The fate of this woman is unusually tragic. The granddaughter of the Russian tsar Ivan V, Anna Leopoldovna, only for a short moment turned out to be the ruler of the greatest state in the world - Russia. She passed away when she was only twenty-seven years old, and the last thing her eyes saw was the narrow window of an alien house that had become a prison for her, and a strip of inhospitable northern sky barely visible from the clouds. Such was the outcome of the palace coup, as a result of which the daughter of Peter I, Elizaveta Petrovna, ascended the throne.
Young heiress of John V
Before starting a conversation about who Anna Leopoldovna is in Russian history, it should be clarified what relation she had to the Romanovs' house. It turns out the most direct. It is known that from 1682 to 1696, two sovereigns sat on the Russian throne at once - Peter I and his sibling John V, who had five daughters: Maria, Theodosius, Catherine, Praskovya and Anna. The latter will become empress in 1730 and will reign for ten years. Another daughter of John V, Catherine, is the mother of the heroine of our story - the future ruler, regent Anna Leopoldovna, who, thus, was a full-fledged representative of the ruling Romanovs' house. Consequently, her son Ivan had all the rights to the throne.
Anna Leopoldovna was born on December 18, 1718 in the small German town of Rostock. Her father was Karl Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerinsky, and her mother, as mentioned above, was the daughter of the Russian Tsar John V, Tsarevna Yekaterina Ivanovna. The future ruler came to Russia when she was four years old, and here she converted to Orthodoxy. Her mother was the beloved niece of the Empress Anna Ioannovna who ruled in those years, and she showed concern for her upbringing, entrusting him to one of the most prominent figures of the Academy of Sciences - Kondraty Ivanovich Genninger. From 1731 he began to study, but they lasted only four years, since in 1735 a romantic story happened that put an end to his career.
Girl love and forced marriage
The new envoy of Saxony, Count Moritz Karl Linar, arrived in the capital of the empire. This exquisite European handsome was at that time thirty-three years old, and the young princess Anna Leopoldovna fell in love with him without a memory. Her mentor Kondraty Ivanovich was in the know and contributed in every way to the development of the novel. Soon there were rumors of a possible wedding. But the trouble is that Anna already had an official bridegroom - the duke Anton Ulrich, whom the empress herself chose for her, guided by state interests. Upon learning of the self-will of the young niece, the Russian autocrat was angry and sent the envoy-seducer out of Russia, and the accomplice of the intrigue, Kondraty Ivanovich, was removed from office. However, the novel did not end there, but more will be discussed about this.
Four years after the events described, the wedding of Anna Leopoldovna with her unloved bridegroom - Anton Ulrich, the Duke of Braunschweig – Luneburg, took place. The celebrations dedicated to this event were distinguished by extraordinary pomp and took place with a huge gathering of people. During the wedding, the parting word was uttered by Archbishop Ambrose (Yushkevich) - a man who was destined to play a crucial role in the religious and political life of the country during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. A year later, the young couple had a son, named at the baptism of Ivan.
The end of the reign of Anna Ivanovna
It was the year 1740. In Russian history, he was marked by a number of important events, the main of which was the death of Empress Anna Ioannovna on October 17 (28). In her will, she declared the heir to the throne the newborn son of Anna Leopoldovna - Ivan, and appointed her favorite Ernst Johann Biron as regent under him. Upon reaching the appropriate age, the young heir was to become the Russian Autocrat John VI.
It should be noted that, as the daughter of Tsar John V, the deceased Empress passionately hated his sibling Peter I and resisted with all her might that any of his descendants take possession of the throne. For this reason, she indicated in her will that in the event of the death of the named heir, the right to the crown passes to the next oldest child of her beloved niece, Anna Leopoldovna. There was no doubt about the candidacy for the post of regent under the young emperor. It was supposed to be her long-time favorite - Biron.
But fate wished to order otherwise. Literally from the first days of his reign, he was faced with stiff opposition, grouped around the parents of a minor heir. There was even a conspiracy to overthrow this unpopular temporary people. At the head of the attackers was the husband of Anna Leopoldovna - Anton Ulrich. However, they were bad conspirators, and soon their intentions became known to the head of the secret chancellery, A. I. Ushakov. This mastermind turned out to be a shrewd man and, foreseeing a possible palace coup, limited himself to only formally “chided” the conspirators.
Deposed Temporal
However, Biron's rule was doomed. On the night of November 9, 1740, the door abruptly opened in the bedroom where the regent and his wife peacefully rested. A group of soldiers entered, led by Field Marshal Christopher Minich, the sworn enemy of Biron and a supporter of Anna Leopoldovna. The former omnipotent favorite, seeing those who entered, realized that this was the end, and, not owning himself from fear, climbed under the bed, being sure that he would be killed. However, he was mistaken. The regent was put in a sled and taken to a guardhouse.
Soon a trial followed, in which Biron was charged with various crimes. Of course, most of them were invented. The sentence was fully consistent with the spirit of the time - a quartering. However, when the poor man was brought to his senses, he heard that a pardon was announced to him, and the execution was replaced by a reference to Pelym, located three thousand miles from St. Petersburg. But during the reign of Empress Elizabeth, the gracious empress transferred him to Yaroslavl, and eventually Peter III, summoning Biron to the capital, returned all orders and insignia to him. A few years later, Catherine II restored the former regent in the rights to the duchy of Courland that once belonged to him.
The rise to power and the emergence of a dangerous favorite
So, the hated temporary worker was expelled from the palace, and state rule passed into the hands of the mother of the heir to the throne. Anna Leopoldovna became the regent. The Romanovs, leading their kind along the line of Tsar John V, temporarily ended up at the top of Russia's state power. At the very beginning of the next 1741, a joyful event occurred in the life of a young woman: the newly appointed Saxon envoy Karl Linar arrived in Petersburg - her former love, which had not had time to cool down. Accepted by Anna Leopoldovna immediately, he immediately became her favorite.
Since the ruler was married, in their relations they had to observe certain propriety. Linar settled in a house near the Summer Garden, where Anna lived in the Summer Palace at that time. To provide a sufficient excuse for his presence in the palace, she appointed a lover as Oberkamerger. Soon, the highest mercy extended to the fact that the favorite was awarded two highest Russian orders - Andrew the First-Called and Alexander Nevsky. For what merits he received them, the courtiers could only guess.
Soon, however, Anna Leopoldovna allowed her lover to intervene in serious state affairs and did not make any decisions without consulting him. With her connivance, Linar became a key figure in the struggle of the court parties, eager to drag Russia into the war for the Austrian inheritance. In those years, a number of European states tried, by declaring the will of the Austrian emperor Charles VI illegitimate, to take possession of the property of the Habsburg house in Europe. This behavior of the Saxon envoy caused discontent among the highest dignitaries, who feared the appearance of a new Biron in his person.
Separation from Linar
In order to somehow veil the connection that was taking on a scandalous turn, Anna Leopoldovna (the Empress, after all) was forced to go to tricks, which, however, could not mislead anyone. So, for example, in the summer of 1741 she betrothed Linara to her chamber maid of honor and her closest friend Baroness Juliana Mengden. But, having become a bridegroom, he, nevertheless, could not officially enter the Russian service, since he remained a subject of Saxony. To obtain the necessary permission, in November of that year, Linar left for Dresden.
Before leaving, he, as a visionary man, warned Anna Leopoldovna about a possible attempt to seize power by supporters of the daughter of Peter I Elizabeth Petrovna. However, he was going to return soon and take everything under his control. When parting, they did not know that they were saying goodbye forever. When, having received the desired permission from the government of Saxony, Linar returned to Petersburg in November of the same year, he was awaited at Konigsberg about the arrest of Anna Leopoldovna and the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna. His worst fears came true ...
Peter's daughter at the head of the guard
The palace coup occurred on the night of November 25 (December 6), 1741. In those days, the main political force was the guard created by Peter the Great. Able to ascend to the throne and overthrow from it, she already felt her strength in February 1725. Then the widow of Peter I, Empress Catherine I, came to power on her bayonets. Now, taking advantage of the fact that Anna Leopoldovna, whose rule provoked general discontent, underestimated the strength of the guard, Elizabeth managed to win over the Preobrazhensky Regiment in St. Petersburg.
That fateful night for the Russian ruler, the 31-year-old beauty Elizaveta Petrovna, accompanied by three hundred and eight grenadiers, appeared in the Winter Palace. Not meeting any resistance anywhere, they reached the bedroom, where Anna Leopoldovna and her husband rested peacefully. The death of the terrified regent was announced of her deposition and arrest. Witnesses of this scene subsequently said that Elizabeth, whispering in her arms the one-year-old heir to the throne, who was in the same room and woke up from the sudden noise, quietly whispered: “Unhappy child.” She knew what she was saying.
The Way of the Cross
So, the Braunschweig family was arrested, including Anna Leopoldovna. Empress Elizabeth was not a cruel person. It is known that at first she planned to send her captives to Europe and limit herself to that - at least it was said in the manifesto by which she declared herself empress. The failed Queen Anna Leopoldovna and her family were temporarily sent to Riga Castle, where she spent a whole year waiting for the promised freedom. But suddenly, the plans of the new mistress of the Winter Palace changed. The fact is that a conspiracy was discovered in St. Petersburg, the purpose of which was the overthrow of Elizabeth and the release of the legitimate heir Ivan Antonovich.
It became obvious that the Braunschweig family will continue to be a banner for all kinds of conspirators, thereby presenting a known danger. The fate of Anna Leopoldovna was decided. In 1742, the prisoners were transferred to the Dunamünde fortress (near Riga), and two years later to the Renenburg fortress, located in the Ryazan province. But here they did not stay long. Within a few months, the highest decree came to lead them to Arkhangelsk for further detention in the Solovetsky Monastery. In the autumn thaw, under heavy rains, Anna Leopoldovna and her unhappy family were sent north.
But that year, early frosts and ice hummocks ruled out any possibility of crossing to Solovki. The prisoners were settled in Kholmogory, in the house of the local bishop, and vigilantly guarded, excluding any possibility of communication with the outside world. Here they forever said goodbye to their heir son. Ivan Antonovich was isolated from them and placed in another part of the building, and subsequently his parents did not have any news of him. For greater conspiracy, the young ex-emperor was ordered to be called a fictitious name Gregory.
Death and Belated Honors
Recent years, full of grief and tribulation, have undermined the health of a young woman. The former regent and sovereign ruler of Russia died in captivity on March 8 (19), 1746. The official cause of death was declared maternity fever, or, as they used to say in olden times, “ognevitsa”. While under arrest, but not separated from her husband, Anna gave birth four more times to children, information about which has not been preserved.
However, the story of Anna Leopoldovna did not end there. Her body was transported to the capital and with great solemnity interred in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The funeral was held in accordance with all the rules stipulated by the rules for the burial of persons belonging to the reigning house. Since then, Anna Leopoldovna is necessarily mentioned in the official lists of the rulers of the Russian state. The Romanovs were always jealous of reverence for the memory of members of their surname, even those to whose death they themselves were involved.
The Iron Mask of Russian History
Particularly tragic was the fate of Ivan - heir to the throne, which was born by Anna Leopoldovna. His biography was formed in such a way that gave historians an occasion to call him the Russian version of the Iron Mask. Immediately after the seizure of power, Elizabeth took all possible steps so that the name of the heir to the throne overthrown by her would be forgotten. Coins with his image were withdrawn from circulation, documents mentioning his name were destroyed, and, under pain of harsh punishment, any memories of him were banned.
Elizaveta Petrovna, who seized power through a palace coup, was afraid of the possibility of becoming the victim of another conspiracy herself. For this reason, in 1756, she ordered a fifteen-year-old prisoner to be taken to the Shlisselburg fortress and kept unhappy in solitary confinement. There, the young man was even deprived of his new name, Gregory, and was only mentioned as a “famous prisoner." Strictly forbidden his contact with others. This requirement was so strictly observed that for all the years of imprisonment the prisoner did not see a single human face. Not surprisingly, over time, he showed signs of mental distress.
The highest visit to the prisoner and fast death
When Elizaveta Petrovna was replaced by the new empress, Catherine II, who also seized power with the support of the guard, she, in order to give her rule more legitimacy, thought about the possibility of marriage with the legal heir Ivan who was in the fortress. To this end, she visited him in the Shlisselburg casemate. However, when she saw the degree of physical and mental degradation that Ivan had achieved during the years of solitary confinement, she realized that there was no question of marriage with him. By the way, the empress noted that the prisoner is aware of his royal origin, that he is literate and wants to end his life in the monastery.
The reign of Catherine II was by no means cloudless, and during the time of Ivan's stay in the fortress, several coup attempts were made to elevate him to the throne. To stop them, the empress ordered the prisoner to be killed immediately if there was a real threat of his release. And in 1764, this situation developed. Another conspiracy arose in the ranks of the garrison of the Schlisselburg fortress itself. Led by his second lieutenant V. Ya. Mirovich. However, the internal security of the casemates fulfilled their duty: Ivan Antonovich was stabbed with their bayonets. Death interrupted his short and tragic life on July 5 (16), 1764.
So these offspring of the reigning Romanov dynasty ended their lives - the legal heir to the throne, John VI and his mother Anna Leopoldovna, whose brief biography served as the topic of our conversation. Not all Russian rulers were destined to die a natural death. The ruthless, unchecked struggle for power sometimes resulted in tragedies such as the one we were recalling now. The years of the reign of Anna Leopoldovna entered the history of Russia as part of a period called the “Age of the Temporary Workers”.