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Russia is a nation with a rich past and a history of royalty that cannot be compared with any other in the world. There were memorable rulers, including Catherine and Peter the Great, and rulers that Russia and the rest of the world would like to forget, such as Ivan the Terrible. However short their reign, or how seemingly insignificant their actions, all have had an effect on Russia? s history and have left plenty of colorful images to be written down into history books. One can argue about how important one ruler was, and some were more important than others, but some were very insignificant and are scarcely heard of. A Russian ruler that is rarely heard of is Empress Anna, a ruler in the mid 1700 s.
Anna is not well known because she did little during her reign and that which she accomplished was questionable and her motives controversial. Anna should not be considered a significant ruler in Russian history because of her short reign, unimportant involvement in Russia? s foreign affairs, and possible mental handicap. Empress Anna began her reign in 1730 and it ended in 1740. 10 years is a short amount of time to do anything memorable. Most Russian royalty that were famous and memorable ruled for much longer than that. Peter II, the ruler before Anna, died at the age of fourteen and is not well known.
The ruler after Anna was two months old when he became ruler of Russia, Ivan VI, he is also unheard of. Catherine II is known as Catherine the Great and ruled for thirty-three years. Catherine the Great is also one of the more well known Russian rulers, with Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. Peter the Great ruled for thirty six years and did many things for Russia and whether or not one agrees with his actions, Peter did accomplish a great deal, for or in spite of the good of the country.
Even Ivan IV, the Terrible, was a much more famous ruler than Anna. Ivan IV ruled for fifty-one years and while known for all the horrible things he did, like lowering the populations of his own country, was still more well known than rulers that have done little but good. Anna was neither significant, nor did she accomplish anything, good or bad, for the people or for herself. (Grey 142) Page 2 Empress Anna did not do anything significant during her reign which is another important reason why she was not a notable ruler in Russian history. Despite the two wars fought during her reign, she was not well known because she didn? t do anything. Since the reign of Peter the Great, Russia had been fighting with Persia and continued to do so during the reign of Anna.
Although Russia and Persia reached indefinite peace with Persia, it was not even a result of her own doing. Andrei Ostermann, Vice Chancellor and a skilled negotiator, did the peacemaking and that was one of the more memorable events in Anna? s reign, though in itself, the peacemaking was not notable. (Grey, 151 - 53) The outcome of the other war fought during Anna? s reign was bitterly disappointing and intensified the anger and discontentment of the population against her. The Russians were humiliated and were tired of the heavy taxes. The empress?
s troublesome spending also had a harsh effect on Russia? s economy. The war against Turkey had been a drain on the economy and the military was depleted because of the Turkish campaign. The government officials turned brutal in collecting taxes and soon all authority in Russia was hated. Anna created more problems than she tried to fix and was known as an insignificant ruler in Russian history because of this. Anna was just another typical Russian royal, one who did most everything for herself and forgot that she was the matriarch of a country that desperately needed guidance. (Grey 153) Anna was a typical ruler in the way that she was ignorant and did little for the good of her people.
She was however, very strange with her habits, hobbies, and pastimes which could make one question about her state of mental health. If Anna was not mentally sound, were the few actions she made justifiable? It was not uncommon for royalty and monarchs to have a personal collection of dwarfs and jesters. Past czars and most of Europe practiced this custom and Anna was no exception. Anna, however, took her? collection?
and made it into one of her favorite things with which to play and experiment. Anna? s delight in the grotesque and malformed was extreme and she took pleasure in torturing and Page 3 humiliating the members of her collections. Members of her corps of buffoons were sometimes ordered to line up and kick each other and perform other degrading tasks. Blood flowed frequently and injuries were numerous all for the entertainment of the Empress. (Grey 148 - 49) The Empress also used her collection and strange habits to seek vengeance on others who had committed something she interpreted as a horrible crime. Prince Mikhail Golistyn had married a Catholic woman and changed his faith.
Anna, a bigoted Orthodox, discovered this and was outraged. Anna made him a court jester and he was ordered to sit upon a basket of eggs and wait for them to hatch, cackling like a hen the whole time. Golitsyn? s wife died and Anna decided despite the fact that he was fifty years old, he needed a new bride. She picked Anna Buzheninova to be his bride, a court freak because she was so ugly.
Anna declared that he was to have a magnificent wedding to celebrate. (Grey 149) The winter of 1739 - 40 was exceptionally cold and Anna had an ice palace eighty feet long by thirty-three feet high built for the newlyweds, complete with clothes, slippers, and a four-poster bed completely carved out of ice. The couple was carried in a large iron cage strapped on top of an elephant. The guests, numbering over 300, were brought in sleds drawn by deer, oxen, goats, dogs, and some rode on the backs of camels. The wedding feast was magnificent and when the festivities were over, the couple was led to their bedchamber, disrobed, and put into their ice bed. Guards were ordered to make sure the couple didn?
t leave till morning. (Grey 149) Empress Anna had a strange hobby of collecting malformed people and using them sadistically. She tortured those who did her wrong and did it in a way so peculiar, it is hard to be imagined. Though everyone has their own strange habits and hobbies, Anna? s were extreme and could definitely indicate a problem with her mental health. Many rulers were mentally retarded and that was the cause of many of the decisions they made. Perhaps Anna was a bit disturbed mentally and it was not detectable by physical appearance, as with Page 4 some mentally disabled.
Clearly Anna had some sort of mental problem because had she not, she most likely not have done the things she did. Other Russian rulers with their own collection of freaks and the malformed did not treat their? collections? the same way Anna did.
Empress Anna is not a ruler that should be remembered. She was probably borderline psychotic and her actions are most likely unjustifiable. Her reign was too brief for anything significant to happen, unlike those of the? Greats? like Catherine II and Peter II. Anna was just another Russian ruler who did nothing for her country and should not be remembered for being something she was not.
Anna should not be known as being a significant part of Russian history; she should remain a small paragraph in encyclopedias and no one should worry about remembering her name. Empress Anna left her country in even worse condition than she received it, and left Russia in ruins. Anna only disappointed her people, and disappointment does not get one into the illustrious books of Russian history. 4 f 4 Duffy, J. P. , and Ricci, V. L. Czars: Russia?
s Rulers for Over 1, 000 Years. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 1995 Grey, Ian. The Romanov's. New York: Doubleday &# 038; Co. 1970. Harcave, Sidney. Russia: A History.
J. B. Lippincott Co. 1952. Maclean, Fitzroy.
All the Russias: The End of an Empire. New York: Smith mark Publishers, Inc. 1992. Major, Anatole G. Russia Past and Present.
New York: D. Van Nostrand
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