Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
The history of any human tragedy is always dramatic, it forces us to look for an answer to hypothetical questions: why did it happen like this? Could the trouble have been avoided? Who is guilty? Unambiguous answers do not always help understanding, since they are based on causal factors. Knowledge, unfortunately, does not lead to understanding. Indeed, what can the story of the short life of the daughter of the last Russian emperor, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, give us?
She flashed like a shadow on the historical horizon during the years of the most serious trials of her country, together with her family, becoming a victim of the terrible Russian revolution. She was not (and could not be) a politician, she could not influence the course of state affairs. She simply lived, by the will of Providence, being a member of the royal family, wanting only one thing: to live in this family, sharing with it all the joys and sorrows. The story of Anastasia Nikolaevna is the story of the family of Emperor Nicholas II, the story of good human relations between the closest people, sincerely, to the depths of their hearts, believers in God and His good will.
Precisely because the family was crowned, the history of the life and death of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (as her sisters and brother) acquires fundamental significance for the Christian consciousness. The Romanovs by their fate have confirmed the truth of the Gospel thought about the senselessness of acquiring "the whole world" at the cost of harming one's own soul (Mark 9, 37). This was confirmed by the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, who was killed together with the whole family in the basement of the Ipatiev house on the night of July 16-17, 1918 ...
Sunshine
She was born on June 5, 1901 in Peterhof (in the New Palace). The bulletins on the condition of the newborn and her crowned mother were the most favorable. After 12 days, christenings took place, at which, according to the tradition already established by that time, Empress Maria Feodorovna was the first among the recipients. Princess Irina of Prussia, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna also became recipients. The birth of the fourth daughter was, of course, a great joy for the royal family, although both the emperor and the empress hoped very much for the appearance of an heir. It is not difficult to understand the crowned heads: according to the Basic Laws of the Russian Empire, the son of the autocrat should have inherited the throne. Anastasia Nikolaevna and her sister Maria were considered “small” in the family, unlike the elders or “big” - Olga and Tatiana. Anastasia was an active child, and, as the closest friend of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna A.A. Vyrubova recalled, "she constantly climbed, hid, made everyone laugh with her antics, and it was not easy to keep track of her." Once at an official dinner on the Imperial yacht Shtandart, she, then a five-year-old child, quietly climbed under the table and crawled there, trying to pinch some important person who did not dare to express displeasure with her appearance. The punishment came immediately: realizing what was the matter, the sovereign pulled her out from under the table by the scythe, "and she got it hard." Such uncomplicated entertainment of the tsar's children, of course, did not in any way irritate those who, by chance, turned out to be their "victim", but Nicholas II tried to suppress such liberties, finding them inappropriate. And yet the children, respecting and honoring their parents, were not at all afraid of them, believing it natural to be naughty with the guests. It must be admitted that the tsar did not seriously educate his daughters: it was the prerogative of Alexandra Feodorovna, who spent many hours in the classroom when the children grew up. The empress spoke English with the children: the language of Shakespeare and Byron was the second native in the royal family. But the tsar's daughters did not know French enough: while reading it, they never learned to speak fluently (for some reason, perhaps, not wanting to see anyone between herself and her daughters, Alexandra Feodorovna did not want to take a French governess for them). In addition, the empress, who loved handicrafts, taught this business to her daughters.Physical education was built in the English manner: girls slept in large children's beds, on camp beds, almost without pillows and covered with small blankets. In the morning it was supposed to take a cold bath, in the evening - a warm one. Alexandra Feodorovna strove to educate in such a way that her daughters could behave evenly with everyone, in no way showing their advantage to anyone. However, the empress failed to achieve sufficient upbringing for the imperial daughters. The sisters did not show a special taste for their studies, being, in the opinion of the mentor of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Pierre Gilliard, who were in close contact with them, "were rather gifted with practical qualities."
The sisters, almost devoid of external entertainment, found joy in close family life. The "big ones" were sincere about the "little ones", they paid them in return; later they even invented a common signature "OTMA" - by the first letters of the names, by seniority: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. OTMA sent general gifts, wrote general letters. But at the same time, each daughter of Nicholas II was an independent person, with her own merits and characteristics. Anastasia Nikolaevna was the funniest, she loved to make fun of good-naturedly. “She was a darling,” Pierre Gilliard recalled in the early 1920s, “a shortcoming from which she improved over the years. Very lazy, as is sometimes the case with very capable children, she had an excellent pronunciation of French and acted out small theatrical scenes with real talent. She was so cheerful and so knew how to disperse the wrinkles of anyone who was out of sorts that some of those around them began, recalling the nickname given to her mother at the English court, to call her Sunshine - Sunbeam. " This characteristic is very indicative from a psychological point of view, especially if we bear in mind that, while entertaining loved ones, the Grand Duchess loved to imitate their voices and demeanor. Life with her beloved family was perceived by Anastasia Nikolaevna as a holiday; fortunately, she, like her sisters, did not know her wrong side.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna at the age of 3 years.
"Thank God, nothing ..."
On August 1, 1917, together with all her family and servants, she forever left the places where she spent the happy years of her short life. Soon she saw Siberia: she was to spend several months in Tobolsk with her family. Anastasia Nikolaevna did not lose heart, trying to find advantages in her new position. In her letters to AA Vyrubova, she assures that they are comfortable (all four live together): “It's nice to see from the windows the small mountains covered with snow. We sit a lot at the windows and have fun looking at the people walking. " Later, in the winter months of the new 1918, she again assures her confidant that, thank God, they live "nothing", put on plays, walk in their "fence", have arranged a small slide for skiing. The leitmotif of the letters is to convince A.A. Vyrubova that everything is fine with them, that there is nothing to worry about, that life is not so hopeless ... It is illuminated by faith, hope for the best and love. No outrage, no offense for humiliation, for being locked up. Forbearance, the integrity of the Christian worldview and amazing inner peace: God's will for everything!
In Tobolsk, the Grand Duchess's schoolwork continued: from October, Klavdia Mikhailovna Bitner, the former head of the Tsarskoye Selo Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, began to study with the Tsar's children (with the exception of the eldest Olga Nikolaevna). She taught geography and literature. The school training of the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses did not satisfy K.M. Bitner. “There is a lot to be desired,” she said to the commissar of the Provisional Government for the protection of the royal family, VS Pankratov. “I did not at all expect what I found. Such grown-up children know so little of Russian literature, they are so little developed. They read little Pushkin, Lermontov even less, and they had not heard of Nekrasov. I'm not even talking about the others.<...> What does it mean? How were they dealt with? There was a full opportunity to furnish the children with the best teachers - and this was not done. "
It can be assumed that such "underdevelopment" became the price for home isolation, in which the great princesses grew up, completely cut off from the world of their peers. The naive and pure girls, unlike their mother, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, did not have deep philosophical knowledge, although they were, apparently, well-read in theological literature. Their main educator and teacher - the mother - cared more about the correct upbringing (as she understood it) than about the full education of their daughters and heir. Was this the result of the empress's conscious pedagogical policy, or was it her oversight? Who knows ... The Yekaterinburg tragedy closed this issue forever.
Earlier, in April 1918, part of the family was transported to Yekaterinburg. Among those who moved were the emperor, his wife and the Grand Duchess Maria. The rest of the children (together with the sick Alexei Nikolaevich) remained in Tobolsk. The family was reunited in May, and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was among those who arrived. She celebrated her last birthday - her 17th birthday - at the House of Special Purpose in Yekaterinburg. Like her sisters, Anastasia Nikolaevna at that time studied cooking under the tsar's chef I.M. Kharitonov; together with them she kneaded flour in the evenings, and baked bread in the morning. In Yekaterinburg, the life of prisoners was more strictly regulated, total control was exercised over them. But even in this situation, we do not notice despondency: faith allows us to live, hope for the best, even when there are no more reasons for hope.
The history of the imposters
On the night of July 17, 1918, Anastasia Nikolaevna remained alive longer than others, doomed to death. This was partly due to the fact that the empress sewed jewelry into her dress, but only partly. The fact is that she was finished off with bayonets and shots to the head. The executioners in their circle said that after the first volleys, Anastasia Nikolaevna was alive. This played a role in the spread of myths that the youngest daughter of Nicholas II did not die, but was rescued by the Red Army and later managed to go abroad. As a result, the story of Anastasia's salvation for many years became the subject of all sorts of manipulations by both sincerely mistaken naive people and crooks. How many of them were, posing as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna! Rumors spread about Anastasia Afrikanskaya, Anastasia Bolgarskaya, Anastasia Volgogradskaya. But the most famous is the story of Anna Anderson, who lived in the family of relatives of Dr. E.S. Botkin, who was killed along with the royal family. For a long time these people believed that A. Anderson was the rescued Anastasia Nikolaevna. Only in 1994, after the death of the impostor, with the help of a genetic examination, it was possible to establish that she had nothing to do with the Romanovs, being a representative of the Polish peasant family Schwantzowski (who recognized Anderson as their relative back in 1927).Today, the fact of the death and burial of Anastasia Nikolaevna in a common grave with those killed on the night of July 16-17, 1918 can be considered established. The discovery of the grave, the long-term work on the identification of the so-called Yekaterinburg remains is a separate topic. Let us emphasize just one point: unfortunately, for many Orthodox Christians who are new to the problem of discovering and determining the truth of the royal remains near Yekaterinburg, the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, children and servants, solemnly buried in the summer of 1998 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, are not genuine. Accordingly, they do not believe in the authenticity of the relics of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. Such skeptics are not convinced by the fact that in 2007, near the previous burial, they found (according to the opinion of both historians and medical experts) the relics of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria. Thus, the remains of all those shot in the House of Special Purpose were found. We can only hope that evaluative maximalism will gradually diminish, and the biased attitude towards the aforementioned problem will remain in the past ...
In 1981, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was canonized by the ROCOR along with all the Romanovs and their servants who perished in Yekaterinburg. Almost 20 years later, at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in 2000, the ROC also canonized the royal family (as martyrs and martyrs). This glorification must be recognized as a sign event, a symbolic act that religiously reconciles us with the past and indicates the truth of the well-known expression: "Good is not born from evil, it is born from good." This should not be forgotten, remembering today one of the innocent victims of the terrible past - the cheerful "comforter" of her family, the youngest daughter of the last Russian emperor, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
Author Sergey Firsov, professor at St. Petersburg State University. Zhivaya voda magazine # 6 2011. October 21, 2009 6:54 pm
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen, how much can you read about silicones, Baysarovs, Lopez, etc. ???? It's time to remember the mysterious history of the Great Russian Princess. Overview Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (Romanova Anastasia Nikolaevna) (June 5 (18), 1901, Peterhof - on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Yekaterinburg) is the fourth daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. She was shot with her family in the Ipatiev house. After her death, about 30 women declared themselves a “miraculously escaped Grand Duchess,” but sooner or later all were exposed as impostors. Glorified together with her parents, sisters and brother in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Russia as a passion-bearer at the jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000. Earlier, in 1981, they were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. Remembrance July 4th Julian. The village of Anastasievka in the Black Sea province was named in her honor in 1902. Birth and Disappointment of the Royal Family Born on June 5 (18), 1901 in Peterhof. By the time she appeared, the royal couple already had three daughters - Olga, Tatiana and Maria. The absence of an heir heated up the political situation: according to the Act of Succession to the throne, adopted by Paul I, a woman could not ascend to the throne, because the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was considered the heir, which did not suit many, and first of all, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. In an attempt to beg the son of Providence, at this time she is more and more immersed in mysticism. With the assistance of the Montenegrin princesses Militsa Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna came to the court a certain Philip, a French national, who declared himself a hypnotist and a specialist in nervous diseases. Philip predicted to Alexandra Fedorovna the birth of a son, however, a girl was born - Anastasia. Nikolai wrote in his diary: At about 3 o'clock, Alix began to experience severe pain. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. Exactly at 6 in the morning, daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions soon and, thank God, without complications. Thanks to the fact that it all started and ended while everyone was still asleep, we both had a sense of peace and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives to all parts of the world. Fortunately, Alix is \u200b\u200bdoing well. The baby weighs 11½ pounds and is 55 cm tall. The entry in the emperor's diary contradicts the statements of some researchers who believe that, disappointed by the birth of his daughter, Nicholas did not dare to visit his newborn and his wife for a long time. Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of the reigning emperor, also noted this event: What a disappointment! 4th girl! She was named Anastasia. Mom telegraphed me about the same and writes: "Alix gave birth to a daughter again!" The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the empress. The "hypnotist" Philip, not bewildered after the failed prophecy, immediately predicted to her "an amazing life and a special destiny." Margaret Yeager, author of the memoir Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court, recalled that Anastasia was named after the Emperor pardoned and reinstated the rights of St. Petersburg University students who took part in the recent unrest, since the very name Anastasia means "brought back to life", in the image of this saint there are usually chains torn in half. 
Palace life The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, but they did not use it, in the official speech they called her by name and patronymic, and at home they called her "little, Nastaska, Nastya, egg-capsule" - for her small height (157 cm .) and a round figure and "shvybzik" - for mobility and inexhaustibility in the invention of pranks and pranks. The life of the grand duchesses was rather monotonous. Breakfast at 9 o'clock, lunch at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock - tea, at eight - a general dinner, and the food was quite simple and unassuming. In the evenings, the girls would solve charades and embroider while their father read aloud to them. Early in the morning it was supposed to take a cold bath, in the evening - a warm one, to which a few drops of perfume were added, and Anastasia preferred Kochi's perfume with the scent of violets. This tradition has survived since the time of Catherine I. When the girls were small, the servants carried buckets of water to the bathroom, when they grew up - it was their responsibility. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who washed in it left their autograph on the side), the other, smaller, was intended for children. Resurrection was expected with special impatience - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls with their aunt, Olga Alexandrovna. The evening was especially interesting when Anastasia was allowed to dance with young officers. Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Teaching began at the age of eight and included French and English, history, geography, the law of God, science, drawing, grammar, and dancing and good manners. Anastasia was not very diligent in her studies, she could not stand grammar, wrote with horrific mistakes, and called arithmetic with childish spontaneity "swinish". The royal family and Grigory Rasputin.
With Princess Tatiana
War period According to the memoirs of contemporaries, following her mother and older sisters, Anastasia sobbed bitterly on the day of the declaration of war. During the war, the empress gave many of the palace rooms to hospital premises. The elder sisters Olga and Tatiana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, as too young for such hard work, became patroness of the hospital. Both sisters gave their own money to buy medicines, read aloud to the wounded, knitted things for them, played cards and checkers, wrote letters home under their dictation, and entertained them with telephone conversations in the evenings, sewed linen, prepared bandages and lint. Maria and Anastasia gave concerts to the wounded and did their best to distract them from heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctant to break away from work for the sake of lessons. With Princess Mary
Execution of the royal family It is officially believed that the decision to shoot the royal family was finally taken by the Ural Council on July 16 in connection with the possibility of surrendering the city to the White Guard troops and the allegedly discovered conspiracy to save the royal family. On the night of July 16-17, at 11.30 pm, two specially authorized representatives from the Ural Soviet handed a written order to shoot the commander of the security detachment P.Z.Yermakov and the commander of the house to the commissar of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry Y.M. Yurovsky. The royal family was awakened and, under the pretext of a possible shootout and the danger of being killed by bullets that bounced off the walls, they offered to go down to the corner basement room. According to Yakov Yurovsky's report, the Romanovs did not suspect anything until the last moment. At the request of the empress, chairs were brought into the basement, on which she herself and Nikolai with her son in her arms sat. Anastasia, along with her sisters, stood behind. The sisters brought several handbags with them, Anastasia also took her beloved dog Jimmy, who accompanied her throughout her exile. There is information that after the first volley Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia survived, they were saved by jewels sewn into the corsets of dresses. Later, the witnesses interrogated by the investigator Sokolov testified that of the Tsar's daughters, Anastasia resisted death the longest, the already wounded one “had to” finish off with bayonets and rifle butts. According to the materials discovered by the historian Edward Radzinsky, Anna Demidova, Alexandra's servant, remained alive for the longest time, who managed to protect herself with a pillow filled with jewelry. Together with the corpses of relatives, Anastasia's body was wrapped in sheets taken from the beds of the grand duchesses, and taken to the Four Brothers tract for burial. There the corpses, disfigured beyond recognition by blows of butts and sulfuric acid, were thrown into one of the old mines. Later, investigator Sokolov found the body of Ortipo's dog here. After the execution in the room of the grand duchesses, the last drawing made by Anastasia's hand was found - a swing between two birches. The basement of the Ipatiev house, where the royal family was shot
The last picture of Anastasia 3 days before the bloody massacre
Drawings of the princess
Stories with the rescue of the Tsarovich and the Grand Duchess or false Anastasia
Anna Anderson Rumors that one of the tsar's daughters managed to escape - either by running away from the Ipatiev house, or even before the revolution, being replaced by someone from the servant, began to circulate among Russian emigrants almost immediately after the execution of the tsarist family. Attempts by a number of people to use for their own ends the belief in the possible salvation of the youngest princess Anastasia led to the appearance of over thirty false Anastasias. One of the most famous impostors was Anna Anderson, who claimed that a soldier named Tchaikovsky managed to pull her out of the basement of the Ipatiev house wounded after he saw that she was still alive. Another version of the same story was presented by the former Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda at the trial, at which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called the Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father”. Freedom proclaimed himself the savior of Anderson, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of “a neighbor in love with her, a certain H.”. This version, however, contained quite a lot of obviously implausible details, for example, about the violation of the curfew, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the Grand Duchess's escape, allegedly pasted all over the city, and about general searches, which, fortunately , gave nothing. Thomas Hildebrand Preston, who was at the specified time the British Consul General in Yekaterinburg, rejected such fabrications. Despite the fact that Anderson defended her “royal” origin until the end of her life, she wrote the book “I, Anastasia” and for several decades led legal proceedings , no final decision was made during her lifetime. Currently, genetic analysis has confirmed the already existing assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franziska Schanzkowska, a worker in a Berlin explosives plant. As a result of an accident at work, she was seriously injured and received a mental shock, the consequences of which she could not get rid of for the rest of her life. 
Eugenia Smith Another pseudo-Anastasia was Evgenia Smith (Evgenia Smetisko), an artist who released in the United States "memoirs" about her life and miraculous salvation. She managed to attract significant attention to her person and seriously improve her financial situation, speculating on the interest of the public. " Natalia Bilikhodze The last of the false Anastasias, Natalya Bilikhodze, died in 2000. 
Prince Dmitry Romanovich Romanov, great-great-grandson of Nicholas, summed up the long-term epic of impostors: Self-styled Anastasias in my memory were from 12 to 19. In the conditions of the post-war depression, many went crazy. We, the Romanovs, would be happy if Anastasia, even in the person of this very Anna Anderson, was alive. But alas, it was not her! The last dot on the i was put by the discovery in the same tract in 2007 of the bodies of Alexei and Maria and anthropological and genetic examination, which finally confirmed that there could not be any rescued among the royal family 
Based on the story of Anna Anderson, a cartoon was filmed, directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The Grand Duchess was canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, and in 2000 in Russia. 
| Nicholas I |
| Alexandra Fedorovna |
| Alexander II |
| Maria Alexandrovna |
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the emperor's children were not pampered with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. The walls of the room were gray and the ceiling was decorated with images of butterflies. On the walls are icons and photographs. The furniture is white and green, the furnishings are simple, almost spartan, a couch with embroidered cushions, and an army bunk where the Grand Duchess slept all year round. This bed moved around the room in order to find itself in a brighter and warmer part of the room in winter, and in summer it was sometimes even pulled out onto the balcony so that you could take a break from the stuffiness and heat. The same bed was taken with them on vacation to the Livadia Palace, on which the Grand Duchess slept during her Siberian exile. One large room next door, divided in half by a curtain, served as a common boudoir and bathroom for the Grand Duchesses.
The life of the grand duchesses was rather monotonous. Breakfast at 9 o'clock, lunch at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock - tea, at eight - a general dinner, and the food was quite simple and unassuming. In the evenings, the girls would solve charades and embroider while their father read aloud to them.
Early in the morning it was supposed to take a cold bath, in the evening - a warm one, to which a few drops of perfume were added, and Anastasia preferred Kochi's perfume with the scent of violets. This tradition has been preserved since the time of Catherine I. When the girls were small, the servants carried buckets of water to the bathroom, when they grew up - it was their responsibility to do so. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who washed in it left their autograph on the side), the other, smaller, was intended for children.
Resurrection was expected with special impatience - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls with their aunt, Olga Alexandrovna. The evening was especially interesting when Anastasia was allowed to dance with young officers.
Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Teaching began at the age of eight and included French and English, history, geography, the law of God, science, drawing, grammar, and dancing and good manners. Anastasia was not very diligent in her studies, she could not stand grammar, wrote with horrific mistakes, and called arithmetic with childish spontaneity "swinish". English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that once she tried to bribe him with a bouquet of flowers to increase his grade, and after he refused, she gave these flowers to the teacher of the Russian language, Petrov.
Grigory Rasputin
As you know, Grigory Rasputin was introduced to Empress Alexandra Fedorovna on November 1, 1905. The Tsarevich's illness was kept secret, because the appearance at the court of a "peasant", who almost immediately acquired a significant influence there, aroused speculation and speculation. Under the influence of their mother, all five children got used to completely trust the “holy elder” and share their experiences and thoughts with him.
The Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna recalled how one day, accompanied by the Tsar, she went into the children's bedrooms, where Rasputin blessed the Grand Duchesses dressed in white nightgowns for the coming sleep.
The same mutual trust and affection is seen in the letters of "Elder Gregory" that he sent to the imperial family. Here is an excerpt from one of the letters dated 1909:
Anastasia wrote to Rasputin:
| My beloved, precious, only friend. How I want to meet you again. Today I saw you in a dream. I will always ask Mom when you will visit us next time, and I am happy to have the opportunity to send you this congratulation. I wish you a Happy New Year, and may it bring you health and happiness. I always remember you, my dear friend, because you have always been kind to me. I have not seen you for a long time, but every evening I remembered you without fail. I wish you all the best. Mom promises that when you come again, we will definitely meet at Anya's. This thought fills me with joy. Your Anastasia. |
The governess of the imperial children, Sofya Ivanovna Tyutcheva, was shocked that Rasputin had unlimited access to the children's bedrooms and reported this to the tsar. The tsar supported her demand, but Alexandra Feodorovna and the girls themselves were completely on the side of the “holy elder”.
At the insistence of the Empress Tyutchev, she was dismissed. In all likelihood, the "holy elder" did not allow himself any liberties, but rumors spread around St. Petersburg so dirty that the brothers and sisters of the emperor took up arms against Rasputin, and Ksenia Alexandrovna sent her brother a particularly harsh letter, accusing Rasputin of "Khlysty", protesting against that this "lying old man" has unrestricted access to children. Anonymous letters and cartoons were passed from hand to hand depicting the relationship of the elder with the empress, girls and Anna Vyrubova. In order to put out the scandal, to the great displeasure of the empress, Nicholas was forced to temporarily remove Rasputin from the palace, and he went on a pilgrimage to the holy places. Despite rumors, the relationship of the imperial family with Rasputin continued until his assassination on December 17, 1916.
A. A. Mordvinov recalled that after the assassination of Rasputin, all four grand duchesses "seemed subdued and visibly depressed, they sat tightly huddled together" on the sofa in one of the bedrooms, as if realizing that Russia had set in motion, which would soon become uncontrollable. An icon was placed on Rasputin's chest, signed by the emperor, empress and all five children. Together with the entire imperial family, on December 21, 1916, Anastasia attended the funeral service. It was decided to build a chapel over the grave of the "holy elder", but due to subsequent events this plan was not realized.
Maria and Anastasia gave concerts to the wounded and did their best to distract them from heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctant to break away from work for the sake of lessons. Anastasia remembered these days until the end of her life:
| I remember visiting the hospital a long time ago. Hopefully all of our wounded survived in the end. Almost all of them were then taken away from Tsarskoye Selo. Do you remember Lukanov? He was so unhappy and so kind at the same time, and always played like a child with our bracelets. His calling card remained in my album, but the album itself, unfortunately, remained in Tsarskoye. Now I am in my bedroom, writing on the table, and on it are photographs of our beloved hospital. You know, it was a wonderful time when we visited the hospital. We often think about this, and our evening conversations on the phone and everything else ... |
Under house arrest
According to the memoirs of Lily Den (Julia Alexandrovna von Den), a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna, in February 1917, in the midst of the revolution, children one after another fell ill with measles. Anastasia was the last to fall ill when the Tsarskoye Selo palace was already surrounded by the rebellious troops. The tsar was at that time at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, in Mogilev, only the empress with the children remained in the palace.
Ultimately, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the family of the former tsar to Tobolsk. On the last day before leaving, they had time to say goodbye to the servants, to visit their favorite places in the park, ponds, islands for the last time. Alexei wrote in his diary that on that day he managed to push his older sister Olga into the water. On August 12, 1917, a train flying the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission left the siding in the strictest confidence.
Tobolsk
Ekaterinburg
There is information that after the first volley Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia survived, they were saved by jewels sewn into the corsets of dresses. Later, the witnesses interrogated by the investigator Sokolov testified that of the Tsar's daughters, Anastasia resisted death the longest, the already wounded one “had to” finish off with bayonets and rifle butts. According to the materials discovered by the historian Edward Radzinsky, Anna Demidova, Alexandra's servant, remained alive for the longest time, who managed to protect herself with a pillow filled with jewelry.
Together with the corpses of relatives, Anastasia's body was wrapped in sheets taken from the beds of the Grand Duchesses, and taken to the Four Brothers tract for burial. There the corpses, disfigured to complete unrecognizability by blows of butts and sulfuric acid, were thrown into one of the old mines. Later, investigator Sokolov found the body of Jimmy's dog here. After the execution in the room of the grand duchesses, the last drawing made by Anastasia's hand was found - a swing between two birches.
Character. Contemporaries about Anastasia
Anastasia in another mimic scene
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Anastasia was small and stout, with light brown hair with reddish hair, with large blue eyes inherited from her father. The girl was distinguished by an easy and cheerful disposition, she loved to play rounders, forfeits, and cerso, she could endlessly rush around the palace for hours, playing hide and seek. She easily climbed trees, and often, out of sheer mischief, refused to go down to the ground. She was inexhaustible on inventions, for example, she loved to paint the cheeks and noses of her sisters, brother and young ladies-in-waiting with fragrant carmine and strawberry juice. With her light hand, it became fashionable to weave flowers and ribbons into her hair, which little Anastasia was very proud of. She was inseparable from her older sister Maria, adored her brother, and could entertain him for hours when Alexei was put to bed by another illness. Anna Vyrubova recalled that "Anastasia was as if made of mercury, and not of flesh and blood." Once, being quite a toddler, three or four years old, at a reception in Kronstadt, she climbed under the table and began pinching those present by the legs, pretending to be a dog - for which she received an immediate severe reprimand from her father.
She also had a clear talent for a comic actress and loved to parody and imitate others, and she did it very talented and funny. Once Alexey told her:
To which he received an unexpected answer that the Grand Duchess could not perform in the theater, she had other responsibilities. Sometimes, however, her jokes became not harmless. So she tirelessly teased the sisters, once playing snowballs with Tatiana, hit her in the face, so hard that the older one could not stay on her feet; however, the culprit herself, frightened to death, cried for a long time in her mother's arms. The Grand Duchess Nina Georgievna later recalled that little Anastasia did not want to forgive her high growth, during the games she tried to outwit, substitute her leg, and even scratch her rival.
Little Anastasia also did not differ with particular accuracy and love of order, Halle Reeves, the wife of an American diplomat accredited at the court of the last emperor, recalled how little Anastasia, being in the theater, ate chocolate, without bothering to take off her long white gloves, and desperately smeared herself face and hands. Her pockets were constantly filled with chocolates and creme brulee sweets, which she generously shared with others.
She also loved animals. At first, she had a spitz named Shvybzik, and many funny and touching cases were also associated with him. So, the Grand Duchess refused to go to bed until the dog joined her, and once, having lost her pet, she called him with a loud bark - and succeeded, Shvybzik was found under the sofa. In 1915, when Pomeranian died of an infection, she was inconsolable for several weeks. Together with their sisters and brother, they buried the dog and buried it in Peterhof, on the Children's Island. Then she had a dog named Jimmy.
She loved to draw, and she did it very well, she enjoyed playing the guitar or balalaika with her brother, knitted, sewed, watched movies, was fond of photography, which was fashionable at that time, and had her own photo album, loved to hang on the phone, read or just lie in bed ... During the war, secretly from her parents, she began to smoke, in which her older sister, Olga, kept her company.
The Grand Duchess was not in good health. Since childhood, she suffered from pain in the feet - a consequence of the congenital curvature of the big toes, the so-called lat. hallux valgus - a syndrome by which she will later begin to be identified with one of the impostors - Anna Anderson. She had a weak back, despite the fact that with all her might she dodged the massage required to strengthen the muscles, hiding from the coming masseuse in the buffet or under the bed. Even with small cuts, the bleeding did not stop for an abnormally long time, from which the doctors concluded that, after her mother, Anastasia was a carrier of hemophilia.
As General M.K.Diterichs, who participated in the investigation of the murder of the royal family, testified:
Drawing of the Grand Duchess Anastasia
French teacher Gilliard recalled her like this:
Finding the remains
Cross over Ganina pit
The tract "Four Brothers" is located a few kilometers from the village of Koptyaki, not far from Yekaterinburg. One of its pits was chosen by Yurovsky's team to bury the remains of the royal family and servants.
It was not possible to keep the place secret from the very beginning, due to the fact that the road to Yekaterinburg passed literally next to the tract, early in the morning the procession was seen by a peasant from the village of Koptyaki Natalya Zykova, and then several more people. The Red Army men, threatening with weapons, drove them away.
Later, on the same day, explosions of grenades were heard in the tract. Interested in the strange incident, the local residents, a few days later, when the cordon had already been removed, came to the tract and managed to find several valuables (apparently belonging to the royal family) in a hurry, unnoticed by the executioners.
American scientists believed that the missing body belonged to Anastasia, because none of the female skeletons showed evidence of immaturity, such as an immature collarbone, undeveloped wisdom teeth, or immature vertebrae in the back, which they expected to find in the body of a seventeen-year-old girl.
In 1998, when the remains of the imperial family were finally buried, a 5'7 "body was buried under the name of Anastasia. Photos of a girl standing next to her sisters, taken six months before the murder, show that Anastasia was several inches shorter than them. Her mother, commenting on the figure of her sixteen-year-old daughter, wrote in a letter to her friend seven months before the murder: “Anastasia, to her despair, has grown fat and looks exactly like Maria a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs ... with age, it will pass ... "Scientists believe it is unlikely that in the last months of her life she grew much. Her real height was approximately 5'2".
The doubts were finally resolved in 2007, after the discovery of the remains of a young girl and a boy on the so-called Porosenkovsky meadow, later identified as Tsarevich Alexei and Maria. Genetic testing confirmed the initial findings. In July 2008, this information was officially confirmed by the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, saying that an examination of the remains found in 2007 on the old Koptyakovskaya road established that the discovered remains belong to Grand Duchess Maria and Tsarevich Alexei, who was the emperor's heir.
Fake Anastasia
The most famous of the false Anastasias is Anna Anderson
Rumors that one of the tsar's daughters managed to escape - either by running away from the Ipatiev house, or even before the revolution, being replaced by someone from the servant, began to circulate among Russian emigrants almost immediately after the execution of the tsarist family. Attempts by a number of people to use for their own ends the belief in the possible salvation of the youngest princess Anastasia led to the appearance of over thirty false Anastasias. One of the most famous impostors was Anna Anderson, who claimed that a soldier named Tchaikovsky was able to pull her wounded from the basement of the Ipatiev house after he saw that she was still alive. Another version of the same story was presented by the former Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda at the trial, at which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called the Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father”. Freedom proclaimed himself the savior of Anderson, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of “a neighbor in love with her, a certain H.”. This version, however, contained quite a lot of obviously implausible details, for example, about the violation of the curfew, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the Grand Duchess's escape, allegedly pasted all over the city, and about general searches, which, fortunately , gave nothing. Thomas Hildebrand Preston, who was at that time the British Consul General in Yekaterinburg, rejected such fabrications. Despite the fact that Anderson defended her "royal" origin to the end of her life, wrote the book "I, Anastasia" and for several decades was in litigation, no final decision was made during her lifetime.
Currently, genetic analysis has confirmed the already existing assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franziska Schanzkowska, a worker in a Berlin explosives factory. As a result of an accident at work, she was seriously injured and received a mental shock, from the consequences of which she could not get rid of for the rest of her life.
Another fake Anastasia was Evgenia Smith (Evgenia Smetisko), an artist who published “memoirs” in the USA about her life and miraculous salvation. She managed to attract significant attention to her person and seriously improve her financial situation, speculating on the interest of the public.
Rumors about the salvation of Anastasia were fueled by news of trains and houses that the Bolsheviks searched in search of the missing princess. During a brief imprisonment in Perm in 1918, Princess Elena Petrovna, the wife of Anastasia's distant relative, Prince Ivan Konstantinovich, reported that the guards brought a girl to her cell, who called herself Anastasia Romanova, and asked if the girl was the Tsar's daughter. Elena Petrovna replied that she did not recognize the girl, and the guards took her away. Another message is given more credibility by one historian. Eight witnesses reported the return of a young woman after an apparent rescue attempt in September 1918 at a railway station at Sid 37, northwest of Perm. These witnesses were Maxim Grigoriev, Tatyana Sytnikova and her son Fyodor Sytnikov, Ivan Kuklin and Marina Kuklina, Vasily Ryabov, Ustina Varankina and Dr. Pavel Utkin, the doctor who examined the girl after the incident. Some witnesses identified the girl as Anastasia when they were shown photographs of the Grand Duchess by White Army investigators. Utkin also told them that the injured girl, whom he examined at the headquarters of the Cheka in Perm, told him: "I am the daughter of the ruler, Anastasia."
At the same time, in mid-1918, there were several reports of young people in Russia posing as the surviving Romanovs. Boris Solovyov, the husband of Rasputin's daughter Maria, deceived noble Russian families for money for the allegedly escaped Romanov, actually wanting to go to China with the proceeds. Solovyov also found women who were willing to impersonate the great princesses and thereby contributed to the introduction of deception.
However, there is a possibility that indeed one or more of the guards could have saved one of the surviving Romanovs. Yakov Yurovsky demanded that the guards come to his office and review the things they had stolen after the murder. Accordingly, there was a period of time when the bodies of the victims were left unattended in the truck, in the basement and in the corridor of the house. Some of the guards who did not participate in the killings and sympathized with the Grand Duchesses, according to some reports, remained in the basement with the bodies.
The last of the false Anastasias, Natalia Bilikhodze, died in 2000.
Rumors revived again after the publication of Sergo Beria's book "My Father - Lavrenty Beria", where the author casually recalls meeting in the foyer of the Bolshoi Theater with Anastasia, who allegedly escaped, who became the abbess of an unnamed Bulgarian monastery.
Rumors of a "miraculous salvation", as if subdued after the royal remains were subjected to scientific study in 1991, resumed with renewed vigor when publications appeared in the press that one of the grand duchesses was absent among the bodies found (it was assumed that it was Maria) and Tsarevich Alexei. However, according to another version, Anastasia, who was a little younger than her sister and almost as built, might not have been among the remains, so an error in identification seemed likely. This time, Nadezhda Ivanova-Vasilyeva claimed the role of the rescued Anastasia, who spent most of her life in the Kazan psychiatric hospital, where she was assigned by the Soviet government, allegedly fearing the surviving princess.
Canonization
The canonization of the family of the last tsar in the rank of new martyrs was first undertaken by the foreign Orthodox Church (1981). Preparations for canonization in Russia began in the same 1991, when excavations in Ganina Yama were resumed. With the blessing of Archbishop Melchizedek, on July 7, the Bow Cross was installed in the tract. On July 17, 1992, the first bishop's procession took place to the burial place of the remains of the royal family.
| About the sanctuary of the Great Martyr, Tsarina Alexandra, Tsarevna Olga, Tatiano, Mary, Anastasia, bought with Tsarevich Alexy and the Monk Martyrs Elizabeth and Barbara! Receive from our repentant hearts this warm prayer that is brought to you, and ask us from the All-Merciful Master and Savior of our Jesus Christ for forgiveness for the permission of Regicide, on us and our father who fell, even to the knee of the sediment. As if in your life on earth, you have created innumerable mercies for your people, so now have mercy on us, sinners, and twist us from fierce sorrows, from mental and physical ailments, from the elements, against us with the permission of God who rise up, from hostile battles and between hostile brotherly shedding blood. Strengthen our faith and hope and ask the Lord for us patience and all that is useful in this life and useful for spiritual salvation. Comfort us who grieve and bring us to salvation. Amen. |
The image of Anastasia in literature and cinematography
Poem by Nikolai Gumilyov
The Russian poet N. S. Gumilyov, being a warrant officer of the Russian army during the First World War and being in the Tsarskoye Selo hospital in 1916, dedicated the following poem to Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna for her birthday:
Today is Anastasia's day,
And we want that through us
Love and affection of all Russia
To you it was gratefully heard.
What a joy to congratulate us
You, the best image of our dreams,
And put a modest signature
At the bottom of the welcome verses.
Forgetting that the day before
We were in fierce battles
We are the fifth of June holiday
Let's celebrate in our hearts.
And we carry off to a new cut
Hearts full of delight
Remembering our meetings
In the middle of the Tsarskoye Selo palace.
Films about Anastasia
In the USA, feature films about Anastasia “Clothes create a woman” (1928), “
One of the most mysterious destinies among all members of the family of the Romanov dynasty - Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. She was resurrected 33 times, but it is still not known whether she managed to escape, or whether she suffered a bitter fate, the same as that of her parents, sisters and brother. Subsequently, many years later, the canonization of the Romanov family was committed for their torment and innocence of the punishment incurred.
The birth of the fourth daughter in the imperial family
Before the birth of Anastasia Romanova, Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna had already had three daughters: Olga, Tatiana and Maria. The absence of an heir greatly worried the imperial family, since by right of inheritance, the next after Nicholas to rule the empire was Mikhail Alexandrovich, his younger brother.
Against the background of these circumstances, Alexandra Feodorovna fell into mysticism. Under the influence of the Montenegrin princess sisters Militsa and Anastasia Nikolaevna, Alexandra Feodorovna invited a French hypnotist named Philip to the court. He predicted the birth of an heir at the time of the empress's fourth pregnancy, thereby encouraging her.
On June 18, 1901, Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova was born, named, as historians assume, in honor of the Montenegrin princess, a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna. Here is what Nicholas II writes in his diary:
At about 3 o'clock, Alix began to experience severe pain. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. Exactly at 6 in the morning, daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions soon and, thank God, without complications. With it all started and ended while everyone was still asleep, we both had a sense of peace and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives to all parts of the world. Fortunately, Alix is \u200b\u200bdoing well. The baby weighs 11.5 pounds and is 55 cm tall.
According to an already established tradition, Nicholas II, in honor of the birth of his children, assigned one of the regiments the name of his daughter. In 1901, some time after the birth of Anastasia, the 148th Caspian Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia's infantry regiment was named in her honor.
Childhood
As soon as the girl was born, she was awarded the title "Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna." But in ordinary life he was never used, preferring to call him affectionately Nastya and Nastasya, and comic nicknames "Shvybzik" for his mischievous character and "little money-box" for a full figure.
Contrary to popular belief, the children in the imperial family were not spoiled by luxury. All four girls occupied only two rooms, living in two in each. Older sisters Olga and Tatiana shared one room, while Maria and Anastasia lived in another.
Gray walls with hung icons and photographs that family members loved so much, and painted butterflies on the ceiling, white and green furniture and an army couch - this is how you can describe the almost Spartan interior in which the girls lived.
These army bunks accompanied them everywhere to the very end. In hot weather, they could even be moved to the balcony to sleep in the fresh air, and in winter they were moved to the most illuminated and warmest part of the room. These beds accompanied them on trains to the Crimea, to the Livadia Palace, and even during their exile to Siberia.
The daily routine was pretty simple. At 8 in the morning, awakening and hardening in a cold bath. Breakfast followed after the morning toilet. At noon, the whole family dined in the dining room. Tea time is at five o'clock in the evening, as in all decent families. Dinner at eight o'clock, after which the family members spent the rest of the day playing musical instruments, reading aloud, solving charades, embroidery and other entertainment. Before going to bed, it was compulsory to take a hot bath with drops of perfume. While the children were young, the servants carried water into the bathtub. Later, having matured, the girls collected water on their own. They were looking forward to the weekend with special impatience, since these days they attended children's balls, which were organized in her estate by their aunt Olga Alexandrovna, the younger sister of Nicholas II.
Study
All the offspring of the imperial family received home education, which began at the age of eight. The training program included foreign languages: French, English, German. As well as grammar, arithmetic and geometry, history, geography, the law of God, natural sciences, music, singing and dancing.
Anastasia Romanova was not distinguished by a special zeal for learning, like many capable children. She didn't like grammar and arithmetic lessons. She called the second subject "swinishness", and in grammar she made many mistakes.
Her English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that the girl once tried to bribe the teacher so that he would raise her grades on academic performance. With childlike spontaneity, she tried to give him flowers, but when he refused, she gave this bouquet to the grammar teacher.
The appearance of the young princess Anastasia
The advent of cameras allows us now to see what Anastasia Romanova looked like. Numerous photographs from the family's archives suggest that they were very fond of being photographed. Anastasia, at an older age, was seriously passionate about the art of photography and took numerous pictures of her family and friends.
She was short in stature, about 157 centimeters, and a dense build. It is for this that Anastasia in the Romanov family was nicknamed "the egg-box". But at the same time, her figure was extremely feminine: wide hips and voluminous breasts, combined with a graceful waist, gave the girl a certain airiness.
Large blue eyes and light brown hair with a slight golden tint made her face look like her father. She had a pretty appearance, like the rest of the children, but unlike her older sisters, she looked rather rustic. We can say that genetically she was the only one who inherited her father's features to a greater extent - high cheekbones and an oval elongated face shape.
Anastasia inherited poor health from her mother. Constant complaints of pain in the feet due to twisted thumbs, back pain. At the same time, she diligently avoided he therapeutic massage, which helps to relieve symptoms and alleviate the condition. Presumably, she also suffered from hemophilia, like her brother Alexei, since even small wounds healed for a very long time.
Character
Like many small children born into a loving family, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was distinguished by a cheerful character. She loved outdoor games, such as hide and seek, sirso and rounders, easily climbed trees and did not want to climb down for a long time, which she loved to do in her free time. She constantly risked being punished for her tricks.
Anastasia spent a lot of time with her older sister Maria and was practically inseparable with her. She could entertain her younger brother for hours when he was knocked down by another illness and bedridden. She possessed artistry and often parodied courtiers and loved ones, acting out comic scenes. At the same time, she did not differ in accuracy.
Anastasia had great love for animals. At first, she had a small Pomeranian dog named Shvybzik, with which many cute and funny stories were associated. He died in 1915, in connection with which the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II was inconsolable for several weeks. Then the dog Jimmy appeared in the family.
She enjoyed drawing, playing stringed musical instruments with her brother, playing four-handed piano pieces by famous composers with her mother, watching movies and chatting on the phone for hours. During the First World War, she became addicted to smoking along with her older sisters.
Life during the First World War
When it became known about the beginning of the war in 1914, Anastasia, along with her sisters and Alexandra Fedorovna, cried for a long time. When she was 14 years old, Anastasia was given command of the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment, named after Saint Anastasia the Uzorezrezitelnitsa, celebrating her day on December 22.
For the creation of the hospital, Alexandra Feodorovna gave many rooms of the palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Olga and Tatiana began to play the role of sisters of mercy, while Maria and Anastasia, due to their small age, were patroness of the hospital.
The younger sisters devoted a lot of time to the wounded soldiers, entertaining them in every possible way by reading books, learning to read and write, playing musical instruments, theatrical sketches, and so on. The girls donated their own savings to buy medicines, wrote letters home on behalf of the wounded, played board games, provided the hospital with bandages and linen, and spent a lot of time in the evenings talking to soldiers, trying to distract them from physical and mental pain. Anastasia remembered this period in her life until the end of her days.
House arrest of the royal family
In 1917, the revolution began. It was during this period that all the daughters of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna fell ill with measles. Under the influence of disease and potent drugs, everyone begins to lose their hair. In this regard, it was decided to shave all heads baldly. Together with them, Alexey, the youngest son, expresses a desire to shave, to which Alexandra Feodorovna reacted very sharply. In the story about Anastasia Romanova, there is even a photograph that depicts imperial children with a bald head.
At this time, Nicholas II was in Mogilev. They tried to hide from the children as long as possible the true cause of the shots outside the palace, explaining this by the ongoing exercises. On March 2, 1917, the emperor abdicated the title of tsar. Already on March 8, the Provisional Government decided to place the Romanov family under house arrest.
It turned out to be quite tolerable to live within the confines of the palace. However, I had to cut back on my diet so as not to displease the workers, as the menu of the royal family was publicly publicized every day. And also to reduce the time spent in the courtyard of the palace. Passers-by often looked through the bars of the fence, and one could hear swear words addressed to all family members.
Despite the unfolding events in the Empire, life went on as usual. Children did not stop getting education even in a confined space. At that time, the hope was still not fading away all together to go abroad to England, to a safer place. But George V, King of Great Britain, to the surprise of the ministry, did not support his cousin in this matter.
In August 1917, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the family of Nikolai Alexandrovich to Tobolsk. On August 12, a train under the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission departed from the siding in the strictest confidence.
Link to Siberia
Exactly two weeks later, on August 24, a steamer arrived on the platform of Tobolsk. But the house intended for confinement was not yet ready, so the Romanovs lived on a steamer for several days. As soon as the work in the building was completed, the whole family was escorted to the house, forming a living corridor of soldiers so that passers-by could not see them.
Living in Tobolsk was rather boring and monotonous. All the same, the education of the children continued, the father taught them history and geography, the mother taught them the law of God. Surprisingly, they did not live at all like a royal couple, but rather looked like ordinary people who did not indulge themselves in delights. Moreover, in conditions of exile, the way of life has become even simpler.
In the biography of Anastasia Romanova, it is mentioned that the girl suddenly quickly began to gain excess weight, thereby causing anxiety in her mother.
In April 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the fourth convocation decided to judge the tsar in Moscow. Together with Nikolai, Alexandra Feodorovna and Maria are going on the road to support her husband. The rest of the family remained to wait in Tobolsk. The moment of the wires was sad enough.
As a result, on the way, it became clear that they would not get to Moscow. It was decided to stay in Yekaterinburg, in the house of the engineer Ipatiev. And since the further route was not possible, Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and Alexey were subsequently sent to Yekaterinburg by steamer with a change to a train in Tyumen. On the trip, the children were accompanied by the ladies-in-waiting, the French teacher Zhillard and the sailor Nagorny, who was traveling in the same cabin with Tsarevich Alexei. At that time, Alexei was already feeling better, but the guards locked the cabins and did not even let the doctor inside.
On May 23, the train arrived at the station platform in Yekaterinburg. Here the children were taken away from their escorts and sent to the Ipatiev house. Life in Yekaterinburg was even more monotonous.
On June 18, Anastasia celebrated her last birthday. She was only 17 years old that day. The weather was excellent, and only in the evening the clouds came over and a thunderstorm broke out. They baked bread for the holiday, and the celebration continued in the courtyard. In the evening, the whole family played cards after dinner. They went to bed at the usual time, at half past ten in the evening.
The death of Anastasia Romanova and the entire royal family
According to official data, the decision on the death penalty for the imperial family was made on July 16 by the Ural Council. The council came to this decision in connection with suspicions of a conspiracy to save the family of Emperor Nicholas II and the capture of the city by the White Guard troops.
On the night of this date, the commander of the detachment, PZ Ermakov, was handed an order to shoot. At this time, all family members were already sleeping in their rooms. They were awakened and sent to the basement of the Ipatievs' house under the pretext of rescuing them during a possible shootout.
As far as historians now know, the executed did not even know about the execution, and obediently went down to the basement. Two chairs were brought into the room, on which Nikolai was placed with his sick son Alexei in his arms and Alexandra Feodorovna. The rest of the children and accompanying persons stood behind. The girls took with them several reticules and Jimmy's dog, which accompanied them throughout the exile.
According to the data, after a survey of the "executioners", Anastasia, Tatiana and Maria did not die immediately. They were protected from the first shots by jewels sewn into corsets. Anastasia resisted the longest and remained alive, so she was finished off with bayonets and rifle butts.
The corpses were taken out of the city and buried in the Four Brothers tract. The bodies wrapped in sheets were thrown into one of the mines, having previously been doused with sulfuric acid and disfigured beyond recognition. Until now, professionals and history buffs are arguing whether Anastasia Romanova managed to survive or not. The corpse of Anastasia was never found in the general burial.
"Resurrected" Anastasia
According to rumors, Anastasia managed to avoid the death penalty. Either she escaped before her arrest, or one of the maids replaced her. After all, as you know, the family of the emperor had several doubles. On this basis, many impostors appeared, calling themselves the escaped Princess Anastasia.
The most famous fake Anastasia claimed that she managed to escape thanks to a soldier named Tchaikovsky. Her name was Anna Anderson. According to her, this soldier managed to pull the wounded princess from the basement of the Ipatiev house and helped her escape. Identical diseases of the feet testified to her resemblance to the princess. Anna Anderson even wrote the book "I, Anastasia" and until the end of her life claimed that she was the daughter of the king.
So, thanks to rumors of a miraculous salvation, 33 women officially claimed that they were the very same Anastasia. Some close relatives of the Romanovs recognized different girls as the daughter of the tsar. However, it was not possible to prove their relationship. Such excitement was most likely associated with the emperor's multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Icon of the Holy Martyr Anastasia
In 1981, the Russian Church Abroad decided to canonize the family of the Russian tsar with the rank of new martyrs. Preparations for the canonization of the Romanov family took place in 1991. Archbishop Melchizedek blessed the Four Brothers tract to be installed at the burial site of the Poklonnaya Cross. Later, in 2000, on October 1, the Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Archbishop laid the first stone in the foundation of the future church in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna
The youngest of the Grand Duchesses, Anastasia Nikolaevna, seemed to be made of mercury, not flesh and blood. She was very, extremely witty and had the unmistakable gift of a mime. She knew how to find a funny side in everything.
During the revolution, Anastasia turned only sixteen - after all, not so hot what old age! She was pretty, but her face was bright, and her eyes shone with a remarkable intelligence.
The girl-"tomboy", "Schwibz", as her relatives called her, maybe she would like to correspond to the girl's ideal of Domostroy, but she could not. But, most likely, She simply did not think about it, because the main feature of Her not fully revealed character was cheerful childishness.
Anastasia Nikolaevna was ... a big minx, and not without guile. She quickly grasped funny sides in everything; It was difficult to fight against Her attacks. She was a darling - a flaw from which She corrected herself over the years. Very lazy, as is sometimes the case with very capable children, She had an excellent pronunciation of French and acted out small theatrical scenes with real talent. She was so cheerful and so knew how to disperse the wrinkles of anyone who was out of sorts, that some of those around them began, recalling the nickname given to Her Mother at the English court, to call Her "Sunbeam" "
Birth.
Born June 5, 1901 in Peterhof. By the time she appeared, the royal couple already had three daughters - Olga, Tatiana and Maria. The absence of an heir heated up the political situation: according to the Act of Succession to the throne, adopted by Paul I, a woman could not ascend to the throne, because the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was considered the heir, which did not suit many, and first of all, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. In an attempt to beg her son from Providence, at this time she is more and more immersed in mysticism. With the assistance of the Montenegrin princesses Militsa Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, a certain Philip, a French national, arrived at the court, who declared himself a hypnotist and a specialist in nervous diseases. Philip predicted to Alexandra Fedorovna the birth of a son, however, a girl was born - Anastasia.
Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with her daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia
Nikolay wrote in his diary: “At about 3 o'clock Alix began to have severe pains. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. Exactly at 6 in the morning, daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions soon and, thank God, without complications. Thanks to the fact that it all started and ended while everyone was still asleep, we both had a sense of peace and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives to all parts of the world. Fortunately, Alix is \u200b\u200bdoing well. The baby weighs 11½ pounds and is 55cm tall. "
The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the empress. The "hypnotist" Philip, not being lost after the failed prophecy, immediately predicted to her "an amazing life and a special fate." reinstated the rights of the students of St. Petersburg University who took part in the recent unrest, since the very name "Anastasia" means "brought back to life", the image of this saint usually has chains torn in half.
Childhood.
Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna in 1902
The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, but they did not use it, in the official speech they called her by name and patronymic, and at home they called her "little, Nastaska, Nastya, egg-capsule" - for her small height (157 cm .) and a round figure and "shvybzik" - for mobility and inexhaustibility in the invention of pranks and pranks.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the emperor's children were not pampered with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. The walls of the room were gray and the ceiling was decorated with images of butterflies. On the walls are icons and photographs. The furniture is white and green, the furnishings are simple, almost spartan, a couch with embroidered cushions, and an army bunk where the Grand Duchess slept all year round. This bed moved around the room in order to find itself in a brighter and warmer part of the room in winter, and in summer it was sometimes even pulled out onto the balcony so that you could take a break from the stuffiness and heat. The same bed was taken with them on vacation to the Livadia Palace, on which the Grand Duchess slept during her Siberian exile. One large room next door, divided in half by a curtain, served as a common boudoir and bathroom for the Grand Duchesses.
Princess Maria and Anastasia
The life of the grand duchesses was rather monotonous. Breakfast at 9 o'clock, lunch at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock - tea, at eight - a general dinner, and the food was quite simple and unassuming. In the evenings, the girls would solve charades and embroider while their father read aloud to them.
Princess Maria and Anastasia
Early in the morning it was supposed to take a cold bath, in the evening - a warm one, to which a few drops of perfume were added, and Anastasia preferred Kochi's perfume with the scent of violets. This tradition has survived since the time of Catherine I. When the girls were small, the servants carried buckets of water to the bathroom, when they grew up - it was their responsibility. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who washed in it left their autograph on the side), the other, smaller, was intended for children.
Grand Duchess Anastasia
Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Studying began at the age of eight, the program included French, English and German, history, geography, the law of God, natural sciences, drawing, grammar, arithmetic, as well as dance and music. Anastasia was not very diligent in her studies, she could not stand grammar, wrote with horrific mistakes, and called arithmetic with childish spontaneity "swinish". English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that once she tried to bribe him with a bouquet of flowers to increase his grade, and after he refused, she gave these flowers to the teacher of the Russian language, Petrov.
Grand Duchess Anastasia
Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia
In mid-June, the family went on trips on the imperial yacht "Standart", usually through the Finnish skerries, landing from time to time on the islands for short excursions. Especially the imperial family fell in love with a small bay, which was dubbed the Standard Bay. They held picnics there, or played tennis on the court, which the emperor arranged with his own hands.
Nicholas II with his daughters -. Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia
We also rested in the Livadia Palace. The main premises housed the imperial family, in the outbuildings there were several courtiers, guards and servants. They swam in the warm sea, built fortresses and towers of sand, sometimes got out into the city to ride a wheelchair through the streets or visit shops. In St. Petersburg, it was not possible to do this, since any appearance of the royal family in public created a crowd and excitement.
Visit to Germany
We sometimes visited Polish estates belonging to the royal family, where Nicholas loved to hunt.
Anastasia with sisters Tatyana and Olga.
World War I
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, following her mother and older sisters, Anastasia sobbed bitterly on the day of the declaration of war.
On the day of the fourteenth birthday, by tradition, each of the emperor's daughters became an honorary commander of one of the Russian regiments.
In 1901, after her birth, the name of St. In honor of the princess, Anastasia Uzorezresitelitsa received the Caspian 148th Infantry Regiment. He began to celebrate his regimental holiday on December 22, saint's day. The regimental church was erected in Peterhof by the architect Mikhail Fedorovich Verzhbitsky. At 14, she became his honorary commander (colonel), about which Nikolai made a corresponding entry in his diary. From now on, the regiment was officially named the 148th Caspian Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Infantry Regiment.
During the war, the Empress gave many of the palace rooms to hospital premises. The elder sisters Olga and Tatiana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, as too young for such hard work, became patroness of the hospital. Both sisters gave their own money to buy medicines, read aloud to the wounded, knitted things for them, played cards and checkers, wrote letters home under their dictation, and entertained them with telephone conversations in the evenings, sewed clothes, prepared bandages and lint.
Maria and Anastasia gave concerts to the wounded and did their best to distract them from heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctant to break away from work for the sake of lessons. Anastasia remembered these days until the end of her life:
Under house arrest.
According to the memoirs of Lily Den (Julia Alexandrovna von Den), a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna, in February 1917, in the midst of the revolution, children one after another fell ill with measles. Anastasia was the last to take to her bed, when the Tsarskoye Selo palace was already surrounded by the insurgent troops. The tsar was at that time at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, in Mogilev, only the empress and the children remained in the palace. ...
Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia are looking at photographs
On the night of March 2, 1917, Lily Den stayed overnight in the palace, in the Crimson Room, with Grand Duchess Anastasia. The children, so that they would not worry, were explained that the troops that surrounded the palace and the distant shots were the result of the ongoing exercises. Alexandra Fyodorovna assumed "to hide the truth from them for as long as possible." At 9 o'clock on March 2, they learned about the abdication of the king.
On Wednesday, March 8, Count Pavel Benckendorff appeared in the palace with the message that the Provisional Government had decided to subject the imperial family to house arrest in Tsarskoye Selo. It was suggested to make a list of people willing to stay with them. Lili Den immediately offered her services.
A.A. Vyrubova, Alexandra Fedorovna, Yu.A. Den.
On March 9, the children were informed about the father's abdication. Nikolai returned a few days later. Life under house arrest turned out to be bearable enough. I had to reduce the number of dishes during lunch, since the menu of the royal family was announced publicly from time to time, and it was not worth giving an extra reason to provoke an already angry crowd. The curious often looked through the bars of the fence as the family walk in the park and sometimes greeted her with whistles and swearing, so the walks had to be shortened.
On June 22, 1917, it was decided to shave the girls' heads, as their hair was falling out due to the persistent temperature and strong drugs. Alexey insisted that he be shaved too, thus causing extreme displeasure in his mother.
Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia
In spite of everything, the education of the children continued. The entire process was led by Jillard, a French teacher; Nikolai himself taught children geography and history; Baroness Buxgewden took over English and music lessons; Mademoiselle Schneider taught arithmetic; Countess Gendrikova - drawing; Alexandra taught Orthodoxy.
The eldest, Olga, despite the fact that her education was completed, was often present at the lessons and read a lot, improving in what had already been learned.
Grand Duchesses Olga and Anastasia
At this time there was still hope for the family of the former tsar to go abroad; but George V, whose popularity among his subjects was rapidly falling, decided not to risk it and chose to sacrifice the royal family, thereby causing shock in his own cabinet.
Nicholas II and George V
Ultimately, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the family of the former tsar to Tobolsk. On the last day before leaving, they managed to say goodbye to the servants, for the last time they visited their favorite places in the park, ponds, islands. Alexei wrote in his diary that on that day he managed to push his older sister Olga into the water. On August 12, 1917, a train flying the flag of the Japanese Red Cross Mission left the siding in the strictest confidence.
Tobolsk.
On August 26, the imperial family arrived in Tobolsk on the "Rus" steamer. The house intended for them was not yet completely ready, so they spent the first eight days on the steamer.
Arrival of the Royal Family to Tobolsk
Finally, under escort, the imperial family was taken to the two-story governor's mansion, where they would henceforth live. The girls were given a corner bedroom on the second floor, where they were accommodated in the same army bunks captured from the Alexander Palace. Anastasia additionally decorated her corner with her favorite photographs and drawings.
Life in the governor's mansion was rather monotonous; the main entertainment is to watch passers-by from the window. From 9.00 to 11.00 - lessons. Hour break for a walk with your father. Lessons again from 12.00 to 13.00. Dinner. From 14.00 to 16.00 walks and simple entertainment like home performances, or in winter - riding from a slide built with your own hands. Anastasia, in her own words, enthusiastically prepared firewood and sewed. Further, according to the schedule, followed the evening service and going to bed.
In September, they were allowed to go to the nearest church for the morning service. Again, the soldiers formed a living corridor all the way to the church doors. The attitude of local residents to the royal family was rather benevolent.
The news that Nicholas II, exiled to Tobolsk, and the royal family were going to see the monument to Ermak, spread not only in the city, but also in the district. The Tobolsk photographer Ilya Efimovich Kondrakhin, who was keen on photography, hurried to capture this moment with his bulky apparatus - a great rarity in those days. And here we have a photograph showing how several dozen people climb the slope of the hill on which there is a monument so as not to miss the arrival of the last Russian tsar. Vladimir Vasilievich Kondrakhin (grandson of the photographer) took a picture from the original photo
Tobolsk
Suddenly, Anastasia began to gain weight, and the process was proceeding at a fairly fast pace, so that even the empress, worried, wrote to her friend:
"Anastasia, to her despair, has grown fat and looks exactly like Maria a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs ... Let's hope this will pass with age ..."
From a letter to Sister Maria.
“The iconostasis for Easter has been arranged terribly well, everything is in the tree, as it should be here, and flowers. We filmed, I hope it will come out. I continue to paint, they say - not bad, very nice. We were swinging on a swing, when I fell, it was such a wonderful fall! .. yeah! Yesterday I told the sisters so many times that they were already tired of it, but I can tell many more times, although there is no one else. In general, I have a carload of things to tell you and you. My Jimmy woke up and coughs, so he sits at home, helmet bows. That was the weather! You could shout straight out of pleasure. I am the most tanned, oddly enough, just an acrobat! And these days are boring and ugly, it's cold, and we got cold this morning, although of course we didn't go home ... I'm very sorry, I forgot to congratulate all of my loved ones on the holidays, whole not three, but a lot of times All. All of you darling thank you very much for the letter "
In April 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the fourth convocation decided to transfer the former tsar to Moscow with a view to his trial. After long hesitation, Alexandra decided to accompany her husband; Maria had to leave with her “to help”.
The rest had to wait for them in Tobolsk, Olga's duties were to take care of her sick brother, Tatyana - to manage the household, Anastasia - "to entertain everyone." However, in the beginning, the entertainment was tight, on the last night before leaving, no one closed his eyes, and when finally in the morning, peasant carts for the tsar, the tsarina and those accompanying were brought to the doorstep, three girls - "three figures in gray" with tears saw off those leaving to the very gates.
In the courtyard of the governor's house
In the empty house, life went on slowly and sadly. They wondered from books, read to each other aloud, walked. Anastasia was still swinging on a swing, drawing and playing with her sick brother. According to the recollections of Gleb Botkin, the son of a physician who died with the royal family, he once saw Anastasia in the window and bowed to her, but the guards immediately chased him away, threatening to shoot if he dared to come so close again.
Conducted. Princess Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia () and Tsarevich Alexei at tea. Tobolsk, governor's house. Apr-May 1918
On May 3, 1918, it became clear that for some reason, the departure of the former tsar to Moscow was canceled and instead Nikolai, Alexandra and Maria were forced to stay at the house of the engineer Ipatiev in Yekaterinburg, requisitioned by the new government specifically in order to accommodate the royal family ... In a letter marked with this date, the empress instructed her daughters to “properly dispose of medicines” - this word meant jewelry that they managed to hide and take with them. Under the leadership of Tatyana's older sister, Anastasia sewed the remaining jewelry into the corset of her dress - with a successful coincidence, it was supposed to redeem her way to salvation for them.
On May 19, it was finally decided that the remaining daughters and Alexei, who was quite strong by that time, would join the parents and Maria in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. The next day, May 20, all four boarded the steamer Rus, which brought them to Tyumen. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the girls were taken in locked cabins, Alexei rode with his orderly named Nagorny, access to them in the cabin was prohibited even for a doctor.
"My dear friend,
I'll tell you how we drove. We left early in the morning, then got on the train and I fell asleep, followed by all the others. We were all very tired because we hadn't slept all night before. The first day was very stuffy and dusty, and at every station we had to draw the curtains so that no one could see us. One evening I looked out when we stopped at a small house, the station was not there, and you could look outside. A little boy came up to me and asked: "Uncle, give me a newspaper if you have one." I said: "I am not an uncle, but an aunt, and I have no newspaper." At first I did not understand why he decided that I was an "uncle", and then I remembered that my hair was cut short and, together with the soldiers who accompanied us, we laughed at this story for a long time. In general, there was a lot of fun on the way, and if there is time, I will tell you about the journey from beginning to end. Goodbye, don't forget me. Everyone is kissing you.
Your Anastasia. "
On May 23, at 9 am, the train arrived in Yekaterinburg. Here, the teachers of the French language Zhiyard, the sailor Nagorny and the maid of honor, who had arrived with them, were removed from the children. The carriages were brought to the train and at 11 o'clock in the morning Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and Alexey were finally taken to the house of engineer Ipatiev.
Ipatiev House
Life in a "special purpose home" was monotonous, boring - but nothing more. Wake up at 9 o'clock, breakfast. At 2.30 - lunch, at 5 - noon tea and dinner at 8. The family went to bed at 10.30 in the evening. Anastasia, together with her sisters, sewed, walked in the garden, played cards and read spiritual publications aloud to her mother. A little later, the girls were taught to bake bread and they enthusiastically devoted themselves to this occupation.
The dining room, the door visible in the picture leads to the Princess's room.
Room of the Sovereign, Empress and Heir.
On Tuesday June 18, 1918, Anastasia celebrated her last, 17th birthday. The weather that day was excellent, only in the evening a small thunderstorm broke out. Lilacs and lungwort were blooming. The girls baked bread, then Alexei was taken to the garden, and the whole family joined him. At 8 pm we had supper, played several games of cards. They went to bed at the usual time, at 10.30 pm.
Firing squad
It is officially believed that the decision to shoot the royal family was finally made by the Ural Council on July 16 in connection with the possibility of surrendering the city to the White Guard troops and the allegedly discovered conspiracy to save the royal family. On the night of July 16-17, at 11:30 pm, two specially authorized representatives from the Ural Soviet handed a written order to shoot the commander of the security detachment P.Z. After a brief dispute about the method of execution, the royal family was awakened and, under the pretext of a possible firefight and the danger of being killed by bullets that bounced off the walls, they offered to go down to the corner basement room.
According to Yakov Yurovsky's report, the Romanovs did not suspect anything until the last moment. At the request of the empress, chairs were brought into the basement, on which she herself and Nikolai with her son in her arms sat. Anastasia, along with her sisters, stood behind. The sisters brought several handbags with them, Anastasia also took her beloved dog Jimmy, who accompanied her throughout her exile.
Anastasia holds Jimmy the dog
There is information that after the first volley Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia survived, they were saved by jewels sewn into the corsets of dresses. Later, the witnesses interrogated by the investigator Sokolov testified that of the Tsar's daughters, Anastasia resisted death the longest, the already wounded one “had to” finish off with bayonets and rifle butts. According to the materials discovered by the historian Edward Radzinsky, Anna Demidova, Alexandra's servant, remained alive for the longest time, who managed to protect herself with a pillow filled with jewelry.
Together with the corpses of relatives, Anastasia's body was wrapped in sheets taken from the beds of the Grand Duchesses, and taken to the Four Brothers tract for burial. There the corpses, disfigured beyond recognition by blows of butts and sulfuric acid, were thrown into one of the old mines. Later, investigator Sokolov found the body of Ortino's dog here.
Grand Duchess Anastasia, Grand Duchess Tatiana holding the dog Ortino
After the execution in the room of the grand duchesses, the last drawing made by Anastasia's hand was found - a swing between two birches.
Drawings of Grand Duchess Anastasia
Anastasia over Ganina Yama
Finding the remains
The tract "Four Brothers" is located a few kilometers from the village of Koptyaki, not far from Yekaterinburg. One of its pits was chosen by Yurovsky's team to bury the remains of the royal family and servants.
It was not possible to keep the place secret from the very beginning, due to the fact that the road to Yekaterinburg passed literally next to the tract, early in the morning the procession was seen by a peasant from the village of Koptyaki Natalya Zykova, and then several more people. The Red Army men, threatening with weapons, drove them away.
Later, on the same day, explosions of grenades were heard in the tract. Interested in the strange incident, the local residents, a few days later, when the cordon had already been removed, came to the tract and managed to find several valuables (apparently belonging to the royal family) in a hurry, unnoticed by the executioners.
From May 23 to June 17, 1919, investigator Sokolov conducted reconnaissance of the area and interviewed the villagers.
Photo by Gilliard: Nikolai Sokolov in 1919 near Yekaterinburg.
From June 6 to July 10, on the orders of Admiral Kolchak, excavations of the Ganina pit began, which were interrupted due to the retreat of the Whites from the city.
On July 11, 1991, in Ganina Yama, at a depth of just over one meter, remains were found, identified as the bodies of the royal family and servants. The body, which probably belonged to Anastasia, was marked with number 5. Doubts arose about it - the entire left side of the face was smashed into pieces; Russian anthropologists tried to combine the found fragments together, and put together the missing part from them. The result of rather painstaking work was in doubt. Russian researchers tried to proceed from the growth of the found skeleton, however, measurements were taken from photographs and were questioned by American experts.
American scientists believed that the missing body belonged to Anastasia, because none of the female skeletons showed evidence of immaturity, such as an immature collarbone, undeveloped wisdom teeth, or immature vertebrae in the back, which they expected to find in the body of a seventeen-year-old girl.
In 1998, when the remains of the imperial family were finally buried, a 5'7 "body was buried under the name of Anastasia. Photos of a girl standing next to her sisters, taken six months before the murder, show that Anastasia was several inches shorter than them. Her mother, commenting on the figure of her sixteen-year-old daughter, wrote in a letter to her friend seven months before the murder: “Anastasia, to her despair, has grown fat and looks exactly like Maria a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs ... with age, it will pass ... "Scientists believe it is unlikely that in the last months of her life she grew much. Her real height was approximately 5'2".
The doubts were finally resolved in 2007, after the discovery of the remains of a young girl and a boy in the so-called Porosenkovsky Log, later identified as Tsarevich Alexei and Maria. Genetic testing confirmed the initial findings. In July 2008, this information was officially confirmed by the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, saying that an examination of the remains found in 2007 on the old Koptyakovskaya road established that the discovered remains belong to Grand Duchess Maria and Tsarevich Alexei, who was the emperor's heir.
Fireplace with "charred wood parts"
Another version of the same story was presented by the former Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda at the trial, at which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called the Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father”. Freedom proclaimed himself the savior of Anderson, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of “a neighbor in love with her, a certain H.”. This version, however, contained quite a lot of obviously implausible details, for example, about the violation of the curfew, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the Grand Duchess's escape, allegedly pasted all over the city, and about general searches, which, fortunately , gave nothing. Thomas Hildebrand Preston, who was at that time the British Consul General in Yekaterinburg, rejected such fabrications. Despite the fact that Anderson defended her "royal" origin to the end of her life, wrote the book "I, Anastasia" and for several decades was in litigation, no final decision was made during her lifetime.
Currently, genetic analysis has confirmed the already existing assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franziska Schanzkowska, a worker in a Berlin explosives factory. As a result of an accident at work, she was seriously injured and received a mental shock, from the consequences of which she could not get rid of for the rest of her life.
Another fake Anastasia was Evgenia Smith (Evgenia Smetisko), an artist who published “memoirs” in the USA about her life and miraculous salvation. She managed to attract significant attention to her person and seriously improve her financial situation, speculating on the interest of the public.
Eugene Smith. the photo
Rumors about the salvation of Anastasia were fueled by news of trains and houses that the Bolsheviks searched in search of the missing princess. During a brief imprisonment in Perm in 1918, Princess Elena Petrovna, the wife of Anastasia's distant relative, Prince Ivan Konstantinovich, reported that the guards brought a girl, who called herself Anastasia Romanova, to her cell, and asked if the girl was the Tsar's daughter. Elena Petrovna replied that she did not recognize the girl, and the guards took her away. Another message is given more credibility by one historian. Eight witnesses reported the return of a young woman after an apparent rescue attempt in September 1918 at a railway station at Sid 37, northwest of Perm. These witnesses were Maxim Grigoriev, Tatyana Sytnikova and her son Fyodor Sytnikov, Ivan Kuklin and Marina Kuklina, Vasily Ryabov, Ustina Varankina and Dr. Pavel Utkin, the doctor who examined the girl after the incident. Some witnesses identified the girl as Anastasia when they were shown photographs of the Grand Duchess by White Army investigators. Utkin also told them that the injured girl, whom he examined at the headquarters of the Cheka in Perm, told him: "I am the daughter of the ruler, Anastasia."
At the same time, in mid-1918, there were several reports of young people in Russia posing as the surviving Romanovs. Boris Solovyov, the husband of Rasputin's daughter Maria, deceived noble Russian families for money for the allegedly escaped Romanov, actually wanting to go to China with the proceeds. Solovyov also found women who were willing to impersonate the great princesses and thereby contributed to the introduction of deception.
However, there is a possibility that indeed one or more of the guards could have saved one of the surviving Romanovs. Yakov Yurovsky demanded that the guards come to his office and review the things they had stolen after the murder. Accordingly, there was a period of time when the bodies of the victims were left unattended in the truck, in the basement and in the corridor of the house. Some of the guards who did not participate in the killings and sympathized with the Grand Duchesses, according to some reports, remained in the basement with the bodies.
In 1964-1967, during the Anna Anderson case, the Viennese tailor Heinrich Kleibenzetl testified that he allegedly saw the wounded Anastasia shortly after the murder in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. The girl was looked after by his landlady, Anna Baoudin, in a building directly opposite Ipatiev's house.
“The lower part of her body was covered in blood, her eyes were closed, and she was white as a sheet,” he testified. “We washed her chin, Frau Annushka and I, then she groaned. The bones must have been broken ... Then she opened her eyes for a minute. " Kleibenzetl claimed that the injured girl remained at his landlord's house for three days. The Red Army men allegedly came to the house, but they knew his landlord too well and did not actually search the house. "They said something like this: Anastasia has disappeared, but she's not here, that's for sure." Finally, a Red Army soldier, the same person who brought her, came to pick up the girl. Kleibenzetl knew nothing more about her further fate.
Rumors revived again after the publication of Sergo Beria's book "My Father - Lavrenty Beria", where the author casually recalls a meeting in the foyer of the Bolshoi Theater with the allegedly escaped Anastasia, who became the abbess of an unnamed Bulgarian monastery.
Rumors of a "miraculous salvation", as if subdued after the royal remains were subjected to scientific study in 1991, resumed with renewed vigor when publications appeared in the press that one of the grand duchesses was absent among the bodies found (it was assumed that it was Maria) and Tsarevich Alexei. However, according to another version, Anastasia, who was a little younger than her sister and almost as built, might not have been among the remains, so an error in identification seemed likely. This time, Nadezhda Ivanova-Vasilyeva claimed the role of the rescued Anastasia, who spent most of her life in the Kazan psychiatric hospital, where she was assigned by the Soviet government, allegedly fearing the surviving princess.
Prince Dmitry Romanovich Romanov, great-great-grandson of Nicholas, summed up the long-term epic of impostors:
Self-styled Anastasias in my memory were from 12 to 19. In the conditions of the post-war depression, many went crazy. We, the Romanovs, would be happy if Anastasia, even in the person of this very Anna Anderson, was alive. But alas, it was not her.
The last dot on the i was put by the discovery in the same tract in 2007 of the bodies of Alexei and Maria and anthropological and genetic examination, which finally confirmed that there could not be any rescued among the royal family