The plan fell, and the leaders fell with it, and a host of their followers.

The executioners were busy at St.Petersburg, and the aristocratic colony in Siberia grew larger.
Anna's reign was the period of a preponderating German influence in politics and at court.

Germans held high positions; one of them, Gustav Biron, the highest and most influential of all.

Anna's infatuation for this man made him the ruling spirit in her reign and the Regent in the next, until he had his turn in disgrace and exile.
Added to the dissatisfaction on account of German ascendency was a growing feeling that the succession should come through Peter, instead of through Ivan, his insignificant associate upon the throne.

Such was the prevailing sentiment at the time of Anna's death (1740).