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Sierra Smith Christopher Calhoun ENG 121 October 23, 2013 Anna Anderson: Grand Duchess or Imposter The Romanovs were the royal family in Russia consisting of Czar Nicholas II, Czarina Alexandra, their four daughters, and one son. That is, until the family was brutally murdered in the basement of the Ipatiev House on July 17, 1918 (Lovell 51-52). Then, two years later a woman named Anna Anderson appeared after a failed suicide attempt claiming she was Anastasia, Grand Duchess of Russia (Yudina). Many people have spent their entire lifetime dedicated to helping Anderson earn her title. However, they never really knew whether she was truly the Grand Duchess or not. Anastasia was born on June 18, 1901 in a palace named Peterhof. At home, they would call her Nastya. According to Anna Yudina who wrote the article Prominent Russians: Anastasia Romanova, Anastasia was known for being very mischievous and witty. Her family considered her a wonderful actor but she refused to become a professional. She claimed she had other responsibilities. As a young child, she and her younger brother, Alexei, once snuck under a table and pinched their visitors. Other times Anastasia, being the tomboy she was, would climb trees and refuse to come down. She also enjoyed playing pranks on her tutors and servants (Yudina). When the war in Russia broke out the Aleksander Palace was turned into a hospital. The Romanov sisters tried to help in any way they could. Olga and Tatiana, also known as The Big

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Pair, helped in the clinic with their mother. Anastasia and Maria, also known as The Little Pair, helped accommodate the soldiers (Yudina). Yudina had stated in her article that, on March 8, 1917 the provisional government announced the royal family was going to be taken custody. So, the Romanovs were placed under house arrest and then later moved to Tobolsk. There, the family lived a life similar to the one they had before. Eventually, the new revolutionary high command deemed their lifestyle unjust because of the new communist state. The family was then moved to a house in Ekaterinburg referred to as dom osobogo znachenie meaning, The House of Special Purpose. There the familys lives were extremely different compared to their previous lives in luxury (Yudina). On July 4, 1918 the guards inside of the Ipatiev House were replaced with members of the Bolshevik Secret police. The head of the police was Jacob Yurovsky whom Czar Nicholas loathed the most. He was sent there to do only one assignment and that was to murder the Romanovs (Lovell 51). Early on July 17, 1918 the guards of the house had told the Romanov family that for their safety, they must evacuate to the basement. So, after dressing and gathering a few items at 2:15 am the family progressed down to the basement of the house (Brennan). Once in the basement, according to Yurovskys accounts stated in Lovells Anastasia: The Lost Princess, he had told the family that they were going to be executed. Nicholas then turned to face his family and made the sign of a cross. Next Nicholas turned to Yurovsky asking What? Yurovsky then reiterated what he had previously stated and commanded the firing squad to get ready. Yurovsky killed Nicholas on the spot with a bullet through the temple. The Czarina then tried to cross herself but before she could finish the firing squad began to shoot the remaining members of the family. Nicholas, Alexandra, and one of their daughters had died instantly while the others remained alive and hopeless. As many as six family members and servants were still

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alive after the first round of shooting. Alexei lay on the floor moaning at which point Yurovsky shot him in the ear. The guards then stabbed the remaining sisters with their eight inch bayonets. Anastasia was the last of them all to die. The guards then stabbed the entire family and servants repeatedly to assure they were dead (Lovell 54-63). A little less than two years after the murder of the family a woman who later called herself Anna Anderson jumped off a bridge on February 18, 1920 at 9:00 pm in Berlin, Germany. She was then rescued by a policeman who had saw her jump. In Berlin attempted suicide was a crime so the man intended to find out everything he could and began interrogating her. She didnt say much so the police deemed her as a mental case and transported her to the Elizabeth Hospital. There the doctors and nurses began to question her but once again she remained silent (Lovell 72-74). According to James Blair Lovell, Six weeks after she had jumped of the bridge, Anderson was transferred to the Dalldorf Asylum under the name Miss Unknown. On March 30, 1920 she began to briefly answer questions. Eventually, a new patient came to the asylum named Clara Peuthert. Anderson took a liking to the woman and they became friends. Then one day after reading the Berliner Illustierte Zeitung Clara found an article called The Truth About the Murder of the Czar. After carefully comparing the photos of the royal family to Anderson, she recognized her as the Grand Duchess Tatiana. Later, on January 20, 1922 Clara left Dalldorf with the determination to prove that Anderson was the Grand Duchess of Russia. Eventually, after Claras constant persisting, The Supreme Monarchist Council appointed Zinaida Tolstoy, who was also a friend of the Czarina, to interview Anderson to determine if she was truly the Grand Duchess. Tolstoy visited the asylum in March 1922. She claimed she was looking into the eyes of the Czar because of Andersons rare blue eyes. She then claimed to recognize the red

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blotches on Andersons face from stress which she claimed to be a trait of the Czarina. She immediately identified her as Tatiana (Lovell 74-79). James Blair Lovell had stated that when the council received Tolstoys reports they had decided they needed to investigate further and sent Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden who had once known the Romanovs. When in the ward the Baroness began to question Miss Unknown without answers. Eventually she had lost her patience and tore Anderson from her bed. Once standing, she decided she was too short to be Tatiana but as she left she stated there is some resemblance. Finally, Anderson found a friend in Captain Nicholas Schwabe. She told him that she never said she was Tatiana so Schwabe wrote all of the names of the Grand Duchesses on a piece of paper and asked her to cross out the names that were not hers. She crossed out every name except Anastasia (Lovell 79-81). Later, Captain Schwabe contacted Baron Arthur von Kliest who took Anderson in on May 30, 1922 (Lovell 81-82). When Kliest asked what she wanted to be addressed as publically she stated Anna Anderson and the name stuck with her (Lovell 257-297). Later in her life she moved to The United States of America and eventually died on February 12, 1983 (Lovell 364371). After her death the mystery still continued until in 1993 when associates at a hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia discovered a preserved section of Andersons small intestines. The intestines were sent for DNA testing to see if it matched with the DNA of the living descendants of the Czar. The test came back negative, however, people refused to believe that Anderson was not really Anastasia (Lovell xiii). Previously, in 1991 a Russian film director had revealed he had found the bodies of the Romanov family in the 1970s yet kept it secret until after the fall of the Soviet Union. The remains were sent to a geneticist named Peter Gill in Glasgow, Scotland. He

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determined that the bodies were that of the royal family. However, the bodies of Alexei and Anastasia were missing from the grave (Maugh). That is until in 2007 when a second grave was discovered 70 yards from where the rest of the family had been buried. The grave consisted of 44 shattered bone fragments of two dead children. The bones were sent to geneticist Michal Coble of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory who specializes in identifying the remains of US soldiers. When the test results came back they were flawless according to Coble (Maugh). The mystery was finally put to an end with the discovery of Anastasias body proving that, unfortunately, none of the family did escape. The love for the story and the mystery still carries on with many people today, however. As far as Anna Anderson goes it is safe to assume that Anderson truly was a mental case and a lost soul. Although Anderson was an imposture, she did keep the Romanov family in many peoples hearts and kept their story alive. People must be thankful to her for that at the least.

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Works Cited Brennan, Zoe. "Massacre of the Russian Royals: Horrific Last Hours of a Dynasty." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 18 July 2008. Web. 05 Oct. 2013. Lovell, James Blair. Anastasia: The Lost Princess. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1991. Print. Maugh, Thomas H., II. "DNA Testing Ends Mystery Surrounding Czar Nicholas II Children." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar. 2009. Web. 05 Oct. 2013. Yudina, Anna. "Prominent Russians: Anastasia Romanova." Anastasia Romanova Russiapedia The Romanov Dynasty Prominent Russians. TV-Novosti, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.