She did not promote the Germans, did not ruin Russia, did not leave the course of Peter: what is Anna Ioannovna accused of in vain?

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

Anna Ioannovna, niece of Peter the Great, went down in history with a terrible image. For what they just did not reproach the second ruling queen of Russia: for tyranny and ignorance, craving for luxury, indifference to state affairs and for the fact that the dominance of the Germans was in power. Anna Ioannovna had a lot of bad character, but the myth about her as an unsuccessful ruler who gave Russia to be torn apart by foreigners is very far from the real historical picture.

A princess without a royal life

Before Peter I, the fate of the Russian princesses was exclusively the same: they were tonsured as nuns. The fact is that there was no one to marry the tsar's daughters to anyone: the subjects were no equal, the foreigners were infidels. And the girl, for whom marriage does not shine, was given to the monastery by default, regardless of inclinations and desire.

Peter decided to revive the tradition of dynastic marriage. He married the daughter of his half-brother and co-ruler of Ivan V, Anna, to the Duke of Courland, Friedrich Wilhelm. Courland was located in the west of modern Latvia and from 1561 to 1795 it was ruled by the Germans, a people that Peter liked very much.

Family life did not work out: since the wedding, Friedrich Wilhelm drunk unrestrainedly. And, although the young people left for Courland soon after the wedding, the duke did not get there, drinking to death. Anna became a widow in less than three months of marriage, and forever acquired a hatred of drunkenness and the smell of alcohol.

She was not allowed to return home for a long time. She had to stay in Courland out of the interests of the Russian Empire. The local nobility openly laughed at the duchess: she could not correctly connect two words in German, although she understood speech by ear, was amazingly uneducated (the ability to understand literature and history was valued in society more than geography and arithmetic, which was taught to the daughters of Ivan V). In addition, in a year without an owner, the castle of the Duke of Courland was plundered, the domain was ruined, and there was clearly not enough money for the slightest entertainment expenses. Anna did not live at all as the duchess was supposed to - covering her dresses, not being able to keep a full-fledged staff of servants, and even more so not allowing herself delicacies.

With no other support, Anna sought solace in a man's arms. Her lover was Count Pyotr Bestuzhev-Riumin, who was assigned to her by her uncle to help fulfill the financial interests of the young duchess. The count was thirty years older, but, on the one hand, showed unremitting care (albeit according to his position), on the other, he turned out to be the only man of her circle with whom one could speak Russian heart to heart.

It is unlikely that the passion between them was hot. Although Anna and Peter remained lovers for about ten years in a row, she instantly agreed to a marriage proposal from Count Moritz, the illegitimate son of a Saxon elector, who was also chosen by the local nobles as the Duke of Courland (Anna, as a woman, was not supposed to rule the duchy and it passed with the death of her husband to his uncle; the uncle, however, for the sake of the crown did not want to return from Sweden, so it was easy for Moritz to take his place). However, Moritz was very inappropriate from the point of view of Russian state interests, so Anna was not allowed to marry him, and Moritz was expelled.

After Anna tried to support Moritz, and Russia drove him out, both the Courland nobles and the Russian authorities became angry with the poor widow. St. Petersburg recalled Bestuzhev, with whom Anna was reconciled, and the Courlanders cut the maintenance of the Russian duchess to literally beggarly. Parting with Peter was very difficult for Anna, but it happened for the better: soon she met the love of her life. The same Biron.

Young, a couple of years older, German, handsome, intelligent, able to be courteous, mocking, has served Anna for a long time - he managed her estate. Upon the departure of Bestuzhev, Biron took over his duties and began to communicate much more with his mistress. They became close. When Peter II died and the Russian nobility elevated Anna to the throne, she took Biron with her to St. Petersburg. The time of his reign would later be called "Bironovism" - although in fact, Biron never held special posts under Anna and never did much of what was attributed to him.

Lady of All Russia

According to Anna Ioannovna, it was very noticeable that she was not prepared for the role of the ruling queen. She often behaved like a tyrant landowner, and all the stories about cruel treatment of jesters and nobles are true. The intelligence of her fun did not differ. She loved to shoot with a gun at animals and birds, which were deliberately caught and released in front of her, and she shot very accurately; she adored giving feasts, arranging carnivals, watching jesters perform, listening to gossip, and making the lady-in-waiting sing folk songs for hours.

In addition, after several conspiracies in a row at the very beginning of the reign, the queen began to suffer from paranoia. Under her, the secret police flourished, denunciations, torture, instant arrests by people in masks, and the participants in the conspiracies were subjected to such cruel punishments, which, to tell the truth, were normal under other kings, but, starting with Elizabeth, were already considered incredibly sadistic … Later, it was Biron who was accused of arrests and torture. After all, everyone knew his venomous, arrogant nature.

However, Anna Ioannovna approached the question of her state duties seriously. After Peter II and Catherine I, she got a country with serious economic problems. The peasants groaned under unbearable taxes, and these taxes had to be beaten out by the army. Among the nobles, banal illiteracy and bad manners were still the norm - something for which Anna Ioannovna had to be embarrassed at one time in front of the Germans in Courland. State institutions were in complete disarray, their interaction was confusing, and they often duplicated each other's functions.

For the entire first year of her reign, Anna Ioannovna, adjusting the work, served at the meetings of the Cabinet of the Minister, with which she replaced the Supreme Privy Council. The Cabinet that formed under her really consisted of Germans, but these were Germans who made a career even under Peter I. Only Biron was new, but it was he who differed from his fellow tribesmen in that he promoted not only other Germans, but also Russians to the places of high-ranking officials, quite trusting local cadres (after careful selection, of course): nevertheless, many nobles after Peter's reforms received an excellent education and patriotic upbringing. As researchers of the archives will find out later, Biron had nothing to do with the affairs of the secret police.

Anna Ioannovna made it compulsory for noblemen to receive education from the age of seven and attestation of those noble children who studied at home; changed taxation, making it easier for both the peasantry and tax collectors (and completely removing the army from the process); streamlined the work of state institutions; equalized the salaries of German and Russian officials (before her, foreigners received more) and introduced the principle of equality before the law for the work of the court for all free estates. She also convened the Senate again.

Following the precepts of Peter, Anna Ioannovna restored the practically collapsed Russian fleet, reformed the army, and both carried out both effectively enough to recapture Moldova from Turkey, which became part of the Russian Empire. She also limited the period of public or military service for nobles to twenty-five years - now they had the right to resign after the expiration of the term.

It is impossible to call Anna Ioannovna a pleasant person and humanism was, no doubt, alien to this woman brought up half according to the old precepts. Under her, many people were condemned for some dissatisfied speeches, and without such fun as a queen, she would have been much better. But the next ruling empress, Elizabeth, who jealously watched the accession of Peter's niece instead of her, his beloved daughter, made her useless for the country, indifferent to the affairs of the state.

Anna Ioannovna is not the only Russian ruler who cannot be assessed unambiguously, if we recall, for example, why in Russia they did not like Tsar Nicholas I, a sincere patriot and lover of legality.