page_title: Elizabeth of Russia
section_title: Childhood and teenage years
hierarchical_section_title: Elizabeth of Russia / Early life / Childhood and teenage years
caption_attribution_description: Цесаревна Елизавета Петровна, будущая императрица (1741-1761). Неоконченный портрет. 1720-е годы. Русский музей
context_page_description: Elizabeth Petrovna, also known as Yelisaveta or Elizaveta, was the Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death in 1762. She remains one of the most popular Russian monarchs because of her decision not to execute a single person during her reign, her numerous construction projects, and her strong opposition to Prussian policies.
  The eldest daughter of Tsar Peter the Great, Elizabeth lived under the confused successions of her father's descendants since her half-brother Alexei's death. The throne was first passed to her nephew Peter II, who died in 1730 and was succeeded by her first cousin Anna. After the brief rule of Anna's great-nephew, Ivan VI, Elizabeth seized the throne with the military's support and declared her own nephew, the future Peter III, to be her heir.
  During her reign, Elizabeth continued the policies of her father and brought a remarkable Age of Enlightenment in Russia. Her domestic policies allowed the nobles to gain dominance in local government while shortening their terms of service to the state. She encouraged Mikhail Lomonosov's foundation of the University of Moscow, the highest-ranking Russian educational institution.
context_section_description: Elizabeth was born at Kolomenskoye, near Moscow, Russia, on 18 December 1709 (O.S.). Her parents were Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia and Catherine. Catherine was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński, a Latvian peasant of Polish origin. Although no documentary record exists, her parents were said to have married secretly at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in St. Petersburg at some point between 23 October and 1 December 1707. Their official marriage was at Saint Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg on 9 February 1712. On this day, the two children previously born to the couple (Anna and Elizabeth) were legitimized by their father and given the title of Tsarevna ("princess") on 6 March 1711. Of the twelve children born to Peter and Catherine (five sons and seven daughters), only the sisters survived to adulthood. They had one older surviving sibling, crown prince Alexei Petrovich, who was Peter's son by his first wife, noblewoman Eudoxia Lopukhina.
  As a child, Elizabeth was the favorite of her father, whom she resembled both physically and temperamentally. Even though he adored his daughter, Peter didn't devote time or attention to her education. He had a son (and grandson) from his first marriage to a noblewoman and didn't anticipate that a daughter born to his former maid might one day inherit the Russian throne, which no woman had ever sat upon at that point in time. It was therefore left to Catherine to raise the girls as best she could, but she was herself too uneducated to be able to superintend the formal education of her daughters. 
  Still, Elizabeth was a bright girl, if not brilliant and had a French governess who gave lessons of mathematics, arts, [languages, and sports. She grew interested in architecture, became fluent in Italian, German and French, turned to be an excellent dancer and rider. Like her father, she was physically active and loved horseriding, hunting, sledging, skating, and gardening. From her earliest years, she delighted everyone with her extraordinary vivacity and was regarded as the leading beauty of the Russian Empire. The wife of the British ambassador described Grand Duchess Elizabeth as "fair, with light brown hair, large sprightly blue eyes, fine teeth and a pretty mouth. She is inclinable to be fat, but is very genteel and dances better than anyone I ever saw. She speaks German, French and Italian, is extremely gay, and talks to everyone..."
caption: Young Elizabeth in the 1720s, painted by Ivan Nikitich Nikitin.
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