ELIZABETH (RUSSIA) (1709–1762; ruled 1741–1762)

ELIZABETH (RUSSIA) (1709–1762; ruled 1741–1762), empress of Russia. Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great and his second wife, Catherine, reigned as empress for over twenty years. She came to power on the back of a coup by guards' regiments after a decade of unpopular rule, comprising first, the period of Anna Ivanovna and then the year and a half reign of the infant Ivan VI. She benefited greatly from the direct association with her father and was able to proclaim herself to be ruling in his image and extending his legacy. Less celebrated, but nevertheless noteworthy, was the link to her mother, Catherine I, Russia's first crowned female ruler. Court panegyrists repeatedly used the formulation "the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I" when situating her lineage, and it is perhaps more than coincidence that the coup bringing her to power took place, as scheduled, on November 24, her mother's name day.

Like all of Russia's female rulers, Elizabeth ruled without an official spouse (although she may well have been married), and in her case as an official virgin queen (even though she had a series of lovers and almost certainly gave birth to a daughter). At the level of court and statecraft, the Elizabethan period was marked by several activities of note: the opening of Russia's first university, in Moscow (1755), and of several new or remodeled Cadet Academies and religious seminaries; the flourishing of theater and the appearance of Russia's first literary magazines; successful participation in the Seven Years' War that at one point brought Russian forces to the gates of Berlin; and the convening of a legislative commission that tried—and failed—to draft an updated body of fundamental law.

Under Elizabeth, Russia's export economy blossomed, which, beginning in the early 1740s, systematically expanded the sale of agricultural goods abroad. She also took steps to facilitate a unified domestic market by eliminating—albeit temporarily—several categories of excise tax and by establishing the first noble land bank (1753). This latter step reflected what might be termed the pronobility bias of her social and economic policies. Landlords could borrow money from the bank at below market rates, and, although it was hoped that they would plow the cash into their estates, they had no obligation to do so. Instead, many nobles, perpetually strapped for cash by the high expense of serving in the capital, used the loans to defray their expenses or to purchase luxury goods from abroad. Thus began a long-term pattern of de facto state subsidies to Russia's most prosperous elites, providing them easy money through loans, corruption, and inflation, a pattern that ultimately resulted in growing noble indebtedness, and, in the nineteenth century, bankruptcy. Her reign also saw the first tepid decrees against the corporal punishment of nobles. This spirit of humaneness toward the individual did not extend down the social ladder, however, and a series of laws tightened the bonds of serfdom, at least on paper, and further tied peasants specifically to noble landlords.

What did not change was the continued monopolization of high office by important families, notwithstanding the growing number of positions in state service and the hypothetical meritocracy of the Table of Ranks. As before, a handful of powerful clans continued to place their people in important positions and to close off access to parvenus.

ELIZABETH (RUSSIA) (1709–1762; ruled 1741–1762)

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