Latest / Ridiculous History / Russia’s Real-life Ice Queen, Part 2: Weird, Brutal Flexes

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Russia’s Real-life Ice Queen, Part 2: Weird, Brutal Flexes · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Uh, we need a record
0:34
Speaker 1: scratch from our one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams.
0:40
Speaker 1: I'm Ben Noel. This is part two of a two
0:45
Speaker 1: part episode. So I think we need to let people know, right,
0:49
Speaker 1: you should listen in part one first? Right? Or how
0:53
Speaker 1: do you think they should do it? Whatever you want,
0:55
Speaker 1: It's up to you. It could be fun to to
0:57
Speaker 1: listen to them in the reverse order. Um, but no,
1:00
Speaker 1: you know, if you want to do it the traditional way,
1:03
Speaker 1: I would. I would go back and listen to part
1:04
Speaker 1: one first. It'll give you some good context and the
1:08
Speaker 1: lead up to our studying conclusion. Oh important point. No,
1:13
Speaker 1: since this is a two parter, we're going on a
1:15
Speaker 1: strange journey, right, we have to be clear this real
1:18
Speaker 1: life quote unquote Ice Queen did some heinous stuff. But
1:22
Speaker 1: to understand what letter to that, we we need to
1:25
Speaker 1: spend some time understanding who she is first, right, that's right?
1:29
Speaker 1: Who was Anna Ivanovna Ivanna Iva Ivanovitch a k a
1:37
Speaker 1: uh Ivanna the Terrible? Yes, I gotta do something gnarly
1:41
Speaker 1: to get a name like that. Um. But again, you know,
1:44
Speaker 1: even Ivanna the Terrible was once a helpless small child.
1:49
Speaker 1: Uh so let's get into that. Let's hear your story.
1:51
Speaker 1: When she was summoned to the Russian Supreme Privy Council,
1:55
Speaker 1: who wanted to essentially have her take on the crown
2:00
Speaker 1: in a symbolic act, much like her father, you know,
2:05
Speaker 1: was sort of this figurehead who didn't actually have any
2:08
Speaker 1: functional power. These folks on the Supreme Privy Council grossly
2:14
Speaker 1: underestimated on and her ability to manipulate and rule from
2:19
Speaker 1: the sidelines, right, well, not even from the sidelines, big
2:24
Speaker 1: and bold way. Um. So they did name her Empress
2:28
Speaker 1: at this point, after she'd been ruling for about twenty
2:30
Speaker 1: years under that previous title um taken from her husband,
2:34
Speaker 1: and the Privy Council made her sign a declaration of
2:37
Speaker 1: conditions that she would essentially become, you know, a symbolic
2:43
Speaker 1: figure and not rule at all. So, yeah, she becomes
2:48
Speaker 1: the ruler of the Russian Empire after signing some paperwork
2:54
Speaker 1: that says she's not going to do anything but be
2:58
Speaker 1: a figurehead. And she's like, okay, fine, whatever. You know,
3:02
Speaker 1: she's probably tired of Corland by now, so she heads
3:05
Speaker 1: over to Moscow, and when she arrives, she finds out
3:10
Speaker 1: that people don't really dig this Supreme Privy Council. Turns
3:15
Speaker 1: out that a bunch of dudes who are gonna name
3:17
Speaker 1: themselves something like Supreme Privy Council are pretty into themselves
3:22
Speaker 1: and not fun at parties. So she so she uh,
3:28
Speaker 1: she has a lot of support from the military and
3:32
Speaker 1: the gentry, the landed landed gentry, and so she tears up,
3:38
Speaker 1: she tears up this agreement that she signed. She fires
3:42
Speaker 1: the Supreme Privy Council by either killing a couple or
3:47
Speaker 1: making them go to Siberia, which at that time, those
3:49
Speaker 1: are two very similar punishments. If I'm not mistaken. This
3:54
Speaker 1: is the period in Russian history that kind of established
3:57
Speaker 1: these brutally um cruel kind of prisons in Siberia. That
4:02
Speaker 1: it's just like, you know, you always hear about Siberia
4:04
Speaker 1: being notoriously inhospitable, let's say, and people were not sent there,
4:09
Speaker 1: you know, to serve a sentence and be rehabilitated. They
4:11
Speaker 1: were sent there to die. Yeah, right now, just just
4:16
Speaker 1: just for a reference, right now, in a world of uh,
4:21
Speaker 1: central heating and air conditioning. This is the kind of
4:25
Speaker 1: weird stuff we look up, folks. Right now it is
4:29
Speaker 1: three degrees fahrenheit and Siberia, what is it with wind?
4:33
Speaker 1: Shall I wonder? See that's a good question, Max. I
4:39
Speaker 1: hope that we never We never anger Russian leader enough
4:45
Speaker 1: to have to figure that out on our own or
4:47
Speaker 1: experience it. I should say so. Yes, Siberia at this
4:52
Speaker 1: time very much like a death sentence, and it's also
4:57
Speaker 1: crippling these people's political ambitions. So she fires everybody or
5:03
Speaker 1: kills them, and then she declares an autocracy. She is
5:07
Speaker 1: the ruler of the empire, and she doesn't really care,
5:13
Speaker 1: and so weird. She doesn't care. According to most of
5:16
Speaker 1: the historical record, she relies on her paramore, this kind
5:22
Speaker 1: of friends with benefits situation for a while, uh Ernst
5:27
Speaker 1: Johann von Beren and a couple of folks from Germany
5:33
Speaker 1: to be her advisors, and she's like, you guys handle
5:37
Speaker 1: the day to day. I'm gonna have fun. I'm gonna
5:40
Speaker 1: shoot guns, and I'm gonna get wild animals from all
5:45
Speaker 1: around Russia. The bears from the Elbow reference earlier, and
5:50
Speaker 1: the tigers and the deer and all that stuff, and
5:53
Speaker 1: I want you to take them to my house so
5:56
Speaker 1: I can shoot them. That's like my main thing. I
5:59
Speaker 1: wanted you as the head of an empire. You know,
6:04
Speaker 1: other people have probably done done similar things, but she
6:08
Speaker 1: was super into it. And she was also into extravagant
6:12
Speaker 1: forms of entertainment and very similarly cruel uh kind of
6:18
Speaker 1: pageants of humiliation, just like Peter the Great was. I mean,
6:24
Speaker 1: even if someone is like hateful and treats you like garbage,
6:28
Speaker 1: if they're the only, you know, model for behavior that
6:31
Speaker 1: you have, you're probably gonna end up a good bit
6:33
Speaker 1: like them. And that kind of you know treatment and
6:36
Speaker 1: almost like Stockholm syndrome that she was unfortunately subjected to,
6:41
Speaker 1: really did a number on her psychologically. It would seem
6:44
Speaker 1: so in this, you know, extended into her policy as well.
6:48
Speaker 1: I mean, she was seen as a very aggressive ruler.
6:52
Speaker 1: She got entangled in the War of Polish Succession UM,
6:55
Speaker 1: which placed a pro Russian king on the Polish throat.
6:58
Speaker 1: She was also involved in the rust So Turkish War
7:01
Speaker 1: of seventeen thirty six uh, and the outcome of that
7:04
Speaker 1: war um was pretty gnarly. I mean, it cost tremendous
7:09
Speaker 1: amounts of cash and loss of life, and the territory
7:13
Speaker 1: that Russia gained from this wasn't exactly prime real estate.
7:18
Speaker 1: It didn't have the warm water outlet to the sea
7:21
Speaker 1: that I think, you know, folks were hoping that we
7:24
Speaker 1: will get um from something that cost that much, you know,
7:28
Speaker 1: in terms of life and uh and capital. So she
7:32
Speaker 1: had this reputation of kind of continuing Peter the Seconds policies.
7:37
Speaker 1: On the inside of her court. It was known as
7:40
Speaker 1: a very very dark time by nobles because it just
7:43
Speaker 1: seemed like she wasn't making decisions that benefited the realm,
7:47
Speaker 1: let's just say, all the while while getting more and
7:51
Speaker 1: more bitter and cruel uh, and that stuff began to
7:55
Speaker 1: manifest itself in some pretty horrific ways. Yeah. So there's
8:01
Speaker 1: a lot of geopolitical stuff that is not going in
8:08
Speaker 1: Russia's favor in the long term, and she is not
8:15
Speaker 1: in charge day to day on these decisions. The Russian
8:20
Speaker 1: nobles that no you just mentioned, their main resentment is
8:27
Speaker 1: this Ernst Guy, Ernst Johann von Bern And they're saying, look,
8:32
Speaker 1: this foreigner, this non Russian, is in charge of everything.
8:36
Speaker 1: And because he's an easy target to dislike, as a foreigner.
8:41
Speaker 1: Anything that goes wrong, they're gonna blame him, and they're
8:46
Speaker 1: gonna blame her. And right, yeah, she she appointed him
8:51
Speaker 1: and he was a Baltic German and so he you know,
8:55
Speaker 1: it was almost like, I don't know whether she lacked
8:57
Speaker 1: the foresight to see what a diplomatic kind of blunder
9:00
Speaker 1: this might be, or how it would be seen as
9:02
Speaker 1: an insult, or whether she was literally doing it to
9:05
Speaker 1: poke a finger in the eye of the nobles. It's
9:08
Speaker 1: not really clear, but the fact that she was distrusted, yes, yes,
9:18
Speaker 1: And so now we have laid the groundwork, Max, We're
9:23
Speaker 1: gonna need a very like dark, like heavy sound cue.
9:28
Speaker 1: This is where we go into the deep water. Oh nice,
9:43
Speaker 1: Oh wow, perfect. So here's the thing for these various
9:51
Speaker 1: reasons for the having to witness that spectacle of that
9:56
Speaker 1: mockery of her own wedding and not being allowed to
10:00
Speaker 1: marry again, and then being um appointed as a figurehead
10:05
Speaker 1: and becoming an actual ruler because people continually underestimated her.
10:10
Speaker 1: Anna hates marriage, and and there's this thing that happens.
10:18
Speaker 1: There's a guy named Mikhail Alexeyevich Galitzan, and he is
10:24
Speaker 1: we'll just call him Prince Michale. Uh, he's old money.
10:28
Speaker 1: He marries this lady, she's Catholic, she's Italian. It was like, um,
10:35
Speaker 1: they were actually happy and this super piste her off.
10:40
Speaker 1: She was not cool with it. Uh. Unfortunately, Prince Mikhale's
10:46
Speaker 1: wife died shortly after they were married, and you would
10:50
Speaker 1: think that was the end of it. But Anna had
10:52
Speaker 1: the power and the means and the motivation to do
10:56
Speaker 1: some really messed up stuff to this Michael guy. She
11:00
Speaker 1: actually compelled him to become a court jester. He had
11:05
Speaker 1: to pretend to be a chicken. That was like his
11:09
Speaker 1: common bit. Uh. So, if you came to see the
11:13
Speaker 1: ruler of Russia at this time, you would also see
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Speaker 1: the former Prince Mikhale sitting on a nest of eggs
11:22
Speaker 1: and like the lobby where you meet this lady, and
11:27
Speaker 1: he would have to pretend to be laying eggs when
11:30
Speaker 1: visitors came to Is that not weird? Like we have
11:34
Speaker 1: done so many shows on weird historic flexes, and we
11:38
Speaker 1: never talked about that one. I feel like I have
11:40
Speaker 1: to call Miles and Jack. I'm kidding. It's it's don't
11:46
Speaker 1: call people, just text. It's also like six am in
11:51
Speaker 1: l a right now. Oh yeah, you're right. I didn't
11:54
Speaker 1: think about that. But not sex to leven it's bad,
11:57
Speaker 1: am it? But will we stow it? People don't know
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Speaker 1: what time it is right now, Landed. Yes, that's how
12:09
Speaker 1: amazing a producer Max is. So this is where we
12:13
Speaker 1: get to um, this is where we get to the
12:16
Speaker 1: the even weirder part. This is why the title says
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Speaker 1: ice palace on a is still pitt She's making this
12:26
Speaker 1: guy be a pretend to be a chicken for the
12:28
Speaker 1: rest of his life, which is so weird. And she
12:33
Speaker 1: still wants to prove some point. And maybe it's to Catholicism,
12:38
Speaker 1: maybe it's to the industry of marriage, which is very
12:42
Speaker 1: much an industry, or maybe it's just I don't know, man.
12:45
Speaker 1: She was going through some stuff. In nine she um
12:51
Speaker 1: she ordered the construction of an ice palace, like a
12:55
Speaker 1: literal ice null a literal ice palace. Yeah, and under
13:00
Speaker 1: different circumstances this would be considered like a massive feat
13:04
Speaker 1: of engineering, like something that should be marveled upon as
13:08
Speaker 1: as a thing of beauty. It was made of giant
13:11
Speaker 1: blocks of ice eighty feet long and thirty three ft high,
13:15
Speaker 1: and the blocks of ice were essentially, you know, cemented
13:18
Speaker 1: together with water. Um, this thing would have been beautiful.
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Speaker 1: It cost thirty thousand roubles roughly half a million dollars
13:26
Speaker 1: in today's cash to construct this thing. It was even
13:31
Speaker 1: fitted with ice furniture, an ice bed with ice pillows
13:36
Speaker 1: and ice clocks, and you know, an elephant statue that
13:40
Speaker 1: spouted water from its trunk, also made of ice. And
13:44
Speaker 1: as to mention that there was a dude sitting inside
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Speaker 1: of it at all times that could blow a horn,
13:50
Speaker 1: I mean, there was no shortage of humiliating god awful
13:55
Speaker 1: jobs in this era of Russia. Absolutely bizarre. This thing
14:00
Speaker 1: you should have been a sight to behold, you know,
14:02
Speaker 1: a point of pride for the realm, you know, but no,
14:06
Speaker 1: In fact, it was constructed as a torture chamber because Anna.
14:11
Speaker 1: Let's just remember that Anna was angry at Prince Mikhail
14:15
Speaker 1: because he was happy, because he and his bride were happy,
14:19
Speaker 1: and even after she died, for whatever reason, she felt
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Speaker 1: the need to continue to torture him. So first of all,
14:28
Speaker 1: she arranges a marriage between him and one of her maids,
14:32
Speaker 1: a woman from Kalmick named Avdotya Ivanovna uh weird, same
14:39
Speaker 1: last name must have been super comment or maybe the
14:42
Speaker 1: originally it was bullshit. You I'm gonna you take the
14:46
Speaker 1: last name of the person whose whose staff you're on. Yeah. Yeah,
14:50
Speaker 1: the it was a forced marriage. You're absolutely right. Avdotya
14:56
Speaker 1: and Mikhail did not. I I don't think it was
15:01
Speaker 1: a romantic situation for them. And how strange history is
15:09
Speaker 1: Noel Max that the person who got made fun of
15:12
Speaker 1: with a fake wedding forces these folks into a wedding.
15:17
Speaker 1: She's very neat. Yeah for this messed up since of humor.
15:21
Speaker 1: She made her maid. Her maid was quite old and
15:24
Speaker 1: also considered to be not particularly attractive, ugly, sup, we're
15:32
Speaker 1: just talking to the This is what the people was said,
15:35
Speaker 1: This was what the record shows, and it was meant
15:39
Speaker 1: to be a humiliation, a further humiliation. Yeah yeah. So,
15:46
Speaker 1: so imagine the ruler of Russia has made you act
15:48
Speaker 1: like a chicken in front of people, and now you
15:52
Speaker 1: have to marry this older person, elderly person that maybe
15:58
Speaker 1: you don't think is attractive, and you get you have
16:03
Speaker 1: to they have to dress up as clowns. This poor
16:07
Speaker 1: old lady, the maid didn't do anything to deserve this treatment.
16:12
Speaker 1: And a ride and elephant just to give you a
16:15
Speaker 1: sense of the scale of mockery here, people are laughing
16:19
Speaker 1: at them. She uh, on a pis a group of
16:22
Speaker 1: folks that she thinks are because she's also super racist.
16:26
Speaker 1: Let's be honest people. Yeah, people that she thinks are uh,
16:32
Speaker 1: what's the phrase? Slate dot com is a great article
16:35
Speaker 1: where they used the phrase ethnically undesirable or people who
16:39
Speaker 1: are deformed or physically handicapped. And this wedding and they're
16:46
Speaker 1: they're like parading behind this wedding procession again super It's
16:51
Speaker 1: just you picture this in your mind and it's just
16:54
Speaker 1: the most ghastly maccob kind of scene. It was some
16:58
Speaker 1: like Searcy Lanister Game of Thrones type stuff. Why would
17:01
Speaker 1: you do that? Yeah? And and so right after the wedding,
17:06
Speaker 1: the couple Makale and Avdotya I have to go in
17:12
Speaker 1: this ice palace and sleep in it for their wedding night, naked,
17:18
Speaker 1: no blankets, no clothing, no like tapestries hung on the wall,
17:23
Speaker 1: no pleasant fires. And this is in winter. The the
17:29
Speaker 1: rumor is, it's not proven, but the rumor is that
17:35
Speaker 1: on A told these folks something like, well, the only
17:40
Speaker 1: way you can survive is to have six all night.
17:43
Speaker 1: M hmm, Like that's really messed up. And she clearly
17:50
Speaker 1: thought they were going to die, right, that was the intense,
17:53
Speaker 1: That was the intent. I mean, these Russian winters are
17:55
Speaker 1: no joke. They're naked there in this you know, ice palace.
17:59
Speaker 1: Every entrance and exits being guarded so they can't leave. Apparently,
18:05
Speaker 1: there is speculation that they bribed one of the guards
18:08
Speaker 1: in some way to get a coat or something like that,
18:11
Speaker 1: and then that's what helped them survive the night. But
18:14
Speaker 1: they have both emerged in like super weakened conditions, and
18:18
Speaker 1: historians believe that they you know, we're in such poor
18:22
Speaker 1: health that they died a few days later due to pneumonia,
18:27
Speaker 1: most likely, right Avdoltia likely passed away due to pneumonia.
18:33
Speaker 1: And there's a there's sort of a pixaresque legend that
18:37
Speaker 1: the couple went on to live happily ever after and
18:41
Speaker 1: have twins conceived that night, But that's that's not true.
18:46
Speaker 1: Pixar is getting really dark right there, Like Pixars like, yeah,
18:49
Speaker 1: let's conceive and then and then it wouldn't it be
18:55
Speaker 1: funny if this was like a secret like part of
18:57
Speaker 1: like the Frozen lore you know, and and then the
19:00
Speaker 1: children they bore where Elsa and Anna and to have
19:04
Speaker 1: magical snow power. Villain from the first the villain from
19:08
Speaker 1: the first movie. He has been sent to the ice
19:10
Speaker 1: palace by Elsa. We go that that's between the movie
19:14
Speaker 1: story right there. We go, Yes, uh, this he's beautiful
19:20
Speaker 1: and you guys should be in charge of more things.
19:23
Speaker 1: That's a wonderful idea. Uh now, just just just for
19:26
Speaker 1: the record, I know that Elsa Ana. We're not Russian.
19:28
Speaker 1: They were like Scandinavian in some ways. I'm just saying
19:31
Speaker 1: this is like a fan thick version. I mean, guys,
19:36
Speaker 1: we gotta go somewhere that has an ice palace. They
19:38
Speaker 1: have an ice palace and it's frozen. We're not making
19:40
Speaker 1: too big of a jump here, I think, yeah, and
19:42
Speaker 1: and ice palaces are a real thing. Well, okay, let's
19:45
Speaker 1: get through the let's get through the tough stuff and
19:48
Speaker 1: then we'll we'll end on a nice palate cleanser. So
19:58
Speaker 1: after doing this pretty dastardly stuff to this, uh, this
20:03
Speaker 1: completely innocent maid and this Michale guy on a I mean,
20:10
Speaker 1: who admittedly may not have been completely innocent, like he
20:12
Speaker 1: was part of the class that sort of spurned her
20:16
Speaker 1: in our miliary movie, he's probably one of the bullies
20:19
Speaker 1: in the background, or one of the yah he's like,
20:25
Speaker 1: or whole whole you know, whatever the dumb teenage laugh is.
20:30
Speaker 1: But those were very Those were not bad beavis and
20:32
Speaker 1: butt heads, thanks guys. So she dies on a Ivanovna
20:39
Speaker 1: dies the next October. She is relatively young, she's forty
20:44
Speaker 1: seven years old, Noah airs. And rumor has it that
20:52
Speaker 1: if you go to Russia right now in and you
20:57
Speaker 1: ask who is the worst person who has ever been
21:02
Speaker 1: in charge of this whole you know, this whole place,
21:06
Speaker 1: this whole gig, Who's who's the worst one? People will
21:09
Speaker 1: say Anna Ivan, which is weird because Stalin's in the mix,
21:15
Speaker 1: Like that's even the o g the terrible Ivan. Um,
21:20
Speaker 1: you know, she's considered worse than him. Also because remember
21:23
Speaker 1: she made some pretty kind of wacky geopolitical choices as well,
21:27
Speaker 1: and just didn't really care about governing in a way
21:30
Speaker 1: that benefited you know, the people and and the the nation. Also,
21:34
Speaker 1: by the way, not to revel in a little bit
21:37
Speaker 1: of shod and fraud, because honestly, she's it's a tragic story.
21:39
Speaker 1: She was made into what she became, you know. I mean,
21:44
Speaker 1: of course we all have choices, you know, but like
21:46
Speaker 1: absolute power corrupts absolutely, as the old cliche goes, But
21:52
Speaker 1: it's a cliche for a reason because there's truth to it.
21:54
Speaker 1: And if you're already are being fueled by resentment and
21:57
Speaker 1: hatred uh and bitterness, then that power is going to
22:02
Speaker 1: you know, be pretty um uh intoxicating and allow you
22:06
Speaker 1: to kind of like enact your revenge on any perceived enemy.
22:10
Speaker 1: To her was like everybody you know, or anyone that
22:14
Speaker 1: was perceived as being happy. And again not to rebel
22:17
Speaker 1: in any shot in for it here. But she did
22:19
Speaker 1: die a slow, horrible death. She had some long standing
22:25
Speaker 1: kidney problems um that developed into an outright kidney stone
22:30
Speaker 1: that you know, nowadays we know that as being a
22:32
Speaker 1: very very painful thing. But there's you can zap it
22:34
Speaker 1: with a laser, there's like medication you can take to
22:37
Speaker 1: bust them up. There's all kinds of different things, but
22:39
Speaker 1: in these days, it would have been a slow, potentially slow, horrible,
22:44
Speaker 1: painful death. Sentence. If anyone watches the show Deadwood, if
22:48
Speaker 1: you haven't mild spoiler by the thing that happens to
22:50
Speaker 1: a character maybe skipped the next thirty seconds. But al
22:53
Speaker 1: Swer and gin Um, who's like this the kind of
22:55
Speaker 1: evil you know, Saluno and or he's he's miss easy,
22:58
Speaker 1: he's got He ends up kind of coming round in
23:00
Speaker 1: an interesting way. Um, but he has a kidney stone
23:04
Speaker 1: and you see him try to pass it himself, and
23:08
Speaker 1: it's just the most excruciating thing I've ever seeing. The
23:10
Speaker 1: acting is fantastic, and you know, there's blood and horrible
23:15
Speaker 1: sounds and animal noises and moaning, and you think the
23:18
Speaker 1: guy's gonna die. But this, in fact did happen to
23:21
Speaker 1: Anna Ivanovna. She died, presumably after suffering for quite a while.
23:26
Speaker 1: And now we get to I. I sometimes I think
23:30
Speaker 1: of this as I call it the Pope question or
23:34
Speaker 1: the or the Roman question. You read all these crazy
23:39
Speaker 1: stories about rulers of the past, and you have to wonder,
23:45
Speaker 1: are are they true? Right? Is is this character this cold,
23:53
Speaker 1: you know, and this this messed up in this distant
23:56
Speaker 1: from the concept of empathy? Or is this a bunch
24:00
Speaker 1: of trash talking? Is this stuff that folks spread as
24:03
Speaker 1: propaganda because they didn't care for for one reason or another,
24:07
Speaker 1: maybe because she was messing with the Germans who knows.
24:11
Speaker 1: We have to point out that she didn't. It wasn't
24:15
Speaker 1: all bad stuff. She did other things. Her administration created
24:21
Speaker 1: the Naval Cadet Corps. She also continued to grow the
24:26
Speaker 1: Academy of Science, which includes the Russian Ballet, which is
24:31
Speaker 1: a very impressive world class thing. But now she is
24:35
Speaker 1: remembered for better or worse. Isn't that a wedding reference
24:39
Speaker 1: to I do a wedding reference in sickness and in health?
24:42
Speaker 1: There we go, Yeah, until death, you know, from freezing
24:45
Speaker 1: to death and an ice palace? Do do? Do weeep art?
24:48
Speaker 1: You guys are killing it with the riffs today. Yes,
24:51
Speaker 1: she uh, she is remembered as this crazy person who
24:58
Speaker 1: made this guy do these terrible things and victimized an
25:03
Speaker 1: elderly person. I don't know, man, Yeah, this is this
25:08
Speaker 1: is dark. So I have a proposition to make this
25:12
Speaker 1: a little less dark. First, we did establish that this
25:16
Speaker 1: is kind of a rumor. Historians generally agree this is
25:20
Speaker 1: what happened, but it's possible it could be exaggerated or
25:24
Speaker 1: embellished or propaganda. Uh, And we can't end on that.
25:29
Speaker 1: So I was thinking, Noel Max, maybe we could send
25:35
Speaker 1: a inspiring message to the people who have listened to
25:38
Speaker 1: this episode and thought immediately that sounds great. I want
25:44
Speaker 1: to sleep in a place made out of ice. Well,
25:48
Speaker 1: bring bring your parka, you know, and maybe some nice leggings,
25:53
Speaker 1: some long John's, perhaps that. Yeah, you give a butt
25:57
Speaker 1: flap or no butt flap? What's your prep? I'm know,
26:00
Speaker 1: butt flap guy. I'm gonna be honest, you know, understandable.
26:03
Speaker 1: You choose them wisely, choose those, choose those number two
26:06
Speaker 1: moments wisely. You know, I don't know if they make
26:08
Speaker 1: them the butt flaps anymore. That's more like they do. Okay,
26:12
Speaker 1: let's picture of the old prospector with the with the
26:14
Speaker 1: butt flaps on his long johns. Yeah, but those were
26:16
Speaker 1: if you, if you think about it, the long John's
26:19
Speaker 1: you're imagining are actually a kind of a onesie. They
26:22
Speaker 1: were top and bottom, so it's it's right tougher to
26:24
Speaker 1: take it off. Yeah. I think about this an ordinate
26:29
Speaker 1: amount of time. I just typed in long John's butt flap. Uh,
26:34
Speaker 1: and I guess I guess some results that wasn't expecting.
26:39
Speaker 1: So no, are you doing that on the work computer
26:41
Speaker 1: because that might not be good. No, it's fine. We've
26:44
Speaker 1: talked about this plenty at this point between this show
26:46
Speaker 1: and stuff they don't want you to know. Our our
26:48
Speaker 1: Google search history is unimpeachable. You know, no matter what,
26:52
Speaker 1: there's always a reason. There's always a reason. Yeah, it's
26:55
Speaker 1: it's interesting. So here we go. Men's trapdoor long underwear
27:00
Speaker 1: from River Junction Trading Company is still considered kind of
27:03
Speaker 1: an old timey thing that's called a trapdoor. A trapdoor. Well,
27:08
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna pick the argument for for the trap door.
27:11
Speaker 1: Four of the buttons in the back. Okay, so you're
27:12
Speaker 1: in a nice palace. Do you really want to get
27:15
Speaker 1: the whole onesie off? Do you get give me really cold?
27:18
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't really I'm with you,
27:21
Speaker 1: really cold, you get your business done? You're you're absolutely correct,
27:24
Speaker 1: you were, well, yes, if you're wearing a onesie. See
27:29
Speaker 1: the move is just where you got your long John bottoms.
27:34
Speaker 1: And I don't know what you're calling your top John's
27:36
Speaker 1: or whatever, thermal underwear, right, it's it's it's cool if
27:40
Speaker 1: you don't have a onesie. But we also have a
27:43
Speaker 1: lot of our fellow ridiculous historians listening to the show
27:46
Speaker 1: today have been in you know, like uh, probably a
27:50
Speaker 1: very beautiful dress that's very difficult to like navigate doing
27:55
Speaker 1: your business in. I would go a step further. I
27:58
Speaker 1: would say, trap door is on more clothing. Why does
28:01
Speaker 1: it have to be long? John's only? Why are we
28:04
Speaker 1: saving that for winter? Everyone agree, I've got to trouble No, no, no,
28:10
Speaker 1: you're you're, you're, you're spot on, Ben, And I will say,
28:12
Speaker 1: if you're interested and checking these out for yourselves, go
28:15
Speaker 1: to river Junction dot com and search for men's trapdoor
28:19
Speaker 1: long underwear. They are a little pricey. There's sixty dollars,
28:22
Speaker 1: but they're bright red, which makes me think of which
28:26
Speaker 1: makes me think of the clown tights that supposedly are
28:30
Speaker 1: responsing pink lemonade um. And they've got a little history
28:34
Speaker 1: on here. Also known as a union suit, a type
28:38
Speaker 1: of one piece long underwear created in Utica, New York, USA,
28:41
Speaker 1: and originated as women's wear during the nineteenth century United
28:45
Speaker 1: States clothing reform efforts as an alternative to constricting garments,
28:49
Speaker 1: and soon gained popularity among men as well. The first
28:52
Speaker 1: union suit is patented in eighteen sixty eight as an
28:55
Speaker 1: emancipation union under flannel and you can go, uh, you
29:02
Speaker 1: can go to actual ice hotels, folks, you can take
29:06
Speaker 1: your union suit with you. Uh. There are ice hotels
29:11
Speaker 1: in Sweden, in Norway, there's uh several in Canada, Romania, Finland,
29:17
Speaker 1: and they look pretty nice. You do get blankets. You'll
29:21
Speaker 1: won't be forced to hang out naked with someone that
29:25
Speaker 1: you don't want to be naked with. Is that cool?
29:29
Speaker 1: Is that too long for a tagline for these hotels? No? Man,
29:33
Speaker 1: that you're just gonna have to be getting. You have
29:35
Speaker 1: to get creative with the graphic design. But no, I
29:38
Speaker 1: think it's definitely but it's definitely very fetching. I certainly
29:42
Speaker 1: would be intrigued. That's mainly our story today. We've got
29:45
Speaker 1: some additional details about the the horrific charade that was
29:50
Speaker 1: the mock wedding that Peter the Great put on presumably
29:54
Speaker 1: the kind of kicked off all of this, you know, misery,
29:57
Speaker 1: but I think we're gonna spare you those details. You've
29:59
Speaker 1: got an off doom and gloom in this episode to
30:02
Speaker 1: get us through. It was enough doom and gloom to
30:04
Speaker 1: make this a two parter um. So we hope you've
30:06
Speaker 1: enjoyed part two of Ivana the Terrible or Anna Ivanovna. Yeah, yeah,
30:14
Speaker 1: the spiteful Russian Embrice who waged an icy war on love. Uh.
30:20
Speaker 1: Thanks to our one and only super producer, Max Williams.
30:25
Speaker 1: Thanks to the man himself, Kacy Pegrum. Thanks to Gabe Louisier,
30:28
Speaker 1: our research associate Alex Williams who composed our theme uh
30:33
Speaker 1: Eve's Jeff cos here in spirit along with Christopher hasiotis
30:37
Speaker 1: um mufassa style watching down on us from the heavens. Uh.
30:40
Speaker 1: And thanks to you ben Um for for going on
30:44
Speaker 1: this um kind of sadistic, dark twisted ride uh with me. Uh.
30:50
Speaker 1: This was not what I would call our most fun episode.
30:53
Speaker 1: Well hopefully we injected a little bit of ridiculousness into
30:57
Speaker 1: the procedure. Well we don't. We don't know. Be clear
31:00
Speaker 1: with everyone, Noel, and thank you for coming with me
31:03
Speaker 1: on this as well. Thank you to all our ridiculous historians.
31:06
Speaker 1: But we don't know how this episode is gonna sound
31:10
Speaker 1: once Max has done is magic Like that part you
31:13
Speaker 1: heard earlier in this two part series when I was like, oh,
31:16
Speaker 1: it gets dark, you know Max do that, and then
31:19
Speaker 1: just paused and said, perfect, we don't know what he played.
31:23
Speaker 1: I hope. Why don't give away all of our trade secrets.
31:28
Speaker 1: There's the magic. No, the magic. We we do all
31:31
Speaker 1: the sound effects. Max with an organ. It's crazy. It's
31:36
Speaker 1: crazy because it's one of those church organs that's like
31:39
Speaker 1: built into his house. It's weird, man, Thanks for doing
31:43
Speaker 1: the shop right next to the giant Grandfather Clark. Yeah,
31:47
Speaker 1: that's that. That one's at my house all right, Noel,
31:49
Speaker 1: I didn't want you to learn about it this way
31:52
Speaker 1: on the on the air. But yeah, Max and I
31:54
Speaker 1: are roommates right on. It's okay by that. We're quite
31:59
Speaker 1: literally in the same room. I'm on the left side,
32:00
Speaker 1: bends on the right. So who gets the top punk.
32:03
Speaker 1: We just we have a we just have a twin
32:04
Speaker 1: size bed. Getting it together. That's adorable. Ice palace. Also, yeah,
32:13
Speaker 1: you know this is uh you live at this house too,
32:18
Speaker 1: that room you never opened the door to. Yeah, I
32:24
Speaker 1: need that. I need that. Sorry. I'm good at playing
32:26
Speaker 1: along with bets. That's what I'm good at. Well, let's
32:29
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's in the episode. I think. Okay, we'll
32:33
Speaker 1: see you next time. Folks. For more podcasts from my
32:42
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
32:44
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.