Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna of Russia

1806–1808

Born: 15 Nov 1806, Saint Petersburg
Country of birth: Russian Empire, today Russia
Died: 12 May 1808, Saint Petersburg

facts: 9
sources: 1
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Facts and their sources

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Birth15 Nov 1806, Saint PetersburgProbableDisputed1 competing claim1 source
Death12 May 1808, Saint PetersburgProbableDisputed1 competing claim1 source
ParentAlexander I of RussiaConfirmed1 source
ParentElizabeth AlexeievnaConfirmed1 source

A life in time

15 Nov 1806
Born · Saint Petersburg
Birth, Saint Petersburg
12 May 1808
Died · Saint Petersburg
Death, Saint Petersburg

What was it like?

The world around Saint Petersburg, 1806: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Grand was born around the same time as Fyodor Tyutchev, Michael Glinka, and George Sand.

Born around the same time

Fyodor Tyutchev
1803 · Russian poet (1803–1873)
Michael Glinka
1804 · Russian composer (1804–1857)
George Sand
1804 · French novelist and memoirist (1804–1876)
Hector Berlioz
1803 · French composer and conductor (1803–1869)
Felix Mendelssohn
1809 · German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of Jewish descent (1809-1847)
Abraham Lincoln
1809 · president of the United States from 1861 to 1865 (1809-1865)

Fashion

Basic peasant men's clothing

Peasant men typically wore shirts and trousers, while boys wore only shirts, with shirts often being secured at the waist with laces to keep them from interfering with work.

Lifelong festive peasant clothing

A peasant family would prepare a festive outfit meant to last a lifetime, which was stored carefully and worn only on the most important holidays.

Music

Church ban on folk musical instruments

Russian Orthodoxy officially rejected folk instruments, and the church once famously burned five carriages filled with them in the 17th century. Consequently, no musical instruments were permitted in Orthodox church services during this period.

Improvised percussion for fast folk dances

During fast-paced dances known as pliaska, performers often used improvised percussion instruments, including wooden spoons, metal pots, or even farm scythes to keep the rhythm.

Getting around

Essential road gear and carriages

Travelers commonly used specialized chests called pogrebetz, which featured internal partitions to hold essential items like tea-pots, glass carafes with rum, and milk jugs for long journeys. Many peasants used simple, horse-drawn carts known as telegi, which were frequently built without iron tires, making them highly susceptible to damage on rough roads.

Travel by horse-drawn relay transport

Between 1800 and 1824, ordinary people traveled between towns primarily using horse-drawn carriages, wagons, or sledges, often relying on the state-run relay system to secure fresh horses at designated postal stations. Travelers were required to carry an official permit called a podorozhnaya to document their route and status at these stations.

Daily life

Children's home education

Many merchant and commoner children were educated at home by local sextons or clerks, with the Psalter and Book of Hours serving as their primary textbooks. Formal schooling remained rare for these groups, as even many noble children relied on varied levels of home instruction.

Lighting in the home

Peasant huts were illuminated by a torch inserted into the stove's crack or by simple oil lamps with wicks. In better-off homes, candles were used when oil lamps were unavailable.

Food

Kvass as the universal drink

Kvass, a fermented drink made from rye flour and malt, served as the universal daily beverage for the lower classes.

Meat as a rare luxury

Meat was a luxury for many families, typically consumed only on major religious holidays like Christmas and Easter.

Prices and wages

Around 1775–1799

Annual earnings of textile workers

In 1796, women working in textile production could earn 50 to 90 paper rubles per year.

Around 1775–1799

Daily wages for construction workers

In 1779 and 1780, unskilled construction laborers in Moscow earned 10 to 20 kopecks per day.

Work

Common non-agricultural peasant jobs

To supplement agricultural income, peasants took jobs such as boatmen, longshoremen, construction workers, cabmen, and artisans in cities. In the central provinces, 27 percent of men did not plow land at all, relying entirely on these non-agricultural trades.

Earnings of Volga boatmen

In the 1810s, boatmen on the Volga earned about 300 rubles per season for their labor. However, the later introduction of steamboats caused these earnings to drop significantly, to between 60 and 90 rubles.

News and letters

Cost of sending a letter

Letters were weighed in lots (one lot equaling 12.8 grams) and cost 10 kopecks per lot to send, which was expensive given that a bowl of cabbage soup with meat cost one kopeck at a tavern.

Disinfecting mail during epidemics

Letters sent during cholera epidemics were punctured with holes and fumigated with special smoke at checkpoints to kill potential bacteria.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.