Supreme Privy Council

The Supreme Privy Council (Russian: Верховный тайный совет) of Imperial Russia, founded on 19 February 1726 and operative until 1730, originated as a body of advisors to Empress Catherine I.

[1][2] Originally, the council comprised six members—Alexander Menshikov, Fyodor Apraksin, Gavriil Golovkin, Andrey Osterman, Peter Tolstoy, and Dmitry Mikhaylovich Golitsyn.

By the time of Menshikov's downfall in September 1727 the council's make-up had changed drastically: Apraksin had died, Tolstoy had been exiled, and the Duke of Holstein had left Russia.

As the conservative influence prevailed among its members, the council, although nominally a consultative body, monopolized supreme power and had the imperial capital moved de facto back to Moscow.

A month after signing the document, on 25 February 1730, Anna, on the advice of her close counsellor, Ernst Johann von Biron, won the sympathies of the Leib Guard and tore up the terms of her accession.