Home > Ivan VI of Russia

Thirteen months later a coup d’état placed the tsarevna Elizabeth on the throne ( December 6December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 25 days remaining. Events: 1534 Spanish found Quito, Ecuador 1768 First edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is published 1790 United States Congress mov, 1741), and Ivan and his family were imprisoned in the fortress of Dunamunde ( Ust Dvinsk ) ( December 13December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 18 days remaining. Events 1545 Council of Trent begins 1577 Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, on his round-the-world voyage 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasm, 1742Events January 24 Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. February 16 Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain. February 18 British attack La Guayra. April 8 The first performance of George Frideric Handel's orat) after a preliminary detention at RigaRiga ( German: Riga, Estonian: Riia, Lithuanian: Ryga), situated on the Baltic Sea coast at the mouth of the Daugava river, is the capital of Latvia and a major regional port and industrial centre. Riga is the biggest city in the Baltic States. The city's, from whence the new empress had at first decided to send them home to Brunswick. In JuneJune is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. June is named for the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Events in June The solstice occurs around the 21st of this month, although it may occur on either the 20 or 22. It is t 1744Events The third French and Indian War, known as " King George's War," breaks out at Port Royal, Nova Scotia Ongoing events War of the Austrian Succession ( 1740- 1748) Births May 19 Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen-Consort of King George III of G they transferred to KholmogoryKholmogory #x301 is a village in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. Villages in Russia. on the White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the North Western coast of Russia. It is surrounded by the Karelia to the west, and the Kola peninsula to the north. The important port of Arkhangelsk is located on the White Sea. For much of Russia's histor, where Ivan, isolated from his family, and seeing nobody but his gaoler, remained for the next twelve years. Rumours of his confinement at Kholmogory having leaked out, he was secretly transferred to the fortress of Schlusselburg ( 1756), where he was still more rigorously guarded, the very commandant of the fortress not knowing the identity of "a certain arrestant".

On the accession of Peter III ( 1762) the condition of the unfortunate prisoner seemed about to improve, for the kind-hearted emperor visited and sympathised with him; but Peter himself lost power a few weeks later. In the instructions sent to Ivan’s guardian, Prince Churmtyev, the latter received orders to chain up his charge, and even to scourge him should he become refractory.

On the accession of Catherine II (summer 1762) still more stringent orders were sent to the officer in charge of "the nameless one". If any attempt were made from outside to release him, the prisoner was to be put to death; in no circumstances was he to be delivered alive into anyone’s hands, even if his deliverers produced the empress’s own sign manual authorising his release. By this time, twenty years of solitary confinement had disturbed Ivan’s mental equilibrium, though he does not seem to have been actually insane. Nevertheless, despite the mystery surrounding him, he was well aware of his imperial origin, and always called himself gosudar (sovereign). Though instructions had been given to keep him ignorant, he had been taught his letters and could read his Bible. Nor could his residence at Schlusselburg remain concealed for ever, and its discovery was the cause of his ruin. A sub-lieutenant of the garrison, Vasily Mirovich, found out about him, and formed a plan for freeing and proclaiming him emperor. At midnight on July 5, 1764, Mirovich won over some of the garrison, arrested the commandant, Berednikov, and demanded the delivery of Ivan, whom his gaolers murdered there and then, in obedience to the secret instructions already in their possession.

See:

• R. Nisbet Bain, The Pupils of Peter the Great ( London, 1897)
• M. Semevsky, Ivan VI Antonov’ich (in Russian) ( St. Petersburg, 1866)
• A. Bruckner, The Emperor Ivan VI and his Family (in Russian) ( Moscow 1874)
• V. A. Bilbasov, Geschichte Catherine II (vol. ii., Berlin, 1891— 1893).