Elizabeth of Russia Seizes the Throne

December 6, 1741

Peter the Great's daughter, after years of neglected princesshood, marched into the Preobrazhensky Guards' barracks at midnight and led them to the Winter Palace. The infant Ivan VI was deposed; the Germans around him were arrested. Russia suddenly had a Russian tsarina again, and a court that would sponsor Rastrelli, Lomonosov, and war with Prussia.