imploring her to
disregard her promises. On the 25th of February, 1731, the Council was
in session when an officer appeared summoning them before the czarina.
Upon arrival in the apartment, they found about eight hundred persons
presenting a petition that Anne might restore autocracy. She read it
and seemed astonished: "What!" she exclaimed, "the conditions sent to
me at Mittau were not the will of the people?" There was a shout of
"No! no!" "Then," she said, addressing the Council, "you have deceived
me!" Anne was a true daughter of the czars. She began by exiling the
principal members of the Council to their estates; when she saw that
there was no opposition, they were sent to Siberia; and when no one
remonstrated, other members were condemned to a cruel death.

Anne was thirty-five years old when she was crowned as czarina. (p. 177)
She had been in Germany so long that she preferred to surround herself
with Germans who did serve her well, but they naturally aroused the
jealousy and hatred of the Russian nobles. In 1733, Augustus II, King
of Poland, died. Russia, Prussia, and France, each had a candidate.
Austria and Russia favored Augustus III of Saxony, and Louis XV of
France supported his father-in-law Stanislas Lecszinski.

This candidate secretly proceeded to Warsaw, where he was elected by a
vote of 60,000 against 4,000. A Russian army crossed the frontier,
whereupon Stanislas withdrew to Dantzig and the Russians proclaimed
Augustus III. The war spread and a Russian army of 20,000 men advanced
as far as Heidelberg in Baden. It ended in 1735, by the Peace of
Vienna, but Russia became involved in a war with Turkey, as an ally of
Austria.

In 1736, the Russians took Azof and ravaged the western Crimea. In the
following year they laid waste its eastern part, and in 1739 they
gained a great victory at Savoutchani. Austria was not anxious to have
Russia as a close neighbor, and arranged the Peace of Belgrade.
(1739.) Russia surrendered all the conquests, except a small tongue of
land between the Dnieper and the Bug. Sweden threatened war, but it
was averted. The following year, 1740, Anne died, leaving the throne
to her infant son, Ivan of Brunswick.

Anne Ivanovna introduced western luxury into Russia. Prior to her
arrival, fashions were unknown, and people used to wear their clothes
until they were worn out. Soon after restoring autocracy, she (p. 178)
returned to St. Petersburg where she endeavored to