Reform and Regicide: The Reign of Peter III of Russia (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian & East European Studies) Hardcover - 1993

From the publisher

A provocative reexamination of legislation and foreign policy under Peter III. Utilizing archival and published sources, Leonard shows this brief reign to have been a significant turning point in the evolution of economic and social policy. This work represents an important contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century Russian monarchy. - Richard Wortman. Leonard's convincing reassessment of the reign of Peter III squarely places it in the reformist tradition for which Catherine II claimed to have served as exclusive midwife. This is an impressive departure from received notions about the contrast between Peter's reign and that of his ambitious spouse. - Michael F. Metcalf. The victim of a coup engineered by his wife, the future Catherine the Great, who portrayed him as 'a libertine, a halfwit, and a drunkard whose contempt for ordinary decency and for his country made imperative his removal, ' Emperor Peter III has received short shrift from Russian, Soviet, and Western historians. Challenging traditional interpretations, Carol S. his brief reign in 1762 were not foolish and arbitrary but rather were firmly rooted in the traditions of Russian absolutism and the intellectual climate of the mid-eighteenth century. Leonard shows Peter III to have been a serious ruler who, with a circle of talented advisors, instituted fundamental changes of an enlightened nature. Important turning points during Peter III's reign involved the emancipation of the nobility from compulsory service, the secularization of church property, the institution of progressive economic policies, the extrication of Russia from its costly participation in the Seven Years War, and the inception of an alliance with Prussia that was to be the cornerstone of Russian foreign policy through much of the Imperial period