It did not materialize in sufficient force.
The emperor who had occupied the Russian throne days earlier now found himself confronting the reality that the military forces surrounding the capital had largely chosen his wife.
He eventually surrendered.
Peter signed an abdication.
Catherine II was now the ruler of Russia.
Her success was astonishing, but her position was not yet safe.
She had seized the throne despite having no straightforward hereditary right to it.
Peter was still alive.
So was their son Paul, whose own dynastic claim could potentially be used by opponents of Catherine.
And Russia had a long history of palace revolutions.
Catherine herself had just demonstrated how quickly an emperor could be removed when the Guards and political elite turned against him.
As long as Peter lived, therefore, he represented a danger.
He could potentially become the focus of a countercoup.
Foreign governments might question Catherine’s legitimacy.
Disaffected Russian officers might attempt to restore him.
A living deposed emperor was something very different from a dead one.
Catherine initially appears to have intended to keep Peter in confinement. One biographical account states that when Peter asked permission to leave Russia, she refused, apparently intending lifelong imprisonment.
Instead, he was sent to Ropsha.
There, surrounded by men connected to Catherine’s victorious faction, he had only days left to live.
What Happened at Ropsha?
Peter was placed under guard at Ropsha.
Alexei Orlov was among those responsible for his custody.
Then, on July 17 by the Gregorian calendar—July 6 according to the Russian calendar then in use—Peter III died.
The official explanation did little to stop suspicion.
His death was publicly attributed to a sudden medical condition, traditionally rendered as a form of hemorrhoidal colic.
Few outside the new regime found that explanation convincing.
Rumors of murder spread.
Different accounts proposed strangulation, suffocation, poisoning, beating and other forms of violence. A historical summary of Peter’s reign notes that his escort later acknowledged an “unfortunate scuffle,” while emphasizing that nothing was formally proven and nobody was prosecuted.
Alexei Orlov became central to the mystery.
Later tradition alleged that he personally killed Peter or participated in the killing. The Columbia Encyclopedia, for example, describes him as the alleged actual murderer of Peter III.
Other historical accounts describe Peter as having been strangled or otherwise killed by members of the group guarding him.
The broad conclusion that Peter probably died violently has long been widely accepted.
But identifying the person who killed him is not the same as identifying the person who ordered his death.
And that is where Catherine’s responsibility becomes much harder to establish.
Did Catherine Order Her Husband’s Murder?
There is no surviving conclusive evidence proving that Catherine issued an order to kill Peter.
That fact should not be softened simply because murder makes for a cleaner story.
Catherine had obvious reasons to want Peter permanently removed as a political threat.