Polish-Livonian origin), should be promoted right from the cradle to the rank of true heir to the Russian crown? By virtue of what law, what national tradition was the Tsarina Anna Ivanovna assuming the power to designate her successor? How could it be that she had no advisor at her side with enough respect for the history of Russia to hold her back from taking such a sacrilegious initiative? However, as usual, they kept these offensive comments to themselves, not wishing to run afoul of Buhren who, although he was German too, claimed to know better than any Russian what was appropriate for Russia.
At one time, he had vaguely thought of marrying his own son, Peter, to Anna Leopoldovna. This plan had failed because of the princess’s recent union with Anthony Ulrich; now, the favorite was anxious to ensure indirectly his future as acting Head of State. He considered it all the more urgent to advance his pawns on the chessboard since Her Majesty’s health was worsening by the day. There was a concern that she was suffering from a complicated renal impairment due to the effects of “being over the hill.” The doctors talked of “stones.”
Despite her sufferings, the tsarina still had periods of lucidity. Buhren took advantage of this to ask one last favor: to be
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The Extravagant Anna named Regent of the empire until the child - who had been just proclaimed heir to the throne - came to majority. This brazen request unleashed the indignation of the dying empress’s other councilors: Loewenwolde, Ostermann and Munnich. They were soon joined in their palace plot by Cherkassky and Bestuzhev.
After hours of secret discussions, they agreed that the greatest danger ahead was by no means their compatriot Buhren, but the clique of Russian aristocrats, who still had not accepted being brushed aside. In the final analysis, they reckoned, given the danger that some champion of the old-stock nobility would make an attempt to seize power, it would be preferable, for the German clan, to support their dear old accomplice Buhren. Thus, these five confederates (three of whom were of Germanic origin while the two others had ties to foreign courts) decided to place the destiny of the empire in the hands of a character who had never shown any concern for the traditions of Russia and who had not even taken the trouble to learn the language of the country that he claimed to govern. Having come to this resolve, they so advised Buhren - who had never doubted that they would see things his way.
Now they were all reconciled, united around a common interest, and they strove to convince the empress. Rocked between bouts of pain and delusion, she never left her bed anymore. She must hardly have been able to hear Buhren as he tried to explain to her what he wanted: a simple signature at the bottom of a page. Since she seemed too tired to answer him, he slipped the document under her pillow. Surprised by this gesture, she whispered, “Do you need that?” Then she turned her head and refused to speak anymore.
A few days later, Bestuzhev drafted another declaration, by which the Senate and the Generalite implored Her Majesty to entrust the regency to Buhren, in order to ensure the continuation of
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Terrible Tsarinas the empire “under whatever circumstance may arise.” Once more, the patient left the paper under her pillow without deigning to initial it - nor even to read it. Buhren and “his men” were dismayed by this inertia - which was likely to be final. Would they have to resort again to forgery to avoid trouble? What had happened on January 1730 when the young tsar Peter II had died was not encouraging.* Considering the ill will of the nobility, it would be dangerous to repeat that game with every change of reign.
However, on October 16, 1740, the tsarina took a turn for the better. She called in her old favorite and, with a trembling hand, gave him the signed document. Finally, Buhren could breathe again - and with him, all those in the close band who had contributed to this victory in extremis. The new regent’s partisans hoped that their efforts, more or less spontaneous, would be repaid before long, While Her Majesty was on her death bed, they counted the days and calculated the coming rewards. The priest was called in, and the prayer for the dying was said. Lulled by the chanting, she cast her eye about and, in her distress, recognized through her fog the tall silhouette of Munnich among those in attendance. She smiled to him as if beseeching his protection for the one who would one day be taking her place on the throne of Russia, and murmured, “Good-bye, Field Marshal!” Later, she added, “Good-bye, everyone!” These were her last words. She slipped into a coma on October 28, 1740.
At the announcement of her death, Russia shook off a nightmare. But around the palace, the expectation was that the nation might be falling into an even blacker horror. The imperial court was unanimous in its opinion that, with a nine-month-old tsar still in his crib and a regent of German origin (who could express himself in Russian only reluctantly and whose principal concern *Vasily Lukich Dolgoruky, for one, was executed in the wake of that event.
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The Extravagant Anna was to destroy the country’s noblest families), the empire was heading straight for a catastrophe.
The day after Anna Ivanovna’s death, Buhren became regent by the grace of the recently departed, with a baby as his mascot and as the living guarantee of his rights. He immediately set himself to clearing the ground around him. In his view, the first essential move would be to get rid of Anna Leopoldovna and Anthony Ulrich, little Ivan’s parents. If he could send them far enough from the capital - and why not abroad? - he would have his free hands until the imperial brat attained his majority. Studying the new political aspect of Russia, Baron Axel of Mardefeld, Prussian Minister to St. Petersburg, summarized his opinion on the future of the country in a dispatch to his sovereign Frederick II, saying: “Seventeen years of despotism [the legal duration of the minority of the tsar] and a nine-month-old child who, by the way, could die, yielding the throne to the regent.”8 Mardefeld’s letter is dated October 29, 1740, the day following the death of the tsarina. Less than a week later, events suddenly took a turn in a direction that the diplomat had not foreseen. Despite the future tsar Ivan VI’s being transferred to the Winter Palace amid great pomp and celebration, in an extravagant ceremony followed by all the courtiers swearing their oath and kissing the hand of the regent, his enemies had not given up.
The new English minister in St. Petersburg, Edward Finch, declared that the change of reign “has made less noise in Russia than the changing of the Guard in Hyde Park”; but Field Marshal Munnich warned Anna Leopoldovna and Anthony Ulrich against the tortuous machinations of Buhren, who he suggested was intending to throw them both out in order to keep himself in power.
Even though he had been allied with the regent in the very recent past, he said that he felt morally obliged to prevent him from going any further to the detriment of the legitimate rights of the
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Terrible Tsarinas family. According to him, for his next coup d’etat, the ex-favorite of the late empress Anna Ivanovna was counting on the Ismailovsky Regiment and the horse guard, one of which was under the command of his brother Gustav, the other under his son. But the Preobrazhensky Regiment was entirely at the behest of the field marshal and this elite unit would be disposed to act, at the proper time, against the ambitious Buhren. “If Your Highness wishes,” Munnich told the princess, “I would relieve you of this treacherous man in one hour.”9 However, Anna Leopoldovna had no stomach for such adventures. Frightened at the thought of attacking a man as powerful and cunning as Buhren, she balked. However, having consulted her husband, she changed her mind and decided,
