Empress Elizabeth of Russia

 

 

Born December 10, 1709 to Peter the Great and Catherine I, Elizabeth became Russia’s empress following a palace revolution in November 1741. Although her reign was initially heralded as a “return to the glorious days of Peter the Great,” [1] Elizabeth’s tenure was marked by extravagance. Affairs of state were often left unattended while her greatest legacy might have been the 15,000 dresses she collected.

 

The Palace Coup of 1741 and Changes in Policies

 

Ending a period in Russian history that has frequently been referred to as a “second time of troubles” or an “era of palace revolutions,” Elizabeth seized the moment in November 1741. Soliciting the assistance of the elite Preobrazhensky Guards facing deployment in a war with Sweden, Elizabeth marched to the Winter Palace and arrested the regent, Anne Leopoldovna. The regent, her top German advisors, and the infant Tsar Ivan VI were exiled. Ivan VI would be imprisoned for life.

 

The immediate result was a shift from German influences to French. The coup had been urged on Elizabeth by several supporters, including the French Ambassador, La Chetardie. Elizabeth, who spoke French fluently, promoted a growing interest in French culture. Historian Ronald Hingly comments that her court became the “most luxurious and licentious in Europe.” [2]

 

Elizabeth’s Personal Life

 

Given to parties that lasted all night, Elizabeth, perhaps aware that palace revolutions occurred in the night hours, seldom went to bed before dawn. She left state affairs unattended for weeks and frequently moved her court back and forth between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Believing reading to be unhealthy, she disdained books.

 

Although never officially married, Elizabeth had numerous lovers. Hingly writes that she was, “the most sexually attractive Russian Empress.” Favorites included Alexis Razumovsky, a commoner from the Ukraine who aroused Elizabeth’s interest after she heard him singing in the chapel choir. Ivan Shuvalov, another favorite, founded the University of Moscow in 1755 and worked to promote Enlightenment ideas in Russia.

 

Accomplishments of Empress Elizabeth

 

Under Elizabeth, capital punishment ended in Russia. Although the Senate handed down capital sentences during her reign, she commuted all of them. Elizabeth called for the introduction of Russian porcelain, an industry that would expand rapidly and ensure a reputation for high quality craftsmanship throughout Europe.

 

For twenty years, Elizabeth’s court architect, Francesco Rastrelli, would leave his mark on St. Petersburg, building the Winter Palace on the Neva River and introducing the distinctive Russian baroque style. The palace would be enlarged under the reign of Catherine the Great.

 

Russian historian David MacKenzkie quotes Mikhail Lomonsov, a chronicler of the period, as saying, “Like Moses Elizabeth had come to release Russia from the night of Egyptian servitude; like Noah she had saved Russia from an alien flood.” [3] Yet under Elizabeth serfdom, Russia’s greatest social evil, continued and expanded.

 

At the time of her death in 1861, Russia was at the end of a successful war with Prussia, the European phase of the Seven Years’ War. Elizabeth had provided for an orderly succession in the person of her nephew, Peter III. And although Peter would be deposed by yet another palace coup, the monarchy had been substantially stabilized by Elizabeth’s twenty year reign.

 

Sources

 

[1] Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969)

[2]Ronald Hingley, The Tsars 1533-1917 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968.

[3] David MacKenzie and Michael W. Curran, A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond, 4^th Ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1993).