About the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1709-176162), daughter of Peter the Great, there was an impression inspired by the famous lines of A.K. Tolstoy: "The merry queen was Elizabeth." Without challenging her loveliness, passion for the outfits and pleasures provided by the throne, the author tried to complicate this image, explain the motivations for her actions and supplement her portrait with touches that not only historians, but sometimes contemporaries paid little attention to.