Elizabeth died in St. Petersburg on 25 December 1761 (Old Style), 5 January 1762 (New Style), after suffering a fatal stroke.
Empress Elizabeth I of Russia died in St. Petersburg on 25 December 1761 according to the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, corresponding to 5 January 1762 in the Gregorian (New Style) calendar. Her death followed a fatal stroke, the culmination of declining health that had troubled her final years, including bouts of what historians believe may have been epilepsy and other chronic ailments.
Her death marked the end of a reign of nearly twenty years that had significantly reshaped Russian cultural and political life. She was succeeded by her nephew, Peter III, whom she had personally chosen as her heir, and who was married to the German princess who would soon become Catherine the Great. Peter III's brief and unpopular reign would end just six months later in another palace coup, this time bringing Catherine to power.
Elizabeth's death closed the chapter on a rule often remembered for its patronage of the arts and architecture—including the commissioning of the Winter Palace's grand Baroque redesign under architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli—as well as her founding of Moscow University and her unusual, humane refusal to authorize capital punishment throughout her reign. Her legacy endured through the institutions she founded and the cultural flourishing of her era, even as the throne passed to successors who would take Russia in new directions. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the traditional resting place of the Romanov dynasty.