Elizabeth of Russia

Yelizaveta (Yelisavet) Petrovna (?????????? (?????????) ?????????) (December 29 1709 - January 5, 1762), also known as Elizabeth, was an Empress of Russia (1741 - 1762) who took the country into the War of Austrian succession (1740 - 1748) and the Seven Years War (1756-63). Her domestic policies allowed the nobles to gain dominance in local government while shortening their terms of service to the state. She encouraged Lomonosov's establishment of the University of Moscow and Shuvalov's foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. She also spent exorbitant sums of money on the grandiose baroque projects of her favourite architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, particularly in Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo. The Winter Palace and the Smolny Cathedral remain the chief monuments of her reign in St Petersburg. Generally, she was one of the best loved Russian monarchs, because she didn't allow Germans in the government and not a single person was executed during her reign.

Bestuzhev's policies

After abolishing the cabinet council system in favor during the rule of the two Annes, and reconstituting the senate as it had been under Peter the Great, with the chiefs of the departments of state, none of them Germans as used to be, the first care of the new empress was to compose her quarrel with Sweden. On the 23rd of January 1743, direct negotiations between the two powers were opened at Abo, and on the 7th of August 1743 Sweden ceded to Russia all the southern part of Finland east of the river Kymmene, which thus became the boundary between the two states, including the fortresses of Villmanstrand and Fredricshamn.

Related Topics:
Senate - Sweden - 1743 - Abo - Finland

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This triumphant issue was mainly due to the diplomatic ability of the new vice chancellor, Aleksey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, whom Elizabeth, much as she disliked him personally, had wisely placed at the head of foreign affairs immediately after her accession. He represented the anti-Franco-Prussian portion of her council, and his object was to bring about an Anglo-Austro-Russian alliance which, at that time, was undoubtedly Russia's proper system. Hence the bogus Lopukhina Conspiracy and other attempts of Frederick the Great and Louis XV to get rid of Bestuzhev, which made the Russian court during the earlier years of Elizabeths reign the centre of a tangle of intrigue impossible to unravel by those who do not possess the clue to it.

Related Topics:
Aleksey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin - Lopukhina Conspiracy - Frederick the Great - Louis XV

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Ultimately, however, the minister, strong in the support of Elizabeth, prevailed, and his faultless diplomacy, backed by the despatch of an auxiliary Russian corps of 30,000 men to the Rhine, greatly accelerated the peace negotiations which led to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 18, 1748). By sheer tenacity of purpose, Bestuzhev had extricated his country from the Swedish imbroglio; reconciled his imperial mistress with the courts of Vienna and London, her natural allies; enabled Russia to assert herself effectually in Poland, Turkey and Sweden, and isolated the restless king of Prussia by environing him with hostile alliances. But all this would have been impossible but for the steady support of Elizabeth, who trusted him implicitly, despite the insinuations of the chancellor's innumerable enemies, most of whom were her personal friends.

Related Topics:
Rhine - Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle - Vienna - London - Poland - Turkey - Prussia

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