Enchanted soul. Anna Petrovna-Tsesarevna, daughter of Peter I and Catherine I Years of Anna Petrovna's reign

Tsesarevna, Duchess of Holstein, second daughter of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna, b. January 27, 1708 in Moscow, died on May 4 (15), 1728, in Kiel. The first mention of the beloved daughter of Peter the Great is found in "Jurmala" in 1711, under February 3, where it says: "The Ministers of His Tsar's Majesty all dined and had a lot of fun, because that day was the birthday girl of the little princess Anna Petrovna." At first, Ekaterina Alekseevna kept her daughters very simply and not quite openly, but after the announcement of marriage, the princesses Anna and Elizabeth received a separate room, a separate table and a special servant.

Parents took care to give their daughters the best upbringing for that time.

For eight years, Princess Anna Petrovna herself wrote letters to her mother.

In 1716, a “dokhturitsa” Greek Lavra Palikala was called to the royal children in St. Petersburg; in the same year, the Italian Countess Marianna Maniyani arrived in the capital, taking the place of an educator with the princesses in the month of November; even earlier they were: Viscountess Latour-Lanois, who accompanied Anna Petrovna to Holstein, and the "master of the German language" Glick. Thus, the princesses studied French, German and Italian, which they later spoke fluently; since childhood, surrounded by natives of Ingria, who knew the Swedish language, they gradually learned to speak Swedish.

In the study of Peter the Great, there are several congratulatory letters from Princess Anna to her father, written in German. In addition to languages, the princesses were taught various dances by dance master Stefan Ramburg, which, according to Berchholz, they performed excellently.

When Princess Anna was thirteen years old (March 17, 1721), the seeker of her hand, the nephew of the Swedish King Charles XII, Duke Karl-Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, came to Riga.

In his retinue was Privy Councilor Count Bassevich, who had previously been in Russia, as an envoy from the Holstein Court, and soon the chamber junker Berchholtz was demanded from Paris, who left a precious diary about the Duke's stay in Russia (1721-1726). Wishing to get to know the groom better, the Emperor and Empress went to Riga and spent the whole spring there. The first meeting of the Tsar with his future son-in-law took place on March 20th. Peter the Great found the duke suitable for his political views and invited him to come to Revel, and then to Petersburg.

The courtship of Karl-Friedrich settled after several refusals.

The rapprochement of the Holstein Court with the Russian was conceived by Baron Hertz, a well-known minister, first Holstein, and then Swedish.

With the help of this rapprochement, according to his plan, the exaltation of Holstein, devastated by Denmark and deprived in 1714 of the Duchy of Schleswig, was to be accomplished.

After long negotiations, Peter the Great finally agreed to the patronage of Frederick Charles. In 1718, the childless Charles XII died, the Swedish throne was supposed to go to the son of the elder sister of the king, the Duke of Holstein, but he was rejected by the Swedes and the crown, with the restriction of power, was offered by the Swedish state officials to Ulrike-Eleonora, the younger sister of Charles XII. Peter the Great believed that, having in his hands the legitimate heir to the Swedish throne, he would more likely achieve a peace favorable to Russia. These calculations were fully justified; only the duke's hopes did not come true, although Peter I ordered Bruce and Osterman to make peace with Sweden only on the condition that the Swedes recognize Karl Friedrich as the heir to the royal throne and promise to restore him, with the help of Russia, in possession of the duchy of Schleswig.

The Swedes did not want to hear about this and only at the intensified insistence of Peter the Great did they grant the duke the title of royal highness; later, in 1724, however, they promised to try, together with Russia, to return Schleswig to him (a treaty between Russia and Sweden on February 22 (March 4), 1724), but nothing came of these promises. The solemn entry of the Duke of Holstein into St. Petersburg took place on June 27, 1721. Berchholtz arrived before him, having had the opportunity two days before, on the day of the coronation of Peter the Great, to see the entire royal family at a feast in the Summer Garden. “Our eyes,” writes Berchholtz, “immediately turned to the eldest princess, a brunette and beautiful as an angel. Her complexion, hands and figure are wonderfully good.

She is very similar to the tsar and is rather tall for a woman. "Subsequently, in 1724, before the betrothal of the princess Anna to the duke, Berkhholz noted in his diary: "In general, one can say that it is impossible to write a more charming face and find a more perfect addition than this princess.

Added to all this is the innate friendliness and courtesy that she possesses to the highest degree. ” The opinion of another Holsteiner, Count Bassevich, is equally enthusiastic.

In his "Notes" ("Russian Archive" 1864, pp. 253-254), he says: "Anna Petrovna resembled her august parent in face and character, but nature and upbringing softened everything in her. Her height, more than five feet , did not seem too high with unusually developed forms and with proportionality in all parts of the body, reaching perfection.

Nothing could be more magnificent than her posture and physiognomy, nothing more correct than the outlines of her face, and at the same time her look and smile were graceful and gentle. She had black hair and eyebrows, a complexion of dazzling whiteness, and a flush that was fresh and delicate, such as no artificiality can ever achieve; her eyes were of an indefinite color and had an unusual brilliance.

In a word, the strictest exactingness in nothing could reveal any defect in her.

All this was joined by a penetrating mind, genuine simplicity and good nature, generosity, indulgence, an excellent education and an excellent knowledge of the native languages, French, German, Italian and Swedish.

From childhood, she was distinguished by fearlessness, which foreshadowed a heroine in her, and resourcefulness. "In contrast to his bride, the Duke of Holstein was not distinguished by either intelligence or beauty.

He was not tall and had no particular attractiveness in facial features. Indifferent to intellectual interests, reading nothing, carefree and prone to petty formalism, Karl Friedrich liked to spend time in a toast-collegium.

Life in St. Petersburg and Moscow, during the first three years of the duke's stay in Russia, full of languid uncertainty, increased his inclination towards wine. Karl-Friedrich did not feel special love for his bride and, without hiding from her, expressed sympathy for Elizabeth Petrovna in front of her.

Although Princess Anna "in any case, - according to Berchholz, - was unusually kind to the duke," the statement of the author of the diary is hardly true. that the bride felt sincere and tender affection for Karl-Friedrich.

After the duke's three-year stay in Russia, Peter the Great finally decided to conclude a marriage contract with him. On November 22, after lengthy meetings between Osterman and Karl Friedrich and the Holstein Privy Councilors Stamke and Bassevichna, the mutual marriage conditions were finally formulated, and on the Empress's name day, November 24, they were signed at the solemn betrothal of the duke to Tsarina Anna. The contract consisted of the 21st article, which provided for the future household of the princess and her children, appointed a staff for her, determined a dowry (300,000 rubles at a time, except for precious things and attire) and the rights of the future duchess’s offspring, etc. By virtue of the contract, princess Anna she kept the faith of her ancestors and had to educate her daughters in her rules; sons had to profess Lutheranism.

The Tsesarevna and the Duke renounced for themselves and for all their descendants "from all rights, demands, deeds and claims to the crown of the Russian Empire." By mutual agreement of the Emperor and the Duke, three "secret articles" were attached to the then published contract, in which Peter the Great granted himself "the power and the ability," at his discretion, "to call for the succession of the crown and empire of the All-Russian one of the natives of this marriage princes", and in this case the duke pledged to immediately fulfill the will of the Emperor, "without any conditions." In the event of the death of the then reigning king of Sweden, Peter promised to help the duke in every way to achieve the Swedish throne.

On the basis of these two articles, the son of Karl-Friedrich was called by Empress Elizabeth to inherit the All-Russian throne and almost simultaneously invited by Swedish government officials to occupy the Swedish throne. ancestors, the Duchy of Schleswig, which had been illegally owned by the Danish king for many years.

After the betrothal, the Emperor, according to Bassevich, often talked with the princess and the duke about government affairs and tried to let them in on his plans and intentions.

Soon it was supposed to take place and the marriage, but there was a delay due to the preparation of the dowry (from France they expected the import of diamond items for a wedding gift).

At this time, the Monarch suffered an illness and an unexpected death for everyone.

After the unction, on January 26, feeling short-term relief and, probably thinking about the succession to the throne, Peter demanded a slate and wrote on it: "Give everything" ... Further, the hand did not obey.

The dying Emperor ordered Anna Petrovna to be called and wanted to dictate to her; but when she approached the bed, Peter could no longer speak.

No one doubted that the last words written by Peter referred to the eldest beloved daughter, but by virtue of the marriage contract, she could not be considered the heir to the throne.

Empress Catherine I did not change the contract in any way, and after Easter she ordered to start building, on the banks of the Neva, in the Summer Garden, a vast hall for the celebration of marriage. On April 19, the Duke of Holstein's birthday was celebrated for the first time at the Court.

Soon after, Karl-Friedrich hired for 3,000 rubles, to live with his wife, a three-story stone house from General Admiral Apraksin.

This house was located on the site of the Saltykovsky entrance of the current Winter Palace. May 21, at the Church of St. Trinity (on the Petersburg Side) a marriage was performed.

Shortly after the wedding, quarrels began to occur between the newlyweds; the duke's addiction to wine and outbursts of his unfounded jealousy were the reasons for the cooling of the spouses.

Empress Catherine, on the contrary, showed more and more favor to her son-in-law every day: for example, on February 17, 1726, she appointed him to sit in the newly established Supreme Privy Council, and on Easter Day granted him lieutenant colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment; in addition, the Empress wanted to accept armed mediation in the case of Holstein with Denmark, but this was prevented by the unexpected appearance, in the spring of 1726, of an English squadron in the Gulf of Finland.

The elevation of the duke did not please Menshikov, who, after the death of Catherine I, did not fail to take advantage of his position and his power to make the duke feel his superiority.

For about three months, the duke endured the persecution of the temporary worker.

Due to his timidity and weakness of character, Karl-Friedrich could not take advantage of favorable circumstances and, relying on many zealous followers of Anna Petrovna, achieve power.

Instead, he decided to leave Russia with his wife, about which Shtamke and Bassevich filed a memorial to the Privy Council on June 28. The fourteen points of this memorial contained, among other things, demands for the renewal of Peter I's treatises with Sweden, for the issuance of copies from the will of the Empress, for the immediate release of 100,000 rubles. designated annual maintenance, on the issuance of 200,000 rubles. for travel expenses on account of the million bequeathed by Catherine I, with the installments of the rest for eight years equally, etc. A copy from the spiritual will was not seen; regarding the succession to the Swedish throne, the council replied that "this is the will of His Imperial Majesty of All Russia, and no outsider can interfere in this matter," and accepted the monetary demands.

To deliver the duke and duchess and their Court to Holstein, the council appointed a frigate and six ships, under the command of Vice Admiral Senyavin.

Before leaving, the Holstein ministers once again informed the council "the princess's regret that, because she did not share with her sister, she could not take anything with her for the memory of her mother" and asked, at least, to paint things; but the council replied that a special commission would be appointed in due time for the partition, and the duchess would receive everything that was due to her. On July 25, 1727, Anna Petrovna left Russia with her husband.

Her stay in a foreign land was very sad, the main reason for which was the cold relationship between the spouses, who lived in different halves and did not even dine together.

In her notes, Catherine II reports that the duchess died of consumption. “She was crushed,” writes Catherine, “there (that is, in Kiel) life and an unhappy marriage.” On February 10 (21), 1728, Anna Petrovna "happily gave birth to Prince Karl-Peter-Ulrich" (later Emperor Peter III), for whom the Kiel magistrate made a silver cradle, upholstered inside with blue velvet, and on the 4th (15- th) May "in the night, in the 21st year of her birth, she passed away with a fever," as the official report said.

Dying, Anna Petrovna asked to be buried next to her father. Upon receiving news of this, the Supreme Privy Council ordered Major General Ivan Bibikov, President of the Revision College, with one archimandrite and two priests, to be sent to Holstein for the body of the crown princess, accompanied by one frigate.

The squadron was commanded by Rear Admiral Bredal. On October 12, the council, having received a report about the arrival of the body of the duchess in Kronstadt, ordered Minich "to meet the body with due honor and bury it in the Peter and Paul Cathedral." Preparations took about a month, and the burial took place only on November 12, near the northern wall of the cathedral, in the second row from the iconostasis. The court at that time was in Moscow. "Diary of Kammer Junker Berchholtz", trans. from German I. Ammon, Moscow, 1857-1860. - "Russian Archive" 1864 ("Notes of Count Bassevich"). - K. Arsenyev, "The Reign of Catherine I", St. Petersburg, 1856. - K. Arsenyev, "The Reign of Peter II", St. Petersburg, 1839. - "Dawn" 1870, No. 11 ("Tsesarevna Anna Petrovna", biographical essay by P. Petrov), "Illustration" 1861, nos. 199 and 200. Hermann, "Geschichte des russischen Staates", IV. - "Readings in the Imperial Moscow Society of History and Ancient Russian" 1858, vol. III. Encyclop. dictionaries: comp. Russian scientist and lit., vol. 4, and Brockhaus-Efron, half volume II. "Collection", vols. 91 and 6. "Senate Archive", vols. III, IV and VII. S. Tr. (Polovtsov) Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter I (Tsesarevna and Duchess of Holstein) - 2nd daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I, born January 27, 1708, † March 4, 1728. The future husband of Anna Petrovna, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Friedrich- Karl, arrived in Russia in 1720 in the hope, with the help of Peter the Great, to return Schleswig from Denmark and acquire again the right to the Swedish throne.

The peace of Nystadt (1721) deceived the duke's expectations, since Russia pledged not to interfere in the internal affairs of Sweden, but the duke got the hope of marrying the emperor's daughter, princess Anna Petrovna. On November 22, 1724, the marriage contract long desired for the duke was signed, according to which, by the way, Anna Petrovna and the duke renounced for themselves and for their descendants all rights and claims to the crown of the Russian Empire.

But at the same time, Peter gave himself the right, at his own discretion, to call for the succession of the crown and the All-Russian Empire to one of the princes born from this marriage, and the duke undertook to fulfill the will of the emperor without any conditions.

In January 1725, Peter fell dangerously ill and shortly before his death he began to write: "to give everything ...", but he could not continue further and sent for Anna Petrovna to dictate his last will to her; but when the princess appeared, the emperor had already lost his tongue. There is news that Peter, who loved Anna very much, wanted to transfer the throne to her.

The marriage of the duke with Anna Petrovna took place already under Catherine I - on May 21, 1725, in the Trinity Church on the Petersburg side.

Soon the duke was made a member of the newly established Supreme Privy Council, and in general began to enjoy great importance.

The position of the duke changed after the death of Catherine († in 1727), when power passed entirely into the hands of Menshikov, who intended to marry Peter II to his daughter.

Menshikov quarreled with the Duke of Holstein, whose wife the party opposed to Peter II did not want to see on the throne, and ensured that the Duke and Anna Petrovna left Petersburg on July 25, 1727 and left for Holstein.

Here Anna Petrovna † March 4, 1728, barely reaching the age of twenty, having been relieved of the burden by her son Karl-Peter-Ulrich (later Emperor Peter III). Before her death, Anna Petrovna expressed a desire to be buried in Russia near the grave of her father in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was done on November 12 of the same year. According to contemporaries, Anna Petrovna very much resembled her father in face, she was smart and beautiful; very educated, spoke excellent French, German, Italian and Swedish.

It is also known that Anna Petrovna was very fond of children and was distinguished by affection for her nephew Peter (the son of the unfortunate Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich), who remained in the shadows during the reign of Catherine I. (Brockhaus)

The Grand Duchess, Tsesarevna and Duchess of Holstein, the eldest daughter of Peter the Great and Anna Petrovna, was born in Moscow on January 27, 1708. At the birth of Anna, her mother was still simply the mistress of Peter I. As you know, the marriage of Peter and Ekaterina Alekseevna was not consecrated by the church for a long time. And in 1712, the tsar decided to legalize his cordial union, which began in 1703. In February 1712 in St. Petersburg, in the then modest St. Isaac's Church, a wedding ceremony was held. Two dozen sailors and their well-dressed wives crowded into the cramped space of the wooden temple. From the side it seemed that this was an ordinary wedding of a resident of the Admiralty settlement - a skipper or an artilleryman. In fact, the Russian Tsar Peter Alekseevich and his longtime fighting girlfriend Catherine were married.

Those present at the wedding ceremony in the church saw a curious picture. The bride and groom walked around the lectern, and behind them, holding on to their mother's skirt, two lovely little girls stomped awkwardly. One (Anna) was four, the other () was three years old. So Anna and Elizabeth, beloved daughters of Peter, were legalized (“married”), although the vengeful folk memory of this story has not forgotten, and more than once the Empress Elizabeth was called a “bastard”, born before marriage, “in fornication”. But Peter, as in other matters, did not care about the opinion of the people, for whom he always kept a thick stick ready. And on that February day, it was only possible to understand that the tsar was crowned in St. Isaac's Church by the fact that the guests went in a friendly crowd not to the Four Frigates austeria, but to the Winter Palace. The wedding was a success - the guests were not soldered, as Peter usually did, and at the beginning of the evening, the girls - Anna and Elizabeth - who were tired of the ceremony, were taken away to sleep by the nannies in the inner chambers. This was the first appearance in the world of Peter's daughters.

The girls grew up surrounded by the love and caress of their parents. Anna mastered the basics of spelling early: at the age of six she made additions to letters to her father. In a letter sent in July 1714 from Revel, Catherine writes to Peter: "These days I received letters written to your mercy from St. Petersburg from our children, in which Annushka attributed her name to the letter with her pen." For eight years, Anna herself wrote letters to her mother and father, signing them "Princess Anna", which caused the king's stormy delight. A significant place in her upbringing was occupied by the study of languages. The tutor of the princesses Anna and Elizabeth was the Italian Countess Marianna Magnani, they were accompanied by the Viscountess Datur-Danua, who later accompanied Anna Petrovna to Holstein, and the "master of the German language" Glik. So from childhood, the princesses mastered French, Swedish, Italian and German. The archives of Peter I contain several congratulatory letters from Anna to her father, written in German. In addition to languages, the princesses studied dancing with dance master Stefan Ramburg. In this science they were very successful and danced admirably. With great grace and grace they fluttered through the palace halls like little angels. The impression was completed by miniature wings attached to the dresses behind the girls' shoulders.

Foreigners who visited the court in the early 1720s were amazed at the extraordinary beauty of the grown princesses. Dark-eyed Anna differed from the blonde Elizabeth not only in appearance, but also in disposition: she was calmer, more reasonable, smarter than her sister, her modesty and shyness were striking to everyone. When he first saw her, the chamber junker F. Berkhholz wrote: "Brunette - and beautiful, like an angel." As a contemporary writes, there was a funny hitch during the Christening at Easter. When a noble foreign guest wanted to kiss the 14-year-old Anna, she was terribly embarrassed and blushed, while the youngest, Elizabeth, "immediately offered her pink mouth for a kiss."

Contemporaries were delighted with Anna. One of them wrote: "It was a beautiful soul in a beautiful body. She, both in appearance and in circulation, was a perfect likeness of him (Peter I), especially in terms of character and mind, improved by her heart full of kindness." According to the unanimous recognition of contemporaries, outwardly Anna looked like her father. In the notes of one of them, Lavi, dated June 19, 1719, we find: "The eldest princess is the spitting image of a portrait of the king-father, too economical for a princess and wants to know everything." Even in height, which was immediately noticeable, for a woman then quite tall (more than five feet), Anna turned out to be all in her father. Another review has also been preserved - the Holsteiner Count Basevich: "Anna Petrovna looked like her august parent in face and character, but nature and upbringing softened everything in her."

At the same time, everyone understood that girls in the royal family are always a political bargaining chip: they are married off abroad in order to get political capital from this power. And he was very much needed by the young Petrine Russia, which had just burst into the high society of Europe under the thunder of the victorious guns of Poltava. This society was exclusively monarchical, it resembled a large unfriendly family, whose members were all related, and the roots of the dynastic trees of European monarchs were intertwined like the roots of trees growing nearby. And Peter began his dynastic offensive in Europe: he married his son to the Wolfenbüttel Crown Princess Christine-Charlotte, married his niece Anna Ioannovna to the Duke of Courland, and her sister Catherine to the Duke of Brunswick, started negotiations with Versailles: the youngest daughter Elizabeth was almost the same age as the young Louis XV . The fate of the eldest daughter, Anna Petrovna, the emperor was silent. Apparently, pitying his beloved daughters, he dragged on with their marriage, causing bewilderment of diplomats and suitors.

The hands of Anna Petrovna were sought by the crown princes of Spain and Prussia, the dukes of Chartres and Holstein. One of them, the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, Karl-Friedrich, had been hanging around in St. Petersburg for three years as a groom, however, he did not know which of Peter's daughters, and all the time wondered - black or white? Karl-Friedrich was the native nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII and could with good reason claim the Swedish throne. The duke's own possessions became the prey of Denmark, and for the time being he was forced to seek shelter in Russia. Karl-Friedrich came to Russia in 1721 in the hope, with the help of Peter the Great, to return Schleswig from Denmark and again acquire the right to the Swedish throne. The Peace of Nishtad (1721) deceived the duke's expectations, since Russia pledged not to interfere in the internal affairs of Sweden, but the duke got the hope of marrying the emperor's daughter, the Russian princess Anna Petrovna. But not only Peter showed indecision, fearing to be left without daughters in an empty house. The girls themselves, too, as the French ambassador wrote, "immediately began to cry as soon as they were talking about marriage." All this is a sure sign of a happy family, which is afraid of separation.

But in 1724, Peter nevertheless made up his mind and married Anna to the Duke of Holstein. Extraordinary circumstances forced the king to take this step. In the fall of this year, it turned out that Empress Catherine, the wife of Peter and heir to the Russian throne, was cheating on him with her chief chamberlain Vilim Mons. Peter was concerned not so much with this betrayal as with the future of the dynasty, the fate of his huge inheritance. He tore up the will in favor of Catherine and invited Vice-Chancellor Andrey Osterman to come to him. Further, events began to unfold rapidly: the Russian-Holstein marriage negotiations that had dragged on for several years ended in two days, and on October 24, 1724, the young people were betrothed. Anna's fate was sealed. On November 22, 1724, a marriage contract long desired for the duke was signed in St. Petersburg, according to which, by the way, Anna and the duke renounced for themselves and for their descendants all rights and claims to the crown of the Russian Empire; but at the same time, Peter reserved the right, at his own discretion, to call for the succession of the crown and the empire of All Russia one of the princes born from this marriage, and the duke undertook to fulfill the will of the emperor without any conditions. According to the same agreement, Anna preserved the faith of her ancestors and could bring up her daughters in her rules, while her sons had to profess Lutheranism.

Anna's wedding was of great foreign policy importance. Back in 1713, Denmark occupied Schleswig, part of the sovereign duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, which had access to the Baltic Sea, which was very important for Russia. Peter, marrying his eldest daughter to Karl-Friedrich, the nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII, intervened in the dispute between Denmark and Holstein, and also gained influence on Sweden. This marriage marked the beginning of a period of long Russian influence in Northern Germany. But this wedding also had an important internal political significance. If you expand the then signed marriage contract, you can find a secret clause in it, which at the time of signing the document was hidden from the public. He said that at the birth of a boy, the spouses would be obliged to give him to Peter for appointment as heir. So Peter - after the refusal of the inheritance to Catherine - wanted to decide the fate of the throne. And for this he did not regret his beloved daughter.

Anna Petrovna herself, back in 1721, signed the renunciation of all rights to the Russian throne, and in 1724 to the Swedish crown. However, the future son of Anna and Karl-Friedrich could legally claim three thrones at once - in Russia, Schleswig and Sweden! Probably, the plan of Peter I would have succeeded if the tsar had lived until February 1728, when Anna gave birth to a boy who received the name Karl-Peter-Ulrich (this was the future emperor Peter III). But fate did not allow Peter to live to see this bright dynastic day. Weeks remained before the wedding, when the unforeseen happened: Tsar Peter fell ill and died suddenly.

In January 1725, Peter fell dangerously ill and, shortly before his death, began to write: “Give everything away ...”, he could not continue further and sent for Anna to dictate his last will to her; but when the princess appeared, the emperor had already lost his tongue. There is an assumption that Peter, who loved Anna very much, wanted to transfer the throne to her, although by virtue of the marriage contract she could not be considered the heir to the throne. Dying in terrible physical agony on the night of January 28, 1725, Peter still hoped to get out, prayed passionately, with tears and waved away the people who approached him: "After! After! I will decide everything after!"

The marriage of the duke with Anna took place already under Catherine I, on May 21, 1725, in the Trinity Church on the Petersburg side. The new empress gave her daughter a magnificent wedding. Soon the duke was made a member of the newly established Supreme Privy Council and generally gained weight. Throughout the reign of Catherine I, Anna Petrovna and her husband stayed in St. Petersburg and, by the will of her mother, she was appointed the first person in the care of the infant emperor Peter II. The newlyweds lived for two years at the court of Catherine I, but as soon as she died in the spring of 1727, A.D. Menshikov set out to marry Peter II to his daughter Maria. Menshikov quarreled with the Duke of Holstein, whose wife the party opposed to Peter II did not want to see on the throne, and literally "pushed out" Peter's daughter along with her husband to Kiel. Menshikov ensured that the duke and Anna left Petersburg on July 25, 1727 and went to Holstein. Before leaving, they demanded a receipt from Anna for receiving money as a dowry, but the paper was not accepted for a long time, because there was the old title of Peter's daughter - "Crown Princess of Russia". Now she was considered neither Russian nor a princess, but just a cut off slice.

The young arrived in Kiel, where Anna's life did not work out. The husband, so cheerful and gallant in St. Petersburg, became different at home. He turned out to be rude, worthless, prone to parties and drunkenness. With some friends and girls, he often went on picnics. The Duke of Holstein had no interest in intellectual pursuits, reading, he only wanted carelessness and entertainment. “Many of his leisure activities,” F. Berchholtz wrote in his diaries, “Karl fills with either drinking parties or the most empty pastimes. some order of the “grape brush”, and after a while - the “tulip”, or “virginity”, and he respectfully favors their clownish signs with some close associates.

Loneliness became the lot of the Duchess Anna, who was pregnant by that time. She, surrounded by attention and care all her life, was not used to such treatment and began to write plaintive letters home, to her sister Elizabeth. Non-commissioned lieutenant of the Russian fleet S.I. Mordvinov recalled that when Anna gave him letters to Russia with an opportunity, she wept bitterly. In one of the letters that Mordvinov brought, it was said: "Not a single day passes that I do not cry for you, my dear sister!" Anna Petrovna's stay in a foreign land was sad: relations with. husband remained cold. On February 10, 1728, Anna had a son, Karl-Peter-Ulrich, the future Emperor Peter III, and on March 4 (15), 1728, barely reaching the age of twenty, the duchess died in Kiel from transient consumption and childbed fever.

After giving birth, she felt very ill, she was thrown into the heat, then into the cold. On the last day of her life, she burned with fever, tossed about in delirium, asked for wine. But she couldn't drink it. The palace was in turmoil as if on fire. Servants were sent to all corners of Kiel for doctors, the lights of the palace church were lit, a German priest prayed for the duchess in Latin, and nearby, confusing prayers, her faithful servant Ivanovna crawled in front of the candles. But prayers didn't help. "In the night, at the age of 21, she passed away with a fever," the official report read. However, in her "Notes" Catherine II wrote about the death of Duchess Anna in Kiel: "She was crushed by life there and an unhappy marriage."

Before her death, Anna asked for one thing - to bury her "near the father." The last will of the duchess might not have been fulfilled - other winds were already blowing in Russia. On the throne sat the son of Tsarevich Alexei Peter II, surrounded by the "old Moscow party". At the beginning of 1728, the court moved to Moscow, and it began to seem to many that it was forever, that the insane era of Peter the Great was a dream, and the city he created was a mirage over a swamp. But there, in St. Petersburg, lived a lot of people for whom the new city forever became their home, the city of their lifetime and posthumous glory. And they did not forget their king's daughter. The ship "Raphael" and the frigate "Cruiser" went to Kiel from St. Petersburg to collect the ashes of Anna. For the body of the duchess, the king's "children" came - so the great Peter affectionately called his ships. Under the shadow of the St. Andrew's flag, Peter's beloved daughter set off on her last voyage home. The coffin was transported across the Neva in a galley, long panels of crepe hanging from the sides, rinsing in the Neva water. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on November 12, 1728 next to her sovereign parents.

No one came from Moscow to the funeral of the "hereditary Russian Tsesarevna": neither Emperor Peter II Alekseevich, nor courtiers, nor diplomats, nor ministers. There was not even Lizonka's sister - she had no time: the autumn hunt began, and she, in an elegant Amazon on a magnificent horse, raced like a bird after a flock of hounds through the fields near Moscow, surrounded by brilliant cavaliers. But hundreds of Petersburgers came to say goodbye to Anna Petrovna, Russian princess and overseas duchess. These were shipbuilders, officers, sailors - in a word, loyal comrades and colleagues of the Russian shipbuilder Pyotr Mikhailov. They were unhappy: the ruling sovereign remained in Moscow, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was unfinished, traces of desolation could be seen throughout the city, the great construction site was abandoned to its fate ... Again Russia was at a crossroads, again it was not clear where it would move.

In memory of the untimely deceased August wife, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl-Friedrich in 1735 established the court order of St. Anne of four degrees with diamond signs. Since 1738, the order forever "moved" to the Russian Empire, like the son of an early deceased crown prince, who became the All-Russian Emperor Peter III Fedorovich.

Anna Petrovna, although she lived only 20 years, left her mark on Russian history. After the death of Peter II, this branch of the Romanov family ceased. And it was with the birth of the Duke of Holstein, Karl Peter Ulrich, in the future Emperor Peter III and husband of Catherine II, that the succession to the throne through the female line was continued. Anna could have become a Russian empress, and who knows what kind of queen she would have been on the Russian throne. Perhaps she would have been better than her younger sister "Lizkhen", who, even after becoming Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, thought more about dresses, balls and hunting. With Anna, the daughter of the great Peter, the long-term close dynastic connection between Russia and Germany began, in fact.

“Our eyes immediately turned to the eldest princess, a brunette, beautiful as an angel. Her complexion, hands and body are wonderfully good. When she is silent, one can read in her big beautiful eyes all the charm and greatness of the soul. But when she speaks, she does it with unconstrained tenderness.
This impression was made by the fifteen-year-old Russian princess Anna Petrovna Romanova on foreign diplomats, who considered it a great happiness to see the first beauty of Europe with their own eyes.

Anna Petrovna Romanova, daughter of Peter the Great (1708-1728)

Anna Petrovna was born in Moscow on February 7, 1708 and was considered illegitimate. Only on February 19, 1712, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great married the mother of his children, Marta Skavronskaya, baptized under the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna. Pretty as angels, Anna and Lisavet attended the wedding in the Trinity Church, beloved by their father, opposite the Peter and Paul Fortress. Children received official status. “Princess Anna” - the royal daughter proudly signed letters to her father and mother, having learned to write at the age of six. The illiterate Ekaterina, rejoicing at her academic success, dictated in response:
“For diligent teaching, I am sending you two diamond rings. Take the one you like best and give the other to your sister.”
Catherine dreamed of seeing her daughters educated, and Anna really quickly mastered four European languages.
She was not yet fourteen years old when rumors spread at court about the choice of a groom for her. With all his love for his eldest daughter, Peter was not going to consult with her about her marriage. He was fascinated by the idea of ​​intermarrying with the Duke of Holstein, the nephew of Charles the Twelfth. Karl-Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp was an unremarkable young man, in poor health. The Duke received a passport in the name of Mr. Thomson and, under the guise of a commoner, arrived in Moscow. Oddly enough, Peter liked him. Peter gave Karl-Friedrich a luxurious dacha in Sviblovo near Moscow. "August Sviblovsky summer resident" - such an unofficial title was given to the duke. He began a measured life in anticipation of the engagement. Many could envy him, because Anna Petrovna was considered the ideal of beauty of that time.
- All in the father! - admired overseas guests, admiring the Russian princess. Despite her almost childish age, she was distinguished by unusually tall stature and a beautiful figure.
Although the Duke liked the younger sister more, Elizabeth is more flirtatious and frivolous.
But Peter did not ask his opinion. Karl-Friedrich and Anna Petrovna were engaged.
The solemn event was marked by many days of drinking wine, which took three thousand bottles. The newly-made fiance diligently raised his glasses for the happiness that had come to him, trying to keep up with the Russian emperor in the amount of alcohol he had drunk.
Anna Petrovna cried and asked to postpone the wedding ...
- Mom, I don't want to leave home! she pleaded with Catherine. - Do something!
Catherine could only cry with her... Her influence on Peter was forever lost. The frivolous infatuation of the Empress with the odious German William Mons became known to the sovereign.
In the evening, the most terrible object that Anna Petrovna could only imagine appeared in the royal house. Father brought a huge jar in which M. Mons's head was floating in pure alcohol.
And that was not all. Unable to find a place for himself, Peter burst into the room where Anna was trying to learn a lesson, although all her thoughts were about her head in alcohol.
In the hands of the king was a favorite penknife, with which he never parted. Cursing inarticulately, almost growling, Peter threw the blade towards his daughter... Anna hid under the table with a screech. My father pulled out a knife stuck in the wall and left, slamming the door. The massive tree has cracked...
Peter had only two months to live. The fits of rage were repeated more and more often.
Anna forgave him everything.
- If I had a fiancé such as the father, I would have left with him even to Holstein, even to the ends of the world! she said to her sister.
Peter quickly passed from a state of rage to a peaceful mood.
- Let's get down to business! - on an equal footing, he offered to Anna. And consulted with her on important issues.
- In Europe, if a mother does not have the means to feed a child, she can give him to a house where he will be raised at the expense of the state treasury! Anna once said.
Peter thought. And he issued a decree on the first "houses of contempt."
Peter's favorite, Menshikov, could not fail to notice what kind of change the tsar was growing for himself.
Why didn't she die as a baby? he hissed, left alone. His task was to put his children on the throne, at any cost.
Peter was getting sick more and more often, and was not afraid. Anna's wedding was postponed under various pretexts, even such frivolous ones as a diamond jewelry forgotten in France. Anna began to hope that her father had changed his mind about marrying her off.
At court, everyone knew that since Peter broke the will in favor of Catherine, the future of the Russian throne remained vague.
On a terrible night, January 28, 1725, Anna Petrovna was summoned to her dying father. It was clear that the emperor would not rise again. Before her arrival, he tried to write something on the slate, but only the words remained: “Give it all ...” No continuation.
Either the forces left the sovereign, or the cunning courtiers erased the decisive name. Only one thing is known that it was Anna that Peter wanted to see at the last moment of his life - but he could no longer tell her anything.
The death of her father was a huge loss for Anna.
Catherine the First ascended the throne as Empress of All Rus'. She immediately hurried to give Anna in marriage. The contract was drawn up by Peter - Anna and Karl-Friedrich renounced the rights to the Russian throne, but their children could become Russian tsars under certain circumstances. Peter dreamed of seeing his grandson, born of Anna. He was going to prepare him for the management of Russia.
Fate decreed otherwise. During the two years of Catherine's reign, Anna and her husband lived in Russia. The duke even held several high-ranking positions and was in good standing among his colleagues. Catherine died unexpectedly for everyone.
Her place is taken by the young grandson of Peter, Peter II.
Rumors spread that Western spies appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg, preparing a palace coup in favor of Anna Petrovna, the daughter of the great emperor.
- Isn't it time for you, my friend, to go home? Menshikov turned to Anna Petrovna's husband. And he, showing cowardice, quickly packed up and went to Holstein. Anna dutifully followed him. A young married couple was brutally deceived, exiled from Russia. Menshikov managed to take away their entire inheritance. They arrived in Holstein almost beggars...
- Elizabeth, sister, get me out of Holstein! Anna pleaded in endless letters to Moscow. Elizabeth did not have any influence at the court at that moment. She preferred not to answer her sister. She was bombarded with similar letters by another relative, Anna Ioannovna, who vegetated in Courland.
“We trust in God,” Elizabeth decided and went hunting.
Anna waited in vain for her letters. And the young Tsar Peter II, once so affectionate with her, now completely forgot about her.
My husband has also changed, not for the better. If in Russia he at least pretended to be busy with state affairs, then in his homeland Karl-Friedrich completely sank. Once accustomed to drinking by Peter the Great, the duke gave himself free rein. He constantly disappeared in dubious establishments with dissolute women.
Anna Petrovna was left alone in the uncomfortable palace. No one could and did not want to improve its existence.
On a cold winter day in 1728, Anna gave birth to a son.
- Easy childbirth! the doctors rejoiced.
But the fever began. The Duchess died on 4 May 1728. She was twenty years old. Empress Catherine II will later write about Anna in her diary:
"She died in the small town of Kiel, in Holstein, with grief that she had to live there."
The news of her death reached Russia only a month later. The Spanish duke, who was at the Russian court at that time, informed his king:
“The Russians were little saddened by this sad news, and the tsar himself was not sad, but he ordered to wear mourning for three months.”
Anna Petrovna bequeathed to be buried in Russia, in St. Petersburg.
- Lay me near the priest - this is all that worried her before her death.
“Royal children” sailed behind her body, as Peter the Great called the ships “Raphael” and “Cruiser” created by him.
In 1728 St. Petersburg was half-empty and abandoned… The great construction work stopped for an indefinite period. The entire royal court moved to the usual wealthy Moscow. Neither Elizaveta Petrovna nor Peter II came to the funeral of Anna Petrovna. On her last journey, she was escorted by hundreds of the first Petersburgers who remained in the cold foggy city so that the brainchild of Peter continued to live.
In the unfinished Peter and Paul Cathedral on November 12, 1728, a young beauty, the Russian Crown Princess, who gave rise to the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty, found her rest. Born for a glorious, glorious life, she died unhappy. But the task set by the crowned parent, Anna Petrovna completed. Her son became Emperor of Russia, Peter the Third, and all subsequent Russian emperors were her direct descendants.
In honor of his untimely deceased mother, Peter the Third established the Order of St. Anna, mother of the Virgin. The sad circumstances of the birth of the first representative of the dynasty seemed to have left their mark on the fate of the Romanov family, whose reign ended tragically. One can only guess what would have happened to all of Russia if the daughter of the great Peter had not left for Holstein and still found the strength to claim the Russian throne.
After all, they talked about her:
“It was a beautiful soul in a beautiful body ... she, both in appearance and in circulation, was a perfect likeness of Emperor Peter, perfected by her kind heart.”

"Portrait of Anna Petrovna (1708-1728)".
First half of the 19th century.

Portrait of Anna Petrovna (1708-1728)

Eldest daughter of Peter I and Catherine I, wife of Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp (1700-1739). Mother of Karl Peter Ulrich, future Russian Emperor Peter III (1728-1762)

Winter Palace of PeterI, St. Petersburg.

"Portrait of princesses Anna Petrovna and Elizaveta Petrovna".
1717.

Waiting for grandson

On November 9, 1724, Peter, as already mentioned, met face to face with Mons, and on the 10th, early in the morning, he sent Vice-Chancellor Andrei Ivanovich Osterman to the Duke of Holstein, Karl Friedrich. This German ruler of the north German duchy came to Russia as early as 1721 in the hope of receiving Russian help and the hand of one of the tsar's daughters - either Anna or Elizabeth. He had to wait a long time - Peter doubted the benefits for Russia of this marriage, and it was a pity to part with his beloved daughters. Therefore, he pulled and did not give his consent to the marriage of the duke with Anna or Elizabeth. And suddenly he made up his mind - the Mons case sharply pushed him. On November 24, the king and duke signed a marriage contract. The tsar gave Karl Friedrich his eldest daughter, sixteen-year-old Anna, but the future spouses renounced “for themselves, their heirs and male and female offspring from all rights, claims and claims to the crown and the All-Russian empire ... from now on forever.” But a secret agreement was immediately signed, according to which Peter received the right to take the son born from this marriage to Russia (even against the will of his parents!) To make him heir to the Russian throne.

Catherine lost. Now we know that for several years she, using her influence over her husband, led a secret intrigue against ... her own daughter Anna. This smart, beautiful girl was known as her father's favorite and, according to many observers, the emperor thought about transferring the throne to her. There are facts saying that it was in favor of Anna that he signed a will after the unexpected death of Tsarevich Peter Petrovich. Catherine, on the other hand, sought to marry Anna to one of the foreign princes and thereby make room for herself. And the queen got her way. On the eve of her coronation in Moscow in the spring of 1724, Peter rewrote the will for his "hearted friend." It was Catherine who was to become his successor.

The Mons case changed everything. The French envoy Campredon wrote in his report that Peter had become suspicious and stern, he was “very excited that there are traitors among his household and servants. There is talk of the complete disfavor of Prince Menshikov and Major General Mamonov, whom the tsar trusted almost unconditionally. They also talk about the tsar's secretary Makarov, and the tsarina is also afraid. Her attitude towards Mons was known to everyone, and although the empress tries with all her might to hide her grief, it is still clearly visible both on her face and in her manner. The whole society is waiting tensely for what will happen to her.” By an agreement with the Holsteiners and the betrothal of the bride and groom carried out on the same day, Peter solved for himself a puzzling dynastic problem. With a stroke of the pen, he deprived his wife-traitor of the right to inherit, and also closed the path to the throne for his nine-year-old grandson Peter Alekseevich, the son of Tsarevich Alexei.

The fifty-two-year-old tsar, hoping to live at least a few more years, hoped to wait for the longed-for grandson from Anna, dear to him, in order to call him to Russia and make him his heir. It was really doable - after all, on February 10, 1728, Anna really gave birth to a boy, Karl Peter Ulrich, who was subsequently called by his aunt, Empress Elizabeth, and declared the heir to the Russian throne, Peter Fedorovich. Only Peter did not live to see this day, he was not destined to wait for his grandson - death following the betrayal has already mixed up all his cards for the umpteenth time. The emperor died on the morning of January 28, 1725 in torment, physical and mental, without deciding anything.

Evgeny Anisimov. "Women on the Russian Throne".

"Portrait of Princess Anna Petrovna".
Not later than 1716.

Meanwhile, on November 24, on the empress's name day, the betrothal of the duke of Holstein to the princess Anna took place. During the betrothal, the Tsesarevna renounced for herself and for her offspring any claims to the Russian throne. Peter apparently had some of his own assumptions about the succession, which he did not open. But Anna's refusal legitimately converged with the previous decree of Peter, by which the sovereign granted the right to every reigning sovereign to appoint a successor according to himself. Fate arranged in defiance of the refusal signed then by the Tsarina: it was her offspring, and not the offspring of anyone else, who were destined to establish themselves on the Russian throne, which Peter so strangely betrayed to the arbitrariness of any reigning person.

N. I. Kostomarov. "Russian history in the biographies of its main figures". St. Petersburg, "All". 2005 year.

"Anna Petrovna".
1725.

The Order of Anna was established in 1735 by the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Karl-Friedrich, in memory of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter I, who had died shortly before that. From the beginning of the 1740s, when the Holstein Crown Prince Peter Ulrich, the future Russian Emperor Peter III, this order was also awarded to Russian subjects. This order was introduced into the system of Russian awards in 1797 by Pavel ...

V. A. Durov. "Russian Orders for the Patriotic War of 1812". "Questions of History" No. 5 1988.