Empress Elizabeth’s reign (1741–1762) marked a period of legal, cultural, and social transformation in Russia, driven by elite support and Westernising ambitions.
Elizabeth’s Rise to Power and Support from Elite Guards
Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, ascended to the Russian throne in a dramatic coup in December 1741. Despite not being in the direct line of succession, Elizabeth leveraged her dynastic legitimacy and popular lineage to challenge the existing regime.
The 1741 Coup
Elizabeth launched a bloodless coup d’état against the infant Emperor Ivan VI and his regent, Anna Leopoldovna.
She relied heavily on the Preobrazhensky Regiment, a prestigious military guard originally founded by Peter the Great. These elite troops were instrumental in securing the Winter Palace and detaining the regency.
Elizabeth’s status as Peter the Great’s only surviving child gave her a powerful symbolic advantage. She declared that she came to reclaim her father’s legacy.
Key Supporters
Clerical leaders supported her partly due to dissatisfaction with Anna’s pro-German influence.
Elizabeth’s charismatic appeal and promises to restore Russian customs and reduce foreign dominance resonated with nationalist military officers.
Crucially, she vowed not to execute anyone—an unusual promise that earned her moral credibility.
Her consolidation of power was thus based on elite military loyalty, dynastic legitimacy, and carefully curated public image.
Reforms in Legal Administration and Taxation
Though Elizabeth was not known for systemic overhauls, she implemented important reforms that stabilised governance and reflected Enlightenment-influenced administrative rationality.
Legal Administration
Elizabeth worked to reduce corruption and centralise legal authority by expanding the Senate's supervisory role.
She reinstituted some of Peter I’s structures but with modifications. For example:
The Chancellery of Secret Investigations was strengthened to oversee internal security and judicial procedures.
She issued regulations to standardise punishments and introduced clearer distinctions between civil and criminal cases.
Elizabeth’s ban on capital punishment (rarely enforced in practice) reflected both moral and image-conscious motives.
Taxation Reforms
The tax system during her reign remained based on the poll tax, introduced by Peter the Great, levied on each male peasant.
Elizabeth streamlined tax collection mechanisms to improve state revenue without raising tax rates dramatically.
She curbed abuses by local tax farmers, who often exploited the peasantry, by reasserting state oversight of fiscal officers.
These reforms did not radically transform governance, but they contributed to administrative coherence and fiscal stability during a period of relative peace.
Cultural Contributions: Education, the Arts, and Westernisation
Elizabeth’s reign was one of cultural flourishing. She expanded educational institutions, patronised the arts, and promoted architectural and intellectual Westernisation.
Founding of the University of Moscow
In 1755, under the initiative of Mikhail Lomonosov and Count Ivan Shuvalov, Elizabeth founded Moscow University, which remains a cornerstone of Russian higher education.
The university was modelled on Enlightenment ideals:
Lectures in Latin and Russian opened access to a broader student base.
It promoted secular knowledge and scientific study, aligning with contemporary European trends.
This was a symbolic step toward modernising the Russian intellectual class and reducing the educational monopoly of the Church.
Artistic Patronage
Elizabeth was a major patron of the arts, especially music, theatre, and architecture:
She founded the Imperial Theatre and encouraged performances of both Russian and Western plays.
Her court hosted composers and musicians, contributing to a nascent musical culture.
She commissioned many Baroque-style buildings, most famously the Winter Palace, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
Under her, St Petersburg became a European-style cultural capital, showcasing Russian grandeur.
Westernisation and Elite Culture
Elizabeth adopted French language and etiquette at court, increasing the Westernisation of the nobility.
Aristocrats were encouraged to study abroad and emulate Enlightenment values.
She expanded printing presses and translations, making foreign literature accessible to the educated elite.
This cultural policy contributed to the creation of a Westernised elite class, though the benefits rarely reached rural Russia.
Social Developments and Changing Obligations
Elizabeth’s reign saw both continuity and change in social structures, particularly in the roles of nobles and the condition of serfs.
Redefining Noble Service Obligations
Elizabeth eased the mandatory service requirements for nobles, a marked shift from Peter the Great’s militarised state obligations.
In 1762 (shortly after her death but prepared under her influence), nobles would be freed from compulsory state service via the Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility, later enacted by Peter III.
These changes:
Allowed nobles to focus on estate management and cultural refinement.
Encouraged the emergence of a more autonomous landed aristocracy.
The reduction of state service did, however, weaken the link between the nobility and state bureaucracy.
Evolution of Serfdom
Serfdom remained the backbone of the rural economy and intensified in certain respects:
Nobles gained increased judicial powers over their serfs.
Restrictions on peasant mobility were tightened, making escape or manumission more difficult.
Serfs were increasingly tied to both land and lord, reinforcing a quasi-feudal order.
Elizabeth banned the sale of serfs without land, ostensibly a protection measure, but this was poorly enforced and often ignored.
Serfdom thus remained an enduring contradiction in a reign otherwise characterised by elite refinement and Western ideas.
Peasant Unrest and Social Tensions
Instances of localised peasant resistance emerged, mainly due to growing burdens from taxation and landowner demands.
Though there were no major uprisings like the later Pugachev Revolt, Elizabeth’s reign saw:
Increased petitions from peasants to state authorities.
Scattered revolts in regions where estate abuse was particularly severe.
The state response tended to be repressive, reinforcing the autocratic model over consultative reform.
While Elizabeth pursued cultural brilliance and central administrative reform, social inequality widened, particularly between nobles and peasants.
Elizabeth's reign, though often overshadowed by those of her father and her successor Catherine the Great, was crucial in consolidating imperial traditions:
She secured the stability of the Romanov dynasty after years of palace intrigue.
Her rule balanced autocratic control with Enlightenment aesthetics, producing a culturally vibrant yet socially conservative state.
Legal and educational reforms laid groundwork for subsequent Enlightenment-era modernisation, even as serfdom and class divides remained entrenched.
Her era remains a complex and significant chapter in Enlightenment Russia, combining glamour and reform with underlying social rigidity.
FAQ
Elizabeth maintained the poll tax system because it ensured a stable and predictable revenue stream for the Russian state without alienating the nobility. Introduced by Peter the Great, the poll tax levied a fixed amount on every male peasant, making it easy to administer and hard to evade. Elizabeth lacked the administrative infrastructure to implement a more complex or progressive tax system that would assess wealth or income. Moreover, a progressive model would have required taxing the nobility—her key power base—which would have risked political backlash and unrest among the elite. By retaining the poll tax, Elizabeth preserved noble loyalty while sustaining state income for military and cultural expenditures. Although the system disproportionately burdened the peasantry, Elizabeth prioritised political stability and administrative continuity over social equity. This choice reflects her broader approach to governance: conservative in financial matters, cautious in reform, and reliant on traditional structures to maintain autocratic rule.
Elizabeth’s 1744 declaration banning capital punishment was a symbolic gesture intended to enhance her moral authority and present her reign as more humane than her predecessors’. In practice, however, the policy had limited transformative impact on the Russian judicial system. Torture and harsh corporal punishments such as flogging, branding, and mutilation continued, especially for serfs and lower-class offenders. The death penalty was often replaced by life sentences of hard labour in Siberian exile, which were often fatal due to brutal conditions. The policy did not stem from a coherent humanitarian philosophy but rather a desire to distinguish her reign from that of previous rulers known for excessive cruelty. Moreover, Elizabeth's ban was inconsistently applied; exceptions were made in cases of treason or rebellion. While it influenced the tone of judicial rulings and may have slightly reduced executions among the elite, the underlying system of repression and coercion remained largely intact throughout her reign.
Elizabeth effectively employed religious imagery to reinforce her legitimacy and divine right to rule. As the daughter of Peter the Great and a devout adherent of Russian Orthodoxy, she cast herself as a divinely chosen ruler continuing her father’s sacred mission to protect and guide Russia. Upon seizing power in 1741, she famously declared that she would "reign as her father would have wished," implicitly claiming a religious mandate. She made regular public appearances at major Orthodox ceremonies and invested heavily in the restoration and construction of churches. Under her rule, Orthodox Christianity was closely associated with state authority, and she aligned herself with saints and religious traditions that portrayed her reign as moral and providential. Elizabeth also ensured that portraits and public representations depicted her with religious symbols—such as icons and crosses—to appeal to a population deeply rooted in Orthodox traditions. This fusion of monarchy and religion helped stabilise her reign during a time of elite volatility.
Count Ivan Shuvalov was a central figure in the advancement of Elizabeth’s cultural and educational agenda. A close advisor and court favourite, Shuvalov championed Enlightenment ideals and played a crucial role in founding the University of Moscow in 1755, alongside Mikhail Lomonosov. Shuvalov acted as a cultural liaison between the Russian court and European intellectuals, promoting the translation of foreign works and the circulation of Enlightenment ideas within Russia’s elite. He also founded the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1757, aiming to cultivate a distinctly Russian artistic tradition that could rival European standards. Shuvalov’s influence extended to literature and science, where he supported publications, salons, and the importation of books and instruments. His patronage fostered a new generation of Russian thinkers and artists, helping to seed a cultural renaissance. Without Shuvalov’s leadership and vision, Elizabeth’s Westernising aspirations would have lacked both coherence and institutional embodiment. His efforts institutionalised cultural reform, giving it permanence beyond court spectacle.
Elizabeth maintained a careful balance between embracing Western culture and asserting a distinctly Russian national identity. Although she continued many of Peter the Great’s Westernising reforms, she was more cautious about foreign dominance within the court and administration. One of her first actions after seizing power was to remove many foreign advisors from positions of influence, particularly those associated with her predecessor Anna Leopoldovna’s German court. Elizabeth replaced them with ethnic Russians or Russified nobles, signalling a reassertion of national sovereignty. She continued to promote the French language and culture within the aristocracy but ensured that the Church, military, and state administration were led by Russian-born figures. Cultural policies under Elizabeth celebrated Russian Orthodoxy and Slavic traditions even as the court adopted Western styles of dress and etiquette. Through architecture, education, and the arts, she constructed a vision of a modern Russian state rooted in European sophistication but governed by Russian values and institutions, ensuring political stability and cultural pride.
Practice Questions
To what extent did Elizabeth’s reforms in legal administration and taxation strengthen her control over Russia?
Elizabeth’s reforms moderately strengthened her control by improving administrative efficiency and state revenue without widespread disruption. Centralising legal processes and empowering the Senate enhanced consistency and oversight, while curbing corruption helped reduce elite resistance. Although the taxation system remained reliant on the poll tax, her regulation of tax collection minimised abuses. These reforms reinforced autocratic governance but were limited in scope, lacking deep structural change. Overall, they provided necessary administrative coherence while maintaining noble support, thereby stabilising her reign rather than transforming state power. Her personal popularity and elite alliances arguably played a greater role in securing control.
How significant were Elizabeth’s cultural policies in advancing Westernisation in Russia?
Elizabeth’s cultural policies were highly significant in advancing Westernisation, particularly among the nobility. The founding of Moscow University promoted Enlightenment education, while the growth of theatre, Baroque architecture, and French court etiquette reshaped elite cultural norms. Her patronage encouraged intellectual exchange and artistic innovation, aligning Russian culture with European trends. However, Westernisation remained largely superficial and confined to urban elites; the majority peasant population remained untouched by these developments. Nonetheless, by transforming the cultural environment of Russia’s ruling class, Elizabeth laid essential foundations for later reforms under Catherine the Great and entrenched Russia’s place in the broader Enlightenment world.
