Ascent of Anna Petrovna

Based on the popular theory that Peter the Great's last words were to name Anna Petrovna his rightful heir (which he failed to get out in time) I present a basic theory of alternate history mainly focusing on the result of the 7 years war, and hope to expand from there. The essential concept is this- an Empress Anna Petrovna does ONE thing different- its unlikely she'd be that different a monarch than her sister Elizabeth was, but what it DOES do is means she does not marry into Prussian nobility, and there is no Catherine the Great.

The function of this is to stop the change in Russia's position in the 7 years war, where in our time it exited the war and began supporting the Prussian/English side, effectively crippling Austria and France. So in this timeline?

Austria wins the 7 years war (and probably France, too)

Obviously this has huge ramifications for the British colonies, the formation of Germany, and the French revolution. Thoughts?
 
Based on the popular theory that Peter the Great's last words were to name Anna Petrovna his rightful heir (which he failed to get out in time) I present a basic theory of alternate history mainly focusing on the result of the 7 years war, and hope to expand from there. The essential concept is this- an Empress Anna Petrovna does ONE thing different- its unlikely she'd be that different a monarch than her sister Elizabeth was, but what it DOES do is means she does not marry into Prussian nobility, and there is no Catherine the Great.

Well, you may add an easy twist: her son and heir is born in Russia, has Russian as his 1st language, baptized as Orthodox, etc. No special reason for him to became an admirer of the Old Fritz either: most probably he would be indoctrinated with the "Great Peter" legend from a childhood (as well as with understanding of the importance of the Guards and other vitally important facts of the life) and, him being "a true Russian", it almost does not matter whom he is going to marry because it would be close to impossible for a foreign princess to became an independent political figure in such a situation.

The function of this is to stop the change in Russia's position in the 7 years war, where in our time it exited the war and began supporting the Prussian/English side, effectively crippling Austria and France. So in this timeline?

Austria wins the 7 years war (and probably France, too)

Obviously this has huge ramifications for the British colonies, the formation of Germany, and the French revolution. Thoughts?

Well, if we assume that Anna is just as ...er... "intelligent" as her sister and commits a fundamental stupidity of getting into the 7YW with the same "reasoning" as Elizabeth, we also have to assume that the Austrians are the same as in OTL. In other words, even before this crazy (for the Russian side) adventure is over, the Austrians are managing to spoil the relations almost all the way to a breaking point and Russian are unwilling to fight for the Austrian benefit.

Assuming that the breaking point is not reached, the Russian troops end up staying "out of the harms way", guarding the Polish border (Fieldmarshal Buturlin moved his headquarters to Posen, IIRC), occupying East Prussia and Pomerania and refusing to participate in the risky schemas related to the re-conquest of Silesia (as Buturlin did, with a complete support of his subordinate generals): an idea of further sticking their necks for the Austrian benefit was already safely dead by that time.

As a result, the whole charade may continue for a slightly longer time with the approximately same results except potential Russian swapping of East Prussia for some PLC territory (or just its annexation). An idea of giving up the gains for the Austrian benefit would probably rise much more noise than OTL's switch of the sides and de facto exit from war (the war itself was not very popular and too costly). Austria would not get Silesia back and how France could "win" I simply have no idea: loss of India and Quebec had little to do with the European activities.
 
We're talking about a 1725 POD and assuming that everything stays the same up to 1756, which is nuts. Anna could easily side with Maria Theresa in 1740 and together push back Friedrich II from Silesia; OTL it was the Austrian-backed Botta conspiracy to restore Ivan VI that led Tsarina Elizabeth to end her involvement in that conflict.

Hell if you want Russia to remain anti-Prussian simply have Elizabeth live another year or two. Much easier and less issues involved.
 
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