Princess Anastasia. Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova - the mystery of the Grand Duchess

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was born on June 5/18, 1901. Upon learning of the birth of his fourth daughter, the Tsar walked alone for a long time and was sad, because he expected a boy to be born. But when he returned, he completely changed, with a smile entered the Empress's room and kissed the newborn child.

Born into the world instead of the expected heir, Anastasia, indeed, by the liveliness of her character, resembled a frisky boy. "The youngest of the great princesses, Anastasia Nikolaevna, seemed to be made of mercury, not flesh and blood," wrote Lily Den.

The younger Princess was bolder than her sisters, very quick and witty, sharp-witted and observant, in all tricks she was considered a ringleader. She had a pretty face, long blonde hair and quick eyes, sparkling with enthusiasm and gaiety. Many found that her features resembled her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the Sovereign Martyr.

Holy Princess Anastasia, like all tsarist children, was brought up in the Orthodox Russian spirit, combining labor and prayer, as well as Spartan conditions: a cold bedroom, a hard bed with small pillows, a cold shower in the morning, clothes are always simple, usually inherited from older sisters.

“All these three Grand Duchesses, except for Tatiana, were naughty and frolicking like boys, but in their manners they reminded of the Romanovs,” recalls Anna Vyrubova. Anastasia Nikolaevna always played naughty, climbed, hid, made everyone laugh with her antics, and it was not easy to see behind her.

The younger Princess was extremely cheerful, courageous, very fast, witty and observant, in all tricks she was considered a ringleader. The Grand Duchess Anastasia was also a lively and carefree child, intelligent and not without cunning - she always managed to turn everything in her own way. From early childhood, plans for various pranks arose in Her head, later the Heir, always ready for pranks, joined Her. When the Tsarevich lacked a boyish society, he was successfully replaced by the "little shots" Anastasia.

Its hallmark was to notice the weaknesses of people and talentedly imitate them. "It was a natural, gifted comedian, - wrote MK Dieterichs. - It always happened, she made everyone laugh, keeping a pretensely serious look."

The Empress Mother perfectly understood that for the sake of her daughter her irrepressible energy must be contained from time to time. But unlike many modern mothers, the wise Empress Alexandra Feodorovna did not at all want to remake the child's nature to her own taste, to break it. She allowed her daughters, relying on the grafted rules of Christian piety, to develop depending on the God-given qualities. As a result, playfulness, a quality that could be reborn into something unattractive, turned into a virtue for Grand Duchess Anastasia: the gaiety of a young girl not only pleased, but also consoled those around

She also delighted the Queen Mother with her notes. Here is a typical example - Anastasia Nikolaevna's note dated May 7, 1915: "My dear dear Mom! I hope that you are not too tired. We will try not to quarrel, argue or fight, so you sleep well. God bless you! Yours loving daughter Nastenka ".

The daughters also wrote to the Father, who was also immensely loved and honored. Although these letters are already confessional, the measure of love in them is no less expressive. In these letters, the children are more relaxed, they could write as they please, which could not be done in correspondence with Mom. The most lively and playful ones were written by Anastasia.
Here is her "message" dated October 28, 1914: "My golden, good, dear Dad! We just had lunch. So I am sending you my beautiful postcard. I am sure you will like it. Today I sat with our soldier and helped him read that made me very happy ... Olga pushes Maria, and Maria screams like an idiot. The dragon and the big idiot. Olga sends you a kiss again. I have already washed and must now go to bed. I will finish this letter tomorrow. Greetings, Your Imperial Majesty. ! Good morning! I'm going to have tea. I slept well without my mother and sisters. Now I have a Russian lesson. Pyotr Vasilyevich is reading Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter." Very interesting. I wish you all the best, 1,000,000 kisses. Your devoted and loving daughter, 13-year-old servant of God Anastasia God bless you. "

The kind, loving heart of the youngest Princess, combined with her liveliness and wit, incredibly inspired all those who had the good fortune to communicate with her. During the war, visiting the hospitals with her sister Maria, she amused the soldiers, forcing them to forget about pain for a while, consoled all the suffering with her affection and tenderness. Even after many years, the soldiers and officers who were once in the Tsarskoye Selo hospitals, when remembering the tsar's daughters, according to eyewitnesses, seemed to be illuminated with an unearthly light, brightly recalling the days when the Grand Duchesses were lovingly and tenderly bowing over them.

The wounded soldiers and officers were keenly interested in the fate of the princesses.

Holy Tsarev-Martyr Anastasia walked with her family the entire mournful journey from the Tsarskoye Selo Palace to the basement of the Ipatiev House, which the Lord had prepared for them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the 1920s, a girl appeared in Berlin posing as Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova. The hope that at least one of the daughters of the Sovereign Martyr was saved was kindled in the hearts of many Russian people. But these hopes did not come true. Neither the sister of the Queen Irena of Prussia, nor the Baroness Sophia Buchsgeven, nor the mentor of the royal children, Pierre Gilliard, recognized Anastasia in her. The girl turned out to be an impostor. Later, more and more impostors appeared. One of the reasons for these appearances was that the so-called. "Tsarist gold" was bequeathed by the emperor to his youngest daughter. To this day, the desire to receive the "inheritance" kept by the Japanese emperor haunts many adventurers from politics, who more than once wanted to cash in on the tragedy of the Russian people - the betrayal of the Royal Family, which ended in regicide.

Reading the letters of Grand Duchess Anastasia and the memories of her associates, one involuntarily comes to the undeniable conclusion that under no circumstances the Princess would leave her beloved family. Even if she was given a chance to escape, she would never use it. Any of the Royal Martyrs would have done the same, since not one of them wanted to leave Russia and could not imagine himself without his family, where the souls and hearts of the Tsar, Tsarina, Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses were tied by an unbreakable thread, which even death could not break.

Anastasia was obedient to her parents and older sisters. A meek and silent spirit internally, not externally, was inherent in her, because Anastasia was humble. She is humble, because the word "humility" attracts with the hidden phrase "with peace." Accept everything in peace. Even the bullying of the red "comrades" and executioners.

On the night of the martyrdom of the Royal Family, Blessed Mary Diveevskaya raged and shouted: "The princesses with bayonets! Damned Jews!" She raged terribly, and only then did they understand what she was shouting about. The wounded Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was finished off with bayonets and rifle butts. The most innocent endured the greatest torment, truly the Holy Lamb.

In the memoirs of Melnik-Botkina, it is mentioned about a conversation between members of the Provisional Government commission to investigate the guilt of the Royal Family. One of its members asked why the letters of the Empress and the Grand Duchesses had not yet been published. "What are you saying," said another, "all the correspondence is here at my desk, but if we publish it, the people will worship them like saints."

HOLY MARTYR KAREVNA ANASTASIA, GOD'S PRAYS FOR US!

For those who know the story of the mysterious Anna Anderson (1901-1984), who declared herself the escaped daughter of Emperor Nicholas II Anastasia, I will say right away that the congenital deformity of her feet (Hallux valgus), which was known from the childhood of the Grand Duchess and who was also Anna Anderson, - this very rare congenital deformity of the feet puts a fat point in the bitter disputes between Anna Anderson's supporters and opponents.

In the fairy tale, the princess was recognized by her crystal shoe, but if in the fairy tale the Prince recognized Cinderella, then in the life of Anna-Anastasia everything happened the other way around, and until now, almost 88 years after the appearance of Anna-Anastasia in Berlin, even a significant part (if not most) members of the House of Romanov do not recognize that Anna Anderson was rescued on July 17, 1918 by Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. Fierce debates about the mystery of Anna Anderson continue to this day ... ...

Surprisingly, everyone knew about the rarity of this orthopedic disease, but until recently it never occurred to anyone to contact orthopedic specialists and find out the exact medical statistics. Only in this (2007) a previously unknown engineer from Yekaterinburg (let's call him "N", more about him - at the end of the article) did it. So:

“The first work on this disease (the deviation of the big toe towards the outside of the foot) was published by Dr. Laforest in 1778. Of the largest works devoted to the study of the causes of this disease, it is worth mentioning the monographs by D.E. Shklovsky (1937), theses by E.I. Zaitseva (1959) and G.N. Kramarenko (1970). While working at the Central Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics of the USSR Ministry of Health, Galina Nikolaevna Kramarenko processed the statistical material collected as a result of mass examinations of women on diseases of static deformity of the feet. As a result, she received the following data. Hallux valgus. as a rule, it appears in women who have reached the age of 30-35 years. G. Kramarenko found that 0.95% of the surveyed women suffer from “isolated” hallux valgus. Moreover, the first degree of the disease was recorded in 89%, and the third only in 1.6% of the women with this disease. Thus, one in six and a half thousand women over the age of 30 suffers from this ailment (1: 6500). As for the cases of congenital disease, they are isolated and extremely rare. At the head institution of Russia on this issue, the Scientific Research Children's Orthopedic Institute named after G.I. Turner has only reported eight cases of the disease over the past ten years. And that's a hundred and fifty million [more precisely, for 142 million - B.R.] residents of Russia ".

So, the statistics of a congenital case of "hallux valgus" is 8: 142 000 000, or approximately 1:17 750 000! Thus, it was with this probability (99.9999947) that Anna Anderson really was Grand Duchess Anastasia! By the way, this very Scientific Research Children's Orthopedic Institute named after G.I. Turner is located in Tsarskoe Selo (now Pushkin), where on June 5/18, 1901 at 6:00. Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was born in the morning. It is very likely that the children's doctor Genrikh Ivanovich Turner (September 17/29, 1858 - July 20, 1941), after whose name the institute is named, examined the tsar's children at the beginning of the XX century in the Alexander Palace and diagnosed little Anastasia with "hallux valgus" ...

The above statistics practically neutralizes the negative results of DNA tests carried out with the remains of some of her tissue materials in 1994-1997, since in those years the reliability of DNA research did not exceed 1: 6000 - three thousand times less reliable than the statistics of Anna's "crystal shoe" -Anastasia! At the same time, the statistics of congenital "hallux valgus" are actually statistics of artifacts (there is no doubt about that), while DNA research is a complex procedure, in which the possibility of accidental genetic contamination of the original tissue materials, or even their malicious substitution, cannot be ruled out.

Now in order.

Fraulein Unbekant

Quoting article "N" again:

Fraulein Unbekant ( Unbekannt- unknown) - so in the protocol of the Berlin police on February 17, 1920, a girl was registered who was rescued during a suicide attempt. She did not have any documents with her and refused to give her name. She had light brown hair and piercing gray eyes. She spoke with a clearly pronounced Slavic accent, therefore, in her personal file, the postscript "unknown Russian" was made. Since the spring of 1922, dozens of articles and books have been written about her. Anastasia Tchaikovskaya, Anna Anderson, later - Anna Manakhan (by the name of her husband). These are the names of the same woman. The last name written on her tombstone is Anastasia Manakhan. She died on February 12, 1984, but even after her death, her fate haunts her friends and enemies. I did not set myself the task of writing another retelling of her biography with stories about the attempts of her friends to prove that she was the very Anastasia who escaped death in the basement of the Ipatiev house on the night of July 17, 1918. My task was to collect and analyze materials according to this, at first glance, incredible version. So, let's look again at the known facts and try to evaluate them from the standpoint of today.

On the same evening, February 17, she was admitted to the Elizabethan hospital on Lutzowstrasse. At the end of March, she was transferred to the neurological clinic in Daldorf with a diagnosis of "depressive mental illness", where she lived for two years. In Daldorf, when examined on March 30, she admitted that she tried to commit suicide, but refused to give a reason or give any comments. During the examination, her weight was recorded - 50 kilograms, height - 158 centimeters. On examination, the doctors discovered that six months ago she had undergone childbirth. For a girl "under the age of twenty", this was an important circumstance. On the patient's chest and abdomen, they saw numerous scars from lacerations. There was a 3.5 cm long scar on the head behind the right ear, deep enough for a finger to enter, as well as a scar on the forehead at the very roots of the hair. On the right foot there was a characteristic scar from a perforating wound. It fully corresponded to the shape and size of the wounds inflicted with a Russian rifle bayonet. Cracks in the upper jaw. The day after the examination, she confessed to the doctor that she was afraid for her life: “She makes it clear that she does not want to identify herself for fear of persecution. An impression of restraint born of fear. More fear than restraint. " The medical history also records that the patient has a third degree congenital orthopedic disease of the feet, hallux valgus.

On this occasion, I turned to orthopedic doctors for advice, and it was not in vain. "

“The disease discovered in the patient by the doctors of the clinic in Daldorf absolutely coincided with the congenital disease of Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. As one of the orthopedists who consulted me put it: “It's easier to find two girls of the same age with the same fingerprints than with signs of congenital hallux valgus”. The girls we are talking about still had the same height, foot size, hair and eye color, and portrait likeness. From the data on the medical record, it can be seen that the trauma marks of "Fraulein Unbekant" fully correspond to those that, according to the investigator Tomashevsky, were inflicted on Anastasia in the basement of the Ipatiev house. The scar on the forehead also matches. Anastasia Romanova had such a scar since childhood, so she is the only daughter of Nicholas II who always wore hairstyles with bangs.

Opponents of Anastasia Tchaikovskaya, starting in March 1927, have been making attempts to pass her off as a native of a peasant family (from East Prussia) Franciska Shantskovskaya. From a medical point of view, this looks more than ridiculous. Franziska was five years older than Anastasia, taller, wore shoes four sizes larger, never gave birth to children, and had no orthopedic foot diseases. In addition, Franziska Shantskovskaya disappeared from her home at a time when “Fraulein Unbekant” was already in the Elizabethan hospital on Lyutzowstrasse. "

ANNA ANDERSON

Why did some members of the House of Romanov in Europe and their relatives from the royal dynasties of Germany almost immediately, in the early 1920s, turn against her? I think there are three main reasons. First, Anna Anderson spoke sharply about the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich ("he is a traitor") - the same one who, immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II, took his Guards carriage from Tsarskoye Selo and allegedly put on a red bow. Secondly, she inadvertently revealed a big state secret that concerned her mother's brother (Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), her German uncle Ernie of Hesse. Thirdly, Anna-Anastasia herself was in such a difficult physical and psychological condition (the consequences of severe injuries received in the basement of the Ipatiev house, and very difficult previous two years of wandering) that communication with her was not easy for any person. There is also an important fourth reason, but first things first.

In 1922, in the Russian diaspora, the question of who would lead the dynasty, for the place of the "Emperor in exile", was being decided. The main contender was Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov. He, like most Russian emigrants, could not even imagine that the rule of the Bolsheviks would drag on for seven long decades. The appearance of Anastasia in Berlin in the summer of 1922 caused confusion and division of opinions in the ranks of the monarchists. The following information about the princess's physical and mental illness, and the presence of an heir to the throne who was born in an unequal marriage [either from a soldier, or from a lieutenant of peasant origin], all this did not contribute to her immediate recognition, not to mention the consideration of her candidacy in place of the head of the dynasty. I am retelling the article by engineer "N" again (with some abbreviations):

“The Romanovs did not want to see in the role of God's anointed peasant son, who was either in Romania or in Soviet Russia. By the time of meeting with relatives in 1925, Anastasia was seriously ill with tuberculosis. Her weight barely reached 33 kg. The people around Anastasia believed that her days were numbered. And who, besides her mother, needed her "bastard"? [and she herself was not deceived about this - BR] But she survived and after meeting with aunt Olya and other close people she dreamed of meeting her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. She waited for the recognition of her relatives, and instead, in 1928, on the second day after the death of the dowager empress, several members of the Romanov family publicly disowned her, announcing that she was an impostor. The insult inflicted led to a break in relations. Relations with the mother's relatives were also spoiled.

The reason was Anastasia's naive story about the arrival of her uncle Ernie of Hesse to Russia in 1916. The visit was connected with the intentions to persuade Nicholas II to a separate peace with Germany [this did not succeed, and when leaving the Alexander Palace, Ernie even said to his sister, Empress Alexandra: “You are no longer the sun for us” - that is what everyone called Alix in her childhood German relatives - BR]. In the early twenties, it was still a state secret, and Ernie Gessensky had no choice but to accuse Anastasia of slander.

The break in relations with most of the relatives forced her to defend her rights in court. This is how forensic experts appeared in Anastasia's life. The first graphological examination was made at the request of the Gessenskys in 1927. It was performed by an employee of the Institute of Graphology in Prisna, Dr. Lucy Weizsäcker. Comparing the handwriting on the recently written samples with the handwriting on the samples written by Anastasia during the life of Nicholas II, Lucy Weizsacker came to the conclusion that the samples belong to the same person. In 1960, by the decision of the Hamburg court, the graphologist Dr. Minna Becker was appointed as the graphological expert. Four years later, while reporting her work to the Senate High Court of Appeals, the gray-haired Dr. Becker stated: "I have never seen so many identical features in two texts written by different people."... Another important point made by the doctor is worth mentioning here. For the examination, samples of handwriting were provided in the form of texts written in German and Russian. In her speech, speaking about Russian texts, Mrs. Anderson, Dr. Becker noted: "It seems as if she has again found herself in a familiar environment." Due to the inability to compare fingerprints, anthropologists were brought into the investigation. Their opinion was considered by the court as "Close to certainty"... Research carried out in 1958 at the University of Mainz by Drs Eikstedt and Klenke, and in 1965 by the founder of the German Anthropological Society, Professor Otto Rehe, led to the same result, namely:

1. Mrs. Anderson is not a Polish factory worker, Francisca Szantskowska.

2. Mrs. Anderson is the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova.

Their opponents pointed to the discrepancy between the shape of Anderson's right ear and Anastasia Romanova's ear, referring to an examination made back in the twenties.

The last doubts of anthropologists were resolved by one of the most famous forensic experts of Germany, Dr. Moritz Furthmeier. In 1976, Dr. Furthmeier discovered that, by an absurd coincidence, experts used a photograph of Daldorf's patient taken from an inverted negative to compare the auricles. That is, the right ear of Anastasia Romanova was compared with the left ear "Fraulein Unbekant" and naturally received a negative result for identity. When comparing the same photograph of Anastasia with the photograph of Anderson's (Tchaikovskaya's) right ear, Moritz Furthmeier got a match in seventeen anatomical positions. For the recognition of the identification in the West German court, the coincidence of five positions out of twelve was quite sufficient. Having corrected this mistake, he put an end to the debate of scientists about the identification of Anastasia. You and I, dear reader, can only guess how her fate would have developed, had it not been for that fatal mistake. Even in the sixties, this mistake formed the basis of the decision of the Hamburg court, and then the highest court of appeal in the Senate.

Now I will give the floor to the American author Peter Kurt, whose book “Anastasia. The riddle of Anna Anderson "(in Russian translation" Anastasia. The riddle of the Grand Duchess ") is considered by many to be the best in the historiography of this riddle (and is wonderfully written). Peter Kurt was personally acquainted with Anna Anderson. This is what he wrote in the afterword to the Russian edition of his book:

“Truth is a trap; it cannot be possessed without being caught.

She cannot be caught, she catches a person.

Soren Kierkegaard

Fiction must remain within the bounds of the possible.

Truth is not.

Mark Twain

These quotes were sent to me by a friend of mine in 1995, shortly after the Department of Forensic Medicine of the British Home Office announced that research on the mitochondrial DNA of "Anna Anderson" has convincingly proved that she is not Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. According to the conclusion of a group of British geneticists in Aldermaston, led by Dr. Peter Gill, the DNA of Mrs. Anderson does not coincide with the DNA of female skeletons recovered from a grave near Yekaterinburg in 1991 and allegedly belonging to the queen and her three daughters, nor with the DNA of Anastasia's maternal relatives and paternal lineage living in England and elsewhere. At the same time, a blood test of Karl Mauger, the grand-nephew of the disappeared factory worker Franziska Schanzkowska, revealed a mitochondrial coincidence, suggesting that Franziska and Anna Anderson are one person. Subsequent tests in other labs that looked at the same DNA led to the same conclusion.

... I knew Anna Anderson for over ten years and was familiar with almost everyone who was involved in her struggle for recognition over the last quarter of a century: with friends, lawyers, neighbors, journalists, historians, with representatives of the Russian royal family and the royal families of Europe, Russian and European aristocracy - a wide circle of competent witnesses who did not hesitate to recognize her as a royal daughter. My knowledge of her character, all the details of her case and, as it seems to me, the probability and common sense - all convinces me that she was a Russian Grand Duchess.

This belief of mine, while challenged (by DNA research), remains unshakable. Without being an expert, I cannot question Dr. Gill's findings; if these results only revealed that Ms. Anderson is not a member of the Romanov family, I might be able to accept them - if not easily now, then at least over time. However, no amount of scientific evidence, nor the results of a forensic medical examination will convince me that Ms. Anderson and Franziska Shantskovskaya are one and the same person.

I categorically affirm that those who knew Anna Anderson, who lived next to her for months and years, treated her and looked after her during her many illnesses, be it a doctor or a nurse, who observed her behavior, posture, demeanor, "They cannot believe that she was born in a village in East Prussia in 1896 and was the daughter and sister of beet farmers."

THE SAVED ANASTASIA

I will not tell here in detail the story of the salvation of the wounded but alive Anastasia on July 17, 1918 and the life story of Anna Anderson. There is evidence of the story of the salvation of Anastasia, given under oath in a German court, and the story of Anna Anderson's life is described in detail in hundreds of publications and in dozens of books, of which the best, in the opinion of many, is the book by Peter Kurt. I will give here only a short list of reasons that prevent Anastasia from being considered dead along with the entire Royal family on the night of July 17, 1918:

There is eyewitness testimony who saw the wounded but alive Anastasia in the house on Voskresensky Prospekt in Yekaterinburg (almost opposite the Ipatiev house) in the early morning of July 17, 1918; it was Heinrich Kleinbetzetl, a tailor from Vienna, an Austrian prisoner of war, who in the summer of 1918 worked in Yekaterinburg as an apprentice for the tailor Baudin. He saw her at Baudin's house in the early morning of July 17, a few hours after the brutal massacre in the basement of the Ipatiev house. It was brought by one of the guards (probably from the former, more liberal composition of the guard - Yurovsky did not replace all the former guards), one of those few young guys who have long sympathized with girls, the tsar's daughters;

There is a great deal of confusion in the testimonies, reports and stories of the participants in this bloody massacre - even in different versions of the stories of the same participants;

It is known that the "Reds" were looking for the missing Anastasia for several months after the murder of the Tsar's family;

It is known that one (or two?) Women's corsets have not been found. None of the investigations of the "whites" answer all the questions, including the investigation of the investigator of the Kolchak commission Nikolai Sokolov;

Until now, the archives of the Cheka-KGB-FSB about the murder of the Tsar's family and about what the Chekists headed by Yurovsky in 1919 (a year after the execution) and officers of the MGB (Beria's department) were doing in the Koptyakovsky forest in 1946 have not been opened. All the documents known so far about the execution of the Tsar's family (including Yurovsky's "Note") were obtained from other state archives (not from the archives of the FSB).

Thus, summing up all of the above about the “death” of Anastasia, if all members of the Royal family were killed, then why do we not have answers to all these questions until now?

CONCLUSION

Engineer "N" published his article ("Gone with the Wind") in February 2007 in the American newspaper "Panorama" (Los-Angeles, newspaper "Panorama"). He did a great job to restore the truth about Anna Anderson and the royal daughter Anastasia. It's amazing how for more than 80 years it never occurred to anyone to find out the medical statistics of hallux valgus foot deformity! Truly, this story resembles the tale of a crystal shoe! It is no coincidence, probably, it was "N" who found him. Soon we will find out the name of this man and ... his secret.

Now we can be completely and irrevocably sure that Anna Anderson and Grand Duchess Anastasia are one and the same person.

Boris Romanov

P.S. It remains to find out whose remains were buried under the name of Grand Duchess Anastasia in St. Petersburg in July 1998 (however, there are doubts about other remains buried at that time), and whose remains were found in the summer of 2007 in the Koptyakovsky forest.

P.P.S. It is known that Anastasia gave birth to a son in the fall of 1919, somewhere on the border with Romania (at that time she was hiding from the Reds under the name Tchaikovskaya, by the name of the person who saved her and took her to Romania). What is the fate of this son? The story of Grand Duchess Anastasia is not over.

Boris Romanov

what my friend s. from adalsky

SADALSKY: THE RIDDLE OF THE TSAR.

Veli Kaya Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova -
June 5, 1901 - Peterhof - July 17, 1918, Yekaterinburg

In the early 80s, when, by the will of fate, I began to visit the FRG quite often, I showed great interest in the old Russian emigrants, who, like fragments of Russian culture, were still preserved there. I was drawn to them, and they - to me. The Soviets at that time were afraid of them like the devil of incense.
My curiosity was rewarded by the acquaintance with Princess Anastasia, who came to Hanover before her death to say goodbye to her friends and youth.
I told her, of course, in Russian (she answered in German) that I had seen the Ipatievs' house in Sverdlovsk during my tour with the Sovremennik theater, that the city residents adore this place unusually and bring flowers to it.
Then, by order of the first secretary of the regional party committee, Yeltsin, the house was demolished overnight, but the residents dismantled everything brick by brick and keep it as a shrine.

The princess listened and cried and asked me to bow to that place. She passed away in America in 1984.

In the late 1980s, I accidentally got hold of several volumes and photographs marked "Reich Chancellery", signed by the chief of intelligence, Canaris.

First indications

On the front page of the police file was eyewitness testimony: how they fished a failed suicide out of the river near the Beidler Bridge in Berlin. Discreetly dressed woman. She had no documents or money with her. She flatly refused to talk.

The police took her to an insane asylum. Further in the case are the testimonies of doctors. Numerous scars covered her head and body. All attempts to find out about the origin of the scars were in vain. The patient repeated only one phrase: "I won't tell you anything ..."

The nurses described in the medical record that the patient spoke Russian in her sleep. Then, when they endeared her to themselves, she turned out to be a smart enough person, versed in politics and knowledgeable about the life of the Kaiser.

When the nurses once found a newspaper in the library of the orphanage with a photograph of the executed royal family, none of them was surprised at the resemblance of the patient to one of the grand duchesses.

Clara Pewtert's testimony

Before World War I, Klara lived in Russia. Already in Germany, due to a mental disorder, she ended up in an orphanage and made friends with a strange young woman with clear signs of aristocratic origin. In 1922, Klara left the hospital and found Nikolai von Schwabe, who had served before the revolution in the protection of Empress Maria Feodorovna. Here is a fragment of the transcript of the meeting between Nikolai von Schwabe and Anastasia:

“Seeing the photograph of the Empress brought by a visitor, the unknown Fraulein wrapped herself in a blanket and turned her face to the wall. When asked if she spoke Russian, she answered sharply: "No!" She refused the offered chocolate: "I don't need anything from you." The embarrassed Shvabe left. The patient said: "This is a photograph of my grandmother."

Testimony of Baron Arthur von Kleist (who settled Anastasia after she left the shelter)

The Baron told from Anastasia's words: “It was terrible ... Blood, dirt ... Everything happened very quickly. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, everything around was dark blue, and the stars were burning in the sky. "

The baron realized that the soldier Alexander Tchaikovsky had saved her. Seeing that one of the princesses survived the execution, he hid her and took her from Russia to Romania in a peasant cart. In December 1918, their son was born. At the end of 1919, Alexander was killed on a street in Bucharest. Anastasia left her son in an orphanage and went to Berlin - she hoped to find her mother's relatives.

Misalliance

This story shocked the offspring of the royal family. The unthinkable union of a princess and a soldier among the monarchists disgusted Anastasia. They believed her and did not believe her. A lot of relatives said that she was a “false”. But the same number turned out to be on her side. Anastasia was madly worried about disbelief, but every time the accusation of imposture brought her to the clinic. After visiting her in the hospital by the sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga, they cried together, recalled touching childhood events and small details of everyday life, favorite things. Then Olga said: “I cannot comprehend this with my mind, but my heart tells me that this is our little Anastasia. And since I was brought up in such a faith that calls to obey the heart, I must believe that this is her. "

But the former governess of the royal children Anna Shur and her husband said that Anastasia was an impostor. The real storm over the unfortunate princess began in February 1927, when the notes of a certain Baroness Ranef were published. Anastasia's cigarettes and sweets were sold throughout Germany. From the restaurants came a fashionable song about an unfortunate girl, about whom no one knows who she is. The story reached its climax after the graphological examination proved the identity of the handwriting of the princess and Anastasia.

The psychic attack on Anastasia continued ...

Ugly New York

Members of the royal family continued to support the imposture version. In 1928, the princess arrived in New York. The city seemed disgusting to her. At the few social events she attended, she showed dislike for the American government and New York. On July 24, 1930, an American psychiatrist diagnosed her with "insanity, posing a danger to others." After such a sentence, she was expelled back to Germany.

In August, she was admitted to an asylum for the mentally ill in Hanover.

Money money money...

Anastasia never had a special passion for money, but the people around her started a lawsuit for her legal recognition, which was the longest in the history of Germany. It lasted from 1938 to 1967. Nicholas II's contributions to Mendelssohn's bank were to be paid to the legal heiress. But, despite the support of the highest people in Europe, the court made a final decision: Anastasia cannot provide enough evidence of her royal origin.

Resentment

Without saying goodbye to anyone, she again left for America to her unfamiliar well-wisher - professor, historian John Manahan, whom she knew by correspondence. She got married in 1968. Their marriage was, I want to believe, happy. Anastasia proudly signed herself: Manakhan. She died in a foreign land.
Anastasia's last wish was to bury her in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and was never fulfilled.

John cremated his wife and kept the ashes in a can of biscuits for a long time at home in a buffet.

P. S ... In 1994, a genetic test was carried out by the US medical examiner. DNA analysis of the preserved parts of Anastasia's intestines showed that this woman had nothing to do with the royal family.
( I don’t believe the Americans)

p.s. I adhere to the official investigation, as it was supported by the ORTHODOX CHURCH.

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) (5 (18) June 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 “the 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 of her appearance, 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 her attempts to beg her son from Providence, at this time she plunges more and more into 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 started 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 calm and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives to all parts of the world. Fortunately, Alix is ​​doing well. The baby weighs 11½ pounds and is 55 cm tall. The entry in the emperor's diary contradicts the assertions 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, calling her by name and patronymic in the official speech, and at home they called her “little, Nastaska, Nastya, egg-capsule” - for her small height (157 cm .) and a round figure and a "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. They were looking forward to Sunday with special impatience - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls at their aunt's, Olga Alexandrovna's. 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, as well as dancing and lessons in 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, being 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 in the evenings entertained them with telephone conversations, 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 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 p.m., two special representatives from the Ural Council handed a written order on the execution to the commander of the security detachment P.Z. 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 and Nikolai with her son in her arms sat down. 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 the 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 “had” to be finished 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 Ortipo's dog here. After the shooting, the last drawing made by Anastasia's hand was found in the room of the grand duchesses - 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 some of the servants, 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 emergence 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 at that time was 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 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. " Natalia Bilikhodze The last of the fake Anastasias, Natalia 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.

In May of this year, the premiere of the musical "Anastasia" will take place on the stage of the American theater Hartford Stage. The musical tale tells the story of the daughter of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, who allegedly survived and is trying to find her relatives. /site/

The plot of the musical is a bit like the cartoon of the same name, released in 1997 by XX Century Fox. However, according to director Darko Tresniak, the musical is a completely independent project. The director noted that he was most interested in the story of Princess Anastasia, so he set about staging the musical.

Was there a miraculous salvation?

We are talking about one of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II, Anastasia Romanova, whose fate for a long time haunted historians, filmmakers and lovers of conspiracy theories. For many years, there was a myth of the "miraculous salvation" of Anastasia, who, according to the official version, was shot together with the rest of the family on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg.

Immediately after the death of the royal family, rumors spread that Anastasia had survived. According to one version, Lenin was the initiator of this rumor, since he did not want the Bolsheviks to be blamed for the death of children. According to other versions, eyewitnesses saw the wounded Anastasia in a house on Voskresensky Prospekt in Yekaterinburg. This house was located directly opposite the Ipatiev house. After that, the girl was never seen again.

Also in favor of saving Anastasia is the confusion in the testimonies, reports and stories of the participants in this bloody massacre. Even the same storytellers put forward different versions. Meanwhile, none of the investigations of that time confirmed or refuted the version of the miraculous rescue of the princess. This led to the appearance of the False Anastasias.

The appearance of the False

One of these was Anna Anderson, whose story formed the basis of the American musical. Anna Anderson was admitted to a Berlin psychiatric hospital after a failed suicide attempt in 1920. She assured herself that she was the surviving Princess Anastasia, and came to Berlin to find her aunt, Princess Irene, the sister of Queen Alexandra. The opinions of the doctors and relatives of the Romanovs were divided - some believed in a miraculous salvation, others considered her a madman or an impostor.

However, Anna Anderson was far from the only "Anastasia" of her time. In 1964, two elderly nuns died in a monastery in the Ural Mountains. On their gravestones were the names - Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna. This gave rise to suspicion that the great princesses were buried here. This version is confirmed by the fact that the nuns appeared in the monastery in 1919 and lived there in the strictest secrecy. However, in this case, the question remains about how they managed to escape.

Another famous Pseudonym is the artist Eugene Smith. In 1963, she published a memoir titled Anastasia: An Autobiography. The woman claimed that she had survived the execution and was rescued by one of the Red Army soldiers. There were other "Anastasias" who tried to become famous at the expense of the deceased princess.

One of the descendants of the Romanovs, Prince Dmitry Romanovich, spoke about a series 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! "

“Rumors are inevitable when the royal family suddenly disappears, and the fate of the children remains unknown. But in my opinion, there is nothing to doubt about it. They were killed by a ruthless punitive squad, one arrow for each person. Then the bodies were doused with sulfuric acid and thrown into the mine. How could a teenage girl break free and run into the forest? No way, ”said the American historian in the BBC film.

Meanwhile, the mysterious fate of Princess Anastasia continues to excite historians, filmmakers and conspiracy theorists. Perhaps we will see more than one film or musical about the fate of Anastasia and other members of the royal family.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 18, 1901. The sovereign waited for an heir for a long time, and when the long-awaited fourth child turned out to be his daughter, he was saddened. Soon the sadness passed, and the Emperor loved his fourth daughter as much as his other children.

They were waiting for a boy, but a girl was born. Anastasia, in her agility, could give odds to any boy. She wore simple clothes inherited from her older sisters. The bedroom of the fourth daughter was not richly decorated.

Be sure to take a cold shower every morning. It was not easy to see behind her. As a child, she was very nimble, she loved to climb where she could not, to hide.

When she was still a child, the Grand Duchess Anastasia loved to play pranks, as well as make others laugh. In addition to gaiety, such character traits as wit, courage and observation are reflected in it.

In all the tricks, the princess was considered the ringleader. Consequently, she was not devoid of leadership qualities. In pranks, later Anastasia was supported by her younger brother, the heir to the royal throne -.

A distinctive feature of the young princess was the ability to notice the weaknesses of people and very talentedly parody them. The girl's playfulness did not develop into something indecent. On the contrary, brought up surrounded by the Christian spirit, Anastasia turned into a creature that delighted and comforted all the close people around her.

When during the war she worked in a hospital, they began to say about her that even the wounded and sick were dancing in the presence of the princess. Before that, she was beautiful and cheerful, and when necessary - a sincere compassion and comforter. In the hospital, the princess prepared bandages and lint, sewed for the wounded and their families.

She did this with Maria. Then they lamented for a couple that, due to their age, they could not, like their older sisters, fully be sisters of mercy. Visiting the wounded soldiers, with her charm and wit, Anastasia Nikolaevna made them forget about the pain for a while, she consoled all the suffering with her affection and tenderness.

Among the wounded, with whom she managed to see, was an ensign. That same Gumilyov is famous. While in the infirmary, he wrote a poem about her, which you can find in his collections. The work was written on June 5, 1916 in the Infirmary of the Grand Palace, and is called "To the birthday".

Years later, officers and soldiers who visited hospitals remembered the Grand Duchesses very fondly. The military, recalling those days from their memory, seemed to be illuminated by an unearthly light. The wounded soldiers were interested in their fate. , assumed that all four sisters would marry four Balkan princes. The Russian soldier wanted to see the princesses happy, and prayed for them, for them the crowns of the queens of European states. However, everything turned out quite differently ...

The fate of Anastasia, like the fate of all, ended in the basement of the Ipatiev House. Here the Romanov dynasty ended, where Great Russian Russia ended with them.

Since the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century, girls have constantly appeared in Europe posing as Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova. All of them were impostors with a desire to cash in on the grief of the Russian people. All the royal gold was bequeathed to Anastasia Nikolaevna. Therefore, there were adventurers who wanted to get their hands on him.