The Braunschweig family (Braunschweig-Mecklenburg-Romanovs) is the traditional name of the family of Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig and Anna Leopoldovna. Belonged to the Wolfenbüttel branch of the Braunschweig family of Welfs, one of the noblest and oldest in Europe.

• Father Prince Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig (17 August 1714 - 4 May 1774)
• Mother (at birth Elizabeth Katharina Christina, Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, December 7, 1718 - March 8, 1746)
• son - (August 12, 1740 - July 5, 1764)
• daughter Ekaterina Antonovna of Braunschweig (July 4, 1741 - March 29, 1807)
• daughter Elizaveta Antonovna (1743-1782)
• son Pyotr Antonovich (1745-1798),
• son Alexey Antonovich (February 24, 1746 - October 11, 1787)

Kholmogory

Living together for years, decades together, under one roof (the guard did not change for twelve years), these people quarreled, reconciled, fell in love, denounced each other. Scandals followed one after another: either Anton Ulrich had a falling out with Bina (who, unlike the latter, was allowed to go to Kholmogory), then the soldiers were caught stealing, and the officers were caught on cupids with nurses. The commandant and his subordinates shamelessly drunk and robbed Anton Ulrich and his relatives mercilessly, and the ever-drunk cook was preparing some kind of inedible brew for them. Over the years, the guards forgot about discipline, went about in a ragged form. Gradually, together with Anton Ulrich, they became decrepit old people, each with its own quirks.

The prince was quiet and meek. Over the years, he grew fat, flabby, diseases began to overcome him. After the death of his wife (Anna Leopoldovna), he began to live with maids, and it was believed that there were many of his illegitimate children in Kholmogory, who, growing up, became servants of the Brunswick family. From time to time, the prince wrote letters to Empress Elizabeth: he thanked for the sent bottles of Hungarian or for some other donation. He was especially poor without coffee, which he needed on a daily basis. In his letters to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and then to Peter III, Catherine II, he showed an emphasized, even obsequious loyalty, called himself "kneeling insignificance", "insignificant dust and dust", "an unfortunate worm" who addressed "humiliated and unhappy lines" of the request to a royal person. He never asked for release, probably realizing that it was unrealistic. In the fall of 1761, Anton Ulrich wrote a letter to Empress Elizabeth, asking her “to allow my children to learn to read and write in order for them to be able to kneel down to Your Imperial Majesty and, together with me, pray to God for health and well-being until the end of our lives. Your Majesty and your family "(The Empress, as always, was silent in response)

After taking the throne, Anton Ulrich made the same humble request to her. The new empress in August 1762 responded favorably to the prince's letter, expressed her concern for him, but did not promise to release him, writing diplomatically: "Your deliverance is connected with some difficulties that your prudence may understand." She did not promise to help in the training of princes and princesses.

Soon, Catherine II sent General A.I.Bibikov to Kholmogory, who was instructed to draw up a report on the situation in the prison and give characteristics to its inhabitants. Bibikov, on behalf of the empress, invited the prince to leave Russia in order to return him to Germany. But he refused the empress's generous offer.

The Danish diplomat wrote that the prince, "accustomed to his imprisonment, sick and discouraged, refused the freedom offered to him." This is inaccurate - the prince did not want freedom for himself alone, he wanted to leave with the children. But these conditions did not suit Catherine. In the instructions, Bibikov was told that “we intend now to release him and release him to his fatherland with decency,” and his children “for the same state reasons that he himself can understand from his own prudence, we cannot release him until affairs our statesmen will not be strengthened in the order in which they have now accepted a new position for the well-being of our empire "...

The Empress did not enthusiastically accept Bibikov's report on his trip to Kholmogory, in which he wrote with sympathy and sympathy about the princes and princesses, who, it turns out, did not lose their human appearance for many years of captivity, were brought up, kind-hearted and friendly. And although the empress did not give permission for the training of princes and princesses (this was not part of the empress's plans and, moreover, would mean that teachers would have to be sent to Kholmogory), they were literate. In 1773, Princess Elizabeth wrote with her own hand to the empress, in good style and handwriting, albeit with mistakes, three letters, in which she begged the empress to give them "although a small release from exclusion (sic!), In which, apart from the father, those who were born are kept."

Anxiety arose: it turns out that the children of the prince, despite the absence of teachers, are literate. Panin, who was in charge of this case, was immediately frightened - lest they could start a correspondence with someone else. Writing materials were taken away from the prisoners and an investigation was carried out. It turned out that the children were taught to write and read by their father using the old alphabet, which remained to them from their deceased mother, as well as from her sacred books, which the children read. It is noteworthy that NI Panin and his assistant GN Teplov were involved in the affairs of the "Kholmogorsk commission", as well as in the case of Mirovich. As in the time of Elizabeth, the new authorities most of all feared that the princes and princesses would not be kidnapped by some adventurers like Zubarev, and warned the Arkhangelsk governor about the possible appearance of a foreign spy in those places.

Apparently, the appearance of A.I.Bibikov, a humane and kind man, as well as the unusually kind letters of the new empress aroused in the Braunschweig family some vague hopes, if not for freedom, then at least for the relief of the prison regime. Therefore, in September 1763, the prince dared to ask the empress "a little more freedom": to allow children to attend services in the church next to the prison. Ekaterina refused, as well as his request to give the children "a little fresher air" (they were kept in the building for most of the year)

Anton Ulrich did not wait for either a little freedom, or a little fresh air, or for the affairs of Empress Catherine to take a favorable position for him. By the age of sixty, he had grown decrepit, began to go blind, and after serving in captivity for 34 years, he died on May 4, 1776. Dying, he asked to give his children "at least a little liberation." At night, the guards secretly carried the coffin with his body into the courtyard and buried there near the church, without a priest, without a ceremony, like a suicide, a vagabond or a drowned man. Did the children accompany him on his last journey? We don't even know that. Most likely, this was not allowed - they were forbidden to leave the house. But it is known that they endured the death of their father extremely hard and suffered severely from grief. In the next year, 1777, the family faced another heavy loss - two old women died one after the other - the princes' nurses and nannies Anna Ivanova and Anna Ilyina. They have long become close family members, dear people.

Princes and princesses after the death of their father lived in captivity for another four years. By 1780, they had long been adults: the deaf Catherine was 39 years old, Elizabeth was 37, Peter was 35, and Alexei was 34. All of them were weak, with obvious physical disabilities, they were sick for a long time. An eyewitness wrote about the eldest son, Peter, that “he is physically sick and consumptive, with a few crooked shoulders and bow-legged. The youngest son Aleksey is a solid build and healthy ... has seizures. " The prince's daughter Catherine "is physically ill and almost consumptive, moreover, somewhat deaf, speaks mute and indistinct and is always obsessed with various painful seizures, of a very quiet disposition."

But, despite living in captivity, they all grew up to be reasonable, kind and nice people. All the visitors who came to the prisoners, following Bibikov, noted that they were greeted kindly, that the prince's family was extremely friendly. As Golovtsyn wrote, “at my first arrival, I could notice from conversations that the father loved his children, and the children were respectful to him and there was no disagreement between them.” Like Bibikov, Golovtsyn noted the special cleverness of Princess Elizabeth, who burst into tears and said that “their only fault was birth” and that she hoped that, perhaps, the empress would free them and take them to court.

A. P. Melgunov

After the death of Anton Ulrich, Governor-General of the Vologda governorship AP Melgunov wrote about Princess Yekaterina Antonovna that, despite her deafness, cheerful; seeing others laughing in conversations, although he does not know the reason, but makes them company ... "

With Princess Elizabeth Melgunov talked freely - she was smart and thorough. When the princess spoke to Melgunov that the family had previously sent requests to the empress, “I,” wrote Melgunov, “intending to test her mind and the disposition of thoughts, found this case convenient and for that I asked her what their request would be. ? She answered me that their first request, when their father was still healthy, and they were very young, was that they should be given liberty, but when they did not receive this and their father went blind, and they left their young age, then this their desire changed to something else, that is, they finally asked to be allowed to pass, but did not receive an answer to that.

What the princess said and written down by Melgunov accurately reflects the situation in the 1760s and 1770s, when Catherine behaved, in general, the same way as Elizaveta Petrovna: silence for all requests. All requests for freedom, or at least for the relief of the regime, were rejected by her. Catherine believed that all this "can make trouble." Why did she need them? These people seem to have ceased to exist for her. The Empress never wrote to them and did not even sympathize when they lost their father. As before, they were strictly guarded both in the house and during walks in the garden. But they began to be better fed, robbed less, and quite often new beautiful things were brought from St. Petersburg. Elizabeth told Melgunov that with the beginning of Catherine's reign they seemed to have resurrected - "until that time they needed everything, even they did not have shoes."

Apparently, the dream of freedom did not leave Princess Elizabeth, and she again bitterly told Melgunov about their unfulfilled desire to "live in the big world", to learn secular conversion. “But in the present situation,” continued Elizaveta Antonovna, “there is nothing left for us to wish for but to live here in solitude, in Kholmogory. We are happy with everything, we were born here, got used to this place and have grown old, so for us a lot of light is not only unnecessary, but also painful, so that we don’t know how to deal with people, and it’s too late to learn. ”

“As for the brothers,” Melgunov continued his report to the empress, “both of them, according to my remarks, do not seem to have the slightest natural acuteness in themselves, but their timidity, simplicity, shyness, silence and tricks are more visible, in one small decent guys. However, the smallest of them, Alexei, seems to be more dedicated, bolder and more careful than his larger brother Peter. But as far as more lies, it is clear from his actions that he is inhabited by sheer simplicity and a temper that is too cheerful because he laughs and laughs when there is nothing funny at all ... They live amicably with each other, and, moreover, ... brothers obey and listen in all things to Elizabeth. Their exercise consists in the fact that in the summer they work in the garden, go after the chickens and ducks and feed them, and in the winter they run to the runs on wooden horses along the pond, in their garden, read church books and play cards and checkers, the girls, over Moreover, sometimes they are engaged in sewing linen. "

Elizabeth had several requests, from which Alexei Petrovich Melgunov, a subtle, humane and warm-hearted man, probably turned everything upside down in his soul: “We ask her to petition us from Her Imperial Majesty that one mercy, so that 1) we were allowed to leave the house to the meadows for a walk, we heard that there are flowers there, which are not in our garden ”; the second - to let the wives of the security officers be friends with them - "otherwise we alone get bored!" The third request: “By the grace of Her, the Imperial Majesty, cornets, caps and curtains are sent to us from St. Petersburg, but we do not use them so that neither we nor our girls know how to put on and wear them. So do mercy ... send such a person who could dress us up. " The princess also asked that the bath be moved away from home and that the salaries of their servants be increased and they were allowed to leave the house. At the end of this conversation with Melgunov, Elizaveta said that if these requests are fulfilled, "then we will be very pleased and we will not bother about anything more and we do not want anything and are happy to remain in this position forever."

Melgunov did not tell the princes and princesses that his visit to them was not just an inspection trip. The fact is that Catherine nevertheless decided to send the Braunschweig surname abroad - to do what Elizaveta Petrovna had not done almost forty years before. The empress started a correspondence with the Danish queen Julia Margaret, the sister of Anton Ulrich and the aunt of the Kholmogory prisoners, and offered to settle them in Norway, then the province of Denmark. The queen replied that she could place them even in Denmark itself. Melgunov was sent to Kholmogory to draw up a report, on the basis of which the empress could make a decision.

Catherine II

After reading Melgunov's report, Catherine II gave a decree to prepare the children of Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich for departure. The training camp began. Suddenly, gold, silver, diamonds sparkled in the modest chambers of the bishop's house - they were carrying and carrying gifts from the empress: a giant silver service, diamond rings for men and earrings for women, unprecedented wonderful powders, lipsticks, shoes, dresses.

Seven German and fifty Russian tailors in Yaroslavl were hastily preparing a dress for four prisoners. What are some "golden fur coats with sable fur" for princesses Ekaterina Antonovna and Elizaveta Antonovna! And although the empress was a purebred German, she acted in the Russian way - know ours! Let the Danish relatives see how prisoners of royal blood are kept here.

On June 26, 1780, Melgunov announced to the Braunschweig family the empress's decree on sending them to Denmark, to their aunt. They were shocked. “I cannot,” Melgunov wrote to Ekaterina, “here to imagine, with colicky fear, mixed together with surprise and joy, they were amazed at these words. None of them could utter a word, but the streams of tears pouring from their eyes, the frequent kneeling and joy that spread on their faces, clearly revealed their sincere gratitude. " They thanked for their freedom, but only asked to settle them in a small town, away from people. It is curious that they all spoke the Kholmogory, "northern dialect", which at first seemed strange and unusual to the capital's visitors, who knew that they were going to people in whom not only the blood of the Romanovs flows, but also the blood of the ancient Mecklenburg and Braunschweig dukes.

Frigate "Polar Star"

On the night of June 27, the princes and princesses were taken out of the house. For the first time in their lives, they left the prison, boarded a yacht and sailed down the wide, beautiful Dvina, a piece of which they had seen from the window all their lives. When the gloomy fortifications of the Novodvinsk fortress appeared in the gloom of the white Arkhangelsk night, the brothers and sisters began to sob and say goodbye - they thought that they had been deceived and that in fact they were waiting for the loners of the fortress casemates. But they were reassured by pointing to the Polar Star frigate standing in the roadstead, preparing to sail.

Until the very end, the Antonovichs were strictly guarded, and Colonel Ziegler, specially appointed to manage the operation, received a strict order not to allow prisoners to write and send letters, not to allow anyone to see them. “But if someone,” the instructions noted, “beyond expectation, dared to enter the frigate by force and thus intend to take the princes and princesses out of the hands of Ziegler, then he was ordered to reflect force by force and defend himself to the last drop of blood.” Fortunately, there was no clause about the murder of prisoners in the instructions - it can be seen that by 1780 Catherine's affairs had taken "the proper position."

"Prince Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig".

ANTON ULRICH(28.08.1714-04.05.1774) - father of Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich, husband of Anna Leopoldovna.

The youngest son of the Duke of Brunswick Ferdinand Albrecht came to Russia in 1733 at the insistence of Empress Anna Ivanovna. Participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739. In 1739 he married Anna Leopoldovna, the niece of Anna Ivanovna. Their infant son Ivan Antonovich became emperor in the fall of 1740, and his wife became the ruler of Russia. Anton Ulrich received the title of Imperial Highness and the rank of Generalissimo, but did not play a role in governing the country. According to his contemporaries, the prince was "although of a low mind, but a light-hearted and merciful man."

After the coup on November 25, 1741, Elizaveta Petrovna came to power. Anton Ulrich was stripped of his ranks and titles and sent into exile with his family. From 1744 he lived in Kholmogory, in 1746 he was widowed. In 1762 he was offered to go abroad, but he refused to leave his four children.

School encyclopedia. Moscow, "OLMA-PRESS Education". 2003 year.

"Portrait of Anton von Ulrich".

It seems that the death of Ivan Antonovich made Catherine II and her entourage happy. Nikita Panin wrote to the Empress: "The case was carried out by a desperate grip, which was suppressed by the indescribably meritorious resolution of Captain Vlasyev and Lieutenant Chekin." Catherine replied: "With great amazement I read your reports and all the divas that happened in Shlisselburg: God's guidance is wonderful and untried!" In a word, according to the well-known saying: if there is no person, there is no problem. Vlasyev and Chekin received an award - seven thousand rubles each - and a complete resignation.

Of course, the "problem" was resolved, but not all: the "well-known commission in Kholmogory" - as the prisoners of the bishop's house were called in official documents - continued to "work". The family of Prince Anton Ulrich (himself, two daughters and two sons) still lived there. The house stood on the banks of the Dvina, which could barely be seen from one window, was surrounded by a high fence that enclosed a large courtyard with a pond, a vegetable garden, a bathhouse and a coach house. Men lived in one room, and women - in another, and "from rest to rest - one door, old rooms, small and cramped." Other quarters were filled with soldiers, numerous servants of the prince and his children.

Living for years, decades together, under one roof (the last guard did not change for twelve years), these people quarreled, reconciled, fell in love, denounced each other. Scandals followed one after another: either Anton Ulrich had a falling out with Bina (Jacobina Mengden was Julia's sister, who, unlike her sister, was allowed to go to Kholmogory), then the soldiers were caught stealing, then the officers were caught on cupids with nurses. The stories with Bina dragged on for several years: it turned out that she had a lover - a doctor who came from Kholmogory, and in September 1749 she gave birth to a child "a man of the sex", for which she was locked in a separate room, and she raged, beat those who came to her checking the officers. Many complaints from the Kholmogory prisoners were related to the quality of the food supplied by the local inhabitants.

The prince, as always, was quiet and meek. Over the years, he grew fat, flabby. After the death of his wife, he began to live with maids, and in Kholmogory there were many of his illegitimate children, who, growing up, became servants of the members of the Braunschweig family. From time to time, the prince wrote letters to the empress: he thanked for the bottles of Hungarian sent or for some other donation. He was especially poor without coffee, which he needed on a daily basis.

In 1766, Catherine II sent General A.I.Bibikov to Kholmogory, who, on behalf of the empress, invited the prince to leave Russia. But he refused. The Danish diplomat wrote that the prince, "accustomed to his imprisonment, sick and discouraged, refused the freedom offered to him." This is inaccurate - the prince did not want freedom for himself alone, he wanted to leave with the children. But these conditions did not suit Catherine. She was alarmed by both Mirovich's case and the conversations in society that she could marry one of the "Ivashka brothers" - after all, royal blood, not like the low-breed Grigory Orlov, who dreamed of a formal marriage with the empress. The prince was answered that it was impossible to let him go with the children, "until our deeds are strengthened in the order in which they have now accepted their new position for the well-being of our empire."

Anton Ulrich did not wait for the empress's affairs to take a favorable position for him. By the age of sixty, he had grown decrepit, blind and, after serving in captivity for thirty-four years, he died on May 4, 1776. At night, the coffin with his body was secretly carried out into the courtyard. There he was buried - without a priest, without a ceremony, like a suicide or a vagrant. Did the children accompany him on his last journey? We don't even know that.

Anisimov Evgeniy. "Women on the Russian throne."

Here is such a generalissimo

About two years ago, in Kholmogory, the remains of supposedly Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig, generalissimo of the Russian army, secretly buried after his death in exile for many years, were found.

In our history, he is most often remembered as the husband of Anna Leopoldovna and the father of the unfortunate infant emperor Ivan Antonovich.

Empress Anna Ioannovna, being childless, raised her niece, Anna Leopoldovna, as her own daughter, so that later she could pass on the Russian throne to her descendants. The bridegroom of the princess was to become Anton Ulrich. She immediately began to show antipathy towards him, but those who knew her well believed that the main reason for the hostility was that the groom was imposed on her. In the end, Anna did not mind this marriage, especially since the only alternative was the son of Anna Ioannovna's famous favorite, Biron, and she did not want that at all.

Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig

Since 1733, Anton Ulrich served in the army of the Russian Empire, being a colonel of one of the cuirassier regiment. According to the testimony of the French and English ambassadors, the prince's puny physique and unmanly appearance surprised everyone, but soon everyone was also surprised that he "seemed to be a smart mind." During the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739, Anton Ulrich successfully acted in the capture of Ochakov and in the campaign to the Dniester. H. A. Minich was very pleased with him: “Despite any cold weather and great heat, dust, ash and distant marches, he was always on horseback, as an old soldier should be, and never was in a wheelchair. And his courage is evidenced by the assault at Ochakov, and he acted as an old and honored general should be. " Empress Anna Ioannovna wrote to the prince's mother that "her son distinguished himself gloriously in the capture of Ochakov." In 1737 he was promoted to major general and awarded the Orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Alexander Nevsky. Anton Ulrich took his military duties very seriously, he read a lot of ancient and modern authors on the art of warfare.

The wedding of the Prince of Braunschweig took place in 1739, and a year later, John Antonovich was born, according to the plan of Anna Ioannovna - the heir to the throne. He became them after the death of the empress. According to the will, Biron was appointed regent under the minor emperor. The boy's parents were unhappy with this. Anton Ulrich was desperately looking for supporters among the courtiers, but they only persuaded him not to do rash acts.

The regent, when meeting with Anton Ulrich, often neglected the requirements of etiquette so much that a direct collision was expected at court. However, this did not happen.

The prince's military career, however, continued. In 1740 he received the rank of lieutenant general and was appointed chief of the cuirassier regiment (later the Cuirassier Life Guards regiment of His Majesty).

Biron suspected Anton Ulrich of participation in a conspiracy, but he, who was not very decisive by nature, apparently was not capable of complex court intrigues. Nevertheless, when the conspiracy of the guardsmen was revealed, the prince was transparently hinted that for any of his participation in the attempt to overthrow Biron, he would be treated the same as with any Russian citizen, and forced to sign a request for resignation from all military posts.

Realizing that everything could end badly, and most importantly, worrying that she could be separated from the child, Anna Leopoldovna got down to business. She goes to H. A. Munnich, and he, delighted that the princess is on his side, begins to prepare a new conspiracy, which Anton Ulrich probably knew nothing about. As a result, Biron was eliminated, Anna Leopoldovna became regent, and the prince, three days later, received the rank of generalissimo, which he had long dreamed of. Apparently, he did not feel gratitude for this, since almost immediately he began to intrigue against Minich. He, realizing that at the moment everyone was against him, he himself resigned. He was allowed to live in Petersburg and was no longer persecuted.

At this time, Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, became more active on the Russian political scene. Anton Ulrich, by all means available to him, tried to weaken her role and prevent her from gaining power. But Elizabeth is supported by the guards. Standing at the head of the conspiracy, she did not want bloodshed. The arrest of the Braunschweig family took place almost without noise. The children suffered the most: the awakened John Antonovich was frightened by the guards who surrounded him, and he, crying, was carried away after his mother, and his younger sister remained deaf and dumb for the rest of her life, as she was dropped to the floor in the confusion.

Elizaveta Petrovna wanted at first to simply expel the family from Russia, but suddenly changed her mind, ordered them to be returned halfway, arrested and imprisoned in the Riga fortress. From there they were transferred to Dinamund and then to Ranenburg. Three years later, they were ordered to leave Ranenburg and go to Kholmogory.

When Catherine II ascended the throne in 1762, Anton Ulrich was asked, leaving his four children in Kholmogory, to leave Russia himself. It was here that the determination and courage of which he was capable appeared. The Prince of Brunswick refused to leave his children and died in 1774.

Probably, in other, more favorable circumstances, the prince's military career could have been much more successful. But nevertheless, the assignment of the rank of generalissimo to him was a purely political move, and Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig entered that part of Russian history that has nothing to do with exploits and military glory.