Yemelyan Pugachev, a low-status Don Cossack, arrived in the Yaik Host in late 1772. There, he claimed to be Peter III, playing on the Cossack belief that Peter would have been an effective ruler but for his assassination in a plot by his wife, Catherine II. Many Yaik Cossacks believed Pugachev's claim, although those closest to him knew the truth. Others, who may have known of it, did not support Catherine II due to her disposal of Peter III, and also spread Pugachev's claim to be the late emperor.