, and the heir to the Russian throne suddenly turned into an outcast in the royal palace, maintaining a close relationship with him was dangerous for his career.
Peter did not love his aunt (and for good reason) and despised her greedy favorites, insignificant court sycophants, ministers, whose venality was known to everyone. Elizabeth, her favorites, sycophants and corrupt ministers argued that the heir does not love and despises Russia. A very familiar and convenient formula for the rulers of any country, isn't it? If you do not like "his majesty" and the numerous "noblemen" and "excellencies" who are wiping around him - it means that you are not a patriot, and a worthless citizen.
Unlike his wife Catherine, who, if necessary, could be flattering, obsequious and obedient, Peter did not consider it necessary to engage in pretense. He, the only one, refused to dress up as a woman at the strange balls of Elizabeth, where men were supposed to appear in women's dresses, and ladies - to wear men's suits. Participation for the courtiers was compulsory; they paid a large fine for failure to appear. Catherine, on the other hand, took part in these masquerades with pleasure, since she believed that she was wearing a military uniform.
Suffering from a lack of love and attention, Peter yearned for his native Holstein, inadvertently expressing regrets about his fate, which had thrown him into a distant country, where he was a stranger to everyone and no one needed him. The court spies informed the empress about these moods of the heir, adding a lot from themselves. A vivid example of such slander is the memoirs of A. T. Bolotov, who writes that Peter, allegedly kneeling in front of the portrait of Frederick II, called him his sovereign. This lie has been replicated in many historical works and near-historical novels. But Bolotov's simple-minded reservation that he himself has not seen anything like it, just "talk about it", remains "offscreen."
The Chancellor of the Empire A. P. Bestuzhev actively traded in the interests of Russia, taking money from the British and Austrians (involving Catherine in his dirty affairs). To divert attention from himself and his charge, he, at the same time, "instilled in Empress Elizabeth fears that Peter Fyodorovich would not seize the throne, and contributed a lot to his removal from participation in Russian state affairs."
As a result of constant denunciations of such "well-wishers", Elizabeth became increasingly bitter against her nephew. As we have already said, he was actually under "house arrest", not having the right to move freely - literally everything had to ask the permission of a suspicious aunt. Here, for example, is an excerpt from a letter from the Grand Duke to Elizabeth's favorite I. I. Shuvalov:
"Dear sir, I asked you for permission to go to Oranienbaum, but I see that my request was unsuccessful, I am sick and in a blues to the highest degree, I ask you in the name of God, incline her majesty to let me go to Oranienbaum ".
At the same time, Elizabeth also dared to accuse him of insufficient love and ingratitude. Naturally, Peter, whenever possible, avoided communication with such a "benefactor" and her sycophants, increasingly moving away from the "big" court, which only exacerbated the situation. But the Grand Duke established good relations with the "attendants", which his aunt did not like very much, who instructed the Oberhofmeister of the court of the heir NN Choglakov to stop "games with gamekeepers and soldiers … all sorts of jokes with pages, lackeys and other bad people." At the same time, Elizabeth herself freely communicated with singers, maids, scrubber cleaners, lackeys and soldiers, and her addiction to English beer "was condemned as a manifestation of baseness."Apparently, deep down, she understood that she was behaving inappropriately, but she did not want to change her habits. And, as compensation, she demanded that Peter become a "real" emperor.
After Choglokov's death, it was not someone else who was entrusted to look after the heir, but the head of the Secret Chancellery, A. I. Shuvalov. Elizabeth demanded from him "reports on the behavior of the Grand Duke; she was angry when she learned that he was absent under Pyotr Fedorovich, when he was conducting maneuvers with his detachment in the vicinity of Oranienbaum."
It is curious that other "wards" A. I. Shuvalov, about whom he also sent reports to Elizabeth, was at that time the "Shlisselburg Prisoner" - the legitimate Russian emperor John Antonovich, who was now ordered everywhere to be called Gregory. Very revealing, isn't it?
It was not in vain that the empress feared: there is evidence that not everyone was delighted with the endless balls and more and more new dresses of the "merry Elizabeth". The country did not have an independent foreign policy, things fell into disarray and decline, the people became impoverished, and many furtively began to glance at the side of the heir, expecting a new reign with hope. So, the soldiers of the Preobrazhensky regiment (the colonel and chief of which was the empress herself) once declared to Peter:
"God grant that you would sooner be our sovereign, so that we would not be under the dominion of a woman."
And such cases, which were immediately reported to the empress, were not isolated. So Elizabeth's suspicions were not unfounded, only she looked in the wrong direction - she was afraid of a conspiracy on the part of Peter, who was always loyal to her, losing sight of the intriguing Catherine.
Bestuzhev offered Catherine to make her the official co-ruler of Peter (but she wanted more). And the lieutenant colonel of the Life Cuirassier Regiment M. I. Dashkov in December 1761 suggested that she remove from power both the seriously ill Elizabeth and her heir, Peter (but Catherine was at that time pregnant by Grigory Orlov, and did not dare).
Only once, after the resignation and arrest of Bestuzhev, clouds thickened over Catherine's head. But the old cunning man understood: for "simple theft", of course, they would not pat the head, but for "politics" they would immediately drag him to the Secret Chancellery, on the rack. And then, if he survives, he will not die from torture - to hard labor. And therefore, during interrogations, he kept silent about Catherine.
The empress began to treat the heir especially badly after 1755. At this time, she repeatedly publicly impartially spoke about him, including in the presence of foreign diplomats. Elizabeth jealously removed the heir from all state affairs, the participation of Peter Fedorovich in the Conference at the Imperial Court (advisory body) created in 1756 was purely formal, no one listened to his opinion, in 1757 he left its membership. The only time when Peter received at least some independent position was his appointment as general director of the Land Gentry Corps (in February 1759). The position for a figure of this level is not high, but the activity of Pyotr Fedorovich in this post proves that gossip about his mental disability has no basis. Under the leadership of Peter, the building's barracks were expanded and reconstructed (now 5-6 people began to live in one room, instead of the previous 10), the food of the pupils and their uniforms were improved, a printing house was organized, in which the books necessary for study began to be printed - in Russian, German and French.
On December 25, 1761, Empress Elizabeth died, and Peter, after almost twenty years of a rather humiliating life in Russia, was finally able to begin the implementation of his plans long ago. The reign of Peter III, not at all "obscene" peace with Prussia and 192 decrees and laws issued by him, will be described in the next article.
