The Coinage of Russia 1741-1745
AFTER A LENGTHY illness the Empress Anna died in October 1740 and was succeeded by her grandnephew Ivan Antonovich. The new czar, Ivan III, was only a few weeks old and during his infancy a regency was established. Within a matter of weeks Ivan’s mother had seized power and made herself the regent.
Anna had assumed the purple in January 1730, upon the death of Peter the Great’s teen-aged grandson (Peter II); the surviving daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth, had been ignored as a possible candidate for the throne. Anna (a niece of Peter the Great) decided to make certain that Elizabeth did not become ruler and just before her death had named Ivan as her successor. Elizabeth had again been passed over for the succession.
Elizabeth Petrovna (Elizabeth, daughter of Peter) was born in December 1709 and had very nearly married Louis XV of France in 1726; however, the French government unexpectedly decided upon a Polish princess. There were a series of romantic affairs for Elizabeth over the next several years, but the main love of her life was Alexis Razumovsky, whom she is said to have married in 1742.
In late 1740 the infant Ivan III had become czar and under the regency of his mother Anna Leopoldovna (Anna, daughter of Leopold) matters