At dawn she had woken up as a wife. By dusk she was empress.
Catherine had not begun life in Russia. She was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German princess with no claim to greatness, and brought to the Russian court at fourteen to marry the heir to the throne. She converted to Orthodoxy, learned Russian, studied the country's history and laws, and made herself more Russian than the man she was married to.
Peter, born Karl of Holstein-Gottorp, never did the same. He never truly learned Russian, despised the Orthodox Church, and worshipped Frederick the Great of Prussia even while Russia was fighting Prussia. When he became Tsar in January 1762, he made peace with Frederick on terms that disgusted the army and alienated the court. He also threatened to divorce Catherine and send her to a convent so he could marry his mistress.
By the time the coup moved, the danger was no longer abstract. One of the conspirators had been arrested, and word reached Catherine that the plot had been exposed. Alexei Orlov came to her room at dawn and told her she had to act at once or lose everything. She had been preparing for weeks, but now she was given hours.
She moved first to the Izmailovsky Guards regiment, then to the Semyonovsky regiment. At each stop the soldiers knelt and hailed her. The conspiracy that had begun as a private design against Peter became a public fact one regiment at a time. From there she went to Kazan Cathedral, where she was proclaimed Empress and Autocrat of All Russia.
She wore the uniform of the Semyonovsky Life Guards and rode out on a grey horse named Brilliant. Princess Dashkova rode beside her in Guards uniform. Two women in military dress led the movement on the capital.
Peter was at Oranienbaum when it happened. He was caught unprepared, isolated from the men who had promised loyalty, and suddenly discovered that those promises meant nothing. When he finally understood what had occurred, he tried to negotiate. His support evaporated. The men around him withdrew. He signed the abdication on June 29 1762. He did not fight. He did not flee. He signed a piece of paper and surrendered the Russian Empire to his wife.
Peter III died in Catherine's custody on July 6 1762, one week after signing away the crown. The circumstances were never officially resolved. She had woken up as a wife. She died an empress thirty-four years later. What happened to Peter in the days between the abdication and his death was never established to anyone's satisfaction.
