Empress Elizabeth Petrovna: The Romanov Who Abolished the Death Penalty

Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, reigned from 1741 to 1762. This episode explores her remarkable but often overlooked rule, focusing on her decision to abolish capital punishment in Russia, a move unprecedented in 18th-century Europe. We discuss her rise to power via a palace coup, her role in the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, her patronage of the arts (especially the Baroque architecture of Bartolomeo Rastrelli, including the Winter Palace and Smolny Convent), and her founding of Moscow University and the Academy of Fine Arts. We also examine the contradictions of her reign: a luxurious court life that drained the treasury, the brutal conditions of serfdom that she maintained, and her personal story as a vibrant, sometimes cruel ruler who never executed a single subject during her reign. The episode touches on her relationship with her uncle Peter I, her rivalry with Empress Anna, her lover Alexei Razumovsky, and her successor Peter III. #ElizabethPetrovna #RussianEmpire #18thCentury #PetrineSuccessor #WinterPalace #SevenYearsWar #DeathPenaltyAbolition #BartolomeoRastrelli #PalaceCoup #WarOfAustrianSuccession #MoscowUniversity #SmolnyConvent #Serfdom #RomanovDynasty #Tsarina #BaroqueRussia #History #FexingoHistory #RussianHistory #TsarNicholasII Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo