Draft:The Lopukhin affair
The Lopukhin affair (also known as the 'women's conspiracy') was a conspiracy against the Russian Empress, Elizabeth which was uncovered in July of 1743.
The Empress had assumed the throne in 1741 through a bloodless coup and arrested the infant Ivan VI, imprisioning him and his family fearing they woul stir up trouble in other parts of Europe.[1] Lopukhina's lover, Reinhold Gustav Löwenwolde occupied the highest position at the court of Anna Leopoldovna, and unsucessfully attempted to warn her of the impending coup. Upon her accenssion, the Empress sentenced him to exile in Solikamsk[2].
Natalia Lopukhina sent a letter to her lover in exile, carried by Yakov Berger who was on his way to relieve Löwenwolde. Berger had also recieve a letter from Lopukhina's son, Ivan
N. F. Lopukhina decided to send a letter to her lover R. G. Löwenwolde , who had been exiled to Solikamsk by Elizabeth . To deliver the letter, she chose an officer who was on his way to relieve Löwenwolde in Solikamsk. This officer, Yakov Berger , having received a note from Lopukhina's son, Ivan , reported the request to Lestok in the hope that he would not have to go to the Urals. Lestok found the situation convenient for pursuing his enemy, Vice-Chancellor A. P. Bestuzhev (Lopukhina was a friend of Countess A. G. Bestuzheva , who in turn was Bestuzhev's daughter-in-law ) and instructed Berger to get I. S. Lopukhin to talk, whose career had been ruined after the death of Anna Ioannovna , and who, drunk, had begun to curse the empress in front of witnesses in a tavern. After being arrested on the same day and tortured, Ivan testified that before his departure his mother was visited by the Austrian ambassador Botta d'Adorno , who told her about his plans to free the Brunswick family with the help of Friedrich II ; A. G. Bestuzheva and her daughter A. P. Yaguzhinskaya also learned about this :
Marquis Botta came to my mother in Moscow , and after his departure my mother told me Botta's words that he would not calm down until he helped Princess Anna . Botta said that the Prussian king would help her, and he, Botta, would try to do so. My mother told the same words to Countess Anna Gavrilovna Bestuzheva when she visited her with her daughter Nastasya.
After being arrested, Lopukhina and Yaguzhinskaya admitted to knowing about the conspiracy; Bestuzheva, despite torture, denied everything, including any involvement of her new husband Mikhail and the vice-chancellor. Lestocq, who sought to overthrow the vice-chancellor with the help of this scandal, in which Bestuzhev's closest relatives were implicated , was unsuccessful: even Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin was not involved in the investigation, although he was kept under guard during the investigation .
The following were also eventually arrested:
- Lopukhina's husband S. V. Lopukhin ;
- A. E. Zybin ;
- Lieutenant Ivan Petrovich Mashkov (Moshkov);
- Vice-Captain of the Horse Guards Jacob-Heinrich Lilienfeld;
- Adjutant-Horse Guards Stepan Kolychev;
- cameraman K.-G. Lilienfeld ;
- wife of K.-G. Lilienfeld Sofya Vasilievna ;
- Prince S. V. Gagarin ;
- Prince I. T. Putyatin ;
- Second Lieutenant Nil Akinfov;
- nobleman Nikolai Rzhevsky.
The final decision of August 19 stated that Stepan, Natalia and Ivan Lopukhin, "out of goodwill towards Princess Anna and friendship with the former Chief Marshal Levenwold, had formed... a plan...". The sentence was: to have their tongues torn out and be broken on the wheel , but on August 28, Elizaveta Petrovna commuted the sentence: to be flogged; to have their tongues torn out, to be exiled to Siberia, and to have all property confiscated. Bestuzheva's daughters Nastasya, Anna and Praskovya were exiled to remote villages. Also sentenced to death were S. V. Lilienfeld, I. Mashkov, A. E. Zybin, I. T. Putyatin, their sentences were also commuted. N. Akimfova, S. Kolycheva, and Vice-Captain Lilienfeld were sent to army regiments, K.-G. Lilienfeld was sent into exile to the village, N. Rzhevsky was beaten with whips and demoted to the rank of sailor.
The intricacies of the "Lopukhin case" and the adventures of the fictional midshipmen heroes associated with them were described by Nina Sorotokina in the novel " Three from the Navigation School ", based on which the multi-part feature film " Midshipmen, Forward! " was filmed (directed by Svetlana Druzhinina , 1987).
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[edit]Reference section
[edit]- ^ Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh (2016-08-08). Somme. Harvard University Press. p. 268. ISBN 978-0-674-97001-4.
- ^ "МЭСБЕ/Левенвольде — Викитека". ru.wikisource.org (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-09-06.