Women on the throne.. Anna Ivanovna, Empress of Blood and Ice

Just as history bears witness to some women who ascended the throne or ruled the country with a number of major victories and developments that indicate strength, wisdom and intelligence, history also bears witness to the madness and strangeness of some women who assumed power, most notably Anna Ivanovna, Empress of Russia, who was forced by circumstances to sit on the throne and begin a series of insane acts, with murder, tyranny and torture in ways that indicate sadism, and the absence of reason for ten years, the duration of her rule, which was filled with blood and psychological complexes that some analysts attribute to her father who suffered from psychological and mental disorders throughout his life, or to her marriage experience that ended quickly.Birth and upbringing

Anna Ivanovna was born on February 7, 1693, the daughter of the Tsar of Russia (Ivan V), who ruled the country with his younger brother (Peter the Great). Her mother was a woman of strict traditions, and although she was from a middle-class family, she wanted to raise her three daughters according to high standards of religiosity and morality.

Anna Ivanovna's father, Ivan V, suffered from psychological disorders, and was said to be mentally disabled, which made his brother Peter the Great rule the country alone, but Anna Ivanovna did not follow her father, as he died when she was three years old, and her uncle Peter the Great became the sole ruler of the country in 1696.Anna Ivanovna learned housekeeping, religious duties, and ancient texts, and learned German and French, as well as music and dancing, but she was a stubborn and self-centered person. Before she came to power, she was sometimes called "Anna the Terrible." She was famous for her full face and large cheeks.The Road to the Russian Throne

Anna Ivanovna married Frederick William, then Duke of Courland, now western Latvia, in 1710. Her uncle Peter the Great gave her a handsome dowry and held a lavish wedding in November 1710, but her 17-year-old husband died a few weeks later in early 1711, on his way home to Courland.

Anna Ivanovna became ruler of Courland, and lived in her capital, Mitau, for 20 years. She never remarried, but there were many rumours about her affairs with the Russian high commissioner and a courtier.

In 1725, Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia and Anna Ivanovna's uncle, died, and his wife (Catherine I) was installed as Empress of Russia. Although she was a servant in the royal palace, she was able to marry Peter the Great and ascend the throne after his death to rule the country for up to two years and three months before she died in May 1727. After that, (Peter II), the grandson of Peter I, who was 11 years old at the time, took over, and thus the Advisory Council became the one that actually ruled Russia.

In early 1730, the Emperor of Russia (Peter II) died at the age of fourteen; affected by smallpox, which made the issue of choosing the new Emperor of Russia a difficult issue, as Catherine, Anna Ivanovna's older sister, was the most deserving of ascending the throne, but the Russian Supreme Council of the Kingdom chose Anna Ivanovna to be the new Empress of Russia under special circumstances.

Anna Ivanovna's social status was a great advantage to the royal council, as she was unmarried and had no children who would later claim the throne, and her sister Catherine was divorced and had children, which was a great concern for the royal council, which wanted to rule the country with a weak personality and limited abilities, which at that time seemed to apply to Anna Ivanovna. The council drew up a document full of conditions that Anna Ivanovna had to agree to in order to rule the country, as the document stated that the queen could not do anything without referring to the council; she could not declare war, appoint high officials, punish nobles or impose taxes without the council's approval, which Anna Ivanovna agreed to and moved to the Russian capital and took over the country in February 1730.Anna Ivanovna Empress of Russia

After the new Empress took the throne, she began to take opposite measures to show her true face and her desire to get rid of the former King's Council, as she dissolved the Supreme Council and ordered the arrest of most of its members, rejected the terms of the agreement, and began to assume absolute rule, and exiled a number of members of the Council to Siberia to die of cold, and executed another group by gallows, so the rule of Anna Ivanovna, the Empress of Blood and Ice, began.

Anna Ivanovna was a strange and cruel character who mocked everyone, did not appreciate anyone, and did not recognize the law, so she did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, and it was said about her that she was eccentric, and carried a lot of hostility towards normal marital relations, so she punished Prince (Mikhail Golychin) who married an Italian girl, changed his religion, embraced Catholicism, and left Orthodoxy.

The Empress arrested him, and expelled his wife from the country; To make an example of him, she stripped him of his titles and lands, made him a court jester, and forced him to marry an ugly maid.

One of the stories told about Anna Ivanovna is that she also had an ice palace built by the army, which was tasked with dragging giant blocks of ice into the frozen Neva River to build the palace, which was 30 feet high. It is also said that she sent Prince Mikhail Golchin and the ugly maid on their wedding night to spend the night in the palace naked; to die of cold, but they managed to get clothes from one of the guards in exchange for a gold necklace, which surprised the Empress who released them the next day.

Russia during Anna Ivanovna's reign

The reign of Empress Anna Ivanovna was fairly stable in terms of domestic politics; because she did not care about the affairs of the government, but rather things were run by the German nobles whom she used to rule the country.

While Count Biron was the most important man in the imperial court, he is said to have been a sadist, causing up to a thousand executions and exiling more than 20,000 opponents to Siberia, the courtiers and advisors surrounding the Empress had the upper hand in the country.

On the foreign policy front, Russia entered into some conflicts during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanovna, the most important of which was the four-year war against the Ottoman Empire between 1735 and 1739, which resulted in thousands of deaths, in addition to imposing many taxes on the working class, and the Russian people viewed Anna Ivanovna as a cruel, ugly and sadistic woman, which the Empress never sought to change.

Anna Ivanovna's actions, such as cruel punishments such as beating with a metal hammer and cutting off noses, as well as her persecution and mockery of the disabled, all contributed to arousing great hatred during Anna Ivanovna's reign, which made the Russian people celebrate her death, and the subsequent regime arrested and executed her lover, Count Biron, marking the beginning of a new era for the country.Anna Ivanovna's End

Shortly after the construction of the Ice Palace, Anna Ivanovna began to suffer from kidney disease, which became her severe torment and slow death. In her last days, she tried to make her niece's son (Ivan VI) the crown prince; to take over the throne of the country after her, but she failed, so the cruel queen died on October 28, 1740 at the age of 47 after ruling Russia for ten years, leaving behind a legacy of hatred and continuous curses; as a result of the cruelty, injustice and strangeness that characterized Anna Ivanovna, the Empress of Blood and Ice.