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 world's greatest state - Russia. She passed away when she was only twenty-seven years old, and the last thing her eyes saw was the narrow window of a strange house, which became a prison for her, and a strip of unfriendly northern sky barely visible from behind the clouds. This was the result of the palace coup, as a result of which the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth Petrovna, ascended the throne.
Young heiress John V
Before starting a conversation about who Anna Leopoldovna is in Russian history, it should be clarified what relation she had to the Romanov dynasty. 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 brother John V, who had five daughters: Maria, Theodosia, Catherine, Praskovya and Anna. The latter will become empress in 1730 and reign for ten years. Another daughter of John V, Catherine, is the mother of the heroine of our story - the future ruler, regentAnna Leopoldovna, who, thus, was a full representative of the ruling house of the Romanovs. Therefore, 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-Schwerin, and her mother, as mentioned above, was the daughter of the Russian Tsar John V, Princess Catherine Ioannovna. 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 Empress Anna Ioannovna, who ruled in those years, and she took care of her upbringing, entrusting it to one of the most prominent figures of the Academy of Sciences, Kondraty Ivanovich Genninger. From 1731, he began his studies, but they lasted only four years, since in 1735 a romantic story happened that ended his career.
Girl love and forced marriage
A new envoy of Saxony, Count Moritz Karl Linar, arrived in the capital of the empire. This exquisite European handsome man was at that time thirty-three years old, and the young princess Anna Leopoldovna fell in love with him without memory. Her mentor Kondraty Ivanovich was in the know and in every possible way contributed to the development of the novel. Soon there were rumors about a possible wedding. But the trouble is that Anna already had an official fiance - Duke Anton Ulrich, whom the empress herself chose for her, guided by state interests. Having learned about the self-will of the young niece, the Russian autocrat became angry and sent the envoy-seducer out of Russia, and the accomplice of intrigue -Kondraty Ivanovich - removed from office. However, the novel did not end there, but this will be discussed further.
Four years after the events described, Anna Leopoldovna's wedding took place with her unloved fiancé - Anton Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg. The celebrations dedicated to this event were distinguished by unusual splendor and took place with a huge gathering of people. During the wedding, a parting word was delivered 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, who was named Ivan at baptism.
End of the reign of Anna Ioannovna
It was 1740. In Russian history, it is marked by a number of important events, the main of which was the death of Empress Anna Ioannovna, which occurred on October 17 (28). In her will, she declared the newborn son of Anna Leopoldovna, Ivan, the heir to the throne, 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, being the daughter of Tsar John V, the deceased empress passionately hated his brother Peter I and with all her might opposed any of his descendants to seize 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 child in seniority.her beloved niece - Anna Leopoldovna. As for the candidacy for the post of regent under the young emperor, she had no doubts. It was supposed to be her long-term favorite - Biron.
But fate would have it otherwise. Literally from the first days of his reign, he faced tough opposition, grouped around the parents of a minor heir. There was even a conspiracy to overthrow this unpopular temporary worker among the people. Anna Leopoldovna's husband, Anton Ulrich, was at the head of the attackers. However, they were bad conspirators, and soon their intentions became known to the head of the secret office, A. I. Ushakov. This shoulder master turned out to be a rather perspicacious person and, foreseeing a possible palace coup, limited himself to only formally “reproaching” the conspirators.
Deposed temporary worker
However, Biron's reign was doomed. On the night of November 9, 1740, in the bedroom where the regent and his wife were peacefully resting, the door abruptly opened. A group of military men entered, led by Field Marshal Christopher Munnich, a sworn enemy of Biron and a supporter of Anna Leopoldovna. The former almighty favorite, seeing those who entered, realized that this was the end, and, not controlling himself with fear, crawled under the bed, being sure that he would be killed. However, he was wrong. The regent was put in a sleigh and taken to the guardhouse.
A court soon followed, at which Biron was charged with various crimes. Of course, most of them were made up. The verdict fully corresponded to the spirit of that time - quartering. Howeverwhen the poor man was brought to his senses, he heard that a pardon was announced to him, and the execution was replaced by exile in Pelym, located three thousand miles from St. Petersburg. But in the reign of Empress Elizabeth, the gracious empress transferred him to Yaroslavl, and over time, Peter III, having summoned Biron to the capital, returned to him all the orders and insignia. A few years later, Catherine II restored the former regent to 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 the government passed into the hands of the mother of the heir to the throne. Anna Leopoldovna became the regent. The Romanovs, leading their family through the line of Tsar John V, temporarily found themselves at the pinnacle of Russian state power. At the very beginning of the next 1741, a joyful event happened in the life of a young woman: the newly appointed Saxon envoy Karl Linar arrived in St. Petersburg - her former love that had not had time to cool down. Immediately accepted by Anna Leopoldovna, he immediately became her favorite.
Because the ruler was married, they had to observe certain propriety in their relationship. Linar settled in a house near the Summer Garden, where at that time Anna lived in the Summer Palace. In order to provide a sufficient pretext for his presence in the palace, she appointed her lover as Oberkammerger. Soon, the highest mercy extended to the point that the favorite was awarded two of the highest Russian orders - St. Andrew the First-Called and Alexander Nevsky. For what merits he received them, the courtiers couldonly guess.
However, soon Anna Leopoldovna allowed her lover to interfere in serious government 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 draw Russia into the war for the Austrian inheritance. In those years, a number of European states tried, declaring illegitimate the will of the Austrian Emperor Charles VI, to seize the property of the House of Habsburg 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.
Parting with Linar
In order to somehow disguise the connection that was taking on a scandalous turn, Anna Leopoldovna (the empress, after all) was forced to resort to tricks, which, however, could not be misleading anyone. So, for example, in the summer of 1741, she betrothed Linar to her chambermaid and closest friend, Baroness Juliana Mengden. But, having become a groom, he, nevertheless, could not officially enter the Russian service, as he remained a subject of Saxony. To obtain the necessary permission, in November of the same year, Linar left for Dresden.
Before leaving, he, as a far-sighted person, 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 control of everything. Parting, they did not know that they were saying goodbye forever. When, having received the desired permission from the governmentSaxony, Linar returned to St. Petersburg in November of the same year, then in Koenigsberg he was awaited by the news of 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 took place 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 enthrone and dethrone, she already felt her power in February 1725. Then, on her bayonets, the widow of Peter I, Empress Catherine I, came to power. And now, taking advantage of the fact that Anna Leopoldovna, whose reign caused general discontent, underestimated the strength of the guard, Elizabeth managed to attract the Preobrazhensky regiment located in St. Petersburg to her side.
On 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. Encountering no resistance anywhere, they reached the bedroom where Anna Leopoldovna and her husband rested peacefully. The terrified regent was announced to be deposed and arrested. Witnesses of this scene later said that Elizabeth, taking in her arms the one-year-old heir to the throne, who was in the same room and woke up from a sudden noise, quietly whispered: “Unfortunate child.” She knew what she was talking about.
Way of the Cross of yesterday's ruler
So, the Braunschweig family was arrested, including Anna Leopoldovna. Empress Elizabeth was notcruel 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 Empress Anna Leopoldovna and her family were temporarily sent to the Riga Castle, where she spent a whole year in anticipation of the promised freedom. But suddenly the plans of the new mistress of the Winter Palace changed. The fact is that a conspiracy was uncovered in St. Petersburg, the purpose of which was to overthrow Elizabeth and release the legitimate heir, Ivan Antonovich.
It became obvious that the Braunschweig family would continue to be a banner for all sorts of conspirators, thus representing a certain danger. The fate of Anna Leopoldovna was decided. In 1742, the captives were transferred to the Dunamünde fortress (not far from Riga), and two years later to the Renenburg fortress, located in the Ryazan province. But here, too, they did not stay long. A few months later, a royal decree came to lead them to Arkhangelsk for further imprisonment in the Solovetsky Monastery. In the autumn thaw, under heavy rains, Anna Leopoldovna and her unfortunate family were sent to the north.
But that year, early frosts and ice hummocks ruled out any possibility of crossing to Solovki. The captives were settled in Kholmogory, in the house of the local bishop, and were vigilantly guarded, excluding any possibility of communication with the outside world. Here they forever said goodbye to their son-heir. Ivan Antonovich was isolated from them and placed in another part of the building, and in the future his parents had no news of him. For moreThe conspiracy of the young ex-emperor was ordered to be called Grigory by a fictitious name.
Death and belated honors
Recent years, full of grief and ordeal, undermined the he alth 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 puerperal fever, or, as they used to say in the old days, "fiery". 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 buried with great solemnity in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The funeral took place according to all the rules stipulated by the regulations for the burial of persons belonging to the royal house. Since then, Anna Leopoldovna has also been mentioned in the official lists of the rulers of the Russian state. The Romanovs have always been jealous of honoring the memory of members of their family, even those whose death they themselves were involved in.
The "Iron Mask" of Russian history
The fate of Ivan, the heir to the throne, who was born by Anna Leopoldovna, was especially tragic. His biography has developed in such a way that gave historians a reason to call him the Russian version of the Iron Mask. Immediately after seizing power, Elizabeth took all possible steps to ensure that the name of the heir to the throne she had overthrown was consigned to oblivion. Coins with his image were withdrawn from circulation,destroyed the documents that mentioned his name, and under pain of severe punishment banned any memory of him.
Elizaveta Petrovna, who seized power through a palace coup, was afraid of the possibility of becoming a victim of another conspiracy herself. For this reason, in 1756, she ordered that a fifteen-year-old prisoner be taken to the Shlisselburg fortress and kept in solitary confinement. There, the young man was even deprived of his new name Grigory and was mentioned only as a "famous prisoner." His contact with others was strictly forbidden. This requirement was so strictly observed that during all the years of imprisonment the prisoner did not see a single human face. Not surprisingly, over time, he showed signs of mental breakdown.
Highest visit to a prisoner and quick death
When a new empress came to replace Elizabeth Petrovna, Catherine II, who also seized power with the support of the guards, in order to give her rule greater legitimacy, she thought about the possibility of marriage with the rightful heir Ivan, who was in the fortress. To this end, she visited him in the Shlisselburg casemate. However, having seen what degree of physical and mental degradation Ivan had reached during the years of solitary confinement, she realized that marriage with him was out of the question. By the way, the empress noted that the prisoner knew about his royal origin, that he was literate and wanted to end his life in a monastery.
The reign of Catherine II was by no means cloudless, and during Ivan's stay in the fortress, attempts were repeatedly made to statecoup to put him on 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 such a situation developed. Another conspiracy arose in the ranks of the garrison of the Shlisselburg fortress itself. It was headed by Lieutenant V. Ya. Mirovich. However, the internal guards of the casemates fulfilled their duty: Ivan Antonovich was stabbed to death with their bayonets. Death interrupted his short and tragic life on July 5 (16), 1764.
So ended their lives these offspring of the reigning Romanov dynasty - the legitimate heir to the throne, John VI and his mother Anna Leopoldovna, whose brief biography was the topic of our conversation. Not all the rulers of Russia were destined to die a natural death. The ruthless, unrestrained struggle for power sometimes resulted in tragedies like the one we just remembered. The years of the reign of Anna Leopoldovna entered the history of Russia as part of the period called the "Era of the Temporary Workers".
