Our cover features Fedor Stepanovich Rokotov’s portrait of Czar Peter III, husband of Catherine the Great. Peter III was hounded by misfortune.
In 1745, at the age of 17, he was married, according to the decision of his family, to the German princess Sophie Fredericke Auguste (Sophia Augus Frederika) von Anhalt-Zebst.
He was crowned in 1762, but only six months later was forced to abdicate and not long after that was assassinated by a group of conspirators led by his wife’s lover, Count Orlov. He was succeeded by his wife, who was to go down in history as Catherine the Great, otherwise Catherine II.
