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alternatehistory.com
According to certain stories, on his deathbed in 1725, Tsar Peter the Great "asked for a paper and pen and scrawled an unfinished note that read: "Leave all to ..." and then, exhausted by the effort, sent for Anna to dictate his last will to her. By the time the princess arrived, the Emperor could not pronounce a single word."
A few months prior, Peter's daughter, Anna Petrovna, had married Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Under the terms of their marriage contract, " Anna and Karl Friedrich renounced all rights and claims to the crown of the Russian Empire on behalf of themselves and their descendants. As a result of this clause, the Emperor secured the right to name any of his descendants as his successor on the Russian throne, while the Duke undertook to execute the imperial will without any preconditions." (Bolding is mine)
So... let's say this story is true. Let's also say Peter is able to do a little more before he dies, and actually does"leave all" (including the throne) to Anna Petrovna. What happens next?
This is already a major divergence from OTL history; you just have to make informed hyptheses as to what comes next. Go to it!