Church policies of Empress Elizabeth of Russia

Elizaveta Petrovna, an 18th-century Russian empress, cared for the religious beliefs of her subjects. In her legislature, she addressed the problem of religious upbringing of children and ceremonial requirements of adults, which included behaviour during church services and the frequency of confession. There was a measure of religious tolerance under her rule, but attempts for religious conversion could be made only by Orthodox believers. Her own life was filled with incessant entertainment coinciding with the admonition of her subjects to be restrained. Elizabeth tried to balance her life of pleasure with her excessive piety, ostensibly ritualistic and easily mixed with entertainment.