The illegitimate children of Anton Ulrich of Brunswick. Here is such a generalissimo. Overthrow of Biron and coup

Anton-Ulrich (28.08.1714-4.05.1774), Duke of Braunschweig-Bevern-Lunenburg, father of the im. Ivan VI Antonovich , Generalissimo of the Russian troops (November 11, 1740). The youngest son of Duke Ferdinand-Albrecht, was associated with family ties with many of the reigning houses of Europe. In 1733 he was summoned to Russia by imp. Anna Ivanovna , who intended to marry her niece Anna Leopoldovna, but the marriage was postponed, and Anton-Ulrich was appointed colonel of the cuirassier regiment. In 1737 he took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739. In July 1739 he married Anna Leopoldovna. From 1740 he was a lieutenant general. After accession to the throne, Im. Ivan VI, together with his wife, was removed from the leadership of the state E.I. Biron ; repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the regent, for which he was removed from military posts - lieutenant colonel of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment and the chief of the Braunschweig Cuirassier Regiment - and was subjected to house arrest on suspicion of conspiracy. After the overthrow Biron and proclamation Anna Leopoldovna Regent received (January 12, 1741) the title of Imperial Majesty. Supported A.I. Osterman , led intrigues against B. K. Minikha ... After the coup imp. Elizaveta Petrovna November 25, 1741 was arrested together with his family, stripped of ranks and titles; was kept with his family in Riga (1741-1742), Dinamünde fortress (1742-1744), Ranenburg (Oranienburg), Voronezh province. (1744), Kholmogory (from 1744). In 1762, Anton-Ulrich was allowed to go abroad on condition that his children stay in Russia, which he refused. After the death of Anton-Ulrich in 1780, at the request of their relative, the Danish queen Juliana-Maria, his children were allowed to leave for Denmark.

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Anton-Ulrich (1714-1774) - Duke of Braunschweig-Bevern-Lunenburg, father of the emperor Ivan VI Antonovich , Generalissimo of the Russian troops (1740). Since 1733 in the Russian service (colonel of the cuirassier regiment). In 1737 he took part in the Russian-Turkish war. In July 1739 he married Anna Leopoldovna ... From 1740 he was a lieutenant general. After the proclamation of Ivan VI as emperor, he and his wife were removed from power. E. Biron ... For criticizing the regent, he was stripped of his command posts, and later subjected to house arrest. After the conspiracy Minikha in favor of Anna Leopoldovna received the title of Imperial Highness. After the coup in favor of Elizabeth Petrovna, he was stripped of all ranks and titles and was arrested along with his entire family. From 1741 to 1774 he was kept under arrest in Riga, Dinamyund, Ranenburg, Kholmogory. In 1762 he was allowed to leave Russia on the condition that the children stay in Russia. He refused this offer. After his death, the children were allowed to leave Russia. They were all childless. After their death, the Braunschweig dynastic branch of the Russian imperial house stopped.

Braunschweig Anton Ulrich, Generalissimo of the Russian Army (1740), father of Emperor Ivan Antonovich, Prince of Braunswick-Luneburg, was related by kinship with the Russian, Prussian, English and Austrian dynasties. At the invitation of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who wanted to marry his niece Anna Leopoldovna to him, Brunswick moved to Russia in 1733. In the same year he entered the military service as a colonel of the cuirassier regiment. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739 he distinguished himself during the capture of Ochakov and in the campaign to the Dniester, promoted to major general (1737) and awarded the Orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Alexander Nevsky. In 1739 he married Anna Leopoldovna; In 1740 he received the rank of lieutenant general and was appointed chief of the cuirassier regiment (later the Cuirassier Life Guards regiment of His Majesty). After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the son of Brunswick, Ivan Antonovich, was proclaimed emperor. When the emperor was appointed ruler of Russia Anna Leopoldovna until the age of majority, Braunschweig received the title of Imperial Highness, was elevated to co-rulers of the state and awarded the title of Generalissimo, although he was not involved in the management of the army and military affairs. After the palace coup and accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna, Braunschweig and his family were arrested in 1741 and imprisoned in a fortress, and then transferred to Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk province, where he died.

Used materials of the book: Military Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1986.

Anton Ulrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Bevern-Lunenburg (28.8.1714, Bevern - 4.5.1774, Kholmogory), father of Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich, Generalissimo of the Russian troops (11.11.1740). The youngest son of Duke Ferdinand-Albrecht, was associated with family ties with many of the reigning houses of Europe. In 1733, he was summoned to Russia by Empress Anna Ivanovna, who intended to marry her niece Anna Leopoldovna to him, but the marriage was postponed, and Anton-Ulrich was appointed colonel of the cuirassier regiment. In 1737 he took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739. In July 1739 he married Anna Leopoldovna. After the accession to the throne of Emperor Ivan VI, together with his wife, E.I. Biron; repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the regent, for which in October 1740 he was removed from military posts and, on suspicion of conspiracy, was subjected to house arrest. After the overthrow of Biron and the proclamation of Anna Leopoldovna as regent, he received (12 January 1741) the title of Imperial Highness. Supported by A.I. Osterman, led intrigues against H.A. Minich. Soon, Anton-Ulrich had a conflict with his wife, who summoned her favorite Count M.K. Linara. After the coup that elevated Empress Elizaveta Petrovna to the Russian throne, on November 25, 1741, he was arrested together with his family and stripped of ranks and titles. Kept with his family in Riga (1741-1742), Dinamünde fortress (1742-1744), Ranenburg (Oranienburg) Ryazan province(1744), Kholmogory (from 1744). In 1762, Anton-Ulrich was allowed to go abroad on the condition that the children stay in Russia, which he refused. After the death of Anton-Ulrich, his children in 1780, at the request of their relative, the Danish queen Juliana-Maria, were allowed to leave for Denmark. With their death (all died childless), the Brown-Swiss dynastic branch of the Russian imperial house was cut short.

Anton-Ulrich

Prince of Brunswick-Bevern-Luneburg, second son of Duke Ferdinand-Albrecht and Duchess Amalie-Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, from November 11, 1740 to November 25, 1741 - Generalissimo of the Russian troops, b. August 28, 1714, in Bevern, d. May 4, 1774, in Kholmogory. In the nineteenth year, he arrived in St. Petersburg (February 2, 1733), as the groom of Princess Anna Leopoldovna, niece of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who, however, postponed the marriage, due to the minority of the bride. Princess Anne did not like the groom, and all efforts to establish a strong affection between the young people - they were even raised together for some time - were unsuccessful. Enlisted in the Russian service, Prince Anton, in the year of his arrival in Russia, was appointed colonel of the third cuirassier regiment, named after him first of the Beverne (now His Majesty's cuirassier), and then of Brunswick. Serving in 1737 as a volunteer in the army of Minich, Prince Anton distinguished himself in the capture of Ochakov and was promoted to major general; participating in the campaign to the Dniester in 1738, he was awarded by the prime-major of the Semenovsky regiment and the orders of St. Alexander Nevsky and Andrew the First-Called. On July 3, 1739, in the Church of the Kazan Mother of God, the solemn wedding of Prince Anton and Princess Anna Leopoldovna took place. In February of the following year, the prince was promoted, on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with the Ottoman Port, to lieutenant colonel of the Semyonovsky regiment, with the rank of lieutenant general, then appointed chief of the cuirassier regiment, and on August 12 he was delighted with the birth of his son, who, after the death of October 17 Anna Ioannovna, proclaimed Emperor, under the regency, up to 17 years old, Biron. Dissatisfied with Anna Ioannovna's will, Prince Anton wanted to change the decree on regency and turned for advice to Ostermann and the Brunswick envoy Keyserling, who did not condemn his behavior, but advised him to bide his time and form a party; the latter was easy to do, since the guards were very unhappy with the regent. However, the prince's plans failed: the conspiracy was discovered, and on October 23, the day when the decree on the annual issuance of 200,000 rubles to the Emperor's parents was issued, Prince Anton was called to an extraordinary meeting of cabinet ministers, senators and generals. The head of the secret office, Ushakov, threatened the prince that he would treat him "as severely as with the last subject of His Majesty" if he could fulfill his intention. Biron demanded that the prince and all those present in the assembly sign the order of the late Empress about the regency and attach their seals, thus confirming its authenticity. Biron was not content with this; he forced the prince to sign a request for his dismissal from all military posts. This request was drawn up by order of Minich by his brother. On November 1, a decree of the military collegium was issued, which said: "Even his highness, our dear parent, announced his desire to depose the military ranks he had, but they could not refuse him, for this, through this, the military collegium was announced to the news." But this complete removal of the prince from government affairs did not last long; the insults and threats of the regent to expel the Emperor's parents from Russia finally overwhelmed their patience. On the night of November 8-9, Biron was arrested by Minich, and Anna Leopoldovna was proclaimed ruler. By decree on November 11, Prince Anton was awarded the rank of Generalissimo Russian troops and the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Horse Guards; according to the manifesto on January 12, 1741, he received the title of "Imperial Highness". Quite limited by nature, little knowledgeable, gentle and indecisive, the prince could not and did not matter in public affairs during the reign of Anna Leopoldovna. Not liking Minich, he sided with Osterman, who shared his dislike of the power-hungry field marshal; offended by the first minister's disdain, the prince contributed to his downfall. After Minich's resignation, the prince, however, did not gain influence on the affairs of the government: the ruler did not tolerate either her husband or Ostermann; her advisers were Vice-Chancellor Golovkin and favorite Linar, the Saxon envoy. Osterman tried to remove Anna Leopoldovna and hand over the rule to Prince Anton, who had to first convert to Orthodoxy. Mutual disagreements and indecision of both parties, into which the government was divided, allowed the coup d'état on November 25, 1741, to take place without hindrance, when the ruler and the prince with the whole family were arrested by Cesar Elizabeth and then sent to Riga, where they were imprisoned in a fortress. From here the Brunswick family was transported first to Dinamünde, then to Ranenburg, and finally, on November 9, 1744, sent to Kholmogory. Prince Anton lived here for almost thirty years, here in 1746 he lost his wife, and here in 1764 he heard the sad news about the death of his son, the former Emperor John Antonovich, in Shlisselburg. After the death of his wife, "Anton-Ulrich, remaining, - according to Bantysh-Kamensky, - in the strength of courage with four young children, in a remote country, and having no one to share his grief with, chose a friend for himself, who increased his family and household chores" ... Upon the accession to the throne of Empress Catherine II, Major General Bibikov was sent to Kholmogory to announce to Prince Anton that he was given the freedom to leave Russia, but without his family. The prince did not want to be separated from his children and spent another twelve years in prison, having lost his sight shortly before his death. His burial took place in Kholmogory. On the night from May 5 to May 6, 1776, the body of Anton-Urlich, in a coffin upholstered in black cloth with silver braid, was carried out by guard soldiers and quietly buried in the nearest cemetery, near the church, inside the fence of the house in which the prince lived for 30 years. The soldiers present at the funeral were strictly forbidden to tell anyone about the burial place, which was performed without any church ceremony, since there was no pastor of Lutheran confession in Kholmogory.

Bantysh-Kamensky, "Biographies of Russian generalissimos and general field marshals", vol. I, pp. 216-232. Soloviev, "History of Russia", vol. 21. - "Russian Antiquity", 1873, vol. VII, No. 1 and 1874, vol. IX, No. 4. - "Russian Bulletin", 1874, No. No. 10 and 11 (article by Brikner "Emperor Ivan Antonovich and his relatives"). - Brickner, "Die Familie Braunschweig in Russland im XVIII Jahrh." - M. D. Khmyrov, "Historical Articles", pp. 361-362.

S. Tr.

(Polovtsov)

Anton-Ulrich

2nd Generalissimo.

Anton-Ulrich, Prince of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, son of Duke Ferdinand-Albrecht, was born in 1715. United by ties of kinship with two imperial houses and two royal [Anton-Ulrich's own aunt, princess of Braunschweig Charlotte-Christina-Sophia, was the wife of the unfortunate Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and the mother of Peter II; her sister is the wife of Emperor Charles VI; King George I of England was the uncle of Anton-Ulrich, and the latter's own sister, Princess Elisabeth-Christina, married the Crown Prince of Prussia (Frederick the Great) in 1733], he was invited to Russia for a new union, which was supposed to strengthen his future welfare. To this end, Anton-Ulrich came to St. Petersburg in 1733, without completing a full course of sciences, in the nineteenth year of his age. Empress Anna Ioannovna intended to marry him to her own niece Anna Leopoldovna, daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg. She was only fourteen years old. The marriage was postponed, and the Prince of Braunschweig, meanwhile, entered our service as a colonel of the cuirassier regiment.

Until 1737, Prince Anton-Ulrich did not participate in the hostilities of the Russians, but that year he served as a volunteer under the banners of Field Marshal Count Minich and distinguished himself in the capture of Ochakov, for which he was promoted to major general. [Empress Anna Ioannovna, in her letter to Anton-Ulrich's parent, Duchess Eleanor-Charlotte, dated September 19, mentioned that "the son her gloriously distinguished himself in the capture of Ochakov. "The Duchess received annually from our court twelve thousand rubles of pension.] In 1738 he was again in the army of Minich, whose campaign to the Dniester was not marked by any important feat, and, returning to the capital, was granted by the Prime Major of the Semenovsky Guards Regiment, Knight of the Orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Alexander Nevsky (November 28), 24 years old.

The Empress's niece, Anna Leopoldovna, was then twenty years old. She had a pleasant and even attractive appearance; she was taller than usual and very stately; she was distinguished by an extraordinary whiteness of her face, to which her dark blond hair made her even more shiny; spoke fluently many foreign languages, but she always seemed sad, boring from the griefs inflicted on her by Biron, and, like her father, was capricious, hot-tempered, indecisive. Biron intended to unite her with his son and pave the way for posterity to the throne, was rude, inflicted various insults on the Prince of Brunswick, wanting to remove him from Petersburg.

The ambassador of the Vienna court, the Marquis de Botta, in a public audience proposed, in the name of the emperor, the wife of Princess Anne, Prince Anton-Ulrich. A few days later, a solemn ceremony of their marriage was performed, with excessive pomp, by Bishop Ambrose of Vologda, in the Church of the Kazan Mother of God, on July 3, 1739. No one imagined then that the prince's well-being would be short-lived.

Soon, peace was concluded with the Port of Ottoman (1740), and on this occasion Anton-Ulrich was granted (February 15) as a lieutenant colonel of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment, with the rank of lieutenant general; after that he was named chief of the cuirassier regiment; and on August 12, he was overjoyed at the birth of his son, Prince John, whom the Empress placed near her bedchamber.

Then Anna Ioannovna, tormented by gout and stone disease, approached the gates of death and the bloodthirsty Biron, nourishing himself with new hopes, continued to use the power given to him for evil, was not content with the executions of the Dolgoruky [See. biography of Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky], executed still (June 27) the cabinet minister Volynsky [The unfortunate was first tortured several times; then they cut off his tongue, chopped off right hand and, finally, the head], Privy Councilor Khrushchev, Gof-Intendant Eropkin; tortured, cut off the tongue and exiled senator Count Musin-Pushkin; ordered to punish with a whip and sent to hard labor the commissar-general Soymonov and the cabinet secretary of Eichler. All of them suffered for their loyalty to Volynsky, who insulted Biron. The Empress burst into tears when signing the verdict, and could not resist her favorite.

On October 17, Anna Ioannovna, after severe suffering, moved to eternity at the age of 47 from birth. Even during her lifetime, an act was drawn up by which she appointed her grandson, Ioann Antonovich, the successor, and while he was seventeen years old, she ordered Biron to rule the state with the rank of regent. Anna Leopoldovna and her husband were removed from the board; proof that the Empress signed this decree without reading it, and that the Duke of Courland himself assumed autocratic power, not fearing the consequences.

First, the ruler of the empire paid due respect to the parents of the young John; agreed that they live together in the Winter Palace; determined to Princess Anna Leopoldovna for her own expenses two hundred thousand rubles in silver a year; accepted from the Senate the title Highnesses only with the provision thereof to the Prince of Brunswick.

Meanwhile, to assert his power, Biron continued to use violent measures: he sent scouts everywhere; trusting them, he subjected civilians to arrest and torture. Petersburg streets were filled with guards and patrols. Among the new victims were: Guards Captain Khanykov and Lieutenant Argamakov, who were tortured for their immodest words. A conspiracy was soon discovered, in which the Prince of Braunschweig participated. The ruler of his office, Grammatin, admitted, during the torture, that the Semyonovsky Life Guards regiment was supposed to arrest Biron with all his followers.

One can imagine the regent's annoyance, anger: he burdened the prince of Brunswick with reproaches in the presence of a large assembly; challenged him to a duel when Anton-Ulrich, without intent, put left hand on the hilt of his sword. The prince listened with patience to the offensive reviews and objected only that is not obliged to be responsible for the conversations and actions of his secretary... The next day, Anton-Ulrich was forced to relinquish military posts and was arrested.

This is how the thief of the throne acted. The murmur against him intensified; lacking an enterprising leader, Minich volunteered to overthrow Biron and kept his word to the princess. On November 8, at night, the tyrant, with his hands tied, covered with a soldier's cloak, was taken from the Summer Palace to the Shlisselburg fortress; from there he was sent to Pelym, a provincial town in the Tobolsk province. On the 9th, Princess Anna Leopoldovna was declared the ruler of the empire and the Grand Duchess. The Guards regiments greeted the infant Emperor with noisy delight, who was shown to them through the window. Prince of Braunschweig received the title His Imperial Highness and was soon elevated by his wife to co-rulers.

Apparently, the suffering of Anton-Ulrich had to end: with the fall of Biron, he consolidated the supreme power of his offspring; but his brilliant hopes soon disappeared.

The power-loving Minich, in respect of the services rendered to the ruler, wanted to be a generalissimo and, on the advice of his son, granted this dignity on November 9 to the Emperor's parent, elevating himself to first ministers while continuing to manage military affairs. The Prince of Brunswick bore only one name of Generalissimo, did not tolerate Munnich and became close to Count Ostermann, who also hated the field marshal for his enterprising mind and unlimited ambition: they both wanted to dominate the state or, taking a secondary place, to rule the main person at their own will. Minich was forced to retire (1741) and moved to his house on the other side of the Neva. Then only the ruler and her husband calmed down, changing their bedroom every night so that the field marshal did not take anything against them.

Prince Anton-Ulrich, on the occasion of the break with Sweden, examined the troops that were to begin offensive operations in Finland. Leadership over these is entrusted to Field Marshal Lassi.

There was no agreement between the Grand Duchess and her husband. Their disposition was completely opposite. Anna Leopoldovna, who had an irresistible passion for the Saxon minister Count Linar, gifted with a handsome appearance, married Anton-Ulrich against her will. She was sixteen years old when Linar took possession of her heart (1735). He was soon removed from our Court (1736). Having become the Ruler, Anna Leopoldovna summoned Linar to Russia again (1741); conferred on him (July 13) the orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Alexander Nevsky; She became engaged to her beloved maid of honor, Baroness Juliana Mengden, and granted her a dowry several villages in Livonia, also the beautiful house of Gustav Biron in St. Petersburg. Then Linar resumed his meetings with the Grand Duchess without hindrance in the rooms of his bride; knew how to restore the Ruler against Osterman; incurred suspicion on the prince of Brunswick himself and soon (in August) went to Poland to put his household in order. He was promised in Russia the title of chief chamberlain, and if he had not accelerated his departure, he would not have escaped Siberia. [Count Moritz Karl Linard died on April 24, 1768. Empress Elisaveta Petrovna allowed him (1742) to wear Russian orders.]

The ruler's carelessness and the removal from the affairs of Minich and Osterman helped the adherents of the crown princess Elizabeth Petrovna in their courageous enterprise. On November 24, at midnight, thirty grenadiers of the Preobrazhensky regiment noisily entered Anna Leopoldovna's bedchamber, announced to her, in the name of the crown princess, an order to get up and follow them. Anton-Ulrich, sitting on the bed, saw with horror how his wife was carried away. Two grenadiers took him, wrapped him up to his knees in a blanket, brought him down, put him in a sled, and covered him with a fur coat. They were taken to the Empress's palace. They were placed in different rooms. Baby John wept when the soldiers snatched him out of the hands of the nurse, waiting, at the command of Elizabeth, awakening.

At first, Anton-Ulrich was kept in the Riga fortress with his wife and children: son John and daughter Catherine, who was born (July 26) shortly before their imprisonment; then they were transferred to Dinamünde, where Anna Leopoldovna gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1743. Moved from Dinamünde to Ranenburg, a city in Ryazan province. Here the unfortunate parents were separated from John, who was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress. A new dungeon was made for them in Kholmogory, a small town on Dvina Island, 72 miles from Arkhangelsk. There Anna Leopoldovna gave birth to two sons, Peter in 1745 and Alexei in 1746. The consequences of these births caused her premature death on March 9, 28 years old. Her body was taken to St. Petersburg and interred in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Anton-Ulrich, remaining in the strength of courage with four young children, in a remote country, and having no one to share his grief with, chose a girlfriend for himself, who increased his family and household chores. He lived in a former bishop's house on two floors, surrounded by a high fence. Two teams watched him: one in the house itself; another at the gate, inside the fence. They had no communication with each other. The keys were kept by the governor, who came from Arkhangelsk on big holidays. From their windows the prisoners saw only on one side a part of the Dvina, on the other - the sandy St. Petersburg road; on the third, they saw a garden in which, besides birches, ferns, and nettles, there were almost no plants. Inside this, on a pond overshadowed by an overgrown alley, a boat was floating, incapable of use; by the pond there was a shed containing an old carriage, in which the prisoners were sometimes allowed to move two hundred yards away from their dwelling; for this they harnessed six horses to the carriage; the coachman, postman, and footmen were soldiers. All their walks were in this tight space of the earth. A Greek-Russian priest read church books with them. Whist and ombre were their main amusements. In the summer they worked in the garden, went after chickens and ducks, fed them, and in the winter they ran on skates around the pond. Moreover, the princesses were sometimes engaged in sewing linen. Apart from their father, they had no mentors. [Cm. , op. Mr. Polenov and Overview chief.happened.in Russia, op. Mr. Weidemeyer, ed. sec., h. 3, pp. 94-98.]

In 1762, Major General Alexander Ilyich Bibikov was sent to Kholmogory by Empress Catherine II, with an announcement to Prince Anton-Ulrich that he was given freedom to leave Russia and choose a place for his stay wherever he would be escorted with honors befitting his dignity ; but that his family, for reasons of state known to him, is still impossible to show leniency. All Bibikov's efforts to persuade the prince to part with the children were useless. He declared emphatically, that it is better to die in prison,rather than enjoy freedom on such conditions... After this important event, Anton-Ulrich spent twelve years in sorrowful days in Kholmogory, having finally lost his sight. May 4, 1774 struck his last hour: he died in the 60th year of birth and at thirty-two years of exile. The remains of the unfortunate prisoner were interred near the Church of the Assumption Holy Mother of God, on the left side of the altar. There is no monument on his grave.

Prince Anton-Ulrich of Braunschweig-Lüneburg had a good heart; was brave on the battlefield; timid and shy in state councils. At the very beginning of his imprisonment, he reproached his wife for the misfortune that befell them; but, having lost it, he armed himself with courage and patience; showed an example of selflessness, worthy of parental tenderness; through long-term suffering acquired the right to respect for posterity.

Unhappy John, born in porphyry and separated in infancy from the perpetrators of his existence; thrown into a dungeon, into which daylight could not penetrate, where candles burned incessantly; devoid of clean air; later overgrown with a beard, completely wild - he was killed on July 5, 1764, in the twenty-fifth year from birth, while Mirovich performed his courageous enterprise, wishing to return him freedom and the throne. [Vasily Mirovich, second lieutenant of the Smolensk regiment, grandson of Mazepin's accomplice, was executed in St. Petersburg on September 15. During the proceedings against him, Count Pyotr Ivanovich Panin, under whose command he had previously served, asked him: "Why did he undertake such a villainous intent?" " For, - answered Mirovich, - to be the one,what have you become".]

The brothers and sisters of John, after the death of their parent, suffered a lot of troubles from the chief leaders assigned to them. In 1779, the current state councilor Aleksey Petrovich Melgunov, meek and compassionate, was appointed governor of Arkhangelsk. He visited them; reassured by affectionate treatment; delivered to the Empress a letter from Princess Elizabeth, gifted with an extraordinary mind, touchingly describing their miserable situation. Catherine II immediately entered into negotiations with the Danish court, which stood before, as well as Berlin and Braunschweig, about the return of freedom to them. Melgunov was instructed in 1780 to take care of sending the children of Anton-Ulrich to Denmark. He ordered to make a frigate in Arkhangelsk; of the two hundred thousand rubles allotted to him, he used half in St. Petersburg to buy linen, silk fabrics, various haberdashery items, silver and porcelain services. Expensive fur coats and diamonds were issued from the Cabinet.

On June 27 (1780), the princes and princesses with their illegitimate brothers and sisters were taken by Melgunov in two carriages from the house in which they were kept for thirty-seven years. On the banks of the Dvina, a yacht was waiting for them, which could accommodate four rooms.

In the Novo-Dvinskaya fortress, the governor of Arkhangelsk announced to the children of Anton-Ulrich the Empress's merciful will and the purpose of their journey. At first, this news aroused great concern in them, for they did not even think about freedom, they wanted to stay forever in Kholmogory, in order only to be given the right to leave the fence; but when Melgunov gave them rich gifts and explained to the princes and princesses the desire of their aunt, Queen Dowager Juliana of Denmark [Juliana Maria, Duchess of Braunschweig-Luneburg, married in 1752 with King Frederick V of Denmark, who died in 1766], so that they moved to Denmark, then the children of Anton Ulrich, with joyful tears, threw themselves on their knees before the governor and expressed their heartfelt gratitude for such an unexpected mercy of the Empress. On July 1, at one o'clock in the morning, they sailed on a frigate, accompanied by the Shlisselburg commandant, Colonel Ziegler. Having undergone a strong storm in the North Sea, the tall travelers arrived in Bergen (in Norway) and there they boarded a Danish ship. Here Anton-Ulrich's bastard children parted with princes and princesses and were sent back to Arkhangelsk. The separation is painful, for the misfortune brought them closer! The Empress granted them lifelong pensions. One of Anton-Ulrich's bastard daughters, Amalia, married Lieutenant Karikin, who was in charge of the internal command in Kholmogory.

The princes and princesses arrived by Danish ship to Alborg, and from there by dry route to the city of Gorsens (in Jutland). Colonel Ziegler, who was accompanying them, received the Order of Dannenbrog from the Danish king. In Gorzens they had a spacious and well-arranged house on a large square. They had a house church, in which a Russian priest conducted services every day. Their court consisted of: one Danish chamberlain, a caretaker, two court ladies, a doctor, two valets, and a fair number of other servants appointed by the king. They led a quiet and uniform life; did not need anything, receiving a significant pension from the Russian court [It extended to 32,000 rubles a year and was not reduced until the death of Princess Catherine in 1807]. With all that, Princess Elizabeth extremely missed her side sisters, and this separation prematurely plunged her into the grave in 1782, 40 years old. She was like her mother in height and face; talkativeness, manner and reason far surpassed her brothers and sister. They all obeyed her. For the most part she spoke for all of them, answered for all and corrected their mistakes; from falling from a stone staircase at the age of 10, she was prone to headaches, especially in variable weather and bad weather. [Polenov.] Prince Alexei, who died five years later (1787), at the age of 42, blond, short, but more cheeky, bolder than his brother, acquired such love that the whole city mourned him. In general, they all had excellent properties and were loved; especially Princess Catherine, respected for her noble mindset and compassionate heart. Her face showed meekness and inner peace of mind. They lived in perfect harmony with each other. [Cm. Review by Mr Weidemeyer, ed. sec., ch. 3, pp. 100-107.]

In 1794, the Empress sent to Gorzens Hieromonk Joseph Ilyitsky, who studied at the Kiev Academy, fluent in Latin, French and German. He spent seven years there. In his arms, as a true Christian, with firm trust in the Almighty, the fifty-three-year-old Prince Peter died on January 13, 1798. He was, according to Joseph, a strong and healthy build; short, blond; looked like his father; had an important look, with which he combined, however, with extreme timidity; hid every day when the Crown Prince of Denmark (the late King Frederick VI) came to Gorsens with his wife; with great difficulty they persuaded him to come to them. Damaged in childhood, Prince Peter had almost inconspicuous humps in front and behind at first glance; the right side was somewhat crooked; clubfoot; silent and often laughed for no reason. [Cm. Departure of the Braunschweig family from Kholmogory to Danish possessions, op. VA Polenov.] Princess Catherine lost her hearing on the very day her brother, John III, lost the throne: she was then dropped. She treasured the silver ruble with the image of the baby emperor. Looking at her and Prince Peter, Frederick and his wife, who visited them every year, expressed regret; but they could not communicate with them without an interpreter, for they spoke only Russian. The only amusement of the prince and his sister consisted in cards, and Joseph was forced to take part in this innocent game. Princess Catherine gave him an ink drawing depicting their place of imprisonment in Kholmogory. She did not learn to paint and, with all that, quite skillfully presented her secluded refuge. This precious work belongs to me since 1819. I received it from the hands of Joseph, who was then archimandrite of the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery of Poltava, five years before his death.

Princess Catherine moved into eternity in the state of Emperor Alexander, on April 9, 1807, in the 66th year of birth, appointing Danish princes Christian Friedrich and Friedrich Ferdinand as her heirs. Having lost her sister and brothers, she wanted to return to Russia and get tonsured as a nun: she consoled herself only with prayer; she suffered various displeases from the officials and ministers who were with her and, before her death, wrote to the Emperor Alexander about the granting of a pension to them. She also looked like her father; she was lean, short, blond, tongue-tied; she communicated with her brothers and sister by means of signs: she understood them by one movement of her lips. [Cm. Departure of the Braunschweig surname to Danish possessions, op. V. A. Polenov.]

Until now, in the Gorzensk Lutheran Church, four tombs are visible, enclosing the mortal remains of the branches of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich.

(Bantysh-Kamensky)

Anton-Ulrich

Prince of Braunschweig-Bevern-Luneburg, husband of the ruler Anna Leopoldovna, father of im. John Antonovich; was listed as Generalissimo of the Russian troops from November 11, 1740 until the coup on November 25, 1741, b. in 1714; died in 1774 (Bantysh-Kamensky. Biographies of Russian generalissimos and general-field marshals, city I, 216-232).

Anton Ulrich(it. Anton Ulrich Herzog von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel ; 17 (28) August 1714, Bevern, Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel - 4 (15) May 1774, Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk district, Arkhangelsk province, Russian Empire), Duke of Braunschweig-Bevern-Luneburg - father of the Russian Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich of the Russian troops November 11, 1740-1741.

The second son of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (until 1735 of Braunschweig-Bevern) and Antoinette Amalia of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, brother of the famous Prussian commander Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig and Juliana Maria in the 17th-17th king

When Empress Anna Ioannovna was looking for a groom for her niece, Princess Anne of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, under the influence of the Austrian court, she chose Anton. The latter arrived in Russia at the beginning of June 1733 as a very young man. Here he was introduced to Anna in the hope that a strong affection will be established between the young people, which will eventually turn into a more tender feeling. These hopes were not justified. Anna at first sight disliked her betrothed, a young man of short stature, effeminate, a stutterer, very limited, but modest, with a soft and malleable character. Nevertheless, this marriage took place on July 14, 1739; On August 23, 1740, their first-born, Ivan, was born. Soon, the empress became terminally ill and, at the insistence of Biron and Chancellor Bestuzhev, declared Ivan Antonovich heir to the throne, and Biron as regent.

Prince Anton Ulrich was very unhappy with this will; he wanted to change the decree on regency, but he lacked the courage and ability to take advantage of a favorable moment. He turned to Osterman and Keyserling for advice, but they held him back, although they did not blame him. At the same time, but apart from any participation of Prince Anton Ulrich, there was a ferment in the guard directed against Biron. The conspiracy was opened, the leaders of the movement - the cabinet secretary Yakovlev, officer Pustoshkin and their comrades - were punished with a whip, and Prince Anton Ulrich, who also turned out to be compromised, was invited to an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers, senators and generals. Here on October 23, on the very day when the decree was given on the annual issuance of 200,000 rubles to the parents of the young emperor, he was strictly instructed that at the slightest attempt by him to overthrow the established system, he would be treated like any other subject of the emperor. Subsequently, he was forced to sign a request for dismissal from his posts: Lieutenant Colonel Semyonovsky and Colonel Cuirassier Braunschweig regiments, and he was completely removed from board affairs.

Biron treated the emperor's parents with disdain, openly insulted them and even threatened to take the young emperor away from his mother and then expel Anton Ulrich and his wife from Russia. The rumor about this made Anna Leopoldovna decide to take a desperate step. She turned to Field Marshal Munnich for help, and the last November 8 put a quick end to Biron's reign. All this, apparently, took place apart from all the participation and knowledge of Prince Anton Ulrich. The regency passed to Anna Leopoldovna, while Anton Ulrich was proclaimed generalissimo of the Russian troops on November 11.

But the reign of Anna Leopoldovna did not last long. The palace coup, carried out on the night of December 5-6, 1741, elevated Elizaveta Petrovna to the throne. The latter initially limited itself to the decision to expel the Braunschweig surname from the borders of Russia; Anton's family was already on the way abroad, but was unexpectedly arrested, imprisoned in the Riga fortress, from there transferred to Dinamünde and Ranenburg and, finally, on November 9, 1744, imprisoned in Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk province. In addition to the firstborn Ivan, who was killed in 1764 in the Shlisselburg fortress, Anna had four more children: two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, and two sons, Peter and Alexei. The first of them was born even before exile on July 26, 1741, the second in Dinamünde, and princes Peter and Alexei were born already in Kholmogory. The birth of the last of them cost Anna her life (February 28, 1746) - after giving birth, she died of childbirth fever.

The confinement of Anton Ulrich's family in Kholmogory was full of hardships; often she needed the bare essentials. A headquarters officer with a team was assigned to oversee them; they were served by several men and women of ordinary rank. Any communication with outsiders was strictly forbidden to him; only the governor of Arkhangelsk had the command to visit them from time to time to inquire about their condition. Raised together with commoners, the children of Anton Ulrich did not know any other language than Russian. There was no assignment for the maintenance of the Braunschweig family, for the salaries of the people assigned to them, and for the renovation of the house they occupied. a certain amount; but released from the Arkhangelsk treasury from 10 to 15 thousand rubles annually.

Following the accession to the throne of Catherine II, Anton Ulrich was asked to retire from Russia, leaving only his children in Kholmogory; but he preferred bondage with children to lonely freedom. Having lost his sight, he died on May 4, 1774. The place of his burial is unknown. Archival documents testify that his body on the night from 5 to 6 was carried out in a coffin, upholstered in black cloth with silver braid, and quietly buried in the nearest cemetery inside the fence of the house, where he was kept in the presence of only guard soldiers, who It was strictly forbidden to talk about the place of burial.

In 2007, the media reported on the discovery of remains in Kholmogory, which, presumably, could belong to Anton Ulrich.

Main article: Braunschweig family

Finally, in 1780, at the request of the Danish Queen Juliana Maria, sister of Anton Ulrich, Catherine II decided to alleviate the plight of his children by sending them to Danish possessions, where the town of Horsens in Jutland was assigned to them for residence. On the night of June 27, 1780, they were transported to the Novodvinsk fortress, and on the night of July 30 on the frigate "Polar Star" the princes and princesses sailed from the shores of Russia, generously supplied with clothes, dishes and other necessary things.

Wife: from 14 (25) July 1739, St. Petersburg, Anna Leopoldovna(7 (18) December 1718 - 7 (18) March 1746), regent in 1740-1741, daughter of Karl Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Catherine Ioannovna Romanova

• Ivan VI(12 (23) August 1740 - 5 (16) July 1764), emperor in 1740-1741
• Ekaterina(July 26 (August 6) 1741 - April 9 (21), 1807)
• Elizabeth(September 16 (27), 1743 - October 9 (20), 1782)
• Peter(19 (30) March 1745 - 19 (30) January 1798)
• Alexey Antonovich(February 27 (March 10) 1746 - October 12 (23), 1787)

1. Found the remains of Generalissimo Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig // Pravda.Ru, 17.07.2007

• Levin L. I. Russian Generalissimo Duke Anton Ulrich (History of the "Braunschweig Family in Russia"). - SPb. : Russian-Baltic Information Center "Blitz", 2000. - ISBN 5-86789-120-8.
• Burial of Princess Anna Leopoldovna and her husband, Duke Anton Ulrich. 1746 and 1776/ Message M. A. Korf // Russian Archive, 1870. - T. 1. - Ed. 3rd. - SPb, 1875 .-- S. 417-419.
• Savvaitov I. About the predictor of the Vologda Bishop Ambrose (Yushkevich) for the wedding of Princess Anna Leopoldovna with Duke Anton Ulrich on July 3, 1739 // Russian Archives, 1871. - Vol. 2. - Stb. 193-200.

Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

The Braunschweig family (Braunschweig-Mecklenburg-Romanovs) is the traditional name of the family of Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig and Anna Leopoldovna. Belonged to the Wolfenbüttel branch of the Braunschweig family of Welfs, one of the noblest and oldest in Europe.

• Father Prince Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig (17 August 1714 - 4 May 1774)
• Mother (at birth Elizabeth Katharina Christina, Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, December 7, 1718 - March 8, 1746)
• son - (August 12, 1740 - July 5, 1764)
• daughter Ekaterina Antonovna of Braunschweig (July 4, 1741 - March 29, 1807)
• daughter Elizaveta Antonovna (1743-1782)
• son Pyotr Antonovich (1745-1798),
• son Alexey Antonovich (February 24, 1746 - October 11, 1787)

Kholmogory

Living together for years, decades together, under one roof (the guard did not change for twelve years), these people quarreled, reconciled, fell in love, denounced each other. Scandals followed one after another: either Anton Ulrich had a falling out with Bina (who, unlike the latter, was allowed to go to Kholmogory), then the soldiers were caught stealing, and the officers were caught on cupids with nurses. The commandant and his subordinates shamelessly drunk and robbed Anton Ulrich and his relatives mercilessly, and the ever-drunk cook was preparing some kind of inedible brew for them. Over the years, the guards forgot about discipline, went about in a ragged form. Gradually, together with Anton Ulrich, they became decrepit old people, each with its own quirks.

The prince was quiet and meek. Over the years, he grew fat, flabby, diseases began to overcome him. After the death of his wife (Anna Leopoldovna), he began to live with maids, and it was believed that there were many of his illegitimate children in Kholmogory, who, growing up, became servants of the Brunswick family. From time to time, the prince wrote letters to Empress Elizabeth: he thanked for the sent bottles of Hungarian or for some other donation. He was especially poor without coffee, which he needed on a daily basis. In his letters to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and then to Peter III, Catherine II, he showed an emphasized, even obsequious loyalty, called himself a "kneeling insignificance", "insignificant dust and dust", "an unfortunate worm" who addressed with "humiliated and unhappy lines" of the request to a royal person. He never asked for release, probably realizing that it was unrealistic. In the fall of 1761, Anton Ulrich wrote a letter to Empress Elizabeth, asking her “to allow my children to learn to read and write in order for them to be able to kneel down to Your Imperial Majesty and, together with me, pray to God for health and well-being until the end of our lives. Your Majesty and your family "(The Empress, as always, was silent in response)

After taking the throne, Anton Ulrich made the same humble request to her. The new empress in August 1762 responded favorably to the prince's letter, expressed her concern for him, but did not promise to release him, writing diplomatically: "Your deliverance is connected with some difficulties that your prudence may understand." She did not promise to help in the training of princes and princesses.

Soon, Catherine II sent General A.I.Bibikov to Kholmogory, who was instructed to draw up a report on the situation in the prison and give characteristics to its inhabitants. Bibikov, on behalf of the empress, invited the prince to leave Russia in order to return him to Germany. But he refused the empress's generous offer.

The Danish diplomat wrote that the prince, "accustomed to his imprisonment, sick and discouraged, refused the freedom offered to him." This is inaccurate - the prince did not want freedom for himself alone, he wanted to leave with the children. But these conditions did not suit Catherine. In the instructions, Bibikov was told that “we intend now to free him and release him to his fatherland with decency,” and his children “for the same state reasons that he himself can understand from his own prudence, we cannot release him until the affairs our statesmen will not be strengthened in the order in which they have now accepted a new position for the well-being of our empire "...

The Empress was not enthusiastic about Bibikov's report on his trip to Kholmogory, in which he wrote with sympathy and sympathy about the princes and princesses, who, it turns out, did not lose their human appearance over the long years of captivity, were brought up, kind-hearted and friendly. And although the empress did not give permission for the training of princes and princesses (this was not part of the empress's plans and, moreover, would mean that teachers would have to be sent to Kholmogory), they were literate. In 1773, Princess Elizabeth wrote with her own hand to the empress, in good style and handwriting, albeit with mistakes, three letters, in which she begged the empress to give them "although a small release from exclusion (sic!), In which, apart from the father, those who were born are kept."

Anxiety arose: it turns out that the children of the prince, despite the absence of teachers, are literate. Panin, who was in charge of this case, was immediately frightened - lest they could start a correspondence with someone else. Writing materials were taken away from the prisoners and an investigation was carried out. It turned out that the children were taught to write and read by their father using the old alphabet, which remained to them from their deceased mother, as well as from her sacred books, which the children read. It is noteworthy that NI Panin and his assistant GN Teplov were involved in the affairs of the "Kholmogorsk commission", as well as in the case of Mirovich. As in the times of Elizabeth, the new authorities most of all feared that the princes and princesses would not be kidnapped by some adventurers like Zubarev, and warned the Arkhangelsk governor about the possible appearance of a foreign spy in those places.

Apparently, the appearance of A.I.Bibikov, a humane and kind man, as well as the unusually kind letters of the new empress aroused in the Braunschweig family some vague hopes, if not for freedom, then at least for the relief of the prison regime. Therefore, in September 1763, the prince dared to ask the empress "a little more freedom": to allow children to attend services in the church next to the prison. Ekaterina refused, as well as his request to give the children "a little fresher air" (they were kept in the building for most of the year)

Anton Ulrich did not wait for either a little freedom, or a little fresh air, or for the affairs of Empress Catherine to take a favorable position for him. By the age of sixty, he had grown decrepit, began to go blind, and after serving in captivity for 34 years, he died on May 4, 1776. Dying, he asked to give his children "at least a little liberation." At night, the guards secretly carried the coffin with his body into the courtyard and buried there near the church, without a priest, without a ceremony, like a suicide, a vagabond or a drowned man. Did the children accompany him on his last journey? We don't even know that. Most likely, this was not allowed - they were forbidden to leave the house. But it is known that they endured the death of their father extremely hard and suffered severely from grief. In the next year, 1777, the family faced another heavy loss - two old women died one after the other - the princes' nurses and nannies Anna Ivanova and Anna Ilyina. They have long become close family members, dear people.

Princes and princesses after the death of their father lived in captivity for another four years. By 1780, they had long been adults: the deaf Catherine was 39 years old, Elizabeth was 37, Peter was 35, and Alexei was 34. All of them were weak, with obvious physical disabilities, they were sick for a long time. An eyewitness wrote about the eldest son, Peter, that “he is physically sick and consumptive, with a few crooked shoulders and bow-legged. The youngest son Aleksey is a solid build and healthy ... has seizures. " The prince's daughter Catherine "is physically ill and almost consumptive, moreover, somewhat deaf, speaks mute and indistinct and is always obsessed with various painful seizures, of a very quiet disposition."

But, despite living in captivity, they all grew up to be reasonable, kind and nice people. All the visitors who came to the prisoners, following Bibikov, noted that they were greeted kindly, that the prince's family was extremely friendly. As Golovtsyn wrote, “at my first arrival, I could notice from conversations that the father loves his children, and the children are respectful to him and there is no disagreement between them.” Like Bibikov, Golovtsyn noted the special cleverness of Princess Elizabeth, who burst into tears and said that “their only fault was birth” and that she hoped that, perhaps, the empress would free them and take them to court.

A. P. Melgunov

After the death of Anton Ulrich, Governor-General of the Vologda governorship AP Melgunov wrote about Princess Yekaterina Antonovna that, despite her deafness, cheerful; seeing others laughing in conversations, although he does not know the reason, but makes them company ... "

With Princess Elizabeth Melgunov talked freely - she was smart and thorough. When the princess spoke to Melgunov that the family had previously sent requests to the empress, “I,” wrote Melgunov, “intending to test her mind and the disposition of thoughts, considered this case convenient for that and for that I asked her what their request would be. ? She answered me that their first request, when their father was still healthy, and they were very young, was that they should be given liberty, but when they did not receive this and their father went blind, and they left their young age, then this their desire changed to something else, that is, they finally asked to be allowed to pass, but did not receive an answer to that.

What the princess said and written down by Melgunov accurately reflects the situation in the 1760s and 1770s, when Catherine behaved, in general, the same way as Elizaveta Petrovna: silence for all requests. All requests for freedom, or at least for the relief of the regime, were rejected by her. Catherine believed that all this "can make trouble." Why did she need them? These people seem to have ceased to exist for her. The Empress never wrote to them and did not even sympathize when they lost their father. As before, they were strictly guarded both in the house and during walks in the garden. But they began to be better fed, robbed less, and quite often new beautiful things were brought from St. Petersburg. Elizabeth told Melgunov that with the beginning of Catherine's reign they seemed to have resurrected - "until that time they needed everything, even they did not have shoes."

Apparently, the dream of freedom did not leave Princess Elizabeth, and she again bitterly told Melgunov about their unfulfilled desire to "live in the big world", to learn secular conversion. “But in the present situation,” continued Elizaveta Antonovna, “there is nothing left for us to wish for but to live here in solitude, in Kholmogory. We are happy with everything, we were born here, got used to this place and got old, so for us a lot of light is not only unnecessary, but also painful, so that we don’t know how to deal with people, and it’s too late to learn. ”

“As for the brothers,” Melgunov continued his report to the empress, “both of them, according to my remarks, do not seem to have the slightest natural acuteness in themselves, but their timidity, simplicity, shyness, silence and tricks are more visible, in one small decent guys. However, the smallest of them, Alexei, seems to be more dedicated, bolder and more careful than his larger brother Peter. But as far as more lies, it is clear from his actions that he is inhabited by sheer simplicity and a temper that is too cheerful because he laughs and laughs when there is nothing funny at all ... They live amicably with each other, and, moreover, ... brothers obey and listen in all things to Elizabeth. Their exercise consists in the fact that in the summer they work in the garden, go after the chickens and ducks and feed them, and in the winter they run to the runs on wooden horses along the pond, in their garden, read church books and play cards and checkers, the girls, over Moreover, sometimes they are engaged in sewing linen. "

Elizabeth had several requests, from which Alexei Petrovich Melgunov, a subtle, humane and warm-hearted man, probably turned everything upside down in his soul: “We ask Her Imperial Majesty to petition us for that one mercy, so that 1) we were allowed to leave the house to the meadows for a walk, we heard that there are flowers there, which are not in our garden ”; the second - to let the wives of the security officers be friends with them - "otherwise we alone get bored!" The third request: “By the grace of Her, the Imperial Majesty, cornets, caps and curtains are sent to us from St. Petersburg, but we do not use them so that neither we nor our girls know how to put on and wear them. So do mercy ... send such a person who could dress us up. " The princess also asked that the bath be moved away from home and that the salaries of their servants be increased and they were allowed to leave the house. At the end of this conversation with Melgunov, Elizaveta said that if these requests are fulfilled, "then we will be very pleased and we will not bother about anything more and we do not want anything and are happy to remain in this position forever."

Melgunov did not tell the princes and princesses that his visit to them was not just an inspection trip. The fact is that Catherine nevertheless decided to send the Braunschweig surname abroad - to do what Elizaveta Petrovna had not done almost forty years before. The empress started a correspondence with the Danish queen Julia Margaret, the sister of Anton Ulrich and the aunt of the Kholmogory prisoners, and offered to settle them in Norway, then the province of Denmark. The queen replied that she could place them even in Denmark itself. Melgunov was sent to Kholmogory to draw up a report, on the basis of which the empress could make a decision.

Catherine II

After reading Melgunov's report, Catherine II gave a decree to prepare the children of Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich for departure. The training camp began. Suddenly, gold, silver, diamonds sparkled in the modest chambers of the bishop's house - they were carrying and carrying gifts from the empress: a giant silver service, diamond rings for men and earrings for women, unprecedented wonderful powders, lipsticks, shoes, dresses.

Seven German and fifty Russian tailors in Yaroslavl were hastily preparing a dress for four prisoners. What are some "golden fur coats with sable fur" for princesses Ekaterina Antonovna and Elizaveta Antonovna! And although the empress was a purebred German, she acted in the Russian way - know ours! Let the Danish relatives see how prisoners of royal blood are kept here.

On June 26, 1780, Melgunov announced to the Braunschweig family the empress's decree on sending them to Denmark, to their aunt. They were shocked. “I cannot,” Melgunov wrote to Ekaterina, “here to imagine, with colicky fear, mixed together with surprise and joy, they were amazed at these words. None of them could utter a word, but the streams of tears pouring from their eyes, the frequent kneeling and joy that spread on their faces, clearly revealed their sincere gratitude. " They thanked for their freedom, but only asked to settle them in a small town, away from people. It is curious that they all spoke in the Kholmogory, "northern dialect", which at first seemed strange and unusual to the capital's visitors, who knew that they were going to people in whom not only the blood of the Romanovs flows, but also the blood of the ancient Mecklenburg and Brunswick dukes.

Frigate "Polar Star"

On the night of June 27, the princes and princesses were taken out of the house. For the first time in their lives, they left the prison, boarded a yacht and sailed down the wide, beautiful Dvina, a piece of which they had seen from the window all their lives. When the gloomy fortifications of the Novodvinsk fortress appeared in the gloom of the white Arkhangelsk night, the brothers and sisters began to sob and say goodbye - they thought that they had been deceived and that in fact they were waiting for the loners of the fortress casemates. But they were reassured by pointing to the Polar Star frigate standing in the roadstead, preparing to sail.

Until the very end, the Antonovichs were strictly guarded, and Colonel Ziegler, specially appointed to manage the operation, received a strict order not to allow prisoners to write and send letters, not to allow anyone to see them. “But if someone,” the instructions noted, “beyond expectation, dared to enter the frigate by force and thus intend to take the princes and princesses out of the hands of Ziegler, then he was ordered to reflect force by force and defend himself to the last drop of blood.” Fortunately, there was no clause about the murder of prisoners in the instructions - it can be seen that by 1780 Catherine's affairs had taken "the proper position."

Not many in our country even know the name of the town - Kholmogory. However, in pre-Petrine times and earlier, it was a rather large and glorious city for those times. And there is one story in which the Kholmogory played an important role.

For 12 years in Kholmogory, the deposed young Russian emperor Ivan VI (Ioann Antonovich), who formally ruled the Russian Empire from 1740 to 1741, was secretly kept. In fact, his mother ruled - Princess Anna Leopoldovna, who performed the role of regent with her young son, but in Russian history this unfortunate baby entered exactly as an emperor.

Agree, this is a unique case - the legitimate Russian emperor was secretly kept in Kholmogory from 1744 to 1756. Then he was transferred to Shlisselburg, where in April 1764 he was killed by security officers.

Emperor's mother Anna Leopoldovna - from November 9, 1740 to November 25, 1741, the almighty regent-ruler Russian Empire- died during exile in 1746 in Kholmogory. The body was transported to St. Petersburg and beautified under the floor of the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Prince Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig, father of the Russian Emperor Ivan VI, was born in 1714, died in 1776. He spent 32 years in the Kholmogory prison. Anton Ulrich was buried at the wall of the Assumption Cathedral in Kholmogory. A memorial cross has now been erected, but the exact place of his grave is unknown.

Anton Ulrich came from a branched old family of the Dukes of Braunschweig. His relatives held a very high position in Europe. King George I of England was his uncle, his aunt Elizabeth Christian became the Austrian queen, his younger sister was married to Frederick the Great, and his older brother was married to Frederick's sister. Yes, and Anton Ulrich himself, before he got to Kholmogory, was a Russian generalissimo and commander of the Semyonovsky Life Guards regiment.

Initially, the Braunschweig family was planned to be kept in the Nikolo-Korelsky monastery, on the very shore of the White Sea, but when the family was transported along the Dvina, they had to stay in Kholmogory until the end of the freeze-up. The temporary stop dragged on for three long decades ... Maybe this is for the best.

In Europe, they simply did not know where to look for the Brunswick family, whether they were alive. Russian "iron masks" have sunk into oblivion. It is hard to imagine what could have happened if the Germans had managed to take the Brunswicks to the West.

Russia waged a bloody Seven Years War against the Prussian king Frederick the Great. The younger sister of the Kholmogory prisoner Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig was Frederick's wife, and the older brother was married to Frederick's sister. Relationship with royal dynasty Prussia is the strongest. If Frederick knew where the Braunschweig family were hiding, and organized their escape, then the history of Russia could radically change. The lawful Russian emperor Ivan VI would have ended up in Frederick's camp, and it is not a fact that the illegitimate Elizaveta Petrovna, who had overthrown him, who had come to power as a result of a palace coup, would have been able to retain power.

It was quite possible to run their Kholmogory by water with external support. You can go down on a fishing cabras along the Northern Dvina, in the labyrinth of islands bypass the customs outposts, dive into the Dvinskaya Bay on a ship and leave for Europe. A day on the Dvina, a month at sea - and the political alignment will change dramatically. The main thing is to find a pilot, bribe or neutralize the guards and not let the alarm be raised within 20 hours after the escape, and then look for the wind in the sea.

But it didn’t happen. The grown-up emperor was transferred to Shlisselburg, where on July 5, 1764, during an unsuccessful attempt by lieutenant Vasily Mirovich to free the prisoner, he was killed.

The burial place of Ivan Antonovich remained unknown for a long time. But there was a hypothesis that his body was transported to Kholmogory and buried there. And in 2008, during the demolition of the water tower, a grave was discovered, which was initially considered the grave of Anton Ulrich. But on the basis of objective data obtained during a preliminary examination of the remains, it was suggested that this burial may belong to a member of the Braunschweig family - the eldest son of Anton Ulrich - Ivan Antonovich, Emperor of Russia Ivan VI. The remains were sent to Moscow, to the Russian forensic medical center.

At present, the examination has shown that it is most likely Ivan VI. Only genetic expertise is missing.

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