Years of Elizabeth's reign. Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna: biography, years of reign, foreign and domestic policy, achievements and interesting facts

“Looking at Petrov’s deeds,
To the city, to the fleet and to the shelves
And buy your shackles,
The power of someone else's hand is strong,
Russia sighed jealously
And with my heart I cried out every hour
To You, my Protector:
“Deliver, cast down our burden,
Raise for us the Petro Tribe,
Comfort, comfort Your people,

Cover Fatherly laws,
Shelves of nasty people
And the holiness of Your Crown
Forbidden to touch a stranger;
Turn taxes away from the church:
The monarchs' palaces await you,
Porphyry, Scepter and Throne;
The Almighty will go before You
And with Your strong hand
He will protect everyone from terrible evils.”

IRONIC POEMS by A.K. TOLSTOY

RUSSIA IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 18TH CENTURY.

“Over... a vast space in the 40-50s of the 18th century. There were only 19 million people of both sexes. They were extremely unevenly distributed throughout the country. If the population of the Central Industrial Region, which covered only the Moscow and adjacent provinces, numbered at least 4.7 million people, then the population of Siberia and the North was no more than 1 million people.

The social structure of the population of Russia at that time is no less curious. No more than 600 thousand people lived in cities, or less than 4% of the total population. The peasant population was divided into two main groups: landowner peasants (landowners, palaces, monasteries) and state peasants, whose overlord was the state. In the total mass recorded in the second revision (census) of 1744-1747. peasant population (7.8 million male souls); landowner peasants were 4.3 million souls, or 50.5%. In general, the serf population made up 70% of the peasant population and 63.2% of the total population. Such a significant preponderance of serfs quite convincingly testifies to the nature of the Russian economy in the mid-18th century.

Peter's era of reforms contributed to the intensive industrial development of the country. In the first half of the 18th century. Outstanding successes were achieved in ferrous metallurgy. Back in 1700, Russia smelted cast iron 5 times less than England, which was advanced at that time (2.5 thousand tons and 12 thousand tons, respectively). But already in 1740, the production of pig iron in Russia reached 25 thousand tons, and it left England far behind, which smelted 17.3 thousand tons. Subsequently, this gap continued to increase, and in 1780 Russia already smelted 110 thousand. tons of cast iron, and England - only 40 thousand tons. And only at the end of the 18th century. The industrial revolution that began in England put an end to the economic power of Russia, built on manufacturing production and the semi-feudal organization of labor.

In the second quarter of the 18th century. there is no need to talk about the crisis of the Russian economy. In just 15 years (from 1725 to 1740), the production of cast iron and iron in the country more than doubled (from 1.2 million to 2.6 million poods). Other industries, as well as trade, also developed in those years. Heavy industry developed further during the Elizabethan period. Thus, the smelting of cast iron from 25 thousand tons in 1740 increased to 33 thousand tons in 1750 and by 1760 amounted to 60 thousand tons. According to experts, the 50s were truly record-breaking years for the metallurgical industry throughout the entire XVIII century. V".

Anisimov E.V. Russia in the middleXVIIIcentury. M., 1986

WRATH AND MERCY

On November 25, 1741, a new coup took place. At night, guards soldiers, led by daughter Elizabeth, dressed in a cuirass, burst into the bedroom of the ruling Brunswick family. The little emperor and his parents were arrested. The soldier who was carrying Ivan VI dropped him on the stairs. At first they intended to send the deposed family abroad. Then they considered it too dangerous. The prisoners were sent to Kholmogory, to the north. The brothers and sisters of Ivan VI were born there. Anna Leopoldovna and Anton of Brunswick died in exile. Their children, who were forbidden to even learn to read and write, eked out a miserable existence. Ivan VI was kept separately from the age of four - in the Shlisselburg fortress. In 1764, he was killed by guards during an attempt to free him by the adventurer Mirovich.

During the overthrow of the Brunswick family, Minich and Osterman were arrested. They were sent into exile in Siberia. But Elizabeth remembered Biron’s “merits.” In 1730-1740 The Duke of Courland did not allow Empress Anna Ioannovna to imprison Elizabeth in a monastery. (Biron hoped to marry his son to Elizabeth.) Elizabeth allowed Biron to return from Siberia and live in Yaroslav.

The company of guardsmen of the Preobrazhensky Regiment that carried out the coup was named label company. Non-noble soldiers received hereditary nobility from it. All life companies were granted estates. Subsequently, the life companies did not play a prominent role in the Elizabethan reign.

Life companies and other participants in the coup received 18 thousand peasants and about 90 thousand rubles. But in general, from 1741 to 1761, 800 thousand souls of both sexes were given to the nobles.

PRIVILEGED CLASS

Not only were nobles freely allowed to retire after 25 years of service, but they also did not particularly monitor whether they showed up for service at a certain age. Under Elizabeth, the custom spread of enrolling nobles in regiments as minors - from the age of 3-4, while the children, of course, lived in the houses of their parents, but ranks and length of service were already in progress. When young nobles actually began to serve, they were already in the ranks of officers and did not have long to serve before the expiration of their 25-year term.

Officer service in the guards regiments did not have the same strictures as before and was a pleasant and prestigious entertainment, which, however, required a lot of money.

To increase the income of the nobility, Elizabeth in 1754 declared distillation (production of vodka) a monopoly of the nobility. This meant that only nobles could now produce such a profitable product for sale. Merchants who owned distilleries were ordered to break them down or sell them to the nobles within six months.

The state-owned factories of the Urals also began to be transferred to the nobles. In 1754, the Noble Bank was organized, which provided loans to the nobles at a low interest rate (6% against the traditional 30% of that time).

In 1746, Elizabeth issued a decree prohibiting anyone other than nobles from purchasing serfs with or without land. Even well-established personal nobles were forbidden to have serfs. In 1754, the General Land Survey began. Non-nobles (including rich merchants) were generally prohibited from having estates with serfs. Within 6 months they had to sell their estates. As a result, the “gentry” acquired an additional 50 million acres of land.

Also in 1754, internal customs were abolished in Russia, which benefited everyone involved in trade, especially merchants.

In 1760, landowners received the right to exile their peasants under the age of 45 to Siberia. Each exile was counted as a recruit, so the nobles widely used their right, exiling unwanted, poor or sick peasants and retaining the best workers. From 1760 to 1765, more than 20 thousand serfs were exiled to the Tobolsk and Yenisei provinces.

Serfdom strengthened. Serfs were almost not considered people: Elizabeth even excluded them from the oath that her subjects took to her.

Elizabeth always emphasized that she was the daughter of Peter I and would rule like him. But the queen did not possess her father’s genius, so the similarity of these manifestations was only external. Elizabeth restored the system of central government institutions that existed under Peter I. The Cabinet of Ministers was abolished, but at the end of Elizabeth’s reign, when the Empress began to get sick often, a body arose that essentially repeated it and stood above the Senate and collegiums - the Conference at the Highest Court . The conference included the presidents of the military and diplomatic departments and persons appointed by the empress.

EMPRESS ELIZABETH

“The nineteen-year reign of this empress gave all of Europe the opportunity to become familiar with her character. People are used to seeing in her an empress full of kindness and humanity, magnanimous, liberal and generous, but frivolous, careless, averse to business, loving pleasure and entertainment above all, loyal rather to her tastes and habits than to passions and friendships, extremely trusting and always under someone's influence.

All this is still true to some extent, but years and poor health, having produced gradual changes in her body, also affected her moral state. So, for example, the love of pleasure and noisy festivities gave way in her to a disposition to silence and even solitude, but not to work. For this latter, Empress Elisaveta Petrovna feels more disgusted than ever before. She hates any reminder of business, and those close to her often wait for six months for a convenient moment in order to persuade her to sign a decree or letter.”

IN. KLUCHEVSKY ABOUT ELIZAVETA PETROVNA

Her reign was not without glory, not even without benefit.<…>Peaceful and carefree, she was forced to fight for almost half of her reign, defeated the first strategist of that time, Frederick the Great, took Berlin, killed a lot of soldiers on the fields of Zorndorf and Kunersdorf; but since the reign of Princess Sophia, life has never been so easy in Rus', and not a single reign before 1762 left such a pleasant memory. With two large coalition wars exhausting Western Europe, it seemed that Elizabeth with her 300,000-strong army could become the arbiter of European destinies; the map of Europe lay before her at her disposal, but she looked at it so rarely that until the end of her life she was confident of the possibility of traveling to England by land; and she founded the first real university in Russia - Moscow. Lazy and capricious, frightened of any serious thought, disgusted with any business activity, Elizabeth could not enter into the complex international relations of the then Europe and understand the diplomatic intricacies of her chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin. But in her inner chambers, she created for herself a special political environment of hangers-on and storytellers, gossips, headed by an intimate joint cabinet, where the prime minister was Mavra Egorovna Shuvalova, the wife of the well-known inventor and projector, and the members were Anna Karlovna Vorontsova, née Skavronskaya, a relative of the Empress, and some simple Elizaveta Ivanovna, who was called the Minister of Foreign Affairs. “The empress submitted all cases through her,” notes a contemporary.<…>With all that, in it, not like in its Courland predecessor, somewhere deep under the thick crust of prejudices, bad habits and spoiled tastes there still lived a man who sometimes broke through in a vow before seizing the throne not to put anyone to death and in fulfilling this vow decree of May 17, 1744, which actually abolished the death penalty in Russia, either in the non-approval of the ferocious criminal part of the Code, drawn up in the Commission of 1754 and already approved by the Senate, with sophisticated types of the death penalty, or in preventing the obscene petitions of the Synod on the need to abandon this the Empress of the Vow, then, finally, in the ability to cry from the unjust decision snatched by the machinations of the same Synod. Elizabeth was an intelligent and kind, but disorderly and capricious Russian lady of the 18th century, whom, according to Russian custom, many scolded during her lifetime and, also according to Russian custom, everyone mourned after her death.

COURTY LIFE 30-50 GG. XVIII century.

Elizabeth's court was surrounded by luxury and exquisite night entertainment (the queen was afraid to sleep at night, because she was afraid of conspiracies carried out in Russia usually at night). The customs of Elizabeth's court were not much different from European court life. At the balls there was pleasant music performed by excellent orchestras, Elizaveta Petrovna shone with her beauty and outfits. Masquerade balls were regularly held at court, and in the first ten years, so-called “metamorphoses” were held, when ladies dressed up in men's suits, and men in ladies' suits. Elizaveta Petrovna herself set the tone and was a trendsetter. Her wardrobe included 15 thousand dresses. The queen did not wear any of them twice. Nevertheless, V.O. Klyuchevsky noted: “ Having ascended the throne, she wanted to make her girlish dreams come true; an endless string of performances, pleasure trips, kurtags, balls, masquerades stretched out, striking with dazzling splendor and luxury to the point of nausea. Sometimes the entire courtyard turned into a theater foyer: day after day they talked only about French comedy, about the Italian comic opera and its owner Locatelli, about the Intermezzos, etc. But the living rooms, where the palace inhabitants left the magnificent halls, were striking in their crampedness and squalor furnishings, sloppiness: the doors did not close, there was a draft in the windows; water flowed along the wall paneling, the rooms were extremely damp; Grand Duchess Catherine had huge gaps in the stove in her bedroom; Near this bedroom, 17 servants were crowded into a small chamber; the furniture was so sparse that mirrors, beds, tables and chairs were transported as needed from palace to palace, even from St. Petersburg to Moscow, broken, beaten and placed in temporary places in this form. Elizabeth lived and reigned in gilded poverty; she left behind in her wardrobe too 15 thousand dresses, two chests of silk stockings, a bunch of unpaid bills and the unfinished huge Winter Palace, which had already absorbed more than 10 million rubles from our money from 1755 to 1761. Shortly before her death, she really wanted to live in this palace; but she tried in vain to get the builder Rastrelli to hurry up and finish at least her own living rooms. French haberdashery stores sometimes refused to sell newfangled goods to the palace on credit.”.

An integral feature of the Russian autocracy in the 1725-1750s. became favoritism. Rulers changed, but each had favorites who had enormous power and influence in the state, even if they did not hold high government positions. These favorites, “nobles in the case,” cost the treasury a lot of money. A golden shower of gifts constantly rained down on them; thousands, or even tens of thousands of serfs were given. Under Elizaveta Petrovna, Alexey Razumovsky and Ivan Shuvalov enjoyed special favor. Relatives and people close to the favorites also had colossal weight.

ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MOSCOW UNIVERSITY AND TWO GYMNASIUMS

WITH THE ANNEX OF THE HIGHLY APPROVED PROJECT ON THIS SUBJECT

1755, January 12

When the immortal glory resting in God, our dearest parent and sovereign Peter the Great, the great emperor and renovator of his fatherland, brought Russia, immersed in the depths of ignorance and weakened in strength, to the knowledge of the true well-being of the human race, which and how many monarchs throughout their dearest lives I believed that not only Russia feels this work, but most of the world is a witness to this; and although during the life of that highly glorious monarch, our father and sovereign, his most useful enterprises did not reach perfection, but we, by the grace of the Almighty, since our accession to the All-Russian throne, have been constantly taking care and labor, both for the implementation of all his glorious enterprises, and and about the production of everything that can serve only for the benefit and well-being of the entire fatherland, which indeed, in many ways, all loyal subjects of our mother’s mercies are now using and will continue to be used by our descendants, as time and action prove every day. Having followed this, from our true patriots and knowing enough that our only desire and will is to create the people’s well-being for the glory of the fatherland, exercising ourselves in that, to our complete satisfaction, we applied our diligence and labor for the benefit of the whole people; but since all good comes from an enlightened mind, and on the contrary, evil is eradicated, then it is therefore necessary to strive so that, through the method of decent sciences, all useful knowledge grows in our vast empire; which, imitating for the common glory of the fatherland, our Senate, and recognizing it as very useful to the general well-being of the people, most submissively informed us that our actual chamberlain and gentleman Shuvalov submitted a report to the Senate, with the attachment of a project and state on the establishment in Moscow of one university and two gymnasiums, presented the following: how science is necessary and useful everywhere, and how in this way enlightened peoples are exalted and glorified over people living in the darkness of ignorance, what is the visible evidence of our century from God given, to the well-being of our empire, the parent of our sovereign, Emperor Peter the Great, who proves that the divine his enterprise was carried out through science, his immortal glory left in eternal times, the mind of superior deeds, in that short time the change of morals and customs and ignorance, established for a long time, the construction of cities and fortresses, the establishment of an army, the establishment of a fleet, the rectification of uninhabited lands, the establishment water paths, all for the benefit of the common human life, and that finally, all the bliss of human life, in which the countless fruits of all good are presented to the senses; and that our vast empire was established here by our dearest parent, Sovereign Peter the Great, by the St. Petersburg Academy, which we, among the many well-being of our subjects, with mercy, a considerable amount against the previous one, for greater benefit and for the multiplication and encouragement of the sciences and arts, most mercifully granted, although it has foreign glory and with the benefit of this place it produces its fruits, but it cannot be content with this learned corps alone, in such a reasoning that due to the distance, many nobles and commoners have obstacles to coming to St. Petersburg, and although the first to proper education and training for our service , in addition to the Academy, in the Land and Naval Cadet Corps, in Engineering and Artillery, the path is open, but for the teaching of higher sciences to those who wish, or those who are not registered in the above places for some reason, and for general training for commoners, our mentioned actual chamberlain and cavalier Shuvalov, on the establishment of the above-announced university in Moscow for nobles and commoners, following the example of European universities, where people of all ranks freely use science, and two gymnasiums, one for nobles, the other for commoners, except for serfs...

FOUNDATION OF THE RUSSIAN THEATER

We have now ordered the establishment of a Russian theater for the presentation of tragedies and comedies, for which the Golovninsky stone house, which is on Vasilyevsky Island, near the Cadet House, will be given.

And for this purpose, it was ordered to recruit actors and actresses: actors from the students of Yaroslavl and singers in the Cadet Corps, who will be needed, and in addition to them, actors from other non-service people, as well as a decent number of actresses.

For the maintenance of this theater, to determine, according to the force of our decree, from now on, a sum of money of 5,000 rubles per year, which is always released from the State Office at the beginning of the year upon signing of our decree. To supervise the house, Alexei Dyakonov was selected from among the life company's kopeists, whom we awarded as an army second lieutenant with a salary of 250 rubles a year from the amount allocated for the theater. Assign a decent guard to the house where the theater is established.

The management of that Russian theater is entrusted from us to foreman Alexander Sumarokov, who is determined from the same amount in addition to his foreman’s salary of 1000 rubles... And what kind of salary should be paid to both actors and actresses, and others at the theater, about that to him, foreman Sumarokov, from a register was given to the yard.

The personal life of two Russian empresses - Elizabeth and Catherine II - is shrouded in a blanket of all kinds of fabrications and rumors. Their favorites are known, but whether both women were married is a question that is still being discussed. Although, it would seem, there is irrefutable evidence of marriage of both. We are interested in Elizabeth, and we will tell you what versions are available today regarding her marriage and her children.
Born in the year of Poltava, Elizabeth was admittedly extremely attractive in her youth. And she was just as loving, which caused her a lot of trouble and even danger. When her mother, Empress Catherine I, died in 1727, Elizabeth immediately found herself in the thick of a struggle waged by court parties for influence over Emperor Peter II, who was still a minor. The greatest chances here were for Alexander Menshikov, who intended to marry Peter II to his daughter. But Menshikov fell, and then one of Peter’s dignitaries, Count Osterman, proposed marrying the fourteen-year-old emperor to Elizabeth, his aunt. Osterman, a cynic to the core (later this would be revealed in its entirety under Anna Ioannovna), disregarding any rules of decency, intended with this marriage to unite the offspring of Peter I from both wives (Peter II was the son of Tsarevich Alexei) and thereby stop all attempts to the crown from anyone. But the statutes of the Orthodox Church prohibited marriage, which was more like incest, and nothing came of Osterman’s idea. However, Elizabeth suffered a lot, first from the machinations of Osterman, then from the persecution of the Dolgoruky princes.
Life was no easier for her during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, a narrow-minded and ignorant woman who spent whole days in the company of dwarfs and jesters or in various pleasures and joys, which were often not only rude, but cruel. Her favorite, the Courlander Ernst Johann Biron, also contributed a lot to the empress. There is still an opinion that Biron was the son of a groom, whom Anna Ioannovna made a duke. Only the second is true; As for Biron’s origin, it is noble - his father served as manager of one of the estates of the Duke of Courland, Friedrich Wilhelm (Anna Ioannovna was married to him in 1710, but the Duke died in 1711).
The statement of many historians that Biron was an ignorant man is also incorrect. Unlike the Empress, he loved to read, and he had a good library of German, French and Russian books. And besides, Biron once studied at the University of Koenigsberg, which, however, he did not graduate.
Elizabeth was dangerous to Anna Ioannovna because, according to the will of Catherine I, the Russian crown, if Peter II died childless, could pass into the hands of either Anna Petrovna, who was married to Holstein, or Elizabeth. The latter, thus, was in the eyes of Anna Ioannovna her rival for imperial power. Therefore, secret surveillance was established over the crown princess, and then she was completely demanded from Moscow to the northern capital - Anna Ioannovna believed that under her supervision her niece would not dare to engage in politics.
This period of Elizabeth's life is marked by the first fact of her passionate love. The crown prince's chosen one was warrant officer of the Semenovsky Life Guards regiment Alexey Shubin.
At first, Anna Ioannovna calmly reacted to her niece’s hobby, but soon she was informed that Elizabeth visited the guards barracks too often, where they loved her very much and called her “mother.” This could not have pleased the “empress of the most terrible sight,” as Anna Ioannovna was popularly called, for she knew well that if someone was loved very much in the guards barracks, expect trouble. Before you know it, you'll lose your throne.
By imperial command, Ensign Shubin was arrested and exiled to Kamchatka - just in case. However, since then, persistent rumors have spread about the children Elizabeth adopted from Shubin. They said that there were two of them - a son and a daughter. According to one version, the son was called Bogdan Umsky, who served in the army during the reign of Elizabeth, and then took the place of guardian of the Moscow orphanage; according to another, he was a certain Zakrevsky, who at the end of his career became president of the Medical College.
But for some reason, no one can name the name of Elizabeth’s daughter, although it is known about some thirteen-year-old girl who lived in the palace and attended dinners with Elizabeth and Count Alexei Razumovsky, with whom Elizabeth was in a secret marriage. But since the early 40s of the 18th century, mentions of the girl have disappeared from palace chronicles. They said that she left Russia. Where?
The fact that Elizabeth had children from Shubin is confirmed by search documents from 1740, when an inquiry was conducted into the case of the Dolgoruky princes, who dreamed of becoming related to the emperor under Peter II. Raised on the rack, the Dolgorukys admitted that they wanted to imprison Elizabeth in a monastery “for lewdness,” for the children she had from Shubin, whom the Dolgorukys had seen. Based on this confession, historians concluded that the children of Elizabeth and Shubin were born between 1728 and 1730. Thus, Elizabeth’s daughter from Shubin, if she really existed, could not be the woman who went down in history as “Princess Tarakanova” - in 1775, when the latter was in the fortress, she, by her own admission, was twenty-three years old , while a person born, say, in 1730, would have turned forty-five in 1775. Most likely, Elizabeth’s daughter from Shubin can be identified with the nun Dosithea, but we will talk about this a little later. In the meantime, let's finish the story of Ensign Shubin.
Exiled by Anna Ioannovna to Kamchatka, he remained there until 1742, when Elizabeth, who became empress, remembered him. They found him with difficulty (in Kamchatka he was married against his will to a Kamchadal woman) and was taken to St. Petersburg. In March 1743, Elizabeth promoted Shubin “for innocent endurance” to major general and major of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment. The second rank was extremely high, since the Russian sovereigns themselves bore the rank no higher than colonel of the guard. In addition, Shubin received rich land holdings and St. Andrew's ribbon, that is, he became a holder of the highest order of the Russian Empire - St. Andrew the First-Called. Shubin retired with the rank of lieutenant general and died after 1744 on one of his estates on the Volga.
So, we found out that Elizabeth in her youth had an affair with the guardsman Shubin, and although the princess had children from this relationship, they could not become legal, since the parents’ relationship was not sanctified by the church. However, later, and this is confirmed by almost all researchers, Elizabeth got married. True, the marriage was secret, but it existed, just like there were children from it.
Foreign writers were the first to talk about this (Manstein, de Castera, Gelbig); the domestic pioneer here was Bantysh-Kamensky, who in his “Dictionary of Memorable People of the Russian Land” (1836) mentioned the marriage of Empress Elizabeth with Alexei Razumovsky. Count S.S. spoke about this in more detail almost thirty years later. Uvarov, so we have enough grounds to assert with a high degree of probability: yes, Empress Elizabeth was married (even if secretly) to Razumovsky; yes, they had children.
Alexey Razumovsky (before his marriage to Elizabeth - Alexey Rozum) came from simple Cossacks of the Chernigov province. In the village of Lemeshi, where he lived, Alexey sang in the church choir. There he was seen by an official of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who was looking for singers in the provinces for the court chapel, and brought the twenty-year-old Cossack to Moscow. The Cossack was a handsome man, of heroic stature, so it is no wonder that as soon as Tsarevna Elizabeth saw him, she was inflamed with loving feelings for him and transferred the singer to her staff. It was then that he turned from Rozum into Razumovsky and became the manager of Elizabeth’s estates.
Razumovsky did not participate in the coup of 1741, although if the events of November 25 had not happened, Elizabeth would not have become empress, and Razumovsky would not have become what he later became. Therefore, it is necessary, albeit briefly, to tell about how the thirty-two-year-old princess became the Russian autocrat.
On October 17, 1740, Anna Ioannovna died and, according to her will, the great-nephew of the deceased, Ivan Antonovich of Brunswick, ascended the throne. But at that time he was only a year and two months old, and therefore Biron began to rule the country as regent. However, his reign did not last long: Field Marshal Minich and Cabinet Minister Osterman, who had heard rumors that Biron intended to remove them from business, arrested the regent on November 8, 1740 and imprisoned him in the Shlisselburg fortress. An investigation began that lasted five months. On it, Biron was accused of all mortal sins, including theft of public money, and sentenced to quartering. But the execution was eventually replaced by exile, and on June 13, 1741, Biron and his family were sent under escort to the Siberian city of Pelym. Ivan Antonovich's mother Anna Leopoldovna became the regent.
But the guard regiments were dissatisfied with this change, and they advocated placing “Peter’s daughter” Elizabeth on the throne. She, of course, knew about the intentions of the guards, but at first she refused to accept their help and become empress. However, she soon agreed, because she feared that Minikh, who had once advised Biron to imprison Elizabeth in a monastery, would do what Biron had refused.
On the night of November 25-26, Elizabeth arrived at the guards barracks and from there, accompanied by soldiers, went to the royal palace. They say that Anna Leopoldovna was warned about the coup, but did not believe it. For which she paid: having entered the regent’s chambers, Elizabeth ordered the arrest of her and her household. She herself carried young Ivan Antonovich into the sleigh and took him to her home. This is how the revolution took place.
The first question that faced the new empress was: what to do with the deposed emperor, his mother and relatives? They posed a threat to the reign and the best option, according to the customs of that time, was considered to be the physical elimination of the contenders, but Elizabeth at the very beginning of her reign gave her word not to shed blood, rivers of which were shed during the time of Anna Ioannovna. Therefore, at first the Empress decided to send the Brunswick family to Germany, assigning them all fifty thousand rubles as pensions. They had already been sent and reached Riga, but then Elizabeth, yielding to the pressure of her closest accomplices, ordered the return of the exiles. After some movements around the country they were sent into exile in Kholmogory. But in 1756, Ivan Antonovich, as the most dangerous contender for the throne, was transported from Kholmogory to the Shlisselburg fortress, where he died at the age of 24, when Lieutenant Mirovich tried to free him.
The death of the former emperor was, as we see, premature, and only Mirovich is to blame for it. He was a flawed man, tormented by the fact that he did not have a promotion. He repeatedly made requests to his superiors, and once even wrote a complaint to Catherine II, but all his appeals remained unanswered. And for only one reason - Mirovich belonged to a family that, under Peter I, betrayed him and went over to Mazepa’s side. Since then, the Mirovichs have had no move. This finally infuriated the lieutenant and he decided to take an extreme measure - to release Ivan Antonovich from prison and place him on the throne instead of Catherine. The attempt was desperate and therefore failed. In the course of it, the ex-emperor died: he was bayoneted by the officers guarding him, who had an order obliging them to put an end to the prisoner if attempts were made to rescue him.
Elizabeth was crowned on April 25, 1742, and already on this day Alexei Razumovsky was awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. He later became an earl and field marshal, although he never took part in a single battle in his entire life. His marriage to Elizabeth is believed to date back to June 1744. Some researchers even indicate the exact day - June 15, when Razumovsky and Elizabeth got married in Moscow in the Church of the Resurrection in Barashi (the church still exists today). But these statements are essentially unfounded, since no documents exist in this regard. But, as always, there is a legend (however, is it a legend?), reported in “The Story of the Marriage of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna,” published by Count S.S. Uvarov in the 3rd edition of “Readings in the Imperial Society of History and Antiquities” for 1863. The message boils down to this.
When, upon the accession of Catherine II to the throne, Grigory Orlov insisted on legitimizing his relationship with the empress, he gave her the example of Elizabeth’s wedding to Razumovsky. The latter was still alive, and Catherine wrote a decree in which she awarded Razumovsky, as the wife of the late empress, the title of imperial highness. For this, the count had to show papers certifying his marriage to Elizabeth.
But Razumovsky, according to everyone who knew him, never pursued honors. If they were given to him, he accepted them, but he himself never asked for anything. And so, having read Catherine’s decree, he took out documents that were dear to him from the casket and, in front of the eyes of the empress’s envoy, threw them into the burning fireplace, saying: “ Let people say what they please; let the daring stretch their hopes to imaginary greatness, but we should not be the reason for their rumors".
Catherine appreciated Razumovsky’s action. " ...there was no secret marriage,” she said, “whispers about it have always been disgusting to me...".
And she refused Grigory Orlov’s advances.
Now about the children of Elizabeth and Razumovsky. How many there were - here the opinions of historians differ. Some, for example de Castera, believe that there are three, two sons and a daughter - the one who later became “Princess Tarakanova”; the majority are like two, a son and a daughter. It goes without saying that they, as potential heirs to the throne, could not remain in the space of Russian secular life, and therefore were ordained to clergy. The son is in one of the monasteries of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, the daughter is in the Moscow Ivanovsky monastery. And here it is the turn to talk about the nun Dosithea and her mysterious fate.
In 1785, ten years after the death of the mysterious woman in the Alekseevsky ravelin, another woman, no less mysterious, was brought to the Moscow Ivanovo Convent. She was already forty years old, since she was supposedly born in 1745, and in the monastery the newcomer took monastic vows, becoming the nun Dosithea.
What primarily interests a historian about this fact? Of course, the status of the Ivanovo Monastery. Formed by a decree of Empress Elizabeth on June 20, 1761, it was intended to provide charity for widows and orphans of noble people. So, the newly tonsured woman was of a noble family? Some historians, starting from this, declare Dosithea to be the same pretender to the Russian throne who was captured in Livorno by Count Alexei Orlov, but she did not die in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but lived there until 1777 and died during a flood.
But this version is absolutely not confirmed by anything. Much more conclusive evidence is that a certain noble person was brought to the monastery, who for some reason was kept so secretly that during the twenty-five years of the nun’s stay in the monastery only the abbess and the confessor saw her. Dosithea never attended the common refectory, but ate separately, and her table was plentiful and exquisite.
Dosithea died in 1810 at the age of sixty-four and was buried in the family tomb of the Romanov boyars in the Novospassky Monastery. Bishop Augustine, who was then the administrator of the Moscow diocese, performed her funeral service, and all the nobility of Moscow attended the funeral.
But who, then, was this secret nun, buried with such pomp? It’s unlikely that Elizaveta’s daughter was from Razumovsky - she was seven or eight years younger than Dosifeya. So, maybe it’s worth remembering the children of Elizaveta and Shubin, specifically the daughter who, as we remember, left Russia in the 40s. Where did you go and why? There is evidence on this matter: she left for Koenigsberg; because she was given in marriage, and her husband’s father, that is, his father-in-law, was the commandant of the main city of Prussia. But over time, the husband and father-in-law died, and the woman, who was already over forty, was left alone. So was it not she who was brought to the Ivanovo Monastery, was it not she who turned into the nun Dosithea?
There is reason in these guesses, but the dates do not quite agree. Dosithea died at sixty-four, and the nameless girl who was present at the same table with Elizabeth was born no later than 1730. This means that she, if she was buried in the Novospassky Monastery, must have been eighty years old. But, on the other hand, the dates of Dosithea’s life indicated on the gravestone could have been deliberately shown incorrectly. When there is something to hide, they resort to such methods. And it seems to us that there was something to hide. In the next chapter we will talk about this in detail, but for now we will only note: upon closer examination of the issue related to “Princess Tarakanova,” so many inexplicable details are revealed that the generally accepted versions begin to seriously waver. And when you read materials devoted to the mystery of the impostor, you involuntarily begin to ask yourself: if the prisoner of the Alekseevsky Ravelin was considered such, then why was Catherine II so anxious and worried throughout the investigation of this case, as if she was expecting some extraordinary events from day to day? And why did the Russian tsars, starting with Paul I, show the closest attention to the impostor’s case and even tried to falsify it? (In any case, as later searches showed, many important documents disappeared from the case without a trace, and thus it turned out to be greatly “cleaned up.”) Is this why, in the end, the sacramental question arose: what if it’s not an impostor?

At the end of November 1741, another palace coup took place, which brought the youngest daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, to power.

The arrest of Biron, the rise to power of the unpopular Brunswickers in the country and among the guards, and the dominance of the Germans in the management of the Russian state undermined power and awakened Russian national self-awareness. Society again turned to the era of Peter I, whose name again shone in an aura of glory and greatness. At the same time, the popularity of his daughter Elizabeth grew every day.

Elizabeth became aware of the plans of the German party to declare Anna Leopoldovna empress in the event of the death of her one-year-old son. In this case, the crown princess, the only Russian representative of the Romanov dynasty, lost her rights to the throne. The guards encouraged Elizabeth to carry out a coup.

At night, dressed in a grenadier uniform, Elizabeth appeared before the grenadiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. They were waiting for her. Elizabeth turned to the grenadiers: “Do you want to follow me, are you ready to die with me if necessary?” The grenadiers unanimously replied: “We are glad to lay down our souls for Your Majesty and our Fatherland.” The grenadiers entered the Winter Palace without interference. The Brunswick couple were taken by surprise. Together with the baby, Emperor Ivan Antonovich, the couple was sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where Minich and Osterman were also imprisoned.

The next morning, the regiments of the capital's garrison and guard lined up on the square in front of the palace swore allegiance to the new empress. A Manifesto was immediately announced about the accession of Elizabeth Petrovna to the paternal throne.

It was said that she took the throne by right, because after the death of Peter II, she is closest in blood to Peter I.

Having taken the throne, Elizabeth announced the abolition of the death penalty in Russia. And indeed, during her reign she did not sign a single death warrant.

The reign of Elizaveta Petrovna

Elizabeth Petrovna began her reign with a slight reduction in the poll tax. At the same time, the serfs were not allowed to swear allegiance to the new empress. The gentlemen took the oath for them. This clearly indicated the internal political orientation of the new government: serfdom remained unshakable as before, Elizaveta Petrovna only somewhat limited the use of serf labor in industry, because his unprofitability made itself felt more and more. The right to buy peasants into factories was also limited, and the number of registered peasants was reduced.

Elizabeth announced the liquidation of the Cabinet and the establishment of the Imperial Council. It included her closest supporters. The leader became Osterman's rival, the experienced dignitary Alexei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who returned from exile shortly before the coup. Old Russian surnames began to shine - Trubetskoy, Naryshkin, Cherkassky, Kurakin. The Shuvalovs and A.G. received high court ranks. Razumovsky. Field Marshal Vasily Dolgoruky was appointed president of the Military Collegium.

At the same time, reprisals began against representatives of the old government. They decided to deport the Brunswick family abroad and even sent them to Riga for subsequent transfer to Germany. However, Elizabeth’s supporters believed that Ivan Antonovich, having matured, could put forward his claims to the Russian throne, and that foreign powers would use his name. Therefore, in Riga the family was arrested and sent to the village of Kholmogory near Arkhangelsk, where they lived out their life. The young deposed emperor was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress and kept there in complete isolation.

The Senate again became the Governing (main after the Empress) body of power in the country; it was replenished with Russian nobles. Elizaveta Petrovna restored some of Peter's collegiums and the Chief Magistrate. The terror against the Russian nobility and nobility ceased, but the Secret Chancellery continued to operate. About 80 thousand people passed through its dungeons during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna.

Elizabeth encouraged the construction of new ships in the Baltic and restored the quantitative composition of the Russian army. The government apparatus was partially reduced, the principle of unity of command was strengthened, and prosecutorial supervision was restored to its previous extent.

During the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, the nobility acquired new privileges. The period of public service in the army, navy, and in the management system was shortened. The nobles received the right to exile offending peasants to Siberia, and these people were counted as recruits given to the state. Nobles could also sell their serfs to others for distribution.

Among other noble privileges and benefits, there was the transfer of state-owned factories (in particular, Ural ones) to the nobles. A monopoly of the nobles on distillation was introduced, which gave them colossal profits. The government reduced government monopolies, rightly believing that freedom and competition of private entrepreneurs and traders would promote economic development.

Contemporaries and historians characterized the time of Elizabeth Petrovna as calm and conservative. Autocratic power in Russia remained unshakable.

Through the efforts of Elizabeth's associates, urgent reforms in the field of economics were carried out. Internal customs, which stood as insurmountable barriers to trade, were abolished. From now on, it was possible to transport goods throughout the country without any payments. The internal apparatus of customs, where corruption flourished, was eliminated. The new customs protectionist tariff protected the interests of domestic industrialists.

By the middle of the 18th century. the stable state of the state, reasonable reforms led to the rise of industry and trade. Dozens of new metallurgical plants emerged, and the number of cloth, sail-linen, paper and textile factories grew. They were built not only in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also in Kaluga, Voronezh, Yaroslavl, Serpukhov, and in the cities of Siberia. The villages of Ivanovo, Kineshma, Pavlovo acquired large production facilities and received the status of cities. The new enterprises used the labor of civilian workers, although forced labor still predominated in the Ural metallurgy and at the Demidov factories.

Merchant capital acquired a prominent place in the creation of factories and manufactories. The process of forming a national bourgeoisie was underway.

There were not enough civilian workers, so the use of sessional and assigned peasants expanded. Feudal labor remained the basis of large-scale production. This state of the economy, unique for Europe at that time, was bound to lead Russia to a dead end sooner or later.

Foreign trade was actively developing. The nobles remained the main suppliers of agricultural products abroad, but even here serf labor was the basis of trade relations useful for the country.

Internal trade moved forward through the efforts of merchants and peasants. The principle of free competition, which was supported by the government of Elizabeth, made its way.

Elizaveta Petrovna pursued a tough, purely Petrine policy in the field of religion and national relations. Lutheran churches were turned into Orthodox churches, severe repressions against Old Believers began, and bearded men began to be taxed again. Twice Elizabeth, by her decrees, announced the expulsion from the empire of Jews who did not convert to Christianity.

One of the most important problems for Elizabeth Petrovna was the choice of a successor to the throne. Realizing that this problem had more than once caused serious upheavals for the country, the Empress tried to prepare the heir to the throne in advance. She chose the Prince of Holstein, nephew, son of her sister Lipa Petrovna - Karl Peter. He was the grandson and sole successor of the family of Peter I. Having called him to Russia and baptized him according to the Orthodox rite, Elizaveta Petrovna hoped to prepare a worthy successor in the person of Peter Fedorovich, as he began to be called. The legitimate heir, he had to block the path to the throne for the prisoner Ivan Antonovich.

In 1742, 14-year-old Karl Peter arrived in Russia. On the Holstein line, he was the great-grandson of the Swedish king Charles XII, so at first he was prepared to take the Swedish throne. Karl Peter studied Swedish and was brought up in the Lutheran faith.

His invitation to Russia was the empress’s fatal mistake. Until the end of his days, the heir to the Russian throne considered Holstein his homeland, and Lutheranism his native religion. Russia was a foreign country for him. Since childhood, his idol was the Prussian king Frederick II, who fanatically worshiped the Prussian military order.

The Empress made her second serious mistake when she chose a bride for the vulnerable and impressionable Pyotr Fedorovich. At the age of 17, Elizaveta Petrovna married him to 16-year-old Sophia Frederica Augusta, a princess from the seedy German principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. In Russia, she converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna.

A petite blonde with blue eyes and an iron character arrived in St. Petersburg. At 16 years old, Ekaterina Alekseevna was a fully formed person. She sought to please the empress, the Russian elite, the guard and the Orthodox clergy, and to become one of her own in Russia. Catherine persistently studied the Russian language, comprehended customs, prayed earnestly and observed all religious instructions and rituals.

The dissimilarity of the spouses was revealed already in the first months after the wedding. While her husband was having fun with childish games in the palace, Catherine persistently educated herself and read serious literature. Soon their marriage became a formality. A tight knot of alienation was tightening between the spouses, which was sooner or later to be resolved by an explosion in their relationship.

The last years of Elizaveta Petrovna

At the end of her days, the empress had little interest in state affairs. Elizaveta Petrovna established a permanent Conference (advisory body) in her person, which included nobles close to her. Gradually, the Conference subjugated all the central institutions of the country - both the Senate and the collegiums. Essentially, Elizabeth entrusted the governance of the country to her favorites and confidants. She herself spent all her time on entertainment and amusements. The Empress loved holidays and loved to shine among the courtiers in fancy dress. In her craving for pleasure and expensive clothes, Elizaveta Petrovna was uncontrollable. After the death of the empress, about 15 thousand dresses were discovered in her wardrobe. Twice in the same outfit she almost never appeared in public.

And yet, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, a certain stabilization of the life of the country took place. The positions of the Russian nobility were strengthened, and serfdom was confirmed and developed. Certain successes have been achieved in foreign policy - Sweden's attempts to revise the terms of the Nystadt Peace have been overthrown, and the power of the Prussian state has been shaken.

Peter III: six months on the throne

In 1761, Elizaveta Petrovna passed away. According to her will, the grandson of Peter I, Peter Fedorovich, ascended the throne. The short reign of Peter III began.

Elizabeth dreamed of continuing the Romanov dynasty. After 9 years of marriage, Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to a son, Pavel. Contemporaries and historians, not without reason, believed that the boy’s father was a guards officer, the handsome Sergei Vasilyevich Saltykov, the favorite of the Grand Duchess. If this is so, then the Romanov dynasty is interrupted by Pavel Petrovich. However, at that time few people were interested in this. The main thing is that an heir appeared.

Elizabeth, disappointed in her nephew, hatched a plan to transfer the throne to her grandson besides her father. She took the boy away from his parents and raised him herself.

During the few months that Peter III was in power, he made many tragic mistakes that led to his death. At the same time, Peter III carried out several important government reforms that advanced Russian civilization.

A decree was prepared to destroy the Secret Chancellery. Thus, the emperor was ready to strike at one of the most terrible medieval search systems in Kirov. Another decree of Peter III deprived industrialists of the right to buy serfs for manufactories. A ban was introduced on the oppression of Old Believers. Peter III proclaimed the principle of religious tolerance in Russia. His government prepared a project for the secularization (transferring into the hands of the state) of church lands. This meant that the clergy no longer dared to establish their own rules in their domains. Essentially, Peter III continued the line of Peter I to subordinate the Church to the state. Peter III set as his goal the promotion of the development of the urban class in the Western spirit. He wanted to attract Western entrepreneurs to Russia and generally build life in the country in a European manner.

The policy of Peter III turned out to be extremely close to the policy of Peter the Great, but times have changed. Peter III did not have a strong foothold in Russian society. His influential layers, primarily the guard, did not accept the actions of the emperor.

The attitude towards him did not improve even after the Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility (1762), according to which the nobility was exempted from compulsory 25-year service. The government motivated this by the fact that under Peter I it was necessary to force the nobles to serve and study. The nobility showed patriotic zeal and zeal in the service of the state, and now there was no longer any point in coercion.

Thus, Peter III connected his Manifesto directly with the policies of his grandfather and its beneficial results for Russia.

The nobility rejoiced. Now a significant part of it had the right to start their own farming, which could not but have a positive impact on the overall development of the country’s economy.

The manifesto freed part of the Russian population from forced labor. This was a step towards further liberation of the population from general bondage, which was opposed in every possible way by the liberated nobility itself, which literally clung to its serfs.

Peter III had powerful opposition in the person of a significant part of the Russian elite, the guard, the clergy and, first of all, his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna. The German princess more and more definitely made claims to the Russian throne. Patiently and persistently she weaved a web of conspiracy against her husband. Everywhere she spoke of her devotion to the interests of Russia, which was in contrast to the Holstein line of Peter III. The emperor's undertakings that were truly useful for Russia were passed off as the initiative of his assistants. Attention focused on his mistakes and unseemly personal behavior. With the light hand of Catherine and her assistants, such a distorted image of Peter III entered the history of Russia for a long time. Meanwhile, the uncontrollable desire for power of Catherine herself was hushed up. Many years later, she admitted in her notes that she came to Russia with the motto: reign or die.

The leader of Catherine's party, which condemned everything that Peter III did and widely notified the court and guards about his connections with the Germans, became the educated nobleman Nikita Ivanovich Panin. This also included the commander of the Izmailovsky regiment, the chief of police, the chief prosecutor, and officers of the guards regiments. A major role among the conspirators was played by Grigory Orlov, Catherine Alekseevna’s favorite, his four brothers, and non-commissioned officer of the Horse Guards Grigory Potemkin (1739-1791), a future outstanding figure in Catherine’s government.

At 6 o'clock in the morning on June 28, 1762, the spring of the conspiracy unfolded. Alexei Orlov appeared at the palace in Peterhof, where Catherine lived at that time, and told her: “Everything is ready to proclaim you.”

A few minutes later the carriage with Catherine was already rushing to St. Petersburg. At the entrance to the city, Grigory Orlov was waiting for the crew. Soon Catherine appeared in front of the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment. The guards immediately swore allegiance to the new empress. She was greeted with delight by the Semyonovtsy and Preobrazhensky residents. In the Winter Palace, Catherine, who assumed the title of autocratic Empress Catherine II, began to take the oath of office for members of the Governing Senate, the Holy Synod and government officials.

Peter III was in Oranienbaum at this time. Realizing that the coup had already occurred and regiments were swearing allegiance to Catherine one after another, Peter III renounced his rights to the throne and asked to be released to Holstein. However, Catherine did not intend to collect deposed emperors: Ivan Antonovich was still alive in Shlisselburg. A decision was brewing to eliminate Peter III physically. How it really happened remains forever hidden from history.

The emperor was arrested and taken to a country palace in the town of Ropsha. The prisoner spent only seven days there. There is information that the guards strangled Peter III.

The Guard again placed their man on the throne. At the same time, Catherine II carried out a double coup: she simultaneously usurped the rights to the throne of her son Pavel Petrovich and took his place on the throne.

The reign of Catherine II began, whom her contemporaries proclaimed Great.

Elizaveta Petrovna born December 18, 1709 in the village of Kolomenskoye. Russian Empress since November 25, 1741 from the dynasty Romanovs, daughter Peter I And Catherine I.

Biography
Elizaveta was born in the village Kolomenskoye December 18, 1709. Peter I entered Moscow on this day and Swedish prisoners were taken after him. The Emperor intended to celebrate the Poltava victory, but upon entering the capital he was notified of the birth of his daughter. " Let's put aside the celebration of victory and hasten to congratulate my daughter on her entry into the world.", he said. Peter found Catherine and her newborn daughter healthy, and to celebrate, he threw a feast.
At the age of eight, Princess Elizabeth was already attracting attention with her beauty. In 1717, both daughters greeted Peter, returning from abroad, dressed in Spanish attire. Then the French ambassador noticed that the sovereign’s youngest daughter seemed beautiful in this outfit.
In 1718, assemblies were introduced, and both princesses appeared there in dresses of different colors, embroidered with gold and silver, and in headdresses sparkling with diamonds. Everyone also admired Elizabeth's dancing skills. The French envoy Levi noted that Elizabeth could be called a perfect beauty if her hair were not reddish.
Elizabeth's upbringing was not successful, especially since her mother was illiterate. The princess was taught in French, and her mother insisted that there were reasons for her to know French better than other subjects. The reason for this was the strong desire of her parents to marry Elizabeth off to some person of French royal blood. But to all persistent proposals to become related to the French Bourbons, they responded with a polite but decisive refusal. Her training was not in vain - Elizabeth became acquainted with French novels, and this reading softened and elevated her. Perhaps that is why those rude morals that reigned at that time at the St. Petersburg court did not take root in her, and her own reign had much more European gallantry and sophistication than all previous ones. All her time was filled with horse riding, hunting and taking care of her beauty. Elizabeth had a lively, insightful, cheerful and insinuating mind and great abilities. In addition to Russian, she studied French, German, Finnish and Swedish. Disorderly, whimsical, having no fixed time either for sleep or for eating, hating any serious occupation, extremely familiar and then angry over some trifle, scolding the courtiers with the worst words, but very kind and simply and widely hospitable.

Before accession to the throne
After her parents' marriage, Elizabeth bore the title of princess. Will Catherine I 1727 provided for the rights Elizabeth and her descendants to the throne after Peter II And Anna Petrovna. In the last year of the reign of Catherine I, there was a lot of talk at court about the possibility of a marriage between an aunt and a nephew, who at that time had friendly relations. After the death of Peter II, Elizabeth, despite the will of Catherine I, was not considered as one of the contenders for the throne, which was transferred to her cousin Anna Ioannovna.

Accession to the throne
Taking advantage of the decline in authority and influence Anna Leopoldovna, on the night of November 25, 1741, 32 years old Elizabeth Accompanied by Count D. D. Khodov, life physician Lestocq and her music teacher Schwartz, she raised the grenadier company of the Preobrazhensky regiment with her... she went to the Preobrazhensky barracks and joined the grenadier company. The grenadiers were waiting for her:
- Do you know who I am? - she asked the soldier, - Do you want to follow me?
- How can I not know you, mother princess? Yes, we will follow you into fire and water, beloved one,” the soldiers answered in unison.
The Tsesarevna took the cross, knelt down and exclaimed: “I swear by this cross to die for you!” Do you swear to do the same for me if necessary?
- We swear, we swear! - the soldiers answered in unison... (from the novel by N. E. Heinze “The Romanovs. Elizaveta Petrovna.”)
From the barracks we moved to the Winter Palace. Having encountered no resistance, with the help of 308 guards, she proclaimed herself the new queen, ordering the imprisonment of the young Ivan VI in the fortress and the arrest of the entire Brunswick family (relatives of Anna Ioannovna, and her adherents.

Marriage plans
From birth Elizabeth plans began to be made regarding her future marriage. In the spring of 1725, she had to give up her dream of becoming related to the Bourbons; Catherine I decided to arrange a marriage for her daughter with the illegitimate son of August II, Moritz of Saxony. But this marriage also failed. After this, Elizabeth had to agree to marry the bishop of the Lub diocese, Karl-August of Holstein, the younger brother of the ruling duke. But circumstances did not allow this marriage either. In June 1727, the groom died in St. Petersburg without reaching the altar. Elizabeth was deeply saddened by his death. To console her, the great statesman of the next reign, Osterman, chose another plan - to marry Elizabeth to Peter II, who had ascended the throne. But the opponents of this marriage were Menshikov and the church itself (who did not allow the marriage of the aunt and nephew), it could have come true. Under the influence of Osterman, Peter fell in love with his beautiful aunt, and it was up to her to direct this very ardent feeling to the goal. Elizabeth was more important in the life of Peter II than he was in hers. Peter was still a child - he was thirteen years old, and in the eyes of the much more mature Elizabeth, he could hardly seem attractive. Elizabeth tore him away from serious studies and textbooks. Being a brave rider and a tireless hunter, she took him with her on long horseback rides and hunting. But she didn’t experience her first love with him. In 1727, she became seriously interested in Alexander Buturlin, and after that her meetings with the emperor became irregular, and soon their paths diverged.
After the court moved to Moscow for the coronation, Elizabeth settled in Pokrovskoye. Buturlin was a frequent visitor here. Having learned about this, Peter II sent him to Ukraine in 1729. The successor to the first favorite was Semyon Naryshkin, chief of the court. The relationship between him and the princess was so intimate that in Moscow they even started talking about Naryshkin’s possible marriage to Elizabeth. But Peter II intervened again and sent the chamberlain to travel abroad. Until his death, the emperor jealously did not allow other men to approach his aunt. When the Prussian ambassador proposed to arrange Elizabeth's marriage with the Brandenburg Elector Charles, Peter refused, without even consulting the princess. But Elizabeth was not very burdened by this guardianship. Her third lover was the handsome grenadier Shubin.

Reign
State affairs Elizabeth I almost didn’t study, entrusting them to my favorites - my brothers Razumovsky, Shuvalov, Vorontsov, A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin. Elizabeth proclaimed a return to Peter's reforms as the principles of domestic and foreign policy. The role of the Senate, the Berg and Manufactory Collegium, and the Chief Magistrate was restored. The Senate received the right of legislative initiative.
During the Seven Years' War, a permanent meeting arose above the Senate - the Conference at the Highest Court. The conference was attended by the heads of the military and diplomatic departments, as well as persons specially invited by the Empress. The activities of the Secret Chancellery became invisible.
During the reign of Elizabeth, work on a new Slavic translation of the Bible, begun under Peter I in 1712, was completed. " Elizabethan Bible", published in 1751, and now, with minor changes, is used in the worship of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1741, the Empress adopted a Decree allowing Buddhist lamas to preach their teachings on the territory of the Russian Empire. The decree also exempted them from paying taxes.
On December 2, 1742, a decree was adopted on the expulsion of all citizens of the Jewish faith, with permission to remain only for those who wanted to convert to Orthodoxy.
In 1744-1747, the 2nd census of the tax-paying population was carried out. At the end of the 1740s, the first Russian banks were founded - Dvoryansky (Loan), Merchant and Medny (State). In 1744, a decree was issued banning fast driving around the city, and fines were imposed on those who cursed in public.
In 1760, landowners received the right to exile peasants to Siberia and count them instead of recruits. Peasants were prohibited from conducting monetary transactions without the permission of the landowner. The death penalty was abolished and the widespread practice of sophisticated torture was stopped. Under Elizabeth, military educational institutions were reorganized.
In 1744, a decree was issued to expand the network of primary schools. The first gymnasiums were opened: in Moscow (1755) and Kazan (1758). Moscow University was founded in 1755, and the Academy of Arts was founded in 1760.
August 30, 1756 - a decree was signed on the beginning of the creation of the structure of the Imperial Theaters of Russia. Outstanding cultural monuments have been created. In the last period of her reign, Elizabeth was less involved in issues of public administration. Elizaveta Petrovna’s domestic policy was characterized by stability and a focus on growing the authority and power of state power. Based on a number of signs, it can be said that Elizaveta Petrovna’s course was the first step towards the policy of enlightened absolutism, which was then carried out under Catherine II.

Politics of Elizaveta Petrovna
Social politics Elizaveta Petrovna was aimed at expanding the rights and privileges of the nobility. Only the nobles were granted the right to own land and peasants.
Foreign policy.
At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, Russia waged a war with Sweden (1741-1743), which ended in a peace favorable to Russia. According to this peace, Sweden confirmed the results of the Northern War and ceded part of Finland to Russia. The main foreign policy event during Elizabeth's reign was Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763). The war involved two coalitions of European powers: Prussia, England and Portugal against France, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Saxony and Russia. Prussia began to threaten Russian interests in Poland and the Baltic states. In 1757 Russia enters the war. On August 19, 1757, near the village of Gross-Jägersdorf, Russian troops under the command of S.F. Apraksin 2.102 defeated the Prussian troops. In 1758, Koenigsberg was taken. On July 23, 1759, near the village of Knersdorf, Frederick’s army was defeated. On September 29, 1760, a detachment of General Z. G. Chernyshev occupied Berlin, and in 1761 the Kolsberg Fortress was captured. In the battles of the Seven Years' War, the formation of talented Russian commanders P.A. Rumyantsev and A.V. Suvorov.
Russia's eastern policy during the reign of Elizabeth was characterized by the annexation of Kazakh lands, which began with the voluntary entry of the Younger Kazakh Zhuz into Russia in 1731. In 1740 - 1743, the Middle Zhuz voluntarily became part of Russia.

Personal life of the queen
Elizabeth was in a church morganatic marriage with Alexey Razumovsky. According to historical sources from the 1770s - 1810s, she had at least two children: a son from Alexei Razumovsky and a daughter from Count Shuvalov. She also took under her personal guardianship the two sons and daughter of the chamber cadet Grigory Butakov, who were orphaned in 1743: Peter, Alexei and Praskovya.
After the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, many impostors appeared, calling themselves her children from her marriage to Razumovsky. Among them, the most famous figure was the so-called Princess Tarakanova.
The period of Elizabeth's reign was a period of luxury and excess. Masquerade balls were regularly held at court, and in the first ten years the so-called “ metamorphosis", when ladies dressed up in men's suits, and men in ladies' suits. The Empress's wardrobe consisted of up to 15 thousand dresses. Elizaveta Petrovna loved the ladies who were especially trusted and close to her to scratch her heels before going to bed.

Death of the Queen
In December 1761, Elizabeth died of throat bleeding due to an unidentified chronic disease. ascended the throne Peter III.

Interesting facts about Empress Elizabeth
- In the winter of 1747, the Empress issued a decree, referred to in history as “ hair setting", commanding all the court ladies to cut their hair bald, and gave everyone " black tousled wigs“to wear until they grow their own. City ladies were allowed to keep their hair, but wear the same black wigs on top. The reason for the order was that the empress could not remove the powder from her hair and decided to dye it black. However, this did not help and she had to cut off her hair completely and wear a black wig.
- Elizaveta Petrovna had a snub nose, and artists painted it from its best side. And there are almost no profile portraits of Elizabeth, except for the occasional medallion on a bone by Rastrelli.
- On December 22, 2009, the exhibition “ Vivat, Elizabeth", organized by the State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoe Selo" together with the State Museum of Ceramics and " Kuskovo estate of the 18th century"and dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. One of the most interesting exhibits of the exhibition was a paper sculpture depicting the ceremonial attire of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The sculpture was made especially for the exhibition, commissioned by the museum, by the world-famous Belgian artist Isabelle de Borschgrav.
- After death Elizaveta Petrovna and accession Peter III At the Yekaterinburg Mint, coins with the imperial monogram of Empress Elizabeth continued to be minted for some time - this fact was subsequently explained by the fact that news of the death of the Empress took too long to reach Yekaterinburg. Subsequently, most of the coins of 1762 with the monogram of Elizabeth Petrovna were re-minted, but a small number of these coins still survive to this day.

I. Argunov "Portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna"

“Elizabeth has always had a passion for rearrangements, restructuring and moving; in this “she inherited the energy of her father, built palaces in 24 hours and covered the then route from Moscow to St. Petersburg in two days” (V. Klyuchevsky).

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (1709-1761)- daughter of Peter I, born before the church marriage with his second wife, the future Catherine I.

Her father surrounded her and her older sister Anna with splendor and luxury as future brides of foreign princes, but was not very involved in raising them. Elizaveta grew up under the supervision of “mothers” and wet nurses from peasant women, which is why she learned and fell in love with Russian morals and customs. To teach foreign languages, teachers of German, French, and Italian were assigned to the crown princesses. They were taught grace and elegance by a French dance master. Russian and European cultures shaped the character and habits of the future empress. Historian V. Klyuchevsky wrote: “From Vespers she went to the ball, and from the ball she kept up with Matins, she passionately loved French performances and knew all the gastronomic secrets of Russian cuisine to a fine degree.”

Louis Caravaque "Portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna"

Elizaveta Petrovna’s personal life did not work out: Peter I tried to marry her to the French Dauphin Louis XV, but it did not work out. Then she rejected French, Portuguese and Persian applicants. Finally, Elizabeth agreed to marry the Holstein prince Karl-August, but he suddenly died... At one time, her marriage with the young Emperor Peter II, who passionately fell in love with his aunt, was discussed.

Anna Ioannovna (Elizabeth's cousin), who ascended the throne in 1730, ordered her to live in St. Petersburg, but Elizabeth did not want to tease the empress, who hated her, with her presence at court and deliberately led an idle life, often disappearing in the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, where she communicated mainly with ordinary people. people, took part in their dances and games. Next to Elizaveta Petrovna’s house there were barracks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. The guards loved the future empress for her simplicity and good attitude towards them.

Coup

After the baby John VI was proclaimed emperor, Elizabeth Petrovna’s life changed: she began to visit the court more often, meeting with Russian dignitaries and foreign ambassadors, who, in general, persuaded Elizabeth to take decisive action. On November 25, 1741, she appeared at the barracks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment and made a speech to the grenadiers, who swore allegiance to her and headed to the palace. Having overthrown the ruler and her son, Elizabeth declared herself empress. In a short manifesto, she explained her action by the request of her loyal subjects and her blood relationship with the reigning house.

She generously rewarded the participants in the coup: money, titles, noble dignity, ranks...

Surrounding herself with favorites (mostly these were Russian people: the Razumovskys, Shuvalovs, Vorontsovs, etc.), she did not allow any of them to achieve complete dominance, although intrigues and the struggle for influence continued at court...

HER. Lansere "Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in Tsarskoe Selo"

The artist Lanceray masterfully conveys the unity of the lifestyle and art style of past eras. The entrance of Elizaveta Petrovna with her retinue is interpreted as a theatrical performance, where the majestic figure of the empress is perceived as a continuation of the facade of the palace. The composition is based on the contrast of lush baroque architecture and the deserted ground floor of the park. The artist ironically juxtaposes the massiveness of architectural forms, monumental sculpture and characters. He is fascinated by the roll call of architectural decorative elements and toilet details. The Empress's train resembles a raised theatrical curtain, behind which we are caught by surprise by the court actors rushing to play their usual roles. Hidden in the jumble of faces and figures is a “hidden character” - an Arab little girl, diligently carrying the imperial train. A curious detail was not hidden from the artist’s gaze either – an unclosed snuffbox in the hasty hands of the gentleman’s favorite. Flashing patterns and spots of color create a feeling of a revived moment of the past.

Domestic policy

Upon her accession to the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna, by personal decree, abolished the Cabinet of Ministers and restored the Government Senate, “as it was under Peter the Great.” To consolidate the throne for her father's heirs, she summoned her nephew, the 14-year-old son of Anna's elder sister, Peter-Ulrich, Duke of Holstein, to Russia, and declared him her heir as Peter Fedorovich.

The Empress transferred all executive and legislative power to the Senate, and she indulged in festivities: going to Moscow, she spent about two months in balls and carnivals, which ended with the coronation on April 25, 1742 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.

Elizaveta Petrovna turned her reign into sheer entertainment, leaving behind 15 thousand dresses, several thousand pairs of shoes, hundreds of uncut pieces of fabric, the unfinished Winter Palace, which absorbed from 1755 to 1761. 10 million rubles. She wished to remodel the imperial residence to her taste, entrusting this task to the architect Rastrelli. In the spring of 1761, the construction of the building was completed, and interior work began. However, Elizaveta Petrovna died without ever moving to the Winter Palace. The construction of the Winter Palace was completed under Catherine II. This building of the Winter Palace has survived to this day.

Winter Palace, 19th century engraving

During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, no fundamental reforms were carried out in the state, but there were some innovations. In 1741, the government forgave the peasants' arrears for 17 years; in 1744, by order of the Empress, the death penalty was abolished in Russia. Homes for the disabled and almshouses were built. On the initiative of P.I. Shuvalov, a commission was organized to develop new legislation, noble and merchant banks were established, internal customs were destroyed and duties on foreign goods were increased, and conscription duties were eased.

The nobles again became a closed, privileged class, acquired by origin, and not by personal merit, as was the case under Peter I.

Under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the development of Russian science took off: M.V. Lomonosov published his scientific works, the Academy of Sciences published the first complete geographical atlas of Russia, the first chemical laboratory appeared, a university with two gymnasiums was founded in Moscow, and the Moskovskie Vedomosti began to be published. In 1756, the first Russian state theater was approved in St. Petersburg, of which A.P. became the director. Sumarokov.

V.G. Khudyakov "Portrait of I.I. Shuvalov"

The foundation of the library of Moscow University is being laid; it is based on books donated by I.I. Shuvalov. And he donated 104 paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Poussin and other famous European artists to the collection of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He made a huge contribution to the formation of the Hermitage art gallery. In Elizabethan times, art galleries became one of the elements of magnificent palace decoration, which was supposed to stun those invited to the court and testify to the power of the Russian state. By the middle of the 18th century, many interesting and valuable private collections appeared, the owners of which were representatives of the highest aristocracy, who, following the empress, sought to decorate palaces with works of art. The opportunity for Russian nobles to travel a lot and interact closely with European culture contributed to the formation of new aesthetic preferences of Russian collectors.

Foreign policy

During the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna, Russia significantly strengthened its international position. The war with Sweden, which began in 1741, ended with the conclusion of peace in Abo in 1743, according to which part of Finland was ceded to Russia. As a result of the sharp strengthening of Prussia and the threat to Russian possessions in the Baltic states, Russia, on the side of Austria and France, took part in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), which demonstrated the power of Russia, but cost the state very dearly and gave it practically nothing. In August 1760, Russian troops under the command of P.S. Saltykov defeated the Prussian army of Frederick II and entered Berlin. Only the death of Elizabeth saved the Prussian king from complete disaster. But Peter III, who ascended the throne after her death, was an admirer of Frederick II and returned all of Elizabeth’s conquests to Prussia.

Personal life

Elizaveta Petrovna, who in her youth was a passionate dancer and a brave rider, over the years found it increasingly difficult to accept the loss of her youth and beauty. From 1756, she began to experience fainting and convulsions more and more often, which she carefully hid.

K. Prenne "Equestrian portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna with her retinue"

K. Waliszewski, a Polish historian, writer and publicist, created a series of works dedicated to Russian history. Since 1892, he has published books in France in French, one after another, about the Russian tsars and emperors, and about their entourage. Walishevsky's books were united in the series “The Origin of Modern Russia” and cover the period between the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Alexander I. In the book “Daughter of Peter the Great. Elizaveta Petrovna” (1902), he describes the last year of the empress’s life as follows: “Winter 1760-61. passed in St. Petersburg not so much in balls, but in tense anticipation of them. The Empress did not appear in public, locked herself in her bedroom, and received only ministers with reports without getting out of bed. For hours, Elizaveta Petrovna drank strong drinks, looked at fabrics, talked with gossips, and suddenly, when some outfit she tried on seemed successful to her, she announced her intention to appear at the ball. The court bustle began, but when the dress was put on, the empress’s hair was combed up and makeup was applied according to all the rules of art, Elizabeth went to the mirror, peered - and canceled the celebration.”

She died in 1761 in great suffering, but assured those around her that they were too small compared to her sins.

Elizaveta Petrovna was in a secret morganatic marriage with A.G. Razumovsky, from whom (according to some sources) they had children who bore the surname Tarakanov. In the 18th century Two women were known under this surname: Augusta, who, at the behest of Catherine II, was brought from Europe and tonsured into the Moscow Pavlovsk Monastery under the name Dosithea, and an unknown adventurer, who declared herself the daughter of Elizabeth in 1774 and laid claim to the Russian throne. She was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she died in 1775, hiding the secret of her origin even from the priest.

K. Flavitsky "Princess Tarakanova"

The artist K. Flavitsky used this story for the plot of his painting “Princess Tarakanova.” The canvas depicts a casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress, outside of which a flood is raging. A young woman stands on the bed, fleeing the water rushing through the barred window. The wet rats climb out of the water, approaching the prisoner's feet.