There were no more ugly German costumes; French dress, manners and speech were the fashion.

Russia was assimilating Europe: it had tried Holland under Peter, then Germany under Empress Anna; but found its true affinity with France under Elizabeth, when to write and speak French like a Parisian became the badge of high station and culture.
So of its own momentum Russia had moved on without one strong competent personality at its head, and had become a tremendous force which must be reckoned with by the nations of Europe.

In every great political combination the important question was, on which side she would throw her immense weight; and Elizabeth was courted and flattered to her heart's content by foreign diplomatists and their masters.

Frederick the Great had reason to regret that he had been witty at her expense.
It was almost his undoing by turning the scale against him at a critical moment.

Elizabeth did not forget it and had her revenge when she joined Maria Theresa in the final struggle with Frederick in 1757.
And Frederick also remembered it in 1760, when, as he dramatically expressed it, "The Barbarians were in Berlin engaged in digging the grave of humanity." But all benefit from these enormous successes was abandoned, when the commanding Russian officer Apraxin mysteriously withdrew and returned with his army to Russia.