The Guy Who Impersonated A Russian Tsar So Well They Made Him King for Real

In 1766, a mysterious figure appeared in Maine, a small town in Montenegro. He called himself Scepan Mali (“Stephen the Small”) and established a successful business as a folk healer, practicing traditional Balkan herbal medicine. In this role, he was apparently very successful, but the people of Maine couldn’t help but notice there was something strange about their new neighbor. 

For starters, it was odd for a seemingly well-educated, worldly man to be peddling herbs in what might be politely described as the ass end of nowhere. But more than that, the healer seemed to be haunted by some strange sorrow and was observed turning his face to the wall and weeping when prayers were offered for the Russian royal family.
Soon rumors began to spread — nobody could ever say who started them — that Scepan Mali was no mere folk doctor. In fact, he was none other than Peter III, Tsar of all Russia and defender of the Slavic peoples everywhere. At the time, Montenegro was divided between Venice and the Ottoman Empire, and many Montenegrins hoped that the Russian army would one day come and free them from foreign domination. So the news that the Russian Tsar was living in a spare bedroom in Maine trying to cure syphilis with mercury caused great excitement. 

There was just one small problem with the story — Tsar Peter III was extremely dead at the time, having been overthrown and murdered in a palace coup led by his own wife, who added insult to injury by officially blaming the death on hemorrhoids (Peter was buried wearing a hat at a jaunty angle to disguise the bruising on his face). But this was generally agreed to be a minor detail, and soon a group of Montenegrin tribal elders had set out to ask Li’l Stephen to become their new ruler. And before long, the Zombie-King of the Black Mountain had caused panic in the region, kicking off a major war and prompting an elite team of Russian diplomats to journey to the wilds of Montenegro, determined to prove that their Tsar was dead after all. 

The Guy Who Impersonated A Russian Tsar So Well They Made Him King for Real