Yelizaveta Ivanovna Chertkova (née Countess Chernyshova-Kruglikova) was the daughter of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Colonel Ivan Gavrilovich Kruglikov from his marriage to Countess Sophiya Grigoryevna Chernyshova. Yelizaveta spent her childhood and youth abroad with her parents, mostly in Italy. At the age of 15, she lost both her parents, and Count Mikhail Yuryevich Viyelgorsky became her guardian.
In 1851, Yelizaveta married Grigory Ivanovich Chertkov. He owned a large estate in the Voronezh Governorate. He served as aide-de-camp to Nicholas I, and during the reign of Alexander II, he was adjutant general and Commander of the Preobrazhensky regiment. Grigory Chertkov was described as a determined, straightforward and honest man. After both his legs were amputated because of gangrene, he continued to work from home as chairman of the Committee for the Arrangement and Provision of Troops.
In Saint Petersburg, the Chertkovs had their own mansion on the English Embankment and had good connections at the royal court. The secular Saint Petersburg society often gathered at their house, even Emperor Alexander II himself visited them, but Yelizaveta Chertkova did not wish to be part of the high society more than necessary. When Empress Maria Alexandrovna asked Chertkova to become her lady-in-waiting, she categorically refused to do so.
Yelizaveta Chertkova was a keen philanthropist. She visited prison hospitals in Saint Petersburg, helped severely ill patients and set up a homeless shelter. She also opened sewing workshops together with her sister Alexandra Ivanovna Pashkova and organized charity dinners for the workers and their families.
Yelizaveta Chertkova spent summers in Lizinovka — the Chertkov family estate in the Voronezh Governorate. She opened a dispensary there so that local peasants could receive free medical care and medicines. Chertkova donated a significant part of the income from the estate to the needs of the poor. She opened a tradesman’s school for peasant children, opened a library, a tea shop and a low-priced communal store. She also established a savings and loan partnership together with her son Vladimir.
In 1897, Vladimir Chertkov was exiled from Russia for his ties with the Tolstoyan movement and moved to England. His wife Yelizaveta followed him there. Before leaving, she persuaded their family friend Alexander Ertel to take over the management of her estates and send the income to England. Ertel fulfilled her request, and from 1903 he began to manage Alexandra Ivanovna Pashkova’s estates as well.
