Ivan VI (redirected from Ivan Antonovich)

Ivan VI, 1740–64, czar of Russia (1740–41), great-grandson of Ivan V. He was the son of Prince Anthony Ulric of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and of Anna Leopoldovna. An infant, he succeeded his great-aunt, Czarina Anna, on the Russian throne under the unpopular regency of his mother. In 1741, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I (Peter the Great), overthrew Anna Leopoldovna's regime and became czarina. Ivan grew up in solitary confinement. An attempt by a young officer to liberate him and make him czar resulted in his murder in the fortress of Schlüsselburg, according to standing instructions given by Czarina Catherine II.

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Ivan VI

 Russian Ivan Antonovich

(born Aug. 23, 1740, St. Petersburg, Russia—died July 16, 1764, Shlisselburg Fortress, near St. Petersburg) Infant emperor of Russia (1740–41). The grandnephew of Empress Anna, Ivan was proclaimed her heir and then emperor, with his mother as regent, when he was only eight weeks old. In 1741 they were deposed by Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I, and for the next 20 years he remained in solitary confinement in various prisons. In 1764, when an army officer tried to free Ivan to restore him to power and remove Catherine II, who had seized the throne in 1762, Ivan was assassinated by his jailers.