Elizabeth was then, in 1741, crowned Empress and ruled for twenty years. She was the youngest daughter of Peter the Great and had inherited, apparently, all his worst traits and few of his redeeming characteristics. She began her reign by ingratiating herself with the soldiers, who still venerated the name of Peter the Great. Upon the first night following her coronation she caused the arrest of the entire German faction of the court.
The fate which awaited them, whether death or exile, was ample to put them out of her road in the true Russian fashion which prevailed in these times. She prided herself upon the circumstance that in her reign no one should suffer death, but she dealt out liberally to her enemies the punishment of exile, torture and the knout.
Life at her court must have been delightful! No noble ever went to bed, after having kissed the hand of his smiling sovereign, with full assurance that he might not be awakened by a detachment of the guard who would hustle him off to Siberia, the bourne from which there was no return, or, worse yet, to torture in the gate yard. In fact, her declaration of abolishment of capital punishment would seem to have been suggested by a desire that her enemies should suffer the prolonged niceties of torture which seemed to be her special delight.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
