Rarely has anyone received such unflattering, derogatory assessments from historians: “Limited tyrant”, “hater of everything Russian”, “Frederick II’s lackey” and even “chronic drunkard” - this is not the most unpleasant thing that has been written about him. But here is the paradox he, the Russian Emperor Peter III, who found himself on the Russian throne against his own will and managed to hold on to it for only 186 days, adopted laws that, without exaggeration, played an outstanding role in the history of Russia. Among them are the famous manifestos on the freedom of the nobility and on the destruction of the ominous Secret Chancellery, which was in charge of political investigation in Russia This book makes an attempt to abandon the usual stereotypes and mythologies regarding the “unfortunate Peter III” (the expression of A. S. Pushkin) and give a balanced and objective portrait of the “third emperor.”