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
Peter II of Russia During the reign of Catherine I, young Peter was ignored; but by the time she died in 1727, it had become clear to those in power that the only male-line grandson of Peter the Great could not be kept from his inheritance much longer. The majority of the nation and three-quarters of the nobility were on his side, while his uncle, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (Peter's uncle on his mother's side), persistently urged Peter's claims through the imperial ambassador at Saint Petersburg. Through the efforts of Menshikov, Peter was named Catherine's heir apparent, even though Catherine had two