- Empress of All Russia (1730-1740), b. Jan 28 1693, crowned 28 Apr. 1730, d. Oct 17 1740 - The second daughter of Tsar John Alekseevich and Tsarina Praskovya Feodorovna (born Saltykova), Anna Ioannovna 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: Anna Ioannovna 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, Anna Ioannovna 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 Friedrich Wilhelm in the fall 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, Anna Ioannovna 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 strong 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 Anna Ioannovna; but his plans were thwarted thanks to the intervention of the Petersburg cabinet. During her stay in Courland, Anna Ioannovna 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. Anna Ioannovna was elected to the throne, and with the proposal of 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. , in the court ranks of both Russians and foreigners not to be promoted, to noble ranks, both to civilian and military, land and sea "above the colonel's rank" do not favor anyone, 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 guards 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 alienated from the Court and from the most important state affairs, however, they were entrusted with the rule of the Siberian provinces."

Empress Anna Ioannovna. Portrait by L. Caravaca, 1730

Anna Ioannovna 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 Privy Council in 1731 was replaced by the Cabinet, however, equal to it in importance. 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 a decree of June 1, 1730) to involve "kind and knowledgeable people" from the gentry, clergy and merchants in the preparation of a new Code. But on the occasion of the non-appearance of the majority of the elected by the deadline (September 1st), this matter was decreed on December 10. 1730 entrusted to the conduct of a special commission, which worked on the compilation of the patrimonial and court chapters of the Code until 1744. Thus, the requests made by the nobility on February 25, 1730, remained far from being fulfilled. Nevertheless, political and economic changes took place in his position, changes due to which his official significance also changed significantly. These changes were caused, 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 in which the national economy had been since the time of Peter. Under the influence of these reasons, military service was facilitated. The Manifesto of December 31, 1736 allowed one of the gentry's sons, "whoever the father pleases, to stay 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 per person). 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 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 Stanislaw Leshchinsky continued to express his claims to the Polish throne, and the marriage of his daughter Mary 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 of various kinds of military supplies (flour, soldiers' clothes and weapons), which, when reviewed by 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 Oct. 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 Kafaya, and Minich moved southwest, won a brilliant victory at Stavuchany (August 17), took Khotyn (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, sick and 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 imminent 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.

She was born in Moscow on February 8 (January 28, old style), 1693. She was the middle daughter of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich and Praskovia Fedorovna (née Saltykova).

In 1696, Anna Ioannovna's father died, leaving a 32-year-old widow and three daughters, almost a year old. The family of Tsar John was taken in by his paternal brother Peter I under protection, which, with Peter's tough temper, turned into complete dependence.

Anna spent her childhood in the Kremlin palaces and a residence near Moscow in the village of Izmailovo. Together with her sisters Ekaterina and Paraskeva, she was educated at home.

In 1708, together with her mother and sisters, she moved to St. Petersburg.

Biography of Peter I Alekseevich RomanovPeter I was born on May 30, 1672. As a child, he was educated at home, knew German from a young age, then studied Dutch, English and French. With the help of palace masters, he mastered many crafts...

In 1710, on the basis of an agreement concluded between Tsar Peter I and the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I, Anna married the seventeen-year-old Duke of Courland Friedrich Wilhelm. The wedding took place on November 11 (October 31, old style) 1710 in the Menshikov Palace on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg, the wedding was performed according to the Orthodox rite.

On the occasion of Anna's marriage, feasts and celebrations in St. Petersburg lasted two months and, according to Peter's custom, moderation was not observed either in food or in wine drinking. As a result of such excesses, the newlywed fell ill, then caught a cold. Ignoring a cold, on January 20 (9, old style) January 1711, he left St. Petersburg for Courland with his young wife and died on the same day.

After the death of her husband, at the insistence of Peter I, Anna Ioannovna lived as a dowager duchess in Mitava (now Jelgava, Latvia). In Courland, the princess, constrained by means, led a modest lifestyle, repeatedly turning to Peter I for help, and then to Empress Catherine I.

Since 1712, she was strongly influenced by her favorite Chief Chamberlain Pyotr Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who in 1727 was pushed aside by a new favorite, Chief of Chambers Junker Ernst Johann Biron.

In 1726, Prince Alexander Menshikov, who himself intended to become the Duke of Courland, upset the marriage of Anna Ioannovna with Count Moritz of Saxony (illegitimate son of the Polish King August II and Countess Aurora Koenigsmark).

After the death of Emperor Peter II at the end of January 1730, the Supreme Privy Council, at the suggestion of Princes Dmitry Golitsyn and Vasily Dolgorukov, elected Anna Ioannovna, as the oldest in the Romanov family, to the Russian throne on conditions of limited power. According to the “conditions” or “points” delivered to Mitava and signed on February 6 (January 25, old style), 1730, Anna Ioannovna had to take care of the spread of Orthodoxy in Russia, promised not to marry, not to appoint an heir to the throne at her own discretion and save the Supreme Privy Council. Without his consent, 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, distribute court posts and make public expenditures.

On February 26 (15, old style) February 1730, Anna Ioannovna solemnly entered Moscow, where, on the basis of "conditions" on March 1, 2 (February 20, 21, old style), the highest dignitaries of the state and the generals took the oath to her.

Supporters of the autocratic power of the empress, who were in opposition to the Supreme Privy Council, in the person of Andrei Osterman, Gavriil Golovkin, Archbishop Feofan (Prokopovich), Peter Yaguzhinsky, Antioch Kantemir, as well as the majority of the generals, officers of the guards regiments and the nobility, made a petition to Anna Ioannovna with 166 signatures on the restoration of autocracy, which was filed on March 6 (February 25, old style), 1730, by Prince Ivan Trubetskoy. After listening to the petition, Anna Ioannovna publicly tore up the "conditions", accusing their drafters of deceit. On March 9 (February 28, old style), a new oath was taken from everyone to Anna Ioannovna as the autocratic empress. The Empress was crowned in Moscow on May 9 (April 28, old style), 1730.

For political reasons, about 10 thousand people were arrested during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. Many of the princes Golitsyn and Dolgoruky, who participated in the preparation of the "conditions", were imprisoned, exiled and executed. In 1740, cabinet minister Artemy Volynsky, who opposed the Bironovshchina, and his "confidants" - architect Pyotr Eropkin, adviser to the admiralty office Andrei Khrushchev, were executed on charges of high treason; exiled scientist, active Privy Councilor Fyodor Soymonov, Senator Platon Musin-Pushkin and others.

The tightening of serfdom and the tax policy towards the peasants led to popular unrest and a mass exodus of ruined peasants to the outskirts of Russia.

Positive changes took place in the field of education: the land gentry cadet corps for the nobility was established, a school for the preparation of officials was created under the Senate, a seminary for 35 young men was opened at the Academy of Sciences. By the same time, the creation of the police in large cities.

The foreign policy of Russia after the death of Peter I was for a long time in the hands of Baron Andrei Osterman. Russia's victory in 1734 in a military conflict with France over the "Polish inheritance" contributed to the establishment of King Augustus III on the Polish throne. In 1735, a war was started with Turkey, which ended in 1739 with the Belgrade peace unfavorable for Russia. The wars that Russia waged during the reign of Anna Ioannovna did not bring benefits to the empire, although they raised its prestige in Europe.

The Russian court under Anna Ioannovna was distinguished by pomp and extravagance. The Empress loved masquerades, balls, hunting (she was a good shooter). She kept numerous dwarfs, dwarfs and jesters.

On October 28 (17 according to the old style) October 1740, at the age of 47, Anna Ioannovna died of kidney disease. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

According to the will of the Empress, the throne after her reign was to go to the descendants of her sister Catherine of Mecklenburg.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Documentary "Russian tsars: the reign of Anna Ioannovna (1730–1740)" | Buffoonery at court and interesting facts.

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 into a 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.

Portrait of Tsar Ivan V, Moscow Kremlin Museums

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.

Tsaritsa Praskovya Feodorovna Saltikova, widow of Ivan V

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.

Portrait of the Duke of Courland by E. I. Biron

Russian tsars: Anna Ioannovna

Empress Anna Ioannovna. 1730s.

Portrait of Anna Ioannovna on silk. 1732

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-wagen" - 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!

Buffoonery at the Court of Anna Ioannovna

Valery Jacobi (1834-1902) Jesters at the court of Empress Anna

(The composition includes 26 figures: gathered in the bedroom of the ailing Empress Biron (sitting at her head) and the courtiers are trying to amuse the jesters playing leapfrog. This is M.A. Golitsyn (stands bent over) and N.F. Volkonsky (jumped on him), A. M. Apraksin (stretched out on the floor), jester Balakirev (towers above everyone), Pedrillo (with a violin) and d "Acosta (with a whip). Countess Biron is by the bed, state lady N.F. is playing cards at the table Lopukhina, her favorite Count Levenwolde and the Duchess of Hesse-Homburg, behind them - Count Minich and Prince N. Trubetskoy. Beside Biron - his son with biochm and the head of the Secret Chancellery A. I. Ushakov. Sitting next to - the future ruler Anna Leopoldovna, French Ambassador de Chatardie and the life doctor Lestok. On the floor, near the bed - a dwarf-cracker Kalmyk Buzheninova. To the side at a perch with parrots - the poet V. K. Trediakovsky. At the entrance - the Cabinet Minister A. Volynsky looks indignantly)

More is known about the jesters of Anna Ioannovna than about her ministers. The jester Ivan Balakirev is especially famous.

In 1735, the Empress wrote to the Moscow Governor-General Saltykov:
Semyon Andreevich! Prince Nikita Volkonsky sent someone on purpose to the village ... and led them to ask people ... how he lived and with whom he knew his neighbors, and how he received them - arrogantly or simply, also with what he amused himself, whether he went with dogs or what other kind of fun he had ... and when at home, then how he lived, and whether he had a clean mansion, didn’t he eat stumps and lay on the stove ... How many shirts did he have and for how many days he sewed a shirt.
This letter is about the new court jester, Prince Volkonsky. The search for the most worthy candidates for court fools was a responsible matter. That is why Anna wanted to know what Prince Volkonsky likes, whether he is clean, whether he spoils the air in the wards, which he enjoys in his free time from idleness.
Not every candidate could fall into court fools and "fools" (they called the crackers. - E. A.). In less than a few years, among the jesters of the court of Anna Ioannovna were the best, "selected" fools in Russia, sometimes famous people, titled. I will immediately note that the princely or county title did not open the way to jesters. At the same time, neither the jesters themselves, nor those around them, nor Anna Ioannovna, perceived the appointment as jesters as an insult to noble honor. It was clear to everyone that the jester, the fool, was fulfilling his "office", mindful of its clear boundaries. The rules of this post-game included both certain duties and certain rights. The jester, indeed, could say something impartial, but he could also suffer if he went beyond the limits set by the ruler. And yet the role of the jester was very significant, and they were afraid to offend the jester ...
In Anna's "staff" there were six jesters and about a dozen midgets - "carls".

The wedding of dwarfs in 1710.

The most experienced was the “Samoyed king” Jan d’Acosta, who was once presented by Tsar Peter I with a deserted sandy island in the Gulf of Finland. Peter often talked with the jester on theological issues - after all, the memoryful cosmopolitan, Portuguese Jew d'Acosta could compete in the knowledge of Holy Scripture with the entire Synod. Volkonsky, mentioned above, a widower, the husband of that poor Asechka, whose salon was destroyed by Menshikov, also became a full-fledged jester at Anna's court.

He had important duties - he fed the beloved dog of the Empress Tsitrinka and played an endless buffoon performance - as if he had mistakenly married Prince Golitsyn. With another jester, the Neapolitan Pietro Miro (or in the Russian, more obscene wording "Pedrillo"), Anna usually played the fool, he also kept the bank in a card game. He also performed various special assignments for the empress: he twice went to Italy and hired singers for the empress, bought fabrics, jewelry, and he himself traded in velvet. Count Alexei Petrovich Apraksin was from a noble, royal family, the nephew of General Admiral F. M. Apraksin and Queen Marfa Matveevna. This jester was a prankster by vocation. Nikita Panin said about him that he "was an unbearable jester, he always offended others and for that he was often beaten." Perhaps, for the zealous performance of his duties, he received rich awards from the empress.

The life and fate of another noble jester - Prince Mikhail Golitsyn - are very tragic. He was the grandson of Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, the first dignitary of Princess Sophia, lived with his grandfather in exile, then was enlisted as a soldier. In 1729 he went abroad. In Italy, Golitsyn converted to Catholicism, married an Italian commoner, and then returned to Russia with her and the child born in this marriage. Golitsyn carefully concealed his new faith and marriage with a foreigner. But then everything was revealed, and as punishment for his apostasy, Golitsyn was taken as a jester. Everything could have happened differently, and Golitsyn would have ended up, at best, in a monastery.
However, Empress Anna received information about the extraordinary stupidity of Golitsyn. She ordered to bring him to Petersburg and take him to court. Traces of his unfortunate Italian wife are lost in the Secret Office. Her husband lived happily at the court and received the nickname Kvasnik, because he was instructed to bring kvass to the empress. It was this Kvasnik that Anna Ioannovna decided to marry in the famous Ice House, built in the spring of 1740 on the Neva ...

Ivan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov "Ice House" Historical novel (read online)

Ice House - Valery Ivanovich JAKOBI (1833-1902)

Characters: Jester Ivan Balakirev

But still, Ivan Emelyanovich Balakirev was unanimously recognized as the main jester of the Empress Anna. A pillar nobleman, dexterous and intelligent, he liked something at court and was enlisted in the court staff. Balakirev suffered greatly at the end of the reign of Peter I, being drawn into the case of the favorite of Empress Catherine, Willim Mons. He allegedly worked as a “postman” for lovers, carrying notes, which is quite possible for a voluntary jester. For communication with Mons, Balakirev received 60 blows with sticks and was exiled to hard labor. Circumstances like these are notoriously not conducive to a humorous view of the world. Fortunately for Balakirev, Peter soon died, Catherine I rescued a faithful servant from hard labor, and under Anna Ioannovna, the retired ensign Balakirev became a jester. It was then that he became known as a great wit and an excellent actor.
Any professional buffoonery is always a performance, a performance. Anna and her entourage were big hunters for clownish performances, "plays" of jesters. Of course, behind this was the ancient perception of buffoonery as a stupid, turned inside out traditional life, the buffoonish reproduction of which made the audience laugh to the point of colic, but was sometimes incomprehensible to a foreigner, a person of a different culture. Each jester had his own, hardened role in the "performance". But Balakirev's interlude jokes, thickly mixed with obscenities, were especially funny, sometimes they dragged on for years. At the court, Balakirev's card "performance" was played out for a long time - in the court card game, he began to lose the horse. The fact that Balakirev had already lost half of the horse, Anna wrote to Moscow and asked senior officials to help the unfortunate win back the animal. Not only the courtiers and higher ranks, but also the hierarchs of the church were drawn into the buffoonish "performances" of Balakirev. Once Balakirev began to publicly complain about his wife, who refused him a bed. This "incident" became the subject of long buffoonish proceedings, and then the Synod at its meeting decided to "enter into marital intercourse as before" Balakirev with his wife. The piquancy of the whole situation was given by the well-known fact of Biron's cohabitation with Anna. Almost as openly as Balakirev's troubles were discussed at court, they said in society that Biron and Anna lived somehow very boringly, "in German, bureaucratically," and this aroused ridicule.

The laughter caused by the tricks of one jester always upset others. Periodically, obscene feuds and fights of jesters broke out, and the whole court rolled with laughter, remembering the “battles” of this “war” ... Meanwhile, the strife of jesters was serious. The struggle for the mercy of the Empress here went on with no less tension than among the courtiers and officials: with slander, meanness and even scuffle. And this was funny ... Quarrels and fights of jesters especially amused the empress. But you should know that making laugh is a dirty job and a rather vile sight. If we happened to see the jokes of Balakirev and those like him, then we would not experience anything but disgust for this obscene performance, mixed with vulgar jokes about manifestations of the "bottom". People of the past had a different attitude towards obscene words and rude antics of jesters. The psychological nature of buffoonery consisted in the fact that the jester, speaking obscenities, exposing his soul and body, gave vent to the psychic energy of the audience, which was kept under wraps by the strict, sanctimonious norms of the then morality. As the historian Ivan Zabelin writes, “that’s why a fool existed in the house to personify the stupid, but in essence, free movements of life.” Empress Anna was a hypocrite, a guardian of public morality, but at the same time she was in an illegal relationship with the married Biron. These relations were condemned by faith, law and people. The Empress knew this very well from the reports of the Secret Chancellery. Therefore, it is possible that the jesters with their obscenities and obscenities, exposing the "bottom" allowed the Empress to relieve unconscious tension, to relax. Only Balakirev himself was not funny. It was his job, service, hard and sometimes dangerous. Therefore, when Empress Anna died in 1740, Balakirev begged to go to his Ryazan village and spent there, in peace and quiet, the rest of his life - 20 years. Balakirev has already joked his own.
A notable event of the Annenskaya era was the construction in February 1740 on the ice of the Neva of the Ice Palace. This was done for the clownish wedding of Prince Mikhail Golitsyn, nicknamed Kvasnik, with Avdotya Buzheninova, a Kalmyk girl.

Near the palace stood ice bushes with ice branches, on which ice birds sat. A life-sized ice elephant trumpeted as if alive, and threw burning oil out of its trunk at night. The house itself was even more shocking: through the windows, glazed with the thinnest ice, one could see furniture, dishes, objects lying on the tables, even playing cards. And all this was made of ice, painted in natural colors for each item! There was a "cozy" ice bed in the ice bedroom.

After long ceremonies, more like bullying, the newlyweds were brought to the bedroom in a cage, like animals. Here, under the protection of soldiers, they spent the whole night so that from the cold the tooth did not fall on the tooth. But the queen and her courtiers were very pleased with the ice festival.

Legends and Rumors: Tsar Bell

Under Anna, in 1735, the famous Tsar Bell was cast for the bell tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin, as it was called in documents - “The Assumption Big Bell”. This work was entrusted to the foundry worker Ivan Matorin. The former bell, cast in 1654, fell and broke during a fire in 1701 under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Its grandiose fragments (it weighed 8,000 poods), which have since then lain at the foot of the bell tower, have attracted everyone's attention. Empress Anna in 1731 decided to cast a new, even larger bell weighing 9,000 pounds in memory of her royal grandfather. Drawings were made, on the surface of the bell were to depict the "images and persons" of Anna Ioannovna and Alexei Mikhailovich. In the autumn of 1734, casting began, or rather, kindling of copper in special blast furnaces. The furnaces burned continuously for two days, but suddenly, on the third day, part of the copper broke through and went under the furnace. Matorin, in order to make up for the loss, began to throw old bells, tin, old copper money into the furnace. However, the melted copper again escaped from the furnaces, and the structures surrounding the furnace caught fire. The fire was extinguished with difficulty, and the casting of the bell ended in complete failure. Soon, Matorin died of grief, and his son Michael, who was an assistant to his father, continued his work. On November 25, 1735, the bell was cast. We do not know when the bell received the now familiar name "Tsar Bell", but there is no other such copper monster anywhere in the world. It weighs even more than Empress Anna wanted - 12,327 pounds. After casting, the bell remained standing in a deep pit, because it was not possible to raise it. Only a hundred years later, in 1836, and even then from the second time, the great engineer and architect Auguste Montferrand, the creator of the Alexander Pillar and St. Isaac's Cathedral, managed to pull this giant out of the pit in 42 minutes and 33 seconds. Perhaps the bell would have been raised earlier, but there was no urgent need for this - no one needed it for a long time. The fact is that a year after the bell was cast, on May 29, 1737, a terrible fire began in the Kremlin. He embraced the wooden structure above the pit in which the bell stood. Firefighters put out the fire by dousing it with water. By this time, the bell had become red-hot, and as soon as the water hit it, it burst. So the biggest bell in the world never rang...

On October 5 (16), 1740, Anna Ioannovna sat down to dine with Biron. Suddenly she became ill, she fell unconscious. The disease was recognized as dangerous. Meetings began among the higher dignitaries. The issue of succession to the throne was resolved long ago, the Empress named her two-month-old child, John Antonovich, her successor. It remained to decide who would be regent until he came of age, and Biron was able to collect votes in his favor.

On October 16 (27), the ailing Empress had a seizure, which foreshadowed an imminent death. Anna Ioannovna ordered to call Osterman and Biron. In their presence, she signed both papers - about the inheritance after her of Ivan Antonovich and about the regency of Biron.

At 9 pm on October 17 (28), 1740, Anna Ioannovna died at the age of 48. Doctors declared the cause of death gout in conjunction with urolithiasis. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Peter and Paul Cathedral and Grand Duke's Tomb.

There was a time period that was included in the textbooks as the "Era of palace coups."

In a short period, many monarchs managed to rule Russia. Some managed successfully, and some did not. One of the representatives of the monarchs "" was Empress Anna Ioannovna. It is about her and will be discussed.

The reign of Anna Ioannovna Romanova lasted ten years, from 1730 to 1740. Many historians characterize the period of her reign as the time of "Bironism" - the alienation of everything Russian, and the dominance of foreigners in the ruling elite of Russian society.

Anna Ioannovna was the daughter of Ivan V Alekseevich. Ivan Alekseevich, let me remind you, was the brother of Peter I, with whom he jointly sat on the Russian throne for some time.

On January 28, 1693, Ivan V and his wife Praskovya Fedorovna, from the Saltykov family, had a daughter, Anna. Ivan V died in 1696. Since then, Anna, together with her mother and two sisters, lived in Izmailovo.

Anna Ioannovna received the most ordinary home education, without any frills. She studied dance, native and foreign languages, history. Her success in the study of sciences was very modest.

In October 1710, Peter I married his niece Anna to Duke Wilhelm of Gurlyansk. This dynastic marriage was concluded to secure the rights of the Russian state to use the Baltic ports.

The wedding festivities went on for two months with great glamor and brilliance. There was too much to drink and eat. During the celebrations, the duke caught a cold. And now it's time to go to Courland.

Ignoring health problems, Friedrich Wilhelm and his wife went to their homeland. But he could not reach his native land, he died not far from St. Petersburg.

At the insistence of Peter I, the widowed Anna still goes to live in Mitava. She was met herehostile, she constantly lived in need, complained to everyone about her fate. During the years spent in Courland, Annasettled on the favorites.

First, Bestuzhev walked among them. Later, Bestuzhev was recalled to Russia and Biron became the new favorite. Biron did not have a noble origin and that soon he would actually rule, the favorite could not have imagined.

So it would be like dragging Anna Ioannovna a miserable existence in Mitava, if not for the occasion. The emperor died unexpectedly and, during a period of dynastic crisis, she had a chance (Peter was young and had no heir), which she took advantage of.

Members of the Supreme Privy Council invited Anna Ioannovna to take the Russian throne, but at the same time she had to sign a paper limiting her powers. In fact, the members of the Supreme Privy Council wanted to create a limited monarchy in the Russian Empire.

Anna agreed, but soon broke all the agreements, becoming a full-fledged Empress. In this, the empress was supported by the guards, as well as by the society itself, which for the most part advocated autocracy.

Having become the Russian empress, Anna Ioannovna was little involved in state affairs, due to her low education. All the affairs of the Russian Empire were conducted by ministers, over whom stood the "eye" of the all-powerful a.

Domestic policy of Anna Ioannovna

However, the main events that happened in the political life of the country during the reign of Anna Ionovna are worth listing. First of all, she abolished the Supreme Privy Council and created a cabinet of ministers.

The reign of the niece of Peter I was a real tragedy for ordinary peasants. She increased the tax burden on the peasant class, later the peasants lost the right to swear allegiance to the emperor, the next step was to ban the peasants from engaging in any commercial activity.

The apogee of the unfair policy towards the Russian peasantry was the decree of 1736, which allowed the landlords to trade in serfs, as well as to engage in lynching of the guilty.

Domestic politics during her reign was brutal. The field of activity of the Secret Chancellery has expanded to boundless boundaries. Any dissent in the Empire was severely punished. All sorts of vices of society flourished at the court. Drunkenness, denunciation, embezzlement…

Historians cite figures from the Russian budget. About 2 million rubles were spent on the maintenance of the court under Anna Ioannovna. rubles, and only 47 thousand for the activities of the Academy of Sciences. rubles.

Foreign policy of Anna Ioannovna

The foreign policy of Anna Ioannovna was much more successful than the domestic one. During her reign, the Russian Empire entered into a number of profitable trade relations with England, Spain, Persia, Sweden, and China.

It owes some success in foreign policy affairs, first of all, to Osterman, who developed the main foreign policy prerogatives of the Russian Empire.

Osterman concluded a military alliance with Austria, announced Russian interests in the Balkans and the Black Sea region, actively fought for influence on Germany and Poland.

During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, there was also a war with Turkey, which took place from 1735 to 1739. Russia in this war had some success, but the war became protracted and required a lot of expenses.

The situation escalated when our negligent allies the Austrians concluded a separate peace with Turkey, fearing the increase in Russian influence in the Balkans.

As a result, the shameful “Belgrade Peace” was concluded, according to which the Russian Empire refused to conquer in the Crimea and Bulgaria, and Russia was also forbidden to have a fleet on the Black and Azov Seas.

Anna Ioannovna died in October 1740. It was then the Russian Empress, niece of the Great Peter I, 47 years old.

Anna Ioannovna - Russian Empress, who ruled from 1730 to 1740, the niece of Peter I, the daughter of his brother and co-ruler, Tsar John Alekseevich. Her reign is usually associated with the flourishing of favoritism (Bironism) and a passion for entertainment events in the spirit of the famous Ice House.

However, it would be unfair to reduce the decade of the reign of Anna Ioannovna only to this. For all her ambiguity, Empress Anna managed to contribute to the greatness of Russia.

Izmailovsky princess

Princess Anna was born in 1693. She spent her childhood in the royal palace in Izmailovo. The widowed Empress Praskovya Feodorovna ruled her little world as if there had never been a stormy transformation of Peter I in Russia. Her three daughters, of whom Anna was the middle one, grew up in cloister solitude, like the princesses of pre-Petrine times, communicating only with servants, mothers and nannies, jesters and pious wanderers. However, Praskovya Fedorovna had to come to terms with some new trends: the princesses had teachers - a German and a Frenchman who taught them to read and write, arithmetic, languages, dances and etiquette. Izmailovo had a court theater and its own orchestra.

Duchess of Courland

When the Northern War ended, Peter decided to strengthen the position of the Russian crown in the duchy of Courland (western part of modern Latvia). To do this, in 1709 it was decided to marry the young Duke of Courland Friedrich Wilhelm with one of the Russian princesses. Peter invited Tsarina Praskovya Feodorovna to choose herself which of her daughters was to become a duchess. She pointed to Anna, who by that time was 16 years old. A year later, a magnificent wedding took place in St. Petersburg. Festivities and balls lasted two months. In January 1711, the young went to Mitava, the capital of Courland. However, before reaching his possessions, Friedrich Wilhelm died on the road. Contemporaries claim that the reason for this was excessive libations. The young duke the day before took it into his head to compete with Peter I, who will outdrink whom. Anna returned to her mother. A year later, Peter nevertheless sent his niece to Courland as a dowager duchess. But not one. Together with her, Peter Bestuzhev-Ryumin left for Mitava, who was ordered to help the young widow and look after her. He looked after. After some time, it became known in St. Petersburg that the already middle-aged Bestuzhev - he was 30 years older than Anna - was her lover. In 1727, Bestuzhev was returned to St. Petersburg with a scandal. Anna was not killed for her dear friend for long. A few months later, Ernst Johann Biron took possession of the heart of the Duchess of Courland. Anna kept this love until the end of her life.

Empress and autocrat of Russia

In 1730, the young Emperor Peter II died - the son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, the grandson of Emperor Peter. It was the last offspring of the Romanov family in the male line. The result of the noble conspiracy was an invitation to the reign of Anna Ioannovna against the will of Catherine I, who before her death bequeathed the throne to the grandson of Peter the Great, Karl Peter Ulrich (the future Peter III). The conspirators, who are commonly referred to in literature as "supreme leaders", decided that Anna, who had spent many years in a foreign land and, according to rumors, did not shine with either intelligence or talents, would become their obedient tool. It was decided to limit the power of the empress to the so-called "Conditions" - a document that contained the obligations of Anna Ioannovna not to interfere in state affairs. However, the reality turned out quite differently. Anna obediently signed the "Conditions", but when she arrived in Russia, she discovered that she had supporters. On February 25, 1730, the empress, in the presence of the court and the "supreme leaders", tore up the "Conditions".

Board of Anna Ioannovna

For a long time in Russian history and fiction there was an idea of ​​the "gloomy decade" of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, of Bironovism and the dominance of the Germans at court. However, recent historical research suggests that this is partly an exaggeration. In fact, Anna and the people with whom she surrounded her throne were able to do a lot of useful things for Russia.

The program of the reign of Anna Ioannovna was reduced to the following main tasks:

The task of reforming the army was set in connection with the need to reduce costs, since even in the previous reign the question arose of an exorbitant tax burden on the peasantry;

There was also talk about the need to review the staffing of state institutions in order to streamline their work and reduce costs;

She declared the need to create a fair and equal court for all;

The Senate has been reformed. His work, interrupted in the previous reign, was restored on the basis of Peter's decrees.
The Empress did a lot to reform the fleet. Under her, shipbuilding resumed, regular exercises began again in the Baltic Sea. The Military Naval Commission was established, which played a decisive role in the development of the Russian fleet. Finally, in 1732, the closed port in Arkhangelsk was reopened and restored, and the shipyard in Solombala was also launched.

During the reign of Anna, a decisive blow was dealt to the Crimean Khanate, Russia captured the Turkish fortress of Khotyn, received the fortress of Azov, part of the territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine, territories in the North Caucasus, and a protectorate of the Russian crown was also declared over the union of Kazakh tribes - the Younger Zhuz.

However, the activities of the Secret Chancellery, interrogations under torture, exile and executions seriously overshadowed the reign of Anna Ioannovna, who was suspicious and very afraid of conspiracies, and left a gloomy imprint on him.

All this was called "Bironism", since public opinion placed all the blame for the activities of the Secret Chancellery on the favorite of the Empress. Subsequently, archival documents showed Biron's non-involvement in the investigative cases of the Secret Chancellery. Moreover, with all his undisguised dislike for the Russian people, Biron was able to benefit our country: it was he who began competent breeding horse breeding in Russia, for which he had a real passion.