Anna Ivanovna

Anna Ivanovna, Empress of Russia, born in 1693, was the second daughter of Ivan, elder brother of Peter the Great. She married in 1710 the Duke of Courland, who died in the following year; and she obtained the duchy of Courland for her favourite, Biron (q.v.), a Courlander of low birth. The throne of Russia was offered to her by the Supreme Council on the death of Peter II. in 1730, on conditions which greatly limited the power of the monarchy, but which she soon broke. She declared herself autocrat, and suppressed an attempt of the nobles to establish a constitutional government; and her paramour, Biron, having determined to govern the nation as well as the empress, established a reign of terror through the land. He is said to have banished not less than 20,000 persons to Siberia; many were broken on the wheel. Prince Dolgoruki and others of the highest rank perished on the scaffold. Anna died in 1740, and left the throne to her grand-nephew, Ivan.