The son of the niece of Empress Anna Ioannovna, Princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mecklenburg and Anton-Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, was born on August 23 (12 according to the old style) August 1740. As a baby, Anna Ioannovna's manifesto dated October 16 (5, old style), 1740, he was declared heir to the throne.
On October 28 (17 according to the old style) October 1740, after the death of Anna Ioannovna, John Antonovich was proclaimed emperor, and the manifesto of October 29 (18 according to the old style) announced the transfer of the regency until the age of John to the Duke of Courland.
On November 20 (9 according to the old style) of November of the same year, after the overthrow of Biron by the field marshal, the regency passed to the mother of Ivan Antonovich Anna Leopoldovna.
On the night of December 6 (November 25, old style), 1741, the ruler of Russia with her husband, one-year-old emperor and five-month-old daughter Catherine were arrested in the palace by the daughter of Peter I, who was proclaimed empress.
The entire Brunswick family was placed under supervision in the former palace of Elisabeth. The manifesto dated December 9 (November 28, Old Style), 1741, noted that the whole family would be released abroad and receive a decent allowance.
On December 23 (12 according to the old style) December 1741, Lieutenant General Vasily Saltykov took John with his parents and sister out of St. Petersburg with a large convoy. But Elizabeth decided to detain John in Russia until the arrival of her nephew, Prince Peter of Holstein (later Emperor Peter III), whom she had chosen as heir.
On January 20 (9 according to the old style) January 1742, the Braunschweig surname was brought to Riga, where Anna Leopoldovna, at the request of the Empress, signed an oath of allegiance to Elizabeth Petrovna on behalf of herself and her son.
Rumors of Anna Leopoldovna's hostility towards the new government and the attempt of the footman Alexander Turchaninov to kill the Empress and the Duke of Holstein, undertaken in favor of John Antonovich in July 1742, made Elizabeth see John as a dangerous pretender, so she decided not to let him out of Russia .
On December 13, 1742, the Braunschweig family was placed in the Dinamunde fortress (now Daugavgriva fortress, Latvia). When Lopukhin's "conspiracy" was discovered in July 1743, in January 1744 it was decided to transfer the entire family to the city of Ranenburg (now Chaplygin, Lipetsk Region).
In June 1744, it was decided to send them to the Solovetsky Monastery, but the family only reached Kholmogor, Arkhangelsk province: accompanying chamberlain Nikolai Korf, referring to the difficulties of the journey and the impossibility of keeping their stay in Solovki a secret, convinced the government to leave them there.
During the reign of Elizabeth and her immediate successors, the very name of Ivan Antonovich was persecuted: the seals of his reign were altered, the coin was overflowed, all business papers with the name of Emperor John were ordered to be collected and sent to the Senate.
With the accession to the throne in December 1761 of Peter III, the situation of Ivan Antonovich did not improve - an order was given to kill him while trying to free him. In March 1762, the new emperor paid a visit to the prisoner.
After the accession to the throne of Catherine II, a project arose for her marriage to Ivan Antonovich, which would allow her to legitimize (legitimize) her power. According to available assumptions, in August 1762 she visited the prisoner and considered him crazy. After the disclosure in the fall of 1762 of the guards conspiracy to depose Catherine II, the regime for keeping the captive became tougher, the empress confirmed the previous instructions of Peter III.
On the night of July 16 (5, according to the old style), Vasily Mirovich, a lieutenant of the Smolensk infantry regiment, who was in the garrison of the fortress, attempted to release Ivan Antonovich and proclaim him emperor. Having persuaded the garrison soldiers to his side with the help of false manifestos, he arrested the commandant of the fortress Berednikov and demanded the extradition of John. The officers assigned to John first fought off Mirovich and the soldiers who followed him, but then, when he began to prepare a cannon to break the doors, they stabbed Ivan Antonovich, according to the instructions. After the investigation, Mirovich was executed.
The body of the former emperor was secretly buried according to the Christian rite, presumably on the territory of the Shlisselburg fortress.
In 2008, alleged remains belonging to the Russian Emperor John VI Antonovich were found in Kholmogory.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Emperor John Antonovich - one of the representatives of the Brunswick family from the Romanov family, who became king in infancy, was overthrown after 13 months, and then spent his whole life as a prisoner and was killed in the Shlisselburg fortress. His life was sad and hard, separated from his family and all people only because he was destined to become the emperor of Russia.
Start
The future Tsar John Antonovich was born into the family of Anna Leopoldovna and Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick on August 12 (23), 1740. The Empress of Russia Anna Ioannovna, his grandmother, appointed him his heir. The empress was afraid that the illegitimate daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth, would come to power, and therefore decided to pass the inheritance to the descendants of her father, Tsar John Alekseevich.
Officially, he ascended the Russian throne at the age of 2 months according to the will of Anna Ioannovna. By her order, Duke Biron of Courland, who was then the favorite of the Empress, was approved as regent for the infant tsar.
A year-long reign
According to the numbering, which was carried out from Ivan the Terrible, a two-month-old baby was declared as Tsar John 6 Antonovich and solemnly transported with his parents to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. E. Biron did not stay as regent for long, after 2 weeks he was overthrown by the guards on charges of conspiracy. The next regent was Anna Leopoldovna, the mother of little John. However, she was not at all interested in state affairs, she spent whole days in idleness, lying in bed. She gradually transferred all power to the energetic Field Marshal Munnich and Minister Osterman.
Rumors began to spread about the impossibility of her control of the Russian Empire. By nature, Anna Leopoldovna was lazy and narrow-minded, managing state affairs did not interest her at all. With the appearance in St. Petersburg of the Italian Count Linar, who previously held the post of Saxon envoy, her love interest began, because of which the situation in the family became even more complicated. Another revolution is coming...
Elizabeth's intrigues
All this year, Elizabeth, the granddaughter of Peter the Great, remained in the shadow of state and political life. She lived in the village, periodically visiting St. Petersburg. From early childhood, Elizabeth was the favorite of the people and especially the guards. As you know, the guardsmen of the Preobrazhensky Regiment in those days actively participated in all coups d'état. The change of power was preceded by multiple political intrigues on the part of the Swedish envoy Nolken and the French ambassador Chétardie, who set the goal of enthroning Elizabeth Petrovna, promising her military assistance in exchange for concessions on the transfer of the Baltic lands to Sweden.
However, Elizabeth relied more on the support of the guards, rather than foreigners. Its slogan was "Don't give power to the Germans." And on the night of November 25, 1741, Elizabeth, with the military support of just one company of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, made the most bloodless coup in history.
coup
According to historical chronicles, during the coup, when the future empress with the guards burst into the room where Anna Leopoldovna's family was sleeping, the baby John Antonovich woke up and burst into tears under Elizabeth, then she said: "Poor little one, your parents are to blame for everything."
John, along with his parents and courtiers, were arrested. The people and the military swore allegiance to Elizabeth, many foreign embassies also approved her accession to the Russian throne. A few months later, Elizaveta Petrovna declared herself the legitimate heir to the throne with a manifesto. For the Russian people and even for the Orthodox Church, she became the long-awaited empress, who saved them from the dominance of the Germans and other foreigners who came to power under the reign of Anna Leopoldovna. Thus ended the reign of Ivan Antonovich, which lasted a little over a year.
Destroy all traces
Having become empress, Elizaveta Petrovna decided to destroy all traces of the reign of John the 6th. At the end of 1741, she issued a decree on the collection of coins from the population with the name and image of the deposed little emperor. The ruble of Ivan Antonovich with his profile was withdrawn from circulation, and all the collected coins were melted down.
Also, by her decree, portraits with his image were destroyed, and business documents were replaced with new ones, without using his name. The deposed tsar-baby Elizabeth first intended to send her family out of Russia, to distant relatives, but after an attempted counter-coup in support of John the 6th and palace intrigues, she changed her mind.
Link
On the accusation of Elizabeth, all German temporary workers (Minnich, Osterman, Levengvold and others) were put on trial, they were sentenced to death, which was already replaced on the scaffold with exile in Siberia. The deposed emperor John Antonovich and Anna Leopoldovna with her husband were redirected to Riga and imprisoned. Already during the family's stay in Riga, another conspiracy of supporters of the deposed tsar, dissatisfied with Elizabeth, was uncovered. Then the ruler, fearing another conspiracy, imprisoned the entire Beinschweig family in the Dunamünde fortress near Riga, where they spent 1.5 years, and then they were transferred to the city of Oranienburg (Ryazan province, now the Lipetsk region).
In July 1744, Baron Korf brought an order from the Empress to move the Braunschweig family to Arkhangelsk, and then to Solovki for imprisonment in the Solovetsky Monastery. However, due to a storm, they could not get to the island, they were settled in the village of Kholmogory in the bishop's house, which had to be surrounded by a high fence. Already here, the parents and the four-year-old boy John were separated.
Kholmogory
The former Emperor John Antonovich was placed in a small house in complete solitude. The only person assigned to supervise him was Major Miller, who received instructions from Elizabeth to completely isolate the child from the outside world.
Anna Leopoldovna, living with her husband in Kholmogory, was absorbed in maternal and family concerns, since she had three more children in turn. But after all the wanderings, her health was undermined, and after another birth at the age of 28, she died of a fever. When the reigning Elizabeth Petrovna found out about her death, she ordered her body to be transported to St. Petersburg in order to be buried with honors in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra next to her family.
At that time, Ioann Antonovich was 6 years old, but no one even told him about his mother's death. He continued to live in complete isolation, only a few people who were ordered to keep the story of his birth a secret could communicate with him. However, not everyone strictly obeyed the orders of Elizabeth, because one of the spies taught the child to read and write and told about his origin. In addition, rumors began to spread in Russia about the unfortunate prisoner. Upon learning of this, the empress ordered the boy to be taken even further, and in 1956, under Elizabeth, Ioann Antonovich was transported and imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress.
The fate of the Brunswick family
The devotion to his family of Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick is already evidenced by the fact that when John Antonovich was overthrown, the German Empress Maria Theresa and Friedrich, being his relatives, asked Elizabeth to release Anton and his family to move to their homeland. Elizabeth even agreed to let him go, but only without his wife and children. Anton-Ulrich courageously refused to leave his family.
Together with his wife and children, they went on long-term wanderings in the north of Russia, first to Riga, then near Arkhangelsk to the settlement. They were isolated in an area of 400 square meters. m with a small pond and garden. Communication with the outside world was completely excluded, they could not even move more than 200 meters away. The Braunschweig family lived here for several years, more children were born here.
After the death and burial of Anna Leopoldovna, her husband Anton-Ulrich and four children remained to live in Kholmogory under heavy guard for another 29 years. And only 5 years after the death of their father, the children - the Brunswick princes and princesses - were released by Empress Catherine abroad to Norway.
Shlisselburg
At the age of 16, Ivan Antonovich Romanov was secretly transported and placed in solitary confinement in the Shlisselburg fortress, which is located on a small island near St. Petersburg. At that time, the fortress still had the status of a defensive structure. The cell was small, the only window in it was covered up on purpose so that no one would accidentally see the prisoner. The guards were given the strictest instructions: to maintain complete secrecy and not to communicate with the prisoner. The young man's only amusement was playing with his mother's jewels, kept in a box he had brought with him.
In the solitary cell there was an iron bed, a table and a stool, in the corner there was an icon of Christ the Savior. Instead of daylight, there was a burning oil lamp, dimly highlighting the gloomy dungeon. In the corner there is a restroom, in the side wall there is a stove.
According to some reports, he also had a Bible in his cell, translated and published in Russia in 1751 by decree of Empress Elizabeth. Reading it, the unfortunate prisoner maintained his morale. Ironically, it was thanks to reading the Elizabethan Bible that John Antonovich was able to live the remaining years in prison and preserve his human appearance in such terrible conditions:
- without fresh air - the first time John was released for a walk in the courtyard of the fortress only at the age of 20, 4 years after imprisonment;
- without communicating with people - it was strictly forbidden for all guards to talk and go to the prisoner, for years he did not even see a human face.
It is not surprising that the documents of that time found evidence that the prisoner was well aware of his origin, knew how to read and wanted to become a monk.
Last years
While John Antonovich Romanov was imprisoned, Peter III came to power in Russia, replacing Elizabeth. After another coup and the assassination of Tsar Peter the 3rd, Catherine the 2nd ascended the throne. For all of them, the deposed emperor remained an enduring threat. During the years of his imprisonment, various conspiracies happened, there were people who tried to elevate John 6 to the throne. For thoughts and actions to save him, several people were hanged and executed.
According to archival documents, both Elizabeth and Peter the 3rd visited a secret prisoner in the Shlisselburg prison. On Peter 3, who visited the prisoner under the guise of an officer, young John gave the impression of being insane, speaking completely incoherently. But when Peter asked, “Do you know who you are?”, John answered quite clearly, “I am Emperor Ivan.” After that, Tsar Peter ordered that for any signs of disobedience, the prisoner be beaten and chained.
When Catherine 2 came to power, her first desire was to marry John to herself (in order to legitimize her reign) or send him to a monastery. But later, having visited the fortress and seeing him with her own eyes, she ordered an even stricter maintenance of the prisoner. The guards were ordered to kill John in any attempt to free him.
Conspiracy and death
Empress Catherine decided to get rid of the dangerous prisoner as soon as possible, and for this, the adjutant wing V. Mirovich was involved, who was supposed to stage the escape. Historians still do not know for sure whether Mirovich really sympathized with the unfortunate prisoner, or was hired by the queen to kill him.
But one night, Mirovich gave his soldiers a command to release the prisoner. John's guards acted on Catherine's instructions. When Mirovich ran into the cell, he found the already dead body of the prisoner, still a young man of 26 years old, but already with gray long hair, bloody and lying on the floor of the cell. This was the former emperor John 6 Antonovich.
The deceased was secretly buried near the wall of the fortress in an unmarked grave. And Lieutenant Mirovich was arrested along with his accomplices and taken to St. Petersburg. After an investigation and a secret trial, he was sentenced to death, and the soldier was sentenced to exile in Siberia.
Ioann Antonovich: biography (briefly)
- 12.08.1740 - was born.
- October 1740 - declared Emperor of Russia John 6th.
- November 1741 - Elizaveta Petrovna was dethroned and became Empress of Russia.
- 1742 - sent with his family into exile in the city of Dunamünde, then to Kholmogory.
- 1746 - death of Anna Leopoldovna's mother.
- 1756 - transported and imprisoned in Shlisselburg.
- 1764 - killed by guards while trying to free.
Afterword
The 18th century in Russia became famous for its numerous coups d'état and assassinations of emperors. But the biggest injustice was the life of Tsar Ivan Antonovich, who stayed on the throne (without knowing it himself) for just over a year, and then was doomed to long years of imprisonment and oblivion.
Ivan VI Antonovich (Ioann Antonovich)
Years of life: 12 (23) August 1740-5 (16) July 1764
Years of government: 1740-1741
Russian emperor from the Welf dynasty from October 1740 to November 1741, great-grandson of Ivan V.
Son of Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick and Anna Leopoldovna.
In official sources, Ivan is referred to as John III, that is, the account is kept from the first Russian Tsar; in late historiography, a tendency was established to call him Ivan (John) VI, counting him from.
Reign of Ivan VI
After the death of the Empress, 2-month-old Ivan 
Antonovich (son of Anna Leopoldovna, Anna Ioannovna's niece), was proclaimed emperor. Anna Ioannovna wanted to leave the throne to the descendants of her father Ivan V and was very worried that he would not pass to the descendants of Peter I. Therefore, in her will, she indicated that Ivan Antonovich was the heir, and in the event of his death, the other children of her niece Anna Leopoldovna in order of precedence in the event of their birth
Under Ivan, Duke E.I. was appointed regent. Biron, and after the overthrow of the latter by the guards after 2 weeks of Ivan's reign, Anna Leopoldovna was declared the new regent. Unable to govern the country, Anna gradually transferred her power to Munnich, and soon she was replaced by Osterman, who dismissed the field marshal.
The overthrow of Ivan VI
A year later, another revolution took place. Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, arrested Osterman together with the Preobrazhenians, Emperor Ivan VI, his parents and all their environment.
November 25, 1741 was overthrown. First, Ivan VI Antonovich was sent into exile with his parents, then transferred to solitary confinement. The place of detention of the former emperor constantly changed and was kept in a terrible secret.
On December 31, 1741, the decree of Empress Elizabeth was announced on the surrender by the population of all coins with the name of John Antonovich for remelting. Later, a decree was published on the destruction of all portraits depicting Ivan Antonovich and on the replacement of business documents with the name of the emperor with new ones.
Ivan VI and Peter III in Shlisselburg. In 1742, the whole family was secretly transferred to the suburbs of Riga - Dunamünde, then in 1744 to Oranienburg, and then, away from the border, to the north of the country - to Kholmogory, where little Ivan Antonovich was completely isolated from his parents.
In 1746, Ivan was left without a mother, she died from long northern campaigns.
Since 1756, Ivan Antonovich was in the Shlisselburg fortress in solitary confinement. In the fortress, Ivan (officially referred to as a "famous prisoner") was in complete isolation from people. But the documents testify that the prisoner-emperor knew about his royal origin, knew the letter and dreamed of a monastic life. Since 1759, Ivan Antonovich began to observe signs of inadequate behavior.
While Ivan was imprisoned, many attempts were made to free the deposed emperor and again enthrone him.
In 1764, Ivan, at the age of 24, was killed by guards when officer V.Ya. Mirovich, together with part of the garrison, free him and proclaim him emperor instead of Catherine II.
Mirovich was arrested and executed in St. Petersburg as a state criminal.
The "famous prisoner", the former emperor Ivan Antonovich, is buried, as is believed, in the Shlisselburg fortress; but in fact he is the only one of the Russian emperors whose place of burial is not exactly known today.
Ivan did not marry, he had no children.
Son of Prince Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and Anna Leopoldovna, ruler of the Russian Empire. Named in honor of his great-grandfather - Tsar John V Alekseevich. Empress Anna Ioannovna became the baby's godfather. Soon she became seriously ill and, by a manifesto of October 5, 1740, announced John Antonovich as the heir to the throne, and her favorite, Duke E.I. Biron was appointed regent by a special definition.
On October 17 of the same year, Anna Ioannovna died, on October 18 a manifesto was published, according to which John Antonovich succeeded the Russian throne under the name John III. As a result of the palace coup, the guards, led by Field Marshal Count B.K. Minich Biron was arrested on the night of November 9 of the same year; Anna Leopoldovna was appointed regent by a manifesto on behalf of Ivan Antonovich. John Antonovich was transferred to the Winter Palace; there a separate office was arranged for him, where an oak cradle weighing 33 pounds was placed and "printed books" were prepared.
On the night of November 25, 1741, the princess made a palace coup; Ioann Antonovich, his parents and sister Ekaterina were arrested in the Winter Palace by the guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. At the beginning of the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, coins with the image of Ivan Antonovich were withdrawn from circulation, printed sheets with an oath to him were publicly burned, since 1743, a systematic withdrawal of other official documents began with the mention of the deposed emperor and ruler Anna Leopoldovna: manifestos, decrees, letters of commendation, church books , passports, etc., output sheets with the name of Ivan Antonovich were cut out of printed books. Since it was not possible to destroy the annual documentation of all state institutions, entire sets of files were transferred for special storage to the Senate and.
Elizaveta Petrovna at first intended to send Ivan Antonovich and his family abroad, but then decided not to let potential rivals leave the country. In December 1741, the prisoners were taken to Riga, a year later they were transported to the Dinamunde fortress. In January 1744, the "Brunswick family" was sent to Oranienburg (Ranenburg, now the city of Chaplygin, Lipetsk region), in July of the same year - to Arkhangelsk, but there was a forced stop in Kholmogory, where the prisoners were placed in the former bishop's house. Here John Antonovich was separated from his parents. In January 1756 he was moved to the Shlisselburg fortress. The commandant of the fortress was not supposed to know the name of the prisoner; only the officers of the team guarding him could communicate with the prisoner.
The instructions given in 1762 by Emperor Peter III (later confirmed by Catherine II) prescribed in the event of an attempt to release "to resist as much as possible and not to give a prisoner alive into hands." The officers reported on the mental imbalance and impudent behavior of Ivan Antonovich. According to the report of the head of the guard, he was physically “healthy, and although no illness was visible in him, he was only a little crazy in his mind ... once he came to the second lieutenant to beat him, and he told me to appease him, and if not a lot, then he will beat; when I start talking, he calls me the same heretic.”
John Antonovich knew about his origin and called himself a sovereign, learned to read and write, and he was allowed to read the Bible. Despite the regime of secrecy, Ivan Antonovich enjoyed the sympathy of a part of the guard and the noble society, as evidenced by the cases of the Secret Investigation Office of the 40-60s of the 18th century. In particular, in 1763-1764, rumors are mentioned about the imminent accession to the throne of John Antonovich, about the upcoming oath to him, and even about his promise to increase the soldier's salary.
On the night of July 5, 1764, Lieutenant of the Smolensk Infantry Regiment V.Ya. Mirovich made an attempt to release Ivan Antonovich. With the help of false manifestos, he won the garrison soldiers over to his side, arrested the commandant of the fortress and demanded the extradition of Ivan Antonovich. Before storming the prison department where the prisoner was kept, security officers (Captain Y. Vlasyev and Lieutenant L. Chekin) killed John Antonovich. Mirovich surrendered and after a short investigation was executed. John Antonovich was secretly buried in the fortress. Contemporaries of these events suggested that the murder was provoked, and Mirovich was "a conspirator sent from the government." However, no evidence of this version was found.
In the 60s of the 19th century, on the initiative of the director of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice, N.V. Kalachov, a commission was created to publish the so-called cases with a well-known title - documentation of the reign of Ivan Antonovich. It was supposed to publish about 10 thousand documents in 6 sections, but only 2 volumes were published, dedicated to the imperial house and the highest state institutions.
Historical sources:
[Inventory of secret papers of the Brunswick family], 1741-1754. // CHOIDR. 1861. Book. 2. S. 1-58;
Inner life Rus. state-va from 17 Oct. 1740 to 25 Nov. 1741 according to the documents stored in the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Justice. M., 1880-1886. 2 tons;
Kholmogory secret commission. Arkhangelsk, 1993;
Brunswick princes in Russia in the lane. floor. 18th century / Rev. Ed.: M. von Betticher. Göttingen; SPb., 1998.
Illustration:
John VI Antonovich, imp. Russian. Engraving by L. Seryakov. 1878 (RGB).
