Georg Christoph Grooth, Elizabeth Petrovna on horseback with a page, 1743, Hermitage. A court equestrian likeness — the Black page is part of the picture, not a later addition — not a snapshot of the 1741 coup night. Georg Christoph Grooth. Public domain (PD-Art reproduction). Image source.
Peter left an imperial title and an unfinished succession. The sections below follow why power felt so unstable after 1725, the widow and the boy who came next, a throne offered with conditions, Peter’s daughter, six months of Peter III, and the two Russias of noble service and peasant labour — before Catherine II’s reign begins.
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