1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:12,040 Speaker 1: and Aaron Manky listener discretion is advised. A few years ago, 3 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: the Russian tourism industry discovered that they had a problem. 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 1: That problem was winter. If you can imagine, the masses 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: weren't flocking to see Russia's historically significant architecture or world 6 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:31,640 Speaker 1: class art collections when the temperatures dipped below freezing. That's 7 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: when even stockpiled provisions of top tier vodka can't manage 8 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: to unseat the damp, creeping chill that settles in your 9 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 1: chest in Russia in the winter. And so in two 10 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: thousand sis, a group of corporate sponsors and luxury hotel 11 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,199 Speaker 1: chains came together with an idea an ice sculpture to 12 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: drum up tourism. Not just an ice sculpture, an ice palace, 13 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: a palace can structed entirely of ice in downtown St. Petersburg, 14 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: one that would weigh over five hundred tons at a 15 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 1: cost of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was 16 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: to be an exact replica of a massive ice palace 17 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: that had stood on the shore of the frozen Neva 18 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: River two centuries earlier. It would be built exactly to 19 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: the specifications laid out by that eighteenth century architect. There 20 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: were ice trees filled with carved ice birds, clocks built 21 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: from ice with visible ice gears. Guests waited in line 22 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: for hours for their chance to walk through the palace, 23 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:45,880 Speaker 1: to marvel at the detail of the carving, to walk 24 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: through the ice bedroom and see the ice mattress with 25 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: ice blankets and ice pillows and cascading ice curtains down 26 00:01:54,240 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: the four posters, all made of ice. Translucent law dogs 27 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,559 Speaker 1: glimmered in the fireplace that would never actually be able 28 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: to contain real fire. Ice was dyed green on the 29 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: mantelpiece to resemble marble. And then as guests worked their 30 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: way through, they came to the throne room, where there 31 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: stood this single change that the modern builders had made 32 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: from the eighteenth century original, a sculpture of the Empress 33 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 1: Anna Ivanovna, the patroness who had commissioned the original ice palace. 34 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: The Empress was a tall woman and broad, and she 35 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:37,600 Speaker 1: was sculpted in all of her courtly splendor, wearing a 36 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: heavy airmine cloak and a massive royal crown which ballooned 37 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 1: up from her head, where a pair of dark, tight 38 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: ringlets fell past her shoulders. Her face was round in life, 39 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: her cheeks had been described as Westphalian ham. Now in ice. 40 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: She was here as a ghost, semi trans decent and 41 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: impossibly still, watching an endless stream of tourists and locals 42 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: gawk at the strange spectacle that had been constructed around them. 43 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: If you didn't know who she was, Empress Anna might 44 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: seem like a proud or even whimsical figure, only the 45 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: second female crowned as the leader of Russia, a woman 46 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,360 Speaker 1: with the vision to imagine how miraculous a palace would 47 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: look if it was blue and clear and glistening. But 48 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: Empress Anna's ice palace wasn't built as a celebration of 49 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: Russia or as a way to promote tourism. It was 50 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: built out of cruelty and capriciousness. She was a woman 51 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: who spent her entire life manipulated, treated as a toy, 52 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: and so when she reached power, she treated others like toys, 53 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: their lives made malleable for her amusement. Her ice palace 54 00:03:57,640 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: was meant to be both a symbol of her power 55 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: were and an execution chamber, but it was also something 56 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: to make her laugh, and if you'll forgive the pun, 57 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: I find that the most chilling part of all. I'm 58 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 1: Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. Anna Ivanovna had 59 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: almost no memories of her father, Ivan, the older brother 60 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 1: of Peter the Great. Ivan was severely disabled, both physically 61 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: and mentally, and so his younger brother was appointed his 62 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:39,039 Speaker 1: co regent. By the time Ivan was an adult, he 63 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,919 Speaker 1: was half paralyzed and almost blind, his mind all but 64 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: lost to senility. When the Emperor finally died at age seven, 65 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,279 Speaker 1: he was unable to remember his own name. His daughter, 66 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:55,919 Speaker 1: Anna was three, and so Peter the Great became the 67 00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:59,160 Speaker 1: singular psar of Russia as the niece of the Czar, 68 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,039 Speaker 1: and would never have been allowed to marry for love. 69 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: But it seems that when her uncle ordered her to 70 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,599 Speaker 1: marry Frederick William, the Duke of Courland, to secure a 71 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:14,159 Speaker 1: lucrative alliance, she was genuinely excited. Seventeen year old Anna 72 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: wrote to Frederick William, her new fiancee. I cannot but 73 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: assure your Highness that nothing could delight me more than 74 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: to hear of your declaration of love for me. For 75 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,760 Speaker 1: my part, I assure your Highness that I share your 76 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: feelings at our next happy meeting, to which I look 77 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: forward eagerly, I shall God willing avail myself of the 78 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: opportunity of expressing them to you personally. Anna's mother had 79 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: been an old school Russian s arena. She had been 80 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: selected to marry the infirm Sar to be after parading 81 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 1: in a bride show of potential candidates. Throughout Ivan's declining health, 82 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: Anda's mother dutifully cared for him, standing at his side 83 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: wiping drool from his chin, and her only failure as 84 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: a wife had been berthing only daughters. Those were the 85 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: values that she passed on to Anna into her sister. 86 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,280 Speaker 1: They were educated at home, taught that their purpose, above 87 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: all else was to be wives. Anna was only semiliterate, 88 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: but she knew that much by heart. Anna's wedding to 89 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:26,479 Speaker 1: Frederick William was a gorgeous affair, accompanied by the full 90 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: pageantry of the Russian court. Her cape was laced with gold, 91 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: she wore a tiara. The night ended with a fireworks 92 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: display over the palace, and Anna stood side by side 93 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 1: with the boy that she had pledged to devote herself 94 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 1: to for the rest of their lives. Anna watched the fireworks, 95 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:51,160 Speaker 1: completely unaware of the misery that would soon befall her, 96 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:55,680 Speaker 1: where only of the glittering sky and her new husband's 97 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:03,719 Speaker 1: shining eyes. The next night, her uncle bizarre through a 98 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:08,279 Speaker 1: second wedding, this time for a pair of dwarves. Peter 99 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:11,239 Speaker 1: the Great held a fancy of breeding an entire race 100 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:14,440 Speaker 1: of dwarves, and so just as he arranged the wedding 101 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,240 Speaker 1: of his niece, he arranged the wedding of two of 102 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: the fools he kept in his palace for his amusement. 103 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 1: The dwarf bride was dressed exactly as Anna had been 104 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:29,320 Speaker 1: the previous night, in an exact replica of her embroidered gown, 105 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: a fifth of its original size. The guests of the party, 106 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: all of the dwarves Peter the Great could summon, were 107 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: given excessive amounts of alcohol so the court could watch 108 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: them stumbled drunkenly as they jumped out of cakes and 109 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: attempted to dance. It was a cruel mockery, cruel to 110 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:52,000 Speaker 1: the dwarves forced into a servile role as entertainment, but 111 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: also intended as a cruelty to the court that was 112 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 1: watching them. Peter the Great had designed this second wedding 113 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,880 Speaker 1: as a grow Tesk fun house mirror for the Russian 114 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:08,680 Speaker 1: court to watch themselves, and poor Anna, famously unbeautiful even then, 115 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: happened to be the centerpiece. The bride doubled in miniature 116 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 1: for everyone to laugh at, and the guests did laugh. 117 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: They laughed, and they drank, and they laughed some more, 118 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 1: and then drank some more, and the festivities continued for 119 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: another week till it was finally time to send Anna 120 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: and her new husband off back to Courland and for 121 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: everyone to get on with their lives. To get to 122 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: Courland in present day Latvia, it would be a journey 123 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: of many days. When Anna and Frederick William entered their 124 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: coach the morning of their departure, Frederick William was still 125 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,640 Speaker 1: drunk from a drinking competition with Peter the Great the 126 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,600 Speaker 1: night before. He was pale and sweating his hair wet 127 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,560 Speaker 1: against his forehead, even in the Russian chill. They only 128 00:08:55,600 --> 00:09:01,000 Speaker 1: made it twenty kilometers before Frederick William dropped dead. But 129 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,080 Speaker 1: just because a husband dies doesn't mean the alliance that 130 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: the marriage was meant to cement is any less important. 131 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:11,960 Speaker 1: Anna Ivanovna, only seventeen years old, was forced to ride 132 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 1: the entire way to Coreland with the cooling corpse of 133 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:19,720 Speaker 1: her husband at her side. Her destination was a strange 134 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: land that she would be expected to rule alone. Though 135 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,120 Speaker 1: she would write hundreds of letters to her uncle in 136 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: Saint Petersburg begging him for permission to come home or 137 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 1: to marry again, her please went unheeded. The peace with 138 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:41,319 Speaker 1: Corland was essential, Anna's happiness was not, And besides, if 139 00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: she got married again, her husband or God forbid, child 140 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,320 Speaker 1: could complicate the line of succession. No, it was better 141 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,120 Speaker 1: for everyone if Anna stayed put, a teenage widow who 142 00:09:52,160 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: would never be permitted to love again. Anna's letters to 143 00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: Peter the Great continued, hundreds of them, all desperately pleading 144 00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: for her uncle to allow her to get married again. 145 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,440 Speaker 1: She had only been seventeen and experienced marriage for a 146 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:16,200 Speaker 1: period of days. Why now did she have to be 147 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: alone forever? But then, in seventeen, fifteen years after Anna's 148 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:27,160 Speaker 1: all too brief marriage, Peter the Great died, and five 149 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: years after that, his grandson and heir, Sir Peter the Second, 150 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:36,079 Speaker 1: died too young and with no heir, which meant Russia 151 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: now faced a crisis of succession. Peter the Great had daughters, 152 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:43,800 Speaker 1: but they were born out of wedlock, daughters he had 153 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:46,679 Speaker 1: had with the maid he married only after she gave birth. 154 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 1: But then there was Anna and her sister. Their father, 155 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: Ivan had been Peter's older brother after all, and their 156 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:57,560 Speaker 1: mother had been a high born noblewoman who cared for 157 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 1: her infirm husband with all of the virtue that one 158 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:04,680 Speaker 1: could ever ask for. Anna's sister was the elder, but 159 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:07,760 Speaker 1: she was married to a prominent duke, and she already 160 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,760 Speaker 1: had a daughter. The Privy Council, in charge of appointing 161 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 1: the next Russian leader, worried that the husband could try 162 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: to steal power, and the daughter next in line would 163 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: complicate things all over again. But Anna dutiful. Anna was 164 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: a childless widow with no husband to try to wield 165 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 1: control and no children that would be next in line 166 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: for succession, plus being the younger daughter and not naturally 167 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:37,520 Speaker 1: in line for the throne, She would be grateful to 168 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: the Privy Council for choosing her, and deferential to them 169 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: and all of her decision making. She would be a figurehead, 170 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,679 Speaker 1: and to that end, they journeyed to Courland to make 171 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:52,439 Speaker 1: her sign a declaration of conditions. Anna would become the Empress. Yes, 172 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,679 Speaker 1: but she could not declare war or peace, impose new taxes, 173 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 1: or punish the nobility without trial. She signed the papers 174 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:07,679 Speaker 1: to a round of applause in her palace in Coreland, 175 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: before embarking on the long journey back to St. Petersburg. 176 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:16,200 Speaker 1: For the first time in twenty years, she returned to 177 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 1: a Russian court of bickering and power hungry noble families. 178 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:23,920 Speaker 1: The Privy council was made of two noble families, which 179 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 1: infuriated a handful of other noble families who wanted their 180 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: own chance a manipulating the new empress and so egged 181 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: on by the lesser nobles. As soon as she arrived 182 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 1: in the Russian capital and Press, Anna Ivanovna dissolved the 183 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:43,320 Speaker 1: council that had granted her the throne. She publicly repudiated 184 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: the conditions she had been forced to sign, ripping them 185 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: in half in public and then for good measure. Since 186 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 1: some of the men who had written them to the 187 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:55,280 Speaker 1: scaffold and a few more to Siberia, Anna would be 188 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:59,880 Speaker 1: an autocrat like her predecessors. Perhaps, before the council had 189 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: gone through with their selection, they would have been wise 190 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:06,079 Speaker 1: to look up at the sky the night before Anna 191 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,480 Speaker 1: was crowned, Empress Aurora Borealist lit up the Russian horizon 192 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: in shimmering red. People at the time said that it 193 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:21,040 Speaker 1: looked like blood. Though as Empress she brought with her 194 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:26,000 Speaker 1: a married lover from Corland, Anna Ivanovna never remarried herself. 195 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:30,160 Speaker 1: What had been a youthful idealization of love and marriage 196 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 1: had charred and crystallized over the years into something cold 197 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:40,680 Speaker 1: and sour. One Russian Prince, Michael Alexeyevitch Galatson, made the 198 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 1: mistake of getting married without Anna's permission, and he made 199 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:49,960 Speaker 1: the deadly mistake of marrying a Catholic. Prince Mikhael Galatson 200 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: had fallen in love with a beautiful Italian woman and 201 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:56,640 Speaker 1: brought her back to Russia, where their happy marriage represented 202 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:01,760 Speaker 1: everything that the aging power hungry and resented about the world. 203 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 1: Not long after they made it back to Russia, the 204 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:09,839 Speaker 1: beautiful Italian Catholic woman died, and though one might think 205 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,880 Speaker 1: Anna would see that as punishment enough for Prince Michael, 206 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: it wasn't. The Empress stripped him of his title and 207 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:20,920 Speaker 1: forced him to become a court jester for her amusement 208 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:26,000 Speaker 1: to entertain the privileged aristocrats in court with his humiliation 209 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:32,400 Speaker 1: day after day during the endless Russian winter Bortumn. First, 210 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,760 Speaker 1: Michael was forced to pretend to be a chicken, sitting 211 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:38,120 Speaker 1: on a massive nest set up for him in the 212 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:43,360 Speaker 1: throne room, coated in feathers and clucking on command. When 213 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:46,880 Speaker 1: guests came, Anna would make him pretend to lay an egg. 214 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:51,720 Speaker 1: But it was her ultimate act of creative humiliation that 215 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 1: would be her master stroke. If Michael liked getting married 216 00:14:56,200 --> 00:15:00,280 Speaker 1: so much, he would get married again, only this time 217 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: Anna would choose his bride, and she chose one of 218 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 1: her female jestures, one famous for being the ugliest woman 219 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: in Russia, an older woman named Avdotia bouji Nova, her 220 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: surname a nasty joke on the Russian word for roast pork. 221 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: The wedding would be a spectacle one that would begin 222 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 1: with the parade filled with dwarves and foreigners taken prisoner, 223 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: and all of the deformed and disabled people that served 224 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:33,320 Speaker 1: as entertainment for Anna and her court. They rode in 225 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:38,480 Speaker 1: procession all these people presented as curiosities, along with the 226 00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:42,600 Speaker 1: low left drunks of the Russian streets in carts pulled 227 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: by goats and pigs. The subjects from foreign land were 228 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,320 Speaker 1: dressed in clothes from their native countries, forced to do 229 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: what I'm sure Anna believed to be authentic native dancing. Finally, 230 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:59,800 Speaker 1: the bride and groom arrived, dressed as clowns, and they 231 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: were flaunted down the street in a golden cage together 232 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:08,080 Speaker 1: on the back of an elephant. Eventually they made it 233 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 1: to their destination. Anna's Ice Palace, a palace made entirely 234 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:18,400 Speaker 1: of ice pulled from the Neva River, massive blocks of 235 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,560 Speaker 1: it glued together with water so it looked like it 236 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: was carved from a single piece of glass. Local villagers 237 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:30,280 Speaker 1: had watched and gathered breathless as the massive edifice had 238 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 1: erected itself over a matter of weeks, a thing both 239 00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:39,160 Speaker 1: delicate and monumental, Over thirty feet tall and over one 240 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:46,479 Speaker 1: feet long. It was spectacular, an apparition, a marvel of engineering. 241 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: It was a ghost palace, a reflection back at the 242 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:56,280 Speaker 1: twisted Empress and her malice. There were cannons outside, built 243 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:00,800 Speaker 1: entirely of ice, that, when loaded with gunpowder, could actually 244 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:05,919 Speaker 1: fire ice cannonballs at sixty paces. On the ice palaces lawn, 245 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: a massive hollow elephant carved out of ice held its 246 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:13,960 Speaker 1: trunk aloft in the sky. Oil lit on fire could 247 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,359 Speaker 1: be spewed out of the elephant's trunk, so it looked 248 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: like the elephant was spitting flames into the dark night sky, 249 00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:25,800 Speaker 1: and inside the hollow elephant sculpture was tucked a man 250 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:29,720 Speaker 1: with a horn so that the ice elephant could really bellow. 251 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: Mikale and his clown bride were stripped naked and sent 252 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,520 Speaker 1: into the palace to consummate their union on the ice 253 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 1: pillows and ice blankets of the bed carved entirely out 254 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:47,640 Speaker 1: of ice, an exact replica of the Royal bedchamber. Guards 255 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:51,320 Speaker 1: were posted at the doors. You have to keep each 256 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:53,600 Speaker 1: other close if you want to stay warm enough to 257 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:57,199 Speaker 1: survive the night and the laught. It was one of 258 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,480 Speaker 1: the coldest winters on record for Russia. The pair only 259 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:05,920 Speaker 1: survived because the bride of Doughtya traded her family's heirloom 260 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 1: pearls for one of the guard's coats. The two kept 261 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:14,159 Speaker 1: warm until dawn, running through the ice palace as many rooms, 262 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:17,920 Speaker 1: breaking what they could and huddling under the coat. When 263 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:22,360 Speaker 1: their extremities began turning blue and their breath started freezing 264 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:26,440 Speaker 1: before their faces, the warmth of it being sucked forth 265 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:31,120 Speaker 1: from their lungs by the greedy colt. The wedding celebrations 266 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: ended with a fireworks display over the frozen Neva River. 267 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:39,560 Speaker 1: The entire spectacle was meant as a reminder to all 268 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: of the nobles in Russia, so that they could see 269 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 1: the power that Anna wielded with such capriciousness. Look what 270 00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:52,000 Speaker 1: I can imagine, the palace said, Look what I can construct, 271 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:57,119 Speaker 1: Look what I can force you to endure. They say 272 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,760 Speaker 1: that nine months later Mikhail and ev Dotie became the 273 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:05,240 Speaker 1: parents of twins, and that their marriage, for its brutal origins, 274 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,439 Speaker 1: went on to become a long and happy one. I 275 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: like that story, the idea that something beautiful and human 276 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,960 Speaker 1: emerged from that ice palace. You can believe that if 277 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:21,080 Speaker 1: you want. It was so long ago. No one will 278 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: fault you for imagining a pair of bright, cheek to 279 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,720 Speaker 1: Russian babies clenching their fists around their father's fingers and 280 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:33,000 Speaker 1: cooing into their mother's curls, Babies who always seemed to 281 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: run cold and needed layers of extra blankets before they 282 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,600 Speaker 1: could finally fall asleep, peaceful in a warm home with 283 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:46,040 Speaker 1: parents who loved them. But the truth is that Avdotia 284 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 1: caught a chill that night and she never recovered, and 285 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: she died a few days later. McHale continued to serve 286 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: at Anna's pleasure until the Empress too died within the year. 287 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,720 Speaker 1: It was a slow and painful death for her, from 288 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: ulcers on her kidney. With her final words, she called 289 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,840 Speaker 1: out for her lover, Ernest Brown and proclaimed him regent. 290 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:17,920 Speaker 1: Barron's regency was short lived, a hated figure in Russian court. 291 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: Three weeks after the Empress's death, he was banished to 292 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:35,840 Speaker 1: Siberia exile out in the cold. That's the story of 293 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:40,440 Speaker 1: Empress Anna Ivanovna's ice palace and her icy rein. But 294 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,480 Speaker 1: stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear more 295 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:56,520 Speaker 1: about what came next in Russia. Princess who married Catholics 296 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 1: weren't the only enemies that in Braziana held. Of her 297 00:21:00,359 --> 00:21:04,400 Speaker 1: most hated rivals was her first cousin, Elizabeth, a woman 298 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 1: nearly two decades younger than her and famously beautiful, whereas 299 00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:14,199 Speaker 1: Anna had always been diplomatically described as sturdy. A foreign 300 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:17,640 Speaker 1: minister had once come to Anna's court, where Anna had 301 00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:20,679 Speaker 1: asked him who the most beautiful woman in Russia, was 302 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:25,720 Speaker 1: not understanding the game of forced flattery. The noble instantly 303 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: pointed to Elizabeth. Anna fumed with no marriage setups from 304 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 1: her bitter cousin. On the horizon, Elizabeth took a lover, 305 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: a handsome soldier named Alexis Shubin. The Empress took her 306 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,760 Speaker 1: revenge when she discovered the affair by having Shubin's tongue 307 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 1: cut out. Years later, after Anna's death, Elizabeth would rise 308 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:53,960 Speaker 1: to power in a coup over Anna's infant nephew. Elizabeth, 309 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:56,919 Speaker 1: who was the daughter of Peter the Great, got the 310 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: nobles on her side by pledging that she would never 311 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: declare a single death sentence as Empress. Elizabeth reigned as 312 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:10,720 Speaker 1: Empress for over twenty years, and she kept her word. 313 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,359 Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and 314 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:22,400 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey. The show is written and hosted by Dana 315 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, 316 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at 317 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the 318 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,160 Speaker 1: show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more 319 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,480 Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 320 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,960 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.