Romanovs Ivan 4. What if John Antonovich became the Russian Tsar

In our history, there is also a legend about the "Man in the Iron Mask" - a crowned prisoner. His story is mentioned in Voltaire's poem Candide. The hero of the poem meets a man in a mask at the masquerade, who says: “My name is Ivan, I was the emperor of Russia; even in the cradle I was deprived of the throne, and my father and my mother were imprisoned; I was brought up in prison; sometimes I am allowed to travel under the supervision of the guards; Now I have arrived at the Venice Carnival.”

The “man in the mask” was called Ioann Antonovich, he was the great-nephew of Tsaritsa Anna Ioannovna, to whom she bequeathed the crown. In historical anecdotes A.S. Pushkin tells about the prediction to the newborn prince: “Empress Anna Ioannovna sent an order to Euler to draw up a horoscope for the newborn. He took up horoscope together with another academician. They compiled it according to all the rules of astrology, although they did not believe it. The conclusion they drew frightened both mathematicians, and they sent another horoscope to the Empress, in which they predicted all sorts of well-being for the newborn. Euler, however, retained the first one and showed it to Count K. G. Razumovsky when the fate of the unfortunate John Antonovich was completed.

The historian Semevsky wrote: "August 12, 1740 was an unhappy day in the life of Ivan Antonovich - it was his birthday."

Empress Anna Ioannovna was the daughter of Tsar John V, brother of Peter I. The brothers were crowned together, but instead of them, their imperious sister Sophia ruled the state. King John was in poor health and died young in 1696.

John V - father of Anna Ivanovna, brother of Peter I

Anna Ioannovna did not want the throne to pass to the children of Peter I after her death, she wanted the throne to be inherited by the descendants of her father.

Anna Leopoldovna - mother of Ivan Antonovich, niece of Anna Ioannovna

Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick - John's father

According to legend, on the eve of the conspiracy, Elizabeth, Peter's daughter, met Anna Leopoldovna at a ball in the palace. Anna Leopoldovna stumbled and fell on her knees before Elizaveta Petrovna. The courtiers whispered about the bad omen.

Anna Leopoldovna was informed about the impending conspiracy, but she did not dare to take decisive measures and had a kindred conversation with Elizabeth during card game. Elizaveta Petrovna assured her relative that she was not conspiring.

Elizaveta Petrovna

As General K.G. Manstein, “The princess perfectly withstood this conversation, she assured Grand Duchess that she never thought of doing anything against her or against her son, that she was too religious to break her oath, and that all this news was reported by her enemies who wanted to make her unhappy "

At night in December 1741, Elizaveta Petrovna and her faithful soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment entered the Winter Palace. The guards were in a hurry. Elizabeth could not quickly walk through the snow like her brave guards, then the soldiers picked her up on their shoulders and carried her into the palace.

Entering the sleeping Anna Leopoldovna's room, Elizaveta Petrovna said "Sister, it's time to get up!"

Historian Nikolai Kostomarov describes the overthrow of the infant emperor: “He slept in a cradle. The grenadiers stopped in front of him, because the princess did not order to wake him up before he himself wakes up. But the child soon woke up; the nurse carried him to the guardhouse. Elizaveta Petrovna took the baby in her arms, caressed and said: “Poor child, you are innocent of anything, your parents are to blame!”

And she carried him to the sleigh. In one sleigh sat the princess with a child, in another sleigh they put the ruler and her wife ... Elizabeth returned to her palace along Nevsky Prospekt. Crowds of people ran after the new empress and shouted "hurrah!". The child, whom Elizaveta Petrovna was holding in her arms, heard cheerful cries, cheered himself up, jumped up and down in Elizaveta's arms and waved his arms. “Poor thing! - said the empress. “You don’t know why the people are shouting: they rejoice that you have lost your crown!”

Anna Leopoldovna and her husband were sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where they had four more children. 10-15 thousand rubles were allocated annually for the maintenance of the Braunschweig family. After the death of their parents, the children of the Brunswick family left Russia on the orders of Catherine the Great, they were accepted by the Danish kingdom.

The fate of the prisoner Ivan Antonovich was sadder. In 1744 he was taken away from his parents, the boy was 4 years old.

Fearing a conspiracy, Elizaveta Petrovna ordered that John be kept in complete isolation, no one was supposed to see him (similar to the story " iron mask"). The prisoner was called "Nameless". They tried to give him a new name - Gregory, but he did not respond to him. According to contemporaries, the prisoner was taught to read and write and learned about his royal origin.

Peter III and John Antonovich

After the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, a short reign began Peter III who secretly visited the prisoner in prison. It is believed that the emperor was ready to give freedom to John, but did not have time, the cunning wife overthrew Peter III.

Catherine II, who received the crown with the help of palace coup, especially feared conspiracies. Count Panin stated the order of the Empress:
“If, more than expected, it happens that someone comes with a team or alone, even if it is a commandant or some other officer, without a personal order signed by Her I.V. or without a written order from me and wants to take the prisoner from you , then do not give it to anyone and consider everything as a forgery or an enemy hand. But if this hand is so strong that it is impossible to escape, then kill the prisoner, and do not give him alive into the hands of anyone.

According to the official version, Ivan Antonovich was killed at night in the summer of 1764 during an attempt by Lieutenant Vasily Mirovich to free him. The deceased was 23 years old. The guards of the fortress carried out the order - to kill the prisoner at any attempt to free him.

Mirovich in front of the body of Ivan VI. Painting by Ivan Tvorozhnikov (1884)

Mirovich himself was arrested and executed as a conspirator. There are suggestions that Catherine herself staged an attempted conspiracy to kill the royal prisoner. Mirovich was an agent of the Empress, who until the last minute of his life remained confident that he would receive a pardon.

Catherine ordered Count Panin to bury Ivan Antonovich in secret: “Order the nameless convict to be buried in a Christian position in Shlisselburg, without publicity.”

Count Panin wrote about the prisoner's funeral: “The dead body of an insane prisoner, about which there was indignation, you have this very night with the city priest in your fortress to betray the earth, in a church or in some other place where there was no heat and warmth of the sun. Carry it in the very silence of several of those soldiers who were on guard with him, so that both the body left before the eyes of ordinary people and set in motion, and with excessive rites in front of it, could not disturb them again and subject them to any misadventures. ".

The exact burial place of Ivan Antonovich remained unknown. There are many legends about future fate"Iron Mask". It was said that he managed to save. According to one version, it is assumed that he fled abroad, according to another, he took refuge in a monastery.

As the historian Pylyaev writes “Emperor Alexander I, upon accession to the throne, came to Shlisselburg twice and ordered to find the body of John Antonovich; so they rummaged through everything under the rubbish and other rubbish, but did not find anything.

Forgotten Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich

Ivan VI (John Antonovich) (born 12 (23) August 1740 - death 5 (16) July 1764) is a nominal Russian emperor. Board: from October 1740 to November 1741. From .

Heir Russian throne

Ivan Antonovich is the great-grandson of Ivan V, the son of the niece of the Empress, Princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mecklenburg and Duke Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick. By the manifesto of Anna Ivanovna of October 5, 1740, he was declared the heir to the Russian throne, and in the event of his death, the throne was to pass in seniority to other heirs of Anna Leopoldovna.

After the death of Anna Ivanovna on October 17, 1740, the six-month-old child was proclaimed Emperor Ivan VI. Formally, he reigned for the first year of his life under the regency, first of Count Ernst Johann Biron, and then of his own mother, Anna Leopoldovna.

Regency

His mother, Anna Leopoldovna, was a pleasant, pretty blonde, had a good-natured and meek character, but at the same time she was lazy, sloppy and weak-willed. After the overthrow of Biron by Field Marshal Count Munnich on November 8, 1740, the regency passed to Anna Leopoldovna. This circumstance was at first sympathetically accepted by the people, but soon this fact began to cause condemnation among ordinary people and elites. The main reason for this attitude was that key posts in government were still in the hands of the Germans, who came to power during the reign of Anna Ioannovna.

She herself did not even have elementary ideas about how to govern a country that was becoming more and more debilitated in the hands of foreigners. On top of that, Russian culture was alien to her. Historians also note her indifference to the suffering and concerns of the common people.

1) Princess Anna Leopoldovna; 2) Duke Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick - mother and father of Ivan VI

Fight for the throne

Dissatisfied with the dominance of the Germans in power, the nobles began to group around the daughter of the princess. Both the people and the guard took her for the liberator of the state from foreign rule. Gradually, a conspiracy against the ruler and, of course, her baby began to mature. At that time, Emperor John Antonovich was still a one-year-old child and still could not understand anything in court intrigues. Historians consider the decision of the ruler to declare herself the Russian empress the reason for the uprising of the conspirators.

coup. Arrest

1741, December 25 - at night, Anna Leopoldovna with her husband and children, including Emperor Ivan VI, were arrested in the palace by the guards, headed by Elizabeth Petrovna, and the latter was proclaimed empress.

At first, the former emperor was sent into exile with his parents, after which he was transferred to solitary confinement. The place of imprisonment of Ivan VI changed all the time and was kept a terrible secret.

1) Empress Anna Ioannovna; 2) Empress Elizabeth Petrovna

juvenile prisoner

The overthrown young emperor with his parents was sent to Riga on December 12, 1741 under the supervision of Lieutenant General V. F. Saltykov. In Riga, the prisoners were kept until December 13, 1742, after which they were transferred to the Dinamunde fortress. During this time, Elizaveta Petrovna finally decides not to let Ivan Antonovich and his parents, as dangerous contenders for the royal throne, leave Russia.

1744 - the whole family is transported to Oranienburg, and then away from the border, to the north of the state - to Kholmogory, where little Ivan was completely isolated from his parents. He was kept in the same bishop's house as his parents, behind a blank wall, which none of them knew about.

Long ordeals affected the health of Anna Leopoldovna: in 1746 she died.

Young prisoner Ivan Antonovich

Forbidden name

During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and her immediate successors, the very name of Ivan Antonovich began to be persecuted. They melted down coins with the image of Emperor Ivan VI, remade seals on documents from the period of his reign, burned manifestos and decrees with his name.

Shlisselburg fortress

1756 - Ivan VI was transferred to the Shlisselburg fortress, where he was imprisoned in solitary confinement and kept in complete isolation, as a "nameless convict". Access to the former emperor was allowed only to three officers, even the commandant of the fortress did not know the name of the prisoner. Only in case of a dangerous illness was it allowed to let a priest in. It was forbidden to tell the boy who he was. It was forbidden to teach him to read and write. However, despite the mystery surrounding him, Ivan knew about his origin and called himself a sovereign. According to historical documents, it is known that, despite the strictest prohibition, he was educated to read and write, and dreamed of life in a monastery.

Peter III visits John Antonovich in his Shlisselburg cell

1759 - the deposed emperor showed signs of a mental disorder, but the jailers took it for a simulation. He was irritable and suspicious, often made attempts to beat others, talked a lot to himself. He was kept from fits of violence by depriving him of tea and his best clothes.

With the accession to the throne (1761), the situation of the unfortunate prisoner worsened even more - in relation to him, the jailers were allowed to use force, put him on a chain.

Mirovich in front of the body of Ivan VI (I. Tvorozhnikov)

Escape attempt. Death

The stay of Ivan Antonovich in Shlisselburg was not kept secret, and this finally ruined him. The second lieutenant of the Smolensk infantry regiment, Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich, who was in the garrison of the fortress, decided to release him and proclaim him emperor; on the night of July 4-5, 1764, he set about fulfilling his plan and, having persuaded the garrison soldiers to his side with the help of false manifestos, arrested the commandant of the fortress Berednikov and began to demand the extradition of Ivan. The bailiff at first resisted with the help of his team, but when Mirovich aimed a cannon at the fortress, they surrendered, having previously followed the instructions exactly, killing Ivan. After a thorough investigation, which revealed the complete absence of accomplices from Mirovich, the latter was executed.

After death

The exact burial place of the former emperor is unknown, there is an assumption that Ivan VI was secretly buried in the Shlisselburg fortress.

1780 - his surviving brothers and sisters (his father died in 1774) were sent to Denmark in the care of his aunt, the Danish queen; with the death of the last of them, Catherine, in 1807, the Brunswick branch of the Romanov dynasty came to an end. There were several impostors posing as Ivan VI (the last one in 1788). Access to documents about Ivan VI Antonovich was opened only in the 1860s.

After the death of Anna Ioannovna in 1740, according to her will, the Russian throne was inherited by the great-grandson of Ivan Alekseevich, the son of Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich of Braunshveisky - Ivan Antonovich.

Anna's favorite, E.I. Biron, was appointed regent until he came of age, and less than a month later he was arrested by the guards on the orders of Field Marshal B.K. Minikhin. His mother, Anna Leopoldovna, was proclaimed regent for the royal child. The unsinkable A.I. Osterman, who survived five reigns and all temporary workers, began to play the leading role with her.

November 25, 1741 and the tsar who did not rule was overthrown by Elizabeth Petrovna with the help of the guards. First, Ivan 6 with his parents was sent into exile, then transferred to prison alone.

The place of his imprisonment was kept secret. Since 1756, he was in the Schlisserbur fortress, where he was killed by guards when officer V.Ya. Mironov tried to free him and proclaim him emperor instead of Catherine 2.

1. Elizaveta Petrovna (1741-1761)

Another coup d'état was carried out with the direct participation of the guardsmen of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Elizaveta Petrovna found moral support among foreign diplomats, from her friends (A.I. Osterman and P.I. Shuvalov, A.G. Razumovsky and others). An important role was played by the unpopularity of the "Brownshwei surname" and the rule of temporary workers.

The reign of Elizabeth was marked by the flourishing of favorism. The Razumovsky brothers and I.I. Shuvalov played a huge role in shaping state policy. On the whole, favorism was a talkative phenomenon. On the one hand, it was an indicator of the dependence of the nobility on royal generosity, and on the other hand, it was a kind of, albeit rather timid, attempt to adapt the state to the needs of the nobility.

During the reign of Elizabeth, certain transformations were carried out: there was a significant expansion of noble benefits, especially in the 50s, the socio-economic and legal position was strengthened:

Russian nobility;

An attempt was made to restore some of the orders and state institutions created by Peter 1. To this end, the Cabinet of Ministers was abolished, the functions of the Senate were significantly expanded, the Berg and Manufactory Collegiums, the chief and city magistrates were restored;

Eliminated many foreigners from the spheres of public administration and the education system;

A new Supreme body was created - the Conference at the Imperial Court to resolve important state issues, which soon turned into a kind of government body, largely duplicating the functions of the Senate;

There was a tightening of religious policy. Decrees were adopted on the eviction from Russia of persons of the Jewish faith, on the restructuring of Lutheran churches into Orthodox ones.

On the whole, however, Elizabeth's reign did not become a "second edition" of Peter's policy. Cheerful and loving empress, in contrast to her father - a reformer. It was a time of profound changes in the minds of the Russian nobility. Under Peter 1 new image life was imposed on the nobles by force. Under the conditions of the rule of women empresses, many of whom were German by origin, this became an urgent need. His career directly depended on the court behavior of a nobleman.

According to I.N. Ionov, in Russia of the 18th century, traditionalism gave the greatest chances for power. The limits of behavior were limited once and for all by established customs. Opportunities for promotion were held back by the system of parochialism. Therefore, incentives to change social status were not significant. The rationality of behavior could not become its defining feature. In the 18th century, the incentives for power struggles became enormous.

The vanquished ended up in a distant exile, like A.D. Menshikov, or even was executed. Resourcefulness helped some courtiers to maintain their position for a long time. So, the diplomat A.I. Osterman, who began his career under Peter 1, outlived three empresses. The prudence of a court nobleman was very different from the rationality of a scientist and entrepreneur. It was necessary to impress the next empress, to be remembered by her. Therefore, from this point of view, the most profitable was the organization of grandiose holidays, the purchase of new fashionable clothes in Paris, following the latest European fashion in court etiquette.

Especially characteristic of this time was the appearance of many eccentrics and originals. Around each empress there was a circle of noble ladies who told her all the gossip. Through such "intimate cabinets" petitions were transmitted, and sometimes foreign policy was conducted.

These phenomena spread at all levels of government. On the ground, they tried to imitate the St. Petersburg court. Therefore, new fashion trends quickly, without coercion, spread among the entire nobility of the country. His habits and language changed rapidly. Court manners and customs gave rise to new material needs, introduced a fashion for wastefulness, which was not characteristic of traditional society. As a result of this, the economy of the nobles from natural, as it was at the beginning of the 18th century, turned into money.

Luxury has become a vital necessity. The acquisition of new clothes, parties required huge expenses. This caused the ruin of estates, distracted the nobles from service. To prevent the mass ruin of the nobility in 1754. The Noble Bank was created, lending to landlords on the security of estates.

In an effort to improve their affairs, the nobles in the second half of the 18th century began to engage in entrepreneurship. In the same year, 1754, the government declared distilling a noble monopoly. The construction of patrimonial manufactories began on the basis of the labor of serfs. Grandees close to the court, such as the counts Shuvalov and Vorontsov, began to build metallurgical plants in the Southern Urals.

Noble entrepreneurship became almost on the same level with merchant entrepreneurship. The reverse trend was also observed - the transition of the largest merchants to the nobility.

The manifesto of Peter 3, which secured the right of the nobles not to serve the state, made a revolution in their lives. From the service class, the nobility turned into a free privileged class.

In many cases, the estates were the centers of culture. With the mediation of the landlords, new agricultural crops (potatoes, tomatoes) were introduced into the peasant economy. Nobles, such as A.T. Bolotov, for the first time began to use multi-field crop rotation, more advanced methods of cultivating the land. Gradually, a provincial noble society was formed with its own self-consciousness and interests. It played big role in the emergence of the liberal nobility and noble intelligentsia.

Increasing role Agriculture in the life of the nobility led to the strengthening of serfdom. The market price for serfs was established. The right to sell peasants without land was legislated. The peasants lost the right to own immovable property, to act as guarantors, to trade without the special right of the landowner, etc. The life of the serfs was determined by patrimonial instructions that regulated not only the duties of the peasants, but also their economic initiative, family and spiritual life.

The second half of the 18th century was a time of strengthening and development of the all-Russian market. The turning point was 1754, when internal customs duties were abolished. The country was covered by a network of fairs closely linked to local production.

In the middle of the 18th century, the first symptoms of the disintegration of the feudal-serf order and the beginning of the development of capitalist relations appeared in Russia.

The first signs of this process:

The development of commodity-money relations and the formation of capitalist manufacture. The founders of manufactories are mostly private individuals. In some sectors, especially in light industry, free wage labor begins to predominate. Dispersed manufactory is developing, the distribution of handicraft work at home to peasants (it has become one of the forms of the emergence of freelance labor in Russia, the creation of a labor market, without which it was impossible to modernize the economy).

Significant progress has been made in some industries. Thanks to the rapid development of the mining industry, by the middle of the 18th century, Russia took the second place in the world in iron smelting, second only to Switzerland. So, if in 1725. 31 plants operated in the country, then by 1750 - 74. Profitable metallurgical production was actively invested by noble entrepreneurs - the brothers Shuvalov, Vorontsov, S.P. Yaguzhinsky

At the same time, foreign trade also grew. By the middle of the 18th century, Russia began to occupy an important place in the world food market. Grain, timber, leather, hemp, lard, furs, etc. were exported in large quantities. Russian foreign trade was active, that is, exports exceeded imports.

Palace coups did not entail changes in the political, and even more so the social system of society and boiled down to the struggle for power of various noble groups pursuing their own, most often selfish interests. At the same time, the specific policy of each of the six monarchs had its own characteristics, sometimes important for the country.

In general, socio-economic stabilization and foreign policy successes achieved during the reign of Elizabeth created the conditions for more accelerated development and new breakthroughs in foreign policy that would occur under Catherine II.

There is a very sad period of history in Russia - we are talking about a period of time called "". This era "gave" many tragic destinies.

Particularly tragic, against the background of the unfinished lives of historical characters, are the fates of the children of the emperors - Peter II, and Ivan VI Antonovich. It is the latter that will be discussed.

The empress had no children, she had to think about the heir to the Russian throne. Anna chose for a long time, her choice fell on the unborn child of her niece.

In August 1740, Anna Leopoldovna and her husband Anton Ulrich had their first child, named John. Soon he was destined to become the Russian emperor.

In mid-autumn, Empress Anna Ioannovna dies and Ioann Antonovich becomes her heir. The baby came to the throne on October 28, 1740, and Biron was proclaimed regent under him.

Biron was already pretty tired of everyone, with his anti-Russian orders, and his regency, with his parents still alive, looked strange. Soon Biron was arrested, and Anna Leopoldovna was proclaimed regent for Ivan Antonovich.

Anna Leopoldovna was unfit to govern the country, and at the end of 1741 another palace coup took place.

Relying on the guards, the daughter became the new Russian empress, from - Elizaveta Petrovna. Fortunately, the coup took place without bloodshed.

Elizaveta Petrovna immediately ordered all coins with the image of Ivan Antonovich to be withdrawn from the money supply, and also to get rid of all the portraits of Anna Leopoldovna.

Paperwork began, corrected government documents, which were attended by the name of Emperor John Antonovich. John's family was sent into exile.

The route of the "journey" of John Antonovich looked like this: Riga - Dunamünde - Oranienburg - Kholmogory. she sincerely feared that John Antonovich, who had the right to the throne, would plot an affair against her.

In 1756, the former emperor was transferred to the Shlisselburg fortress, where he was in solitary confinement. His life in the fortress is shrouded in mystery. Someone says that during his entire stay in captivity, he did not see people. And someone claims that John was educated, knew that he was an emperor, and dreamed of ... ending his life in a monastery.

They tried to release him several times, but to no avail. The last attempt, made by Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich, turned into the death of Ivan Antonovich. Mirovich, who kept guard in the fortress, managed to persuade part of the garrison to participate in the release of the emperor. But, Mirovich did not know that the guards of Ivan Antonovich had an order, in which case, to kill the prisoner. And so it was done, no one violated the instructions.

It is worth noting that during his lifetime, John was referred to as Ivan III, i.e. the account was kept from . In modern sources, John Antonovich is referred to as Ivan VI, in which case historians count from.

John VI Antonovich lived for almost 24 years. His life is tragic and sad. What was he guilty of? - only that he was chosen as the heir to the Russian throne.

Years of life : August 12 1 740 - July 5, 1764 .

The son of Empress Anna Ioannovna's niece, Princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mackleburg and Anton-Ulrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg, was born on August 12, 1740 and Anna Ioannovna's manifesto, dated October 5, 1740, was declared heir to the throne. Upon the death of Anna Ioannovna (October 17, 1740), John was proclaimed emperor, and a manifesto on October 18 announced the transfer of the regency to the age of John Biron. Upon the overthrow of Biron by Minich (November 8), the regency passed to Anna Leopoldovna, but already on the night of December 25, 1741, the ruler with her husband and children, including Emperor John, were arrested in the palace by Elizaveta Petrovna, and the latter was proclaimed empress. She intended to send the deposed emperor with his entire family abroad, and on December 12, 1741 they were sent to Riga, under the supervision of Lieutenant General V.F. Saltykov; but then Elizabeth changed her mind, and, before reaching Riga, Saltykov received an order to drive as quietly as possible, and in Riga to wait for new orders.

The prisoners stayed in Riga until December 13, 1742, when they were transferred to the Dinamunde fortress. Elizabeth finally made up her mind not to let John and his parents, as dangerous applicants, leave Russia. In January 1744, a decree was issued on the transfer of the former ruler with her family to the city of Ranenburg (Ryazan province), and the executor of the order, Captain-Lieutenant Vyndomsky, almost brought them to Orenburg. June 27, 1744 to the chamberlain Baron N.A. Corfu was ordered to take the family of royal prisoners to the Solovetsky Monastery, and John, both during this trip and during his stay in Solovki, had to be completely separated from his family, and none of the outsiders should have had access to him, except only an overseer specially assigned to him. Korf took the prisoners only as far as Kholmogory and, presenting to the government the whole difficulty of transporting them to Solovki and keeping them a secret there, convinced them to leave them in this city. Here John spent about 12 years in complete solitary confinement; the only person with whom he could see was Major Miller who was watching him, in turn, almost deprived of the opportunity to communicate with other persons guarding the family of the former emperor. Rumors about John's stay in Kholmogory spread, and the government decided to take new precautions.

At the beginning of 1756, Savin, a sergeant of the life campaign, was ordered to secretly take John out of Kholmogory and secretly deliver him to Shlisselburg, and Colonel Vyndomsky, the chief bailiff for the Brunswick family, was given a decree: "The remaining prisoners should be kept as before, even more strictly and with an increase in the guard, so as not to give a sign of the removal of the prisoner; to our office and after the prisoner is sent, report that he is under your guard, as they reported before. In Shlisselburg, secrecy had to be kept no less strictly: the commandant of the fortress himself was not supposed to know who was being held in it under the name of a "famous prisoner"; only three officers guarding him could see John and knew his name; they were forbidden to tell John where he was; even a field marshal could not be allowed into the fortress without a decree from the Secret Office. With the accession of Peter III, the position of John did not improve, but rather changed for the worse, although there were rumors about Peter's intention to release the prisoner.

The instruction given by Count A.I. Shuvalov, to the chief bailiff of John, Prince Churmantiev, prescribed, among other things: "If the prisoner begins to make any disturbances or objections to you, or if he begins to say obscene things, then put him on a chain until he pacifies, and if he does not listen to that, then beat according to your discretion with a stick and a whip." In the decree of Peter III, Churmantiev of January 1, 1762 was commanded: "If, beyond your expectations, who would dare to take the prisoner away from you, in this case resist as much as possible and do not give the prisoner alive into your hands." In the instructions given after the accession to the throne of Catherine N.I. Panin, to whom she was entrusted with the main supervision of the maintenance of the Shlisselburg prisoner, this last point was expressed even more clearly: Her Imperial Majesty by signing a command or without a written order from her, and wanted to take a prisoner from you, then do not give him to anyone and consider everything a forgery or an enemy hand. , and do not give him alive into the hands of anyone.

According to some reports, following the accession of Catherine, Bestuzhev drew up a plan for her marriage to John. It is true that Catherine saw John at this time and, as she later admitted in a manifesto, found him damaged in mind. Crazy or, at least, easily losing his mental balance portrayed John and the reports of the officers assigned to him. However, John knew his origin, despite the mystery surrounding him, and called himself a sovereign. Despite the strict prohibition to teach him anything, he learned to read and write from someone, and then he was allowed to read the Bible. The secret of John's stay in Shlisselburg was not preserved, and this finally ruined him. The lieutenant of the Smolensk infantry regiment, Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich, who was in the garrison of the fortress, decided to release him and proclaim him emperor; on the night of July 4-5, 1764, he set about fulfilling his plan and, having persuaded the garrison soldiers to his side with the help of false manifestos, arrested the commandant of the fortress Berednikov and demanded the extradition of John.

The bailiff at first resisted with the help of his team, but when Mirovich pointed a cannon at the fortress, they surrendered, first, according to the exact meaning of the instructions, killing John. After a thorough investigation, which revealed the complete absence of accomplices from Mirovich, the latter was executed. During the reign of Elizabeth and her immediate successors, the very name of John was subjected to persecution: the seals of his reign were altered, the coin overflowed, all business papers with the name of Emperor John were ordered to be collected and sent to the Senate; manifestos, sworn sheets, church books, forms of commemoration of the persons of the Imperial House in churches, sermons and passports were ordered to be burned, the rest of the files were kept sealed and when inquiries with them not to use the title and name of John, whence the name of these documents came from "cases with a well-known title ". Only the highest approved on August 19, 1762, the report of the Senate stopped the further extermination of the affairs of the time of John, which threatened to violate the interests of private individuals. The surviving documents were partly published in their entirety, partly processed in the edition of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice.

Russian Biographical Dictionary / www.rulex.ru / Solovyov "History of Russia" (volumes XXI and XXII); Hermabn "Geschichte des Russischen Staates"; M. Semevsky "Ivan VI Antonovich" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1866, vol. CLXV); Brikner "Emperor John Antonovich and his relatives 1741 - 1807" (M., 1874); "Internal Life of the Russian State from October 17, 1740 to November 25, 1741" (published by the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice, vol. I, 1880, vol. II, 1886); Bilbasov "History of Catherine II" (vol. II); some information in the articles of "Russian Antiquity": "The fate of the family of the ruler Anna Leopoldovna" (1873, vol. VII) and "Emperor John Antonovich" (1879, vols. XXIV and XXV). V. Mn.