Anna Ioannovna (short biography)

Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna was born on January 28, 1693 in the family of Praskovya Fedorovna Saltykova and Ivan the Fifth Alekseevich. Anna's upbringing until she was seventeen was supervised by her uncle, Peter the Great. In the autumn of 1710, he marries Anna to Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Courland. However, her husband died soon after. At the same time, Anna, at the insistence of Peter, had to stay in Courland.

After the death of Peter II in 1730, Anna was invited to take the Russian tsarist throne. But the secret Supreme Council that invited her seriously "cut" her powers. By signing the Conditions, Anna was deprived of actual power, giving it into the hands of the Council. However, these Conditions were broken by the Empress already in February 1730. With the support of the nobility and the guards, Anna was proclaimed a single empress.

The reign of Anna Ioannovna began with the liquidation of the Privy Council and its complete replacement Cabinet Minister. Trying to protect herself from the conspiracy, Empress Anna approves the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs, which quickly gained power. Thanks to the complete preservation of the course of foreign policy, which was taken by Peter the Great, Anna was able to consolidate the position of the Russian state on the world stage. For example, there were quite successful military campaigns. At the same time, of course, there were big blunders (Belgrade peace, etc.).

During the reign of this empress, postal communication between cities was significantly improved, and police were formed in the provinces. The situation has also improved with education, as well as the army and the development of the navy.

Anna did little in the way of government, entrusting the decisions of the most important state issues to the discretion of her advisers, most of whom were residents of Germany. One of the most important figures in this circle was Biron, who interfered in most of the affairs of the country for his own benefit. Historians note that the court of Empress Anna was distinguished by special luxury, and the expenses for entertainment and its maintenance were enormous.

The end of the biography of the Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna came on October 28, 1740. It was on this day that she died without leaving St. Petersburg. After that, Ivan Antonovich (her nephew) acted as the heir to the Russian throne, and the previously mentioned Biron became his regent. Soon, after the arrest of Biron, power passes to Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great.

Anna Ioannovna

The All-Russian Empress, who reigned from January 25, 1730 to October 17, 1740, Anna Ioannovna does not belong to the category of those sovereigns whose strong personality is the initiator in the most important state events of their reign and directs events, inextricably linking her name with them . Nevertheless, her ten-year reign from the outside seemed to contemporaries as a continuation of the glorious reign of Peter the Great, both externally and externally. domestic politics. Indeed, among the Western European powers, Russia during her reign not only retained the position she occupied under the first Emperor, but even more consolidated it. The decisive participation in the fate of Poland, the strengthening of its position on the Baltic Sea, the victory over Turkey - all these are phenomena that in the eyes of the European powers of the thirties of the XVIII century. they put Russia on its proper height and forced to recognize its strength. In internal affairs, government activity also developed, apparently, according to the reform program of Peter the Great. The government of Anna Ioannovna restored its institutions and regulations, shaken under Catherine I and Peter II, insisted on the execution of their decrees and sought to develop them with further orders in the spirit of the Petrine reform. But the reform program was understood by the rulers of Russia in the thirties of the 18th century in an extremely one-sided and formal way. It can be seen that the spirit of the reform flew away from it along with its creator, and the conductors of the undertakings of the first Russian Emperor were not able to understand it properly: observing the external, so to speak, ritual side of the reform, they very often retreated from its essence, to the detriment of its main principles. This happened because the followers of the reform program of Peter the Great under Anna Ioannovna were his German students, like Osterman and Munnich, who played under him only the role of performers, and now they have become stewards and masters. They were joined by various random people of their countrymen, who had nothing in common with Peter the Great and did not even know him personally, in the family of Biron, the Levenwolde brothers, and others. Anna Ioannovna fell under the influence of the Germans of these two layers and they made up her government. Russian statesmen of the era of Peter the Great, who passed into the reign of Anna Ioannovna, also fell into two groups: 1) people of the school of Peter the Great, full supporters of his reform, whose representatives are Tatishchev, Prince. Kantemir and Feofan Prokopovich and 2) opponents of its excesses, who wanted rapprochement with Western Europe on somewhat different principles than Peter the Great did. This last group did not break ties with Muscovite Russia, whose traditions were still alive with us in the first half of the 18th century, and consisted of the old Muscovite nobility; its typical representative was Prince D. M. Golitsyn. With such a position of the government layers in the reign of Anna Ioannovna, in all Russian people in general, and in their middle and lower layers in particular, a heavy consciousness of dependence on foreigners was very naturally aroused, which gradually turned into bitterness and hatred for the German rulers. Such a mood of the Russian people was noticed by foreign contemporaries, and one of them, the Italian Locatelli, even foresaw the possibility of an uprising by the Russians against the German government, which actually happened with a little a year after the death of Anna Ioannovna, during the enthronement of Elizabeth Petrovna. The struggle between all these trends among the ruling classes and the attitude of the Germans towards the Russian people during the ten-year reign of Anna Ioannovna is the deep historical interest of this reign. But personally, the Empress only partly took part in the historical struggle of her time, and this participation was reflected only in some phenomena of her reign. The most important of them can be honored by the following: 1) government measures that are in connection with the events of its accession; 2) her court life, distinguished by luxury and idle pastime; 3) her dynastic and family concerns: efforts to strengthen the generation of her father, the eldest son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, John, on the Russian imperial throne, to the detriment of the generation of her youngest son, Peter the Great, and participation in the fate of her closest relatives. As regards to major events her reign, both in the field of domestic and foreign policy, and in the sphere of the cultural life of the Russian people, then these events, being the result of the previous historical life of the Russian people, were directed against the personal will of Anna Ioannovna. A. I. Osterman was in charge of foreign policy affairs throughout her reign; the victories of its troops were determined by the military talents of B. Kh. Minich; orders for internal administration depended first on Osterman, and then, mainly, on Biron, Feofan Prokopovich, who became the most obedient tool of the German government party, led church affairs almost until the end of his reign; and the progress of education, which was very noticeable in the reign of Anna Ioannovna, is the inevitable result of the development of ideas brought to us by the reform of Peter the Great. Led by Osterman, Russian diplomacy supported, first of all, our influential position in Turkey and the alliance with the German emperor, as a result of which Russia's relations with France under Anna Ioannovna were very strained and improved only in the very last year of her reign. The reasons for this lie in the opposition of the then France to the leading role of Russia in the East and in the long-standing hostility between the courts of Versailles and Vienna. The then Polish relations of Russia were also at odds with the interests of France, which, after the death of Augustus II (in 1733), supported the candidacy for the Polish throne of Louis XV's father-in-law, Stanislav Leshchinsky. Thanks to the efforts of Russia and the German emperor, the son of the deceased king, August III, was chosen as king of Poland. The Turkish War (1735-1739), which began against Osterman's wishes and cost Russia a great loss of people and huge material costs, was successful thanks to the victories of Munnich and Lassi, and although the Belgrade peace that ended it was concluded not in the interests of Russia, but Court of Vienna, however, this war will forever retain its enormous significance in the history of our relations with Turkey: it washed away the stain of the Prut defeat of Peter the Great and served as a prologue to the victorious wars with Turkey under Catherine II. The reign of Anna Ioannovna is undoubtedly important in the history of the development of Russian science and literature. During this reign, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was strengthened, and in the person of the German Miller, the first learned Russian historian appeared in Russia; this German was of a different "intelligence" than the German rulers of the time of Anna Ioannovna, and every educated Russian will remember him with gratitude. By the thirties of the eighteenth century. include exploits for the benefit of the Russian enlightenment of the Russian people: the historian V. N. Tatishchev and the philologist V. K. Tredyakovsky, as well as the Russified Romanian, the first Russian satirist, Prince A. D. Kantemir; in the same years he studied in Germany and for the first time appeared in the literary field, the son of the Arkhangelsk fisherman Lomonosov.

Anna Ioannovna, the middle daughter of Tsar John Alekseevich and Praskovia Feodorovna, nee Saltykova, b. in Moscow on January 28, 1693, d. October 17, 1740. According to the reviews of all contemporaries who personally knew her, she was gifted by nature with a sound mind, and according to some of them her heart was not devoid of sensitivity, but the circumstances of her life were so unfortunate that these natural qualities did not only did not receive proper development, but were perverted, mutilated. The childhood and youth of Anna Ioannovna passed in such conditions under which it was impossible to strengthen the will, it was impossible to develop a character; her mind and heart were not ennobled by upbringing and education and from a young age did not receive the proper direction.

Anna Ioannovna's father died when she was three years old, on January 29, 1696, leaving behind a 32-year-old widow and three daughters, almost one year old; the family of Tsar John was received by Peter the Great under the direct patronage, and with the cool disposition of the Tsar-Transformer, they appeared in despotic dependence on him. Tsaritsa Praskovya Feodorovna, who grew up in the patriarchal Moscow-boyar ways of life, had to adapt to the tastes and requirements of her brother-in-law, and her three daughters grew up under two opposite influences: the traditions of the Moscow order and the new living conditions introduced by Peter the Great. The pious and superstitious, peculiar and stern tsarina, the noblewoman, the mother of Anna Ioannovna, was forced to divide her time between church services and assemblies, between holy fools and theatrical spectacles, and to change her late home old Moscow clothes for tanks and robrons. Loving to live with her daughters in Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich near Moscow, p. Izmailovo, Queen Praskovya, to please Peter the Great, had to move to St. Petersburg, which was alien to her, and her daughters, by the will of Tsar Peter, received an "overseas" upbringing and foreign teachers were assigned to them: John Christopher Diedrich Osterman, brother of the Vice-Chancellor , but distinguished by qualities completely opposite to him - spinelessness and mediocrity; Baron Huyssen, an enlightened German, a well-known literary agent of Peter the Great abroad, and a Frenchman, Ramburch, who taught young princesses French and dances. Next to the teachers, Anna Ioannovna was influenced by the holy fools, saints and various accusers with which the Court of Queen Praskovya was filled.

Anna Ioannovna, even in her youth, was distinguished by piety and, at the same time, obstinacy of temper, and later her hereditary traits of her grandfather, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and mother Praskovia Feodorovna began to develop in her. She, like the "quietest" king and her mother, loved ceremonials and solemn exits, brocade, gold and precious jewelry, and was distinguished by outward ritual piety; just like them, she loved to listen to the soul-saving conversations of monks and pious people, and at the same time, like her grandfather, she was passionately fond of hunting, kennels and menageries. But Anna Ioannovna's penchant for amusements was expressed stronger and more original than that of Tsar Alexei, approaching in character the amusements and undertakings of Peter the Great: irony and humor, although in a crude, crude form, often with a great tinge of cynicism, manifested themselves in Anna Ioannovna in her jokes and buffoonish processions. She had a passion for various curiosities: learned starlings, white peahens and monkeys, dwarfs and giants, and especially for storytellers, jokers, hangers-on who told her bedtime stories. At her Court there were official jesters, who constituted a special category of court officials, both Russians and foreigners, and sometimes Anna Ioannovna came up with unusual fun with them. "Curious" weddings played a prominent role in these amusements; the most remarkable of these weddings is the notorious wedding of the jester Prince Golitsyn with the Kalmyk girl Buzheninova in the famous Ice House.

Upon the accession of Anna Ioannovna, her Court was distinguished by unprecedented luxury and fun, striking even the accustomed eye of the British and French. Balls, court masquerades, receptions, Italian opera, ceremonial dinners, solemn receptions of ambassadors, military parades, weddings of "high people", illuminations and fireworks succeeded each other in a colorful kaleidoscope. In all this luxury there was no grace, no taste, but there was a lot of old Moscow in a European way, reminiscent of the transitional everyday life of Anna Ioannovna's mother, Empress Praskovya Feodorovna.

From her mother, Anna Ioannovna inherited obstinacy of character, and even in her youth she amazed those around her with the manifestation of this quality: one of the holy fools, who easily visited her mother’s house, jokingly called her Tsar Ivan the Terrible. She showed this property when she became the Empress, and the severity of her government must be explained as the cruelty of Russian customs in the first half of the 18th century. in general, and the personal properties of the Empress and only to some extent the influence of Biron on her. One of her contemporaries, who is closely acquainted with her personal character (Ernest Munnich, son of a field marshal), states in his notes that "nothing would have darkened the radiance of this Empress except that she was more of her own anger than followed laws and justice." The will of Anna Ioannovna, especially in the last years of her life, was completely subordinated to Ernest Johann Biron. The same Minich says: "This empress was smart, she judged things sensibly and acted accordingly in all cases when prejudice and a destructive passion for a confidant did not interfere with her actions." “It is no longer possible to take part in the joy and sorrow of a friend,” continues Minich, “how much the Empress took in Biron. On her face one could see in what mood the confidant was. when the first one seemed pleased, merriment shone in his eyes; those who did not please the favorite immediately noticed the obvious displeasure of the monarch. It was this moral submission to Biron that involuntarily forced contemporaries to attribute everything severe and unjust committed by Anna Ioannovna to her favorite and gave the Russian people a reason to call most of the reign of Anna Ioannovna Bironovshchina.

A little over seventeen (October 31, 1710) Anna Ioannovna was married to a very young, the same age as her, the Duke of Courland Friedrich Wilhelm. This marriage was arranged by Peter the Great against her will, for political reasons: Courland, which at that time was in fief dependence on Poland, was a theater of military operations between Russia and Sweden, and it was very convenient for Peter the Great to enter into an alliance with this small state. The marriage, performed in St. Petersburg, was accompanied by two-month feasts and celebrations, which, according to the custom of Peter the Great, could not do without immoderate food and even more immoderate use of strong drinks. The newlywed Duke of Courland could not bear it, and in addition he caught a cold. On January 3rd, 1711, he fell ill; On the 9th, being ill, he nonetheless went with Anna Ioannovna to Mitava, but having hardly driven 40 versts from Petersburg, he died in Duderhof. The young widow, after a two-month marriage, returned to St. Petersburg and again began to live with her mother and sisters in Izmailovo and in St. Petersburg. But Peter the Great demanded that she live in Courland, having his own political calculations for this: he hoped to form a party around his niece among the Courlanders to counter Polish influence, represented by the uncle of Anna Ioannovna's deceased husband, Duke Ferdinand. Ferdinand's discord with the Courland chivalry forced him to leave Mitava and live in Danzig. In 1717, Anna Ioannovna moved to Mitava, where she lived for thirteen years, only occasionally visiting St. Petersburg and Moscow. To some extent, Peter the Great achieved his goal: Anna Ioannovna managed to attract part of the Courland chivalry. During the first time of her life in Mitava, the chamberlain of her Court, Peter Mikh, used her favor. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who soon began to push back the chamber junker I. E. Biron. Anna Ioannovna's financial resources were small, and in order to settle her affairs, she had to constantly curry favor not only with her uncle Tsar Peter, his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna and Tsesarevna Elizaveta Petrovna, but also strong courtiers, especially Prince Menshikov and Vice Chancellor Osterman. Anna Ioannovna's letters from Courland are filled with these ingratiations and complaints about her fate throughout her stay there, both during the life of Peter the Great and in the subsequent reigns of Catherine I and Peter II. In 1726, the Courland ranks decided to elect Moritz, Count of Saxony, the son of the Polish King August II and a well-known at that time brave commander and brilliant social red tape, as dukes, marrying him to Anna Ioannovna. Both sides were satisfied with such a compromise: both the Polish and the Russian. Anna Ioannovna, apparently, really fell in love with Moritz, but her dreams were not destined to come true: they were destroyed by the ambition of Prince Menshikov, who himself wanted to become the Duke of Courland; although he did not achieve his goal, the election of Moritz also did not take place. The youth of Anna Ioannovna was leaving (she was already 34 years old), and after this failure she began to draw closer to Biron, who gained more and more influence on her.

On the night of January 18-19, 1730, Peter II died and the male offspring of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov died with him. According to the first article of the secret articles of the marriage contract of the Duke of Holstein Friedrich-Karl with the eldest daughter of Peter the Great Anna Petrovna and according to the "testament" of Catherine I, the two-year-old son of the Holstein Duchess Anna Petrovna († in 1728) Peter Ulrich and the second daughter of Peter the Great, Tsesarevna Elizaveta Petrovna. But the Supreme Privy Council, which became the head of the administration of the Russian Empire, judged otherwise. Both of these candidates were opposed by influential members of the Supreme Privy Council - the princes Golitsyn and Dolgoruky, who feared interference in the affairs of Russia by the Holstein Duke Friedrich-Karl and did not sympathize with the frivolous lifestyle of Tsarina Elizabeth. The same views, as a result of the long-standing feud between Denmark and Holstein over Schleswig, was the Danish envoy to the Russian court of Westfalen, who supported the princes Golitsyn and Dolgoruky. When discussing the issue of succession to the Russian throne, the Supreme Privy Council even made a statement in favor of the unfortunate grandmother of Peter II, the first wife of Peter the Great, Evdokia Feodorovna Lopukhina, but this proposal was not successful. Of the three daughters of Tsar John Alekseevich, the choice fell on Anna Ioannovna, because she was a widow. The husband of her eldest sister, Ekaterina Ioannovna, Duke of Mecklenburg, Karl-Leopold, was distinguished by his rude temper and eccentric character, and his interference in the internal affairs of Russia could present considerable difficulties in the future; the younger sister, Praskovya Ioannovna, was in a morganatic marriage with Senator I. I. Dmitriev Mamonov, and this circumstance finally eliminated her candidacy.

The Supreme Privy Council, at its very origin (1726), was an institution that to some extent resembled the Moscow Boyar Duma of the early 17th century, and foreigners, not without reason, assumed in it the renewal of boyar political aspirations. Therefore, it is quite natural that in a stateless time, the Supreme Privy Council, being a representative of the highest government authority, considered itself entitled to act as the Moscow Boyar Duma did in 1610, when electing the Polish prince Vladislav as king. Let us note at the same time that during the election of Anna Ioannovna, the "testament" of Catherine I was revered by many members of the Supreme Privy Council for a forged act drawn up by Prince Menshikov. The main and most influential member of the Supreme Privy Council in 1730 was Prince Dm. Mich. Golitsyn, who personally did not love Catherine I and her daughters - the Holstein Duchess Anna Petrovna and Tsarina Elizabeth. He initiated the proposal to elect Anna Ioannovna to the Russian Empress, with the restriction of her autocratic power to certain conditions. He was supported by Prince Vas. Onion. Dolgoruky, who personally knew Anna Ioannovna in Courland and sympathized with the political order of Poland and Sweden, in which he lived for a long time as a diplomatic agent. The remaining members of the Supreme Privy Council, who adhered to the opinion of Princes D. M. Golitsyn and V. L. Dolgoruky, were: the brother of the first, Field Marshal Prince Golitsyn, the three princes Dolgoruky - Field Marshal Vasily Vladimirovich, his brother Mikhail Vladimirovich, and the chamberlain of Peter II Alexei Grigorievich . Involuntarily, Chancellor Count Golovkin and Vice-Chancellor AI Osterman had to agree with the majority.

The conditions proposed by the Supreme Privy Council to Anna Ioannovna consisted of 8 points and determined her power in the following way: the Empress had to take care of the preservation and dissemination of the Orthodox Christian faith in the Russian state; then she promised not to marry, not to appoint an heir to the throne at her own discretion, and to keep the Supreme Privy Council of 8 members. Without the consent of the Supreme Privy Council, the Empress did not have the right to: declare war and make peace, impose new taxes on her subjects, promote employees in both the military and civil service, above the colonel and the 6th class, distribute court positions and produce state expenses. In addition, nobles could only be subjected to court for important crimes. death penalty and deprivation of honor and property. These conditions were only a rough outline of a whole political plan, which Prince D. M. Golitsyn worked on, hoping to implement it gradually during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. The essence of the plan was to establish in Russia a form of government modeled on the Polish or Swedish. In parallel with the political program of the "supreme leaders" (as members of the Supreme Privy Council were colloquially called at that time), it was created in various circles of the generals and the gentry, who gathered in large numbers in Moscow for the upcoming January 19, 1730 marriage of Emperor Peter II with Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna Dolgoruky, a number of other political plans and projects, which, without affecting the issue of the autocratic power of Empress Anna Ioannovna, were directed against the leaders. We have received 12 such projects, of which 8 were submitted to the Supreme Privy Council. All these projects seek to give participation in state administration to the "gentry" with a predominance of the old Moscow nobility, introducing representatives of all the oldest, well-born Russian families into the Supreme Privy Council. Then they petition for a whole series of benefits for the gentry, and in particular for a greater distribution of education in this class, for a reduction in the period of compulsory military service, for the destruction of the law of Peter the Great of 1714 on uniform inheritance and for the election of candidates for the most important positions in state institutions, central and regional, as well as in the regiments - through balloting in the gentry assemblies. But not all persons from the generals and the nobility shared the thoughts of such projects. Some stood for the unconditional autocracy of the elected Empress and let her know in Mitau that the "conditions" of the leaders were the invention of only 8 persons. Among these supporters of the autocracy, one of the first was a man very close to Peter the Great, who owed him his entire career, P. I. Yaguzhinsky. The higher clergy, headed by Feofan Prokopovich, also spoke out for the complete autocracy of Anna Ioannovna.

On January 25, 1730, having signed the "conditions" sent to her in Mitava, Anna Ioannovna on February 10 was already near Moscow, in the village of Vsesvyatsky, and after waiting for the burial of Peter II there, on February 15 she had a solemn entry into Moscow. On February 20 and 21, the highest dignitaries, the gentry and all the inhabitants of Moscow took the oath to the Empress on the basis of "conditions". The same sworn sheets were sent to the provinces. But the supporters of the autocratic power of Anna Ioannovna did not doze off; their ranks were growing; many of those who signed various gentry plans and projects joined them, and on February 25, Field Marshal Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy filed a petition "about the perception of autocracy" to Anna Ioannovna, signed by 166 people. In this petition, after a petition for the restoration of autocratic power, the following desires were stated: 1) to destroy the V.T. Council and restore the Senate in the meaning that it had under Peter the Great; 2) grant the nobility the right to run for vacant positions of senators, governors and presidents of collegiums; 3) to establish, with the approval of the Empress, now the general principles of the entire state administration of Russia. After listening to this petition, Anna Ioannovna broke her "conditions" and declared herself an autocratic Empress. On February 28, a new oath of allegiance to Anna Ioannovna, as the autocratic Empress, was taken from everyone, and from that day her actual reign begins.

Anna Ioannovna, having accepted a petition for the restoration of her autocracy, hastened to fulfill the desires stated not only in this petition, but also in many gentry projects. Even before the coronation, on March 4, 1730, the Supreme Privy Council was destroyed and restored ruling The Senate, and a few years later, the office of Prosecutor General was also renewed. The Senate, according to Minich's plan, was divided into 5 departments: 1) matters relating to the clergy, 2) military, 3) finance, 4) justice, 5) industry and trade. In the same 1730, a manifesto followed, drawing the attention of the Synod to the fulfillment of its most important duty: monitoring the purity of the Orthodox Christian faith and eradicating heresies, schisms and superstitions. In the same year, it was ordered to start writing the New Code again, but instead of the departed deputies from the commission assembled for this purpose under Peter II, they were ordered not to choose again, but to appoint them from the nobility by appointment. But this new commission did nothing, and therefore limited itself to reissuing the old Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Then, after the coronation of the Empress, celebrated in Moscow with great solemnity on April 28, 1730, a whole series of measures arose to improve the army and navy and to grant various benefits to the nobility.

In 1730, two new guards regiments were formed - Izmailovsky and Equestrian, and the commission established under Peter II under the chairmanship of Munnich began its work to streamline the army, artillery and military engineering, and after that another commission was organized, chaired by Osterman, to study state and improvement of the fleet. Let us dwell in more detail on the most important measures in the military department, the initiative and development of which belonged to Minikh, who was appointed president of the military collegium in 1732. The commission mentioned above, which was under his own chairmanship, in 1731 drew up new states of the ground forces, according to which fighting force The Russian army, compared with the states of Peter the Great (1720), was increased: according to these new states, in peacetime, the army was supposed to consist of 157,500 people, and in military time - from 167,000. To increase the army, it was necessary to resort to reinforced recruitment sets, which increased later, as a result of prolonged hostilities during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, first against Poland, and then against the Crimea and Turkey (1733-1739). Recruitment sets from 1731 to 1739 happened almost annually: during all this time there were no sets only in 1734 and 1735. Noting the fact of such frequent recruiting, one should not forget that they were performed at that time according to a different system than later, in the second half of the 18th century. and in our century, before the introduction of universal military service. Under Anna Ioannovna, recruitment duty was not for tax-paying classes a duty in kind and, moreover, personal, but monetary: a willing person was hired into recruits with the money collected from the number of revision souls from which the recruit followed according to the apportionment. As a result, they were hired into military service, which at that time was very difficult, mainly beans, drunkards, fugitives, sick and crippled. In 1731, Minich's military commission worked out the following measures: 1) the restoration of the balloting of officers in the regiments; 2) the equalization of the salaries of natural Russian officers with officers from foreigners who previously received it in a larger amount; 3) the renewal of the decree of Peter the Great on the primacy of military ranks (the first three classes) over civilian ones; 4) promulgation of the general instruction to the Kriegskommissar; 5) the foundation in St. Petersburg of an educational institution for preparing nobles for military service, the so-called gentry cadet corps, which served during the eighteenth century. a very respectable service to Russian education. - In 1732, a new military charter was issued; by decree on April 17 of the same year, it was ordered to promote soldiers to officers, for military merit, not only from the nobility, but also from taxable estates, including peasants (a new and very important measure) and to train soldiers' children in special schools, to a treasury account. In 1736, the children of clergymen were released from recruitment. In 1738, a hussar regiment was formed from the Georgian princes and nobles living within Russian borders. Serious attention is paid to the supply of cavalry regiments with "good" horses; for this purpose, from March 1, 1734, universal horse service was introduced, and it was proposed to pay 20 rubles in money per horse; and by decree of July 13, 1740, horse factories were established at the cuirassier, dragoon and garrison regiments. Two measures have been resumed, which originally arose under Peter the Great, but then abandoned: 1) experiments settled troops and 2) quartering of army regiments in both capitals and in provincial and provincial towns in "eternal" apartments, i.e., permanent barracks. Infantry regiments were settled under the name of "infantry soldiers", mainly in the province of Kazan, on the then outskirts with the southeastern steppe; cavalry regiments, the so-called "land militia" - between the Dnieper and the upper tributaries of the Don on a new guard line in a number of "forts" to protect against the raids of the Crimeans. This line, divided into two parts - Tsaritsynskaya and Ukrainian, was compared with the guard line of the 17th century. further spread to the south of Russian fortress protection. As for quartering troops in the barracks, this measure could not be brought to an end, because the experience of building barracks in St. Petersburg, for the guards regiments, cost the treasury very dearly, and the soldiers were still stationed in the provinces in philistine houses. The lower military ranks were charged with the duty, in peacetime, to catch robbers, put out fires and carry out government work.

But many of these measures were only palliatives, because the moral and disciplinary state of the Russian army during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, according to experts, military scientists, was terrible. Kushnerev, - in greater numbers contained the worst, immoral and often criminal part of the population" (see issue VII, p. 191). The reasons for such a sad state of the then Russian army were: severe discipline, with beatings, stick blows, rods and gauntlets, applied with cruelty to the Russian soldier by the German officers, who at that time made up the majority of the officers of our army, 2) the recruitment recruitment system, as was mentioned above and 3) indefinite military service. Therefore, desertion was a very natural phenomenon among the soldiers, and due to the poor organization of the quartermaster and military medical units, epidemic diseases and deaths developed in the troops. In 1733, the government had to take vigorous measures to collect the "recruitment", that is, the lack of soldiers from 1719 to 1726.

The years 1730-1731 were marked by very important property benefits in favor of the nobility. On October 25, 1730, two decrees followed: 1) it was forbidden to buy inhabited estates by boyars and monastic servants and only the nobility was allowed to buy them; 2) the law of 1714 on single inheritance was destroyed. By a decree of March 17, 1731, the distinction between estates and estates was completely smoothed out, and by a decree of November 18 of the same year, a special book was established for writing letters to granted estates. Although benefits to the nobility naturally added burdens to the peasants, who surrendered to their great dependence (for example, the nobles received the right to move their peasants from one estate to another, but, at the same time, they were obliged to pay a soul tax for them) and on the peasants the government of Anna Ioannovna looked exclusively from a fiscal point of view, as the main tax-paying contingent - nevertheless, in 1730 the government publicly declared by decree that the peasantry should not have excessive burdens in extortions, in excess of the head cap, which was also petitioned by the gentry in your projects. One of the most important desires of the nobility to reduce the period of military service was fulfilled only in the second half of the reign, namely, on December 31, 1736, a decree was issued on the appointment of a 25-year military service for those who wished to nobles; but since there were a lot of hunters to take advantage of this decree, in August 1740 this privilege was canceled.

Thus, Anna Ioannovna, apparently, sought to fulfill all the main desires of the gentry, stated both in his projects and in the petition "on the perception of autocracy." In fact, around Anna Ioannovna, that circle was already grouped, which soon completely took possession of her mind and will; it was a circle of German rulers with I. E. Biron at the head, which cleverly hid behind other persons. At the end of 1731, the Empress moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and from that time the actual foreign warehouse of her government began. This government did not have a strictly consistent system, although from the outside, as indicated above, the German rulers followed in the footsteps of Peter the Great. In matters of internal central administration, the collegiate principle, so clearly expressed and logically carried out in all the institutions of Peter the Great, was violated. This principle is gradually being supplanted by the principle of bureaucratic and individual management, the founder and conductor of which was Osterman. So, in his opinion, in 1731 the Cabinet was established ministers which concentrated in itself all internal management and was placed above the Senate. The cabinet was divided into expeditions only in 1739, and for eight years it had no organization, and the disorderly conduct of business in it prompted Empress Elizabeth to immediately destroy it upon her accession to the throne. Parallel to the colleges, a number of separate offices, offices and expeditions arose and orders were renewed; all such institutions were headed by chiefs and directors, and not by presidents, as in colleges. The most important of the chancelleries were: Palace, Construction, Konyushennaya, Confiscations (which was in charge of the estates of disgraced persons unsubscribed to the empress), Secret Investigation Affairs with an office in Moscow, Monetnaya, Oberberg Directorate, which replaced the Berg Collegium. In 1730, two orders were established in Moscow to complete unresolved cases: doomsday- civil and Search- in criminal cases. In the same year arose Siberian order, and in 1733 expanded activities doimochnogo order, originally established by the Supreme Privy Council in 1727.

In regional administration, in comparison with the two previous reigns of Catherine I and Peter II, there is generally more strictness, in particular, the rise of the power of governors, who could fine provincial governors for negligent performance of their posts, and then even received the right to determine such governors by their own power, so as not to there were delays in business (1737). The provinces did not change in their composition, with the exception of the eastern outskirts of Russia. Here in the Urals, in the Bashkir uluses, which until that time were part of the Kazan province, the city of Orenburg was founded, which became the center of a special regional administration, under the name of the Orenburg expedition, entrusted to the authorities of the famous figure of the era B. H. Tatishchev. In the areas governed on the basis of special local rights - Little Russia and the Baltic provinces (Lifland and Estonia) - the following orders were noted: after the death of the Little Russian hetman Daniil Apostol in 1734, the Petrovsky Little Russian Collegium was not renewed, but a special chief ruler was appointed; Livonia and Estonia received confirmation of their former privileges, but with some restrictions: local noble diets and congresses were not allowed without the permission of the Senate. In 1737, E. I. Biron became the Duke of Courland, which utterly contributed to the subsequent strengthening of the influence of the Russian government in Courland and gradually led to the annexation of this duchy to the Russian Empire.

The historian and publicist of the era of Catherine II, Prince M. M. Shcherbatov, notes that the Court, under Anna Ioannovna, was "a source of all sorts of favors", as a result of which the nobles involuntarily aspired to it, which greatly contributed to the "damage to morals" in Russia. Indeed, we notice in this reign the predominance of the Court over state administration and the decisive influence of the court spheres on the mores and tastes of the then Russian society. Separate branches of court administration, organized in accordance with the personal tastes of Anna Ioannovna, were considered the highest institutions in the state (for example, the court stable office, the Jagermeister office, which was in charge of court hunting, etc.). Court positions increased significantly in comparison with the time of Peter the Great, Catherine I and Peter II and became the most honorable in the state, while under the "first Emperor" and his successor they were completely invisible, having received only some importance under the minor Peter II. The luxury of the Court caused imitation in the upper and even middle social strata of both capitals and little by little passed from there to the provincial nobility, ruining both him and the nobles. The court department absorbed very significant amounts of the state treasury for that time, which is clearly seen from a comparison with other items of state spending. Here, for example, are figures for 1734. The entire budget of state spending for this year consisted of almost 8 million rubles (we take round numbers). Of this amount, up to 6 and a half million went to the army and navy, and the rest was 1,285,000 rubles. distributed to all other state needs as follows: maintenance of the Court 260,000; buildings 256000; central administration 180,000; collegium of foreign affairs 102000; court stable department 100,000; salary to the highest state dignitaries 96,000; pensions to the relatives of Anna Ioannovna and the maintenance of the Mecklenburg Corps 61000; regional administration 51000; maintenance of two academies (sciences and maritime) 47000; salaries for secondary school teachers, along with surveyors 4500. By the end of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, state administration was becoming more and more shattered. All branches of it were in terrible neglect. The economic condition of Russia was disastrous. The state budget by the end of the reign it was the same size as the one given above for 1734. With all its relatively modest size, it was nevertheless very burdensome for the population. Let us recall that the European Russia of that time was almost a whole third smaller than the present one. Finland, Courland, the Kingdom of Poland, the entire Western Territory, New Russia and the Caucasus were not yet part of it; its population at that time barely reached 12 million souls of both sexes. The twenty-year northern war of Peter the Great, his Turkish and Persian wars, the Turkish wars in the reign of Anna Ioannovna, which caused frequent recruitment, had a natural result in a decrease in the population, an impoverishment of the country's productivity and an increase in taxation from the paying classes and from state income items.

In this state of affairs, it is quite natural that the arrears in receipts to the state treasury increased every year and fell with their weight, mainly on the poorest classes - peasants and philistines. By 1732, the arrears were 15,500,000 rubles, an amount equal to almost two years of state income. During the entire reign of Anna Ioannovna, we encounter a number of Senate decrees on the careful collection of arrears; but this did not improve matters, and the arrears kept growing. The doimochny order had a lot of work. About the cruelty with which arrears and current taxes were collected, says a witness of such penalties, a historian of the second half of the 18th century. I. N. Boltin. According to him, the military teams sent out from the payroll order kept the governor and their comrades chained up until the entire arrears were collected in full; the landowners, their elders and butlers and managers of monastic and bishop's estates were subjected to the same fate. Payments were extorted from the burghers and peasants by means of "pravezh". “In the villages, the sound of sticks on the legs was heard everywhere,” he says, “the cry of these tormented ones, the wail and cry of their wives and children, tormented by hunger; in the cities, the rattling of shackles, the mournful voices of convicts asking for alms from those passing by, filled the air.” Escapes, robberies, robberies, drunkenness, epidemic diseases were terrible, but completely natural consequences of such a sad socio-economic state of affairs.

However, the government of Anna Ioannovna was far from being indifferent to these phenomena. It constantly sought to improve the public finances and productivity of the country, but these aspirations were expressed in unilateral and, moreover, often palliative measures.

In state finance, first of all, they took care of streamlining monetary circulation, which was a matter already begun under Peter II by the Supreme Privy Council; the President of the Coin Office, Count M. G. Golovkin put a lot of effort into these improvements. The size and value of the gold coin were changed: by decree of December 30, 1730, it was ordered to mint chervonets, equal to Dutch ones, at a price of 2 rubles. 20 kopecks, and by a number of decrees of 1731 and 1732 small silver kopecks and five kopecks, altyns and hryvnias were withdrawn from circulation and it was ordered to mint a silver ruble and fifty coins of a lower standard than before (77th test); this business was given to private individuals, "companion workers" from merchants; and then followed measures to improve the copper token, which had the greatest distribution among the lower classes of the population. It was ordered to mint a new type of money and half coins, and before that it was allowed to be melted down into products. Copper five-kopeck pieces were exported abroad like metal; in 1736 and 1737 this export is prohibited. To facilitate credit, mainly to the nobility, in 1733 it was allowed to issue loans from the mint secured by gold and silver, for a period of 3 years, at 8% per annum.

Regarding the development of industry and trade, a number of government measures also followed. At the head of these branches of government from 1730 to 1740, although they did not have the opportunity to act completely independently, there were the following persons: the disgraced nobleman of the reign of Peter II, Alexander Lvovich Naryshkin (1731-1733), a famous diplomat and businessman of the era of Peter the Great, Baron Pyotr Pavlovich Shafirov (1733-1736), cabinet minister of A.P. Volynskaya and one of his main "confidents", Count Platon Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin (1736-1740). In the foreground was the patronage of large breeders, manufacturers and merchants. Breeders and manufacturers received serfdom over those who studied with them, as well as over vagabonds who did not remember kinship, who were ordered to register for residence in factories and plants. Merchants, taking advantage of class self-government, were, however, bound by petty, but unprofitable for them, rules that regulated trade. So, for example, they could conduct retail trade exclusively in the gostiny yards of their cities, while in other cities they were allowed to carry out only wholesale trade. Foreigners could trade everywhere only in bulk; Jews in Little Russia and Smolensk were subjected to the same restriction, while in the rest of the cities of Russia they were prohibited from trading. The government, as under Peter the Great, had its own state-owned plants and factories, tried to support those of the private ones that produced the most necessary products for it, and monopolized entire industries in its hands. Therefore, mining, thanks to the care of the Dutch specialist General de Genin and the student of Peter the Great - Tatishchev, was put on solid ground, despite the abuses of private breeders. In 1739, promulgating a new mining charter; and mining workers received many benefits and privileges. The most important of the government monopolies were: the trade in rhubarb, the purchase of hemp, the sale of wine, fishing (mainly in the White Sea and Caspian) and the production of saltpeter and potash; these three productions were at the mercy of trading companies. The leather, wool and silk industries were subsidized by the government, in the form of privileges for the supply of leather goods and cloth to the treasury for the army and the court, which were also given to "companies" and individual manufacturers, and both of them enjoyed very significant benefits (such were the companies that arose under Empress Anna Ioannovna New-mannered leather factory and woolen, cloth and silk factories of Poluyaroslavtsev and Evreinov). Attention is drawn to best production cloth, so necessary for army uniforms; manufacturers of woolen and silk fabrics were called from Venice to set up factories in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The main branch of Russian industry - agriculture paid little attention to the government. The predominant mass of the Russian people - the peasant farmers sank into ignorance and were given over to the exploitation of the Russian landowners and foreigners (nobles, monks, factory owners and merchants). The government was even convinced that there was no need to teach the common people to read and write, because it distracts them from menial work (decree of December 12, 1735). The government was only concerned with trade turnover with agricultural products, mainly rye in grain and flour. Trade in bread was either constrained or expanded, depending on the harvest. In 1734, famine befell Russia: at that time, all grain merchants were ordered to take away their goods and sell them without collecting state duties; landowners are allowed to sell only surplus grain, the remainder of the food of themselves, peasants and courtyards; from the provinces that suffered from crop failure, it was forbidden to import bread to the capitals for sale, and St. Petersburg had to be supplied with bread from places that did not suffer from crop failure. In 1737, after the terrible fires that devastated various Russian provinces, the price of Construction Materials, and after them prices for other necessities of life rose, and, of course, primarily for bread: a decree was issued prohibiting further price increases. The preservation of forests was a major concern for the then government. The forests were severely destroyed after the death of Peter the Great, when his severe penalties ceased to operate. In 1730, an inventory was compiled of all reserved forests in the state for state needs, and then a schedule was made even of reserved forest species, which included: oak, ash, maple, elm, elm, larch and pine, the latter in a cut of at least 12 inches; Severe punishments were imposed for their felling: monetary fines and even beating with a whip and exile to Siberia; Waldmeisters and forest overseers were re-established; in treeless, steppe places, afforestation and sowing with forest seeds were prescribed.

Of the measures for internal trade, it should be noted the opening in 1731 of navigation along the Ladoga Canal, which was a complete triumph for its builder, Count Minich, and trade and industrial privileges for the newly built mountains. Orenburg (1734-1735). In foreign trade, import and export, the government stood on the basis of protectionism, vigilantly watching those goods that were necessary for state needs. At the end of 1730, under pain of confiscation of property and the death penalty, the export of gunpowder and lead and the sale of both to foreign merchants who came to Russia was prohibited; in 1735 the same punishment was imposed on Russian merchants for the private sale of rhubarb; in 1738 the export of tobacco from Poland was prohibited. Measures were also taken to streamline foreign trade, which was carried out mainly by trading companies subsidized by the government. The most important of these companies were: Spanish, English, Dutch, Armenian, Chinese (founded in Siberia in 1739), Indian (in Astrakhan); the charters of these companies regulated and improved trade procedures, especially in trade with China (decree of 1731), Central Asia (decree of 1739) and Persia. Persian merchants who bought goods for the Shah were exempted from customs duties (decree of 1739). Trade agreements were concluded again and the previous ones were confirmed, with Western European and Eastern states: with Spain (1732), with England (1734), with Sweden (1735), with China (1732), with Persia (1732). G.). Improved means of transportation for merchant ships and caravans (in 1732 a merchant harbor was built in Kronstadt and a sea channel was dug near it); regulated caravan trade with China in 1731 and with Central Asia in 1739; regulations and "regulations" for maritime trade and customs fees were issued (1731, 1732 and 1737). But all this did not destroy smuggling and the government was forced to take strict measures against smugglers. So, from 1737, the "provers" of smuggling began to receive as a reward half of all the prohibited goods they discovered.

In addition to worries about industry and trade under Anna Ioannovna. the government took a number of measures for the external well-being of the people in general. The most important of them are the following: 1) Establishment of regular postal chase between Moscow and Tobolsk (1733) and more convenient postal communication between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt via Oranienbaum (1735); in 1740 it was ordered to establish correct postal communications between provincial, provincial and county cities; 2) in 1733, the police were organized in these cities, which under Peter the Great was only in two capitals; 3) in 1736 public begging was prohibited; 4) settlement of the steppe spaces, mainly in the southeast and south; in the first locality, the activities of VN Tatishchev and Kirillov stand out in this regard, in the founding of Orenburg and in a whole series of colonization measures in the so-called "Orenburg expedition"; in the second - Major General Tarakanov, who was in charge of the settlements of the landmilitsky regiments on the Ukrainian and Tsaritsyn lines.

As for the spiritual life of the Russian people, their religious, moral and mental development, in this respect government measures during the reign of Anna Ioannovna are insignificant. They fall into two categories: a) on religious matters and b) on the establishment of schools. The first category includes: the persecution of superstitions and schisms, the protection Orthodox religion and its distribution among the eastern and predominantly Volga region foreigners. For all these headings, the following orders are remarkable: the strict persecution of sorcerers and their death penalty by burning (1731); the resettlement of Little Russian border schismatics to distant inland provinces and the subordination of their monasteries to supervision; regarding the split of the Old Believers, the following measures were taken: firstly, polemical writings against them; secondly, exhortations by clerics, students of the well-known "interlocutor" with the Old Believers of the time of Peter the Great, Bishop Pitirim of Nizhny Novgorod (Abraamy near the Polish border and Andronik in Kostroma); thirdly, "revisions" and sometimes simply the ruin of their sketes: in 1735 the well-known Vetkovsky skete in the north of Russia was destroyed, and in 1736 the Starodub settlements bordering Poland were subjected to "revisions". All these measures, of course, led to completely opposite results: the split of the Old Believers intensified and spread more and more. In addition to the split, during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, one of the most famous religious and mystical sects in Russia took root - the so-called Khlystovism or "people of God", which is, as it were, the ancestor of subsequent such false teachings - eunuchs, Dukhobors and Molokans. Lutheran and Roman Catholic propaganda began to develop among the upper strata of the then Petersburg society, as a result of which, by a decree of 1735, all non-Orthodox Christians were granted complete freedom of confession, with the indispensable condition, however, not to spread these confessions among the Orthodox. In 1730, a law was confirmed on the adoption of Orthodoxy at a certain time by the Tatar Murzas in the Kazan province. and this law is extended to the Persians living within the Russian state; those of them who did not accept Orthodoxy were ordered to be expelled from Russia. However, it is forbidden, both Persians and captured Turks, to convert by force to Orthodoxy (decrees of 1734 and 1739). Treason to Orthodoxy was severely punished: in 1738, the death penalty was imposed for blasphemy, and in the same year Lieutenant Commander Voznitsyn was executed by the death of the fleet for converting to Judaism. In the spread of Orthodoxy among the Tatars and Finnish non-Russians of the Volga region, the activities of two Kazan archbishops from the South Russians, Illarion Rogalevsky (1732-1735) and Luka Kanashevich (1738-1755), as well as the archimandrite of the Bogoroditsky Sviyazhsky Monastery Dimitry Sechenov, later the famous Metropolitan of Novgorod (1757), stand out especially -1767). Among the Kalmyks in the Astrakhan diocese, Nikodim Lenkevich successfully preached Orthodoxy.

Above were the measures for the education of the nobility and soldiers' children; but this education was exclusively professional. Religious and moral education (and then on paper, and not in practice) was supposed only for the clergy. On the initiative of Feofan Prokopovich and thanks to the care of the diocesan bishops from the South Russians, in the reign of Anna Ioannovna, in addition to the schools founded under Peter the Great at the bishops' houses, Slavic-Latin schools were established, similar to the South Russian theological schools, called seminaries. But in them, the teachers taught poorly, and there were few students, and even those had to be forcibly driven into schools. Here is a list of 16 cities in which theological seminaries were opened during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, with the designation of the years in which they were opened: 1730 - Kholmogory; 1731 - Voronezh, Kolomna; 1732 - Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg; 1735 - Kazan, Pskov; 1735 - Vyatka; 1738 - Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tobolsk, Ustyug; 1739 - Vyazma, Tver, Rostov; 1740 - Suzdal, Novgorod. In the Kazan province, 4 schools were opened to teach the Russian language and the Orthodox dogma of the Volga non-Russians.

From schools for the clergy, a natural transition to the material and moral position of the clergy themselves in the reign of Anna Ioannovna. Monks, especially in remote provincial monasteries, were suspected of superstition and heresy and severely persecuted for this. Monastic and episcopal estates suffered penalties for arrears in state taxes and fees and were almost completely ruined. The position of the white clergy was even more deplorable. The clergy and the clergy were persecuted for "non-existence at the oath" during the accession of Anna Ioannovna, or for her late taking: they were attracted to the Secret Chancellery, beaten with whips, and recruited; and all churchmen (that is, children of clergy and clergymen who did not have a spiritual dignity), except for those studying in theological schools, were recorded in a capitation salary. From this, the ranks of the white clergy thinned out: by 1740 there were 600 churches without clergy.

The Secret Investigation Office, renewed in 1731, was entrusted to A. I. Ushakov, whose cruelty during interrogations earned him a reputation among his contemporaries as a ruthless "shoulder master". A branch of this office, under the name of the office, was opened in Moscow, under the general command of a relative of the Empress, S. A. Saltykov. Political processes were concentrated in the Secret Chancellery and its office, which at that time had a very loose definition. Under the "sovereign's word and deed" were summed up not only in reality carelessly spoken words, but also fictitious scammers and not only about the personality of the Empress and persons of the royal family, but also against persons close to the Court, especially foreigners, and misconduct of a purely official nature, which should be punishable by disciplinary measures (as, for example, inaccurate service by priests of prayers on royal days). In the Secret Chancellery and its office, not only high-ranking persons were attracted, like the princes Dolgoruky and Golitsyn, Volynskaya with his comrades and many bishops, but a mass of monks, white clergy, schismatics, officers, officials, soldiers, bourgeois, peasants. They tortured their consciousness sometimes in unprecedented guilt and, after merciless corporal punishment, exiled them to serf labor, to state-owned factories and to Siberia.

The political processes that filled the entire reign of Anna Ioannovna open with the persecution of influential persons who sought to limit the autocracy when the Empress was elected, or who hesitated to recognize her autocracy and, finally, did not recognize her rights to be the Russian Empress.

The disgrace befell, first of all, the princes Dolgoruky, supporters of the limitation of the autocratic power of Anna Ioannovna and who played the most influential role under Peter II; his tutor Prince Alexei Grigorievich, father of the bride of the young Emperor Peter II, Princess Catherine, and his favorite, Prince Ivan Alekseevich. In April 1730, Prince Alexei Grigoryevich Dolgorukoy was exiled to Berezov with his entire large family. His brothers, Princes Sergei and Ivan Grigoryevich Dolgoruky, and his sister Alexandra Grigorievna Saltykova also suffered. Prince Sergei and his entire family were exiled to his Kasimov patrimony; Prince Ivan - also to his remote village, and their sister is imprisoned in the Nizhny Novgorod Nativity Convent. Prince Vasily Lukich Dolgoruky, who traveled to Anna Ioannovna in Mitava, among the three "deputies", with the "conditions" of the V.T. Council, was first exiled to one of his distant villages, and then imprisoned in the Solovetsky Monastery. Nine years later, most of the named princes Dolgoruky tragically ended their lives. When it became known that many of them drew up a false spiritual testament on behalf of the dying Peter II on the appointment of his successor to his bride, Princess Catherine, then all participants in the preparation of this spiritual testament were subjected to fierce punishment: in the end of 1739, the princes Dolgoruky were executed by death in Novgorod: Ivan Alekseevich, Sergei and Ivan Grigorievich and Vasily Lukich; (father of the favorite, Prince Alexei Grigorievich, died in Berezov shortly after being exiled there). Field Marshal Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky and his brother Mikhail Vladimirovich fell into disgrace a little later. Mikhail Vladimirovich in 1730 was appointed governor of Astrakhan, but before he had time to go to his destination, he was exiled to live in his Borovskaya village. His older brother, the field marshal, as a man very popular among the troops, was afraid to touch, and only at the end of 1731 did they find fault with some of his careless conversations that he had in an intimate circle about the Empress and her German government, which was beginning to come into force. He was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress, and after 6 years he was transferred to Ivangorod (near Narva); in 1739, during the execution of the princes Dolgoruky in Novgorod, he was subjected to more difficult imprisonment in the Solovetsky Monastery, where he stayed until the accession of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

The Golitsyn princes during the reign of Peter II did not come forward like the Dolgoruky princes, and although the eldest of them, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn, was the initiator of limiting the power of Anna Ioannovna, he played too prominent a role among the then Moscow nobility for the people surrounding the Empress to decided to lay hands on him soon. A convenient pretext for this turned up only in 1736 in the form of a civil trial of the son-in-law of Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn - Prince K.D. Cantemir. Prince D. M. Golitsyn was implicated in this process, accused not only of official abuse, but also of the intention to "overthrow" the state and divine "law", and was imprisoned in 1737 in the Shlisselburg fortress, where he died a few months later. The following also suffered in this case: his brother, Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich the lesser Golitsyn, one of the three deputies sent to Anna Ioannovna in Mitava with the "conditions" of the B.T. Council, the son of Prince D.M. Golitsyn, Prince Alexei Dmitrievich, and nephew Prince Peter Mikhailovich Golitsyn. The first of them was appointed to serve as an ensign in the Kizlyar garrison, the second was exiled to Taurov, to build courts, and the last was appointed "steward" in the remote Siberian town of Narym.

But the largest of the political trials of the reign of Anna-Ioannovna was the trial of the Chief Jägermeister and Cabinet Minister A.P. Volynsky, who was executed in 1740, a few months before the death of the Empress, along with his two "confidants" - Eropkin and Khrushchev. Two other supporters of Volynsky - Soimonov and Count P.I. Musin-Pushkin - were punished corporally and exiled to Siberia and the Solovetsky Monastery. Volynskaya and the people of his circle were not guilty of striving to limit the power of Anna Ioannovna during her accession, but were convicted of systematically "slandering" her foreign government, for harsh comments about the Empress herself and for drawing up political projects aimed at changing the state administration in Russia. The Volynsky trial made a lot of noise both among contemporaries and in posterity, firstly, because its victims were educated and high-ranking Russian people, whose political dreams were based on hatred for the German rulers; secondly, because the execution of these Russian people took place almost unexpectedly, in front of everyone, in St. Petersburg, and was not prepared by their preliminary exile, like the princes Dolgoruky, who were executed far from the capital.

Behind the Russian dignitaries, a number of bishops who were in unfriendly relations with Feofan Prokopovich fell into disgrace. Their official accusations were: non-recognition of the autocracy of Anna Ioannovna, sympathy for the leaders, Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna, her nephew Holstein Prince Peter Ulrich, for the first wife of Peter the Great Evdokia Lopukhina, who was still alive in 1730, in a polemic against the Protestants, finally, just heresy. So, from 1730 to 1736, the following bishops were brought to the wanted list, stripped and exiled to imprisonment: Voronezh - Lev Yurlov, Rostov - Georgy Dashkov, Kolomna - Ignatius Smola, Kyiv - Varlaam Vonatovich, Kazan - Sylvester Kholmsky, Tver - Feofilakt Lopatinsky. After 1736, three more bishops lost their chairs: Dositheus - Kursk, Hilarion - Chernigov, Varlaam - Pskov.

In 1734, the Secret Chancellery considered the case of the Smolensk governor, Prince Cherkassky, who sympathized with the Holstein prince Peter Ulrich, whom he considered the legitimate heir to the Russian throne, and who wanted to transfer the Smolensk province under his protectorate. Prince Cherkassky was exiled to Siberia. In 1738, the government of Anna Ioannovna was very alarmed by the phenomenon, which turned into new Rus' from the 17th century and disturbed the Russian land throughout the eighteenth century. We understand self-proclaiming. In 1738, an impostor, a certain Ivan Minitsky, appeared in Little Russia, posing as Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. He was given royal honors in the villages by several Cossacks, burghers and soldiers, and especially the priest Gavrila Mogilo. Minitsky and Mogilo were impaled.

Sympathy for the house of Peter the Great was expressed not only in individual sympathies for his grandson, the Holstein prince, and in the memory of his son, Tsarevich Alexei, but also in the wide popularity enjoyed by the clergy, lower classes and soldiers - the daughter of Peter the Great, Tsarevich Elizabeth Petrovna, who lived far from the Court and loved to have fun with people close to her, especially in her Pokrovsky village near Moscow. It was dangerous to officially persecute Elizaveta Petrovna, and therefore a secret, but very active supervision was established over her. Concern about strengthening her line on the Russian throne, the offspring of Tsar John Alekseevich, presented Anna Ioannovna with utter difficulties. In addition to the sympathies mentioned above, different classes society to the "first Emperor" and his relatives, Anna Ioannovna in this matter had to fight, so to speak, with actual obstacles. Already after declaring herself an autocratic Empress, the question of succession to the throne naturally began to concern her. Personally, she refused marriage, and a new search for her hand by Moritz of Saxony, and then the proposal of the Portuguese Infante Emmanuel, was rejected by Anna Ioannovna. The Empress, on the advice of Osterman and Reingold Levenwolde, decided to strengthen the legacy of the Russian throne in the offspring of her niece, the daughter of the Duchess of Mecklenburg Ekaterina Ioannovna, Anna Leopoldovna, who, during the accession of Anna Ioannovna, was a little 11 years old. Keeping this intention a secret, on December 17, 1731, she published a manifesto on the taking of a nationwide oath of allegiance to the Heir to the Russian throne, whom she would appoint, without indicating the name, and at the same time began to fuss about finding a suitable groom for her niece. These searches went on for two years, and, finally, the choice of the Empress settled on Prince Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the nephew (by wife) of the German Emperor Charles VI. At the beginning of 1733, he arrived in St. Petersburg, but was married to his bride only six years later. All this time, Anna Leopoldovna was being prepared for the fate that awaited her: they instructed in the truths of the Orthodox religion, taught the French language and court ritual. Neither the Empress nor the bride liked the groom, however, for political reasons, the marriage was approved in principle and the wedding took place in St. Petersburg on July 3, 1739. On August 12, 1740, Anna Leopoldovna's son was born - Ioann Antonovich, who was declared heir to the Russian throne.

The foreign policy of Empress Anna Ioannovna, determined by the alliance of the St. Petersburg Cabinet with the German Emperor Charles VI (according to the treatise of 1726), put forward, mainly, four questions out of which two were essential in the general historical development of Russia, while others two- currently having no significance - at that time, especially from the point of view of the German rulers, perhaps they seemed much more important than the first two. The first two questions are Polish and Oriental; second two - Holstein and Courland.

France since the time of Peter the Great has been unfriendly to Russia for the reasons indicated above. “For an alliance with Russia,” says Vandal, one of the modern French historians, “we had to renounce our oldest traditions. There are diplomatic traditions, as well as military traditions, which are equally unsuitable; the alliance of France during almost the entire eighteenth century. with Turkey , Sweden and Poland can rightly be considered among such diplomatic legends. The territorial growth of Russia could naturally occur only to the detriment of the territory of these three states, and only by renouncing patronage to them, allowing them to gradually descend to vassal relations to the Tsar, could France hope to win the sympathy of Russia, to earn her gratitude, to create traditions of rapprochement between her and us, to oppose in our allied combinations a young but powerful monarchy to the old European states. But such a point of view could not be understood either in the first or in the second half of the 18th century. neither the French Bourbons, nor the then Russian diplomats.

On February 1, 1733, the Polish King August II died, and an official interregnum began in the "Galakhetian Republic" to elect a successor to him. As before, from the very beginning of the royal electoral regime in Poland, strong continental states, most interested in the question of who should take the Piast throne, began to present their candidates for kings to the Sejm; there were three such states: Russia, the German Empire and France; in addition, a national party was formed, with Teodor Potocki at the head, which voted for the king from among the Poles. Russia, united with the Vienna Court, stood for their common candidate, the son of the deceased king, Elector of Saxony Augustus, France - for Stanislav Leshchinsky, who was also supported by the Primate of the Kingdom of Poland. Leshchinsky himself arrived in Warsaw and was elected king of Poland by a huge majority of the Sejm on September 9, 1733. Saxony and Russian troops drove Leshchinsky to Danzig and under their protection August Saxony was elected king of Poland on October 5 and was crowned, taking the name of Augustus III. Danzig was besieged and bombarded by Russian troops, first under the command of Lassi, then Minich, and, despite a courageous four-month defense, had to open the gates to the winner (June 30, 1734). The French detachment sent by Louis XV to help his father-in-law was taken prisoner, the city of Danzig paid us an indemnity of one million chervonets and had to send a deputation to Anna Ioannovna to ask for forgiveness in the "mutiny". Captured French officers were sent to her, to whom she generously returned freedom, and Stanislav Leshchinsky managed to escape from Danzig, during his siege, dressed in a peasant dress. The failures of Stanislav Leshchinsky dragged the German emperor into a war with Louis XV, who stood up for his father-in-law. This war, which lasted from October 11, 1733 to July 1735, cost Charles VI dearly, whose troops were defeated everywhere by the French and their allies, despite the fact that the commander-in-chief of the imperial troops was the well-known commander Prince Eugene of Savoy in the 18th century. Empress Anna Ioannovna sent Charles VI an auxiliary corps under the general command of General Lassi (in June 1735), but this help came too late. Russian troops reached the Rhine at a time when the court of Versailles expressed a desire to reconcile. Louis XV recognized August III as the Polish king, and Charles VI ceded Lorraine to Stanislav Leshchinsky for life, so that this area after his death would be annexed to France. The final peace between the German Empire and the French was concluded in Vienna in 1738.

The Courland question, so close to the heart of Anna Ioannovna in her fate before accession, was in direct connection with the resolution of the Polish question. The Elector of Saxony Stanislav August, in order to win over the Russian Empress, by the "secret article" on September 30, 1733, undertook, upon the termination of the Ketler dynasty in Courland, to hand over the ducal Courland crown to Chief Chamberlain E. I. Biron. In 1737 the last Ketler, Ferdinand Duke of Courland, died; Biron, with the help of Russian troops, was elected Duke of Courland and Semigalle and recognized in this dignity by the King of Poland and the German Emperor.

The Holstein question was over even earlier. Deciding to approve the offspring of her niece, Anna Leopoldovna, Princess of Mecklenburg, on the Russian imperial throne, Anna Ioannovna hurried to take measures to remove Peter the Great's grandson, Prince Peter Ulrich of Holstein (later who occupied the Russian imperial throne with the name of Peter III). In 1732, on May 26, through the mediation of the German Emperor Charles VI, a convention was concluded with Denmark, according to which this power was obliged to pay the Duke of Holstein for part of the possessions taken from him by Denmark back in the Northern War - a million Reichsthaler, with the fact that if within two years he does not accept this amount, consider the controversial case for Schleswig ended in favor of Denmark; at the same time, Anna Ioannovna and Charles VI concluded a defensive treaty with the Danish king, which ensured the integrity and inviolability of Danish possessions.

The Eastern question was resolved very unsuccessfully under Anna Ioannovna. It was determined at that time by our relations to the strengthening of Russian power over the two southern seas: the Caspian and the Black, and naturally we were faced with two strong Eastern powers of that time - Persia and Turkey. Having suffered setbacks regarding the Black Sea, at the beginning of his reign, in the campaigns of Azov, and in the Prut campaign of 1711, Peter the Great at the end of his reign directed all his attention to the Caspian Sea, and at the end of 1723, albeit with great difficulty, took Persian provinces on the southern and western Caspian coasts. Maintaining Russian power in these provinces after Peter the Great was very unprofitable: the loss of a large number of people and money depressed the governments of Catherine I and the Supreme Privy Council under Peter II. The government of Anna Ioannovna did not have the strength to fight the formidable Nadir, who became the first commander of the weak Shah Tamasin. Peace was concluded with Persia in 1732 in Ryashcha, according to which Russia renounced all the conquests of Peter the Great.

Hostile attitudes towards Turkey began in 1735 with the unsuccessful autumn expedition of General Leontiev to the Crimea, as a result of the Crimean raids on the southern Russian outskirts. The lack of provisions and the resulting illnesses in the army forced him to retreat to Little Russia for winter quarters. In 1736, hostilities began against Turkey. In June 1736, two Russian armies, under the command of Count Munnich and Lassi, headed for the Black Sea. The first took Perekop, penetrated into the Crimea and devastated its western part to the very capital of the Khan - Bakhchisarai; the second took possession of Azov; Kinburn surrendered to General Leontiev; but the Russian troops could not spend the winter in the areas they occupied, due to the lack of food for the troops, and were forced to return to Russia. Meanwhile, the Crimean Khan recovered from the defeats inflicted on him, and the Turkish Sultan managed to make peace with Persia, with which Turkey had been at war since 1730. The summer campaigns of Minich and Lassi in the following 1737 were carried out with the help of imperial troops. The actions of the Russians were still successful. Lassi, having penetrated into the Crimea, devastated its eastern half, and Minich took Ochakov by storm. The generals of Charles VI, on the contrary, were defeated by the Turks in Serbia, Bosnia and Wallachia; The Turks laid siege to Belgrade, which at that time belonged to the German emperor. At the initiative of Charles VI, peace negotiations were opened with the Turks with the participation of Russian representatives in Nemirov, but did not lead to any positive results; in 1738, Charles VI again asked for peace, turning to the mediation of his recent enemy - the French king Louis XV, despite new Russian victories: on August 17, 1739, Minich won a brilliant victory over the Turkish vizier at Stavuchany, near Khotyn, who without shot was occupied by Russian troops. The vizier fled to the Danube, and Moldova recognized Russian power over itself. The peace treaty in Belgrade was signed a few days after the Stavucani victory - on September 1, 1739, the German emperor gave Turkey the parts of Wallachia and Serbia that belonged to him, with Belgrade and Orsova; Russia returned Ochakov and Khotin to Turkey, pledged not to threaten the Crimean Khan, received the right to send its goods to Constantinople, but only on Turkish ships; the sultan ceded to Russia the steppe between the Bug and the Donets and undertook to tear down the fortifications of Azov, recognized as belonging neither to Russia nor Turkey. This is how Russia was rewarded for the war, which cost her 100,000 soldiers and millions of money, which, however, did not prevent Anna Ioannovna from celebrating the peace of Belgrade in St. Petersburg on February 14, 1740. a whole series of celebrations and service awards to Munnich, Lassi and other generals and "Messrs. Ministers".

Since the peace talks with Turkey, with the mediation of France, Russia's relations with the latter have begun to improve. Following the Peace of Belgrade, a French envoy was appointed to the Petersburg Court. It was the Marquis de la Chétardie, who soon took such an active part in the accession of Elizabeth Petrovna; the Russian envoy, the famous satirist Prince Antioch Cantemir, went to the Court of Versailles.

On October 17, 1740, Anna Ioannovna died, leaving the Russian imperial throne to the two-month-old baby John Antonovich, under the regency of the Duke of Courland E. I. Biron.

The most important published sources are:

1) Letters from Russian sovereigns and friend. persons of the royal family, ed. Print commissions. State. gram. and agreements, book. IV, M. 1862. Correspondence of the Duchess of Courland Anna Ioannovna.

2) Correspondence Imp. Anna Ioannovna with S. A. Saltykov (1732-1740), on Thursday. Moscow total ist. and others grew up. 1878, book. I.

3) Full Sobr. Zach., vol. VII-XI.

4) Description commanded, guardian in the archives of the Government. Senate, comp. P. I. Baranov, vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1875

5) Management of the All-Russian. empire during the former V. T. S., a set of his protocols, publ. decrees and other sources., Compiled. A. F. Malinovsky, printed. on Thu. Moscow total ist. et al. ros., 1858, book. II.

6) The legend of Feofan Prokopovich "about the death of Peter II and the accession to the throne of Anna Ioannovna." Baked according to the faulty list A. V. Tereshchenko, S. Otech. 1837, part CLXXXIV et seq., in the same year; best ed. D. I. Yazykova, in App. to "Notes of the Duke of Lyria and Berwick", St. Petersburg. 1845

7) Notes of X. G. Manstein. Written in French after 1745 Editions in French. lang., with alterations. Best translations: English, London 1770; German, Leipzig 1771, Russian, editions of "Russian. Star.", St. Petersburg. 1875

8) Count B. X. Minich (Field Marshal): "Ebauche pour donner une idée de la forme du gouvernement de l" empire de Russie ", Copen. 1774; Russian translation of E. P. Karnovich:" Notes of V. X . Minikha", St. Petersburg, 1874; another translation in "Rus. Old." 1874, vol. IX.

9-10) Notes of Count Ern. Minich (son of a field marshal), ed. in Russian translation. SPb. 1817 - Best ed. M. I. Semevsky. SPb. 1890 His own: "Notes on Manstein's Notes", the best edition of "Rus. Star." 1879, vol. XXVI (Historical and critical study of them by A. Ya. Jurgenson, ibid. 1887, vol. LIV).

11) "On the damage to morals in Russia", notes of the book. M. M. Shcherbatova (written at the end of the 18th century); best ed. "Rus. St.", 1871, vol. II and III.

12) Notes of the book. A. I. Shakhovsky, the best ed. "Rus. Star.", St. Petersburg. 1872

13) Letters from Lady Rondo, wife of English. ambassador, ed. ed. S. N. Shubinsky, St. Petersburg. 1874 Another translation, "Rus. Star." 1873, vol. VIII. Explanations to them G. Fr. Miller, ibid, 1878, vol. XXI.

14) Lettres Moscovites, attribution. Italian Locatelli. Ed. anonymous, Paris 1736. (A lot of interesting information about the situation of foreigners in the kingdom of Anna Ioannovna and the state of various branches of public administration).

The reports of foreign ambassadors to their courts are placed:

15) English. and French, in an extract from Raumer's collection "Beiträge zur neuern Geschichte". Leipzig. 1836-1839 (5 ​​volumes), and from there in the collection "La cour de Russie 11 y a cent ans (1725-1783), Leipzig, 1st ed. 1858, 3rd ed. 1860.

16) in the "Sborn. Imperial Russian. East. General." - Saxon ambassadors of Lefort, c. Linar, Petzold and Zoom (vol. III, V, VI and XX) and the Prussian Mardefeld (vol. XV).

17) Characteristics diff. important Russian ranks reign of Anna Ioannovna of the English resident of Kl. Rondo, in "Thurs. Moscow. General. ist. and others grew up." 1861, book. II.

18) Reports of the French residents: Magnan and de Bussy, in the appendix to the book by H. I. Turgenev "La Russie et les Russes", ed. de Bruxelles, 1847, v. III and in Russian translation in the 1st vol. Pam. new Russian ist., ed. Kashpirev, vol. I. - Marquis de la Shetardie in Russia, acad. P. P. Pekarsky, St. Petersburg. 1862 - "Collection of the Imperial Russian Historian, General", vols. 86, 91 and 96. - Instructions to the French ambassadors at the Russian Court from 1726 to 1742, in official. collection, ed. French Ministry of Foreign Affairs cases "Recueils des iustructions données aux ambassadeurs et ministres de France etc", t. VIII, Paris. 1890. (Relations with Russia edited by Prof. Rambaud).

19) Reports, diary and characteristics are important. persons of the reign of Peter II and Anna Ioannovna of the Spanish ambassador Duke de Liria, in the collection of Bartenev, XVIII century, book. II and III (translated from the Spanish priest K. L. Kustodiev) and in the edition of the Notes of Duke de Liria, in "S. Ot." 1839 and sec. ed. D. I. Yazykov, St. Petersburg, 1845. The latest edition is an incorrect translation, with an arbitrary title, of de Liria's diary. Extracts from the diary and characteristics with corrections of errors in the translation of Yazykov in "Rus. Star." 1873 vol. VIII.

20) Danish ambassador Westfalen (1730) in app. to the monograph by D. A. Korsakov "The Accession of the Empress Anna Ioannovna.

21) B.v. Wichmann, Chronologische Uebersicht der Russischen Geschichte von der Gebnrt Peters des Grossen, Leipz., 1821, I-er Bd., 2-er Fh. (All sources are indicated, from where borrowed information, both Russian and foreign).

In addition, there are many private sources on individual episodes from the life of Anna Ioannovna in the following historical collections and periodicals: 1) Büsching "a," Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie ", Hamb. and Halle, 1767-1788, 22 volumes; 2) Readings of the Moscow General History and other Russians, starting from 1861; 3) Russian Archive, published by P. I. Bartenev; 4) "Russian Antiquity", published by M. I. Semevsky; 5 ) Ancient and New Russia, published by V. I. Gratsiansky (1875-1880); 6) Historical Vestn., edited by S. N. Shubinsky (1880-1890); P. Pogodin, dated 1859; 8) Memorable New Russian History, published by Kashpirev, 1870-1872, 3 volumes (part of the articles in this collection were published under the name "Russian History Collection" by Mikhailov 9) Collection of the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academician of Sciences, vol. IX, St. Petersburg, 1872 (Papers by K. Ya. Arseniev, published by Academician Pekarsky).

Monographs and studies.

І. Overview of the reign of Anna Ioannovna in general. In Russian: 1) Weidemeier. Overview of the main incidents from the death of Peter the Great to the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna. SPb., 1st ed. 1834; 4th ed. 1848 (Compilation, main arr. based on foreign sources, and due to their inaccessibility, which was important for its time). - 2) S. M. Solovyov, History of Russia from ancient times. times, t.t. XIX - XX (a lot of new archival material). - 3) N. I. Kostomarov, Imper. Anna Ioannovna and her reign (with many drawings). "Nov", magazine. ed. Wolf, 1885, vols. III and IV (of a compilation nature, but vividly written.). This monograph was also published in the last volume of the novel. editions of "Russian. History in the biographies of its main figures" Kostomarov, ed. 1888 St. Petersburg. In foreign languages: 4) Geschichte und Thaaten der jüngstverstorbenen Kais. Anna, I. Petersb. 1741 (it matters as an expression of the view of contemporaries of the Germans on Anna Ioannovna: this is a panegyric to her and Biron). - 5) Schmidt-Fiseldeck. Materialien zu der Russischen Gesch. Seit dem Tode Kais. Peter des Grossen, Riga, 1777-1784. 2 volumes. (There are data that are not found in the above sources and a lot of Russian archive materials). - 6) J. B. Bartold, "Anna Ioannowna", monograph, comp. on the basis foreign sources and monographs, in the 1st volume of Romer's collection "Historisch. Taschenbuch", 1836, Bd. I.-7) Hermann, Geschichte des Russischen Staates. bd. IV, Hamburg. 1849. (The best written in German about Anna Ioannovie). Russian translation in the "Russian Archive" 1806 - 8) Mémoires du prince Pierre Dolgoroukow, Genève, 1867, t. 1. (These are not notes by Prince P.V. Dolgoruky, a Russian emigrant, publicist and historian writer, but a collection of information from various sources and monographs, Russian and foreign, as well as from oral traditions, about events in the life of the most noble Russian families for the first half of the 18th century, the time of Anna Ioannovna is given a lot of space here).

II. The life of Anna Ioannovna before her accession to the throne. 9) M. I. Semevsky. Queen Praskovya, dep. ed. SPb. 1883 - 10) P. K. Schebalsky. Moritz of Saxony and Prince. Menshikov, "Rus. Vest." 1860 vol. XXI. - 11) E. P. Karnovich. Intervention of Russian politics in the election of Moritz of Saxony as the Duke of Courland. Dr. and Nov.. Russia 1875 III. - 12) Saint Rene Tallandier "Maurice de Saxe". 2nd edit., Paris. 1870. - 13) P. I. Baranov "The Empress Anna Iv. before her accession to the throne in her letters", "Russian Star." 1884, vol. XLIV.

III. Accession of Anna Ioannovna: 14) P. K. Shchebalsky. "Ascension to the Throne of Emperor Anna Ioannovna", "Rus. West." 1858, vol. XIX. - 15) S. M. Solovyov. "Chicks of Peter V.", "Rus. Vest." 1861, vol. XXXIII. - 16) N. A. Popov, "Tatishchev and his time", M. 1861 (2nd chapter). - 17) I. N. Shishkin. "Ascension to the Throne of Anna Ioannovna", "Northern Lights" 1862, No. 8. - 18) Anonymous "Russian leaders of the last century", "Vestn. Evr." 1870, No. 2. - 19) E. P. Karnovich "The plans of the leaders and petitioners in 1730", "Father. Zap." 1872, vol. СХІХ, book. 1 and 2. - 20) D. A. Korsakov "The Accession of the Emperor. Anna Ioannovna", Uchen. Zap. Kaz. Univ. 1880 (app.) in sec. ed. Kazan, 1880 (verification of previous research on archival materials).

IV. The personal character of Anna Ioannovna, her domestic life and the direction of the government of her time: 21) S. N. Shubinsky "Imp. Anna Ioannovna, court life and fun", "Rus. St." 1873, vol. VII; also in his Historical Essays and Stories. SPb. 1869 - 22) "New authentic features from the private life of the Emperor Anna", R. Arch. 1873 - 23) "The palace economy of Anna Ioannovna", "R. St." 1882, vol. XXXVI. - 24) E. P. Karnovich, "The Significance of Bironism in Russian History", "Ot. Zap." 1873, Nos. 10 and 11. - 25) "Petersburg in 1740", "Ot. Zap." 1858, No. 5.

v. Questions Polish and Oriental: 26) V. I. Guerrier, Struggle for the Polish Throne, M. 1862. - 27) Encyclopedia of Military Sciences, ed. ed. generator Leer (articles relating to the military actions of the Polish and Turkish wars and the biography of Feldm. Minich, Lassi and other generals of the reign of Anna John.) - 28) I. N. Kushnerev, "Russian military force", comp. a group of officers Gen. headquarters in Moscow, no. VII, M. 1890. - 29) N. I. Kostomarov, biography of B. Kh. Minich, in Vestn. Evr. 1884 Aug. and Sept. - 30) Gen. Maslovsky, "Attack of Gdansk by Minich", dep. ed.

VI. Church matters: 31) Chistovich, "Feofan Prokopovich and his time", St. Petersburg. 1868. - 32) P. V. Znamensky, "Russian parish clergy since the reform of Peter the Great", Kazan, 1873. - 33) His own, "Theological schools in Russia". Kazan, 1878

In addition, for the mentioned individual figures of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, see references to sources and manuals in their biographies of this dictionary.

D. Korsakov.

(Polovtsov)

Anna Ioannovna

Empress of All Russia; genus. January 28, 1693, crowned April 28, 1730, † October 17, 1740 - The second daughter of Tsar John Alekseevich and Tsarina Praskovia Fedorovna (born Saltykova), A. I. grew up under rather unfavorable conditions of a difficult family situation. Weak and poor in spirit, Tsar John did not matter in the family, and Tsarina Praskovya did not love her daughter. It is therefore natural that Princess A. did not receive a good upbringing that could develop her natural talents. Her teachers were Diedrich Osterman (brother of the Vice-Chancellor) and Ramburch, the "dance master". The results of such training were negligible: A.I. acquired some knowledge of the German language, and from the dance master she could learn "bodily splendor and compliments in the rank of German and French," but she wrote poorly and illiterate in Russian. Until the age of seventeen, A.I. spent most of her time in the village of Izmailovo, Moscow or St. Petersburg under the supervision of aunt Catherine and uncle Peter the Great, who, however, did not bother to correct the shortcomings of her upbringing and, due to political calculations, married her to the Duke of Courland Frederick Wilhelm in the autumn of 1710. But soon after the noisy wedding, celebrated with various celebrations and "curiosities", on January 9, 1711, the duke fell ill and died. Since then AI has spent 19 years in Courland. Still young, but widowed, the duchess lived here not a particularly cheerful life; she needed material resources and was put in a rather delicate position among foreigners in a country "which was a constant bone of contention between powerful neighbors - Russia, Sweden, Prussia and Poland." With the death of Friedrich Wilhelm and after a quarrel between his successor Ferdinand and the knighthood of Courland, the pretenders to the Duchy of Courland were Prince. And D. Menshikov and Moritz of Saxony (bad son of King August II). Moritz even pretended to be in love with A.I.; but his plans were thwarted thanks to the intervention of the Petersburg cabinet. During her stay in Courland, A.I. lived mainly in Mitava. Having become close (about 1727) with E. I. Biron and surrounded by a small staff of courtiers, among whom Pyotr Mikhailovich Bestuzhev and his sons, Mikhail and Alexei, were of particular importance, she was in peaceful relations with the Courland nobility, although she did not break ties with Russia, where she traveled occasionally, for example, in 1728 to the coronation of Peter II, whose sudden death (March 19, 1730) changed the fate of the duchess. The old nobility wanted to take advantage of the untimely death of Pyotr Alekseevich for the implementation of their political claims. In the meeting of the Supreme Privy Council on March 19, 1730, at the suggestion of Prince. D. M. Golitsyn, it was decided to bypass the grandson of Peter Vel. and his daughter. A.I. was elected to the throne, and with the proposal for this election, under the condition of limiting power, they were immediately sent to Mitava, Prince. V. L. Dolgoruky, Prince. M. M. Golitsyn and Gen. Leontiev. The duchess signed the "conditions" presented to her and, therefore, decided, without the consent of the Supreme Privy Council, which consisted of 8 "persons", not to start a war with anyone and not to conclude peace, not to burden loyal subjects with any new taxes and not to use state revenues for expenditure. , not to promote both Russians and foreigners to the court ranks, not to favor anyone in noble ranks, both in civilian and military, land and sea "above the colonel's rank", finally, among the gentry "belly, estate and honor" without do not take away the court. In case of violation of these conditions, the empress was deprived of the Russian crown. Upon her arrival in Moscow, however, the empress showed no particular desire to comply with the terms she had signed. In the capital, she found a whole party (Count Golovkin, Osterman), who were ready to oppose the oligarchic aspirations of the leaders and, perhaps, knew that the officers of the guard regiments and the petty gentry, who had come to the proposed wedding of Emperor Peter II, were gathering in the houses of the princes Trubetskoy, Baryatinsky, Cherkassky and clearly express their dissatisfaction with the "lust for power" of the Supreme Privy Council. These princes, together with many nobles, were admitted to the palace and persuaded the empress to convene the Council and the Senate. At this solemn meeting on February 25, 1730, Prince. Cherkassky filed a petition from the gentry, which was read aloud by V. N. Tatishchev and in which he asked the empress to discuss the conditions and gentry projects elected from the generals and the gentry. The empress signed the petition, but expressed her desire that the gentry immediately discuss the petition submitted to her. After a short discussion, Prince Trubetskoy, on behalf of the entire nobility, gave the Empress an address, which was compiled and read by Prince. Antioch Cantemir. In the address, the nobility asked the empress to accept "autocracy", prudently rule the state in justice and in easing taxes, destroy the Supreme Council and elevate the importance of the Senate, and also grant the right to the gentry to become members of the Senate "for fallen places", to elect presidents and governors "by balloting" . The empress willingly agreed to accept autocracy and on the same day (February 25) tore up the "conditions" she had signed shortly before. So the political idea of ​​the old Moscow nobility collapsed. The princes Dolgoruky were exiled to their villages or to Siberia, and soon after some of them were executed. The Golitsyn princes suffered less: "at first, none of them was sent into exile; they were only removed from the Court and from the most important state affairs, however, they were entrusted with the rule of the Siberian provinces."

AI was 37 years old when she became the autocratic Empress of All Russia. Gifted with a sensitive heart and a natural mind, she, like her father, was deprived, however, of a strong will, and therefore easily put up with the leading role played by her favorite E. I. Biron at court and in government. Like her grandfather (Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich), she willingly talked with the monks, loved church splendor, but, on the other hand, she was passionately fond of shooting at a target, kennels, persecution and menageries. The old Moscow palace rank could no longer satisfy the new needs of court life in the 18th century. Extraordinary luxury often put up with bad taste and poorly covered dirt; Western European dress and secular politeness did not always smooth out the natural roughness of morals, which was so sharply reflected in the nature of court entertainment of that time. The Empress provided her patronage to saints and hangers-on, kept various jesters at court (Prince Volkonsky, Prince Golitsyn, Apraksin, Balakirev, Kosta, Pedrillo), arranged "mashkerades" and curious processions; of these, the most famous are those that took place on the occasion of the marriage of the jester Prince. Golitsyn and the construction of an ice house at the end of the winter of 1739. Thus, the court life of that time was no longer regulated by the strict and boring ritual of the Moscow tower, but it was not yet accustomed to the refined forms of Western European court life.

Upon accepting autocracy, the empress hastened to destroy the institution, which revealed a desire to limit her supreme power. The Supreme Council in 1731 was replaced by the Cabinet, however, equal in importance to it. The Cabinet, in essence, managed all affairs, although it sometimes acted in a mixed composition with the Senate. The latter became more important than before, divided into 5 departments (ecclesiastical, military, financial, judicial and commercial), but decided matters at general meetings. An attempt was also made (by decree of June 1, 1730) to attract "kind and knowledgeable people"from the nobility, clergy and merchants to draw up a new Code. But on the occasion of the failure of the majority of the elected to the deadline (September 1), this matter was entrusted by a decree on December 10, 1730 to the conduct of a special commission that worked on the compilation of the patrimonial and judicial chapters of the Code until 1744. Thus, the requests made by the nobility on February 25, 1730, remained far from being fulfilled.Nevertheless, there were changes in his position of a political and economic nature, changes due to which his official significance also changed significantly. These changes were caused, with on the one hand, in addition to the government, by the participation that the nobility took in palace coups from the death of the Converter, on the other hand, by the desire of the government itself to alleviate the strong tension that the national economy had been in since the time of Peter. Under the influence of these reasons, military service was facilitated. 1736, one of the gentry's sons is allowed, "to whom the father pleases, to leave staying at home to save money"; however, this son had to be taught to read and at least arithmetic in order to be fit for civil service. The salary of those of the gentry children who were sent to serve, since January 1732, was compared with the salary of foreigners, and by the manifesto of December 31, their service itself is limited to a 25-year period, considering it valid from the age of 20. Along with facilitating service, the privileges of landowners have been increased. By a decree of March 17, 1731, the law on single inheritance (majorate) was repealed, estates were finally equated with estates, the order of inheritance of spouses was determined, and the widow received 1/7 of the immovable and 1/4 of the movable property of the late husband, even if she entered into 2 th marriage. Military service was difficult not only for the nobles, but also for the peasants, who hired recruits for a lot of money (an average of 150 rubles for each). In 1732, Minich proposed to collect recruits for 15-30 years by lot from peasant families where there is more than one son or brother, and issue assurance letters to recruits that if he serves 10 years as a private and does not receive a promotion, he can go to resignation.

But if in the internal activities of the government quite significant deviations from the views of Peter are noticeable, then in relations with Little Russia and in foreign policy, on the contrary, it sought to fulfill Peter's plans. True, the government abandoned the idea of ​​establishing itself on the shores of the Caspian Sea and at the beginning of 1732 returned to Persia the regions conquered from it by Peter. But in Little Russia, after the death of the hetman Apostle in 1734, a new hetman was not appointed, but a "board of the hetman's order" was established, consisting of 6 "persons", three Great Russians and three Little Russians, who, under the supervision of the Senate, but "in a special office" ruled Little Russia. In relations with Poland and Turkey, the old principles of Petrine policy also continued to operate. After the death of Augustus II, Russia, in alliance with Austria, sought to install his son Augustus III on the Polish throne, who promised to promote Russian views of Courland and Livonia. But Stanislav Leshchinsky continued to express his claims to the Polish throne, and the marriage of his daughter Maria to Louis XV strengthened the influence of his party. Then the Polish party, which sympathized with the election of Augustus, itself appealed to the empress for help, who was not slow to take advantage of this opportunity. Following the appearance of twenty thousand Russian troops under the command of Count Lassi in Lithuania, Augustus was elected (September 24, 1733). Stanislav Leshchinsky fled to Danzig. Lassi also arrived here, but the siege of the city went well only with the arrival of Munnich (March 5), and with the advent of the Russian fleet (June 28, 1734), the city surrendered and Leshchinsky was forced to flee. The siege of Danzig lasted 135 days and cost the Russian troops more than 8,000 people, and a million chervonets of indemnity was taken from the city. But Russian forces were not so much needed in the northwest as in the southeast. Peter the Great could not recall the Treaty of Prut without vexation and, apparently, intended to start a new war with Turkey; in several strategic points of southern Ukraine, he prepared a significant amount different kind military supplies (flour, soldiers' clothes and weapons), which, when reviewed by the inspector general Keith in 1732, however, turned out to be almost all rotten and deteriorated. The immediate reason for declaring war was the raids of the Tatars on the Ukraine. The government took advantage of the time when the Turkish Sultan was busy with a difficult war with Persia and when the Crimean Khan was away with selected troops in Dagestan, to open hostilities. Nevertheless, the first expedition of General Leontiev to the Crimea with a detachment of twenty thousand was unsuccessful (in October 1735). Leontiev lost more than 9000 people without any results. Further actions were more successful; they were partly turned to Azov, partly to the Crimea. The Azov army (1736) was under the command of Lassi, who, after a rather difficult siege, captured Azov (June 20). At the same time, Minikh took Perekop (May 22) and reached the Bakhchisaray Gorges, while Kinburun surrendered to General Leontiev. In 1737, Lassi devastated the western part of the Crimea, and Minich began the siege of Ochakov, which was taken on July 2. In the autumn of the same year, General Stofelen bravely defended himself from the Turks besieging him. This, however, did not end the hostilities. In 1739, Lassi again invaded the Crimea with the aim of capturing Kafa, and Minich moved to the southwest, won a brilliant victory at Stavuchany (August 17), took Khotyn (on the 19th of the same month), entered the city of Iasi on September 1 and received expressions of obedience to the empress from the secular and spiritual ranks of Moldavia. But in early September, Minich received an order to stop hostilities. The Russian government wanted peace, the war that had begun long ago required a lot of money and became tiring for the army itself, which in the wild steppe area had to carry with it not only supplies, but also water, even firewood, the sick and the wounded. The Empress was forced to conclude this peace hastily and far from being profitable for Russia due to the unsuccessful actions of the allied Austrian troops. As early as the end of 1738, the Russian government promised Charles VI to send an auxiliary corps to Transylvania, but could not fulfill its promise, since the Russians would then have to pass through Poland, and the Poles did not agree to let them through. The Austrian court, however, continued to demand the expulsion of this auxiliary corps. Meanwhile, the unsuccessful actions of the Austrian troops and the intrigues of French diplomats, who, in the interests of France, sought to separate the two allied courts, prompted Austria to conclude an extremely disadvantageous for her and, moreover, a separate peace signed without the knowledge of the allies with Porto. Deprived of an ally and foreseeing the close end of the Sultan's war with Persia, the Empress also decided to conclude a (Belgrade) peace, according to which Azov remained with Russia, but without fortifications, the Taganrog port could not be renewed, Russia could not keep ships on the Black Sea and had the right to conduct trade on it only through Turkish ships. But Russia received the right to build a fortress for itself on the Don island of Cherkassk, Turkey - in the Kuban. Finally, Russia acquired a piece of the steppe between the Bug and the Dnieper. Thus, the war, which cost Russia up to 100,000 soldiers, turned out to be useless, as predicted by Count. Osterman even before the outbreak of hostilities. The conclusion of the peace was magnificently celebrated in St. Petersburg on February 14, 1740.

The campaigns of Munnich and Lassi not only did not bring almost any benefits to Russia, already exhausted by Peter's wars, but led to harmful effects in the sphere of state and national economy. At the end of the reign of Empress A.I. in the Great Russian provinces, there were only 5,565,259 males and 5,327,929 females. Government spending, meanwhile, was quite significant. In 1734, for example, 260,000 rubles were required for the maintenance of the court, 100,000 rubles for the imperial stables. 77,111 rubles were retired to various relatives and relatives of the Empress, 460,118 rubles for salaries and dachas for various civil ranks, 370,000 rubles for artillery, 1,200,000 rubles for the Admiralty, 4,935,154 rubles for the army. In addition, they were released to two academies (sciences and the Admiralty) - 47371 rubles, to surveyors and school teachers 4500 rubles, for pension dachas 38096 rubles, for buildings 256813 rubles. and for small, incidental expenses 42622 p. But these needs were satisfied, and even then not completely, only with the extreme exertion of the people's forces. Heavy taxes and duties that fell on an insignificant population, and national disasters, such as famine (in 1734), fires and robberies, brought the national economy into a sad state. Many peasants fled from places without food, so that sometimes only half of the population recorded in the last census book remained in the villages. There was no one to sow grain, and the remaining peasants, meanwhile, were forced to pay taxes for those who fled and were ruined even more. It is not surprising, therefore, that the population paid taxes incorrectly. In 1732, for example, in the provinces it was necessary to collect customs, tavern "and other" incomes of 2439573 rubles, and according to the "reports" sent, the collection turned out to be only 186982 rubles; "Whether the rest were fully collected and what was left in the arrears is unknown, because no reports were sent from many provinces and provinces." In order to reduce as far as possible the ever-increasing number of arrears, the government, on the one hand, sought to alleviate the position of the tax-paying classes, and on the other, resorted to preventive and punitive measures. The first goal was achieved by streamlining the regional administration, for example, by the well-known order that governors in cities should be replaced every two years and report on their activities to the Senate by shift, adding up arrears, as was the case in 1730 for the May third and for the first half of 1735 and, finally, an industrial policy that encouraged factory production. Thus, by decree of April 6, 1731, manufacturers were allowed to sell their goods in their own shops; By decree of January 7, 1736, although it was forbidden for manufacturers to buy villages, it was allowed to acquire serfs without land. The same decree attached to factories craftsmen (but not unskilled workers) who had fled from the landowners, attributed to the factories for a five-year period persons who were bankrupt, vagabonds and beggars, but did not allow new workers to be admitted to the factories without passports, took care of the organization of technical schools at the factories, gave even too great rights for manufacturers to punish workers, entrusted the supervision of factories and the determination of the trade turnover of each of them to the College of Commerce and, finally, deprived manufacturers and those who pretended to be such for extraneous purposes, deprived of the privileges granted by law to persons of this state. The central administration for the trading part was somewhat modified by the decree of October 8, 1731; by this decree, the Manufactory Office and the Berg Collegium were connected with the Commerce Collegium, which was divided into 3 sections, which were in charge of mining, manufactories and trade. In the reign of A.I., attention was also paid to mining. In 1733, a special commission was established under the chairmanship of c. M. Golovkin to decide whether it is more useful to maintain mining plants on public funds or give them to private individuals. This question, not resolved by the commission of 1733, was again discussed in the commission of 1738. The latter decided that it was more profitable to leave mining to private enterprise, which was approved by the empress. Four years before the convening of this commission, V. N. Tatishchev was sent to put mining in order in the Siberian and Kazan provinces, who, however, did not have time to finish the work he had begun; he aroused Biron's dissatisfaction, for he discovered the abuses of the duke, who, under the alias of Baron Schoenberg, who was discharged by him from Saxony, took state-owned factories for himself on rent and made Schoenberg the head of the Berg Directorate, which replaced the Berg Collegium and was organized bureaucratically, not collectively. In addition to concerns about industry, mining and trade, the government sought to fill the lack of private credit, although in this case it had in mind rather public than private benefits. In 1733, it was ordered to open a loan from the minting office at 8%, as well as on the security of gold and silver, which would exceed the issued money by a fraction; but "diamond and other things, as well as villages and yards on mortgage and for ransom, do not take." With a one-year loan term, however, a three-year installment plan was allowed. - But all these cares of the government about raising the level of people's well-being did not quite lead to the desired goal. In 1740, arrears could be counted "several millions." Therefore, strict measures were taken regarding the search for fugitive peasants, a special taxation order was established, from which the cases of collecting arrears subsequently passed to the office of confiscation, and from 1738 to the taxation commission. A special general accounting commission was also established, however, soon abolished, and the Revision Board was restored, for which a special regulation was drawn up, according to which the board received "the highest directorate in the certificate and in the audit of accounts of all state revenues and expenditures, no matter what rank they are nor were" since 1732.

Foreign policy directed government activity and people's work towards the fulfillment of not particularly fruitful goals. However, the attention of the government was not so absorbed in these goals that it did not pay any attention to the needs of public education. At the Academy, as is known, lectures were given to "Russian youth"; however, from 1733 to 1738 such lectures "were not given." In 1731, at the suggestion of Munnich, a cadet corps was founded, consisting initially of 200, then of 360 pupils. Mandatory for all were the law of God, arithmetic and "military exercises"; the rest of the sciences, as well as languages, were studied by whoever wanted. By decree of 1737, the gentry children, when they came for the second time to St. Petersburg to the king of arms, in Moscow and the provinces to the governor, they had to know how to read and write; a father or relatives who wished to continue this upbringing were allowed to bring children after 4 years, but already with knowledge of the law of God, arithmetic and geometry. Finally, even after the third review of sixteen-year-olds in Moscow or St. Petersburg, it was possible for young people to stay with their parents, but with the obligation to study geography, fortification and history. At the age of 20, the last appearance in the heraldry was appointed, and those of the gentry children who showed the greatest success in the sciences were most likely to be promoted to the ranks. In addition to the education of the upper classes, the government also paid attention to the education of the lower strata of society. Decree 29 Oct. In 1735, it was ordered to organize schools at factories for the children of factory workers, and on December 12. of the same year, churches were ordered to be founded at factories with numerous employees, if these factories are remote from parish churches. However, on 28 Sept. In 1736, an order was issued according to which all clergymen who did not swear allegiance to the empress were ordered to be taken as soldiers. From this, in 1740, there were up to 600 churches without a clergy, idle. - Science and literature in the reign of Empress AI also had their rather prominent representatives. V. N. Tatishchev got acquainted with the manuscripts, published Sudebnik, compiled his own lexicon, wrote the famous Russian History, and instructed his son in his spirituality. Bayer, "professor of antiquities", was engaged in the study of Scythian-Sarmatian antiquity, the former Leipzig student Gerard Miller participated in the Kamchatka expedition in 1733, collected monuments relating to the history of Siberia, and published handwritten texts; academicians Goldbach, Delisle, Winigeym, Genzius, Duvernoix, Kraft, Euler, Weybrecht, Ammon - were engaged in the study of mathematical and natural sciences. Prince An. Cantemir translated Anacreon, Justin and other writers, and in his well-known satires exposed the shortcomings of contemporary society. V. Trediakovsky compiled "A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poetry" (published in 1735), engaged in translations and practiced poetry. In the field of spiritual literature, controversy continued, which was initiated by the publication of Stefan Yavorsky's "Stone of Faith". Theophylact Lopatinsky took an active part in this controversy, writing "Apocrisis or Objection to the Letter of Buddeus" and the essay "On the Lutheran and Calvin Heresy".

Despite the noticeable development of science and literature under A. I., the state of the state in the last years of her reign was rather sad. The Peter's wars and difficult campaigns of 1733-1739, as well as Biron's cruel rule and abuses, made themselves felt and had a harmful effect on the state of the national economy. If the official duties of the nobility were relieved in some respects, then tax duties still fell heavily on the lower class and became even harder under the influence of the severity with which the collection of arrears was carried out. Under such conditions, the power of the landowners over the peasants was felt stronger. It is not surprising, therefore, that outbreaks of popular displeasure are noticed here and there. Information has been preserved, for example, about the appearance in the village of Yaroslavtsevo of the Kyiv regiment of the false prince Alexei Petrovich, who was hastened to be recognized by the local priest and soldiers; there is information about a conspiracy against the life of the owner, drawn up by workers at the Yaroslavl linen factory of Ivan Zatrapezny in 1739, about the indignation of the peasants against one of the Dankov landlords, and the assistance of the "city team" was needed to pacify them. From 1735 to 1740, there were several uprisings of the Bashkirs, to which, from 1738, the Kirghiz also joined. They were pacified by A. Rumyantsev, V. Tatishchev and Prince. V. Urusov. Murmuring and displeasure aroused the suspicions of the government; scouts and scammers swarmed everywhere. Tolerated not only the lower classes, but also some of the representatives of the aristocracy, if anything interfered with the strengthening of Biron. Field Marshal Prince. V. V. Dolgoruky was exiled, in 1733 the innocent prince was also exiled. A. Cherkassky. Decree 12 Nov. In 1739, it was announced that Prince Ivan Dolgoruky was beheaded after being cut on the wheel, and that Prince. Vasily Lukich, Sergei and Ivan Grigorievich, and that Prince. Vasily and Mikhail Vladimirovich were exiled; Alec. You. Makarov was kept under arrest. Finally, the sad fate of A.P. Volynsky is known, who rose thanks to Biron, but soon turned against himself his former patron, Osterman, and Kurakin. Accused of state crimes, he was executed on June 27, 1740, along with several accomplices; others were whipped and sent to Siberia for hard labor. The rule of a temporary worker was hard; but the grumbling and displeasure of the people, thanks to his efforts, almost did not reach the empress at all. Moreover, recently A.I. did not feel quite healthy. October 5, 1740 at dinner she became ill, and on the 17th of the same month she died, appointing the young John Antonovich as successor and Biron, Duke of Courland, as regent until he came of age.

The most important benefits: S. Solovyov, "East. Ros." (vols. XIX and XX); E. German, "Geschichte des Russischen Staates" (Gamb., 1848, vol. IV); D. Korsakov, "The Accession of Empress Anna Ioannovna" (Kaz., 1880); E. Karnovich, "The plans of the leaders and petitioners" (in 1730, in "Otech. Zap." - vol. CXIX, pp. 209-237 and 485-516); N. Popov, "Tatishchev and his time" (Moscow, 1861); E. Karnovich, "The Significance of Bironism in Russian History" (in Otech. Zap., vol. CSH (XXXV), pp. 541-582; vol. CCXI (XXXVI), pp. 93-132).

(Brockhaus)

Anna Ioannovna

The Russian empress, whose reign (1730-1740), generally difficult for Russia, was also marked by severe repressions against the Jews. Three years before her accession, her government energetically set about expelling Jews from the two outskirts of the state: from Little Russia, cut off from the Polish center of Jewry, and from Smolensk province, adjoining Belorussia populated by Jews. By decree of Empress Catherine I of 1727, the Jews were expelled from the Russian Ukraine "abroad", that is, to Poland. That this old Moscow policy of intolerance ran counter to the interests of the local Christian population was revealed in 1728, when Hetman Apostol, on behalf of the "Zaporozhian troops on both sides of the Dnieper," petitioned St. Petersburg to admit Jews to Little Russia as people useful for the trade of the region. Then the government made a concession and allowed Jews to temporarily come to Little Russia for fairs "for the merchant's trade", but only for the wholesale sale of goods. This "privilege" was extended at the beginning of the reign of Anna Ioannovna also to the Smolensk province (1731). In 1734, representatives of the Sloboda Ukraine filed a petition in St. Petersburg to allow visiting Jewish merchants to sell their goods at fairs not only in bulk, but also for "elbows and pounds" in view of the fact that "there are few merchants in the Sloboda regiments and the commercial trade is dissatisfied." The empress granted the request, and then the admission retail Jews were extended to the whole of Little Russia in the form of mercy to the local Christian population ("because we, the Great Empress, always had motherly care for our subjects, people of the Little Russian people" - the words of a personal decree to the resident minister under the hetman, Prince A. Shakhovsky). But the same decree (Aug. 8, 1734) stipulated that the ban on preventing Jews from settling permanently in Little Russia remained in full force. - These forced concessions to the demands of the region on the part of the government hostile to the Jews were replaced in the second half of the reign of Anna Ioannovna by cruel repressions. The reason for this change was the religious trial of Voznitsyn and Boroch Leibov, which ended in an inquisitorial auto-da-fé. Even before 1727, the Jewish farmer Borokh Leibov, who lived in the Smolensk province, aroused the local Orthodox population against himself by daring to build a synagogue in the village of Zverovichi for a group of his fellow believers. The Smolensk philistines sent a petition to the name of the Holy Synod, in which they complained that Borokh not only built a "Jewish school" near the church, in which "he sends his infidel faith", but also "cursed Christian faith "and beat to death the priest of that village Avraamia, who "repaired him, a Jew, all sorts of contradictions in the structure of the school"; at the same time, the complainants did not fail to add that the Jews who settled in the Smolensk province were seducing the Orthodox into the "Jewish faith." Having received such a report , the Synod ordered the synagogue built by Boroch to be destroyed to the ground and the books in it to be burned, and a strict investigation was to be carried out about the other accusations against Boroch. In 1738, a new, more serious accusation was brought against the same Boroch Leibov. to the "Office of Secret Investigative Affairs", headed by a man with inquisitorial inclinations - General Ushakov. The attention of Empress Anna Ioannovna as a danger to the church was drawn, and she ordered that the investigative material be immediately considered in the Senate. Although the College of Justice, to which the Senate referred the case, found that the investigative material was not sufficient, as based solely on the forced consciousness of the defendants in the dungeon, however, at the insistence of the Empress, who was under the influence of Ushakov, the Senate abandoned the additional investigation and hastily issued a decision dictated "Office of Secret Investigations". It was decided to execute the seduced Voznitsyn and the seducer Boroch Leibov "by death and burn, so that others, despite the fact that ignoramuses and God-opponents from the Christian law could not deviate and such deceivers, like the Jew Boroch, did not dare to seduce from the Christian law and turn into their own laws ". The empress immediately approved the decision - and in the second half of 1738 the convicts died at the stake. - This inquisitorial process, no doubt, increased the fear in the empress and government spheres of the influx of Jews into Russia. The old specter of the "heresy of the Judaizers", which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries forced the Muscovite tsars to expel every Jew "abroad" from Rus', prompted the St. Petersburg government to take measures to protect the Russian outskirts from the penetration of Jews. In the same year, 1738, the Senate made inquiries about the presence of Jews in Little Russia, and it turned out - according to the report of the General Military Chancellery from Glukhov - that there were 140 people living there who had penetrated there from Poland contrary to the decree of 1727. The Senate sent a decree for the immediate expulsion of these illegally settled abroad. But this was answered by the Little Russian Military Chancellery that the immediate expulsion of Jews abroad, in view of the war then taking place with Turkey, seemed dangerous, "so that no espionage would follow through their expulsion now." The Senate submitted the matter to the Cabinet of Ministers, which passed a resolution: "It is argued that the expulsion of the Jews should be waited until the end of the current Turkish war" (August 18, 1739). At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers ordered to more accurately determine the number of Jews illegally residing in Little Russia and the nature of their crafts and send a statement about this from the Military Chancellery to the Senate, and in the meantime "to watch and firmly forbid that no one in all of Little Russia would take Jews to himself and neither did he keep it in his taverns, nor did he give them anything for rent. The required statement was soon presented, and it turned out that the actual number of Jews in Little Russia exceeded the figure indicated above: there were 292 males in 130 households, and 281 females, in total 573 people; they lived "not in their own houses" and did not have "any soil, factories and other trades", but were listed mainly as owners of various estates, who leased taverns to them for the sale of drinks. It was decided to deport this handful of Jews as soon as the war ended and peace between Russia and Turkey was concluded. On the report of the Senate in this sense, the empress put the following resolution (July 11, 1740): "The above-declared Jews, according to the strength of the previous decrees, should be sent abroad from Little Russia." Thus, in the last year of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, Little Russia was again evacuated from the Jews, who, apparently, retained only the right to temporarily visit the fairs. Later, during the reign of Elisaveta Petrovna (q.v.), even this right of temporary visit on commercial matters was taken away from the Jews. - Judeophobia of the empress and dignitaries did not prevent them, however, from using the services of Jews where financial or other interests required it. A wealthy agent of the Duke of Courland, Biron, a favorite of the Empress, the Jew Lipman (or Liebman) apparently played an important financial role in St. Petersburg, where he was engaged in large-scale state farms and deliveries. At the court of Anna Ioannovna, the court jester of Peter the Great Acosta or Lacoste lived out his days (see Acosta, Jan).

Wed: Perv. Full Sobr. Law Nos. 5852, 6610, 6614, 6898, 7612, 7869, 8169; Levanda, "Chronological Collection of Laws on the Jews" (St. Petersburg, 1874), nos. 16-22; Golitsyn, "History of Russian Legislation on the Jews", St. Petersburg, 1886, pp. 20-42 and 284-296 (the author also partially used material from the archives of the Senate and the Synod); Solovyov, "History of Russia", vol. XXI, p. 310; cf. also vol. XIX, pp. 313-14; Dubnov, "The General History of the Jews", Vol. III, pp. 337-340; Wunderbar, Geschichte d. Juden in Livland und Kurland, Mitau, 1853, pp. 16-22.

(Heb. enc.)

Anna Ioannovna

The Russian Empress, the second daughter of Tsar John Alekseevich from his marriage with P. F. Saltykova; genus. in 1693, reigned from 1730 to 1740. AI was naturally gifted with a sound mind and a kind heart, but the conditions in which her childhood and youth passed did not contribute to the proper development of these qualities, as well as the development of the will. At the request of Peter I, the upbringing of A.I. was led by foreign teachers, but along with this, she was also influenced by holy fools, saints and various accustomers who filled the court of Queen Praskovya. Even in her youth, A.I. was distinguished by piety, but at the same time, by the obstinacy of her temper, which she inherited from her mother and amazed those around her. Subsequently, the hereditary traits of her grandfather, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and mother began to develop more sharply in her: addiction to ceremonials, solemn exits and precious jewelry; outward ritual piety; love for soul-saving conversations with monks; passion for hunting, kennels, menageries and all kinds of fun. At the age of 17 (1710), A.I. was married to Friedrich Wilhelm, the Duke of Courland, but after 2 months she was widowed and returned to St. Petersburg. In 1717, AI, at the request of Peter, moved to Mitava, where she lived for 13 years; during this period of time there was her rapprochement with the chamber junker E. I. Biron, who began to gain more and more influence on A. I.. In January 1730, Peter II died, leaving neither offspring nor a will, as a result of which the question of the fate of the throne was submitted for discussion by the Supreme Privy Council. Taking care to protect Russia from the influence of favoritism, which strongly made itself felt in the last two reigns, Prince. Dm. M. Golitsyn decided to take advantage of the current situation to limit the personal power of the monarch V. T. Council, and therefore nominated A. I., who, by the properties of her character and position, seemed most suitable for her intended role. Golitsyn's proposal was accepted by V.T.S., and then by A.I. herself, who signed the restrictive clauses ("conditions") sent to her by the "supervisors". According to these points, the empress had to: not marry and not appoint an heir; V. T. S. always contain 8 persons and without his consent do not declare war and do not conclude peace; not to impose taxes and not to spend public revenues; not to grant estates and not to take away property and honor from the nobility; do not favor anyone in the court and general ranks; transfer the guards and all other troops to the jurisdiction of V. TS The desire of the leaders to replace the autocracy with aristocratic rule caused a protest among the clergy and nobility. Feb 15 In 1730, A.I. arrived in Moscow, and on the 25th the guards and other gentry brought her a petition for the restoration of autocracy. After some hesitation, A. I. tore up her restrictive clauses and "received sovereignty." From the very first minutes of the autocratic power of A.I., disgrace began to the Russian nobility. Its representatives (Dolgoruky, Golitsyn, Cherkassky, Yusupov) gradually lost their court significance and official positions, were persecuted, exiled and even executed. At the same time, no less systematically, the rise of the "Germans" went on: the "Germans" took first places in the court administration, the "German" (Osterman) was at the head of the current administration, the "Germans" were also at the head of the army (Minnich, Lassi) . But Biron enjoyed the greatest influence - a man of insignificant abilities and immoral by nature. Being a favorite of A.I. and enjoying her trust, Biron interfered in all matters of government, but had no state views, no program of activity and not the slightest acquaintance with Russian life and people. He did not rule the state, but exploited the country for his own personal gain, despising the law and conscience and deceiving the empress. When a murmur arose, Biron, in order to preserve his own safety, resorted to a system of denunciations. The secret office was overwhelmed with political affairs; petty worldly enmity, a sense of revenge, low greed could lead any person to investigation, prison and torture. Terror reigned in society. Wars with Poland and Turkey exhausted popular forces and at the same time physical calamities followed one another; pestilence, hunger. The murmur of the people did not stop. All the turmoil, all the troubles, the people attributed to the weak female power and were sure that even bread would not be born because "the female sex owns the kingdom." It was also restless in the court environment. Biron destroyed all prominent people, and among other things, a capable diplomat and administrator, Cabinet Minister A.P. Volynsky, who was accused of a number of real and partly fictitious crimes and sentenced to death, became his victim. In general, the reign of A.I. represents the sad era of Russian life in the 18th century. Being under the influence of temporary workers alien to Russia, A.I. did not leave a good memory of any state. activity or personal life. The first was reduced to satisfying the selfish aspirations of a few persons, the second is marked by oddities, a series of wasteful festivities, rough manners at court and brilliant but cruel undertakings like the "ice house". Government activity during the reign of A. I. developed in appearance, according to the reform program of Peter I; but the conductors of the undertakings of the great emperor, observing the ritual side of the reform, very often deviated from its essence, from its basic principles. First of all, they departed from the system of Peter in the arrangement of central control. So, in 1730, according to the desire of the nobility expressed in the petition, the Supreme Privy Council was destroyed and restored: first - Rules. the Senate, and then the position of Prosecutor General; but already in 1731, according to Osterman, the Cabinet of Ministers was established, similar to the Top. Secrets. Council, thanks to which both the Senate and the Attorney General again lost their former importance. The participation of the guard (consisting of nobles) in the events of 1730 led to the government's desire to reward the nobility, and these rewards consisted of: 1) reducing states. duties; 2) in increasing landownership rights. In order to please the gentry, A.I. repealed Peter’s law on single inheritance and abolished by law any distinction between estates and estates, thanks to which the nobility received in hereditary ownership a lot of lands that until then were considered state lands. Under A.I. the distribution of states, stopped by Peter, began again. land to the nobility, and the land was already given directly to full ownership. In 1731 it was established in St. Petersburg. The land gentry corps is a military school for the nobles, after graduating from which the nobles were promoted to officers, "without being soldiers, sailors and other lower ranks." On July 31, 1736, the indefinite service was replaced by the fixed-term service (25 years old) by the Manifesto, and, in addition, one of the brothers in the family was released from service altogether to manage family farm. As soon as this manifesto, desired by the nobility, was made public, half of the officers, preferring agricultural activity to their service career, filed their resignations. So. image., from a nobleman-warrior and a serving royal man, a nobleman-landowner and an inhabitant of the county began to gradually grow. The strict responsibility of the landlords for state payments of their peasants not only contributed to the departure of the nobles from service to the village, to monitor the serviceability of their own and peasant farms, but also entailed a greater subordination of the peasants to the landowners. So, the peasants were forbidden to buy real estate, enter into farming and contracts, start cloth factories; they were deprived of the right to go fishing without the permission of the landowner. The landlords received the right to resettle peasants from county to county, and in tax terms, in case of disobedience of the peasants, to demand the assistance of the authorities. All these decrees limited both the personal and property rights of the peasants and were major steps towards the loss of their civilian personality. Military affairs in the reign of AI was almost entirely in the hands of feldm. Minikh, who, although he did not turn out to be suitable for the consistent development of Peter's principles, nevertheless, as a rather talented person and possessing correct military views, managed to prevent the Russian army from falling seriously from the height to which it had risen by the end of the reign of Peter V However, Minich's reforms, which affected almost all departments of military art and were developed mainly in short period 1730-33 (before the beginning of the Polish war), were not always distinguished by maturity and deliberation, did not always correspond to the conditions of Russian life. On June 1, 1730, on the initiative of Minich, a military commission was formed by decree on June 1, 1730, the main purpose of which was "to correct many disorders and insanities that appeared and occurred in the army after the death of Peter the Great." The program of the commission's activities was extremely extensive and, in fact, included almost all organizational, administrative and economic issues, the training of the army in drill terms and the system of military punishments. The need to reduce spending on military needs led, among other things, to a revision and change in the staffing of the troops, and the reduction in the military budget was achieved at the expense of the field army. In particular, the following reforms were made: in the infantry - the grenadier regiments were destroyed, and the grenadiers, distributed among the fusilier companies, were reduced to separate companies for the duration of the exercises; in the cavalry - the reorganization of the dragoon regiments into cuirassiers began and the grenadier companies were also destroyed; the composition of regimental and field (army) artillery was increased; the number of field artillery calibers has been increased from 2 to 3; for the defense of the southern border, a whole network of continuous fortified lines was arranged (Ukrainian, Tsaritsynskaya, Zakamskaya); the highly developed landmilitia was no longer intended only for internal service, but was also involved in campaigns along with field troops; The Military Collegium in 1736 received a new device, thanks to which it was easier to control expenses for the military department; wearing braids, boots, cuffs and powdering (introduced under Peter II for artillery units) was extended to the entire army; the salaries of Russian officers and foreigners were equalized; for drill training of infantry in 1731, in addition to the Military Regulations of Peter I, the following were published: "exercise on foot" (passion for shooting), and for drill drill of cavalry in 1733 - "exercise on horseback in the regiment of E. I. V." (learning to attack is established by a "small trot", shooting from a horse is legalized). - The foreign policy of Empress Anna Ioannovna, conditioned by the alliance of the St. Petersburg Cabinet with the German Emperor Charles VI, put forward 3 issues: Polish, Eastern and Courland. In 1733, the Polish King August II died, and his son, Augustus, Elector of Saxony, and Stanislav Leshchinsky, became candidates for the throne. The first was supported by Austria and Russia, the second - by France. When Leshchinsky won the elections, Russia decided to act against him by force of arms. Leshchinsky locked himself in Danzig, which was besieged by the Russians (Lassi, and then Munnich) and, after a four-month defense, surrendered. Leshchinsky fled Danzig during the siege, disguised as a peasant, and August III became king. The Eastern question, conditioned under A.I. by our attitude to the strengthening of Russian power over the Caspian and Black Seas, was resolved very unsuccessfully. Considering herself unable to fight Persia, A.I. abandoned the plan of Peter V. to start trade with Asia and gave back to Persia (in 1732) all our conquests on the Caspian coast. On the issue of the Black Sea coast, the government of A.I. wanted to prove that it followed the precepts of Peter and therefore entered into a struggle with Turkey. The war (1735-39), the pretext for which was the raids of the Crimeans on Russian possessions, was started (in alliance with Austria) and without sufficient need and with unsatisfactory preparation (mainly, in relation to the arrangement of the food part), due to which Russian troops returned to their borders 3 times in order to subsequently go on the offensive again. The results of the war over the years are as follows: 1735 - Leontiev's unsuccessful campaign in the Crimea; 1736 - campaigns of Minikh (to the Crimea) and Lassi (to Azov), results: Azov was taken, part of the Crimean peninsula was devastated; 1737 - campaigns of Minikh (to Ochakov) and Lassi (to the Crimea), results: Ochakov and Kinburn were taken and the Crimea was devastated for the second time; 1738 - campaigns of Minikh (to the Dniester) and Lassi (to the Crimea), result: Ochakov and Kinburn were lost; 1739 - campaigns of Minikh (to Khotyn) and Lassi (to the Crimea), results: Turkish army defeated near Stavuchany, Khotyn is occupied by the Russians. The war ended a few days after the Stavucani victory with the Peace of Belgrade (1739), according to which Russia acquired part of the steppe between the Bug and the Dnieper, but pledged to the Sultan to tear down the fortifications of Azov, which remained with Russia. So insignificant was the result of the war, which cost us 100,000 soldiers and several million rubles. The Courland issue was that the Russian troops in 1737, after the end of the Ketler dynasty in the Duchy of Courland, forcibly elevated Biron to the Courland throne, that is, a man who had nothing to do with the interests of Russia. AI died in 1740, leaving the throne to the two-month-old Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg John Antonovich (great-grandson of Tsar John Alekseevich) and appointing Biron as regent. (Platonov, Lectures on Russian History, 1904; Solovyov, History of Russia, vols. XIX and XX; Stroev, Bironovshchina, 1909; Baiov, Course in the History of Russian Military Art, III, 1909; Him, the Russian Army in the reign Anna Ioannovna 1906; Laskovsky, Materials for the history of engineering art in Russia, part III, 1865; Maslovsky, Notes from the history of military art in Russia, I, 1891; His own, Attack of Gdansk by field marshal gr. Minich, 1888).

- Request "Anna Ivanovna" is redirected here; see also other meanings. Anna Ioannovna ... Wikipedia

The death of the young Tsar Peter 2 Alekseevich, the grandson of the famous Peter the Great, nicknamed the Great by the people, led everyone into confusion. He died exactly before his own wedding at the age of fourteen, therefore he did not leave direct heirs, and he did not leave a will about who should have inherited the Russian throne as well. The Boyar Privy Council decided to summon the fourth daughter of Ivan V, Anna Ioannovna, to the kingdom, depriving her of all rights and privileges. However, not everything turns out exactly the way you want, because the events unfolded according to a special scenario. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and tell everything in order.

Anna Ioannovna: a short biography of the Empress

The personality of Anna Ioannovna in the historical context is very curious. She was the niece of Peter the Great and never even planned to take the Russian or any other throne. Married by force and very soon widowed, she experienced hardships all her life and her financial situation constantly forced her to turn to Russian court. Her life in Mitau was joyless, gray and boring, so she accepted the invitation of the boyars to the kingdom with great joy.

Throughout the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the country even received a special name. This period in the history of the Russian Empire was called the “Bironschina” by the name of the lover and first favorite of the queen, who actually ruled the state instead of her.

The childhood of the future empress

In the family of Ivan (John) V Alekseevich, children were expected for a long time, and his two eldest daughters, Maria and Theodosia, died before they reached the age of three. Following them, Catherine was born, who later became the wife of Duke Karl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Only at the age of 28 did he become a father again, when Anna Ioannovna was born on January 28, 1693, historical portrait which interests us. In addition to her, another daughter appeared in the family a year later, and the king did not wait for his son. The mother of all the children of Ivan the Fifth was Tsarina Praskovya Feodorovna, nee Saltykova.

Anna Ioannovna, whose reign we will consider later, was born in the Cross Chamber of the Terem Palace, which is located in the Moscow Kremlin, like all other children of the imperial dynasty. However, the family idyll of the imperial family did not last long. By the age of 27, the girls' father could not see well, was in very poor health, he was plagued by back pain, and soon he was paralyzed. In the thirtieth year of his life, Tsar Ivan Alekseevich, who formally until his death was considered co-ruler of Peter the Great, died suddenly. After his death, the widowed tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna, together with her three children and her court, moved from the Kremlin to a country estate in Izmailovo, where the residence-museum is now located.

Personal qualities

The childhood of the future Empress Anna Ioannovna passed in a country residence, where the orders of old Russia were preserved. This amazing estate was spared by the frenzied reformist ideas of Peter the Great. There were about two hundred and only stewards (servants for meals), several dozen servants of the Dowager Empress herself and her three daughters, the same number of mothers, nannies, hangers-on and other visiting guests. Nature reigned all around, huge gardens were laid out, where apples, pears, cherries and other fruits ripened, and between them mirrors of more than two dozen lakes shone blue. Overseas palm trees, mulberry trees, expensive Dutch tulips and fruitful, sweet grapes grew in greenhouses. There was a real paradise on earth, in which the girls grew up.

Izmailovo even had its own summer theater and in the evenings the sweet sounds of its own orchestra were heard in the park. FROM early years all the princesses and Anna Ioannovna were taught all the necessary sciences. They studied the alphabet, geography, arithmetic, French and German, dances and, of course, the wisdom of court etiquette.

Worth knowing

As a child, the future Empress Anna Ioannovna was taught German by Johann Christian Dietrich Osterman himself, the elder brother of Vice-Chancellor Andrei Osterman. The real Parisian Stefan Rambourg, “discharged” from there for a lot of money, was engaged in French and dancing with her.

Despite such an idyllic childhood and a good education for that time, Anna Ioannovna's years in Izmailovo did not make her refined and elegant. Many contemporaries described her as a typical lady-landowner. Perhaps the seclusion of the place played a big role in this. From early childhood, she simply adored a variety of gossip and intrigue, literally collecting them and distributing them in order to look at the result. She loved bright dresses, richly decorated, tasty and plentiful food, and also shot very accurately and even hunted with men.

The description of Anna's appearance is best conveyed by the Spanish diplomat and grandson of the British King James II, Jacobo Francisco Fitzjames Stuart, who was better known in Russia under the name Duke de Liria y Jerik and Berwick. He writes that the Empress was swarthy, short and rather fat. At the same time, her face more resembled a man's than a woman's, such rudeness was present in it. However, she was affectionate in her manner and always smiled in conversation, which disposed people. She never forgot her promises, however, as well as the services rendered to her, and she always paid her bills, both literally and figuratively.

First marriage

After the capture of Riga by Peter the Great, Russian possessions began to adjoin Courland, which was directly subordinate to Poland. Then the king decided to strengthen ties with the help of diplomacy, so as not to engage in single combat with other European states, as with Sweden. In the autumn of 1709, the emperor went to a meeting with the King of Courland Frederick William I, which took place in Marienwerder and, in the wake of the defeat of the Swedes near Poltava, agreed on the marriage of his son, the young Duke Frederick III Wilhelm, with one of the girls of the imperial family of Russia.

The daughter of Ivan V was chosen, but since there were three of them, Peter granted the right to decide who would go to distant countries to their mother Praskovya Feodorovna. She decided to send Anna to Courland. But the marriage turned out to be unhappy, which is not at all surprising. Despite the flattering letters to her fiancé, the bride was clearly unhappy and called him nothing more than a "Busurman".

They were married on October 31, 1710 in St. Petersburg, with all kinds of honors. In the palace of Prince Menshikov, a huge ball was given with many snacks and rivers of wine. Two months later, on January 8, the newlyweds went home to Courland, and already 10, having barely overcome two days of travel, the young husband died. It was rumored that he died from the fact that the day before he tried to outdrink Emperor Peter himself. The girl immediately returned to Petersburg, but did not stay long with her mother and sisters, since the tsar decided that she should go to her duchy. In Mitau, a devastated and plundered courtyard awaited her, as well as a dilapidated castle, which had to be repaired and somehow bought furnishings.

Pyotr Bestuzhev-Ryumin was sent with her, who was instructed to monitor Anna's financial condition so that she did not need anything. However, she managed to enter into a sinful relationship with him, for which he was hastily recalled to Russia. In 1726, the illegitimate son of the Polish ruler, Count Moritz of Saxony, came to woo her, deciding in this way to receive the title of Duke of Courland. However, the Russian emperor did not give Anna permission to marry him.

Here another colorful personality appears on the arena - Ernst Johann Biron, a young Courland nobleman who is not yet thirty years old. He got a job in the ducal office and soon got into bed with the Duchess Anna Ioannovna herself. By 1727, he completely replaced Bestuzhev, about whom she unsuccessfully wrote dozens of tearful letters to Peter and his wife Catherine. It was rumored that the eldest son of Biron was born precisely by Anna, because she even took him with her when she went to the kingdom in Moscow.

Years and results of the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna

From this moment begins the most interesting thing that happened during the years of Anna Ioannovna's life. She never imagined that something like this could happen to her. However, she turned out to be not at all a stupid landowner, but a cunning and smart empress, who, by and large, brought a lot of benefits to the Russian state, even despite her secret relationship with the Courlander Biron.

The beginning of the reign: the calling of the new empress

On January 19, 1730, by God's will, Emperor Peter 2 Alekseevich expired, right in the Lefortovo Palace. Dolgoruky, who did not have time to marry him to his henchman, even wanted to forge a will, but nothing came of it. On the same day, the Privy Council was assembled, which was attended by four:

• Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn.
• Count Gavriil Ivanovich Golovkin.
• Prince Alexei Grigorievich Dolgorukov.
• Prince Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov.

Andrey Osterman, Vice Chancellor, was also invited, but he avoided the meeting. Based on the Testament of Catherine I, written by her back in 1727, they chose the niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ioannovna, as the best contender for the throne. However, everything was not as simple as it might seem, since it was proposed to “throw a muzzle on a sleeping tiger”, as well as “to add freedom to yourself”, that is, to minimize the real rights and opportunities of the future queen.

According to the signed paper, which was previously sent to Anna Ioannovna, many things were forbidden to her. For example, she did not have the right to manage the army and marry, she could not give birth to children and punish officials, appoint a successor for herself or declare war, she also did not have to.

The unfortunate future empress, who sometimes dreamed of an extra piece of boiled pork with bread, had few options, and she signed the proposed manifesto without hesitation and already on February 15, 1730, she entered Moscow, having previously visited the estate in the village of Vsesvyatskoye, where she met with Ekaterina and Praskovya, her sisters, who reported to her about the mood in the capital. On the same cold day, she was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral.

On the Throne: Achievements of Tsaritsa Anna Ioannovna

In the capital, meanwhile, the fermentation of minds continued, almost everyone was against the actions of the Privy Council, which had already begun to cross all sorts of limits. Any undertakings stumbled upon deaf ostracism from the rejection of its members. Therefore, adherents of the Russian autocracy wrote a letter to the new Empress Anna Ioannovna asking to do something about it. Yes, she herself was glad to remove these “old dragons” from her life, therefore, on February 25, the council was dissolved, and on March 1 of the same year, the people again swore allegiance to the new queen, only according to the laws of complete and absolute autocracy. However, this was not her only achievement.

• In 1730, they created the Office of Secret Investigations, which successfully replaced the Preobrazhensky order, eliminated by Peter II. During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the symbol of the era was the secret cry of this organization "Word and deed."
• In 1732, a special Military Naval Commission was established, under the leadership of Andrei Osterman, to reform the fleet, which was successful.
• In the period from 1730 to 1740, the Empress eliminated almost all of her enemies, including the Dolgoruky family, by exiling them or executing them.
• In 1736-1738, the Russian army defeated the Crimean Khanate.

It is worth knowing that during the years of the reign of Anna Ioannovna there were more than twenty thousand people in Siberia. By order of Biron, she also made Kamchatka a place of exile, which had never happened before. At the court there was a dominance of the Germans, which the evil tongues called "Bironism."

Personal life and interesting facts

The personal life of Empress Anna Ioannovna proceeded quite rapidly, despite the fact that she was married only once, and even then she was only a wife for two days. It is clear that she could not have any children from her husband. However, evil tongues claimed that she repeatedly gave birth to Biron's offspring, writing them to his wife, who silently accepted the order of things. Where was she to go with a horde of young children, even if not her own. There are many interesting facts worth knowing about this amazing woman.

• The memory of the Empress was preserved in two objects of a defensive nature - Anninsky fortifications in the city of Vyborg, as well as Anna Ioannovna's Wall near Volgograd, which can still be seen today.
• Among the ladies-in-waiting of the queen's court for some time was Salome Regina Rusetskaya, the first Polish female physician.
• This amazing woman loved feasts, but mostly they were low-alcohol, and the empress herself could not stand drunks and drank very rarely.
• Anna adored mummers, jesters and dwarfs. Therefore, she often dressed the demoted nobles in jester's clothes.
• Beginning in 1735, a real theater worked at the court, which the queen ordered from Italy. Performances were held twice a week. In some performances, students of the cadet corps were even involved.
• The Empress adored and knew how to shoot. She loved to shoot arrows at the targets scattered throughout the garden, and she was also free to shoot at the crows straight from her office window.
• Anna was extremely fond of gossip, therefore she collected them and always knew what and with whom was happening in the palace. For providing a huge amount of information of this nature, she greatly appreciated Countess Avdotya Chernyshova, who was a great craftswoman in this matter.

Anna always considered the Kremlin her residence, but she often went to country estates, where she often threw incredible balls, with a bunch of delicious meat food, without which she would not see the white world. It was under her that for the first time ice elephants were installed in St. Petersburg, their trunks were beaten by fountains of ignited oil.

The death of the childless empress and the perpetuation of her memory

On October 5, 1740, the Empress, as usual, sat down to dine with Biron, but suddenly suddenly fainted. Doctors recognized the disease as very dangerous, and then she even appointed the heir to the throne - a two-month-old boy, Ivan Antonovich, the great-grandson of Ivan the Fifth. On October 16, she had a seizure, as they said then, indicating an imminent death. Then she called the faithful Biron and Osterman and signed two documents - on the succession to the throne and the appointment of the first regent under the infant king. Exactly at nine o'clock in the evening on October 17, 1740, the death of Anna Ioannovna was recorded. Posthumously, the cause of death was gout and urolithiasis. She was buried in St. Petersburg in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The image and results of the reign of Anna Ioannovna left a deep mark in the history of Russia. Probably, that is why all this was and is of interest to descendants, including us. Her name has been repeatedly used in literature and music. For example, Valentin Pikul's book "Word and Deed" is completely devoted to the period of her reign. Ivan Lozhechnikov and Leonty Rakovsky wrote about her. There are many films in which her image and difficult fate were played up.

The reign of Anna Ioannovna. 1730–1740

So, in 1730, unexpectedly for everyone (and for herself), Anna Ivanovna became an autocrat. Contemporaries left mostly unfavorable reviews about her. Ugly, overweight, vociferous, with a heavy and unpleasant look, this 37-year-old woman was suspicious, petty and rude. She lived a difficult life. Anna was born in 1693 in royal family and in 1696, after the death of her father, Tsar Ivan V Alekseevich, she settled with her mother, the widowed tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna and sisters Ekaterina and Praskovya in the Izmailovo Palace near Moscow. Here she spent her childhood. In 1708, it suddenly broke off. By decree of Peter I, the family of Tsarina Praskovya Feodorovna moved to live in St. Petersburg. Soon, in 1710, Anna was married to Friedrich Wilhelm, the Duke of the state of Courland, neighboring Russia (on the territory of modern Latvia). So Peter wanted to strengthen the position of Russia in the Baltic states and intermarry with one of the famous dynasties of Europe. But the newlyweds lived together for only 2 months - at the beginning of 1711, on the way to Courland, the duke died unexpectedly. Nevertheless, Peter I ordered that Anna should go to Mitava and settle there as the duke's widow. As in the case of marriage, and in the story of moving to a foreign state, no one asked Anna. Her life, like the life of all other subjects of Peter the Great, was subordinated to one goal - the interests of the state. Yesterday's Moscow princess, who became a duchess, was unhappy: poor, dependent on the will of the tsar, surrounded by hostile Courland nobility. Arriving in Russia, she also did not find peace. Tsaritsa Praskovya did not love her middle daughter and until her death in 1723 tyrannized her in every possible way.

Changes in Anna's life date back to 1727, when she had a favorite - Ernst-Johann Biron, to whom she became very attached and began to entrust state affairs to him. It is known that Anna did not understand the government of the country. For this, she did not have the necessary preparation - they taught her poorly, and nature did not reward her with intelligence. Anna had no desire to engage in public affairs. By her behavior and morals, she resembled an uneducated small landowner, who looks out of the window with boredom, sorts out the squabbles of the servants, marries her entourage, and makes fun of the tricks of her jesters. The antics of jesters, among whom there were many noble nobles, was an important part of the life of the empress, who also liked to keep various wretched, sick, midgets, fortune-tellers and freaks near her. Such a pastime was not particularly original - this is how her mother, grandmother and other relatives lived in the Kremlin, who were always surrounded by accusers who scratched their heels at night, and baharka-storytellers.

Empress Anna Ioannovna. 1730s.

Anna was a person of a critical era, when the old in culture was replaced by the new, but for a long time coexisted with it. Therefore, along with the traditional jesters and hangers-on at Anna's court, Italian operas and comedies were staged in a specially built theater for a thousand seats. The hearing and sight of the courtiers during dinners and holidays were delighted by opera singers and ballerinas. Anna's time entered the history of Russian art with the founding date in 1737 of the first ballet school. A choir chapel was formed at the court, the composer Francesco Araya, invited from Italy, worked. But most of all, Anna, unlike the Moscow princesses, was fond of hunting, or rather shooting. It was not just a hobby, but a deep passion that haunted the queen. She often shot at crows and ducks flying in the sky, hit the target in the indoor arena and in the parks of Peterhof. She also participated in grandiose hunts, when beaters, having covered a gigantic expanse of forest, gradually (often for weeks) narrowed it and drove the forest inhabitants to a clearing. In the middle of it stood a special high carriage - "yagt-vagen" - with an armed empress and her guests. And when the animals, distraught with horror: hares, foxes, deer, wolves, bears, elks, ran out into a clearing prudently fenced with a wall of ship's canvas, then a disgusting slaughter began. In the summer of 1738 alone, Anna personally shot 1,024 animals, including 374 hares and 608 ducks. How many animals the queen killed in 10 years is even hard to imagine!

From the book History of Russia from Rurik to Putin. People. Developments. Dates author

October 17, 1740 - The death of Anna Ioannovna On October 5, 1740, the empress had an attack of illness right at the dinner table. She began to vomit blood, and then her health began to deteriorate rapidly. Apparently, she had an exacerbation of nephrolithiasis

From the book History of Russia. XVII-XVIII centuries. 7th grade author Chernikova Tatyana Vasilievna

§ 31. The reign of Anna Ioannovna and Ivan Antonovich 1. THE REIGN OF ANNA Ioannovna Anna Ioannovna dissolved the Supreme Privy Council, creating instead a new supreme body - the Cabinet of Ministers. The Senate and colleges were subordinate to him. Anna did not delve into state affairs

From the book Imperial Russia author Anisimov Evgeny Viktorovich

Jesters at the court of Anna Ioannovna More is known about Anna Ioannovna's jesters than about her ministers. The jester Ivan Balakirev is especially famous. In 1735, the Empress wrote to the Moscow Governor-General Saltykov: Semyon Andreevich! Send someone on purpose to Prince Nikita Volkonsky

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Congratulations for Anna Ioannovna A unique brochure of the 18th century in a large “tray” format has come down to us. The only surviving copy of it is in the Department of Rare Editions of the Library of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (Inventory No. 6625). The brochure has three

Anna Ioannovna (1693-1740) - Russian empress, who ruled in 1730-1740. She was the daughter of Tsar Ivan (John) Alekseevich (1666-1696) - brother and co-ruler of Peter I. Mother - Praskovya Fedorovna (1664-1723) - after the death of her husband was considered the dowager queen. She lived with her three daughters in the Izmailovo residence near Moscow.

All girls received a good education. They studied mathematics, geography, dance, German and French. In 1708, the family, by the will of the king, moved to St. Petersburg. In the new capital, they were given a palace located not far from the modern Smolny.

The Russian state needed to gain a foothold in Europe, to establish friendly relations with Western countries. In this matter, the marriages of crowned persons helped well. Russia was interested in the Duchy of Courland. Both the Commonwealth and the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I had views of him.

The Duke of Courland Friedrich Wilhelm (1692-1711) was the nephew of the Prussian king. At the end of 1709, Peter I discussed with the king the question of the marriage of the young duke with one of the representatives of the Russian royal family.

The King of Prussia agreed, and the Russian Tsar decided to marry one of the daughters of his former co-ruler Ivan. With this proposal, they turned to Praskovya Fedorovna, and she decided to marry her middle daughter Anna.

The wedding took place on October 31, 1710 in St. Petersburg, and on January 10, 1711, the young husband died on the way to Courland. The girl at the age of 17 was left a widow and was forced to return to her mother.

However, the following year, the tsar decided to send the young widow to Courland in accordance with the agreement concluded before the wedding. In Mitava (the capital of Courland), a residence was prepared for the girl, and in order for the young lady to be supervised, Peter Bestuzhev-Ryumin was sent with her. So in the summer of 1712, Anna ended up in Mitau.

Favorite of Anna Ioannovna Ernst Johann Biron

A young woman with Pyotr Bestuzhev developed not only business, but also intimate relations. They continued until 1727, when the count was recalled to Russia. They felt that the mentor was too pampered next to the duchess.

Soon, instead of Bestuzhev, the place in the heart of a woman was taken by the Courland nobleman Ernst Johann Biron (1690-1772). From 1718 he served in the office of the Dowager Duchess.

Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740)

A measured and calm life in Mitava ended for Anna on January 19, 1730. On this day, the Russian Emperor Peter II died. The Supreme Secret Council, which actually ruled the empire, decided to call Anna Ioannovna to the throne. The initiator was Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn. It was he who called the name of this woman. But power was given to her with numerous restrictions in order to maintain the dominant influence of the Supreme Privy Council.

However, the Dolgoruky and Golitsyn, who reigned supreme in the country, completely forgot about other well-born boyars, who no less than they wanted to rule and have their own piece of the common state pie. Therefore, when Anna Ioannovna, agreeing to all the conditions, came to Russia, she quickly realized that the Supreme Privy Council was not at all as powerful as it seemed at first glance.

On February 15, 1730, the former Duchess of Courland, with general rejoicing, entered Moscow. She quickly won over the nobles and the guards, and on February 25, 1730, a historical denouement came. The Empress of her own hand broke the conditions that limited her powers. On March 1, 1730, the entire Russian land swore an oath to Anna Ioannovna as the autocrat of all Russia. And on March 4 of the same year, the Supreme Secret Council was abolished and the powers of the Governing Senate were restored.

Silver ruble with the profile of Empress Anna Ioannovna

Years of government

Empress Anna Ioannovna was a person of a transitional era. By its nature, she was the Moscow queen of the 17th century. And therefore she loved the activities and entertainments characteristic of that time with jesters. However, the country demanded change. Therefore, in 1732, the woman moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and he regained the status of the capital of the Russian state.

Here, at the imperial court, a theater and ballet appeared. A ballet school was created, which later became the world-famous Vaganov School. As for state affairs, the mother empress did not like to deal with them because of her character. But she was afraid of coups and unrest, and therefore established the Office of Secret Investigation.

People for free-thinking began to be exiled to Siberia. In total, more than 20 thousand people were exiled. The office carried out reprisals against some of the princes Dolgoruky. Ivan Dolgorukov was wheeled in 1739. Other boyars were beheaded, impaled, tongues cut out. The people began to associate all these negative manifestations with the favorite of the Empress Ernest Johann Biron, and the time of his activity was called bironism.

However, the significance of this historical figure is greatly exaggerated. Biron was a favorite and occupied an exclusive position at court. Without his approval, government bodies rarely made serious decisions. But as for the dominance of foreigners and the plunder of the country, this did not happen.

Empress Anna Ioannovna was fond of hunting

Many foreigners were circling around the Empress. But they did not hold key positions. Most of them settled in Russia under Peter the Great. Foreigners also served in the army and navy, but they were negligible, and they did not have high command positions.

In general, under Empress Anna Ioannovna, a course was pursued to strengthen the empire. Industry, trade developed, the nobles received relief in the service. Much attention was paid to the further development of the fleet. Several new large warships were built. The ships were built at the shipyards of St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk.

Under the mother empress, the imperial policy of Peter I continued. A successful war was fought in Poland (1733-1735). In 1735, the war with Turkey began. In 1736, the Russian army under the command of Minikh captured the capital of the Crimean Tatars, Bakhchisarai. In 1736 the fortress of Azov was taken, and in 1737 the fortress of Ochakov. In 1738, the Russian army defeated the Crimean Khanate.

On September 18, 1739, the Belgrade Peace Treaty was signed in Belgrade, which became the final chord in the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739. According to it, Azov, part of the territories of the Right-Bank Ukraine, as well as territories in the North Caucasus and south of Azov, went to Russia.

End of the reign of Anna Ioannovna

At the end of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, two events happened that contemporaries remembered for a long time. In the freezing winter of 1740, the Ice House was built right on the ice of the Neva. The decoration inside, down to the furniture and playing cards on the table, was also made of ice. Trees were made from it and ice birds were planted on them.

All this was organized for the clownish wedding of the jester Mikhail Golitsyn and the dwarf Buzheninova. They were brought to the Ice House and locked in it for the night in an ice bedroom.

Jester's wedding in the Ice House

And the second event was the execution of the Cabinet Minister Artemy Volynsky in the summer of 1740. He was considered a skilled administrator, but did not please Biron. He turned the empress against Volynsky. As a result, the Cabinet Minister and his closest friends were arrested. They were accused of treason, tortured and executed. On the day of the execution, Empress Anna Ioannovna was hunting in Peterhof. And in early October, misfortune happened to the ruler herself.

She was having lunch with Biron and suddenly felt unwell. Doctors examined the woman and recognized the disease as dangerous. This caused a stir among the highest officials of the empire. However, the issue of succession to the throne was already resolved.

Anna Ioannovna had no children and bequeathed the throne to her great-nephew Ivan Antonovich. His mother was Anna Leopoldovna, the daughter of Catherine Ioannovna, the elder sister of the All-Russian autocrat.

On October 16, the empress had a severe seizure, and after it she signed all the papers on the inheritance. And on the evening of October 17, 1740, Anna Ioannovna Romanova died at the age of 48. According to doctors, the cause of death was gout and urolithiasis. The deceased empress was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Alexey Starikov