The ashes of Peter III, the deposed Russian emperor, were exhumed 222 years ago. On 13 December 1796, Paul I, who ascended the throne, ordered his father's remains, buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, to be taken out and brought to the Winter Palace.

The unloved son of Catherine II took revenge on her after her death and decided to restore historical justice and bury Peter III in the royal tomb - in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. After Peter's death, the court decided that he was not worthy to rest among the tsars because he had not been crowned.

Peter III, the grandson of Peter the Great, ascended the throne after the death of his aunt Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1762. He postponed the coronation ceremony, deciding to hold it after a military campaign against Denmark. But the coronation never took place.

Paul I horrified Russia. He not only got his father's bones, brought them to the Winter Palace, but also decided to crown the remains. Moreover, the coronation of the new emperor carried out by his own hand. So the ruler closed his childhood traumas - he was considered the illegitimate son of Catherine II from her favorite Sergei Saltykov. After all, the future Emperor was born after 10 years of barren marriage of Catherine and Peter. Neither father nor mother in the upbringing of the child did not participate. He was engaged Elizabeth Petrovna and a whole staff of nannies. Catherine II did not hide - she does not love her son. And even planned to pass the throne not to him, but to her grandson.

Paul began to take his revenge immediately after the death of the Empress. Firstly, he put the coffin with his father's remains next to his mother's coffin in the palace, where they stood for three days. Secondly, after the coronation of the bones ordered to bury Catherine not as Empress, but as the wife of Emperor Peter III.

Another sophisticated item of revenge of Paul I - he forced Alexei Orlov to participate in the funeral procession. He was called the murderer of Peter III. Recall, the Tsar died in Ropsha under unclear circumstances shortly after the palace coup d'état staged by Catherine II.

Letters sent by Orlov to Catherine from Ropsha hint at the violent nature of the deposed emperor's death. ‘Our ugly man is very sick and covered him uncommon colic, and I am afraid, that he today's night did not die, but more afraid, that he did not revive’, “I am afraid of the anger of your majesty, that you what on us violent thought not dare to think and that we were not a parable of the death of your villain”, ’Mother, he is not in the world, but no one thought this, and how can we think of raising our hands on the Emperor. But, Madam, a disaster has happened: we were drunk, and he too’, - Orlov's messages to Catherine read.

This very Orlov was forced by Paul I to carry the crown on a velvet cushion during the funeral. According to the memories of contemporaries, Count Orlov, having learnt about the order of the new emperor, ‘went into a dark corner and burst into tears. With difficulty they found, and with even greater difficulty persuaded him to take the crown in his trembling hands’. After this public flogging Alexei Orlov left the country.

The last part of the plan of revenge of Paul I is still in force. In the burial vault of the Peter and Paul Cathedral the graves of Catherine II and Peter III are located next to each other, on their headboards the same date of burial is engraved - 18 December 1796. To the ignorant in the mysteries of the Russian crown it may even seem that the couple lived happily ever after and died on the same day.