Contemporaries spotlight the coronation of Elizabeth, the beloved daughter of Peter the Great

280 years ago, on May 6, 1742, Empress Elizabeth, the youngest and beloved daughter of Peter the Great, solemnly ascended the Russian throne. The evidence of why she made changes to the coronation ceremony, how the crowned parent affectionately called her daughter and what the era of her reign was remembered for is available in the materials of the Elizabeth Petrovna (1709–1761) collection on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Born not only in the year of the triumph of Russia - the Poltava victory, but also on the very day of the ceremonial entry of the Russian army into Moscow, December 18, 1709, Elizabeth was considered Peter's favorite. The tsar, having received news of the birth of his daughter, even decided to postpone the celebration of the victory over the Swedes for three days, according to Ivan Golikov in the 1788 edition Acts of Peter the Great, the wise transformer of Russia.

The childhood of the girl, called the then rare name of Elizabeth, passed in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Peter was on the road almost all the time, most often he learned news about his relatives from letters. One of the first mentions of Elizabeth is provided in Peter's letter to Catherine dated May 1, 1710 which is available in the publication Letters of Russian Sovereigns and Other Persons of the Imperial Family (1861).

The stern monarch became affectionate and caring when it came to his daughters. However, both Elizabeth and Anna were considered illegitimate. Only two years after the birth of his youngest daughter, Peter married Catherine, and the girls, as "married", were given the title of princesses. In 1721, after the ascension of Peter I to the imperial throne, they received the titles of tsar’s daughters, which made them the legitimate heirs to the royal throne. However, according to Yevgeny Anisimov, the author of the book “Elizabeth Petrovna”, an electronic copy of which is available in the Presidential Library, even this did not save Elizabeth from constant reproaches for the illegality of her origin and, accordingly, for her lack of rights to the Russian throne...

According to the will of Catherine I, the princess could take the imperial throne in order of priority after Peter II, the grandson of the reformer tsar, and her older sister. However, when the young emperor died in 1730 (Anna Petrovna died earlier), Elizabeth's cousin, Anna Ioannovna, became the empress. Then the country was ruled by Anna Leopoldovna, regent under the infant emperor John VI ...

At the end of 1741, 31-year-old Elizabeth made the decision to take power into her own hands. On the night of December 6 she went to the Preobrazhensky barracks. The grenadiers, for whom she was primarily the daughter of Peter, swore allegiance to her and moved to the Winter Palace. Encountering no resistance, Elizabeth proclaimed herself empress. Now it was necessary to confirm everyone in the idea that she owed the throne not only to God's will, but also to her legitimate royal origin.

Elizabeth's coronation took place in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, where in 1724 her father Peter the Great laid the crown on the head of her mother, Ekaterina Alekseevna. The celebration was distinguished by unprecedented splendor. The coronation procession of the empress, consisting of a dozen carriages decorated with gold, brocade, velvet, surrounded by hundreds of horsemen, slowly moved towards the Kremlin along the streets, along which stood regiments with fluttering banners. Persian and Turkish carpets hung from the windows of houses.

The state banner, sword and seal were added to the list of state regalia. For Elizabeth Petrovna, a new imperial crown was specially made but it has not survived to this day. According to the testimony cited in the 1896 edition of The Sacred Coronation and Crowning of Russian Sovereigns from Ancient Times to the Present Day, the crown was “distinguished by wealth and magnificence. It contained 58 of the largest diamonds and 4878 of various sizes, one large lal and 75 large pearls. Its value at that time was estimated at two million”.

After congratulations and greetings, which lasted three days, balls began with masquerades, Italian opera, fireworks and dinners. Luxurious festivities passed for a month and a half.

“Elizabeth was / a merry queen...”, - Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy wrote about her. Indeed, in no other reign in Russia they liked to have fun: to arrange fun and masquerades, balls and performances. But we must not forget that the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna is also twenty years of Russian history, which included the opening of Moscow University and the founding of the Academy of Arts, the victory of Russian weapons in the Seven Years' War and the restoration of the role of the Senate, the abolition of internal customs and the active settlement of the lands of Siberia...

From the very first day of her reign, Elizabeth Petrovna announced that she would continue the policy of Peter the Great and she kept her word. The twenty-year reign of Peter's daughter, one of the calmest and most peaceful in the history of Russia, according to scientists, prepared a new, Catherine's era, which is often called the "golden age" of Russian history.