"Peter died of small-pox, three years after his accession. He was the last male member of the Romanoff family. Instead of following the line of succession indicated in the will of Catharine I., who had daughters still living, the nobles elected, as their empress, Anna, Duchess of Courland, daughter of Ivan V., half brother of Peter I., who had nominally reigned with him. It was intended that the boyars should be the real rulers, and they induced Anna, before she was crowned, to sign an instrument which placed all power in their hands; but when she became empress, she repudiated the compact, and retained the absolute power of her predecessors. In a civil war for the throne of Poland, Anna sided with Augustus III., whose success gave Russia a controlling influence in the affairs of this unhappy kingdom. Her favorite, Duke Biren, her prime minister, and the actual ruler, was an arrogant and cruel man, whose influence over the empress was all-powerful. By his advice, she named, as her successor, the son of her niece Anne,--a child in the cradle,--with Biren as the regent. He was Ivan VI. "The unpopularity of the regent soon caused his overthrow, and Anne was appointed in his place; but in a year after the death of the Empress Anna, Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine,--a woman of no character,--usurped the throne. In a single night her adherents captured the palace, and completed the revolution. She reigned twenty-one years, and founded several universities, and other literary and scientific institutions. She abolished the death penalty and the rack, but the knout and other tortures took their place, and the exiles to Siberia were numerous. In the Seven Years' War, Russia was on the side of Austria. Elizabeth was a vain and extravagant woman. She impoverished her treasury, and left a bad reputation behind her. "By her will she made her nephew Peter, late Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, emperor; and from him, the present royal family is called the House of Holstein-Gottorp. He attempted many reforms, and closely allied himself to Frederick the Great, of Prussia; but many of his measures were imprudent and impolitic. His wife Catharine was the daughter of a princess of Holstein-Gottorp. Peter neglected her, and incurred her hatred. She got up a conspiracy against him, which resulted in the dethronement of her husband, only a few months after his accession, and she was proclaimed empress as Catharine II. Peter was thrown into prison, and there strangled. Her reign of thirty-four years was brilliant for Russia, which became one of the Great Powers, without dispute. She greatly enlarged its territory by the infamous partition of Poland, the conquest of the Crimea, and the addition of Courland, on the Baltic. Her most noted ministers and favorites were Orlof and Potemkin.