Editing Peter III of Russia (section)

===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>