Because of what the German relatives of Peter I lost power over the Russian Empire and what a tragedy it turned out to be for them

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

They did not have time to really enter the history of Russia, despite the fact that they already almost held power over the empire in their hands. Fate laughed cruelly at the Brunswick family, first raising it to the level of the heirs of Peter the Great, and then pushing it into the abyss of despair and hopelessness. In addition to the duke and his wife Anna Leopoldovna, the disgraced family included five more children, the eldest of whom, forever separated from his parents, for many years lived in the same house as his parents, behind a blank wall.

Germans and power over Russia

The Germans were already close to the Russian throne during the reign of Peter I. The first Russian emperor with might and main established contacts with the Prussian court, for which he resorted, among other things, to a method proven for centuries: he organized marriages that were profitable for his policy, especially since there were enough relatives. Peter's niece Anna did not escape this fate - despite tears and pleas not to send her to a foreign land, she became the wife of the Duke of Courland, albeit not for long - soon after the wedding, the newly-made husband died. But Anna's connection with the foreign land remained and, moreover, grew stronger.

The elder sister of Empress Anna Ioannovna, Catherine, was also given for the German duke, and also unsuccessfully. True, she did not become a widow. The eldest of the daughters of John V, taking her daughter, returned to Russia, never to meet with the disgusted German again and, as it turned out later, to raise the future ruler of the empire.

It was the niece, Elizabeth Katarina Christina, who became Anna Leopoldovna after her baptism, who was the hope of Anna Ioannovna. Not wanting to leave the throne to the descendants of Peter I, she ordered to make one of the children of Anna Leopoldovna the heir. It was necessary to find her a husband - and it was the nephew of King Frederick II of Prussia, Prince of Braunschweig-Bevern-Luneburg. Young Anton Ulrich did not like the bride at all when they met, he was too modest, inexpressive, short, stuttered. Nevertheless, the wedding took place, and soon the heir, long awaited by the empress, appeared - Ioann Antonovich.

Immediately after his birth, he was appointed heir to the throne. In case he did not live to see the throne, the next of Anna Leopoldovna's children was to become the ruler. The haste to determine the heir was justified: two months after the birth of John, in October 1740, Empress Anna Ioannovna died suddenly, and the baby became the new emperor John VI. Biron was appointed regent under him, which was extremely displeasing to the parents of the new ruler. However, not only them - Biron was an unpopular figure in palace circles, and three weeks later he was overthrown as a result of a coup on the initiative of Anna Leopoldovna and Field Marshal Minich, who supported her. The mother of the emperor was appointed the new regent.

Palace coup and exile

It would seem that power over Russia is already in the hands of the Brunswick family. But the baby John did not have long to be emperor - on November 25, 1741, after another palace coup, Peter's youngest daughter, Elizabeth, ascended the throne.

Anna Leopoldovna heard rumors about the impending seizure of power, but she treated them lightly, did nothing and was content with the assurances of "Elizabeth's sister" of her loyalty to the regent-ruler. At night, grenadiers burst into the bedroom of Anton Ulrich and Anna; in the bustle they dropped four-month-old Catherine, who was deaf from the fall. Elizabeth herself carried the one-year-old emperor out of the palace in her arms. He never saw his parents again.

After Elizabeth's accession to the throne, the question arose - what to do with the overthrown family? Unlike her predecessor, the new empress vowed to rule humanely and bloodlessly, and therefore it was decided to send Anna Leopoldovna and her husband back to Europe. But later Elizabeth changed her mind, and in December 1741 the family was exiled to the Riga Castle, and three years later - to the north. The family of John VI, like himself, settled in Kholmogory, in the bishop's house behind a high tyn. The boy lived outside the wall from his parents, but neither they nor he himself knew this. The child was called Gregory, no one was allowed to visit him. Anna Leopoldovna had new children - even before arriving in the Arkhangelsk province, she gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth, then sons Peter and Alexei were born. The last childbirth ended tragically for the mother, she fell ill with childbirth fever and died.

Anna's body was sent to St. Petersburg and buried with honors in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and her father with four children continued to live in Kholmogory. The regime of keeping the exiled family remained strict. Walking was allowed at a distance of no more than 200 yards from the house. Several peasants served the family. The maid of honor Julian and the adjutant of Heimburg, faithful to Anna and Anton, were not allowed to live with a disgraced family.

The fate of Ivan and his brothers and sisters

Meanwhile, attempts to release the deposed emperor from prison did not stop. In 1756 it was decided to transport it from Kholmogory to the Shlisselburg fortress. There Ivan Antonovich was kept in solitary confinement under the name of a "famous prisoner." He did not communicate with anyone, from entertainment he was only allowed to read the Bible - the former emperor was taught to read and write. Peter III and Catherine visited him. The guards were given a secret order to kill the prisoner if they tried to release him, and this eventually happened. On July 5, 1764, Ivan was stabbed to death when Lieutenant Mirovich, at the head of the soldiers of the guard service, demanded to release the prisoner.

The family did not find out about this - the father and his already grown children continued to live in Kholmogory. Empress Catherine allowed Anton Ulrich to leave Russia, but the Duke of Braunschweig refused to leave. He died in 1774. Six years later, Anna Leopoldovna's children still went to Europe thanks to the patronage of their aunt, Queen Juliana Maria of Denmark. They were settled in Jutland in the city of Gorsens. Despite a rather generous pension from the Russian treasury, Ivan Antonovich's brothers and sisters had a hard life. They were forbidden to marry, and of the languages they knew only Russian. The last of the family to die was Catherine - the one who found her older brother and the coup in the bedroom of the Winter Palace.

The negative attitude towards the Brunschweig family was associated with the consequences of the Bironovism. Perhaps it is true that not everything is so simple, and the advance of the Germans is an example of in which Anna Ioannovna is accused in vain.