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Peter III, b. Feb. 21 (N.S.), 1728, d. July 18 (N.S.), 1762, was deposed in a coup after serving briefly as Russian emperor (January-July 1762). The son of prince Carl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna, one of the daughters of Peter the Great, he was proclaimed heir to the throne in 1742 by his aunt, Empress Elizabeth. Peter ascended the Russian throne on December 25, 1761, the day Empress Elizabeth Petrovna died. His first action was an amnesty for and return from exile of state figures arrested by Elizabeth after her accession. During his short reign, he introduced various reforms, banned the persecution of dissenters, dissolved the Privy Council and by special decree released the gentry from compulsory state service.
On June 28, 1762, he was overthrown by a court coup led by his wife. After his deposition, he was imprisoned in Ropshinskii Castle, where on July 7, 1762, he was killed by Count Alexei Orlov, Catherine's favorite lover. He "had" a son, later Emperor Paul I. Peter III was buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery but in December 1796, by order of his "son" Paul I, his remains were reburied with full honors in the Cathedral of the St. Peter and St. Paul fortress in St. Petersburg.
