Princess Elena Stepanovna Kurakina, Russian: Еле́на Степа́новна Кура́кина, née Apraksina, Russian: Апра́ксина) (September 5, 1735 – October 29, 1768) was the daughter of Field Marshal Stepan Apraksin, the wife of Senator Boris–Leonty Kurakin, one of the favorites of Emperor Peter III.
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Biography
She came from an untitled branch of the Apraksins. The eldest daughter of Field Marshal Stepan Apraksin (1702–1760) from his marriage to Agrafena Soimonova (1719–1771). From childhood she was accustomed to court life; Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna recalled:
One day the Empress went to have dinner with General Stepan Apraksin; we were among those invited... The next day I learned that the third daughter of General Stepan Apraksin, with whom we had dined the day before, died that day from smallpox; I was scared: all the ladies invited with us to dinner at General Apraksin's were constantly scurrying back and forth from this sick child's room to the chambers where we were. But this time I escaped only with fear. I saw for the first time that day the two daughters of General Apraksin, the eldest of whom was becoming very beautiful – she could have been about 13 years old then; this is the same one who later married Prince Kurakin...
On February 6, 1751, 15–year–old Elena Stepanovna married the chamberlain, senator Prince Boris–Leonty Kurakin. Due to her husband's official duties and her own inclination towards social life, Elena Stepanovna lived in Saint Petersburg in the winter, and preferred to spend the summer at the Saint Petersburg dacha on the Neva or at the Eldigino Estate near Moscow.