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and then killed, as being the rallying point for oppositionto his policy (1718). Finally he issued a mockery of asuccession law (1722), whereby the tsar was declared tobe invested with arbitrary powers to appoint whomsoeverhe willed. It was still more of a mockery in that hefailed to nominate his own successor, though it is truethat a year before his death, when he had no sons living,he had his second wife crowned as empress, who did infact succeed him. At the very end, as he lay dying(1725), unable to speak he scrawled "Leave all to . . .,"but his fingers were too weak and the name was illegible.That was the true will of Peter the Great, not the alarmingschemes of foreign expansion elaborated by a Frenchadventurer a generation later and given to the world byNapoleon as part of his propaganda for 1812.The lack of any fixed succession and the fact thatthere was no direct male heir of age but a number ofcompeting women resulted in the throne becoming thecatspaw of rival groups and of Peter's new guard regiments,in which the bulk of the rank and file, as well asthe officers, were drawn from the landed class. Between1725 and 1762 four women became empresses; one boy,one baby in arms and one toper emperor. Three outof these seven sovereigns were Germans; one was acountry wench from Livonia. Nothing could seem moreunpromising for tsarism or more promising for a Russianversion of the Polish or Swedish oligarchic constitutions.Oligarchy—and for ten years (1730-40) a mainlyGerman oligarchy—there was, but the formal basis ofthe Russian empire remained " autocracy such as Yourglorious and renowned predecessors had." This wasthe formula which won the day in the struggle over theaccession of the empress Anna in 1730.The small knot of old aristocratic families, influenceddirectly by the Swedish oligarchic shackling of royalpower in 1720, required of Anna the acceptance of writtenconditions designed to perpetuate their rule. Anna, adaughter of Ivan V, had no qualms as to signing conditions,for she was by marriage duchess of Courlandand accustomed to being constitutionally controlled byher Baltic German nobility. In opposition to the blood84