Bagmet (Kharenko) Anna Petrovna Nurse of the evacuation hospital I ended up on the Stalingrad front, in a field hospital. We had a field hospital, sort of a quick response one. That is, what task did we have? We set up tents, treat the wounded, take them away, and then we move on.

Princess, Duchess of Courland, Russian Empress since 1730, daughter of Tsar John V and Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna.

Anna was born on January 28, 1693 in the Kremlin chambers of Moscow. Three years after her birth, her father, Tsar Ivan Alekseevich, got his feet wet during a Christmas procession and died of a severe cold a few days later. The mother, Tsarina Praskovya, the daughter of the steward and governor of the boyar Saltykov, with three little daughters, remained a widow. Anna was average.

After the death of his half-brother, Pyotr Alekseevich became the sole sovereign. He identified the Izmailovsky Palace, located near Moscow, as the place of residence for his daughter-in-law - the summer residence of his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, equipped for winter housing. The Izmailovsky Palace was adjacent to vast rural lands, gardens and vegetable gardens. Already from the time of boyar Nikita Romanov, whose patrimony was the village of Izmailovo, it was famous for its excellent farming. It was in these spaces that the queen and her daughters were destined to live.

Their fate under Peter I changed dramatically. Girls born into the king's family used to live in the mansion and continued to stay there when they became adults. It was not customary to marry them off. It was believed that the boyars and princes were no match for them.

The life of the royal daughters in the mansion was very monotonous. They could see only a few people, mostly close relatives. They spent their time mainly in prayer or doing handicrafts, entertained themselves with songs and fairy tales, and strictly observed the rituals of the Orthodox Church. We learned little, leaving our chambers only on pilgrimages and then under supervision.

Anna and her sisters were lucky in this sense. Their childhood did not pass behind the closed doors of the tower, but in their mother’s palace in Izmailovo, where it was fun to live surrounded by numerous servants. To educate her daughters, Queen Praskovya invited foreign teachers, which was an extremely rare occurrence at that time. The foreigners, apparently, were not tasked with teaching the princesses science, but with preparing them for marriage to the princes of European courts. Therefore, the main concern was to teach the royal daughters foreign languages, dancing and, of course, good manners.

As eyewitnesses note, Tsar Peter’s nieces were polite, well-mannered and very good-looking. Among the three sisters, Princess Anna was the most attractive and was particularly pretty. At fifteen, thanks to her precocious forms, she no longer seemed like a teenager. It’s just that her character, even at this age, showed some special severity and rigidity. Apparently, it was influenced by the unhealthy atmosphere that reigned at the court of the mother, an extremely superstitious and deeply religious woman, who was constantly surrounded by poor pilgrims, cripples, freaks and holy fools. However, the piety and compassion of Queen Praskovya coexisted with boundless cruelty towards the courtyard - this can be called a family trait of the Saltykovs.

Anna was not even sixteen years old when Peter I demanded that all members of the royal family move to St. Petersburg, a city built on the banks of the Neva and declared the Russian capital. Queen Praskovya, always obedient to the wishes of the sovereign, hastened to go to a new place of residence, although it was not easy for her to part with the established economy. In March 1708, an endless line of carts carrying the queen, princesses, numerous servants and belongings stretched along the barely paved road to the west. Near the modest residence of the sovereign, the dowager queen and her daughters were given full ownership of a large house.

In St. Petersburg, the life of the daughter of the Dowager Tsarina Praskovya, Anna, was greatly transformed. Endless trips began, pleasure walks, rides, dinners, fireworks, at which she was present with the entire royal family, surrounded by honor and attention. This, of course, flattered the young girl.

So two carefree years passed, when suddenly the terrible word “married” sounded. The uncle decided to determine the future fate of his niece.

In the spring of 1710, Tsar Peter I arranged Anna's engagement to the eighteen-year-old Duke of Courland, Friedrich Wilhelm. It took place in the absence of the Duke himself. His person was represented by the court marshal, who, on behalf of his master, turned to the Russian sovereign with a request for the princess’s hand in marriage. This was not surprising at the time. After all, according to the customs of Moscow antiquity, the groom could see his bride only at the wedding. Until this moment, the fate of future spouses was decided either by their relatives or the matchmaker. And in the practice of Western European courts, the acquaintance of the bride and groom most often took place during the wedding feast, and before that they only exchanged portraits.

Since the time of Tsar Peter, marriage contacts in Russia gradually began to acquire political significance. After all, kinship with European ruling houses made it possible to somehow influence affairs in Europe. True, at the beginning of the 18th century, in the minds of the West, Muscovy remained a barbaric state and among the candidates for husbands to the royal daughters there were still no representatives of such large states as England, Spain or France. (Peter I’s attempt to marry his daughter, the beautiful Elizabeth, to a French prince was unsuccessful. The marriage contract was never signed. A refusal came from France.)

For his niece Anna, the Russian Tsar chose a small state - the Duchy of Courland.

Located on the territory that was previously subordinate to the Polish-Lithuanian state, the duchy was formed as a result of the Livonian War, when the territory of Livonia (as present-day Latvia and Estonia were called) during the collapse of the Livonian Order was divided between Sweden, Poland and Russia. At the head of Courland were the last master of the Livonian Order, Gotthard Ketler and his descendants. (From 1737, the Birons would rule the duchy.) The center of the duchy was the small city of Mitava (now Jelgava).

At the beginning of 1710, the Russian Tsar visited Mitava to negotiate with the Duke about alliance in the upcoming war with Sweden. At that time, the situation in the duchy was difficult. The economy fell into decay, trade - the main source of income - did not bring the necessary dividends. Significant losses were caused by the “great plague” that broke out in 1709. About half of the population of Courland died from it. And the governance of the country was not established. The fact is that after the death of Duke Friedrich Casimir, the throne passed to his young son Friedrich Wilhelm. Until he came of age, the country was ruled by his grandfather, who, however, fled to Poland during the Northern War. The duchy remained without a ruler for some time; it was ruled by the Swedish army. In 1710, the heir to the ducal throne, Friedrich Wilhelm, was declared an adult and was able to take over the rule of the country.

Friedrich Wilhelm was the nephew of the Prussian king Frederick I, with whom a year ago Tsar Peter I, at a meeting in Marienwerder, agreed on the marriage of the young duke with Princess Anna Ioannovna. The Duke of Courland did not keep himself waiting long and, through his representatives, asked for the hand of the royal niece. This marriage was beneficial to both parties. The Courland nobility realized that the duchy could not exist without strong patronage, while Russia was interested in expanding its possessions, and most importantly, in gaining important ports on the Baltic - Ventspils and Liepaja. Therefore, the Russian Tsar chose the nieces of the Duke of Courland as his husband.

So, an agreement on a marriage alliance was reached, the engagement took place, and the young Duke was invited to Russia. Anna, at her mother’s request, wrote him a kind letter in German about this.

After the issue of the dowry was carefully discussed and resolved by the duke's ambassadors with the Russian government, the groom did not hesitate to arrive in St. Petersburg. Friedrich Wilhelm was greeted very cordially in the royal family. The sovereign himself, as eyewitnesses testify, received the duke “with great favor.”

The wedding of Princess Anna and Duke Friedrich Wilhelm, a descendant of Gotthard Ketler, took place in November 1710 in St. Petersburg. Many guests were invited. The betrothal ceremony took place in the chapel at the palace of His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov. The prince held the crown over the bride's head, and the king over the groom. Then all those present were invited to the table, which was laden with food. They drank a lot for the health of the young people. Only late in the evening after the dance did the newlyweds go to their chambers.

The wedding celebrations lasted another two weeks. One feast gave way to another. The celebrations were accompanied by a number of events. At one of the feasts, for example, two huge pies were served, from which two dressed-up dwarfs jumped out and danced a minuet on the wedding table. In those days, a funny wedding of dwarfs was also arranged, for which the latter were gathered from all over Russia.

In the first half of January 1711, Duke Friedrich Wilhelm and his young wife went to his Courland. But the unexpected happened: on the way home, the Duke fell ill and suddenly died - either from a fever, or, as they said, from excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, which he was so generously treated to in Rus'.

The death of the niece's husband did not change, however, the plans of the Russian sovereign. The eighteen-year-old widow had to continue her journey to the homeland of her deceased husband, settle in Mitau and live among the Germans in Courland. This was the decision of Tsar Peter I.

After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm, the last descendant of the Kettlers, seventy-year-old Ferdinand, received the ducal staff. Not loved by the people and incapable of governing the duchy, he lived in Poland, did not want to go to Mitau, and left the government to the noble council (oberrat). With the arrival of the Dowager Duchess, Courland was practically ruled by the resident of the Russian Tsar, Pyotr Mikhailovich Bestuzhev, who arrived with Anna as her marshal.

While remaining Duchess of Courland, the young widow was not only far from ruling the country, but also had no legal rights to the property of the duchy. She also could not manage the treasury, which still remained in the hands of the elderly uncle of her late husband. And, of course, Duchess Anna could not help but feel that she was a minor person in Mitau. All the signs of external respect could not hide the true attitude of Mitavian society towards her. The Courland Germans did not show love for the foreign Russian princess “sent” to them as a duchess.

Anna was forced to adapt to the clearly unfriendly environment in the homeland of her husband who died so suddenly. The morals and customs of the Germans were alien to her. She almost did not understand their language, which naturally interfered with communication with the courtiers. But most of all she was oppressed by financial difficulties. Anna, who was obliged to maintain a special livery staff, a cook, horses, which she loved very much and of which she had a lot, and, finally, to maintain the old castle where she lived in order, did not have enough funds. There was not enough money to ensure that, as she wrote to Uncle Peter, bitterly complaining about her fate, “ It is enough to support oneself with a dress, linen, lace and, if possible, diamonds not only for one’s own honor, but also against the previous dowager duchesses of Courland».

What was left to do? She could only count on the financial support of the sovereign, citing the fact that, due to her lack of money, she had to experience the arrogance of the nobility, who considered themselves descendants of the Teutonic knights. However, Tsar Peter did not find it necessary to indulge his niece.

And the passion for luxury, which suddenly flared up in Anna, pushed her into more and more new debts, which forced the Duchess of Courland to humbly ask for help from St. Petersburg. She often turned to His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov. In her letters - “tears” - the princess-duchess constantly complained about poverty, which undermined her prestige as a duchess, and her miserable - in her understanding - life. But life was really monotonous and sad.

Tall, dark-skinned, with beautiful eyes and a full, majestic figure, the Duchess sadly walked through the halls of the Mitavsky Palace. Anna loved to dress beautifully and knew how to behave well. Her main occupation was horse riding and also target shooting: she became addicted to it while hunting in the forests of Courland. Loaded guns were always ready in her rooms: Anna had the habit of shooting from the window at flying birds, and she shot accurately. And in the duchess’s chambers there were cages with birds, in front of which she often stopped in thought, as if feeling herself in the same position as them. Sometimes Anna visited St. Petersburg or Moscow, always with requests for financial assistance, while trying to arouse the pity and favor of her relatives and friends.

Princess Anna remained in the Orthodox faith even after her marriage. That is why in 1726, for the needs of Orthodox believers in Mitau, whose population was predominantly Protestant, a small temple was built, named in honor of Anna Ioannovna’s heavenly patrons - the righteous Saints Simeon and Saint Anna. (Later, on the site of a wooden church with one dome, a large temple in the Russian Baroque style was built according to Rastrelli’s design.)

Over time, Anna became disgusted with the widow's position. True, the place of the husband was occupied for some time by Count Pyotr Bestuzhev, sent by the tsar to manage the duchess’s estates, monitor her behavior and protect her from attacks from the local nobility. The rumor about this “trusteeship” of the marshal even reached St. Petersburg. Communication with Bestuzhev was interrupted.

However, the young widow did not suffer from the lack of male attention. When Anna turned twenty-five years old, an event occurred in her life that was destined to have a decisive influence on the fate of the future empress and even on the fate of Russia.

One day a new official from the chancellery brought papers to the duchess for her signature. He attracted the attention of Anna Ioannovna, and he was ordered to come every day. Soon he became the Duchess's personal secretary. The young man's name was Ernst Johann Biron. His grandfather served as a senior groom at the court of the Duke of Courland, and his father, a retired Polish officer, received a farm in Courland and was engaged in forestry. Ernst, having studied for several semesters at the University of Königsberg, after a long search for work, came to Mitava and got a job in the palace office. There his meeting with Anna Ioannovna took place, which had very significant consequences in Russian history.

Having brought Biron closer to her, Anna never parted with him until her death. And in order to avert all suspicion from herself, five years later she married him to her court lady Beninga von Trotta-Treeden, an ugly and sickly girl. All three lived in the ducal palace in Mitau. Anna showed caring attention to her favorite's wife and especially to his children. There is even a version that the duchess herself gave birth to children from Biron, and Beninge only passed them off as her own. Version version, but the fact that the niece of Peter I loved the husband of her maid of honor is confirmed by all contemporaries.

However, the main desire of the young widow was the desire to start her own family. And there were many contenders for the Duchy of Courland who acted as suitors.

In 1726, Duchess Anna was proposed to marry Count Moritz of Saxony, the illegitimate son of the Polish king August II, a reveler and duelist known throughout Europe, who squandered the fortune of his first wife, who was once considered the richest bride in Saxony. Anna was already over thirty, and, despite the scandalous reputation of Count Moritz, she decided to accept his proposal.

What attracted the handsome count to Duchess Anna, who lacked feminine charm? In this case, not a rich dowry. The answer is simple - the count expected to receive for his wife not only the Duchy of Courland, but also the title of duke.

Anna liked the groom at the very first meeting, and she hastened to turn to Menshikov, who occupied a special position under Empress Catherine, who ascended the throne after the death of Peter I, with a request to help make her dream come true. But the marriage did not take place. Why? Yes, again for the same reason - political plans, intrigues. After all, Anna’s main dowry was a dukedom. Along with Poland (Rzeczpospolita) and Prussia, Russia also laid claim to it. The marriage of Duchess Anna with Moritz of Saxony would have made Courland a province of the Saxon Electorate. And the groom himself, as already mentioned, was not averse to getting the ducal crown.

Anna was far from all these intrigues. She was left to continue her life as a widow until better times. And they came, and quite soon after an unsuccessful attempt to get married. But Princess Anna was already a different person then.

As noted in historical literature, widowhood, the poverty of material opportunities with a tendency to waste, the need to meekly obey someone else's will to the detriment of personal interests - all this did not contribute to the formation of a friendly attitude towards others in Anna. Due to her long life away from her family, in conditions alien to her, the duchess developed a inferiority complex and developed the inclinations of cruelty and a tendency toward despotism inherited from her mother. This will manifest itself in the last ten years of her life.

And events developed as follows. In January 1730, the young Russian Emperor Peter II, grandson of Uncle Anna, died of smallpox. The Supreme Privy Council, after long discussions, decided to invite the daughter of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich Romanov, the Duchess of Courland, to the throne.

« She is free and gifted with all the abilities needed for the throne“- this is how the leaders motivated their choice.

Anna Ioannovna was already traveling to Moscow to receive the royal crown with the pretensions of a German duchess who had experienced the gloss of European life. After the coronation, she lived in Moscow for almost two more years, organizing magnificent festivities, distinguished by extraordinary luxury for that time. Having then moved to St. Petersburg, the Empress settled in the house of Count Apraksin. (The former admiral gave this house to Peter II.) Anna Ioannovna, having significantly expanded the house, turned it into a palace called the New Winter Palace, and the old one, where Peter I and Catherine I died - the modern Hermitage - was given to the staff of the courtiers, significantly enlarged by it

From now on everything was furnished according to the European model. After all, the widow of the Duke of Courland had lived in Europe for twenty whole years and now, having become an empress, she sought to imitate in her lifestyle the German courts that had gone crazy over the French Versailles.

The first step of the autocratic queen was to call her personal secretary to the capital. Anna Ioannovna and Biron’s family found themselves together again, but in the imperial palace on the banks of the Neva. And the favorite himself became the right hand, in fact the ruler of Russia. In 1737, with the assistance of Empress Anna Ioannovna, Biron also received the crown of the Duke of Courland. (In 1795, the duchy will be annexed to the Russian Empire and become its Courland province. The descendant of the former personal secretary and favorite Duke Peter Biron will be given a large sum of money as compensation from the Russian government. In addition, the government will assign him a lifelong pension.)

Anna Ioannovna reigned for ten years. During her reign, life at court was literally in full swing: the empress organized balls, masquerades, and parties. She opened a theater where artists from different countries were invited, including from the Italian opera, which had great success in Europe. Extraordinary luxury began to be observed in clothing. Under Anna Ioannovna, the very concept of “fashion” appeared in Russia. It was forbidden to come to the court twice in the same dress; no one dared to appear in a black dress.

A special sophistication appeared in the feast. Scenes of gross drunkenness at court became rare. In many houses of high society, the custom of keeping an open table in the Western style was introduced. The houses themselves began to be furnished with foreign furniture, mirrors, and the walls were decorated with wallpaper. And one more innovation: playing cards, so popular in European courts, became an integral form of pastime.

However, under the Western gloss, traits of lack of education and rudeness were constantly visible.

The story of the “Ice House”, a notorious comic performance staged by the Russian Tsarina in January 1740, spread far beyond the borders of Russia.

The empress decided to marry Prince Golitsyn, who was considered a court jester, to the poor Kalmyk woman Buzheninova, known for her ability to make funny faces that entertained everyone. They prepared very carefully for the clownish wedding. For the bride and groom, it was ordered to build a house of ice slabs (the winter that year was harsh, there were severe frosts), in which the young people were to spend their first wedding night. The interior of the house was also made of ice: mirrors, tables, chairs and a large bed with an ice mattress, blanket and pillows. The house turned out very beautiful.

After the wedding ceremony, which took place, as expected, in the church, a procession on a sleigh drawn by goats and pigs (the wedding was a clownish one) passed through the main streets of St. Petersburg to Biron's arena, where a sumptuous dinner was prepared. As night fell, the newlyweds were taken to the bedroom, where they were locked, amid fireworks from six ice cannons standing in front of the house. This is where the comedy quickly began to turn into tragedy. The newlyweds, no matter what they sat on or touched, found only ice everywhere. In desperation, they tried to break the wall, but the ice crypt was solid. Exhausted, they sat down on the icy bed, death approaching their frozen bodies. When the guards opened the door at dawn, the newlyweds were already in their dying sleep. They were saved, but the cruelty and savagery of Empress Anna Ioannovna was condemned far beyond the borders of Russia. (After such grave abuse, the spouses were allowed to travel abroad. The Kalmyk woman died some time later, leaving her well-born husband with two sons.)

Meanwhile, the Empress - the Duchess of Courland - had only a few months left to live. She loved fortune telling - especially after a certain Buchner in Courland correctly prophesied the throne for her - she became interested in horoscopes. As if anticipating imminent death, the empress, gloomy, hunched over, and not so stately, slowly moved around her luxurious palace chambers. She rarely left them anymore.

The niece of Emperor Peter I died of kidney inflammation in the late autumn of 1740 in great suffering. She lived for forty-seven years, almost twenty of which were away from her native places.

The fate of her favorite, brought from Courland, turned out to be completely unpredictable.

In 1741, during a palace coup in favor of Anna Leopoldovna (discussed below), Biron, declared in the empress's will as regent for the young John VI, the son of her niece, was arrested. Together with his family, he was taken to the Shlisselburg fortress, and his property - unprecedented wealth collected by the German during the years of his actual reign during the reign of the Duchess of Courland - was confiscated.

Biron was put on trial and after a long investigation he was sentenced to death, which, however, was replaced by exile to Siberia. By the grace of the daughter of Peter I, Empress Elizabeth, who came to power, he was allowed to settle in Yaroslavl, a city located two hundred and forty kilometers from Moscow.

Only twenty years later Biron was able to return to the capital. Restored to the Courland throne, he returned to Mitava, where he died at the age of eighty-two. Three years before his death, Ernst Biron renounced the ducal throne in favor of his son Peter.

Princess, Duchess of Mecklenburg, eldest daughter of Tsar John V and Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna.

Catherine was born in October 1692 in Moscow, in the Kremlin chambers where the royal family lived. Less than four years had passed when John V, her father, suddenly died. A mother with three small children - after Catherine, Tsarina Praskovya gave birth to two more daughters - left the Kremlin and moved to live in the Izmailovsky Palace, located in a picturesque area near Moscow. There the future Duchess of Mecklenburg spent her childhood and youth.

Teachers invited by their mother from abroad taught the girls foreign languages, music and dance. The eldest daughter of the widow queen was especially successful in dancing. Her temperament, even as a child, differed from her sisters.

Cheerful, carefree Catherine was married off six years after her sister Anna’s wedding. The princess was already twenty-fifth year old. She was very different from her younger sister in both character and appearance. Dark, gloomy and uncommunicative Anna could hardly be mistaken for her own sister, although the early plump, fair-faced and ruddy Katerina with large black eyes and a long braid could not be called a beauty either. But she attracted attention with her cheerfulness, energy and especially sharp tongue. The little princess - she was not tall - was capable of chatting incessantly, sometimes making such harshness that it embarrassed seasoned wits.

For the mother, this daughter was a joy and consolation. As her closest friend, she confided all her secrets to Catherine, and sometimes turned to her for advice. Perhaps that is why Queen Praskovya married off her middle daughter first, not wanting to part with her favorite, the eldest.

But the time has come, and the crowned uncle decided to accommodate his next niece. This time his choice fell on the Duchy of Mecklenburg, located on the former lands of the Polabian Slavs, or Wends, as the Slavs were also called, who came to the northwest in the 8th and 9th centuries and settled in the territory from the Labe (Elbe) River to the shores of the Baltic Sea.

For many decades, the Slavs fought against aggressive German feudal lords, who eventually seized their lands. The German Duke Henry the Lion managed to do this. He began to invite noble German knights to the conquered territory. Each received personal ownership of land, and sometimes an entire village, which he tried to populate with peasants from Saxony or Bavaria. Over time, these feudal lords began to build impregnable castles, thereby demonstrating their complete independence. In society, there was a mixing of the German nobility with the Slavic one.

Henry the Lion made Schwerin Castle, located on a remote island, his strategic center. The first German city on the Mecklenburg land of the Western Slavs was founded near the castle. Over time, it turned into a center of political and religious life.

Since 1358, the Duke of Mecklenburg began to rule in the County of Schwerin, who made this city his residence. Each of the rulers completed or rebuilt the Schwerin Castle in his own way. The Mecklenburg Princely House was rightfully considered an old dynasty of Slavic origin. In 1701, the Duchy of Mecklenburg was officially divided into two independent principalities: Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Both duchies existed for more than two hundred years.

Both duchies were closely connected with Russia. And this was started by the eldest daughter of Tsar John V, Princess Catherine.

In January 1716, the ambassador of the Duke of Mecklenburg came to the Russian Tsar Peter I and handed over a letter in which the sovereign Duke Karl Leopold asked for the hand of one of his nieces.

Karl Leopold was the son of Duke Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by marriage to Christina Wilhelmina, Princess of Hesse-Hamburg. He took the ducal throne after the death of his elder brother Friedrich Wilhelm, who died in 1713 and left no heirs. Karl Leopold had already been married twice by that time. His first wife was Sophia Jadwiga, daughter of the Count of Nassau, whom he divorced in 1710 due to her infertility. The Duke entered into a second marriage with Christina Dorothea von Lepel, but it lasted only one year and also ended in divorce.

Karl Leopold, who was already thirty-eight years old, had great hopes for his marriage with the Russian princess. His plans included taking control of Wismar, which was besieged by the troops of Denmark, Prussia and Russia, who were in an alliance directed against Sweden. Wismar, a port city that formerly belonged to Mecklenburg, was in the hands of the Swedes (according to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648). In addition, relying on the support of the Russian sovereign, the Duke intended to regulate his relations with the local nobility: Charles Leopold was the first and only Duke of Mecklenburg who tried to weaken the power of the feudal lords in his principality and therefore had constant feuds with them. The Duke was distinguished not only by his rare stubbornness, but also by his exorbitant lust for power. Having married a real princess, he hoped to dictate his laws to everyone. True, he could not decide which of the king’s two eldest nieces he would like to marry. (There was no talk about the youngest, Praskovya, who was always sick and mentally weak.)

First, Karl Leopold's gaze turned to the widow Anna, Duchess of Courland. He really wanted to get the tasty dukedom, he even thought of arriving in the Russian capital himself. In this regard, Karl Leopold ordered a diamond pectoral cross, earrings and ring from Hamburg for 28 thousand thalers as a gift to the future bride. The Duke of Mecklenburg, however, did not come to St. Petersburg, but gave gifts to the confidant of Tsar Peter, whom he personally met near Stralsund. At this meeting, Karl Leopold expressed his consent to marry one of the princesses whom the Russian sovereign himself would appoint.

A month later, a congratulatory letter arrived from the Russian ambassador in Hamburg addressed to the Duke on the occasion of his lordship's engagement to the Tsar's niece. However, the letter did not indicate which niece would become his wife. They were waiting for further news from St. Petersburg. The message about Peter I’s decision came only a few weeks later: Princess Ekaterina Ioannovna was intended to be the bride of Duke Karl Leopold. She was given an engagement ring. In an urgent dispatch, the Mecklenburg ambassador reported from the Russian capital that Tsar Peter would soon arrive in Danzig and bring his niece with him.

As Baron Eichholtz, the marshal and chief adviser to Duke Karl Leopold, wrote in his notes, having learned about this, he said: “ Inexorable fate assigned me this Katerina, but there is nothing to do, I must be satisfied; she is at least the queen's favorite».

The Duke wrote to his banker in Hamburg asking him to send him 70 thousand thalers worth of jewelry as gifts to Russian courtiers.

The first meeting of the bride and groom took place in Danzig on March 8, 1716. Peter I himself introduced his niece to Charles Leopold. It is difficult to say what feelings the Duke experienced at this, but behind the ceremonial politeness in his attitude towards his future wife, a coldness was clearly felt. Before the king, he showed respectable modesty and complete humility.

Negotiations began regarding a prenuptial agreement. The Duke refused money as a dowry for the bride, but asked to “guarantee” Vizmar for him. This port city was of great importance for the maritime trade of the Duchy of Mecklenburg. Peter, for whom Sweden was Russia’s number one enemy, wanted to have a reliable place in Wismar for storing Russian goods. Therefore, the interest was mutual. The place of residence of the spouses was to be the city of Schwerin.

After careful discussion, the marriage contract was signed. Based on it, the princess, like the entire Russian state, remained in her faith; she could have an Orthodox church at her husband’s residence. For the maintenance of his wife and her servants, the Duke undertook to determine the appropriate salary. It was also agreed that Charles Leopold would complete the divorce proceedings with his first wife, née Princess of Nassau, as soon as possible. This process was very delayed due to the stinginess of the Duke, whose favorite saying was: “Old debts should not be paid, but new ones should be allowed to grow old.” Karl Leopold's ex-wife demanded a fairly decent pension, which he did not want to hear about.

The Duke of Mecklenburg, distinguished by his grumpy, quarrelsome and willful character, did not enjoy much love from his subjects in his small state; for them he was a despot, often flouting laws, and even stinginess...

Did the Russian Tsar know about these traits of his future son-in-law? Without a doubt. But political goals prevailed.

And what about Catherine’s mother, who with tears saw off her favorite on the long journey? Was she happy with this marriage?

Hard to say. But like it or not, Queen Praskovya had to submit to the will of the sovereign. She herself was unable to attend the wedding celebrations due to illness.

Having signed the marriage contract, the duke was in no hurry to get married, avoiding the presence of the king, evading under various pretexts. He treated his bride very indifferently, and behaved arrogantly with Russian nobles, talking down to them. This, of course, could not please the Russians, but the matter was considered already decided.

The wedding took place in Danzig exactly a month after the meeting of the bride and groom. The wedding ceremony was performed by a Russian bishop in a hastily built Orthodox chapel. After the gala wedding dinner, Catherine went to the bedroom, which was prepared especially for the newlyweds. But the Duke did not appear at the wedding bed that night. As eyewitnesses of those events say in their memoirs, very late he came to Baron Eichholtz and asked to give him his bed. However, in the morning, despite his such unexpected behavior, Karl Leopold visited the princess, now the duchess, and presented her with gifts.

Despite the oddities of her husband, Catherine, during the feasts and celebrations organized in honor of the newlyweds, was contented and happy, sincerely having fun. Her ringing, infectious laughter could be heard everywhere. Catherine was delighted by the holidays, fireworks, surprised by new faces and new surroundings, unfamiliar life. What about the future? Why look into it! This was unusual for the princess. Then they remembered that on the eve of her first date with her fiancé, there were huge northern lights in the sky. Everyone considered this a menacing omen of terrible misfortunes. Everything, but not Ekaterina.

In order to make the necessary preparations for the arrival of Tsar Peter I and other distinguished guests in Schwerin, Karl Leopold left Danzig somewhat earlier than his wife. She remained with her uncle the king for some time. It seemed that the newlywed was very pleased with her new position.

The Russian sovereign, together with his niece and a large retinue, entered solemnly into the residence of the Duke. He was given a magnificent reception. Karl Leopold, without hiding his pride at such a high visit, showed cordial hospitality and cordiality.

At the same time as the tsar, 50 thousand Russian soldiers arrived in Mecklenburg - this was stipulated by the marriage contract.

After spending several days visiting his son-in-law, Tsar Peter I left Schwerin, leaving his niece there, who from now on became the Duchess of Mecklenburg.

So what about Catherine? Did she become happy after leaving Russia?

Probably not. Life in marriage was not sweet. However, during the first years, Catherine did not complain to anyone about her fate. Her cheerful natural disposition helped her.

« I'm telling about myself, - the Duchess wrote in almost every one of her letters home, - with God's help, with my kind husband I am in good health" But getting used to the new living conditions was not easy. Although the princess had a German tutor as a child, she never learned to speak German fluently and had difficulty understanding what was said to her. And there was no marital love. Soon after his marriage, the Duke had a mistress (the married daughter of his brother Friedrich Wilhelm, Frau von Wohlfarth), which Catherine could not help but know about, although she pretended that she knew nothing.

It was extremely difficult to tolerate her husband’s restless and cruel temper. Often she had to listen to reproaches that the king-relative did not protect him from attacks from the local nobility, with whom the duke was in constant quarrel.

Trying to somehow soften the Duke’s dissatisfaction, Catherine, plucking up courage, decided to make a petition on behalf of her husband to her uncle. In September 1718, she wrote him a letter with the following content: “ I ask Your Majesty to change your anger to mercy. Our enemies have told you lies. At the same time, my husband asks that Your Majesty not deign to listen to such unfair reports against him; truly my husband declares himself a faithful servant to Your Majesty... Your Majesty’s humble servant and niece Catherine».

Complications also arose with the Duke's divorce from the Princess of Nassau, who never ceased to demand that her ex-husband return her dowry and provide her with a decent pension. Karl Leopold didn’t want to hear about it. The Russian Tsar was angry at his stubbornness, which could be a consequence of the Duke's marriage to Catherine being declared illegal. Peter I ordered to convey to his Mecklenburg relative, “ that he gave his niece to him conscientiously; however, she will never agree that she could ever be considered his concubine».

It all ended with the fact that in Berlin, through the mediation of the Russian Tsar, an agreement was concluded with the attorneys of the divorced duchess, according to which she was assigned a pension of 5 thousand thalers and, in addition, was given a lump sum of 30 thousand thalers. Only after this did the Princess of Nassau unconditionally agree to recognize the divorce as correct.

Shortly before Christmas 1718, Catherine gave birth to a daughter. Queen Praskovya, having learned about the birth of her first and so far only granddaughter, was very happy. In Mecklenburg, as a sign of love and affection, she sent gifts to her daughter and son-in-law, including expensive sable furs. For little Annushka, as the girl was named, the Russian grandmother sent numerous toys and gifts. There were gifts from Peter I himself, mostly money.

The niece often wrote letters to her uncle, usually she thanked him for his attention and asked him to help her irrepressible husband. And the latter's affairs were extremely bad. He didn't get along with anyone. I didn't want to listen to anyone. The Austrian emperor was angry with him, his allies and neighbors were dissatisfied with him, his subjects constantly complained about his actions, and not without reason. Tsar Peter advised his niece to convince her faithful husband so that he “ I didn’t do everything I wanted, but depending on the time and occasion».

Towards the end of their marriage - which lasted six years - Karl Leopold treated his wife so rudely that she was sometimes forced to resort to the protection of the Tsar-Uncle, begging him to intervene in her family affairs.

After giving birth, Catherine could not recover for a long time and was often sick. The news of her illness greatly worried her mother. " Write to me about your health, and about your husband, and about your daughter more often, she wrote to Mecklenburg. -... Don't destroy me. I honor your letters, Katyushka, and always cry when I look at them." Soon, Tsarina Praskovya began tearfully asking the sovereign to allow her Catherine to come to Russia.

Over time, the mother’s hope of meeting her daughter and granddaughter seemed real. Tsar Peter would like to see the Duke at home. Firstly, to personally discuss all the problems with him and express his thoughts, and secondly, to meet his brother’s widow, who never ceased to besiege him with requests for her daughter to come home.

Finally, Praskovya received the news that her dear guest was going to Moscow - without her husband, but with her four-year-old daughter. What a joy it was for the old mother! She even forgot about her ailments that had been bothering her lately. " Look how the queen fusses and worries, - they said around. - She carefully gives orders to clean the premises and prepare for the reception of her pet. Either he sends someone to meet her, or he writes letters - the days drag on for weeks, she counts every hour and cannot wait for the long-awaited guests».

The duchess settled in Izmailovo next to her mother. Large outbuildings housed her entire retinue, among whom were Mecklenburgers. It was nourishing, warm and cozy, but it lacked the cleanliness to which the Russian princess had become accustomed while living among the Germans. However, having found herself in her birthplace, she soon began to live as before: she spent her time eating, sleeping, and performing church rituals; she loved listening to the singing of village girls, watching the antics of jesters and buffoons, to which she had become accustomed since childhood, and willingly attended feasts and assemblies held in boyar houses. Often she herself received guests, treated them to glory, drank them until they were completely intoxicated, as was customary in Rus', and organized theatrical performances.

The Duchess acquired her love for the theater in Germany. The actresses were selected from court ladies and ladies-in-waiting, and the male roles were played by serfs. We made all the costumes ourselves, and took the wigs from the Germans. During her stay in Germany, the Duchess never really learned the German language, but she loved the Germans and willingly communicated with them. They were invited to the performances, although due to ignorance of the Russian language they did not understand much.

At the beginning of 1723, Catherine moved to St. Petersburg with her mother and daughter: the sovereign ordered so. The duchess began her stay in the capital with visits, while trying not to miss a single entertainment of the court. Lately she had gained a lot of weight, but this did not upset her. Only following the advice of her uncle, she sometimes limited herself in food, tried to sleep less, and did not take alcohol into her mouth. But such abstinence lasted no more than a week; the passion to eat abundantly and tastyly and get a good night's sleep took over. However, despite her plumpness, Catherine could dance for hours at balls, surprising everyone with her temperament and energy. Due to her extremely lively character and unbridled nature, foreigners called her the “wild duchess.”

In the fall, Queen Praskovya died due to many ailments. Catherine and her daughter were present during the last hours of her life. The courtyard and almost the entire city were in mourning. Tsar Peter ordered a magnificent funeral for his daughter-in-law. It was bitter for the duchess to lose her loving mother. The only consolation was good news about his wife: his affairs seemed to have improved. In Danzig, representatives of the Austrian Emperor and the English King negotiated with him, to which the Russian Tsar sent his representatives. This allowed Catherine to hope that she would soon meet her husband. But this time this hope was not justified.

Less than two years after the death of the duchess's mother, her patron uncle, Emperor Peter the Great, passed away - this was the title he had held for the last three years. After the short reign of his widow, Empress Catherine I, the throne was inherited by Peter's twelve-year-old grandson from his son, Tsarevich Alexei. The mother of the young king was Princess Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who left the world early. In 1718, his father was sentenced to death for treason. And now the orphan prince, under the name of Peter II, ascended the Russian throne. However, the young sovereign was in power for only three years. In the winter of 1730, the fifteen-year-old emperor died unexpectedly, leaving no offspring. The throne was empty again.

Many considered the Duchess of Mecklenburg as a possible contender for the Russian throne: after all, she was the eldest daughter of Tsar John. But the dignitaries and senior clergy gathered at the Supreme Council unanimously decided that Catherine Ioannovna was not fit to be an empress. They chose her sister Anna, the widow of the Duke of Courland, who never married. The younger sister, Praskovya, was not taken into account at all.

The Duchess of Courland, having learned about her “appointment” to the kingdom, urgently left the palace in Mitau and arrived in Russia. At first, she unconditionally accepted all the conditions of the Supreme Council that elected her, but then, with the support of her supporters and with the help of intrigue, she took power into her own hands.

The reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna lasted for ten years. She gathered a lot of Germans at court, who actually ruled the Russian state all these years. The main role was played by her favorite, former personal secretary, Ernst Biron - since 1737, Duke of Courland.

The Duchess of Mecklenburg - already as the elder sister of the Empress - lived only three years. In the summer of 1733, she died at the age of forty-two, never having met her quarrelsome husband again. And this desire never left the duchess. Shortly before his death, Peter I, at the request of his niece, made another attempt to summon Karl Leopold from Schwerin. But, to Catherine’s chagrin, he refused to come, although coming to Russia could have been the only way out for the obstinate Duke from his difficult situation. There were rumors that the Austrian emperor intended to entrust the management of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin to Christian Ludwig, the brother of Karl Leopold, if he did not calm down and show humility. All this was very offensive for Duchess Katerina Ivanovna (that’s what the Germans called her). Without hiding the bitterness of her “straw widowhood,” she more than once complained about this to her relatives and friends. But if someone attacked the duke, accusing him of extravagance, his devoted wife ardently stood up for him.

Karl Leopold survived his Russian wife by fourteen years. But even before her death, he, practically deprived of rule, moved to Danzig, where he secretly gathered an army. After some time, he also secretly returned to Schwerin and began preparing an uprising against his brother, who had been appointed ruler of the duchy. However, not receiving the expected support, Karl Leopold was forced to leave Schwerin, this time forever. He moved to Wismar, but he had no desire to completely capitulate.

With a request for help, the Duke sent his ambassadors to Spain, France and Russia, but found no support.

Karl Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, died in November 1747 at the age of sixty-six in Doberan (near Wismar), where he found his eternal rest. After they left Germany, he never met either his Russian wife or his daughter...

Empress Anna Ioannovna reigned until 1740. At the very beginning of her reign, she announced as her heir the future son of her only niece - the daughter of her elder sister and the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. At that time, the niece was only thirteen years old and, naturally, she was not married. The girl's name was Elizabeth Christina, but two years after the publication of the manifesto on succession to the throne, the German princess converted to Orthodoxy and the name Anna, in honor of her aunt, the empress. At the age of twenty, the future mother of the heir to the throne became the wife of Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick. Five years older, he did not enjoy her favor at all. But no one asked about the princess’s wishes. It was the will of her royal aunt.

In 1740, that is, a year after the wedding, the young couple had a son, named Ioann in honor of the Russian great-grandfather, Tsar Ioann Alekseevich. After the death of the empress, according to the will of the deceased, the grandson of the Duke of Mecklenburg, connected with the Romanovs only through his grandmother, Princess Catherine, was declared her successor.

If only Anna Ioannovna could have predicted what terrible fate she had prepared for her great-nephew!

Before the baby Tsar came of age, Ernst Biron was appointed regent - again according to the empress's will. After his arrest, the child's mother, Princess Anna Leopoldovna, was declared ruler.

For only one year, the grandson of the Duchess of Mecklenburg remained the nominal Emperor of Russia. As a result of a palace coup that took place in favor of the daughter of Emperor Peter I, Elizabeth, ruler Anna Leopoldovna was overthrown. With her husband and children (by that time she already had two children), under the protection of a large convoy, she was sent into exile to the north of Russia. In the strictest secrecy, the Brunswick family was settled in Kholmogory, a small ancient town seventy miles from Arkhangelsk. The parents were separated from their son, former Tsar John VI, forever. The new empress, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, hastened to erase the memory of her predecessor, ordering the destruction of coins and medals with his image, as well as the burning of all papers in which his name was mentioned.

Anna Leopoldovna gave birth to three more children in Kholmogory. After the birth of her last son, Alexei, in March 1746, she died of puerperal fever. She was not even thirty years old.

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, having learned about the death of her relative, ordered the body of the deceased to be brought to St. Petersburg. They buried the unfortunate captive in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra next to her grandmother, Tsarina Praskovya, and mother, the Duchess of Mecklenburg. Anna Leopoldovna's children and husband remained in Kholmogory for many years.

Naturally, the former emperor, who by that time was already six years old, was not told about the death of his mother. Under the name Gregory, the boy was kept in complete isolation from his family. When he reached adolescence, he was transported in complete secrecy to the Shlisselburg fortress, located on a small island in the middle of the Neva. (The fortress at that time still served as a defensive military structure; only a few years later it would become a prison.)

There, in a small dark casemate located in one of the fortress walls, the entire short life of the unfortunate grandson of the Duchess of Mecklenburg passed. Both his name and origin were hidden from him. The guards were given strict orders not to tell anyone about the prisoner. Here, in the cell, in July 1764, a mysterious prisoner was killed, allegedly while trying to escape. He was twenty-four years old.

They buried the former emperor near the fortress wall, lightly covering the grave with moss and branches so that it would not be noticeable. The official report reported a “fatal accident” involving an unnamed prisoner.

John's father, Prince of Brunswick, died ten years later in Kholmogory. The four grandchildren of the Duchess of Mecklenburg were transported to Denmark in 1780 by agreement between the Dowager Danish Queen Juliana Maria, their father’s sister, and Empress Catherine II. An annual boarding house of 8 thousand rubles each was allocated from the Russian treasury for the maintenance of former prisoners. They lived out their life in the Danish town of Gersens.

This is how the life of the daughter and grandchildren of the Russian princess Catherine and Karl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin turned out tragically. And the fault was the son of Anna Leopoldovna, the Russian emperor without a crown and throne, deprived not only of freedom and power, but also of his own name. Fortunately, Princess Catherine herself, who, at the request of her uncle, was married to an unloved and completely alien person to her, did not have to witness the tragedy of her daughter and her offspring. Fate saved her from this.

Historical sources of the 19th century say the following about the niece of Emperor Peter I, the Duchess of Mecklenburg:

« Princess Catherine, or, as her mother called her, “light-Katyushka” ... not being a beauty, attracted attention to herself by her short stature and excessive plumpness. She was distinguished by her excessive talkativeness, loud laughter, carelessness and a special ability to repeat everything that came into her flighty head. She loved to dance, frolic, be childish... In a word, she could serve as a type of empty, spoiled hawthorn of the early 18th century... She died in 1733, leaving behind a memory in her Mecklenburg possessions with the nickname “wild duchess” (die wilde Herzogin), but in ours Russia - no».

Perhaps this is a fair assessment. But the role that Peter I assigned to Catherine in his foreign policy was fulfilled by his niece: good relations with Mecklenburg through this relationship were not only established, but also continued into the next century.

Princess, Duchess of Holstein, eldest daughter of Emperor Peter I and Empress Catherine I.

Anna was born on January 27, 1708 in St. Petersburg, when her mother, née Marta Skavronskaya, was not yet married to her father, Tsar Peter I. He liked the girl born into the family “ a poor Livonian peasant and who became his fighting girlfriend", Five years ago, Peter took his sister Natalya into the palace and enrolled him in the staff of court girls. At the same time, Martha was baptized into the Orthodox faith and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna. Anna, like other children born to her mother by the Tsar, was considered illegitimate. Only three years later she was declared a princess, and a little later the marriage of her parents was publicly announced.

The wedding ceremony took place in St. Petersburg, in the small, then wooden St. Isaac's Church. During the ceremony, which was held very modestly, those present could observe a curious picture: the bride and groom walked around the lectern, and behind them, holding onto their mother’s skirt, minced two little girls-sisters with an age difference of one year. This, in fact, was the first appearance in the world of the daughters of Tsar Peter I. The wedding was celebrated in the palace, and the nannies took Anna and her younger sister Elizabeth to sleep in the inner chambers.

The daughters of Peter I now began to live in the royal palace. At first, according to the old Russian custom, they were surrounded by mothers, nannies, jesters and dwarfs, then two governesses were assigned to them - a Frenchwoman and an Italian. Girls began to be taught to read and write. A German language teacher was also invited. The mother personally ensured that her daughters received a comprehensive education; she herself was deprived of it.

Anna started reading early. She learned the basics of spelling quickly, and already at the age of eight she wrote letters to her mother and father. " Princess Anne“- this is how the eldest daughter signed, delighting the Tsar-Father. Anna diligently studied foreign languages, surprising those around her with her diligence and perseverance.

Catherine also wanted her daughters to have good manners and taste. For this purpose, a French teacher was invited to them, who began to teach the girls dancing and graceful manners. Both princesses succeeded in this science; they danced excellently and with great pleasure.

Catherine also took care of outfits for her daughters. They received expensive dresses from abroad, trimmed with gold and silver embroidery, thin lace and fashionable ribbons.

When the princesses grew up, foreigners who visited the court started talking about their beauty. The sisters were very different - both in appearance and in character. Anna, a tall, dark-eyed brunette, was calm and reasonable, modest and shy. According to the unanimous recognition of her contemporaries, she looked like her father. " The spitting image of the Tsar-father, too economical for a princess and wants to know about everything“- foreigners wrote about her in their reports. Elizabeth was blonde, temperamental, lively, and a great fashionista.

The Tsar Father loved his daughters very much, surrounding them with splendor and luxury as future brides of foreign princes. It was no secret that girls in the royal family were bargaining chips: they were married off abroad so that the country would get the necessary political benefits from it.

Peter I chose a groom for Anna when she was only thirteen years old. But he did not talk about the future fate of his favorite for some time, he delayed her marriage, causing bewilderment among diplomats and European suitors. Many of them were not against becoming the son-in-law of the Russian Tsar, the winner of the Swedes near Poltava. He had already entered the high society of Europe, having become related to European dynasties: he married his son from his first marriage, Tsarevich Alexei, to a German princess, and married his nieces to the Dukes of Courland and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Now it’s the turn of my own daughters. Peter I also intended them to implement his plans in European politics.

First, negotiations were held with France about the possibility of the marriage of the youngest, Elizabeth, with King Louis XV. Catherine put a lot of effort into ensuring that her daughter could speak French and be able to dance a minuet well, believing that more could not be asked of a Russian princess at Versailles. But there was no consent to marry the French king. A refusal came from Paris. It was believed that Elizabeth's illegitimate birth interfered. But the queen-mother was even ready for her daughter to convert to Catholicism.

In relation to Anna, the choice of the Tsar-Father fell on the Duke of Holstein, Karl Friedrich. And this was no coincidence. Holstein was ruled by the Dukes of Gottorp, who more than a hundred years ago managed to establish broad connections with many countries, near and far, right up to Muscovy itself. In 1633, Moscow was visited by an entire expedition from Schleswig-Holstein, which was organized by the Duke of Holstein, Frederick III. The foreign guests were cordially received by the Russian Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, the grandfather of Peter I.

Schleswig-Holstein has existed as a single state since the 15th century. It was formed from the union of two territories in the north of the European continent, known in history as Schleswig and Holstein.

The lands of Schleswig, which were inhabited by Germanic tribes from ancient times, were located south of Denmark, where Scandinavian-Danish tribes settled many centuries ago. This territory (South Jutland - as the country was called until 1340) was governed by Danish governors, mostly princes of the royal family, bearing the title of duke. For a long time, the country was a bone of contention between the German emperors and the Danish kings.

Holstein was located south of Schleswig. Its main city was Kiel, founded at the beginning of the 13th century on the shores of the Baltic Sea. When the Holstein counts and barons acquired extensive possessions in southern Schleswig as their personal property, Gottorp Castle, located near the city of Schleswig, became their ancestral residence.

The state received its final name when the Danish king Christian I achieved election to the Schleswig-Holstein throne in 1472 and became Duke of Schleswig and Count of Holstein. The capital of the united duchy was considered the city of Schleswig. The country was ruled jointly by both the Holstein dukes and the Danish kings. The history of their complex relationship stretched over centuries.

Karl Friedrich was the son of Duke Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp, married to the eldest daughter of the Swedish King Charles XI, Princess Jadwiga Sophia. He was born in Stockholm. When the boy was two years old, his father died in the war, and his mother died six years later. The care of the orphaned heir to the ducal throne was taken over by his father's brother Christian Augustus, who became the ruler of the Holstein-Gottorp duchy until his nephew came of age.

By birth, Karl Friedrich also had rights to the Swedish throne, since Karl XII, his mother’s brother, had no children. However, after the death of the king in 1718, it was not his nephew who received the crown, but his sister, Ulrika Eleonora, who soon handed over the reins of power to her husband, the Crown Prince of Hesse-Kassel.

Thus, the Duke of Holstein lost the Swedish throne. He also lost the ducal lands in Schleswig. Back in 1713, Denmark, wanting to expand its territory, occupied part of the territory of Schleswig, and according to a treaty concluded seven years later, the Gottorp part of the duchy came into its full possession. Kiel became the new residence of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp.

By marrying his daughter to Karl Friedrich, Tsar Peter I intervened in the dispute between Holstein, which had access to the Baltic Sea, and Denmark, which occupied part of the sovereign Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein. Through his son-in-law, the rightful heir to the royal throne of Sweden, he could also influence the politics of that country. Peter I hoped that thanks to contact with Holstein, the port in Kiel, which was important for the maritime connections of the newly built city of St. Petersburg, would open to him.

Karl Friedrich, for his part, really wanted to marry the daughter of Peter I: with the support of the powerful Russian Tsar, he hoped to return Schleswig occupied by Denmark and again acquire the right to the Swedish throne. Thus, the benefit was mutual. This marriage also aroused interest in Europe, since the desire of the Holstein rulers to return lost territories created a source of constant instability in the north of the continent.

At the beginning of 1721, Emperor Peter I and his wife arrived in Riga to meet with the Duke there and negotiate a marriage. At the same time, the Holsteiner was invited to live for some time in St. Petersburg.

An agreement was reached, and already in the summer of that year, Karl Friedrich and his retinue arrived in the Russian capital. They settled him in the house of Lieutenant General Roman Bruce, and he was officially announced as the groom of Princess Anna Petrovna. True, they were in no hurry to get married...

The Duke spent three years in St. Petersburg waiting for the marriage contract - essentially as an exile who had gained the patronage of the Russian sovereign. As a groom, he often communicated with the royal family and managed to gain the trust of Ekaterina Alekseevna, who was imbued with special sympathy for her future son-in-law. The Russian sovereign himself was very disposed towards him.

On October 24, 1724, the young couple were finally engaged. Anna's fate was finally decided. A month later, the Duke’s long-awaited marriage contract was signed.

According to this agreement, Anna remained in the Greek Orthodox faith, but the sons born into the family were to be raised in the Lutheran faith, and daughters in the Orthodox faith. Anna and her husband renounced for themselves and for their future children all rights and claims to the Russian throne. There were three more secret points in the agreement: 1. On Russian support in obtaining the Swedish crown by the Duke; 2. On the assistance of Holstein in the return of the Gottorp part of the lands of the duchy; 3. About the conditions for the possible calling to the Russian throne of one of the princes born in marriage. The Duke undertook not to interfere with this.

The last clause of the contract had important domestic political significance and was kept strictly secret. Peter I hoped to make his grandson his heir, that is, to decide the fate of the throne through his beloved daughter. Anna herself, back in 1721, signed a renunciation of all rights to the Russian throne. But her future son could legally lay claim to three thrones at once - in Russia, Schleswig and Sweden.

So, the marriage contract was signed, but due to illness and then the sudden death of the father-emperor, the wedding was postponed. Peter I was not destined to live to see the wedding of his eldest daughter.

Ekaterina Alekseevna, who ascended the throne after the death of her husband under the name of Empress Catherine I, clearly favored her future son-in-law.

She told the palace nobles that she considered the Duke of Holstein to be her own son: “ I hope you will still love him as the late emperor loved him».

The wedding of Princess Anna Petrovna to Karl Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp took place in May 1725 in the Trinity Church in St. Petersburg. The mother arranged a magnificent wedding for her daughter. Less than six months passed after the death of the All-Russian Emperor Peter I (he accepted this title in 1721 at the request of all classes of the state). It is believed that Catherine I wanted to quickly marry off her eldest daughter in order to reign without a rival in her person. It was no secret that Peter always showed special love for Anna. The spiritual mood of the eldest daughter was close to her father. Serious and inquisitive, she knew several foreign languages, was drawn to everything Western, and frankly did not tolerate many Russian customs. And the crown princess was similar to him in character, except that she was softer than her father.

Karl Friedrich did not shine with special intelligence, nor was he distinguished by beauty. Marriage with him was not to the liking of the beautiful and sensible Anna, but she could not help but fulfill the will of her parents.

The daughter's husband soon became the closest and trusted adviser to the new empress. However, in fact, the ruler in Russia during the reign of Catherine I was Alexander Menshikov, the closest friend of her deceased husband. It was he who ruled the Supreme Privy Council established by the empress, to which she transferred all the most important state affairs, both internal and external. A place on the council, which consisted of six high-ranking nobles, was also given to the Empress’s favorite son-in-law, the young Duke of Holstein.

Very little time passed, and hostile relations arose between the crown princess’s husband and the all-powerful His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov. “Blue” blood and family ties with the imperial house did not allow His Royal Highness the Duke to come to terms with such a high position as the son of a simple groom, which was the former friend of Peter I.

It all started with a small incident. When Menshikov introduced his eight-year-old son to the Duke, the boy, as expected, stood up, and everyone present followed his example. But the Most Serene Prince himself did not deign to show the Empress’s son-in-law and nephew of the Swedish king such respect, as if considering it beneath his dignity. And he continued to sit. This incident caused a lot of controversy.

Relations between the two statesmen sharply worsened after the death of Catherine I. And the first Russian empress reigned for only two years and died at the age of forty-three.

According to the will of the deceased, the twelve-year-old grandson of Peter I was appointed her successor by right of primogeniture. Until the young emperor came of age, the administration of the state “ with the full power of an autocratic sovereign"should have passed to the Supreme Privy Council. But this function was taken over by the power-hungry Menshikov, although Catherine I indicated in her will not only the prince, but also her both daughters as guardians of the heir to the throne.

However, His Serene Highness did not intend to share power with anyone, be it the daughters of Peter I himself, his former ruler and patron. He prudently arranged for the Empress, before her death, to write down in her will her consent to the marriage of Menshikov’s eldest daughter Maria with the heir to the throne. As soon as Princess Maria was officially declared the bride of Emperor Peter II, the Supreme Privy Council decided that until the young sovereign turned sixteen years old, his future father-in-law would rule. Regarding the daughters of Catherine I, it was decided that when their nephew came of age, each would receive one million 800 thousand rubles and would share their mother’s diamonds.

As a result of all these intrigues, Tsarevna Anna Petrovna and her sister, the future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, found themselves in the shadow of the new ruling elite.

Elizabeth was not yet married. She did not become the wife of Louis XV, which her mother dreamed of. And at that crucial moment for the history of Russia, the youngest daughter of Peter I was “in upset feelings”: two days after her mother’s death, Elizabeth’s fiancé, her beloved Prince of Holstein Karl August, a cousin of her sister’s husband, died of smallpox. Menshikov was sure that now the youngest daughter of Peter I had no time for political squabbles. And he was right.

The newly-minted ruler had a very wary attitude towards Anna. She was the wife of the Duke of Holstein, whom Menshikov disliked. The Most Serene Prince had fears that through Anna her husband would also gain power, and this was what he feared most of all. After all, even during the life of Empress Catherine I, he had to yield primacy to the Duke, as a member of the royal family. What will happen if the Duchess of Holstein comes to power?

And Menshikov began to create all sorts of obstacles for the young couple. Under the pretext of the danger of the spread of smallpox, he sent the duke and his wife into quarantine, citing the fact that at the time of the illness of sister Anne's fiancé, both were in close contact with him. So the couple were practically isolated.

The issue of money also came up on the agenda. Basevich, the minister of Holstein and a loyal friend of Duke Karl Friedrich, began to work to ensure that each princess was given one million rubles even before Emperor Peter II came of age. He believed that His Highness the Duke of Holstein and both daughters of the Russian Emperor should not be allowed to fall into poverty. Menshikov promised to determine a pension for Tsesarevna Anna and her sister, and ordered the Duke to leave Russia and go to his lands.

Less than two months after her mother’s death, Anna Petrovna and her husband were forced to leave their home. Before leaving, they demanded a receipt from her for receiving the money, but the paper was not accepted for a long time, because it contained the old title of Peter’s daughter - “ Crown Princess of Russia" Now she was considered neither a princess nor a Russian, but became a cut piece...

So, the daughter of Peter the Great, together with her husband, the Duke, sailed to a country unknown to her. She was parting with her beloved Petersburg, parting with her beloved sister. The farewell of Anna and Elizabeth was very sad; the young women seemed to have a presentiment that they would never see each other again.

Three warships and three frigates were placed at the disposal of the ducal couple. On July 27, 1727, together with their retinue and luggage, the daughter of Emperor Peter I and the Duke of Holstein left the Russian capital. The ships were heading for Kiel. They were accompanied to Kronstadt by Admiral General Count Apraksin.

The couple arrived in the port of Kiel, accompanied by a small flotilla, on Sunday evening, August 13. They were greeted by salvos from the guns of all the ships in the port. It was too late for the gala reception, so the Duke and Duchess spent the night and the entire next day on the ship. Meanwhile, preparations were being made in the city for their official meeting.

Anna Petrovna then wrote to her sister: “ Numerous boats floated around our ship with men and women on board, who looked at us as they look at elephants in St. Petersburg. Everyone wanted to see me as soon as possible».

By the evening of August 15, Karl Friedrich and his Russian wife, along with those accompanying them, were brought ashore. In the Duke’s memoirs, written by him shortly before his death, one can read the following: “ All ships in the port and roadstead were illuminated. When I went ashore with my dear wife, they fired a volley from their cannons. The streets along which our carriages passed were festively decorated, the bridges were covered with blue fabric. Musicians with fanfares and drums were placed on the platform built at the town hall. All the high society came to Kiel to greet us».

Courtiers were waiting for the Duke and his young wife in the palace. In the evening there was a reception and dinner. The tables were set for two hundred people. Over the next two days, various entertainments were organized on the streets of the city. " My subjects, - the Duke recalled, - We were sincerely glad that after my long absence they saw me again, and even happily married».

A new life began for Anna Petrovna. Some time after her sister’s departure, Elizaveta Petrovna received a letter from Kiel with the following content: “ My dear sister! I inform Your Highness that, thank God, I came here in good health with the Duke and it’s very good to live here, because people are very kind to me, but not a single day goes by that I don’t cry for you, my dear sister! I don’t know what it’s like for you to live there? I ask you, dear sister, that you deign to write to me more often about the health of Your Highness. With this, I am sending Your Highness a gift: a fan, such as all the ladies wear here, a box for flies, a toothpick, nutcrackers, a peasant dress, as they wear here... I ask Your Highness to give my bow to all the St. Petersburgers, and our Holsteiners ordered to give their bow Your Highness».

The Holsteiners considered the daughter of the Russian Tsar to be a very beautiful, intelligent and friendly woman. However, Anna Petrovna's life was boring and monotonous. Her only pleasure was correspondence with her younger sister. In her letters, Anna Petrovna described the details of her stay on German soil. She usually wrote about herself that she was healthy and wanted to learn more about a country unfamiliar to her. " Please, my heart-sister, write to me more often about your precious health and how much fun you are having in Moscow. (In January 1728, on the occasion of the coronation of Peter II, the court moved to the former Russian capital.) I have nothing to tell about life here, except that winter here is almost over».

The life of the Russian crown princess on German soil was not going well. She soon realized that the Duke did not love her. So cheerful and gallant in St. Petersburg, the husband here became completely different. He began to show a penchant for various entertainments with friends and girls, often went on picnics, and showed no interest in government affairs or mental pursuits. In a word, he led a carefree lifestyle. Did the young woman realize that her husband had connections on the side? Undoubtedly...

At first, Anna Petrovna did not complain in her letters, always calling Karl Friedrich “my dear husband.” But one day Elizabeth received a letter from her, where her sister wrote the following: “ I inform you that the Duke got in touch with Lavrushka, does not sit at home for a single day, always leaves in a carriage, either to visit someone, or to a comedy».

Relations between the spouses became cold. They lived in different parts of the palace and did not have lunch together. The lot of a young woman who was expecting the birth of a child was loneliness. Surrounded by care and attention in her homeland, Anna Petrovna could not get used to such a life and began writing plaintive letters to her beloved sister. She passed them on occasion through Russian sailors. " Not a single day goes by that I don’t cry for you, my dear sister.", she wrote in one of her last letters.

On February 21, 1728, at noon, Anna Petrovna gave birth to a son. They named him Karl Peter Ulrich. In the memoirs of Duke Karl Friedrich in connection with this event there are the following lines: “ I was incredibly happy. The birth of the heir was announced with the ringing of bells and cannon fire.».

The boy was baptized in the Lutheran Church. On this occasion, all houses in the city were decorated with festive illumination. The entire high society of Holstein was present at the christening ceremony. In the evening a large ball was given in the palace.

The news of the birth of a son to the Duchess of Holstein served as a pretext for grandiose celebrations in Moscow, where the court was still located at that time. But after some time the celebrations were suspended. The news was delivered by courier that Anna Petrovna, the eldest daughter of Emperor Peter I, had died. It was hard to believe what happened... After all, after giving birth, she began to recover quickly, and Moscow was informed that the duchess was healthy and feeling well. But the unexpected happened...

On the day of the baptism of the newborn in Kiel, fireworks were displayed. The young mother was not yet allowed to leave her chambers, and she decided to look at this magnificent spectacle from the window. The evening was cold, a damp, piercing wind was blowing from the sea. Anna Petrovna, having opened the window, despite the entreaties of those present, watched what was happening for a long time. In front of the court ladies, who were shivering from the cold, she only boasted of her strong Russian health. But the next morning the Duchess felt unwell, a fever began, and she found it difficult to breathe. For ten days the doctors fought for her life, but medicine was powerless. On the last day of her life, Anna Petrovna was tossing about in delirium, calling for someone. There was a terrible commotion in the palace. The lights of the palace church lit up, a German priest prayed in Latin for the duchess, and nearby, muttering prayers and frantically crossing herself, her faithful Mavra, the “room girl” who accompanied her mistress to Kiel, was beating her head on the floor in front of the candles. But prayers did not help. " In the night, at the age of 21 from her birth, she died of fever“- read the official report.

Before her death, Anna Petrovna asked for one thing - to bury her in her native land “next to her father.” The ship "Raphael" and the frigate "Cruiser" headed to Kiel from St. Petersburg for the ashes of Anna Petrovna. Under the shadow of St. Andrew's flag, the beloved daughter of Peter the Great, accompanied by Holstein dignitaries, set off on her last voyage. The Duke remained in his country castle in deep despair.

The coffin was transported across the Neva on a galley, from the sides of which hung panels of black crepe. On November 12, to the ringing of bells from all the churches of the Russian capital, Anna Petrovna was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to her sovereign parents.

Hundreds of St. Petersburg residents came to say goodbye to the overseas duchess, daughter of Emperor Peter I. No one came from Moscow to the funeral of the “hereditary Russian princess”: neither the reigning nephew, nor courtiers, nor diplomats, nor ministers. Elizabeth was not at her coffin either: together with the entire court, she was in the old capital, which Emperor Peter II had no intention of leaving. But she took the death of her beloved sister hard: she locked herself in her rooms, refused to receive anyone for a long time, prayed and cried a lot. Somewhere far away there is an orphaned nephew, whose thoughts will not leave the future empress until the end of her days.

And in Moscow, next to the young Emperor Peter II, there was no longer the all-powerful Menshikov, who a year ago had shown so many tricks to get his benefactor’s daughter out of her native nest as soon as possible.

The grandson of Peter I acted harshly towards Menshikov. At the instigation of the opponents of the Most Serene Prince, the young emperor ordered his arrest, deprived him of all ranks and orders and exiled him to Siberia along with his family, including his bride Maria. The prince's huge fortune was confiscated, and his daughter's wedding ring was taken off. To the surprise of everyone, the actual ruler of the state, a man who knew how to get along with Peter the Great himself and turn the formidable anger of the tsar into the mercy of a loving friend, fell from the highest rung of power. A twelve-year-old boy with a crown on his head was too much for him.

Menshikov had to overcome a long journey from his palace resplendent in luxury in St. Petersburg to distant Siberian Berezov, thousands of miles from the capital. There he was first placed in the barracks of a local prison, built to house state criminals. Having recovered from the painful journey, the former prince built a small house with his own hands, where he settled with his children. (His wife died on the way to Siberia.)

Having hidden his grievances deep in his heart, Menshikov no longer complained about fate, he tried to encourage his children - two daughters and a son. But he did not last long: a year later he died. (His children were allowed to return from exile and live in the village. The former bride of Emperor Peter II, Maria Menshikova, died of smallpox a few years later.)

So, Tsarevna Anna Petrovna and her enemy, the power-hungry Alexander Menshikov, passed away almost simultaneously. Anna Petrovna's son remained in the care of his father, the Duke. The childhood of his grandson Peter I, who lost his mother, was spent in the castle of the Holstein Dukes, mainly among the military. From the age of seven he was taught various rules of the art of war and was allowed to attend parades. The boy liked it, he learned military wisdom willingly, spending almost all his days in the palace barracks, surrounded by officers and soldiers.

When Karl Peter Ulrich was eleven years old, his father died. Remaining a widower, he deeply experienced the passing of his Russian wife. He, in his own way, managed to become attached to her, was infinitely grateful for the birth of an heir-son, but understood that from now on the St. Petersburg court had become inaccessible to him. Actually, this is what happened: with the death of Anna Petrovna, the Duke and his affairs were soon forgotten in Russia.

Shortly before his death, in “Notes on the History of his Family,” Karl Friedrich wrote: “ Russia will forever remain in my best memories" And in 1735, ten years after his wedding with the daughter of Peter the Great, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, whom everyone in Russia had practically forgotten, established the Order of St. Anne in memory of his untimely deceased august wife. A gilded cross with a red ornament, in the middle is a portrait of St. Anne and the letters AIPI, which can be deciphered as “Anna, daughter of Emperor Peter I.” In 1742, this order of four degrees with diamond insignia “moved” to Russia. At first it remained a foreign order, and in 1797, Emperor Paul I, grandson of Anna Petrovna, was included in the Russian orders to reward persons of all classes both within the country and abroad. It was awarded until the 1917 revolution.

Karl Friedrich never married again. He led a secluded life on his Holstein estates. " I was looking for peace and didn't find it", the Duke wrote in his Notes shortly before his death. He died on June 18, 1739 at the Rolfshagen estate, not having reached the age of forty. The Duke was buried in the church of the town of Bordesholm, located on the way from Kiel to Schleswig, in the new tomb of the Gottorp rulers.

Guardianship of the heir was taken by his cousin, the princely bishop of Lübeck Adolf Friedrich, the future king of Sweden. The upbringing of the orphaned prince was entrusted to Marshal Brümmer, who established a real barracks order for him. The boy grew up as a nervous and impressionable child - the lack of maternal affection clearly reflected on his character. He did not study any special sciences and did not acquire any interest in reading. Only playing the violin was to his liking, and he played selflessly and with great feeling. He loved music and painting, while also adoring everything military.

At the request of his aunt, the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who ascended the throne in December 1741, Karl Peter Ulrich and his teacher were brought to Russia. Like his mother once, he arrived in a distant, unfamiliar country, for which he, raised in a German duchy and brought up in the Lutheran religion, had no feelings. The Empress declared her fourteen-year-old nephew the heir to the Russian throne. He was baptized according to Orthodox custom under the name of Peter Fedorovich, and in 1745 he was married to Princess Augusta Frederick of Anhalt-Zerbst, who received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna in Orthodoxy. There was no harmony in this marriage.

While in Russia, the son of the Russian crown princess Anna Petrovna actually remained a “stranger among his own.” He did not strive to get to know his mother’s homeland better, learn her native language, or absorb the origins of the Orthodox faith. The grandson of Peter the Great considered relocation to a country that he never considered native, although it was ready to give him the royal crown, as exile. His love belonged to distant Holstein, where he was born and raised.

The heir to the Russian throne ordered a company of soldiers from Holstein, in Oranienbaum, not far from St. Petersburg (Empress Elizaveta Petrovna handed over the former Menshikov Palace to her nephew), created his own Holstein army and began to wear its uniform. Somewhat later, he began to wear the Order of the Black Eagle, awarded to him by the Prussian king, whom he treated with adoration.

Upon reaching adulthood, Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich was given the opportunity to rule his small duchy. The interests of Holstein henceforth became the main ones in his life. The grandson of Emperor Peter I rejected an invitation from Sweden to take the royal throne, vacated after the death of Ulrika Eleonora, the sister of his grandmother.

After the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, her nephew ascended the throne under the name of Peter III. But he reigned for only six months and five days. The son of the early deceased Tsarevna Anna Petrovna saw his main task in the liberation of Holstein from the rule of Denmark and the return of Schleswig to the Holstein dukes, which his father was forced to cede to the Danish king back in 1720. He wanted to make this duchy, small in area but important in its geographical location, a strong ally of Russia - this was once the dream of his mighty grandfather, Peter the Great.

But again the unpredictability of fate...

The uprising of the guards regiments, which on June 26, 1762 proclaimed the native German princess, in whom there was not a drop of Russian blood, as an autocratic empress, overthrew the son of Tsarevna Anna Petrovna from the throne. After signing the act of abdication, he was imprisoned in a country palace in Ropsha and was soon villainously killed there. The official report stated that the former emperor died of “severe colic.”

In the uniform of a Holstein officer, modestly and without any honors, the grandson of Peter the Great was buried in St. Petersburg, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Thirty-four years later, the son of Peter III, Emperor Paul I, who ascended the throne, ordered the remains of his father to be transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral for an honorable reburial next to his mother and her parents.

Anna Petrovna, although she lived only twenty years, left her mark on Russian history. After the death of Peter II, the branch of the Romanov family was cut short. It was with Anna, the daughter of the great Peter, that the long-term close dynastic relationship between Russia and Germany began. With the birth of the Duke of Holstein, Karl Peter Ulrich, the future Emperor Peter III, the Romanov dynasty in the middle of its historical life turned into the Romanov-Holstein dynasty. The last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, along with other titles, bore the title of Duke of Schleswig-Holstein.

After the death of Peter the Great's grandson, Emperor Peter II, who passed away at the age of fifteen and left no offspring, women sat on the Russian throne for several decades: Anna Ioannovna, Elizaveta Petrovna, both née Romanovs, and Catherine II, née Anhalt-Zerbst. The latter came to power, overcoming the death of her husband, Peter III.

A penniless princess from a small German principality was completely alien to the Imperial House of Romanov by blood, but in her marriage to the grandson of Peter I she left behind a son-heir, who ascended the throne under the name of Paul I. His wife, Princess Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg, for twenty-five years of marriage life gave birth to her royal husband four sons and six daughters. According to established tradition, the children linked their destinies with foreigners. The sons - Alexander, Konstantin, Nikolai and Mikhail - married German princesses. The daughters - Alexandra, Elena, Maria, Ekaterina and Anna (Olga died in childhood) - were forced to leave their parents' home in St. Petersburg and acquire a new homeland far from Russia. Vienna, Schwerin, Weimar, Stuttgart, The Hague - this is the geography of their stay on a foreign land.

How life turned out in marriage will be the story on the following pages.

Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter I

Tsesarevna, Duchess of Holstein, second daughter of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna, b. January 27, 1708 in Moscow, died 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 is said: “At His Tsar’s Majesty’s gentlemen, the ministers all dined and had a lot of fun, because that day the little princess Anna Petrovna was the birthday girl.” At first, Ekaterina Alekseevna kept her daughters very simply and not entirely openly, but after the announcement of the marriage, princesses Anna and Elizabeth received a separate room, a separate table and a special servant. Parents were concerned about giving their daughters the best education at that time. At the age of eight, Princess Anna Petrovna herself wrote letters to her mother. In 1716, the Greek "doctor" Lavra Palikala was summoned to the royal children in St. Petersburg; in the same year, the Italian Countess Marianna Maniani arrived in the capital, taking the place of teacher to the princesses in the month of November; Even earlier, they included 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 Swedish, they gradually learned to speak Swedish. In the office 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 Berchholtz, 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 the Privy Councilor Count Bassevich, who had previously been in Russia as an envoy from the Holstein Court, and soon Chamber-Junker Berchholtz was requested from Paris, leaving a precious diary about the Duke’s stay in Russia (1721-1726). Wanting to get to know the groom better, the Emperor and Empress went to Riga and spent the whole spring there. The Tsar's first meeting 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 St. Petersburg. The matchmaking of Karl-Friedrich was arranged after several refusals. The rapprochement of the Holstein Court with the Russian was conceived by Baron Hertz, a famous minister, first Holstein and then Swedish. With the help of this rapprochement, according to his plan, the rise of Holstein, which was devastated by Denmark and lost the Duchy of Schleswig in 1714, 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 king's elder sister, the Duke of Holstein, but he was rejected by the Swedes and the crown, with restrictions on power, was offered by Swedish government officials to Ulrike-Eleanor, 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 beneficial 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 Charles Frederick as heir to the royal throne and promise to restore him, with the help of Russia, to the possession of the Duchy of Schleswig. The Swedes did not want to hear about it and only at the strong insistence of Peter the Great gave the Duke the title of Royal Highness; Subsequently, in 1724, they, however, promised to try, together with Russia, to return Schleswig to him (treaty between Russia and Sweden on February 22 (March 4), 1724), but nothing came of these promises.

The ceremonial entry of the Duke of Holstein into St. Petersburg took place on June 27, 1721. Before him, Berchholz arrived, who had the opportunity two days before, on the day of the coronation of Peter the Great, to see the entire royal family at a holiday in the Summer Garden. “Our eyes,” writes Berchholtz, “immediately turned to the eldest princess, brunette and beautiful as an angel. Her complexion, hands and figure are wonderfully good. She looks very much like a king and is quite tall for a woman.” Subsequently, in 1724, before the betrothal of Princess Anna to the Duke, Berchholz noted in his diary: “In general, one can say that it is impossible to paint a more charming face and find a more perfect build than that of this princess. All this is also accompanied by innate friendliness and courtesy which she possesses to the highest degree." The review from 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 is more than five feet , did not seem too tall with her unusually developed forms and proportionality in all parts of the body, reaching to perfection. Nothing could be more majestic than her posture and physiognomy, nothing more regular than the contours of her face, and at the same time her gaze and smile were graceful and tender. She had black hair and eyebrows, a complexion of dazzling whiteness and a fresh and delicate blush, which no artificiality could ever achieve; her eyes were of an indefinite color and were distinguished by an extraordinary brilliance. In a word, the strictest exactitude in nothing could have revealed in her any All this was complemented by a penetrating mind, genuine simplicity and good nature, generosity, forbearance, excellent education and excellent knowledge of the Russian languages, French, German, Italian and Swedish. From childhood she was distinguished by her 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 did not have any particular attractiveness in his facial features. Indifferent to intellectual interests, nothing not a reader, carefree and prone to petty formalism, Karl Friedrich loved to spend time at the toast board. Life in St. Petersburg and Moscow, in the first three years of the Duke's stay in Russia, full of painful uncertainty, strengthened his inclination towards wine. Karl Friedrich did not feel special love for his bride and, without hiding from her, expressed his sympathy for Elizaveta Petrovna in front of her. Although Tsarevna Anna “in any case,” according to Berchholtz, “was unusually kind to the Duke,” the diary’s author’s statement 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 Bassevichny, the mutual marriage conditions were finally formulated, and on the Empress’s name day, November 24, they were signed, with the solemn betrothal of the Duke to Princess Anna. The contract consisted of the 21st article, which ensured the future economy 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 accessories) and the rights of the offspring of the future duchess, etc. By virtue of the contract, Princess Anna preserved the faith of her ancestors and had to raise her daughters in its rules; sons had to profess Lutheranism. The Tsesarevna and the Duke renounced for themselves and for all their descendants “all rights, demands, affairs 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 ability,” at his discretion, “to call for the succession of the crown and the All-Russian Empire one of those born from this marriage princes,” and in this case the Duke obliged to immediately carry out the will of the Emperor, “without any condition.” 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. Based on these two articles, the son of Karl-Frederick was called by Empress Elizabeth to inherit the All-Russian throne and almost simultaneously invited by Swedish government officials to occupy the Swedish throne. In the third of the “secret articles”, Peter offered the duke his “good offices” to return his rightful possession 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 enlighten them to his plans and intentions. Soon the wedding was supposed to take place, but there was a delay due to the preparation of the dowry (diamond items were expected to be brought from France 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 a short-term relief and, probably, thinking about inheriting the throne, Peter demanded a slate board and wrote on it: “Give up everything”... Then the hand did not obey. The dying Emperor ordered to call Anna Petrovna 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 related to his eldest beloved daughter; due to 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 construction to begin on the banks of the Neva, in the Summer Garden, of a large hall for the wedding celebration. On April 19, the Duke of Holstein's birthday was celebrated for the first time at the Court. Soon after, Karl-Friedrich rented a three-story stone house from Admiral General Apraksin for 3,000 rubles to live with his wife. This house was located on the site of the Saltykovsky entrance of the current Winter Palace. May 21st, in the Church of St. Trinity (on the St. Petersburg Side) wedding took place. Soon after the wedding, disagreements 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 her son-in-law more and more favor every day: so, on February 17, 1726, she appointed him to sit on the newly established Supreme Privy Council, and on Easter Day she made him lieutenant colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment; In addition, the Empress wanted to accept armed mediation in the Holstein-Denmark affair, but this was prevented by the unexpected appearance, in the spring of 1726, of an English squadron in the Gulf of Finland. The rise of the Duke did not please Menshikov very much, 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 primacy. For about three months the Duke endured persecution from the temporary worker. Due to his timidity and weak character, Karl-Friedrich could not take advantage of favorable circumstances and, relying on many zealous adherents of Anna Petrovna, achieve power. Instead, he decided to leave Russia with his wife, about which Stamke and Bassevich submitted a memorial to the Privy Council on June 28th. The fourteen points of this memorial included, among other things, demands for the renewal of Peter I’s treaties with Sweden, for the issuance of copies of the Empress’s will, and for the immediate release of 100,000 rubles. assigned annual allowance, the issuance of 200,000 rubles. for travel expenses on account of the million bequeathed by Catherine I, with the rest paid in equal installments over eight years, etc. A copy of the spiritual will has not been seen; Regarding the succession to the Swedish throne, the council replied that “this is in the will of His All-Russian Imperial Majesty, 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 “of the crown princess’s sorrow that, due to failure to partition with her sister, she cannot take with her anything for the memory of her mother” and asked, at least, for things to be painted; but the council replied that a special commission would be appointed in a timely manner for the division and the duchess would receive everything that was due to her. On July 25, 1727, Anna Petrovna and her husband left Russia. 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, “by life there (that is, in Kiel) and by her 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- On May 3, “in the night, at the age of 21 from her birth, she died of a fever,” as the official report stated. Dying, Anna Petrovna asked to be buried next to her father. Upon receiving news of this, the Supreme Privy Council ordered that Major General Ivan Bibikov, president of the revision board, with one archimandrite and two priests, be sent to Holstein for the body of the crown princess, accompanied by one frigate. The squadron was commanded by Rear Admiral Bredahl. On October 12, the council, having received a report of the arrival of the duchess’s body in Kronstadt, ordered Minich to “meet the body with appropriate honor and bury it in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.” The preparations took about a month, and the burial took place only on November 12, at the northern wall of the cathedral, in the second row from the iconostasis. The court at that time was in Moscow.

"The 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 Russians" 1858, vol. III. Encyclop. dictionaries: comp. Russian scientist and liter., vol. 4, and Brockhaus-Efron, half II. "Collection", vols. 91 and 6. "Senate Archives", 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. Anna Petrovna's future husband, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Friedrich-Charles, came to Russia in 1720. 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 Nystadt (1721) disappointed the Duke's expectations, since Russia pledged not to interfere in the internal affairs of Sweden, but the Duke received hope of marrying the Emperor's daughter, Princess Anna Petrovna. On November 22, 1724, the long-desired marriage contract 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 granted himself the right, at his discretion, to call for the succession of the crown and the All-Russian Empire one of the princes born from this marriage, and the duke obliged to fulfill the will of the emperor without any conditions. In January 1725, Peter became dangerously ill and shortly before his death began to write: "give everything...", but could not continue further and sent for Anna Petrovna to dictate his last will to her; but when the crown 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 Duke's marriage to Anna Petrovna took place already under Catherine I - on May 21, 1725, in the Trinity Church on the St. Petersburg side. Soon the Duke was made a member of the newly established Supreme Privy Council and generally began to enjoy great importance. The Duke's position 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 went to Holstein. Here Anna Petrovna † March 4, 1728, barely reaching the age of twenty, was delivered of 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 fulfilled on November 12 of the same year. According to contemporaries, Anna Petrovna was very similar in appearance to her father, she was smart and beautiful; very educated, spoke excellent French, German, Italian and Swedish. It is also known that Anna Petrovna loved children very much and was distinguished by her affection for her nephew Peter (the son of the unfortunate Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich), who remained in the shadows during the reign of Catherine I.

The eldest daughter of Emperor Peter I, Anna Petrovna, was born out of wedlock on January 27, 1708 in the city of St. Petersburg. Her mother was the daughter of a Livonian peasant, Marta Skavronskaya. Officially, Peter married Catherine (this was the name Martha took at baptism) on February 19, 1712, after returning from the Prussian campaign.

Only 12 years later, in 1724, Peter crowned his wife as empress. Catherine bore him eleven children, most of whom died. Only Anna and her younger sister, Elizabeth, survived.

Eldest daughter

In childhood, girls were surrounded by nannies, jesters and dwarfs, and later governesses were assigned to the crown princesses. Anna learned to read and write early and persistently studied foreign languages. The French teacher taught the princesses the subtleties of etiquette and taught them to dance.

Anna took after her father, and therefore was a tall, slender brunette with black eyes. According to eyewitnesses, the crown princess was modest, calm, intelligent, thrifty, a little shy and very inquisitive.

Peter I doted on his eldest daughter, but for politicians, children have always been a geopolitical argument in the big game. Therefore, from an early age, the emperor began to look for a good match for his daughter. At first, Peter’s choice fell on the King of France, Louis XV: the princess even learned French and learned to dance the minuet, but Louis was not satisfied with Anna’s illegitimate origin.

Then Peter found a new groom - Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein. Apparently, Peter was attracted by the port in Kiel and the extensive connections of the Gottorp rulers who ruled Schleswig-Holstein. The groom's mother was Jadwiga Sophia, the eldest daughter of the Swedish king Charles XI, and her son, in principle, could ascend to the Swedish throne.

Father's arranged marriage

With this marriage, Charles wanted to strengthen his position, return to big politics and return the lands of Schleswig, by this time occupied by Denmark. Such an alliance caused a lot of gossip throughout Europe, because the Duke’s hope to return Schleswig could create a new military conflict.

Peter I arranged the marriage when Anna was thirteen. Karl and his entourage arrived in Russia, where he became the princess’s groom. The future husband of the imperial daughter lived in the house of General Bruce. The chronicles write that the duke enjoyed the patronage of the royal spouses.

In 1724, Charles signed a marriage contract, according to which his wife remained Orthodox, his sons were raised Lutheran, and his daughters Orthodox. He and Anna forever renounced the Russian throne, but their sons could be declared heirs by Peter.

After the death of parents

Did Anna love her husband? Some historians say that the emperor, who adored his daughter, would not have given her to an unloved person. Others consider Karl narrow-minded and not particularly handsome, and write that Anna was simply carrying out her father’s will.

Soon Peter I died. There is a version that the emperor wanted to make his eldest daughter heir, but did not have time. Catherine I ascended the throne and reigned for only two years after the death of her husband. According to her will, the throne went to her grandson - the son of Tsarevich Alexei, Peter, who at that time was eleven years old. In the event of his death, Anna was to become the Russian Empress.

However, due to the intrigues of Menshikov, who for a short time became practically the ruler of the country, the position of Anna and her husband changed. The Duke was removed from the Privy Council, of which he was a member, and soon Menshikov ensured that the couple left the country and went to Holstein.

In Kiel they were met by all the cream of society, but life away from their homeland weighed heavily on Anna. Her only entertainment was correspondence with Elizabeth. The Duke changed a lot: in his homeland he began to go on a drinking spree, cheated on his wife, and completely stopped being interested in politics. Anna Petrovna, who was waiting for an heir, fell into depression. The tone of her letters changed. She admitted: her husband goes to “comedies,” and she often cries.

At the end of February 1728, twenty-year-old Anna was delivered of the heir. The boy was baptized Peter Ulrich. Soon Anna Petrovna died, as they said, from “puerperal fever.” There was nothing unusual about such a death then, and witnesses assured: the Duke’s wife caught a cold during the festive fireworks launched in honor of her son. Allegedly, having heard the volleys, she opened the window.

It was winter outside, the wind rushed into the room, the young woman was weakened by childbirth, and the result was tragic. However, in the works of historians of the 19th century who studied Anna's letters, there are indications that the young woman died only on May 4, 1728 - two months after giving birth.

It is unknown whether she died of illness or was eliminated as a contender for the crown. Anna really wanted to be laid to rest “near the priest.” Her body was brought to St. Petersburg by sea and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Elizabeth was not at the ceremony. She mourned her sister in her Moscow chambers.

Karl Ulrich died when he was only 39. He managed to establish the Order of St. Anne: a golden cross with a red pattern, a portrait of the saint herself and the letters AIPI (Anna, daughter of Emperor Peter I). In 1742, the order came to Russia, and Anna Petrovna’s grandson, Emperor Pavel, included it in the register.