ANNE (1693-1740), empress of Russia, second daughter of Ivan V., Peter the Great's imbecile brother, and Praskovia Saltui kova. Her girlhood was passed at Ismailovo near Moscow, with her mother, an ignorant, bigoted tsaritsa of the old school, who neglected and even hated her daughters. Peter acted as a second father to the Ivanovs, as Praskovia and her family were called. In i 71 o he married Anne to Frederick William, duke of Courland, who died of surfeit on his journey home from St. Petersburg (Leningrad). The reluctant young widow was ordered to pro ceed on her way to Mittau to take over the government of Cour land, with the Russian resident, Count Peter Bestuzhev, as her adviser. He was subsequently her lover, till supplanted by Biren (q.v.). Anne's residence at Mittau was embittered by the utter inadequacy of her revenue. On her acceptance of the Russian crown, as the next heir of ter the death of Peter II. (Jan. 3o, 1730), she subscribed to nine articles which would have reduced her from an absolute to a very limited monarch. On Feb. 26 she made her public entry into Moscow under strict surveillance. On March 8 a coup d'etat, engineered by a party of her personal friends, over threw the supreme privy council and she was hailed as autocrat. Her government, though in many respects excellent, became at last universally unpopular. This was due in the main to the out rageous insolence of her all-powerful favourite Biren, who hated the Russian nobility and trampled upon them mercilessly. For tunately foreign affairs and the army were in the able hands of two other foreigners, who thoroughly identified themselves with Russia, Andrei Osterman (q.v.) and Burkhardt Munnich (q.v.). The chief political events of the period were the War of the Polish Succession and the second' Crimean War. The former was caused by the reappearance of Stanislaus Leszczynski as a candi date for the Polish throne after the death of Augustus II. (Feb. 1, 1733). The interests of Russia would not permit her to recog nize a candidate dependent directly on France and indirectly upon Sweden and Turkey, all three powers being at that time opposed to Russia's "system." She accordingly united with Austria to support 'Vasily Golitsuin's expedition under the regency of Sophia was the first Crimean War (1687-89) .
the candidature of the late king's son, Augustus of Saxony. So far as Russia was concerned, the War of the Polish Succession was quickly over. Much more important was the Crimean War of 1736-3g, which marks the beginning of that systematic struggle on the part of Russia to recover her natural and legitimate southern boundaries. It lasted four years and a half and cost her a hundred thousand men and millions of roubles, and, though invariably successful, she had to be content with the acquisition of a single city (Azov) with a small district at the mouth of the Don. Yet more had been gained than was immediately apparent. In the first place, it was the only war hitherto waged by Russia against Turkey which had not ended in crushing disaster. Miinnich had at least dissipated the illusion of Ottoman invincibility and taught the Russian soldier that ioo,000 janissaries and spahis were no match, in a fair field, for half that number of grenadiers and hussars. In the second place the Tatar hordes had been well nigh extermi nated. In the third place Russia's signal and unexpected successes in the Steppe had immensely increased her prestige on the Conti nent. "This court begins to have a great deal to say in the affairs of Europe," remarked the English minister, Sir Claudius Rondeau, a year later.
The last days of Anne were absorbed by the endeavour to strengthen the position of the heir to the throne, the baby tsarevich Ivan, afterwards Ivan VI., the son of the empress's niece, Anna Leopoldovna, against the superior claims of her cousin the tsarevna Elizabeth. The empress herself died three months later (Oct. 28, 1740). Her last act was to appoint Biren regent during the infancy of her great-nephew.
Anne was a grim, sullen woman, frankly sensual, but as well meaning as ignorance and vindictiveness would allow her to be. But she had much natural good sense, was a true friend and, in her more cheerful moments, an amiable companion. Lady Rondeau's portrait of the empress shows her to the best advantage.
See Letters from a Lady who resided some years in Russia (i.e., Lady Rondeau) (1775) ; Christoph Hermann Manstein, Memoires sur la Russie (Amsterdam, 1771 ; English edition, London, 1856) ; Ger hard Anton von Halem, Lebensschreibung des Feldm. B. C. Grafen von Munnich (Oldenburg, 1803) ; Claudius Rondeau, Diplomatic Despatches from Russia, 1728-1739 (St. Petersburg, 1889-92) ; R. Nisbet Bain, The Pupils of Peter the Great (1897) ; also the chapter in his vol. vi. of the Cambridge Modern History (1925).