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
Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russia Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russia Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russia (; ) was a "Grand Duchess of Russia" as the second youngest daughter and seventh child of Emperor Paul I of Russia and his empress consort, Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The Grand Duchess Olga was born as her parents' fifth daughter and seventh child. Her birth was not greeted with much happiness by her paternal grandmother, Catherine the Great, who stated that "A lot of girls, all married will not tell anyone". She later wrote: The little Grand Duchess was baptised on and, as it was customary, she