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

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna

The youngest of the Grand Duchesses, Anastasia Nikolaevna, seemed to be made of mercury, and not of flesh and blood. She was very, extremely witty and had an undoubted gift for mime. She knew how to find the funny side in everything.

During the revolution, Anastasia was only sixteen - in the end, not so hot, what an advanced age! She was pretty, but her face was intelligent, and her eyes shone with remarkable intelligence.

The “tomboyish” girl, “Shvibz,” as her relatives called her, maybe she would like to correspond to the girl’s house-building ideal, 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 cunning. She quickly grasped the funny side of 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 able to disperse wrinkles from anyone who was out of sorts that some of those around her began, remembering the nickname given to Her Mother at the English court, to call Her “Sunbeam” ”

Birth.

She was born on June 5, 1901 in Peterhof. By the time of her appearance, the royal couple already had three daughters - Olga, Tatyana and Maria. The absence of an heir heated up the political situation: according to the Act of Succession, adopted by Paul I, a woman could not ascend the throne, therefore the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was considered the heir, which did not suit many, and first of all, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In an attempt to beg Providence for a son, at this time she is more and more immersed in mysticism. With the assistance of the Montenegrin princesses Milica Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, a certain Philip, a Frenchman by nationality, arrived at the court, declaring himself a hypnotist and a specialist in nervous diseases. Philip predicted the birth of a son to Alexandra Fedorovna, however, a girl was born - Anastasia.

Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia

Nikolay wrote in his diary: “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 am daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions quickly and, thank God, without complications. Because it all started and ended while everyone was still sleeping, we both had a sense of calm and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives in all parts of the world. Luckily Alix is ​​doing well. The baby weighs 11½ pounds and is 55 cm tall."

The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the Empress. The “hypnotist” Philip, not at a loss after a failed prophecy, immediately predicted to her “an amazing life and a special fate.” Margaret Eager, author of the memoirs Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court, recalled that Anastasia was named after the emperor restored the rights of students of St. Petersburg University who took part in the recent unrest, since the very name "Anastasia" means "returned to life", the image of this saint usually contains 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, however, they did not use it, in an official speech calling her by her first name and patronymic, and at home they called her “little, Nastaska, Nastya, egg pod” - for her small height (157 cm .) and a round figure and a "shvybzik" - for mobility and inexhaustibility in the invention of pranks and pranks.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the children of the emperor were not spoiled with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. The walls of the room were gray, the ceiling decorated with images of butterflies. There are icons and photographs on the walls. The furniture is white and green, the decor is simple, almost Spartan, a couch with embroidered cushions, and an army bunk on which the Grand Duchess slept all year round. This bunk moved around the room in order to find itself in a more illuminated 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 stuffiness and heat. The same bunk 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 the Grand Duchesses as a common boudoir and bathroom.

Princesses Maria and Anastasia

The life of the Grand Duchesses was quite monotonous. Breakfast at 9 am, second breakfast at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock - tea, at eight - a common dinner, and the food was quite simple and unpretentious. In the evenings, the girls solved charades and embroidered while their father read aloud to them.

Princesses 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 Koti's perfume with the smell 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, this was a duty for them. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the time of the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who bathed 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. Education began at the age of eight, the program included French, English and German, history, geography, the law of God, science, drawing, grammar, arithmetic, as well as dance and music. Anastasia did not differ in diligence in her studies, she could not stand grammar, she wrote with terrifying mistakes, and called arithmetic with childlike immediacy "svin". English teacher Sidney Gibbs recalled that once she tried to bribe him with a bouquet of flowers to increase her grade, and after he refused, she gave these flowers to a Russian language teacher, Petrov.

Grand Duchess Anastasia

Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia

In mid-June, the family went on trips on the imperial yacht Shtandart, usually on the Finnish skerries, landing from time to time on the islands for short excursions. The imperial family especially fell in love with a small bay, which was dubbed the Shtandart Bay. They had picnics in it, 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, while the outbuildings housed several courtiers, guards and servants. They swam in the warm sea, built fortresses and sand towers, sometimes went to the city to ride a carriage through the streets or visit shops. In St. Petersburg, this could not be done, since any appearance of the royal family in public created a crowd and excitement.

Visit to Germany

They sometimes visited the Polish estates belonging to the royal family, where Nikolai liked 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 war was declared.

On the day of the fourteenth anniversary, according to tradition, each of the daughters of the emperor became an honorary commander of one of the Russian regiments.

In 1901, after her birth, the name of St. Anastasia of the Pattern Resolver in honor of the princess received the Caspian 148th Infantry Regiment. He began to celebrate his regimental holiday on December 22, the day of the saint. 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 became officially known as the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia.

During the war, the empress gave many of the palace rooms for hospital premises. The older sisters Olga and Tatyana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, being too young for such hard work, became patronesses 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 their heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctantly breaking away from work for the sake of lessons. Anastasia, until the end of her life, recalled these days:

Under house arrest.

According to the memoirs of Lily Den (Julia Alexandrovna von Den), a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna, in February 1917, at the very height of the revolution, the children fell ill with measles one by one. Anastasia was the last to fall ill, 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 with her children remained in the palace. .

Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia looking at photographs

On the night of March 2, 1917, Lily Den stayed overnight in the palace, in the Crimson Room, together with Grand Duchess Anastasia. So that they would not worry, they explained that the troops surrounding the palace and the distant shots were the result of the exercises. Alexandra Feodorovna intended 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 Benkendorf appeared at the palace with the message that the Provisional Government had decided to subject the imperial family to house arrest in Tsarskoye Selo. It was proposed to draw up a list of people wishing to stay with them. Lily Dan immediately offered her services.

A.A. Vyrubova, Alexandra Fedorovna, Yu.A. Den.

On March 9, the children were informed about the father's abdication. Nicholas returned a few days later. Life under house arrest was quite bearable. I had to reduce the number of dishes during dinner, 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 walked in the park and sometimes met her with whistling and swearing, so the walks had to be shortened.

On June 22, 1917, it was decided to shave the heads of the girls, as their hair fell out due to the persistent temperature and strong medicines. Alexei insisted on being shaved too, thus causing extreme displeasure in his mother.

Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia

Despite everything, the education of children continued. The whole process was led by Zhillard, a teacher of French; Nicholas himself taught the children geography and history; Baroness Buxhoeveden took over the 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, often attended classes 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 king to go abroad; but George V, whose popularity among his subjects was rapidly falling, decided not to take risks and preferred 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 departure, they had time to say goodbye to the servants, to visit their favorite places in the park, ponds, islands for the last time. Alexey 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 departed in the strictest confidence from the siding.

Tobolsk.

On August 26, the imperial family arrived in Tobolsk on the ship "Rus". The house intended for them was not yet completely ready, so they spent the first eight days on the ship.

Arrival of the Royal Family in Tobolsk

Finally, under escort, the imperial family was taken to the two-story governor's mansion, where they were to live from now on. The girls were given a corner bedroom on the second floor, where they were all placed on 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 fairly monotonous; the main entertainment is to watch passers-by from the window. From 9.00 to 11.00 - lessons. An hour break for a walk with my father. Again lessons from 12.00 to 13.00. Dinner. From 14.00 to 16.00 walks and simple entertainment like home performances, or in winter - skiing from a slide built by oneself. Anastasia, in her own words, enthusiastically harvested firewood and sewed. Further on 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 was going to see the monument to Yermak, swept not only around the city, but also around the region. The Tobolsk photographer Ilya Efimovich Kondrakhin, who was keen on photography, with his bulky apparatus - a great rarity in those days - hastened to capture this moment. And here we have a photograph showing how several dozen people climb the slope of the hill on which the monument stands, so as not to miss the arrival of the last Russian tsar. Vladimir Vasilievich Kondrakhin (the photographer's grandson) took a picture from the original photo

Tobolsk

Unexpectedly, Anastasia began to gain weight, and the process proceeded at a fairly rapid 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 was arranged terribly well for Easter, everything is in the Christmas tree, as it should be here, and flowers. We filmed, I hope it will come out. I continue to draw, they say - not bad, very pleasant. Swinging on a swing, when I fell, it was such a wonderful fall! .. yes! I told my sisters so many times yesterday that they are already tired, but I can tell a lot more times, although there is no one else. In general, I have a lot of things to tell you and you. My Jimmy woke up and coughs, so he sits at home, he bows. That was the weather! It was possible to scream directly from pleasantness. I tanned most of all, oddly enough, just an acrobat! And these days are boring and ugly, it’s cold, and we froze this morning, although of course we didn’t go home ... I’m very sorry, I forgot to congratulate you all my loved ones on the holidays, not three kisses, but a lot of times All. Thank you all, my dear, for your 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 in order to try him. After long hesitation, Alexandra decided to accompany her husband, "for help" Maria had to leave with her.

The rest had to wait for them in Tobolsk, Olga's duties were to take care of her sick brother, Tatyana's to run the household, Anastasia's to "entertain everyone." However, at the beginning, the entertainment was tight, on the last night before departure no one closed their eyes, and when finally in the morning, peasant carts for the king, queen and accompanying people were brought to the doorstep, three girls - “three figures in gray” saw off the departing with tears up to the gate.

In the courtyard of the governor's house

In the empty house, life went on slowly and sadly. They guessed from books, read aloud to each other, walked. Anastasia was still swinging, painting and playing with her sick brother. According to the memoirs of Gleb Botkin, the son of a medical doctor who died along with the royal family, one day he saw Anastasia in the window and bowed to her, but the guards immediately drove him away, threatening to shoot if he dared to come so close again.

Vel. Princesses 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 in the house of 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 ordered her daughters to “properly dispose of medicines” - this word meant jewelry that they managed to hide and take with them. Under the guidance of her elder sister Tatyana, Anastasia sewed the remaining jewelry into her dress corset - with a good combination of circumstances, it was supposed to buy her way to salvation for them.

On May 19, it was finally decided that the remaining daughters and Alexei, who had grown strong enough by that time, would join their parents and Maria in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. The next day, on May 20, all four boarded the steamer "Rus" again, which delivered them to Tyumen. According to eyewitnesses, the girls were transported in locked cabins, Alexei rode with his batman named Nagorny, access to them in the cabin was forbidden even for a doctor.

"My dear friend,

I'll tell you how we drove. We got off early in the morning, then got on the train and I fell asleep, and everyone else followed me. We were all very tired because we had not slept the whole night before. The first day was very stuffy and dusty, and we had to draw the curtains at each station so that no one could see us. One evening I looked out when we stopped at a small house, there was no station, 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'm not an uncle, but an aunt, and I don't have a newspaper." At first I didn’t understand why he decided that I was “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 along the way, and if there is time, I will tell you about the journey from beginning to end. Farewell, don't forget me. Everyone kisses you.

Your Anastasia.

On May 23 at 9 am the train arrived in Yekaterinburg. Here, the French teacher Zhillard, the sailor Nagorny and the ladies-in-waiting, who arrived with them, were removed from the children. Crews were brought to the train and at 11 o'clock in the morning Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia and Alexei were finally taken to the house of engineer Ipatiev.

Ipatiev house

Life in the "house of special purpose" was monotonous, boring - but nothing more. Wake up at 9 o'clock, breakfast. At 2.30 - lunch, at 5 - afternoon 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 devoted themselves to this activity with enthusiasm.

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. Lilac and lungwort bloomed. The girls baked bread, then Alexei was taken to the garden, and the whole family joined him. At 8 pm we had dinner, played several games of cards. Went to bed at the usual time, at 10:30 pm.

Execution

It is officially believed that the decision to execute 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 special commissioners from the Ural Council handed over a written order of execution to the commander of the security detachment P. Z. Ermakov and the commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission Ya. M. Yurovsky. After a brief dispute about the method of execution, the royal family was awakened and, under the pretext of a possible shootout and the danger of being killed by bullets ricocheting off the walls, they were asked to go down to the corner basement room.

According to the report of Yakov Yurovsky, the Romanovs did not suspect anything until the last moment. At the request of the empress, chairs were brought to the basement, on which she and Nikolai sat down with her son in her arms. Anastasia stood behind with her sisters. The sisters brought several bags with them, Anastasia also took her beloved dog Jimmy, who accompanied her throughout the exile.

Anastasia holding dog Jimmy

There is evidence that after the first salvo, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia survived, they were saved by jewelry sewn into the corsets of dresses. Later, witnesses interrogated by the investigator Sokolov showed that of the royal daughters, Anastasia resisted death for the longest time, already wounded, she “had” to be finished off with bayonets and rifle butts. According to materials discovered by the historian Edward Radzinsky, Anna Demidova, Alexandra's servant, who managed to protect herself with a pillow filled with jewels, remained the longest alive.

Together with the corpses of her 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 from rifle butts and sulfuric acid, were thrown into one of the old mines. Later, investigator Sokolov discovered the corpse of Ortino's dog here.

Grand Duchess Anastasia, Grand Duchess Tatiana holding the dog Ortino

After the execution, the last drawing made by Anastasia's hand was found in the room of the Grand Duchesses - a swing between two birches.

Drawings of Grand Duchess Anastasia

Anastasia over Ganina Yama

Discovery of remains

The Four Brothers tract is located a few kilometers from the village of Koptyaki, not far from Yekaterinburg. One of his pits was chosen by Yurovsky's team for the burial of the remains of the royal family and servants.

It was not possible to keep the place a 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 woman 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, grenade explosions were heard in the tract. Interested in a strange incident, the locals, 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 not noticed 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 the number 5. Doubts arose about it - the entire left side of the face was smashed into pieces; Russian anthropologists tried to put the fragments found together, and put together the missing part of them. The result of rather painstaking work was doubtful. Russian researchers tried to proceed from the growth of the found skeleton, however, the 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, immature 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 interred, the 5'7" long body was buried under the name of Anastasia. Photos of the girl standing next to her sisters, taken six months before the assassination, 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 a friend seven months before the murder: “To her despair, Anastasia has grown fat and looks exactly like Maria a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs ... Let's hope, with with age it will pass ... "Scientists consider it 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 in the so-called Porosenkov Log of the remains of a young girl and a boy, later identified as Tsarevich Alexei and Maria. Genetic examination 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 heir to the emperor.

Fireplace with “charred wooden parts”

Another version of the same story was presented by the former Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda at the trial, in which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called the Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father”. Svoboda proclaimed himself Anderson's savior, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of "a neighbor who was in love with her, a certain X." This version, however, contained quite a lot of clearly implausible details, for example, about curfew violations, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the escape of the Grand Duchess, supposedly pasted up all over the city, and about general searches, which, fortunately didn't give anything. 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, wrote the book “I, Anastasia” and fought litigation for several decades, no final decision was made during her lifetime.

Genetic analysis has now confirmed previous assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franzska 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 false 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. photo

Rumors about the rescue 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 daughter of the Tsar. Elena Petrovna replied that she did not recognize the girl, and the guards took her away. Another report 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 Alternate Route 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 traumatized girl he was examining at the headquarters of the Cheka in Perm told him: "I am the ruler's daughter, Anastasia."

At the same time, in mid-1918, there were several reports of young people in Russia posing as the escaped Romanovs. Boris Solovyov, the husband of Rasputin's daughter Maria, deceived money from noble Russian families for the supposedly escaped Romanov, in fact, wanting to go to China with the proceeds. Solovyov also found women who were willing to impersonate grand duchesses and thus contributed to the introduction of deception.

However, there is a possibility that indeed one or more guards could save one of the surviving Romanovs. Yakov Yurovsky demanded that the guards come to his office and review the things they stole 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 guards who did not participate in the killings and sympathized with the Grand Duchesses, according to some information, remained in the basement with the bodies.

In 1964-1967, during the Anna Anderson case, the Viennese tailor Heinrich Kleibenzetl (German: Heinrich Kleibenzetl) testified that he allegedly saw the wounded Anastasia shortly after the murder in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. The girl was cared for by his landlady, Anna Baudin, in a building directly opposite the Ipatiev house.

“The lower part of her body was covered in blood, her eyes were closed, and she was as 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 wounded girl remained at his landlady's house for three days. The Red Army soldiers allegedly came to the house, but they knew his landlady too well and in fact did not begin to 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 man who brought her, came to take the girl. Kleibenzetl knew nothing more about her future fate.

Rumors revived again after the publication of Sergo Beria’s book “My Father is Lavrenty Beria”, where the author casually recalls a meeting in the foyer of the Bolshoi Theater with the allegedly saved Anastasia, who became the abbess of an unnamed Bulgarian monastery.

Rumors of a "miraculous rescue", which seemed to have subsided 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 missing 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 complex, might not have been among the remains, so an identification mistake seemed likely. This time, Nadezhda Ivanova-Vasilyeva claimed the role of the saved Anastasia, who spent most of her life in the Kazan psychiatric hospital, where she was assigned by the Soviet authorities, who allegedly feared the surviving princess.

Prince Dmitry Romanovich Romanov, great-great-grandson of Nikolai, summed up the long-term epic of impostors:

In my memory, there were from 12 to 19 self-proclaimed Anastasius. 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, turned out to be alive. But alas, it wasn't her.

The last dot over i was put by the discovery in the same tract in 2007 of the bodies of Alexei and Maria and anthropological and genetic examinations, which finally confirmed that there could not have been rescued among the royal family

October 21, 2009, 18:54

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen, how much can you read about silicones, Baisarovs, Lopes, etc.???? It's time to remember the mysterious history of the Grand Russian Duchess. Review Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (Romanova Anastasia Nikolaevna) (June 5 (18), 1901, Peterhof - on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Yekaterinburg) - 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 saved Grand Duchess", but sooner or later they were all exposed as impostors. She was glorified together with her parents, sisters and brother in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Russia as a martyr at the anniversary Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000. Earlier, in 1981, they were also canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Commemoration - July 4 according to the Julian calendar. In her honor, in 1902, the village of Anastasievka in the Black Sea province was named. The birth and disillusionment of the royal family She was born on June 5 (18), 1901 in Peterhof. By the time of her appearance, the royal couple already had three daughters - Olga, Tatyana 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 the throne, therefore the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was considered the heir, which did not suit many, and first of all - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In an attempt to beg Providence for a son, at this time she is more and more immersed in mysticism. With the assistance of the Montenegrin princesses Milica Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, a certain Philip, a Frenchman by nationality, arrived at the court, declaring himself a hypnotist and a specialist in nervous diseases. Philip predicted the birth of a son to Alexandra Fedorovna, however, a girl, Anastasia, was born. Nicholas 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 am daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions quickly and, thank God, without complications. Because it all started and ended while everyone was still sleeping, we both had a sense of calm and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives in all parts of the world. Luckily Alix is ​​doing 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 Nikolai, disappointed by the birth of his daughter, for a long time did not dare to visit the newborn and his wife. Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of the reigning emperor, also noted this event: What a disappointment! 4th girl! They named her Anastasia. My mother telegraphed me about the same and writes: “Alix again gave birth to a daughter!” The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the Empress. The "hypnotist" Philip, not at a loss after the failed prophecy, immediately predicted to her "an amazing life and a special fate." Margaret Eager, author of the memoir Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court, recalled that Anastasia was named after the fact that the emperor pardoned and reinstated the students of St. Petersburg University who took part in the recent unrest, since the very name "Anastasia" meaning "returned to life", the image of this saint usually has chains torn in half. Life in the palace The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, however, they did not use it, in an official speech calling her by her first name and patronymic, and at home they called her “little, Nastaska, Nastya, a little egg” - 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 quite monotonous. Breakfast at 9 am, second breakfast at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock - tea, at eight - a common dinner, and the food was quite simple and unpretentious. In the evenings, the girls solved charades and embroidered 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 Koti's perfume with the smell 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 - this was a duty for them. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the time of the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who bathed in it left their autograph on the side), the other - smaller - was intended for children. Sundays were awaited with special impatience - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls with their aunt, Olga Alexandrovna. Particularly interesting was the evening when Anastasia was allowed to dance with young officers. Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Education began at the age of eight, the program included French and English, history, geography, the law of God, science, drawing, grammar, as well as dancing and lessons in good manners. Anastasia did not differ in diligence in her studies, she could not stand grammar, she wrote with terrifying mistakes, and called arithmetic with childlike immediacy "svin". 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 war was declared. During the war, the empress gave many of the palace rooms for hospital premises. The older sisters Olga and Tatyana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, being too young for such hard work, became patronesses 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 their heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctantly breaking away from work for the sake of lessons. With Princess Mary The execution of the royal family It is officially believed that the decision to execute 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 special commissioners from the Ural Council handed over a written order for execution to the commander of the security detachment P. Z. Yermakov and the commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission Ya. M. Yurovsky. the royal family was awakened and, under the pretext of a possible shootout and the danger of being killed by bullets ricocheting off the walls, they offered to go down to the corner basement room. According to the report of Yakov Yurovsky, the Romanovs did not suspect anything until the last moment. At the request of the empress, chairs were brought to the basement, on which she and Nikolai sat down with her son in her arms. Anastasia stood behind with her sisters. The sisters brought several bags with them, Anastasia also took her beloved dog Jimmy, who accompanied her throughout the exile. There is evidence that after the first salvo, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia survived, they were saved by jewelry sewn into the corsets of dresses. Later, witnesses interrogated by the investigator Sokolov showed that of the royal daughters, Anastasia resisted death for the longest time, already wounded, she “had” to be finished off with bayonets and rifle butts. According to materials discovered by the historian Edward Radzinsky, Anna Demidova, Alexandra's servant, who managed to protect herself with a pillow filled with jewels, remained the longest alive. Together with the corpses of her 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 from rifle butts and sulfuric acid, were thrown into one of the old mines. Later, investigator Sokolov discovered the corpse of the dog Ortipo here. After the execution, 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 battle Drawings of the princess Stories with the rescue of the Tsarevich 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 one of the servants, began to circulate among Russian emigrants almost immediately after the execution of the tsar's family. Attempts by a number of people to use for selfish purposes the belief in the possible salvation of the younger princess Anastasia led to the appearance of more than thirty false Anastasias. One of the most famous imposters was Anna Anderson, who claimed that a soldier named Tchaikovsky managed to pull her wounded out of 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, in which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called the Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father”. Svoboda proclaimed himself Anderson's savior, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of "a neighbor who was in love with her, a certain X." This version, however, contained quite a lot of clearly implausible details, for example, about curfew violations, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the escape of the Grand Duchess, supposedly pasted up all over the city, and about general searches, which, fortunately didn't give anything. 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 fought litigation for several decades , no final decision was made during her lifetime. Genetic analysis has now confirmed previous assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franzska 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. Evgenia Smith Another false 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 false Anastasias, Natalya Bilikhodze, died in 2000. Prince Dmitry Romanovich Romanov, great-great-grandson of Nikolai, summed up the long-term epic of impostors:In my memory, there were from 12 to 19 self-proclaimed Anastasius. 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, turned out to be alive. But alas, it wasn't her! The last dot over i was put by the discovery in the same tract in 2007 of the bodies of Alexei and Maria and anthropological and genetic examinations, which finally confirmed that there could not have been rescued among the royal family Anna Anderson's story was made into an animated film 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.

Anastasia Romanova: the mystery of the Grand Duchess

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of the last Russian emperor, would have turned 105 on June 18, 2006. Or did it come true? This question does not give rest to historians, researchers, and ... swindlers.

The life of the youngest daughter of Nicholas II ended at the age of 17. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, she and her relatives were shot in Yekaterinburg. From the memoirs of contemporaries, it is known that Anastasia was well educated, as befits the daughter of an emperor, knew how to dance, knew foreign languages, participated in home performances ... She had a funny nickname in the family: "Shvibzik" for playfulness. In addition, from an early age she took care of her brother, Tsarevich Alexei, who was ill with hemophilia.

In Russian history, there have been cases of "miraculous salvation" of the murdered heirs before: it is enough to recall the numerous False Dmitrys who appeared after the death of the young son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In the case of the royal family, there are serious reasons to believe that one of the heirs survived: the members of the Yekaterinburg District Court Nametkin and Sergeev, who investigated the case of the death of the imperial family, came to the conclusion that the royal family was at some point replaced by a family of twins .

It is known that Nicholas II had seven such twin families. The version of twins was soon rejected, a little later, the researchers returned to it again - after the memoirs of those who participated in the massacre in the Ipatiev House in July 1918 were published.

In the early 90s, the burial of the royal family near Yekaterinburg was discovered, but the remains of Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei were not found. However, another skeleton, "number 6", was later found and buried as belonging to the Grand Duchess. Only one small detail makes one doubt its authenticity - Anastasia was 158 cm tall, and the buried skeleton was 171 cm ... Moreover, two judicial rulings in Germany, based on DNA examinations of the Yekaterinburg remains, showed that they completely correspond to the Filatov family - twins of the family of Nicholas II ...

In addition, there is little factual material left about the Grand Duchess, perhaps this also provoked the "heirs". Already two years after the execution of the royal family, the first contender appeared. On one of the Berlin streets in 1920, a young woman Anna Anderson was found unconscious, who, having come to her senses, called herself Anastasia Romanova. According to her version, the miraculous rescue looked like this: along with all the killed family members, she was taken to the burial place, but some soldier hid the half-dead Anastasia along the way. With him, she got to Romania, where they got married, but what happened next was a failure ...

The strangest thing about this story is that some foreign relatives recognized Anastasia in her, as well as Tatyana Botkina-Melnik, the widow of Dr. Botkin, who died in Yekaterinburg. For 50 years, conversations and court cases did not subside, but Anna Anderson was never recognized as the "real" Anastasia Romanova.

Another story leads to the Bulgarian village of Grabarevo. A young woman with an aristocratic posture "appeared there in the early 20s and introduced herself as Eleonora Albertovna Kruger. A Russian doctor was with her, and a year later a tall, sickly-looking young man appeared in their house, who was registered in the community under the name Georgy Zhudin. Rumors about that Eleanor and George are brother and sister, and belong to the Russian royal family, went in the community.Nevertheless, they did not express any statements or claims to anything.

George died in 1930, and in 1954 - Eleanor. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian researcher Blagoy Emmanuilov claims that he has found evidence that Eleanor is the missing daughter of Nicholas II, and George is Tsarevich Alexei, citing some evidence: A lot of data reliably known about the life of Anastasia coincide with the stories of Nora from Gabarevo about myself," researcher Blagoy Emmanuilov told Radio Bulgaria.

"Towards the end of her life, she herself recalled that the servants bathed her in a golden trough, combed her hair and dressed her. She told about her own royal room, and about her children's drawings drawn in it. There is another interesting piece of evidence. At the beginning of the 50- 1990s, in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Balchik, a Russian White Guard, describing in detail the life of the executed imperial family, mentioned Nora and George from Gabarevo.

In front of witnesses, he told that Nicholas II ordered him to personally take Anastasia and Alexei out of the palace and hide them in the province. After long wanderings, they reached Odessa and boarded the ship, where, in the general confusion, Anastasia was overtaken by the bullets of the Red cavalrymen. All three went ashore at the Turkish pier Tegerdag. Further, the White Guard claimed that, by the will of fate, the royal children ended up in a village near the city of Kazanlak.

In addition, comparing the pictures of 17-year-old Anastasia and 35-year-old Eleonora Kruger from Gabarevo, experts have established a significant similarity between them. The years of their birth also match. Contemporaries of George claim that he was ill with tuberculosis and talk about him as a tall, weak and pale young man. Russian authors also describe Prince Alexei, a patient with hemophilia, in a similar way. According to doctors, the external manifestations of both diseases coincide.

The site Inosmi.ru cites a report from Radio Bulgaria, which notes that in 1995 the remains of Eleonora and George were exhumed from the graves in the old rural cemetery, in the presence of a forensic doctor and an anthropologist. In the coffin of George, they found an amulet - an icon with the face of Christ - one of those with which only representatives of the highest strata of the Russian aristocracy were buried.

It would seem that the appearance of the miraculously saved Anastasia should have ended after so many years, but no - in 2002 another applicant was presented. At that time she was almost 101 years old. Oddly enough, it was her age that made many researchers believe in this story: those who appeared earlier could count, for example, on power, fame, money. But is there any point in chasing wealth at 101?

Natalia Petrovna Bilikhodze, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, of course, counted on the monetary inheritance of the royal family, but only in order to return it to Russia. According to representatives of the Interregional Public Charitable Christian Foundation of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova, they had the data of "22 expert examinations carried out in a commission-judicial order in three states - Georgia, Russia and Latvia, the results of which were not refuted by any of the structures."

According to these data, Georgian citizen Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze and Princess Anastasia have "such a number of matching signs that there can be only one out of 700 billion cases," members of the Foundation said. A book by N.P. Bilikhodze: "I am Anastasia Romanova", containing memories of life and relationships in the royal family.

It would seem that the solution is close: they even talked about the fact that Natalia Petrovna was going to come to Moscow and speak in the State Duma, despite her age, but later it turned out that "Anastasia" died two years before she was declared heiress.

In total, since the day of the assassination of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, pseudo-Anastasius has appeared in the world for about 30 years, writes NewsRu.Com. Some of them did not even speak Russian, explaining that the stress experienced in the Ipatiev House made them forget their native language. A special service was created in the Geneva Bank to "identify" them, and none of the former candidates could pass the exam.

Anastasia Nikolaevna - Grand Duchess. The fourth (youngest) daughter of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II and the Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was born on June 18, 1901 in Peterhof

Anastasia Nikolaevna - Grand Duchess. The fourth (youngest) daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Born in Peterhof. There are two versions of why the name "Anastasia" was chosen for the newborn. According to the first, the girl was named after a close friend of the Russian Empress Anastasia (Stana) Nikolaevna, a Montenegrin princess. The second version of the choice of name was presented by Margaret Eager, who wrote the memoirs Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court.

She claimed that Anastasia was named after the pardon granted by Nicholas II in honor of the birth of her daughter to students of St. Petersburg University who participated in anti-government unrest. The name "Anastasia" means "returned to life." When baptized as a Grand Duchess, she received the Order of St. Catherine of the 1st degree.

Anastasia from childhood was distinguished by a difficult character. At home, for her cheerful irrepressible childishness, she even received the nickname "Shvybz".

Anastasia was very playful. Despite her physique (short, thick), for which the sisters called her "pod", she deftly climbed trees and often refused to climb out of mischief, she loved to play hide and seek, round shoes and other games, played the balalaika and guitar, introduced fashion among their sisters to weave flowers and ribbons into their hair.

Nikolai wrote in his diary: “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 am daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions quickly and, thank God, without complications. Because it all started and ended while everyone was still sleeping, we both had a sense of calm and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives in all parts of the world. Luckily Alix is ​​doing well. The baby weighs 11½ pounds and is 55 cm tall."

Name

The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the Empress. The "hypnotist" Philip, not at a loss after the failed prophecy, immediately predicted to her "an amazing life and a special fate."

"Reborn to Life"

Margaret Eager, author of the memoir Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court, recalled that Anastasia was named after the emperor pardoned and reinstated the students of St. meaning "returned to life", the image of this saint usually has chains torn in half.

Full Title

The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, however, they did not use it, in an official speech calling her by her first name and patronymic, and at home they called her “little, Nastaska, Nastya, a little egg” - for her small height (157 cm .) and a round figure and a "shvybzik" - for mobility and inexhaustibility in the invention of pranks and pranks.

living conditions

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the children of the emperor were not spoiled with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. The walls of the room were gray, the ceiling decorated with images of butterflies. There are icons and photographs on the walls. The furniture is white and green, the decor is simple, almost Spartan, a couch with embroidered cushions, and an army bunk on which the Grand Duchess slept all year round.

This bunk moved around the room in order to find itself in a more illuminated 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 stuffiness and heat. The same bunk 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 the Grand Duchesses as a common boudoir and bathroom.

The life of the Grand Duchesses was quite monotonous. Breakfast at 9 am, second breakfast at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock - tea, at eight - a common dinner, and the food was quite simple and unpretentious. In the evenings, the girls solved charades and embroidered 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 Koti's perfume with the smell 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 - this was a duty for them. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the time of the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who bathed in it left their autograph on the side), the other - smaller - was intended for children.

Education

Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Education began at the age of eight, the program included French, English and German, history, geography, the law of God, science, drawing, grammar, arithmetic, as well as dance and music.

Anastasia did not differ in diligence in her studies, she could not stand grammar, she wrote with terrifying mistakes, and called arithmetic with childlike immediacy "svin".

English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that once she tried to bribe him with a bouquet of flowers to increase her grade, and after he refused, she gave these flowers to a Russian language teacher, Petrov.

Life of the Royal Children

Basically, the family lived in the Alexander Palace, occupying only a part of several dozen rooms. Sometimes they moved to the Winter Palace, despite the fact that it was very large and cold, the girls Tatyana and Anastasia often got sick here.

In mid-June, the family went on trips on the imperial yacht Shtandart, usually on the Finnish skerries, landing from time to time on the islands for short excursions. The imperial family especially fell in love with a small bay, which was dubbed the Shtandart Bay. They had picnics in it, or played tennis on the court, which the emperor arranged with his own hands.

We also rested in the Livadia Palace. The main premises housed the imperial family, in the annexes - several courtiers, guards and servants. They swam in the warm sea, built fortresses and sand towers, sometimes went to the city to ride a carriage through the streets or visit shops.

In St. Petersburg, this could not be done, since any appearance of the royal family in public created a crowd and excitement.

Chief of the Regiment

In 1901, after her birth, the name of St. Anastasia of the Pattern Resolver in honor of the princess received the Caspian 148th Infantry Regiment. He began to celebrate his regimental holiday on December 22, the day of the saint. 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 became officially known as the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia.

War

During the war, the empress gave many of the palace rooms for hospital premises. The older sisters Olga and Tatyana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, being too young for such hard work, became patronesses 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 their heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctantly breaking away from work for the sake of lessons.

Memories of Lily Den

According to the memoirs of Lily Den (Julia Alexandrovna von Den), a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna, in February 1917, at the very height of the revolution, the children fell ill with measles one by one. Anastasia was the last to fall ill, 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 with her children remained in the palace.

On the night of March 2, 1917, Lily Den stayed overnight in the palace, in the Crimson Room, together with Grand Duchess Anastasia. So that they would not worry, they explained that the troops surrounding the palace and the distant shots were the result of the exercises being carried out. Alexandra Feodorovna intended 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.

Chronicle of events

On Wednesday, March 8, Count Pavel Benkendorf appeared at the palace with the message that the Provisional Government had decided to subject the imperial family to house arrest in Tsarskoye Selo. It was proposed to draw up a list of people wishing to stay with them. Lily Dan immediately offered her services.

On March 9, the children were informed about the father's abdication. Nicholas returned a few days later. Life under house arrest was quite bearable. I had to reduce the number of dishes during dinner, 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 walked in the park and sometimes met her with whistling and swearing, so the walks had to be shortened.

On June 22, 1917, it was decided to shave the heads of the girls, as their hair fell out due to the persistent temperature and strong medicines. Alexei insisted on being shaved too, thus causing extreme displeasure in his mother.

Learning, no matter what

Despite everything, the education of children continued. The whole process was led by Gilliard, a teacher of French; Nicholas himself taught the children geography and history; Baroness Buxhoeveden took over the English and music lessons; Mademoiselle Schneider taught arithmetic; Countess Gendrikova - drawing; Empress Alexandra taught Orthodoxy.

The eldest, Olga, despite the fact that her education was completed, often attended classes and read a lot, improving in what had already been learned.

Anastasia did not differ in her diligence in her studies, she wrote with errors, and called arithmetic "disgusting".

English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that the younger princess once tried to "bribe" him with a bouquet of flowers, then gave the bouquet to the Russian teacher Petrov.

During the Great War, Anastasia, together with her sister Maria, visited the Tsarskoye Selo hospital, where their mother and older sisters worked.

Like everyone in the family of Nicholas II, the Grand Duchess loved animals. She had a Spitz Shvibzik. When he died in 1915, the Grand Duchess was inconsolable for several weeks. Later she got another dog - Jimmy. He accompanied her during the exile.

On August 26, the imperial family arrived in Tobolsk on the ship "Rus". The house intended for them was not yet completely ready, so they spent the first eight days on the ship.

Care of life

Finally, under escort, the imperial family was taken to the two-story governor's mansion, where they were to live from now on. The girls were given a corner bedroom on the second floor, where they were all placed on 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 fairly monotonous; the main entertainment is to watch passers-by from the window. From 9.00 to 11.00 - lessons. An hour break for a walk with my father. Again lessons from 12.00 to 13.00. Dinner. From 14.00 to 16.00 walks and simple entertainment like home performances, or in winter - skiing from a slide built by oneself. Anastasia, in her own words, enthusiastically harvested firewood and sewed. Further on the schedule followed the evening service and going to bed.From a letter from Anastasia to her sister Maria.

“The iconostasis was arranged terribly well for Easter, everything is in the Christmas tree, as it should be here, and flowers. We filmed, I hope it will come out. I continue to draw, they say - not bad, very pleasant. Swinging on a swing, when I fell, it was such a wonderful fall! .. yes!

I told my sisters so many times yesterday that they are already tired, but I can tell a lot more times, although there is no one else. In general, I have a lot of things to tell you and you. My Jimmy woke up and coughs, so he sits at home, he bows. That was the weather! It was possible to scream directly from pleasantness. I tanned most of all, oddly enough, just an acrobat! And these days are boring and ugly, it’s cold, and we froze this morning, although of course we didn’t go home ... I’m very sorry, I forgot to congratulate you all my loved ones on the holidays, not three kisses, but a lot of times All. Thank you all very much for your letter, darling."

Life drinking

In April 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the fourth convocation decided to transfer the former tsar to Moscow in order to try him. After long hesitation, Alexandra decided to accompany her husband, "for help" Maria had to leave with her.

The rest had to wait for them in Tobolsk, Olga's duties were to take care of her sick brother, Tatyana's to keep house, Anastasia's to "entertain everyone." However, in the beginning, the entertainment was tight, on the last night before departure, no one closed their eyes, and when finally in the morning, peasant carts for the king, queen and accompanying people were brought to the threshold, three girls - “three figures in gray” saw off the departing with tears up to the gate.

In the governor's house

In the empty house, life went on slowly and sadly. They guessed from books, read aloud to each other, walked. Anastasia was still swinging, painting and playing with her sick brother. According to the memoirs of Gleb Botkin, the son of a medical doctor who died along with the royal family, one day he saw Anastasia in the window and bowed to her, but the guards immediately drove him away, threatening to shoot if he dared to come so close again.

Jewelry

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 in the house of 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 ordered her daughters to “properly dispose of medicines” - this word meant jewelry that they managed to hide and take with them. Under the guidance of her older sister Tatyana, Anastasia sewed the remaining jewelry in her dress into the corset of the dress - with a good combination of circumstances, it was supposed to buy her way to salvation for them.

reunion

On May 19, it was finally decided that the remaining daughters and Alexei, who had grown strong enough by that time, would join their parents and Maria in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. The next day, on May 20, all four boarded the steamer "Rus" again, which delivered them to Tyumen. According to eyewitnesses, the girls were transported in locked cabins, Alexei rode with his batman named Nagorny, access to them in the cabin was forbidden even for a doctor.

Strength of mind

"My dear friend,

I'll tell you how we drove. We got off early in the morning, then got on the train and I fell asleep, and everyone else followed me. We were all very tired because we had not slept the whole night before. The first day was very stuffy and dusty, and we had to draw the curtains at each station so that no one could see us. One evening I looked out when we stopped at a small house, there was no station, 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'm not an uncle, but an aunt, and I don't have a newspaper." At first I didn’t understand why he decided that I was “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 along the way, and if there is time, I will tell you about the journey from beginning to end. Farewell, don't forget me. Everyone kisses you.

Your Anastasia.

House of Ipatiev

On May 23 at 9 am the train arrived in Yekaterinburg. Here, the French teacher Gilliard, the sailor Nagorny and the ladies-in-waiting, who arrived with them, were removed from the children. Crews were brought to the train and at 11 o'clock in the morning Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia and Alexei were finally taken to the house of engineer Ipatiev.

Life in the "house of special purpose" was monotonous, boring - but nothing more. Wake up at 9 o'clock, breakfast. At 2.30 - lunch, at 5 - afternoon 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 devoted themselves to this activity with enthusiasm.

Last Birthday

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. Lilac and lungwort bloomed. The girls baked bread, then Alexei was taken to the garden, and the whole family joined him. At 8 pm we had dinner, played several games of cards. Went to bed at the usual time, at 10:30 pm.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova - daughter of Nicholas II, who, along with the rest of the family, was shot in July 1918 in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg. In the early 20s of the 20th century, numerous impostors began to appear in Europe and the USA, who declared themselves to be the surviving Grand Duchess. The most famous of them, Anna Anderson, was generally recognized as the youngest daughter by some surviving members of the imperial house. Litigation lasted for several decades, but did not resolve the issue of its origin.

However, the discovery in the 90s of the remains of the executed royal family put an end to these proceedings. There was no escape, and Anastasia Romanova was still killed that night in 1918. This article will be devoted to the short, tragic and suddenly cut short life of the Grand Duchess.

Birth of a princess

By the next, already the fourth pregnancy of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, public attention was riveted. The fact is that, according to the law, only a man could inherit the throne, and the wife of Nicholas II gave birth to three daughters in a row. Therefore, both the king and the queen counted on the appearance of a long-awaited son. Contemporaries recall that Alexandra Feodorovna at that time was increasingly immersed in mysticism, inviting people to the court who could help her give birth to an heir. However, on June 5, 1901, Anastasia Romanova was born. The daughter was born strong and healthy. She received her name in honor of the Montenegrin princess, who was a close friend of the queen. Other contemporaries claimed that the girl was named Anastasia in honor of pardoning students who participated in the unrest.

And although the relatives were disappointed with the birth of another daughter, Nikolai himself was glad that she was born strong and healthy.

Childhood

Parents did not spoil their daughters with luxury, instilling in them modesty and piety from early childhood. Anastasia Romanova was especially friendly with her older sister Maria, whose age difference was only 2 years. They shared a room and toys together, and the younger princess often wore clothes for the elders. The room in which they lived was also not luxurious. The walls were painted gray and decorated with icons and family photographs. Butterflies were painted on the ceiling. The princesses slept in folding folding beds.

The daily routine in childhood for all the sisters was almost the same. They got up early in the morning, took a cold bath, had breakfast. They spent their evenings embroidering or playing charades. Often at this time, the emperor would read aloud to them. Judging by the memoirs of contemporaries, Princess Anastasia Romanova especially loved Sunday children's balls with her aunt, Olga Alexandrovna. The girl loved to dance with young officers.

From early childhood, Anastasia Nikolaevna was distinguished by poor health. She often suffered from pain in her feet, as she had overly crooked big toes. The princess also had a rather weak back, but she flatly refused a firming massage. In addition, doctors believed that the girl had inherited the hemophilia gene from her mother and was its carrier, since even after small cuts her blood did not stop for a long time.

The character of the Grand Duchess

Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova from early childhood differed significantly in character from her older sisters. She was too active and agile, loved to play, constantly played pranks. Because of her violent temper, her parents and sisters often called her a pod or "shvybzik". The last nickname came from her short stature and tendency to be overweight.

Contemporaries recall that the girl was distinguished by a cheerful character and very easily converged with other people. She had a high and deep voice, she loved to laugh out loud, often smiled. She was best friends with Maria, but she was close with her brother Alexei. She was often able to entertain him for hours when he lay in bed after an illness. Anastasia was a creative person, she constantly invented something. With her filing at court, it became fashionable to braid ribbons and flowers in her hair.

Anastasia Romanova, according to contemporaries, also had the talent of a comic actress, because she loved to parody her loved ones. However, she could sometimes be too blunt and her jokes hurtful. Her pranks weren't always harmless either. The girl was also not very neat, but she loved animals and drew well, played the guitar.

Training and education

Due to the short life, the biography of Anastasia Romanova was not full of bright events. Like other daughters of Nicholas II, from the age of eight, the princess began to be educated at home. Specially hired teachers taught her French, English and German. But in the latter language, she could not speak. The princess was taught world and Russian history, geography, religious dogmas, natural sciences. The program included grammar and arithmetic - the girl especially did not like these subjects. She did not differ in perseverance, poorly absorbed the material, wrote with errors. Her teachers recalled that the girl was cunning, sometimes trying to bribe them with small gifts in order to get a higher grade.

Much better than Anastasia Romanova were given creative disciplines. She always enjoyed attending drawing, music and dance classes. The Grand Duchess was fond of knitting and sewing. As she grew older, she took up photography in earnest. She even had her own album in which she kept her work. Contemporaries recalled that Anastasia Nikolaevna also loved to read a lot and could talk on the phone for hours.

World War I

In 1914, Princess Anastasia Romanova turned 13 years old. Together with her sisters, the girl cried for a long time when she learned about the declaration of war. A year later, according to tradition, Anastasia received patronage of the infantry regiment, which now bore her name.

After the declaration of war, the empress organized a military hospital within the walls of the Alexander Palace. There, together with Princesses Olga and Tatyana, she regularly worked as sisters of mercy, taking care of the wounded. Anastasia, along with Maria, were still too young to follow their example. Therefore, they were appointed patronesses of the hospital. The princesses donated their own funds to buy medicines, prepared dressings, knitted and sewed things for the wounded, wrote letters to their families and loved ones. Often the younger sisters simply entertained the soldiers. In her diaries, Anastasia Nikolaevna noted that she taught the military to read and write. Together with Maria, they often gave concerts in the hospital. The sisters performed their duties with pleasure, being distracted from them only for the sake of lessons.

Anastasia Nikolaevna recalled her work in the hospital with warmth until the end of her life. In letters to her relatives from exile, she often mentioned wounded soldiers, hoping that they would later be able to recover. On the table she had photographs taken in the hospital.

February Revolution

In February 1917, all the princesses became seriously ill with measles. At the same time, Anastasia Romanova was the last to fall ill. The daughter of Nicholas II did not know that riots were taking place in Petrograd. The Empress planned to hide the news of the flaring revolution from her children until the last. When armed soldiers surrounded the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, the princesses and the Tsarevich were told that military exercises were being held nearby.

Only on March 9, 1917, did the children learn about their father's abdication and house arrest. Anastasia Nikolaevna had not yet fully recovered from her illness and suffered from otitis media, so she completely lost her hearing for a while. Therefore, her sister Maria, especially for her, described in detail what happened on paper.

House arrest in Tsarskoye Selo

Judging by the memoirs of a contemporary, house arrest did not greatly change the measured life of members of the royal family, including Anastasia Romanova. The daughter of Nicholas II continued to devote all her free time to studying. Her father taught her and her younger brother geography and history, and her mother taught religious dogmas. The remaining disciplines were taken over by the retinue loyal to the king. They taught French and English, arithmetic, music.

The public of Petrograd had an extremely negative attitude towards the former monarch and his family. Newspapers and magazines harshly criticized the way of life of the Romanovs, published offensive cartoons. A crowd of visitors from Petrograd often gathered at the Alexander Palace, who gathered at the gates, shouted insulting curses and booed the princesses walking in the park. In order not to provoke them, it was decided to reduce the time of walks. I also had to give up many dishes on the menu. Firstly, because the government cut the funding of the palace every month. Secondly, because of the newspapers, which regularly published a detailed menu of former monarchs.

In June 1917, Anastasia and her sisters were completely shaved baldly, because after a serious illness and taking a large number of drugs, their hair began to fall out badly. In the summer, the Provisional Government did not prevent the royal family from leaving for Great Britain. However, the cousin of Nicholas II, George V, fearing unrest in the country, refused to receive his relative. Therefore, in August 1917, the government decided to send the family of the former tsar into exile in Tobolsk.

Link to Tobolsk

In August 1917, the royal family, under the strictest secrecy, was sent by train, first to Tyumen. From there, already on the ship "Rus" they were transported to Tobolsk. They were supposed to be settled in the former governor's house, but they did not have time to prepare it before their arrival. Therefore, for almost a week, all family members lived on the ship and only then, under escort, were transported to their new home.

The Grand Duchesses settled in the corner bedroom on the second floor on camp beds, which they brought with them from Tsarskoye Selo. It is known that Anastasia Nikolaevna decorated her part of the room with photographs and her own drawings. Life in Tobolsk was rather monotonous. Until September, they were not allowed to leave the grounds of the house. Therefore, the sisters, together with their younger brother, looked at the passers-by with interest, and were engaged in training. Several times a day they could go for short walks outside. At this time, Anastasia loved to prepare firewood, and in the evenings she sewed a lot. The princess also took part in home performances.

In September they were allowed to attend church on Sundays. The locals treated the former monarch and his family well; they were regularly brought fresh food from the monastery. Anastasia at the same time began to gain a lot of weight, but she hoped that over time, like her sister Maria, she would be able to return to her previous form. In April 1918, the Bolsheviks decided to move the royal family to Yekaterinburg. The emperor and his wife and daughter Maria were the first to go there. The other sisters, along with their brother, were to stay in the city.

The photo below shows Anastasia Romanova with her father and older sisters Olga and Tatyana in Tobolsk.

Relocation to Yekaterinburg and the last months of life

It is known that the attitude of the guards of the house in Tobolsk towards its inhabitants was hostile. In April 1918, Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova burned her diaries with her sisters, fearing searches. Only at the end of May did the government decide to send the remaining Romanovs to their parents in Yekaterinburg.

Survivors recalled that life in the house of the engineer Ipatiev, in which the royal family was accommodated, was rather monotonous. Princess Anastasia, along with her sisters, was engaged in everyday activities: sewing, playing cards, walking in the garden next to the house, and in the evenings reading church literature to her mother. At the same time, the girls were taught how to bake bread. In June 1918, Anastasia celebrated her last birthday, she was 17 years old. They were not allowed to celebrate it, so all the family members played cards in the garden in honor of this and went to bed at the usual time.

Execution of a family in the Ipatiev house

Like other members of the Romanov family, Anastasia was shot on the night of July 17, 1918. It is believed that until the last she did not suspect the intentions of the guards. They were awakened in the middle of the night and ordered to urgently go down to the basement of the house because of the shooting that took place in the streets nearby. Chairs were brought into the room for the empress and the sick crown prince. Anastasia stood behind her mother. She took her dog Jimmy with her, who accompanied her during her exile.

It is believed that after the first shots, Anastasia and her sisters Tatyana and Maria were able to survive. The bullets failed to hit because of the jewels that were sewn into the corsets of the dresses. The Empress hoped that with their help they would, if possible, be able to buy their salvation. Witnesses to the murder said that it was Princess Anastasia who resisted the longest. They could only wound her, so after the guards had to finish off the girl with bayonets.

The bodies of members of the royal family were wrapped in sheets and taken out of the city. There they were previously doused with sulfuric acid and thrown into the mines. For many years the place of burial remained unknown.

The appearance of the false Anastasius

Almost immediately after the death of the royal family, rumors began to appear about their salvation. Over the course of several decades of the 20th century, more than 30 women declared themselves to be the surviving Princess Anastasia Romanoff. Most of them failed to attract attention.

The most famous impostor, who introduced herself as Anastasia, was the Polish woman Anna Anderson, who showed up in Berlin in 1920. Initially, due to external resemblance, she was mistaken for the surviving Tatyana. To establish the fact of kinship with the Romanovs, she was visited by many courtiers who were well acquainted with the royal family. However, they did not recognize in her either Tatiana or Anastasia. However, the legal proceedings lasted until the death of Anna Anderson in 1984. Significant evidence was the curvature of the big toes, which both the impostor and the deceased Anastasia had. However, the exact origin of Anderson could not be determined until the remains of the royal family were discovered.

Discovery of the remains and their reburial

The story of Anastasia Romanova, unfortunately, did not receive a happy continuation. In 1991, unknown remains were discovered in Ganina Yama, which allegedly belonged to members of the royal family. Initially, not all the bodies were found - one of the princesses and the crown prince were missing. Scientists came to the conclusion that they could not find Maria and Alexei. They were discovered only in 2007 near the burial place of the remaining relatives. This find put an end to the story of numerous impostors.

Several independent genetic examinations determined that the remains found belonged to the emperor, his wife and children. Thus, they were able to conclude that there could not have been any survivors of the execution.

In 1981, the Russian Church Abroad officially canonized Princess Anastasia along with the rest of the deceased family members. In Russia, their canonization took place only in 2000. Their remains, after carrying out all the necessary research, were reburied in the Peter and Paul Fortress. On the site of the Ipatiev house, where the execution took place, the Church on the Blood is now built.