Peter III (1728  1762) (???? III ?????????, Pyotr III Fyodorovich) emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was born in Kiel as Karl Peter Ulrich, the only child of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp 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 Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.