Biography
Elizabeth Petrovna - Russian Empress, who became the last representative of the monarch of the Romanov dynasty on the female line. It entered the history of Russia as a fun government, as he had a pronounced passion for gorgeous bales and great entertainment.
The years of her reign were not marked by particularly pronounced achievements, but she skillfully led the courtyard and maneuvering among political groups, which allowed her to hold on the throne of 2 decades. Nevertheless, Elizabeth I played an important role in the development of the country's culture and farm, and also managed to bring the Russian army to several confident victories in serious wars.
Childhood and youth
Elizabeth Petrovna was born on December 29, 1709 in the village of Sel. Kolomese. She became the extramarital daughter of Tsar Peter I and the Marthas of Skavron (Catherine I), so he received the title of princes only 2 years after birth, when parents entered the official church marriage. In 1721, after the climb of Peter I on the imperial throne, Elizabeth and her sister Anna Petrovna received Titulasarean titles, which made them legitimate heirs to the royal throne.
Young Elizabeth was the most beloved daughter of Emperor Peter, but saw the father rarely. Tsarevna Natalia Alekseevna (Native aunt for the Father's Line) and the family of Alexander Menshikov, who was the companion of Peter Alekseevich, were engaged in her upbringing.
They did not burden the future Empress of study - it was thoroughly engaged in the study of French and the development of a beautiful hand writing. She also received superficial knowledge of other foreign languages, geography and history, but they did not interest Tsearevna, so she devoted all their time to care for her beauty and selection of outfits.
In the youth of Elizabeth, Petrovna walked the first beauty at the courtyard, he owed the dances perfectly, was distinguished by resourcefulness and ingenuity. Her wardrobe was replenished with new fashionable outfits, especially she liked the dresses embroidered with gold and silver (according to the legend, by the end of their life the number of eats of Elizabeth reached 15 thousand).
Such qualities made it the "main center" of diplomatic projects - Peter Great built plans to issue a daughter to marry Louis XV and for the Duke of Orleans, but the French Bourbons responded with polite refusal. After that, the portraits of Zesarevna were sent to secondary German princes, but the interest in Elizabeth Karl-August, Holsteinsky, died in St. Petersburg, and without reaching the altar.
After the death of Peter the Great and Catherine Alekseevna, the troubles against the marriage of Elizabeth ceased. Then Tsarevna was completely given to the entertainment, hobbies and sweatings at the courtyard, but at the end of the throne of the cousin, Anna John, was deprived of a brilliant situation and exiled to Alexander Slobod. However, the society saw in Elizabet Petrovna a true heiress Peter Great, so the power ambitions began to manifest themselves, and she began to prepare to fulfill their right to reign.
Climbing to the throne
The title of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna received as a result of the "bloodless" coup of 1741. He occurred without a preliminary conspiracy, since the Empress was not particularly striving for power and did not show himself a strong political figure. At the time of the coup, it did not have any program, but was covered by the idea of his own academy, which was supported by citizens and guardsmen who expressed discontent due to the Zasili of foreigners at the court, Opal of Russian nobility, tightening serfdom and tax legislation.
On the night of November 24-25, 1741, Elizaveta Petrovna, with the support of his trusted person and the secret adviser, Johann Lestok arrived at the Preobrazhenski barracks and raised the Grenadier Roth. The soldiers constantly agreed to help her overthrow the current power and as part of 308 people headed for the Winter Palace, where Tsarevna proclaimed himself to the Empress, Usurpiroving the current power: Emperor-infant John Antonovich and all his relatives from the genus Braunschweigaigov were arrested and sharpened to Solovetsky Monastery.
Given the circumstances of the climbing the throne of Elizabeth I, the first signed by the manifesto was the document, according to which she is the only legitimate heiress of the throne after Peter II death. After that, she proclaimed a political course, aimed at returning the heritage of Peter the Great.
In the same period, she hurried to reward their companions who helped her to go to the throne: the Rota of the Grenadiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment was renamed Lab company, and all the soldiers who did not have noble roots were erected in nobles and increased in ranks. All of them were awarded the lands that were confiscated from foreign landowners.
Coronation Elizabeth Petrovna took place in April 1742. She passed with a special lush and chic. It was then that the 32-year-old Empress revealed his love for bright spectacles and masquerads. In the period of the solemn events, mass amnesty was announced, and people on the streets sang welcoming OD to the new government, who managed to expel the German rulers and became the winner of the "foreign elements" in their eyes.
Governing body
Nadev Koronu and making sure the support and approval by the society of the change, Elizabeth I after the coronation immediately signed the second manifest. In Him, the Empress in gross form outlined evidence of the illegality of rights to the throne of Ivan VI and put the charges of German temporaries and their Russian friends.
As a result, the favorites of the former Empress Levenwold, Minih, Osterman, Golovkin and Mengden were sentenced to death, but after the government decided to soften them and exiled to Siberia, which decided to prove their own tolerance.
From the first days on the throne of Elizabeth I began to praise "Petrovsky acts" - she restored the Senate, the main magistrate, the provincial board, the Manufactory and Berg-College. In the chapter of these departments, she puts those representatives of the public who were in the opal of the previous government or to the state version were the usual guards officers.
Thus, Peter Shuvalov, Mikhail Vorontsov, Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Alexey Cherkasi, Nikita Trubetskaya, with whom the hand in the first time of Elizaveta Petrovna, got up at the helm of the country's government. Elizaveta Petrovna conducted a serious humanization of public life, softened a number of paternal decrees, providing for a rigid kara for bribery and treasury, for the first time in 100 years abolished the death penalty.
In addition, the Empress paid attention to cultural development - it is its coming to power that researchers with the beginning of the Epoch of Enlightenment, because in Russia the reorganization of educational institutions was conducted, the first gymnasium network was expanded, the Moscow University and the Academy of Arts were expanded.
Having completed the first steps in domestic politics, the Empress devoted himself to court life, intrigues and passions. The queen did not hide interest in regular masquerads and bales. The Empress was a male outfit, so she often arranged guys with changing guests: men in women's costumes, and women in men's. Love for secular life was combined in the character of the queen with a big piousness. Elizabeth Petrovna is known for the fact that the hiking pilgrimages in large monasteries regularly satisfied.
The administration of the empire immediately passed into the hands of her favorites - Alexey Razumovsky and Peter Shuvalov. There is a version that Razumovsky was the secret husband of Elizabeth Petrovna, but at the same time was a very modest person who was still holding away from great politics. Therefore, Shuvalov in the 1750s almost independently led the country.
Yet the achievements of Elizabeth I and the results of its board can not be called zero for the country. Thanks to its reforms carried out on the initiative of the Favorites, internal customs was canceled in the Russian Empire, which accelerated the development of foreign trade and entrepreneurship.
She also strengthened the privileges of the nobles whose children from the very birth was recorded in state shelves, and by the time of service in the army they were already officers. With its own decree, the Empress provided the rights to the landowners to solve the "fate" of the peasants - they were allowed to sell people to retail, to link them to Siberia. This caused more than 60 peasant uprisings throughout the country, which the empress suppressed extremely cruelly.
Elizabeth Petrovna during the reign creates new banks in the country, developed manufactory produced, which is leisurely, but the economic growth in Russia is correctly increasing. She also conducted a powerful foreign policy - in the account of the Empress two victories in wars (Russian-Swedish and seven-year-old), which restored the undermined authority of the country in Europe.
With the activities of the Empress, the emergence of a nominal style in the architecture - Elizabethan baroque is connected. With Elizabeth, a winter palace was rebuilt in St. Petersburg, the Wooden Summer Palace, which was subsequently demolished, the construction of the Catherine Palace in the Tsarskoye Selo was completed, the residence of Peter I in Strelna and Peterhof was rebuilt. The construction of buildings was carried out under the leadership of the court architect of Italian origin - Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli.
Personal life
Personal life Elizabeth Petrovna did not work out from youth. After the failure attempts by Peter the Great "Successfully" to give the daughter of marrying Tsarevna refused to marriage, preferring to him a rampant life and envelope. There is a version that the Empress was still in secret church marriage with the favorite Alexei Razumovsky, but no papers confirming this union was not preserved.
In the 1750s, the government began a new favorite. They became a friend Mikhail Lomonosova Ivan Shuvalov, who was well read and educated man. It is possible that under his influence Elizabeth Petrovna was engaged in the cultural development of the country. After the death of the government, he fell into opal from the new government, so during the reign of Catherine II was forced to hide abroad.
After the death of the Empress, at the court, we had a mass of rumors about the secret children of Elizabeth. In society, it was believed that the Empress had an extramarital son from Razumovsky and daughter from Shuvalov. This "revived" the mass of the impostors, who considered themselves the royal children, the most famous of which became Princess Tarakanov, referred to as Elizabeth Vladimir.
Death
The death of Elizabeth Petrovna came on January 5, 1762. At the 53rd year of the life of the Empress died from throat bleeding. Researchers note that since 1757 the health of the government began to deteriorate in front of the eyes: she had epilepsy, shortness of breath, frequent nose bleeding, swelling of the lower extremities. She had to shorten the court life, moving the magnificent balls and techniques for the background.
In early 1761, Elizabeth I moved a heavy bronchopneumonia, which chained it to the bed. The last year of the life of the Empress was very sick, she constantly had seizures of a cold fever. Before his death, Elizabeth Petrovna had a thrust cough, which led to strong bleeding from the throat. Without coping with the disease, the Empress died in his own rest.
On February 5, 1762, the body of Empress Elizabeth with honors was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg. The heir of Elizabeth I became her nephew Karl-Peter Ulrich Holchtinsky, who, after the Emperor proclaimed, was renamed Peter III Fedorovich. Researchers call this transfer of power to the most painless for all board in the XVIII century.
Memory
The events of the biography of Elizabeth Petrovna often became a storyline for a number of historical novels dedicated to the era of the XVIII century. Among the popular literary works, where the name of the Empress is found, Nina Syrotokina and Valentine's "Word and Case" Valentine's "Pen and Sword" are observed.
In Cinema Elizabeth, Petrovna became the heroine of Mikhail Lomonosov films, "Midhemarins, ahead!", "Vivat, Marthemaryarins!", "Favorit", "Catherine", "Great". Russian performers embodying the image of the queen, Natalia Saiko, Elena Tsaplakova, Natalia Gundareva, Julia Aug, Natalia Surkov. Abroad, the role of Queen played Tina Lattanzi, Vanessa Redgrave, Zhanna Moro.