now playing..."Once Upon A December...Theme from Anastasia

Dancing bears...painted wings...things I long to remember, and a song someone sings...once upon a December....Someone holds me safe and warm, horses prance thru a silver storm, couples dancing merrily, across my memory...Long ago...far away...burning bright like an ember, things that I used to know...Once upon a December...

Anastasia Romanov Anastasia Nichcolaevna Romanov was the youngest daughter of Nicholas & Alexandra Romanov. She had 3 older sisters and one younger brother. She became the center of one of the worlds most famous mystery and remains so today. Please scroll down the page to see her family and read about how her life went from a fairy tale existence to the lost soul she became, without a country or even her own name.



Olga * Tatiana * Marie * Anastasia



Alexei



Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia (standing) Alexandra & Marie



Nicholas

The Romanov Story

Head of the Romanov dynasty, Nicholas the II ruled the Russian Empire until a 1917 revolution ended his reign. Their life should have been a fairy tale. Rich beyond measure Nicholas and Alexandra were, even after 24 married years, passionately in love. He was her "Nicky". She, his "Sunny" or "Alix". Yet their reign (1896-1917) was a tragic failure. The couple's attitudes, formed in the 19th century, were ill-suited for the 20th. Though they watched movies, used phones and drove cars, the imperial couple resisted giving Russia the freedoms such technologies nurtured. Such rigidity towards, and remoteness from a modernizing Russia destroyed them. Tsarist Russia was no democracy. A free press and open elections were forbidden. Despite their political and personal troubles, the family was very loving and close-knit. After the revolution the new government exiled the family to Siberia. They were executed by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg on July 16, 1918. The family's troubles overtook Anastasia's teen years. The impish girl, now a young woman, was 17 when killed. After the family's murder several women appeared claiming they were Anastasia. All were proven false, including Anna Anderson, the most famous imposter, but was she?? Please read on and you can be the judge.

Anna's Story

In 1991 reports from Russia stated that they had found the bodies of the last Imperial family in the Kopthiakii Forest just outside of Yekaterinburg. At first they stated that all eleven bodies had been found, including the Tsar, his family and servants. But as time passed it became apparent that two bodies were infact missing. One being the Tsarevitch Alexei, and one of his sisters. World reknowned pathologist Dr. William Maples, along with his staff travelled to Russia, where they determined the missing daughter to be Anastasia. For over seven years now people have searched for the missing two bodies, even going so far as to use a bulldozer, yet they have found no trace.
In February 1920 a young woman was rescued from the Lanwher canal after having jumped from the Bendler bridge in Berlin, Germany. She was taken to a local police station where she refused to speak of her identity. When she did speak it was in a very poor, ungrammatical German, and with a heavy foreign accent. It was discovered that the girl had long scars all over her body. Her jaw had been smashed and she had a skull fracture. In addition she had a star-shaped scar from the top to the bottom of one ofher feet. After refusing to speak to police investigators she was sent to the Dalldorf asylum. According to Thea Chemnitz (ne Malinovskii) who was a Russian nurse during the first years of the girls stay, reported that she spoke Russian with her, and that the girl spoke it like a native. It was here, at Dalldorf, that the young girl would be mistaken to be the Grand Duchess Tatiana, Anastasia’s older sister, by fellow inmate Clara Peuthert, a Russian seamstress. The girl, who for legal reasons would eventually be called Anna, was released from the asylum and went to live with the Baron Kleist and his family. This Russian emigre family wanted to use Anna to gain recognition and fame for themselves. They would bring countless people to see their prized possession: The Grand Duchess Anastasia.(Anna had confided that she was Anastasia not Tatiana as Clara Peuthert had first assumed). The Danish Ambassador to Germany Herleuf Zhale, on bequest of the Tsar’s Aunt, became involved in the case. Harriet Von Rathlef Keilmann, a Russian sculptress, painter and children’s author, was given charge over the sick young girl. Harriet described the girl as speaking German poorly, with a “typical Russian accent”. Harriet found the young girl in terrible physical condition, she was emaciated under 100 pounds-though she was only 5’2” tall, most of her front teeth had been extracted due to the continuous pain that her smashed jaw caused her. Anna was also mentally exhausted. She was constantly under the effects of morphine. Her memory for past events was shady, and she would often forget how to tell time and would completely lose sense of when holidays fell during the year. Her physician, the Russian Doctor Sergeii Rudnev, stated that in her delirium she spoke English with a good accent, about mostly unessential things. In fact, Dr. Rudnev had known the real Anastasia before the revolution. He had come to one of the palaces with some of his colleagues in 1914. His counterparts had inspected the Grand Duchess Anastasia’s feet to determine whether they needed to be surgically altered, due to their deformity. The Doctor noted that Anna had the same foot deformity, “Hallux Vulgus” as the Grand Duchess. Harriet began to compile a list of scars and birthmarks that Anna had, so she could compare them with those of the Grand Duchess. Anna had a small scar on her forehead where she said she fell as a child, this was confirmed to have occurred to Anastasia as well. (Anastasia would have her hair cut in bangs to conceal the scar) She had a mark on her right shoulder blade, where she said a mole was removed. Ironically this mark was in the same place where Anastasia had a mole, which was later removed. She also had a scar at the base of her left middle finger, and found it difficult to move the fingers as they were stiff and rigid. Anastasia had gotten her left hand caught in a carriage door as a child, luckily she didn’t lose any fingers. In addition whenever agitated small red blotches would rise fromher neck until it covered her whole face, this was an identical characteristic of Anastasia’s mother the Late Tsaritsa. Above all else Anna had the Tsar’s luminous, eternal, blue, eyes.
The Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Kulinvoskii (ne Romanova), sister to the Late Tsar, and Aunt and godmother to the Grand Duchess Anastasia heard of Anna’s claim and sent Monsieur Pierre Gillard, the Duchess’s French tutor, and his recent wife, Alexandra Gillard (ne Tegleva) who was Anastasia’s nursemaid to visit the girl and cable her if Anna proved to be her niece and she herself would come. The Gillard’s came to visit the sick and now completely bedridden girl. They attempted to ask her questions but she was barely conscious and spoke in nonsensical terms. The two realised it was impossible to speak with the girl under her current condition. Before leaving Alexandra asked to be shown Anna’s feet. Harriet moved towards the bed and moved back the covers. Alexandra was impressed, she commented that not only did Anna have the same foot deformity but like Anastasia her right foot was worse than her left. With that they left. After several weeks a woman would enter Anna’s room. It was the Grand Duchess Olga herself along with the Gillards. Anna who was better, but was still bedridden and “spoke in painful whispers”.The three remarked on how her eyes were the same color of Anastasia deep blues eyes. In addition they all agreed that she looked incredibly like Anastasia’s older sister Tatiana.(Note: the same thought occurred to Clara Peuthert-thus the original confusion) Anna was now under 100 pounds and her face was extremely gaunt and pale. Upon seeing Alexandra, Anna cried: “Shura”, the nickname Anastasia had used for her nurse.(The rest of the Imperial family had called her Sascha) Anna proceeded to grab her bottle of perfume and poured it into “Shura’s” hands and motioned her to put it on her face. This is the same personal ritual Anastasia and Shura had shared before the revolution. Anastasia always wanted her nurse to smell like a “bouquet of flowers”. Shura inspected Anna’s body and proclaimed: “ This is Anastasia’s body.” Olga mentioned that Anna’s hair had the same wave to it that Anastasia’s had, though it was slightly darker. (This is accounted for the fact Anna was bedridden and couldn’t leave her room none-the-less go out of doors into the sun-where Anastasia spent most of her time, even during winter months.) They began to ask the sick girl questions regarding various facts, places and people in the real Anastasia’s life. Anna mentioned that in one of the palaces there was a spiral staircase and that she had her sisters would go down and each stand on a stair and say good morning to their mother. Olga was pleased. But she asked, what was on this staircase on a certain day during the week? Anna couldn’t remember, nor could she recall the plays she had put on with her sisters in Tobolsk. But she did recall that she had two parrots as a child and that in the Winter palace there existed a room made of puremalachite. Shura showed her a photograph of a bell that hid the faces of the people sitting behind it. Anna laughed and pointed out that the people were Shura, and her sisters Tatiana and Marie. Anna commented that she had always teased Shura with the bell. Shura admitted that Anna was correct and in fact Anastasia had taken the photo. During the whole interview Anna spoke only German, refusing to speak Russian. Although she wouldn’t speak it she definitely understood it, since it was the only language Shura could speak. Olga was very distraught over the visit. She confessed to Harriet that she had come against her mother’s and sister’s wishes. She stated that she was glad she had come, and happy to see that Shura and the “little one” had been reunited.(Olga had referred to Anna by Anastasia’s old nickname.) Olga told Harriet that it wouldn’t be fair to take Anna to her mother, the Dowager Empress Marie (Anastasia’s Grandmother) since her future would be so questionable. The three visited on and off for three days. When leaving, Shura in tears asked why she loved Anna as much as her old charge. Olga admitted that her head couldn’t allow her to believe that Anna was Anastasia, but her heart told her that it was indeed her God Daughter, and she was brought up in a religion that teaches one to follow their heart. Gillard, who was quiet throughout the visit, only said that they were leaving without saying that she wasn’t Anastasia. Olga and Gillard would correspond with Anna through Harriet during the weeks and months after the visit Olga even sent Anna a shawl, that she had bought before the war, and a pullover sweater, that she herself had worn. But eventually the letters stopped. Upon Pierre Gillard’s insistence Olga made a public statement that Anna wasn’t her niece. Gillard proceeded to write a book entitled: La Fausse Anastasie, in which he attempted to prove Anna was a fraud by using her own “memories” against her. He scoffed at her recollections that there was a room made of pure malachite, or that there had been a samovar ( A Russian Tea machine)in the military headquarters of Stavka. And above all else he pointed out that the Grand Duchess Anastasia had never taken German lessons and therefore Anna couldn’t be the Grand Duchess. Yet, the first two statements of Anna’s were proven to be true, facts Gillard may have never known or simply had forgotten, but in his own daily journals Gillard had recorded that the Duchesses had studied German up through their confinement in Tobolsk. As it turned out Pierre and his wife had fallen against hard times financially, as most Russian Emigres did. The Grand Duke Ernst, Anna’s most ardent denouncer, had actually paid Gillard to help him prove Anna a fraud. Suspiciously “Shura” would never again speak publicly of the matter her last recorded words were her tearful questions as to why she loved Anna as much as Anastasia.
Anna was offered to stay with the Grand Duke Leuchtenberg’s castle in Seeon Germany, which she readily accepted. Here Anna had fully recovered from her illness. It was here that Tatiana Botkin, daughter of Doctor Yevgenni Botkin who was killed along with the Imperial family, would come and visit Anna. Tatiana and her younger brother, Gleb, had followed their father to Tobolsk during the Imperial family’s imprisonment. Tatiana, who had been a playmate of the Duchesses, didn’t meet with them during their Siberian captivity, but would often see them sunning themselves on the balcony of their house or sitting in the windows watching passerby’s. Upon seeing Anna, Tatiana immediately saw a distinct resemblance between the girl and the Tsar’s oldest two daughters. Upon closer inspection Tatiana recognized Anna as her old playmate Anastasia. She remarked that her ears, eyebrows, hair and especially the color of her eyes were exactly the same, only the “lower face” had changed. (This was due to Anna’s missing teeth and enlarged upper lip) The two discussed many things, including the Grand Duchesses’s hospital and shared memories. Tatiana tested the girl by telling her silly little stories of the kind she had told the small Grand Duchess, and she was amazed by the reaction of the girl. Anna turned her head to the side, and looked out of the corner of her eyes at Tatiana and began to laugh, this was identical to how Anastasia would react to a story or joke she found particularly funny.Tatiana mentioned her older brother who was killed in the war, Anna remembered that her father the Tsar had told her and her family. Tatiana recalled that her father, Dr Yevgenii Botkin, had told her that the Tsar himself had broken the news to the Imperial family, a fact no one other than the two families had known) In addition Tatiana remarked when helping Anna to bed that her father had once performed such nursing duties for Anastasia and her sisters. “Yes”, Anna responded “measles”. Another unpublished fact. Tatiana would state that she recognized Anna fully as the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaievna Romanova. Tataina immediately got in contact with her younger brother Gleb, who had since moved to New York city, where he was an author. Gleb was very suspicious of his sister’s recognition of Anna, he thought that her emotions may have clouded her judgement. He had been in Ekaterinburg just weeks after the murder of his father and the Imperial family. He thought it impossible for anyone to have escaped the carnage, so he had to see this woman for himself and prove her an imposter, if indeed she was. When he arrived at Castle Seeon, he was informed that Anna would be leaving shortly for a short visit into town, and that if he wanted to see her up close he could stand by the door way as she walked passed. He readily agreed, he was anxious to unmask this girl who had caused so much publicity and turmoil in the name of his old friend. But as soon as she stepped from out of the door he saw before him: Anastasia. It was someone he had “known” to be dead, but there she stood very much alive and unmistakably the Grand Duchess. He later received notice that Anna wanted to know if Gleb had brought his “funny animals” the Leuchtenberg’s were baffled and thought it a ridiculous request. But Gleb knew that she meant the drawing of animals in human attire that he had painted in Tobolsk for the Duchesses. Gleb had indeed brought them along with new ones. Anna was able to distinguish between the two and she filled in the Russian words that escaped him during their conversation. Gleb and Tatiana would be Anna’s biggest supporters up until their deaths.
Gleb was contacted by Princess Xenia Leeds (ne Romanov) of Greece, who had escaped to America where she had married the a wealthy American industrialist. Xenia expressed great interest in the case and gladly welcomed the idea of Anna coming to America to stay with her. Gleb was ecstatic, Xenia lived on a large estate in the posh seaside city of Oyster Bay, New York. But Gleb became bewildered when she kept putting the date of Anna’s arrival off. Finally a date was set and Anna packed for America. She first traveled to Paris, where she would meet the Grand Duke Andreii Romanov-the Tsar’s cousin.Andreii, had been following her case for several years and was anxious to finally meet with her. He immediately saw a distinct family resemblance-and when Anna smiled for the first time during their meeting her recognized her fully. After he left the room he slumped into a chair and muttered: “I’ve seen Nicky’s daughter. I’ve seen Nicky’s daughter.” Nicky had been the Romanov family’s nickname for Tsar Nikolai II.(Ironically Andreii’s brother, the Grand Duke Kyrill was vehemently hated by Anna. She pointed out that he had been the first in the “family” to turn against her “father”, the Tsar, and now he was in their places. The Grand Duke had been the first member of nobility to turn against the Tsar upon the outbreak of the Revolution. Kyrill had hoped to have become Tsar himself, since after the Tsarevitch Alexei and the Grand Duke Miklail he was next in the line of succession. After the revolution Kyrill proclaimed himself Tsar-and became one of several Pretenders to the throne. Upon arriving in New York Anna stayed with Xenia’s friend Annie Burr Jennings, while Xenia was on holiday in the Caribbean. Upon her return she had Anna brought to her estate where she recognized Anna as her cousin Anastasia. She commented that Anna was able to remember details of where and what the two had played as children. It was reported that detectives where hired to protect the grounds from trespassers. Gleb often visited Anna in Oyster bay. On one such visit, Anna asked Gleb why he wasn’t weaing any perfume. He commented that it wasn’t fashionable for men to wear perfume in America. But Anna persisted and teased him by saying that his father, Dr. Yevgeneii Sergeiivitch Botkin, had always worn a lot of perfume and he should wear it as well. She proceed to pour some of her own on him until he was nicely covered. Gleb thought it funny that although her opponents claimed that she never knew any personal memories of the Romanovs, but she knew that the Imperial physician wore a lot of perfume-something she never could have known unless she herself had experienced it. Anna would move back to Berlin after a year in Oyster Bay. By this time Germany had fallen into economic turmoil. It was around this time that a lawsuit was brought forth by Anna’s lawyers. A Romanov relative had collected a small some of money from one of the German banks. The money amounted to hardly anything but if Anna could win the suit she would officially be recognized in the eyes of the court as Anastasia,and therefore the rightfull heiress to any Romanov funds throughout Europe. The court case would prove itself to be the longest trial in Germany this century. Numerous witnesses were brought forward on both sides. Felix Dassel, the Russian officer who had recognized Anna as the Grand Duchess, testified from his death bed that she was indeed the young girl he accompianied through the hospital on the grounds of Tsarskoe Selo. Shortly thereafter WWII broke out. Anna proved quite lucky to survive the constant air-raids in her Berlin flat. She would later recount having to go into the basement at night with the other tenants. Once she saw a woman completely evicerated by a bomb. One of the real Anastasia’s relatives Prince Sigismund of Germany came to her rescue by buying a small plot of land in the secluded black forest. A small “dacha” was built where Anna could live in peace and tranquility. She was now in her fifties and quite exhausted from her trials and health. She hired one after the other “ladies-in-waiting” who tended to her needs. Anna would spend her days in bed reading mail from around the world. She tended her small garden and taught her favorite caretaker- one Fraulien Hydelbrandt Russian. (A language her opponents claimed she never knew) The trial was halted due to the war but it started again shortly after Berlin’s reconstruction. Pierre Gillard testified that Anna couldn’t be the Grand Duchess, when he was pressed for specifics he stated that he had burned all of his documents relating to the case and he proved inept at answering the simplest of questions put to him. His wife Alexandra ne Tegleva never testified nor spoke in public ever again. On his way home from the trial he was in an automobile accident from which he would never fully recover, and ultimately was the cause of his death. Lilith Dehn, one of the few friends of the Late Tsaritsa Alexandra, and one of the few who remained in Tsarskoe Selo in 1916, when the Romanov family was being held under house arrest in the Palaise d’Alexandre. Lilith had waited up with the young Anastasia, while she waited for her father the Tsar, who had just abdicated the throne. She knew all of the Tsar’s children well and could certainly tell between an imposter and the real Grand Duchess. Lili, as she was called by the family, came to Anna’s small dacha. There she stayed for 6 days. She and Anna dicussed officiers and staff they both had known. Anna recalled the color of the Palaise’s carpets and her mother’s dresses. Anna recalled an incident that had occured between Lili, Alexandra, Ania Vyrubova-the Tsarista’s closest friend, and Anastasia. The situation was a private one, and known only to those four. They also discussed the night the two played cards waiting for the Tsar to return after his abdication, Anna accurately recalled that the two of them had stayed together late into the evening. Lilith was quite overwhelmed, she thoroughly recognized Anna as the Duchess. Lili stated quite bluntly, after having known Anastasia she couldn’t be wrong. Upon leaving Anna said “Good bye, good bye.” to Lili, and according to Lilth, it was the exact same way the Tsaritsa used to part with close friends. The court appointed Otto Von Reche, one of Germany’s leading Forensic experts, and Minna Becker, one of the German Graphologists who helped authenticate the Diary of Anne Frank. Herr Reche proceeded to study every concievable photgraph of Anna and Anastasia. In addition he collected a huge number of photos of Anastasia’s parents and their parents. Reche, found an amazing similarity not just between Anna and Anstasia, but to Anastasia’s relatives as well. Upon her health deteriorating further she was brought by her old friend Gleb Botkin to America where she would marry Gleb’s friend, John E Manahan, a noted Geneaologist, in Charlottesville Virginia. Anna married to stay in the country and to have someone watch over her. She would spend the rest of her life in the quaint little American town. It was here that Anna would learn that the trial had ended the verdict- “non liquet” -nonsatisfactory to either side. In the mean time a leading forensic expert in Munich Germany, Moritz Furtmayr announced that he had found irrefutable points of similarity between Anna and Anastasia. He discovered seventeen anatomical simialarities between their right ears, five more points over the usual twelve points generally accepted by the German courts. Anna’s life would become eccentric yet comfortable here in America. She would house scores of dogs and cats. (She was devastated when she discovered that her precious dogs she had left behind in Germany had been put to sleep. Anna insisted to a foreign journalist that her cats “must die of old age.” She and “Hans”, as she called her husband, would spend there times touring the surrounding cities, and had numerous speaking engagements in lecture halls and local colleges. Anna insisted they speak German in public in an attempt to keep her comments and thoughts private, which generally attracted much attention. She would die here in 1984,at the age of 82, short of her 83 birthday.

Though recent DNA testing on hairs BELIEVING to have belonged to Anna Anderson prove she was not Anastasia, I still am not convinced she was not The Grand Duchess. Upon my extensive reading and research on this sad story, one fact stands out very clear. Those who stood to gain by Anna being an imposter repeatedly denied her, while those who stood to gain nothing, recognized her as The Grand Duchess Anastasia. Below are some pictures I found on the net, look at them closely, compare them, you be the judge...was she???

"You can believe it, or you dont believe it. It doesnt matter, not in anyway what-so ever."-AA