- (1709 1761/1762), Russian empress since 1741, daughter of Peter I. She was enthroned by the guards as a result of a palace coup, during which the young emperor Ivan VI Antonovich was deposed and imprisoned in the fortress. In the reign of Elizabeth ... Russian history
Russian empress from November 25, 1741 to December 24, 1761, daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I (born December 18, 1709). She spent her childhood and youth in the villages of Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky near Moscow, thanks to which Moscow and her ... ... Biographical Dictionary
Elizaveta Petrovna- Elizaveta Petrovna. ELIZAVETA PETROVNA (1709 1761/62), Russian Empress (since 1741). Daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. Secretly married (1744) with A.G. Razumovsky. Relying on the guard, she removed Anna Leopoldovna and Ivan VI from power. Returned to... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Elizaveta Petrovna- (1709-1761), Empress (since 1741), daughter of Peter I, ascended the throne as a result of a palace coup, overthrowing the infant emperor Ivan VI Antonovich. In 1742, Elizaveta Petrovna appointed her great nephew the heir to the throne ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
- (1709 1761/62) Russian Empress from 1741, daughter of Peter I. Enthroned by the guards. During her reign, significant success was achieved in the development of the economy, culture of Russia and in foreign policy, which was facilitated by the activities of M.V. ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (1709 1761), Empress (since 1741), daughter of Peter I, ascended the throne as a result of a palace coup, overthrowing the infant emperor Ivan VI Antonovich. In 1742, E. P. appointed her nephew Grand Duke Peter as heir to the throne ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)
Elizaveta Petrovna- (Elizabeth Petrovna) (1709 62), Empress of Russia (1741 62). The unmarried daughter of Peter I the Great, a beautiful, frivolous woman, was enthroned by the guards as a result of a palace coup, during which the young Ivan VI was overthrown ... The World History
ELIZAVETA PETROVNA- Imp. Elizabeth Petrovna. 1754 Artist. GG Prenner (TG) Imp. Elizabeth Petrovna. 1754 Artist. G. G. Prenner (TG) (December 18, 1709, the village of Kolomenskoye, Moscow Province. December 25, 1761, St. Petersburg), imp. All-Russian (since November 25, 1741), daughter of imp. Petra… … Orthodox Encyclopedia
Russian Empress (1741 December 24, 1761), daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I (born December 18, 1709). From the day of the death of Catherine I, Grand Duchess E. Petrovna went through a difficult school. Especially dangerous was her position under Anna Ioannovna and Anna ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia
- (1709 1761/1762), Russian empress since 1741, daughter of Peter I. She was enthroned by the guards as a result of a palace coup, during which the young emperor Ivan VI Antonovich was deposed and imprisoned in the fortress. During the reign of Elizabeth... encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- Elizaveta Petrovna, Shishov A. Historical monograph dedicated to one of the most prominent women on the Russian throne, the daughter of the great Peter the Great, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The fate of women who had the supreme ...
- Elizaveta Petrovna, K. A. Pisarenko. Elizaveta Petrovna remained in the shadow of her great father for a long time. In addition, the daughter of Peter I is constantly compared with his nephew's wife, Catherine II, who also earned a "title" from her descendants ...
Years of life : December 18 1 709 - December 24, 1761.
Russian empress from November 25, 1741 to December 24, 1761, daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I (born December 18, 1709). She spent her childhood and youth in the villages of Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky near Moscow, thanks to which Moscow and its environs remained close to her for life. Her education was limited to teaching dance, secular treatment and French; already being empress, she was very surprised to learn that "Great Britain is an island." Announced in 1722 as an adult, Elizabeth became the center of various diplomatic projects. Peter the Great thought of marrying her off to Louis XV; when this plan failed, they began to marry the princess to minor German princes, until they settled on Prince Karl-August of Holstein, who managed to please her very much.
The death of the groom upset this marriage, and after the death of Catherine I, which followed shortly after that, worries about the marriage of Elizabeth completely ceased. Left to herself in the reign of Peter II, lively, friendly, able to say a kind word to everyone, moreover, prominent and slender, with a beautiful face, the princess completely surrendered herself to a whirlwind of fun and hobbies. She befriended the young emperor, contributing to the fall of Menshikov, and at the same time surrounded herself with "random" people like A.B. Buturlin and A.Ya. Shubin. With the accession to the throne of the imperious and suspicious Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth lost her brilliant position at court and was forced to live almost without a break in her patrimony, Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, closed in a close circle of persons devoted to her, among whom, since 1733, Alexei Razumovsky occupied the first place. A student of the French tutor Rambour and the obedient daughter of her confessor, Father Dubyansky, she spent her time in endless balls and church services, caring for Parisian fashions and Russian cuisine, constantly in need of money, despite the large funds.
Complete indifference to politics and inability to intrigues, while the grandson of Peter the Great, the Prince of Holstein, also existed abroad, saved Elizabeth from tonsure into a monastery and from marriage to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Meiningen, but major displeasures between her and Anna Ioannovna flared up repeatedly . The position of the princess did not improve even with her moving to St. Petersburg under John VI, although Biron, apparently, favored her and increased the maintenance given to her from the treasury. But now society itself has taken up the task of changing the fate of Elizabeth. The 10-year domination of the Germans under Anna Ioannovna and Anna Leopoldovna gave rise to general discontent, the active expression of which was the guard, which served as a strong citadel of the Russian nobility. Outraged by the oppression of foreigners, the national feeling made us dream of a return to the times of Peter the Great; the harsh rules instituted by the Converter were idealized, and Princess Elizabeth began to seem capable of leading Russia back to its former path. When the regime created in 1730 began to disintegrate and the German rulers began to devour each other, signs of open unrest appeared among the guards. The French ambassador Chétardie and the Swedish ambassador, Baron Nolken, tried to take advantage of this mood.
By enthroning Elizabeth, the first thought to divert Russia from an alliance with Austria, and the second - to return to Sweden the lands conquered by Peter the Great. The intermediary between foreign residents and Elizabeth was her personal physician Lestok. Shetardie's indecisiveness and Nolken's excessive claims forced, however, Elizabeth to break off negotiations with them, which became impossible also because the Swedes declared war on the government of Anna Leopoldovna, under the pretext of protecting the rights to the throne of Anna Petrovna's son, the Duke of Holstein, the future Emperor Peter III. But the performance of part of the guards regiments on a campaign and the intention of Anna Leopoldovna to arrest Lestok prompted Elizabeth to hurry up with a decisive step. At 2 am on November 25, 1741, she, accompanied by persons close to her, appeared in the grenadier company of the Preobrazhenians and, recalling whose daughter she was, ordered the soldiers to follow her, forbidding them to use weapons, as they threatened to kill all Germans. The arrest of the Brunswick family took place very quickly, without causing any bloodshed, and the next day a manifesto appeared, briefly announcing the accession of Elizabeth to the throne. This revolution gave rise to a real explosion of national feeling in society. The journalism of that time - salutatory odes and church sermons - was full of bilious and vicious reviews of the previous time, with its German rulers, and equally immoderate praise of Elizabeth, as the winner of the foreign element. The same feelings, but in cruder forms, were shown by the street. The houses of many foreigners in St. Petersburg were destroyed, and in the army sent to Finland there was almost a general extermination of foreign officers. Convinced of the complete approval of society for the change, Elizabeth issued on November 28 another manifesto, where she proved in detail and without hesitation in expressions the illegality of the rights to the throne of John VI and put forward a number of accusations against the German temporary workers and their Russian friends. All of them were put on trial, which determined the death penalty for Osterman and Munnich by quartering, and Levenvold, Mengden and Golovkin - just the death penalty. Erected to the scaffold, they were pardoned and exiled to Siberia.
Having secured power for herself, Elizabeth hastened to reward the people who contributed to her accession to the throne or were generally devoted to her, and to form a new government from them. The grenadier company of the Preobrazhensky Regiment was called the Life Campaign. Soldiers not from the nobility were enrolled in the nobility, corporals, sergeants and officers were promoted to the ranks. All of them, in addition, were granted lands, mainly from estates confiscated from foreigners. Of those close to Elizabeth, Alexei Razumovsky, the morganatic husband of the Empress, elevated to the dignity of a count and made a field marshal and holder of all orders, and Lestok, who also received the title of count and vast lands, were especially showered with favors. But the French doctor and the Little Russian Cossack did not become prominent statesmen: the first did not know Russia and therefore took part only in external affairs, and even then not for long, since in 1748 he was disgraced for harsh expressions about Elizabeth and was exiled to Ustyug; the second deliberately abstained from serious participation in public life, feeling his unpreparedness for the role of ruler.
The first places in the new government were therefore occupied by representatives of that social group which, in the name of offended national feeling, had overthrown the German regime. Many of them were simple guards officers before the coup, such as the old servants of Elizabeth, P.I. Shuvalov and M.I. Vorontsov, who now, together with their relatives, have acquired the greatest importance in the government environment. Next to them, some of the leaders of the previous governments, for example, A.P., also came to power. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Prince A.M. Cherkassky and Prince N.Yu. Trubetskoy, who fell into disgrace or did not play an independent role in the two previous reigns. At first, after her accession to the throne, Elizabeth herself took an active part in public affairs. Reverent for the memory of her father, she wanted to rule the country in the spirit of his traditions, but limited herself only to the abolition of the Cabinet of Ministers, from which, as the personal decree said, "there was a considerable omission of cases, and justice came to a complete weakness," and the return to the Senate of the former rights associated with the restoration of the prosecutor's office, the chief magistrate and the berg- and manufactory colleges. After these first steps, Elizabeth, having retired almost entirely to court life, with its fun and intrigues, transferred the management of the empire into the hands of her employees; only occasionally, between hunting, mass, and a ball, did she devote a little attention to foreign policy. To conduct the latter and partly to consider the military and financial issues related to it, already a month after the coup, an unofficial council of the persons closest to her arose under the empress, which was later called a conference at the royal court. This council did not in the least hamper the Senate, since many, and moreover, the most influential members of the first were also members of the second, and the attempts of Chancellor Bestuzhev in 1747 and 1757. to turn it into an institution similar to a supreme privy council or cabinet of ministers were rejected by Elizabeth. More than others, Elizabeth was also interested in the issue of succession to the throne, which became especially acute after the gloomy case of N.F. Lopukhina and Anna Leopoldovna's refusal to renounce her rights to the throne for her children.
To calm the minds, Elizabeth summoned her nephew, Karl-Peter-Ulrich, to St. Petersburg, who on November 7, 1742 was proclaimed heir to the throne. Meanwhile, given to the Senate, where the members were, without exception, representatives of the "noble Russian gentry", domestic policy turned sharply off the path that the first orders of the new empress had put her on. The dignitaries assembled in the Senate, with the Vorontsovs and Shuvalovs at their head, no longer thought about the further restoration of the Petrine order, about putting into practice the idea of a police state with an unlimited monarchy, carried out by a classless bureaucracy, which animated the Converter. Not this idea, but the national feeling and the interests of the estates and nobility now became the main incentives for government activity, which was joined by the traditional need to take care of replenishing the treasury with funds sufficient to support the court, officials and the army. The new government did not have any program of major transformations of the political system. The question of this, however, was raised twice: I.I. Shuvalov submitted a note to Elizabeth "on fundamental laws", and P.I. Shuvalov represented to the Senate about the benefits for the state of "free knowledge of the opinion of society." But these projects did not receive further movement, since the nobility, having achieved actual participation in government activities, no longer thought, as in 1730, about a formal restriction of supreme power. But the government, in its daily practice, successfully implemented other aspirations of the nobility, declared by them during the accession to the throne of Anna Ioannovna. First of all, public service was turned into a privilege only for the nobility.
In the reign of Elizabeth, with the exception of the Razumovskys, not a single statesman emerged from the lower strata of society, as was almost the rule under Peter the Great. Even foreigners were tolerated in the service only when, for some reason, there were no capable or knowledgeable Russian nobles. This made it possible for the Germans to remain in the diplomatic field. At the same time, the very service of the nobles became easier. The Twenty-Five Years Act, passed in 1735 and now suspended, is now in full force. Practice, in addition, legitimized that the 25-year service of the nobles actually took place in a much shorter period, since the government generously allowed them preferential and long-term holidays, which were so rooted that in 1756 - 1757. drastic measures had to be taken to force the officers, who had lived on their estates, to report to the army. In the same era, the custom spread among the nobility to enroll in regiments as early as infancy and thus reach officer ranks long before adulthood. In the 1750s, a decree was being prepared in the Senate on the complete release of the nobles from public service, accidentally issued only by Elizabeth's successor. The restored prosecutor's office did not have the same strength, as a result of which the service from a sometimes difficult duty began to take on the character of a profitable occupation. This is especially true of the governors, who at that time became indefinite.
The whip, execution and confiscation of property, which followed under Peter the Great and Anna Ioannovna for embezzlement and bribery, have now been replaced by demotion, transfer to another place and rarely dismissal. Administrative morals, in the absence of control and fear of punishment, fell extremely low. “Laws,” Elizabeth herself admitted, “do not have their execution from internal common enemies. The insatiable greed for self-interest has reached the point that some places established for justice have become a marketplace, covetousness and predilection by the leadership of judges, indulgence and omission of the approval of lawlessness.” The growth of the class element in the central and regional administration was mitigated, however, by the fact that by the 1840s the people's organism had, in general, coped with the consequences of the Petrine financial crisis. During the reign of Elizabeth, taxes were paid more regularly than before, the amount of arrears was reduced, and the amount of per capita money was reduced by 2-5 kopecks per soul. The manifesto of 1752, which forgave the 2 1/2 million per capita shortfalls from 1724 to 1747, publicly announced that the empire had achieved such prosperity that in income and population "almost a fifth of the former state exceeds." In the methods of administrative influence on the population, therefore, a certain softness began to be practiced, especially in comparison with the exactingness and cruelty of the administration during the German regime. No less progress was made under Elizabeth by the conquest of land and peasant labor by the nobility. The generous distribution of estates to life-campanians, favorites and their relatives, as well as honored and undeserved statesmen, significantly expanded serfdom, which, by decree of March 14, 1746, forbade non-nobles "to buy people and peasants without land and with land" and received in the survey instructions of 1754 and the decree of 1758 even retroactive, became the exclusive privilege of the nobility. A number of measures increased the very severity of serfdom. Having removed the peasantry from the oath already at the very moment of Elizabeth's accession to the throne, the government thereby looked at them as slaves, and later energetically put this view into practice.
The decree of July 2, 1742 forbade the landlord peasants to enter military service of their own free will, thus depriving them of the only opportunity to leave the serfdom, and the boundary instruction of the same year ordered all raznochintsy, illegitimate and freedmen to enroll either in the settlements or in the soldiers , or for the landowners, threatening otherwise with a link to a settlement in the Orenburg Territory or return to work at state-owned factories. The very rights of the landlords over the peasants were significantly increased by decrees of December 4, 1747, May 2, 1758 and December 13, 1760. According to the first, the nobility could sell householders and peasants to be recruited, which legalized human trafficking, which had already accepted wide sizes; the second authorized the landlords to observe the behavior of their serfs, and the third granted them the right to exile the guilty peasants and courtyards to Siberia, with a treasury offset for those exiled for recruits, and this gave the landowners' arbitrariness, as it were, an official character. Measures such as allowing peasants, whoever they may be, by decree of 1745, to trade goods in villages and villages and, by decree of February 13, 1748, to join the merchant class, subject to the payment of merchant taxes along with the payment of poll tax and dues, of course, they did not contradict the general direction of the legislation, since the benefits granted to the peasants, improving their economic condition, were thereby beneficial for the landlords. The material well-being of the nobility was generally an important object for the immediate concerns of the government. So, by decree of May 7, 1753, a noble bank was established in St. Petersburg, with a branch in Moscow, which provided the nobles with a cheap loan (for 6% per year) in fairly large amounts (up to 10,000 rubles). For the same purpose, according to the instructions of May 13, 1754, a general survey was undertaken, however, it was met with very hostility by the nobility and, as a result, was soon suspended. Having made serfdom a noble privilege and given almost the same character to public service, the government of Elizabeth took measures to turn the nobility into a more closed class.
Since 1756, the Senate has determined by a number of decrees that only persons who have presented evidence of their noble origin can be included in the lists of nobility. On this very basis, a new genealogical book began to be compiled from 1761. Senate Decrees 1758 - 1760 even more sharply isolated personal nobles from hereditary ones, depriving non-nobles who were promoted to chief officer ranks - which from the time of Peter the Great gave them the nobility - the right to own populated estates. The measures of the government of Elizabeth, which seemed to pursue national tasks, the division of Russia in 1757 into 5 districts, from which recruits were taken alternately after 4 years to the 5th, and the establishment in 1743 of a 15-year period for the production of revisions of the taxable population, too were in essence a class coloring and the decrees themselves were motivated primarily by the interests of the landowners. Even the largest financial reform of the reign was the abolition of internal customs in 1754, in which S.M. Solovyov saw the destruction of the last traces of specific time - was considered by its initiator, P.I. Shuvalov, from the estate-noble point of view: from its implementation, he expected the development of peasant trade that would be beneficial for the nobility. The policy of the nobility and estates of the government of Elizabeth had a particularly striking effect on the activities of the institution, which seemed to be created solely in the interests of the merchants. Opened for the needs of the latter in 1754, a commercial or "copper" bank, in practice, provided a wide loan to almost one noble, from high dignitaries to guard officers. Estates could not but be reflected in the respectable, in general, the activities of the government of Elizabeth in the field of education. In 1747, with the participation of K. Razumovsky, who was appointed president in 1746, a new regulation of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was developed. In 1755 it was founded in Moscow, according to the project of I.I. Shuvalov and M.V. Lomonosov, a new university and two gymnasiums were opened under him and one in Kazan. Although people of all conditions, except for taxes, could enter both universities, it was widely used by one nobility, which by the middle of the 18th century. better than other strata of society realized the need for education. The government of Elizabeth met this desire of the nobility with its concerns about the development of purely noble educational institutions: the land gentry corps, the artillery academy, and especially the schools at the collegiums. Such educational events were certainly necessary in an era when, under the influence of the experienced domination of foreigners under Anna Ioannovna, the spirit of national-religious intolerance and hostility towards Western European education, which were especially felt among the clergy, developed strongly. Thanks to the Razumovsky brothers, who bowed before the memory of St. Yavorsky, the highest levels of the hierarchy were now occupied by persons imbued with hatred for the enlightening aspirations of Feofan Prokopovich, who reigned supreme in the Synod under Anna Ioannovna.
A number of preachers appeared who saw in Munnich and Osterman emissaries of Satan sent to destroy the Orthodox faith. In this field, the abbot of the Sviyazhsky monastery, Dm. Sechenov and Ambrose Yushkevich. This attitude towards the "Germans" and "German" culture was not long in coming to light in practice. Having received censorship in their hands, the Synod submitted to the highest signature, in 1743, a draft decree on the prohibition of the import of books into Russia without their preliminary consideration. Bestuzhev-Ryumin energetically rebelled against this, but Elizabeth did not follow his advice, and such works as Fontenelle's book "On the Many Worlds" and the Featron, or The Historical Shame, published under Peter the Great, translated by G. Buzhansky, began to be banned. But the book "Stone of Faith" dear to the Synod was printed. Some of the hierarchs had a negative attitude not only to secular science, but also to church enlightenment. Archbishop Varsonofy of Arkhangelsk spoke out, for example, against the large school built in Arkhangelsk, on the grounds that the Cherkasish bishops liked the schools. When fanatical self-immolations intensified among the schismatics, such shepherds could only appeal to the government authorities. The latter, represented by the Senate, was aware of the abnormally low level of education among the clergy and did something to raise it. This level was clearly reflected in the position taken by the Synod on the issue of mitigating criminal penalties: when the decrees of 1753 and 1754, which took place on the personal initiative of the empress, abolished the death penalty, as well as torture in tavern cases, the Senate presented a report on the release from torture of criminals up to the age of 17, but members of the Synod rebelled against this, arguing that, according to the teachings of the holy fathers, infancy was considered up to 12 years; they forgot that the decrees they referred to applied to the population of the southern countries, who came of age much earlier than the northerners. The educational activities of the government of Elizabeth, dictated most of all by noble interests, nevertheless, played an important role in the assimilation of Western European culture by Russians, powerful conductors of which were the academy, university and the first public theater, opened by the treasury on the initiative of Volkov and Sumarokov in 1756. Exclusively state interests led the government of Elizabeth only in the field of border and foreign policy. The first Novorossia, due to serious unrest of the Bashkirs, was turned in 1744 into the Orenburg province, which also included the Ufa province and the Stavropol district of the current Samara province.
The appeasement of foreigners, the settlement of the region by Russians and its dispensation fell to the lot of the talented and honest Neplyuev. A conscientious administrator, in the person of the victim in the case of Volynsky, Soimonov, had Siberia, where there was also ferment among foreigners. The Chukchi and Koryaks in the vicinity of Okhotsk even threatened the complete extermination of Russian settlers. Detachments sent against them met fierce resistance, and the Koryaks, for example, preferred in 1752 to voluntarily burn themselves in a wooden prison than to surrender to the Russians. Even Little Russia inspired great fear, where strong dissatisfaction with the management of the Little Russian collegium established by Peter the Great spread. Having visited Kyiv in 1744, Elizabeth decided, in order to calm the population, to restore the hetmanship. Elected at the insistence of the government of the hetmans, K. Razumovsky, however, understood that the times of the hetmanate had already passed, and therefore insisted on transferring the affairs of the closed collegium to the Senate, on which the city of Kyiv became directly dependent. The end of the Zaporizhzhya Sich was also approaching, since during the reign of Elizabeth, the call of new colonists to the southern Russian steppes continued vigorously.
In 1750, a number of Serb settlements called New Serbia were founded in the current Kherson province, of which two hussar regiments were formed. Later, in the current Ekaterinoslav province, new Serbian settlements arose, which were called Slavic-Serbia. Near the fortress of St. Elizabeth, settlements were formed from Polish Little Russians, Moldavians and schismatics, which laid the foundation for the Novoslobodskaya line. So, Zaporozhye was gradually covered by the second Novorossiya, which was already being formed. In the field of foreign policy, the government of Elizabeth generally followed the path, partly indicated by Peter the Great, partly dependent on the then position of the main Western European states. Upon accession to the throne, Elizabeth found Russia in a war with Sweden and under the strong influence of France, hostile to Austria. The peace in Abo in 1743 gave Russia the Kymenegory province, and the military assistance rendered to the Holstein party led to the fact that Adolf Friedrich, the uncle of the heir, Elizabeth Petrovna, was declared the heir to the Swedish throne. The arrest of Lestocq in 1748 eliminated the French influence at court, which was still supported by the Shuvalovs. Having achieved an exceptional position, Bestuzhev-Ryumin was the restorer of the "Peter the Great system", which he saw in friendship with England and in alliance with Austria. At the request of the former, Russia took part in the War of the Austrian Succession. The rapid rise of Prussia, meanwhile, gave rise to the rapprochement of Austria and France, which had previously competed with each other, which led to the formation of a coalition, which included Russia. In the war that opened against Frederick II in 1757, Russian troops played a major role in conquering East Prussia with Koenigsberg, but the death of Elizabeth did not allow these lands to be consolidated for Russia.
Russian Biographical Dictionary / www.rulex.ru / Complete collection of laws, reports of residents, conference proceedings in the "Collection of the Russian Historical Society", Vorontsov's "Archive", memoirs of P.Ya. Shakhovsky, A. Bolotov, Countess A.D. Bludova, Prince Yu.V. Dolgorukov, Empress Catherine II, Princess Dashkova, Count Munnich (for the rest, see the first issue of the Review by S.R. Mintslov). The history of the reign of Elizabeth is described by S.M. Solovyov ("History of Russia"), I. Kostomarov ("Russian history in biographies"), S.I. Semevsky ("Essay on the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna"), P. Shchebalsky (IV edition of "Readings from Russian History"). The latest characteristics of Elizabeth and her time are given by K. Valishevsky ("Elizaveta Petrovna") and Y. Gauthier (in the first volume of "Sovereigns from the House of the Romanovs"); the activity of the Senate was studied by Professor Presnyakov in the anniversary "History of the Senate", the activity of the regional administration - by Y. Gauthier, in the "History of Regional Administration in Russia from Peter I to Catherine II", the state of education - by S.V. Rozhdestvensky in "History of public education systems in Russia in the 18th century". S. Voznesensky.
Elizabeth I Petrovna is a brilliant ruler, the All-Russian Empress, the beloved daughter of Peter the Great, who continued his political course. She revived the role of the Chief Magistrate, the Senate, and other central institutions, abolished the death penalty, achieved economic stability and important military victories.The period of the reign of the beauty queen, who had a weakness for dresses, is known as the time of balls, masquerades, theatrical performances and other entertainments. But at the same time, it was marked by the flourishing of the arts and sciences: the creation of masterpieces of architecture by the great architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (Anichkov, Vorontsovsky, Stroganov, Winter Palaces, Smolny Cathedral), the literary works of Alexander Sumarokov, Mikhail Lomonosov, the restructuring of Peterhof and Strelna, the emergence of imperial theaters , Academy of Arts and Moscow University.
Childhood and youth
The future autocrat was born in the royal palace of Kolomenskoye on December 29, 1709, before the marriage of her parents, Peter I and Catherine I, on February 19, 1712. Her father loved her immensely, called her Lapushka and Lisetka. However, both her and her eldest daughter Anna, the parents devoted very little personal time due to employment and constant traveling. 
In 1721 she received the title of heir to the throne - princesses. The upbringing of the future empress was carried out by the younger sister of her father, Natalya, and the Menshikovs. The girl was a cheerful and restless child. According to eyewitnesses, she was little interested in studying, but she mastered French and German, studied the basics of history and geography, although she allegedly always believed that England could be reached by land. She was pious, beautiful, wrote poetry, danced and sang beautifully.
Her carefree life - balls, theater, horseback riding - continued after the death of her father in 1725, during the reign of Catherine I's mother and then during the years of Peter II, her nephew, with whom Liza was on friendly terms, on the throne.
But under the reign of the imperious Anna Ioannovna in the period 1730-1740. the situation has changed - the princess was practically in disgrace. The new empress perceived her warily. Many residents of Northern Palmyra treated the daughter of Peter I with great sympathy and saw in her the true heir to her father and the throne. Anna even thought about imprisoning a dangerous political rival in a monastery, but Duke Biron, the favorite of the Empress, interfered (he planned to marry his son to Elizabeth).
Governing body
After the death of Anna Ivanovna, Ivan VI became her heir. At first, Biron was the regent, and then Anna Leopoldovna, the mother of the baby emperor. In 1741, Elizabeth, having learned about the plans of the ruler to remove her from St. Petersburg, carried out a coup d'état, with the assistance of the Preobrazhensky regiment, and seized the throne.In the spring of the following year, a magnificent wedding ceremony took place for the kingdom of the new autocrat, who proclaimed a course towards the continuation of Peter's traditions. The overthrown family of Ivan VI was sent north to Kholmogory, close associates, including Field Marshal Munnich and General Admiral Osterman, were arrested and exiled to Siberia. But the ruler did not forget Biron's intercession - she allowed him to return from Siberia to Yaroslavl. The guardsmen of the company of the Preobrazhensky Regiment that supported the coup, renamed the Life Campaign, received the nobility, estates and peasants.
At the head of government departments stood people from the inner circle of the autocrat - the husband of her friend Mavra Shepeleva Pyotr Shuvalov, Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin, brothers Roman and Mikhail Vorontsov, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod Yakov Shakhovskoy. Soon the abolition of internal customs led to the rise of trade between the regions. At the same time, duties and fees for foreign trade were increased.
An effective impetus for the development of entrepreneurial activity was the opening of the first domestic banks - Copper, Merchant, Dvoryansky. The taxation system was improved, which had a positive effect on the financial position of the state.
Heavy industry has been successfully developed. For example, iron smelting reached 110 thousand tons by 1780 (in England this figure at that time was only 40 thousand tons).
In the style called the Elizabethan Baroque, royal residences, palaces and churches were equipped, which adorned the city on the Neva and its environs. The Empress was a pious woman, regularly went on a pilgrimage to Kyiv, ordering the construction of the Mariinsky Palace to begin there, often made pilgrimages from Moscow to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to New Jerusalem and other nearby monasteries. In 1741, she signed a decree on the recognition of Buddhism, but at the same time she signed decrees on the expulsion of persons of the Jewish faith and on the destruction of many mosques.
In the social sphere, the privileges of the nobility grew, the punishments of soldiers and serfs were mitigated. However, the latter were still sold and deported to Siberia, which caused dozens of peasant uprisings, suppressed with incredible cruelty.
By order of the empress, the number of primary schools increased, the first gymnasiums appeared, all kinds of support were provided to scientists and cultural figures, including Mikhail Lomonosov. In 1755, Moskovskiye Vedomosti began to be published.
In the international arena, the empress, following the course of her father, managed to achieve a strengthening of the authority of the state. Following the war with Sweden 1741-1743. the country retained the conquests of Peter I in the Baltic states and received part of the territory of Finland.
The Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 was also successful. with Prussia. In 1758 the Russians defeated the Germans near the village of Zorndorf, in 1759 near Kunersdorf, and in 1760 captured Berlin.
The expansion of Russia's borders to the east also continued, the state included the lands of Kazakh associations - the so-called Middle Zhuz.
Personal life of Elizabeth I
Parents dreamed of making Elizabeth a French queen by marrying the young French king Louis XV, but the fact of her illegitimate birth and low-born maternal descent from Lithuanian peasants was an obstacle. 
Among the contenders for her hand at various times were the Duke of Orleans, the Persian Shah Nadir, Prince George of England, the cousin of the husband of the sister of the Duke of Holstein Karl-August, but something constantly interfered with her marriage.
The empress was left without a titled spouse, having supposedly tied herself in a secret marriage with Alexei Razumovsky, a Dnieper Cossack, a singer of the court choir, the elder brother of the hetman of the Zaporizhian Army, Kirill. In 1742 he received the court rank of Ober-Jägermeister and was awarded the highest award of the empire - the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. According to unconfirmed reports, the couple had a son. In addition, some historians believe that the autocrat also had a daughter from an associate, intellectual and patron of the sciences and arts of Russia, Ivan Shuvalov.
Contemporaries characterize Elizabeth I as a "merry entertainer", a woman with "French frivolity and licentiousness." High society was aware of her frequent "fun trips" and condemned her for them. Among the favorites of the empress were chamberlain Baturlin, cousin Naryshkin, orderly Shubin, to whom she dedicated her poems, chamber-page Lyalin, cadet Beketov.
Death
From the late 1750s, the empress began to get sick. In 1758, in Tsarskoye Selo, during a service in the church, she became ill, she lost consciousness. She began to experience nervous seizures, nosebleeds, her legs swelled. Most of the time she was forced to stay in the bedchamber. 
In 1761, her illness worsened, attacks of debilitating cough became more frequent. In the last days of her life, she granted amnesty to a significant part of the prisoners and ordered that the duty on salt be reduced, making life easier for the poor. Grand Duchess Catherine, Grand Duke Peter (heir to the throne) and inconsolably sobbing Ivan Shuvalov, to whom she gave the box with her jewelry (after her death, he transferred them to the treasury), were inseparably at her bedside.
On December 22, doctors announced that Elizabeth's health condition was critical. She listened to their message calmly, patiently recited prayers of departure after the confessor. On December 25 (according to the Julian calendar), the empress died, was buried in the tomb of the imperial family in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of Northern Palmyra.
Modern doctors believe that the cause of death of Elizabeth I was cirrhosis of the liver, which caused cardiovascular insufficiency. It is also worth noting that the Empress was preoccupied with her appearance; pharmacists made cosmetics for her by order. In those days, such “beauty secrets” were in use, such as powder with arsenic, white lead, etc.
Elizabeth I had an irregular daily routine: she drank alcohol, rarely went to bed before dawn, and got up late in the afternoon. All these factors could intensify the degenerative processes in the queen's body. Some historians find evidence in the texts of that time that Elizaveta Petrovna was ill with epilepsy (i.e., epilepsy).
Born in an extramarital affair of her parents, nevertheless, she was declared a princess by Peter I on 6 (17) .3.1711, when her mother was proclaimed queen. During the marriage of Peter I and Catherine I on February 19 (1.3). 1712, Elizabeth, holding on to her mother's hem, walked around the lectern along with her older sister Anna and thus, according to church canons, was recognized as the legitimate ("married") daughter of the king. In childhood and adolescence, she lived the carefree life of a young beauty, busy with dresses, holidays and walks. Systematic did not receive education; studied Russian. literacy, French and possibly a Swede. and German. languages, but wrote only in Russian, with errors. On December 23, 1721 (January 3, 1722), when her mother was declared empress, she began to be called the princess. Her birth before the marriage of her parents ruled out the possibility of dynastic. marriage, attempts at the conclusion of which were made before the beginning. 1740s With the ascension to the the throne of the nephew E. P. - imp. Peter II (1727), an affair began between him and E. P., which was interrupted by the emperor’s entourage, who feared the influence of E. P. After the death of Peter II (January 1730), when choosing a new monarch, E. P.’s candidacy was not discussed. With the coming to power of the imp. Anna Ivanovna(1730) H.P. took the 3rd position in the hierarchy of the court - after the empress and princess Anna Leopoldovna. Anna Ivanovna treated H.P. with suspicion and hidden hostility as her possible rival and kept H.P.’s “small yard” under watchful eye. Clever, ambitious and distrustful, E.P. kept aloof from the political. intrigues, she spent a lot of time in her estate Tsarskoye Selo or in the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg (it stood on the site of the Mikhailovsky Castle), giving the impression of a frivolous and narrow-minded beauty. A circle of young people close to her developed around the princess, among whom were later famous figures of her reign - M. I. Vorontsov, br. I. I. Shuvalov and P. I. Shuvalov and others. E. P. was not married and officially had no children, although there is evidence that she had children more than once. Since 1731, Ukrainian was the favorite of E.P. Cossack and former singer A. G. Razumovsky, in 1742 (or in 1744) they secretly got married in the Dubrovitskaya Church of the Sign near Moscow (according to other versions - in the Moscow Church of the Resurrection in Barashy or in the Church of the Sign in the village of Perovo). In 1749, after several short novels, E. P. had a new favorite - the educated and intelligent I. I. Shuvalov.
Under Anna Leopoldovna, the ruler (1740–41) under the juvenile imp. Ivan VI Antonovich, politician. the value of E. P. has increased. The obvious weakness of power, the continuous leapfrog of rulers of non-Russian origin began to irritate the guard. The cult of Peter I that existed among the guards soldiers fully extended to his daughter, who was seen as the heiress of the reformer tsar. E. P. tried to please the guardsmen: she kindly received them, baptized their children, was simple, friendly with her father's associates and with their young comrades. At the same time, H. P. began to negotiate with the Swedish (E. M. Nolken) and French (Marquis J. I. T. de la Chétardie) envoys, who hoped to change the pro-Austrian foreign policy. course Ros. empire, strengthened under Anna Leopoldovna. The Swedes also hoped in the future to achieve a revision of the conditions Peace of Nystadt 1721 and the return of the conquered Ros. the swedish empire. provinces in the east. the Baltics. However, these intentions of the Swedes scared the princess, and she dragged out the negotiations.
Relying on the guardsmen, on November 25 (December 6), 1741, E. P. committed the state. coup, personally led the capture of the Winter Palace - the residence of Anna Leopoldovna. During the coronation in Moscow, E.P. defiantly took the crown from the hands of the metropolitan and put it on her head herself, emphasizing that she owed power only to herself. The new empress believed that it would be enough for her to continue her father's policy, and for this it was necessary to eliminate the distortions that had arisen after his death. She liquidated the Cabinet 1731–41, restored the role of the Senate, which again became the Governing One, and other Peter's institutions. E. P. was a sovereign autocrat who determined both domestic and foreign policy. course of Russia; at the same time, she entrusted many others. affairs to his ministers and favorites, who, however, could not be sure of the strength of their influence. The policy pursued under the slogan of restoring the “sacred principles of Peter the Great” turned out to be the only true one: at that time, Russia was experiencing a rise in national self-consciousness and pride in Peter’s accomplishments, and the daughter of Peter I on the throne was for many a guarantor of the preservation of the successes achieved under her father. The very first actions of E.P. as empress were distinguished by forethought and far-sightedness: she arrested and sent into exile Ivan VI Antonovich and his family, on 5 (16) . who converted to Orthodoxy, becoming led. book. Peter Fedorovich, and was declared heir to the throne; in 1745 he was married to Ekaterina Alekseevna (future Empress Catherine II).
E.P. constantly felt fear for her power and life, was suspicious of the slightest threats. In her palaces there was no special room for a bedroom, she rested in different rooms, and sometimes secretly moved to another palace late at night. Fearing a night coup (she received reliable information about the preparation of one of them in 1742), E. P. almost never slept at night, forcing those around her and the court to also stay awake. During the reign of E.P., the economy received further development. Demand for growth iron in Europe reached 100% of its production, which sharply stimulated prom. construction, which was largely carried out by private entrepreneurs. On the initiative of P. I. Shuvalov, E. P. in 1754 canceled the internal. customs, which led to a revival of trade and an increase in revenues of the treasury. In the same year, the Noble Loan Bank was opened. The preservation and strengthening of landlord property was the most important task of the Legislative Commission for the creation of a new code of laws (1754-63). It developed the projects of many state. transformations carried out already in the reign of imp. Catherine II (legislation on the rights of the nobility; the prohibition of "Words and Deeds" - an appeal, with the help of which a political case was immediately initiated; secularization of church lands, etc.). The nobility strengthened its privileges. An important cultural event of the reign of E.P. was the opening of Moscow. un-ta [decree dated 12(23).1.1755] and the University gymnasium under it, as well as the creation of the Academy of Arts. Against the background of other reigns, the reign of E.P. turned out to be more humane, despite the existence of a cruelty that frightened everyone Secret Investigation Offices headed by Gen. A. I. Ushakov. Upon her accession to the throne, E. P. vowed never to sign death warrants and kept her word given to God: for 20 years no one was executed in Russia, those sentenced to death were exiled to hard labor.
Ch. criterion of foreign policy of E.P. was the priority of nat. interests of Ros. empire, which gave certainty and clarity to the actions of E.P. and allowed him to successfully conduct business in Europe, including winning in Russian-Swedish. war 1741–43. The trust of the empress enjoyed heading in 1744-58 grew up. foreign policy Office Chancellor gr. A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, a supporter of an alliance with Great Britain and Austria (since 1756 France took the place of Great Britain) and the policy of containment of the Prussians. king Frederick II the Great, to which E.P. experienced acute antipathy. Since the beginning Seven Years' War 1756–63 E. P. established Conference at the Supreme Court who led the military. actions. This led to the weakening of the positions of Bestuzhev-Ryumin and the growth of the influence of c. I. I. Shuvalova and gr. M. I. Vorontsova. Despite the ill-conceived strategic plans and confusion in the rear, grew. the army managed to defeat the previously invincible troops of Frederick II the Great three times - in Gross-Jägersdorf battle 1757, under Palzig and in Kunersdorf battle 1759 . In Sept. 1760 Russian-Austrian the corps occupied Berlin for a short time, and the keys to the capital of Frederick II the Great became the most pleasant gift for H. P., who was proud of the victories of her army. Employed Dec. 1757/Jan. 1758 Königsberg and Vost. Prussia E.P. annexed to Ros. empire (were part of it until 1762).
According to the general opinion of contemporaries, E. P. was an unusually beautiful woman. She lived her life, as V. O. Klyuchevsky wrote, "not taking her eyes off herself", chasing more and more new outfits and jewelry that were bought for her in Europe. She used her power extensively to regulate the appearance of her subjects. In following fashion, the empress was always the first and sought to maintain a monopoly on beauty and grace. To do this, she issued nominal decrees forbidding ladies to wear hair the way she did, she was the first to select for herself (sometimes in whole batches) “haberdashery” goods from Europe in order to deprive other ladies of new products. "Tricks of coquetry" have become so widespread that the pursuit of fashion has become universal, capturing even men. E. P. did not spare money for the construction of buildings in the style that received the name. Elizabethan Baroque(Chief architect was B. F. Rastrelli). The palaces of E.P. were notable for their special elegance, luxury and majesty. E. P.’s personal artistic tastes contributed to the development of the aesthetic taste of her subjects and the formation of high demands on works of art. G. R. Derzhavin called the reign of E. P. "the age of songs." The Empress loved music, was a person of pronounced musical abilities, she herself composed songs that were preserved among the people. Thanks to her hobbies, the guitar, mandolin, harp and other instruments appeared in Russia, and opera and ballet began to flourish. E.P. was especially fond of the dramatic. theater, which, on her initiative, was organized in the Land Cadet Corps at the beginning. 1740s The troupe was led by A. P. Sumarokov and the actor and director F. G. Volkov invited from Yaroslavl. E. P. was an avid spectator of numerous. tragedies and comedies that were staged on the stage of the court theater. With her Russian the viewer got acquainted with W. Shakespeare, Molière, Russian plays. playwrights, primarily Sumarokov (the production of his play Khorev took place in the autumn of 1747). On August 30 (September 10), 1756, E. P. signed a decree on the opening of the first Russian. public theater in a building on Vasilyevsky Island. Towards the end of her life, E.P. changed dramatically. Withering became a real disaster for her, the cause of continuous despondency and whims.
In honor of E. P., the Elisavetgrad fortress was named (1754; from 1765 - the city of Elisavetgrad; from 1939 - the city of Kirovograd, now part of Ukraine).
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