Peter III of Russia Peter III of Russia Peter III ( – ) (, "Pyotr III Fyodorovich") was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was born in Kiel as Karl Peter Ulrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, the only child of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the son of Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, sister of Charles XII), and Anna Petrovna (the elder surviving daughter of Peter the Great). The German Peter could hardly speak Russian and pursued a strongly pro-Prussian policy, which made him an unpopular leader. He was deposed and possibly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his German wife,
Maria Alekseyevna of Russia Maria Alekseyevna of Russia Tsarevna Maria Alekseyevna (; 18 January 1660 - 9 March 1723) was a Russian Princess, daughter of Tsar Alexis of Russia and Maria Miloslavskaya, sister of Tsar Feodor III of Russia and Tsar Ivan V of Russia and half sister of Tsar Peter the Great. Maria Alekseyevna did not actively participate in the political plots of the Kremlin, but her open passive sympathy for Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna, Eudoxia Lopukhina and Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia made her relationship to Tsar Peter tense. She maintained a contact with Eudoxia Lopukhina after Lopukhina had been placed in a