"Merry Queen" Elizabeth Petrovna

Almost all Russian monarchs, in addition to their own name and "ordinal number," also had a nickname. At the official level, it sounded honorably respectful (John "Grozny", Alexander "Liberator"), and in the "life" it was quite the opposite (Nikolai "Palkin" and his great-grandson Nikolai "Bloody"). Not always these nicknames were justified, but in two cases their legitimacy does not cause any doubts. It's about Peter the Great and his youngest daughter named Elizabeth, or, as was usually said, Elizabeth.

Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who ruled Russia from 1741 to 1761, went down in history as "Merry". For such a half-joking characteristic there are quite serious grounds. Since childhood she has been alive, restless, and was a desperate bastard, but at the same time she was able to use her innate charm so cleverly that tricks descended from her hands. Being an adorable child, she quickly turned into a young beauty, who had early revealed such truly feminine qualities as coquetry and love for luxurious clothes.

Elizabeth Petrovna loved hunting, chic balls - masquerades and other high-society entertainment, and her main passion since her youth was dancing. Charming, never discouraged, friendly, generous with a kind word, sometimes quick-tempered, but quick-witted, - this, according to the memoirs of her contemporaries, was Elizaveta Petrovna. Her biography, however, is not as cloudless as it might seem at first glance.

In her thirty-two years Elizabeth Petrovna became the first of the Russian monarchs who came to power as a result of conspiracy of the Guards officers. This kind of seizure of power was also the first of its kind. Later there will be several such conspiracies. Strictly speaking, who, if not the lawful daughter of Peter the Great, should be called the Russian Empress? But the intricacies of court intrigues led to the fact that she was "pushed back" from the throne for many years and managed to ascend to it only with the help of a military coup. Becoming empress, not too young yet and still not married, Elizabeth Petrovna plunged into her favorite entertainment with her head. After all, no one was holding her back, and she could give free rein to all of her feminine whims.

Her reign was not marked by some outstanding achievements, and in general she was not too vigorous in terms of domestic and foreign policy. But to call the period of the reign "cheerful Elisaveta" absolutely disastrous for Russia would not be too fair. Elizaveta Petrovna clearly did not inherit the leadership qualities of her great father Peter the Great, but something she can be credited with - even if the fact that the famous Moscow University was opened at her, and all twenty years of her stay in power in Russia The death penalty was applied .

The most accurate and capacious description was given to her by an outstanding Russian historian V. Klyuchevsky, who described Elizabeth as the first intelligent and kind, and at the same time wayward Russian mistress of the eighteenth century. He mentioned that many of the Empress scolded the Empress during her lifetime, but almost all of them, by the same traditions, mourned her death.