Editing Peter III of Russia (section)

==Reign==
===Foreign policy===
[[File:Peter III by A.Antropov (1762, Tretyakov gallery).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Peter III by [[Aleksey Antropov]], 1762]]
After Peter succeeded to the Russian throne ({{OldStyleDateDY|5 January|1762|25 December 1761}}), he withdrew Russian forces from the [[Seven Years' War]] and concluded a [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1762)|peace treaty]] ({{OldStyleDate|5 May|1762|24 April}}) with Prussia (dubbed the "Second [[Miracle of the House of Brandenburg]]"). He gave up Russian conquests in Prussia and offered 12,000 troops to make an alliance with Frederick II of Prussia ({{OldStyleDate|19 June|1762|8 June}}).{{Cn|date=October 2023}} Russia thus switched from an enemy of Prussia to an ally—Russian troops withdrew from [[Berlin]] and marched against the Austrians.<ref>Anderson, pages=492–494{{unreliable source?|date=November 2021}}</ref> This dramatically shifted the [[balance of power in international relations|balance of power]] in Europe, suddenly handing the delighted Frederick the initiative. Frederick recaptured southern [[Silesia]] (October 1762) and subsequently forced Austria to the [[Treaty of Hubertusburg|negotiating table]].{{Cn|date=October 2023}}

As Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter planned war against [[Denmark-Norway]] in order to restore parts of [[Schleswig]] to his Duchy. He focused on making alliances with Sweden and with Great Britain to ensure that they would not interfere on Denmark's behalf, while Russian forces gathered at [[Kolberg]] in Russian-occupied [[Pomerania]]. Alarmed at the Russian troops concentrating near their borders, unable to find any allies to resist Russian aggression, and short of money to fund a war, the government of Denmark threatened in late June to invade the [[City-state|free city]] of [[Hamburg]] in northern Germany to force a loan from it. Peter considered this a ''[[casus belli]]'' and prepared for open warfare against Denmark.<ref name="Dull">{{citation |last=Dull |first=Jonathan R |title=The French Navy and the Seven Years' War |publisher=University of Nebraska |year=2005}}.</ref>{{rp |220}}

In June 1762, 40,000 Russian troops assembled in Pomerania under General [[Pyotr Rumyantsev]], preparing to face 27,000 Danish troops under the French general [[Claude Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain|Count St. Germain]] in case the Russian–Danish freedom conference (scheduled for 1 July 1762 in Berlin under the patronage of Frederick II) failed to resolve the issue. However, shortly before the conference, Peter lost his throne ({{OldStyleDate|9 July|1762|28 June}}) and the conference did not occur. The issue of Schleswig remained unresolved. Peter was accused of planning an unpatriotic war.<ref name=mylnikov>{{citation |first=AS |last=Mylnikov |title=Piotr III |place=Moskva, RU |language=ru |year=2002}}.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref>

While historically Peter's planned war against Denmark-Norway was seen{{by whom|date=December 2014}} as a political failure, recent scholarship has portrayed it as part of a pragmatic plan to secure his Holstein-Gottorp duchy and to expand the common Holstein-Russian power northward and westwards. Peter III believed gaining territory and influence in Denmark and Northern Germany was more useful to Russia than taking [[East Prussia]].<ref name="Dull" />{{rp |218–20}} Equally, he thought that friendship with Prussia and with Britain, following its [[Great Britain in the Seven Years War|triumph in the Seven Years War]], could offer more to aid his plans than alliance with either Austria or France.{{Cn|date=October 2023}}

===Domestic reforms===
[[File:Russia 1762 10 Roubles.jpg|thumb|Peter III depicted as emperor on a 10 ruble gold coin (1762)]]

During his 186-day period of government, Peter III passed 220 new laws that he had developed and elaborated during his life as a crown prince. Writer Elena Palmer claims that his reforms were of a democratic nature{{how|date=July 2024}}{{sfn|Palmer|2005}}{{page needed|date=July 2020}} and that he also proclaimed religious freedom.<ref>{{cite book|last=Heinze|first=Karl G.|title=Baltic Sagas: Events and Personalities that Changed the World!|year=2003|publisher=Virtualbookworm Publishing|location=College Station, TX|isbn=1-58939-498-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/balticsagasevent0000hein/page/174 174]|url=https://archive.org/details/balticsagasevent0000hein|url-access=registration}}</ref>

Peter exempted nobles from compulsory civil and military service during peacetime and allowed them to freely travel abroad. He forbade landowners from murdering peasants at the penalty of lifelong exile and ended the persecution of the [[Old Believers]]. He also issued a manifesto proclaiming the secularisation of church lands, which he never lived to see realised but which Catherine, a convinced secularist, began implementing during her own reign.<ref>''[[Argumenty i Fakty]]'': [https://aif.ru/dontknows/eternal/kakie_reformy_hotel_provesti_petr_iii What reforms did Peter III want to carry out?] (in Russian).</ref>

While Catherine continued some of Peter's policies, she also reversed others. For example, Peter abolished the [[Secret Chancellery]], the [[secret police]] of the Russian Empire, stating that he objected to the arbitrary arrests and torture it carried out. Catherine soon reestablished it under a different name, the [[Secret Expedition]].<ref>[[Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library]]: [https://www.prlib.ru/history/619073 Manifesto on the destruction of the Secret Chancellery issued] (in Russian).</ref>

Peter III's economic policy reflected the rising influence of Western [[capitalism]] and the merchant class or "[[Social estates in the Russian Empire|Third Estate]]" that accompanied it. He established the first state bank in Russia, rejected the nobility's monopoly on trade and encouraged [[mercantilism]] by increasing grain exports and forbidding the import of sugar and other materials that could be found in Russia.<ref>{{citation | last1 = Raleigh | first1 = Donald J | last2 = Iskenderov | first2 = AA | year = 1996 | title = The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Rediscovering the Romanovs | page = 118 | publisher = ME Sharpe | place = New York}}.</ref>