«For a truly stable, secure, and prosperous… Fatherland»: the search for a resolution to 1741 accession crisis in Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the events that took place in October–November of 1741 which were connected with the attempts of a number of dignitaries to work out the legislative mechanism of accession within the ruling family in order to avoid a possible interregnum. The active participants of the discussions were Regent Anna Leopoldovna, cabinet ministers A. I. Osterman and M. G. Golovkin, the first member of the Synod Archbishop of Novgorod Ambrose, as well as a member of the Economy Collegium I. N. Temiriazev and the secretary of the Foreign Affairs Collegium A. Poznyakov. As a rule, in historiography these events are deal with the court intrigues. At the same time the surviving documents are of special interest as sources of the political culture of the XVIIIth century Russian nobility. The analysis of documents (opinions and drafts of persons which are published in this article) allows us to conclude that the positions and preferences of their authors can not be explained simply by court conjuncture. They sought to solve the problem within the framework of the actual legislation. The authors showed themselves as a supporters of the «legal monarchy» but not voluntary decisions even if it was sanctified by the name of the sovereign. Also these events showed that representatives of the ignoble metropolitan nobility had a chance to express themselves and even to influence the creation of the fundamental law of the monarchy. Although the coming to the power of Elizabeth Petrovna did not allow this projects to be realized and their opinions hadn’t significant impact on the history of the imperial legislation, these documents testify to certain successes in the development of secular political culture in post-Petrine Russia.