Peter III of Russia briefly ruled the Russian Empire between 5 January and 9 July 1762, and died shortly after abdicating, probably killed in a plot orchestrated by his wife and successor Catherine the Great. For years thereafter, rumours circulated in Russia and elsewhere that the Tsar was not dead and that he had escaped into exile. These rumours led to numerous people claiming to be Peter, such as the "ataman" Yemelyan Pugachev, who led an ill-fated rebellion in the mid-1770s seeking to depose Catherine and seize power for himself.