The overthrow of biron

In accordance with the “ Charter on the heritage of the throne ” dated February 5, 1722 , created by Peter I , Anna Ivanovna signed a will before her death, according to which the throne was inherited by the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna from the Mecklenburg house - because of his age (he was stern baby) could not rule alone. Anna refused to hand over the crown to Catherine I’s daughter Elizabeth Petrovna and 12-year-old Duke of Holstein Peter Friedrich , the son of the eldest daughter of Peter the Great Anna Petrovna . Ernst Johann Biron, the de facto ruler of Russia and the Duke of Courland and Semigallia , in the will of Anna became the governor-regent until the 17th anniversary of Emperor John or, in case of his death, before the 17th anniversary of another child Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich of Brunswick . By the will of Anna Ioannovna, Biron obtained unlimited power in internal and external affairs, could conclude international treatises on behalf of the minor emperor, be commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and also be in charge of the financial activities of the state.

The organizer of the conspiracy against Biron was his closest ally and confidant Christopher Antonovich Minich . At the beginning of the regency, Biron repeatedly sought to retain power by all means. According to contemporaries, Biron allegedly intimidated the emperor's parents and even after one of the quarrels he put Prince Anton Ulrich under house arrest. According to some reports, on the eve of the coup, Biron asked Minikh if ​​he had to take any action at night. Having heard the question, Minikh hardly managed to hide his excitement.

On the night of November 9, 1740 , having received the approval of Anna Leopoldovna on the eve, Minich, accompanied by guardsmen loyal to him personally (a little over a hundred people), went to the residence of the ruler. There is evidence that 300 guardsmen who were supposed to guard Biron, immediately went over to the side of the coup organizers and did not try to prevent the regent from arresting him. The soldiers, whom Minich announced that Biron would be arrested, allegedly shouted "Hurray." 40 guardsmen were left on the porch of the Winter Palace , who occupied all entrances and exits, after which Minich sent his adjutant Christoph Herman Manstein with 80 soldiers to arrest Biron. According to some information, Minikh gave Manstein an order to arrest 20 Guards of the Life-Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment , and in the case of fierce resistance, he was ordered to deprive Biron of life. According to the memoirs of Manstein himself, his soldiers didn’t know exactly where Biron’s bedroom was located, so at first they simply opened the doors one by one in the palace’s premises, taking advantage of the carelessness and negligence of the personal guard of Biron. In the end, Manstein broke into the Regent's bedroom and woke him. According to some reports, Biron immediately crawled under the bed, and then, as Manstein describes in his memoirs, “... finally getting up on his feet and wanting to get rid of these people, he threw punches right and left; the soldiers answered him with strong blows with a butt, again threw him on the ground, put a handkerchief into his mouth, tied his hands with a scarf of one officer and took him naked to the guardhouse, where he was covered with a soldier's overcoat and put in the field marshal waiting here. ”

Christopher Antonovich Minich, who was distinguished by ambition and dreamed of moving up the career ladder and the title of supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, sincerely counted on the gratitude of Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich, who disliked Biron and were afraid of his steep temper. However, the emperor's parents were initially opposed to additional control over their actions, because they constantly experienced oppression from Biron and did not want Minikh, who also had a tough character, to take the position of a new regent. Soon the father of the emperor, Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick, received the rank of generalissimo instead of Minich, which was for the latter a strong psychological blow. State affairs were under the jurisdiction of Andrei Ivanovich Osterman , whom the Braunschweig family trusted. In a short time, Anna Leopoldovna was declared the Grand Duchess and Ruler of the Russian Empire until the age of majority of Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich. Christopher Munnich, not waiting for the regalia, in early 1741 decided on a radical step and submitted his resignation. Apparently, he hoped that this step would help soften the position of the parents of John Antonovich. The ruler, barely seeing the petition, without hesitation satisfied the request of Minich and sent him to resign.

One of those who retained the former privileged position and even acquired new political dividends after the palace coup of 1740 was Andrei Ivanovich Osterman, who, in the years of Biron's favoritism, was his key adviser on a number of significant issues of public administration and headed the Cabinet of Ministers established at his suggestion . Anna Leopoldovna did not restrict Osterman’s privileges and kept him in all his administrative posts, although there are suggestions that Osterman was aware of the upcoming coup against Regent Biron and knew his approximate date. Later Osterman, who became a close adviser to Anna Leopoldovna, repeatedly warned the mother of John VI about the plot that Elizaveta Petrovna planned, but all his warnings were left without attention by the representatives of the Braunschweig House.

This is how the writer Valentin Savvich Pikul describes the moment of the night revolution in The Word and the Deed (book 2) (relying largely on the information from Manstein's memoirs):

... The soldiers of the guard, apparently, lost. Manstein decided to go it alone. Unfortunately, he was on the other side of the bed, where the humpback was lying. And the regent jumped off the other side and began to hide under the bed at first.

- Sentry! - he called heart-rending. - To me ... save! “The guard follows me,” answered Manstein. In the circle of the red-carpet room, he ran around the whole alcove and cracked Biron in the teeth. The blow of the mighty Alcibiades was so strong that the regent flew off to the wall. But despair gave him courage. He rushed to Manstein with his fists and immediately fell into the inseparable pincers of Minikhov’s adjutant's embrace. Biron bit Manstein, spat in his face, but Manstein steadfastly restrained him until the soldiers came running. - Take it ... drag! He shouted to them. Biron still defended. Someone from the soldiers, without thinking twice, moved his butt on the head. Another pushed him to the ground, pressed to the floor. The third put a fist in Biron's mouth so that the regent would not yell. “Give me a handkerchief,” said the veteran Drabant. In the mouth of the regent gagged. The officer tore off his scarf and tied the duke’s hands behind their backs. Biron was in his underwear, trimmed with lace-blond. Manstein did not order him to wear it in winter:

- If it is cold now, it will warm in Siberia ... drag it! ...

It is known that the soldiers sent to arrest Biron did not receive an order regarding the wife of the regent Bennigna Gottlieb Trott von Treyden , who, taking advantage of the commotion over the beating of her husband, ran out of the palace in one nightgown. The guardsmen managed to catch her, and they led her to Manstein, asking what to do with her. Manstein ordered her to be taken along with her deposed spouse to the Winter Palace, but the guardsmen, faced with Benigna's fierce resistance, left her in the snow. She lay in a snowdrift for some time, until one of the officers discovered her and ordered her to be taken into custody in the Winter Palace after her husband.

After the first interrogations, Biron and his wife and son, Peter Biron, were imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress . A special commission of inquiry was created, which was supposed to investigate Biron’s “crimes” both in the period of favoritism and during a short regency. In the end, after five months of work of the commission, the court sentenced Biron to quartering, which was soon replaced by the decision of Anna Leopoldovna to remove all posts and exile in Pelym . Biron's property was confiscated by a court decision, and the ex-regent himself was referred to as “feed” in the amount of 15 rubles per day (including servicing costs).

As a result of the coup, the brothers Ernst Johann Biron suffered. In particular, his younger brother Gustav Biron was also imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress, after which during the investigation he was recognized as an accomplice of his brother and exiled to Nizhnekolymsky jail . Another brother, Karl Biron, who was the governor-general of Moscow , was arrested and sent under strict guard to Riga , where he was interrogated in the secret prison of the Riga Castle . Soon after the completion of the inquiry procedure in June 1741, he was sent into exile in Srednekolymsk .

• The epoch of palace coups
• Elizaveta Petrovna