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Absolute Monarch, Anna Ioannovna of Russia, Catherine Ioannovna of Russia, Documents of Condition, Duke Charles Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Courland, Empress Anna of Russia
Duke Charles Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Catherine Ioannovna were now separated and she was back living in Russia, which was in itself disgraceful; and whether her husband was present or absent, his existence could raise problems at her very coronation.
His intervention in government affairs at some later point could hardly be prevented, especially since Catherine had a daughter by him. In that event, since he was ruling prince of ancient lineage with years of experience, he would not be as amenable to the council’s advice as a Russian princess.
Also, the fact that Catherine had a daughter already would provide a certainty of succession which the nobles perhaps preferred not to have.
The Supreme Privy Council preferred the childless and widowed Anna Ioannovna, Duchess of Courland. They hoped that she would feel indebted to the nobles and remain a figurehead at best, and malleable at worst.
To make sure of that, the Council convinced Anna to sign a declaration of “Conditions” to her accession, modeled after a Swedish precedent, which stated that Anna was to govern according to their counsel and was not permitted to declare war, call for peace, impose new taxes or spend the revenue of thehñWithout the consent of the council, she could not punish nobility without trial, make grants of estates or villages, appoint high officials, or promote anyone (foreign or Russian) to court office.
The deliberations of the council were held even as Emperor Peter II lay dying of smallpox during the winter of 1729–30. The document of “Conditions” was presented to Anna in January, and she signed the same on January 18, 1730, which was just around the time of his death.
The ceremony of endorsement was held at her capital, Mitau in Courland (now known as Jelgava), and she then proceeded to the Russian capital. On February 7, 1730, shortly after her arrival, Empress Anna exercised her prerogative to do away with her predecessor’s Privy Council and dissolved that body.
The Supreme Privy Council which had stipulated those onerous “Conditions” had been composed largely of the families of the princes Dolgorouki and Galitzin. Within a matter of days, another faction rose at court which was opposed to the domination of these two families.
On March 7, 1730, a group of people belonging to this faction (numbering between 150 and 800 people, depending on the source) arrived at the palace and petitioned the empress to repudiate the “Conditions” and assume the autocracy of her predecessors.
Among those who urged Anna to do so was her elder sister Catherine. Anna duly repudiated the document of Conditions, and for good measure sent some of the framers of the document to the scaffold, and many others to Siberia. She then assumed autocratic powers and ruled as an absolute monarch, in the same fashion as her predecessors.
On the night that Anna tore up the Conditions, an aurora borealis appeared in the sky, making the horizon “appear in all blood” in the words of one contemporary, which was widely taken to be a dark omen of what Anna’s reign would be like.
Much of her administration was defined or heavily influenced by actions set in motion by her uncle, Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725), such as the lavish building projects in St. Petersburg, funding the Russian Academy of Science, and measures which generally favored the nobility, such as the repeal of a primogeniture law in 1730.
In the West, Anna’s reign was traditionally viewed as a continuation of the transition from the old Muscovy ways to the European court envisioned by Peter the Great. Within Russia, Anna’s reign is often referred to as a “dark era”.