Difference between revisions 44366 and 44380 on enwiki

Is this really an encyclopedia article?  And if you ''can'' justify an article about something so trivial and context-dependent, how can you possibly omit any mention of Jamaica, which would seem central to the phrase?  --LDC

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The fact that you associate it with Jamaica and I associate it with Nigeria is interesting in itself.

Look, there are maybe 100 such phrases in the world, and people *do* ask "what the hell does that mean?" about these things all the time, especially if they don't speak English as a first language.  It's an idiom.

Even if we defined all 4000 English idioms here, that wouldn't be too much for any encyclopedia.  4000 out of 100,000 is only 4% of the grand total but they are probably 15% of English usage itself.  Dictionaries can't cover them so encyclopedias should.[[Image:anna's_crown.jpg|thumb|The [[crown]] of Anna Ivanovna]]
'''Anna Ivanovna''' (In [[Russian language|Russian]]: Анна Ивановна) ([[February 7]],[[1693]] - [[October 28]],[[1740]]) reigned as Duchess of [[Courland]] from 1711 to 1730 and as Empress of [[Russia]] from 1730 to 1740.

==Ascension to the throne==

Anna was the daughter of [[Ivan V of Russia]], as well as the niece of [[Peter the Great]].  The latter married her to Frederick William, Duke of [[Courland]] in November [[1710]], but on the return trip from [[Saint Petersburg, Russia|Saint Petersburg]] in January [[1711]] her husband died from surfeit. Anna continued ruling as Duchess of Courland (now western [[Latvia]]) from 1711 to 1730, with the Russian resident, [[Bestuzhev-Ryumin|Peter Bestuzhev]], as her adviser.

On the death of [[Peter II of Russia| Peter II]], Emperor of [[Russia]], the Russian [[Supreme Privy Council]] under Prince [[Galitzine|Dmitry Galitzine]] made Anna Empress in [[1730]]. They had hoped that she would feel indebted to the nobles for her unexpected fortune and remain a figurehead at best, and malleable at worst. In the hope of establishing a [[constitutional monarchy]] in Russia, they convinced her to sign articles that limited her power. However, these proved a minor inconvenience to her, and soon she established herself as an autocratic ruler, using her popularity with the imperial guards and lesser nobility.  

==Policies of her reign==
[[Image:Icehouse 1878.jpg|thumb|left|250px|''Wedding at the House of Ice'' (1878).]]
As one of her first acts to consolidate this power she restored the security [[police]], which she used to intimidate and terrorize those who opposed her and her policies. Although she didn't move the capital back to [[Moscow]], she spent most of her time at that city in the company of her foolish and ignorant maids. Finding delight in humiliating old nobility, she arranged the marriage of old Prince Galitzine with one of her maids, dressed as clowns, in a specially constructed house of ice, where the bride caught a cold and died within several days.

Having a distrust of Russian nobles, Anna kept them from powerful positions, instead giving those to Baltic [[Germany|Germans]]. She raised to the throne of [[Courland]] one [[Ernst Johann von Biron|Ernst Johann Biren]], who gained her particular favour and had considerable influence over her policies.  His archrival, the anti-German cabinet minister [[Artemy Petrovich Volynsky]], was executed several months before Anna's death. Biren was sufficiently prudent not to meddle with foreign affairs or with the army, and these departments were in the able hands of two other foreigners, who thoroughly identified themselves with Russia, [[Andrey Osterman]] and [[Burkhardt Munnich]]. 

They allied the country with [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]], ([[Holy Roman Emperor]] from 1711 to 1740), and committed Russia during the [[War of the Polish Succession]] ([[1733]]-[[1735]]).  Afterwards, they made [[Augustus III]] the king of [[Poland]] at the expense of [[Stanislaw Leszczynski]] and other candidates. In [[1736]] Anna declared war on [[Turkey]], but Charles made a separate peace with the Porte, forcing Russia to follow suit and to give up all recently captured territories with the exception of [[Azov (city)|Azov]]. This war marks the beginning of that systematic struggle on the part of Russia to cover her natural and legitimate southern boundaries which was brought to fruition by [[Catherine the Great]]. Anna's reign saw the beginnings of Russian territorial expansion into [[Central Asia]].

{{start box}}
{{succession box|title=[[Duke of Courland|Duchess of Courland]]|before=[[Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Courland|Friedrich Wilhelm]]|after=[[Ferdinand, Duke of Courland|Ferdinand]]|years=1711–1730}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of Russian rulers|Empress of Russia]]|before=[[Peter II of Russia|Peter II]]|after=[[Ivan VI of Russia|Ivan VI]]|years=[[January 29]], [[1730]]–[[October 28]], [[1740]]}}
{{end box}}


[[Category:1693 births|Anna of Russia]]
[[Category:1740 deaths|Anna of Russia]]
[[Category:Romanov]]
[[Category:Russian empresses]]

[[de:Anna (Russland)]]
[[eo:Anna Ivanovna]]
[[ja:アンナ (ロシア皇帝)]]
[[pl:Anna Iwanowna]]
[[ru:Анна Иоанновна]]
[[zh-cn:安娜·伊万诺夫娜]]