Anna of Russia Anna of Russia Anna Ioannovna (; – ), also spelled Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, was regent of the duchy of Courland from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Anna was born in Moscow as the daughter of Tsar Ivan V by his wife Praskovia Saltykova. Ivan V was co-ruler of Russia along with his younger half-brother Peter the Great, but he was mentally disabled and incapable of administering the country, and Peter effectively ruled alone. Ivan V died in February 1696, when Anna was only three years old, and
The Will of Peter the Great The Will of Peter the Great The Will of Peter the Great is a political forgery which purported to be the testament of Peter I of Russia, which was allegedly a plan of the subjugation of Europe. For many years it influenced political attitudes in Great Britain and France towards the Russian Empire. Forged at the break of 19th century, it resurfaced during the Crimean War, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, during the World War I and in the immediate post-World War II times. In 1812 wrote, under Napoleon's command, a memoir "Des Progres de la puissance russe depuis