WI Mirovich Frees Ivan VI

My understanding is that Mirovich was set up as Catherine and her government wanted Ivan out of the way and if there was a foiled plot to liberate him then his death would look less like judicial murder.

But let's say that Mirovich was successful and managed to get Ivan out of prison and to a safe hideaway. The question then is what happens next. On the one hand Ivan was technically the lawful Tsar - the lawfully named successor of the previous lawful ruler, Anna Ivanovna. As such there was always going to be some support for him from those who opposed Catherine's regime. However, Ivan's mental state was so damaged through his years in captivity that he would probably not make a particularly capable ruler on his own. His best chance for success is to have a group of powerful nobles behind him spreading propaganda about his tragic plight, about Catherine's usurpation and murder of Peter III, and, if they can get him to the throne, then to allow them to make the decisions for him.
 
My understanding is that Mirovich was set up as Catherine and her government wanted Ivan out of the way and if there was a foiled plot to liberate him then his death would look less like judicial murder.

But let's say that Mirovich was successful and managed to get Ivan out of prison and to a safe hideaway. The question then is what happens next. On the one hand Ivan was technically the lawful Tsar - the lawfully named successor of the previous lawful ruler, Anna Ivanovna. As such there was always going to be some support for him from those who opposed Catherine's regime. However, Ivan's mental state was so damaged through his years in captivity that he would probably not make a particularly capable ruler on his own. His best chance for success is to have a group of powerful nobles behind him spreading propaganda about his tragic plight, about Catherine's usurpation and murder of Peter III, and, if they can get him to the throne, then to allow them to make the decisions for him.

He would definitely be far loopy to be anything more than a puppet. Isolation like that all his life would leave him with little social skills or cognitive faculties and I imagine he'd spend most of his days hiding from people. Very likely drinking himself to death or committing suicide. Russian politics of this era are brutal, but isolation like this is particularly cruel.

Truthfully this wouldn't make him good puppet material. The best type of person you want as a puppet leader is someone competent but lazy and a little weak. They don't mind having no true power as long as they get the benefits and can put on a show for the general public. A monarch that can't meet with staff or give even short speeches would raise suspicion.

I think that their best bet would be to use him as a way to put someone else in power and have him meet with an accident or illness due to his weak constitution. Maybe marry him to someone and have a regent ready to step in.
 
"Truthfully this wouldn't make him good puppet material. The best type of person you want as a puppet leader is someone competent but lazy and a little weak. They don't mind having no true power as long as they get the benefits and can put on a show for the general public. A monarch that can't meet with staff or give even short speeches would raise suspicion."

This is a fascinating comment. I had no idea being a puppet is a skill.
 
Actually, the whole Ivan-idiot thing is Ekaterina's propaganda. He was certainly not some intellectual giant (he could barely read and write (even though Yelizaveta Petrovna expressly forbade it), and he spoke with a pronounced stammer), but certainly no idiot either. Just like she painted her late husband as a dolt so did she with Ivan. That said, Ivan's actually got some good backers outside of Russia - he's cousin to Maria Theresia of Austria's kids, Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and his siblings, related to the Danish and British royal families (as well as less important players on the German scene), It's the question of translating that influence abroad (which was one of the main reasons that Yelizaveta and Ekaterina kept the Brunswick-Romanovs under such close guard) into influence at home. There was a plan - sometime in Yelizaveta's reign IIRC - by Friedrich the Great for Prussian offensive with the aim of restoring Ivan, but it never got off the drawing board. Anisimov talks about it in his book 'The Five Empresses', but my memory's a little foggy on the actual details.
 
One other factor to take into account when imagining Ivan VI being restored to the throne is to remember that he had two brothers and sisters still living in Kholmogory. Though his eldest sister, Catherine, was largely deaf, all four seem to have been in reasonable health and were described by someone who visited them as adults as being reasonably intelligent and kind. If Ivan proved totally unsuitable for the throne another option would be to have him abdicate in favour of one of his brothers who who would have been less seriously affected by their imprisonment than Ivan himself. Anna Leopoldovna may not have been the most affective of regents but she was at least fertile so there would have been other options to consider.
 
If Ivan escapes and subsequently disappears, there's always the imposter option. It's not like Russia doesn't have a long history of imposter tsars (and not just the various False Dmitris during the Time of Troubles).
 
"Truthfully this wouldn't make him good puppet material. The best type of person you want as a puppet leader is someone competent but lazy and a little weak. They don't mind having no true power as long as they get the benefits and can put on a show for the general public. A monarch that can't meet with staff or give even short speeches would raise suspicion."

This is a fascinating comment. I had no idea being a puppet is a skill.

It's more like picking a guard dog, it's a mixture of temperaments and drives. You don't want anyone too strong and competent or they may want to do the actual job on their own and discard the master when they are positioned correctly. Someone too weak and incompetent they will say the wrong thing to to the wrong person and turn attention to the people in the shadows. Ideally someone who has been educated and raised around the right people who can speak with eloquence and play the violin but has zero ambition and enjoys the job for the perks rather than the actual responsibilities. Like in Casino with the Philip Green character, who wanted to believe he was getting all those awards and money because he was smart not because he was filling a role the Mafia wanted. Sorry for the dated movie reference, but I can't think of a better example off the top of my head.
 
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