Elizaveta helped Russia advance to the degree that Russia became really important internationally, and many nations wanting to sign treaties with Russia. There was a great flourish of cultural exchange between Russia and Western Europe, for example, and trade flourished in St. Petersburg. More and more foreigners became aware of this place and were willing to make it home. St. Petersburg continued to embrace the international flavour that was being encouraged by the Tsarina, as before with Peter. When Peter III, took over power, the nation was still reaping harvests of the policies of rulers like Peter and Elizaveta. Peter III married a German woman Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst, thereby perpetuating the Romanov and St. Petersburg habit of taking foreigners as spouses. Before he could effect any real changes, he was overthrown by a court coup led by his wife.
Christened into the Orthodox Church as Ekaterina Alexeevna, she took over from her husband and became known as Catherine the Great. She took association with the western world to greater heights, as she was well loved throughout Europe. Her reign is marked by contact with French Enlightenment and ambitious, successful territorial advances, like the war campaigns against the Ottoman Empire in 1768 and 1787. She extended Russian borders and brought more foreigners to the city. She acquired territory in the Crimea. Substantial Catholic and Jewish populations were incorporated after the partitions of Poland in 1772, which were also assisted by Catherine’s policies of religious tolerance.
Taking into consideration public opinion, and keeping the interests of the state at heart, she forbade, but strictly encouraged the presence of foreigners, particularly Jews in the city. In fact, after three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1792 and 1795, she found herself ruling an extra six million inhabitants including the world’s largest Jewish populations, mainly merchants and artisans. And as St. Petersburg was a huge business centre, the city’s Jewish and foreign community experienced proportional growth. The 18th century was rounded off by the reign of Paul I who married a foreigner, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg, thus made an alliance with France. This was his limited contribution to ethnic advancement for this hugely unpopular Tsar was suffocated by conspirators.
At this point in time, the city was an intriguing brew. The Romanov dynasty was hardly Russian at all by now, following the many marriages with foreigners and the increased foreign influence in the court. Having started with Russians, Finns and Swedes, and other Slavic tribes, it now included nationalities of smaller eastern European nations who were there mostly as a result of Catherine’s II territorial advances, and a host of western Europeans there as a result of the collective efforts of Peter I, Elizaveta and Catherine II’s to westernise Russia. The growth of diversity was at its peak during this period.