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Salvation temptation. The Truth and Legend of Princess Anastasia Romanova

Salvation temptation. The Truth and Legend of Princess Anastasia Romanova

15.10.2019

Legends about royal children miraculously escaping from death are one of the most common stories among many peoples. Sometimes such legends became a convenient cover for impostors, sometimes they were the last hope that the dynasty was not interrupted and that the descendants of an ancient and glorious family were still alive somewhere. The circumstances of the death of the Romanovs are so confused that the appearance of stories about children who escaped execution is not surprising. It is also not surprising the appearance of many "doubles" who call themselves direct descendants of the last Russian emperor.

For almost a hundred years that have passed since the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, there have been so many impostors that it is difficult to count them.

There are many versions about the miraculous salvation of the children of the last Russian emperor Nicholas II - from naive folk tales that the Mother of God averted the eyes of the executioners, and angels on wings carried them to a safe place, to well-thought-out stories that amaze with an abundance of details and details. Although the narrators rarely agree on who exactly managed to survive, as, indeed, in the circumstances of the rescue.

As you know, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia were shot , the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, as well as the life physician Botkin, the valet Alexei Trupp, the maid Anna Demidova and the cook Ivan Kharitonov.

It is officially believed that the decision to execute the royal family was finally made by the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies on July 16 in connection with the possibility of surrendering the city to the White Guard troops and the alleged plot to escape the Romanovs. On the night of July 16-17 at 11:30 p.m., two special commissioners from the Ural Council handed over a written order of execution to the commander of the security detachment P. 3. Ermakov and the commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission Ya. M. Yurovsky. After a brief argument about the method of execution, the royal family was awakened and, having talked about 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 very last moment, when the volleys were fired. It is known 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 the longest, she, already wounded, “had” to be finished off with bayonets and rifle butts. According to materials discovered by the historian Edward Radzinsky, Anna Demidova, Alexandra's maid, who managed to protect herself with a pillow with jewels sewn into it, remained the longest alive.

A murder committed under mysterious circumstances always gives rise to rumors, especially if the victims are famous people, especially crowned persons. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the secret massacre perpetrated by the Bolsheviks over the royal family caused the emergence of versions that the Romanovs had miraculously survived. “Rumors that one of the Grand Duchesses was able to escape were extremely strong,” wrote the publicist K. Savich, who until October 1917 held the post of chairman of the Petrograd Jury Court. At first, when only a few knew about the events in the Ipatiev House, people simply hoped that at least one of the Romanovs had survived - and wishful thinking. Later, when the remains of members of the royal family were discovered, it turned out that among the skeletons found near Yekaterinburg, there were no remains of Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei. This gave rise to new legends about salvation. Is it any wonder that the tragic events in Yekaterinburg gave rise to a new wave of imposture, comparable to the one that swept during the first Russian turmoil.

Starting to appear immediately after the execution of the royal family in 1918, the "Romanovs who escaped execution" and their descendants became the most extensive category of impostors in modern history. The children of some of them continue today to seek the return of their "legitimate name" or even the Russian imperial crown. In various parts of the world, there were either princes Alexei, or princesses Anastasia, or princesses Maria or Nicholas II. Most of all there were self-proclaimed Alekseevs - 81, a little less Mariy - 53. There were about 33 false Anastasius, the same number of self-proclaimed Tatyanas, and least of all among the modern false Romanovs there were adventurers who pretended to be Olga - 28.

With enviable regularity, they announced themselves in Germany, France, Spain, the United States of America and Russia. So, for example, in the middle of 1919, a young man of 15-16 years old, similar to Tsarevich Alexei, showed up in Siberia. According to eyewitnesses, the people received him with enthusiasm. Schools even collected money in favor of the "surviving heir to the throne." A telegram about the appearance of the "prince" was immediately sent to the ruler of Siberia, Admiral A. V. Kolchak, on whose orders the young man was taken to Omsk. According to the applicant, he managed to escape by jumping out of the train on which the royal family was taken to exile, and hiding with "loyal people." However, Pierre Zhillard, a former teacher of Tsarevich Alexei, who had come to verify the truth of his testimony, asked the impostor several questions in French. "Tsarevich Alexei" could not answer them, but stated that he perfectly understood what they were asking him about, but did not want to answer and would only talk with Admiral Kolchak. The deception of Alexei Putsiato, as the young swindler was really called, was revealed very quickly ...

A few months later, the "miraculously saved" tsar's son Alexei Romanov showed up in Poland. Some time later, Grand Duchess Olga appeared there. She said that she lost her memory from a strong blow with a butt, allegedly received by her in Yekaterinburg from executioners, and then was saved by some soldier. In the south of France in the 1920s, another enterprising person under the name of Olga Nikolaevna toured, who was engaged in collecting money from sentimental gullible people to "buy back the jewels of the imperial family pledged in a pawnshop." So she managed to enrich herself by almost a million francs! Then came the turn of the “children and grandchildren of the royal children”: for example, for many years a frequenter of the Madrid bullfight was a certain playboy, who presented himself as “the grandson of Tsarevich Alexei” ...

At one time there was a legend in emigre circles that in fact the tsar and his family were not shot, but were secretly kept under the vigilant supervision of the Cheka-OGPU in one of the resorts of Georgia. And Nicholas II himself allegedly lived until 1957 and was buried in Sukhumi. With all the skepticism of the broad circles of the world community towards these and similar rumors, one of the myths regarding the Romanov family has existed for many decades and continues to excite people's minds even today. The story of the "miraculously saved Anastasia" in question has several interpretations. The “miraculous rescue” and the further fate of the daughter of Nicholas II Anastasia, who allegedly survived the execution of the royal family in 1918, is the subject of several novels and a feature film released in the West. How was this myth born, and is it justified?

Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova, the fourth daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, was born on June 5 (18), 1901 in Peterhof. The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like this: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. However, they did not use it at court, in official speech they called her by her first name and patronymic, and at home they called her “little, Nastaska, Nastya, egg-shell” - for her small height (157 cm) and round figure. Princess Anastasia was only 17 years old when, together with her entire family, she was shot in the basement of the Ipatiev House. Her death was proved by eyewitnesses, including one of the main participants in the execution, Yakov Yurovsky. The remains of the princess were found in the early 1990s, identified and buried in 1998 in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. But immediately after the execution, of course, there were witnesses who said that Anastasia still managed to escape: she either ran away from the Ipatiev house, or even before the revolution she was replaced by one of the servants.

Not even two years had passed since the execution, when the first false Anastasia appeared, who managed to maintain her legend for the longest time. Her name was Anna Anderson, and later, after her husband, a professor at the University of Virginia, who decided to help her in the fight for the royal title, Anna Anderson - Manehan.

This most famous of the false - Anastasy claimed that she owed her salvation to a soldier named Tchaikovsky, who managed to pull her out of the basement of the Ipatiev house wounded after he saw that she was still alive. In the future, her story looked like this: together with the whole family of Alexander Tchaikovsky (mother, sister and younger brother), Anastasia came to Bucharest and remained there until 1920. From Tchaikovsky she gave birth to a child. In 1920, when Alexander Tchaikovsky was killed in a street shootout, she fled Bucharest without a word to anyone and made her way to Berlin. “I was with everyone on the night of the murder and, when the massacre began, I hid behind the back of my sister Tatiana, who was killed by a shot,” A. Anderson herself, who was kept for about a year and a half, told the Russian emigrant Baron von Kleist about herself on June 20, 1922 in a psychiatric hospital in Dahldorf near Berlin under the name of "Mrs. Tchaikovsky". “I lost consciousness from several blows. When I came to my senses, I found that I was in the house of some soldier who saved me ... I was afraid of persecution and therefore decided not to open up to anyone ... "

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”. F. Svoboda 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 X." This version, however, contained many clearly implausible details, for example, Svoboda spoke about curfew violations, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the escape of the Grand Duchess, allegedly pasted all over the city, and about general searches, which, according to Luckily they didn't give anything. Thomas Hildebrand Preston, who at that time was the British Consul General in Yekaterinburg, completely rejected such fabrications.

Despite the fact that everyone who knew Grand Duchess Anastasia did not find anything in common between her and Frau Anna Anderson, who wandered from one German clinic to another, there were influential forces that supported the claims of the impostor. It got to the point that in 1938 this lady demanded legal recognition of the “fact”: she is the daughter of the Russian emperor! (By this time, "Frau Anderson" had already moved to America, having married John Manahan, a professor of medicine.)

In February 1984, Anna Andersen-Manahan died in Charlottesville, Virginia. But the urn with her ashes was buried in Germany, in the family vault of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg, close relatives of the Romanov family! Why? According to the Russian historian Andrei Nizovsky, who studied the circumstances of this case, during the life of “Frau Anderson-Manehan”, the family of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg was on her side. This is all the more striking since many representatives of this German aristocratic family knew the real Anastasia well.

Officially launched in 1938, the court case on the suit of an impostor to recognize her as Grand Duchess Romanova is the longest in the history of world jurisprudence. It has not been resolved so far, despite the fact that back in 1961 the Hamburg court issued an unequivocal verdict: the plaintiff, for a number of reasons, cannot claim the name and title of Grand Duchess.

The Hamburg court indicated the reasons for its decision that “Ms. Anna Anderson” was not entitled to call herself Anastasia Nikolaevna. Firstly, she flatly refused medical and linguistic examinations, without which such identification is impossible, and the graphological and anthropological examinations that took place gave a negative result. Secondly, the court assistant, who knows Russian, testified that the applicant never spoke it; finally, not one of the witnesses who personally knew Anastasia saw in the plaintiff even a remote resemblance to her.

However, in the late 1970s, the Anastasia recognition case received a new scandalous turn: a police examination in Frankfurt am Main found a certain similarity between the shape of the ears of Frau Anderson-Menehan and the real princess. In the criminal law of West Germany, this method of identification of a person was given the same importance as ours - fingerprints. The case did not reach the tragicomic ending only because the applicant had become completely insane by that time.

An end to the protracted dispute was to be put by genetic analysis. The preliminary conclusions of geneticists left no doubt: Anna Anderson, who for 64 years claimed that she was the daughter of Nicholas II, was none other than an impostor. However, this was required to be documented by studies of her tissues, samples of which were stored in a hospital in the American city of Charlottesville. But for unknown reasons, this was stubbornly opposed by the authoritative Association of Russian Nobles in the United States, which blocked any attempts to conduct such a study in court. Finally, a group of British scientists led by well-known criminologist Peter Gill received at their disposal fragments of the Anastasia's intestines, removed from her during a long-standing operation in the United States. It turned out that the genetic code of this Frau is very far from the characteristics of the code of the Duke of Edinburgh Philip, the husband of the English Queen Elizabeth II, who is related by ties to the Romanov family. But it almost completely coincides with the genetic data of the living relatives of a certain Franciska Schanskowska - a German woman of Polish origin, who in 1916 worked at an ammunition factory near Berlin and ended up in a psychiatric clinic after an accidental explosion of powder charges, which caused insanity. So, despite the fact that Anna Anderson defended her “royal” origin until the end of her life, wrote the book “I, Anastasia” and fought litigation for several decades, the final decision on her belonging to the Romanov family was not made during her lifetime.

But Anna Anderson, as already mentioned, was not the only, although the most stubborn, contender for the name of the daughter of Nicholas II. Eleanor Albertovna Kruger, whose story leads to the Bulgarian village of Gabarevo, became another impostor in the endless series of "surviving Anastasias". It was there that in the early 1920s a mysterious young woman "with an aristocratic posture" appeared, who introduced herself as Nora Kruger. A year later, a tall young man of a sickly appearance, Georgy Zhudin, joined her. There were rumors in the village that they were brother and sister and belonged to the royal family. However, neither Eleanor nor Georgy ever even tried to claim their right to the Romanov surname. It was done for them by people interested in the mystery of the royal family. In particular, the Bulgarian researcher Blagoy Emmanuilov said that he managed to find evidence that Eleanor and George were the children of the Russian emperor. “A lot of the data reliably known about the life of Anastasia coincide with the stories of Nora from Gabarevo about herself,” the researcher said in one of his interviews for 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 talked about her own royal room, and about her children's drawings drawn in it. There is another interesting piece of evidence. In the early 1950s, 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 Tekerdag. 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. George's contemporaries claim that he was ill with tuberculosis, and they 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.

Of course, most of the evidence cited by Blagoi Emmanuelov does not stand up to scrutiny. But most importantly, why did the brother and sister settle in a God-forsaken Bulgarian village instead of turning to their relatives? Why didn't they tell them that they were still alive? After all, after fleeing from Russia, they had nothing to fear. In 1995, the remains of Eleonora Kruger and Georgy Zhudin were exhumed 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 upper strata of the Russian aristocracy were buried. The mystery of the mysterious couple from Gabarevo remained unsolved ...

Meanwhile, the “miraculously saved” Anastasias continued to declare themselves in different parts of the globe. So, in 1980, a certain Alexandra Peregudova, a resident of the Volgograd region, died in the USSR. After her death, her children declared her royal origin. They claimed that before her death, their mother told them that not members of the royal family, but their doubles, were shot in the Ipatiev House. The substitution took place in 1917 near Perm, and the driver of the train, on which Nicholas II and his family were being transported, helped the Romanovs. After the liberation, the emperor's family was divided. Anastasia moved to the Volgograd region, where she lived under the name of Alexandra Peregudova until her death. An examination of Alexandra Peregudova's belonging to the Romanov family was not carried out.

The next contender for the role of the royal daughter was a certain Anastasia Karpenko from Omsk. According to the story of the writer Vladimir Kashits, in September 1988 he received a call from a woman who identified herself as the daughter of Anastasia Romanova. She said that her mother died in Omsk in 1976 under the name of Anastasia Spiridonovna Karpenko. Before her death, she told her children about her origins. According to her, in 1920 in Primorye she was adopted by a local resident Spiridon Miroshnichenko. Then she married a certain Fedor Karpenko and moved to Omsk. Mrs. Karpenko told the children of her salvation this way: “They carried me on a cart, and when the horsemen began to catch up, I jumped off and climbed up to my neck into the swamp. And they, ours, fought on sabers with those! And when everything calmed down, I got out, and we went on again ... "

Another contender in the name of the tsar's daughter lived in Ryazan. She called herself Elena Kharkina, did not advertise her origin, but the neighbors noted that she was very similar to the youngest daughter of Nicholas II. According to their version, Elena-Anastasia managed to escape thanks to the same doubles, who were allegedly shot instead of the real Romanovs. The date of Elena Kharkina's death is unknown; no examinations were carried out to confirm her relationship with the family of the last Russian emperor.

In the Sverdlovsk region, in the cemetery of the village of Koshuki, on a granite stone of one of the tombstones, the inscription is carved: "Here lies the maiden Anastasia Romanova." According to a legend that exists in these places, when the Bolsheviks were transporting the family of the Russian emperor to Tobolsk, allegedly his youngest daughter Anastasia, who fell ill on the way, died in this very village. According to some evidence, the Romanov family did pass through Koshuki after the emperor's abdication.

Another self-proclaimed Anastasia, Nadezhda Vladimirovna Ivanova-Vasilyeva, stood out among other contenders in that she mentioned many details that she could not read anywhere. For example, that during the execution in the Ipatiev House, all the women were sitting, and the men were standing. Or that the cousin of Nicholas II, the British King George V, received from Kolchak floor boards from the basement in which the royal family was shot. According to Nadezhda, she owes her salvation to the Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda and the deputy chairman of the Yekaterinburg Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry Valentin Sakharov. They allegedly took the girl to the apartment of the security guard of the Ipatiev House, Ivan Klescheev, and hid her there. In the future, Anastasia had a hard time. She hid from anyone who could identify her. But one day, when a Red Army patrol beat her and took her to the Cheka, the doctor who treated the princess managed to identify her. True, the very next day he was informed that the patient had died, but in fact she was once again helped to escape. The further life of Anastasia turned out to be even more difficult. According to the story

N.V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva, she was detained in Irkutsk and, for a reason that she does not mention, she was sentenced to death, later replacing the sentence with confinement in solitary confinement. Almost the entire life of this woman was spent in prisons, camps and exile. In 1929, in Yalta, she was summoned to the GPU and charged with impersonating the tsar's daughter. Anastasia - by that time Nadezhda Vladimirovna Ivanova-Vasilyeva, according to the passport she had bought and filled out with her own hand, denied her guilt, and she was released. Later, Nadezhda Vladimirovna was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she died in the Sviyazhsk psychiatric clinic. The grave of this Anastasia has been lost, so it is no longer possible to make an identification ...

It would seem that the appearances of the miraculously saved Anastasias should have ended over the years, but no - in 2000 another contender for this name appeared. At that time she was almost 101 years old. Oddly enough, it was the age of this woman that made many researchers believe in her: after all, those who appeared earlier could count on power, fame, and money. But does it make sense to hunt for illusory wealth at the age of 101? According to representatives of the Interregional Public Charitable Christian Foundation of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, 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 their version, on the eve of a terrible night in Yekaterinburg, Anastasia was allegedly taken away from the Ipatiev House by a certain Peter Verkhovtsev, who at one time was an employee of Stolypin and was the godfather of the Grand Duchess. After several years of wandering around Russia, they ended up in Tbilisi. Here Anastasia married citizen Bilikhodze, who was shot in 1937. True, no archival data about Bilikhodze and his marriage has been preserved.

According to the representatives of the foundation, they have at their disposal the data of “22 examinations conducted in the commission-judicial order in three states - Georgia, Russia and Latvia, the results of which were not refuted by any of the structures.” Based on these data, members of the Foundation stated that 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."

A book by N. P. Bilikhodze was published: “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. However, the "sensation" burst as suddenly as it appeared. The newspapers reported that Natalia Petrovna Bilikhodze died in December 2000 at the Central Clinical Hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with left-sided pneumonia and cardiac arrhythmia. At the insistence of a specially created working group under the Administration of the President of Russia, a molecular genetic study of the remains of Bilikhodze was carried out and the following conclusion was made: “The DNA profile of Bilikhodze N.P. does not match the DNA profile (mitotype) of the Russian Empress A.F. Romanova. The origin of N. P. Bilikhodze from the maternal genetic line of the English Queen Victoria the First is not confirmed. On this basis, consanguinity on the maternal side in any capacity of Bilikhodze N.P. and Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova is excluded ... "

No less interesting is the story of another double, this time Tsarevich Alexei. In January 1949, a prisoner from one of the correctional colonies, 45-year-old Filipp Grigorievich Semenov, who was in a state of acute psychosis, was brought to the republican psychiatric clinic in Karelia. Doctors who had seen a lot over the years of practice rarely had to meet such strange patients. It was not the clinical case in itself that was interesting, but the personality of Semenov. It turned out that he was a well-educated man, who knew several foreign languages perfectly, and read a lot, especially the classics. His mannerisms, tone, convictions indicated that the patient was familiar with the life of pre-revolutionary high society. Once the patient confessed that he was the son of Emperor Nicholas II. Of course, the doctors only nodded their heads - whoever the madmen are. But the strange patient was too different from ordinary lunatics. Physicians Yu. Sologub and D. Kaufman spoke with an unusual patient in the clinic for a long time. As they later said, he was a highly educated man, a real "walking encyclopedia". The patient did not impose his revelations on anyone, and besides, this did not affect his behavior in any way, as is usually the case. Philip Grigoryevich kept calm, did not seek at all costs to convince others of his belonging to the Romanov family. His story didn't sound like an attempt to feign paranoia in order to stay longer in the hospital. All this baffled doctors.

Perhaps, over time, Philip Semenov would have become just a local landmark. But fate would have it that in the same hospital there was a person who could check the patient's story - the Leningrad professor S. I. Gendelevich, who knew the life of the royal court to the subtleties. Interested in Semyonov's story, Gendelevich gave him a real test. If the patient had learned the information in advance, he would still answer with some hesitation. Yes, and an experienced doctor could easily recognize a lie. However, Philip Semenov answered questions instantly, never mixed up anything and did not stray. “Gradually, we began to look at him with different eyes,” recalled Delilah Kaufman. - Persistent hematuria (the presence of blood or red blood cells in the urine), which he suffered, also found an explanation. The heir had hemophilia. The patient had an old cruciform scar on his buttock. And finally, we realized what the appearance of the patient reminded us of - the famous portraits of Emperor Nicholas, only not the Second, but the First.

What did the alleged heir to the Russian throne say about himself? According to Semyonov, during the execution in Yekaterinburg, his father hugged him and pressed his face to him so that the boy could not see the guns aimed at him. He was wounded in the buttock, lost consciousness and fell into a general pile of bodies. He was saved and treated for a long time by some devoted person, possibly a monk. A few months later, strangers came and announced that from now on he would bear the surname Irin (an abbreviation for the words “the name of the Romanovs is the name of the nation”). Then the boy was brought to Petrograd, to some mansion on Millionnaya Street, where he accidentally heard that they were going to use him as a symbol of the unification of forces hostile to the new system. He did not want such a fate for himself and therefore left these people. On the Fontanka, they were just enlisting in the Red Army. Having added two years, he got into the cavalry, then studied at the institute. Then everything changed. The same person who picked him up in 1918 somehow managed to find Irina and began to blackmail him. At that time, the Tsarevich managed to start a family. In an effort to confuse the blackmailer, he took the name of Philip Grigorievich Semenov, a deceased relative of his wife. But one name change was not enough. Semenov decided to change his lifestyle. An economist by education, he began to travel around construction sites, never staying anywhere for a long time. But the scammer is on his trail again. To pay off him, Semyonov had to give government money. For this he was sentenced to 10 years in the camps. Filipp Grigoryevich Semenov was released from the camp in 1951, and he died in 1979, just the year when the remains of the royal family were discovered in the Urals. His widow Ekaterina Mikhailovna was convinced that her husband was the Emperor's heir. As Semyonov's adopted son recalled, his stepfather liked to wander around the city, he could stay in the Winter Palace for hours, he preferred antiques. He spoke reluctantly about his secret, only with the closest people. He did not have any deviations; he did not end up in a psychiatric hospital after the camp. And note that this seemingly ordinary person was fluent in German, French, English and Italian, wrote in ancient Greek. Philip Semyonov has long been dead, but his secret remains. Was he a mentally ill person, or was he heir to the royal throne, the only son of Nicholas II?

There is no answer to this question, but the story of the mysterious patient of the Karelian clinic had a continuation. The English newspaper Daily Express, having become interested in F. Semenov, found his son Yuri and asked him to donate blood for a genetic examination. It was conducted at the Aldermasten Laboratory (England) by a specialist in genetic research, Dr. Peter Gil. They compared the DNA of the "grandson" of Nicholas II, Yuri Filippovich Semenov, and the English Prince Philip, a relative of the Romanovs through the English Queen Victoria. A total of three tests were carried out. Two of them matched, and the third turned out to be neutral. Of course, this cannot be considered one hundred percent proof that Yuri's father really was Tsarevich Alexei, but the likelihood of this is quite high ...

In conclusion, it is worth noting that none of the "twins" of the imperial children had a happy fate. At best, they peacefully lived out their lives. Perhaps the evil fate of the Romanov family cast its sinister shadow on those who sought to prove their involvement in the famous family ...

V. M. Sklyarenko, I. A. Rudycheva, V. V. Syadro. 50 famous mysteries of the history of the XX century

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.

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 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

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna

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.

Birth.

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

Childhood.

Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna in 1902

Princesses Maria and Anastasia

Grand Duchess Anastasia

Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia

Nicholas II with his daughters -. Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia

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.

Under house arrest.

Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia looking at photographs

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

Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia

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

Nicholas II and George V

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

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.

In the courtyard of the governor's house

Vel. Princesses Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia () and Tsarevich Alexei at tea. Tobolsk, governor's house. Apr-May 1918

"My dear friend,

Your Anastasia.

Ipatiev house

The dining room, the door visible in the picture leads to the Princess's room.

Room of the Sovereign, Empress and Heir.

Execution

Anastasia holding dog Jimmy

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

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.

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.

Eugene Smith. photo

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

“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. Daughter was born at exactly 6 am Anastasia. 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."

This is how the last Russian emperor described in his diary the birth of his youngest, fourth daughter, which took place on June 18, 1901.

The birth of little Anastasia did not cause delight among the Romanovs. Sister of Nicholas, Grand Duchess Xenia, wrote about it like this: “What a disappointment! 4th girl! ... Mom telegraphed me about the same and writes: “Alix again gave birth to a daughter!”

According to the laws in force at that time in the Russian Empire, introduced even Paul I, women could inherit the throne only in the event of the suppression of all male lines of the family. This meant that the heir of the father of four daughters Nicholas II should be his younger brother Michael.

This prospect did not please the Romanov clan too much, but Emperor's wife Alexander Feodorovna and completely infuriated. The empress had high hopes for the fourth birth, but a girl reappeared. Alexandra Fedorovna managed to give birth to an heir only on the fifth attempt.

"Kubyshka", who did not like arithmetic

Grand Duchess Anastasia did not face the prospect of taking the throne. Like her sisters, she was educated at home, which began at the age of eight. The program included French, English and German, history, geography, the Law of God, natural sciences, drawing, grammar, arithmetic, as well as dance and music.

While studying, “Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna” had a special dislike for arithmetic and grammar. Anastasia loved games, dances, charades.

For mobility and hooligan disposition in the family, she was called "shvybzik", and for her small stature and a figure prone to fullness - "pod".

In accordance with the traditions of the imperial family, at the age of 14, each of the daughters of the emperor became an honorary commander of one of the Russian regiments. In 1915, Anastasia became the honorary commander of the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment.

Maria and Anastasia in the hospital in Tsarskoye Selo. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

During the First World War, Anastasia, together with her sister Maria, arranged concerts for wounded soldiers in hospitals, read to them, and helped them write letters home.

In the spring of 1917, the daughters of Nicholas II, who had already abdicated, fell ill with measles. Because of the high temperature and strong drugs, the girls began to lose their hair, and they were shaved bald. Their brother Alexei, who was spared by illness, insisted that he be tonsured in the same way as his sisters. In memory of this, a photo was taken - the shaved heads of the emperor's children, protruding from behind the black drapery. Today, some see this image as a grim omen.

Anastasia, Olga, Alexei, Maria and Tatyana after measles (June 1917) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Life under house arrest for the daughters of Nicholas II was not too burdensome - the girls were not spoiled even in the palace, where they grew up, if not in Spartan, then very harsh conditions.

During her stay in Tobolsk, Anastasia was enthusiastically engaged in sewing and preparing firewood.

Birthday at the Ipatiev House

In May 1918, the Romanov family was taken to Yekaterinburg, to the house engineer Ipatiev. On June 18, Anastasia celebrated her 17th birthday.

From left to right - Olga, Nikolai, Anastasia, Tatyana. Tobolsk (winter 1917) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

By this time, she was almost no longer interested in children's fun - Anastasia, like all girls at her age, was worried about the relatively imaginary and real shortcomings of her own figure. With the outbreak of the war, she, along with her sisters, became addicted to smoking. In the last period before the abdication of her father, Anastasia was fond of photography and loved to chat on the phone.

In the Romanov family, there were generally few people with good health, and Anastasia was not among the elect. Doctors believed that she, like her mother, was a carrier of hemophilia. Since childhood, she suffered from pain in her feet - a consequence of a congenital curvature of her big toes. Anastasia had a weak back, but she avoided special exercises and massages aimed at correcting this deficiency in every possible way.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Anastasia Romanova was shot in the basement of the house of engineer Ipatiev, along with her sisters, brother, parents and close associates.

A short life with a sad ending. But surprisingly, after her death, Anastasia became the most famous representative of the family of Nicholas II in the world, eclipsing, perhaps, the emperor himself.

Berlin clinic girl

The story of the “miraculous salvation” of Grand Duchess Anastasia has been exciting minds for almost a century now. Books have been written about her, films have been made, and in 1997 the full-length cartoon Anastasia was released, which grossed $140 million worldwide. For the best song "Anastasia" was even nominated for an Oscar.

Anastasia. Photo: Frame from the cartoon

Why, of the entire imperial family, was it Anastasia who gained such fame?

It happened thanks to a woman named Anna Anderson, who declared herself a Grand Duchess, who escaped execution.

In February 1920 in Berlin, a policeman rescued a young woman who tried to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. From the confused explanations of the lady, it followed that in the capital of Germany she was looking for royal relatives, but they allegedly rejected her, after which the woman decided to commit suicide.

Anna Anderson. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

The failed suicide was sent to a psychiatric clinic, where, upon examination, numerous scars from gunshot wounds were found on her body. The patient understood Russian, but the doctors still believed that her native language was Polish. In the clinic, she did not give her name and was generally reluctant to enter into conversations.

In 1921, rumors began to circulate especially actively in Europe that one of the daughters of Nicholas II could have survived the execution in Yekaterinburg.

Looking at photographs of the daughters of the Russian emperor, published in newspapers, one of the patients of the clinic found that her neighbor was extremely similar to one of them.

With this, the epic of Anna Anderson - Anastasia began.

“I hid behind my sister Tatyana”

Russian emigrants began to visit the clinic, trying to understand whether the unknown, suffering from memory loss, is really the daughter of the emperor.

At the same time, they initially said that the patient of the psychiatric hospital was not Anastasia, but Tatyana.

Most of the visitors from among those who knew the royal daughters were convinced that the unknown lady had nothing to do with the children of Nicholas II.

But they paid attention to the fact that the “princess” grasps everything on the fly - after one visitor, trying to remind her of the “royal past”, told her episodes from the life of the royal daughters, she passed these words to the next as her own “memories”.

Anna Anderson. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

In 1922, Anna Anderson openly declared herself to be Anastasia Romanova for the first time.

“I was with everyone on the night of the murder, and when the massacre began, I hid behind my sister Tatyana, who was shot dead. I lost consciousness from several blows. When I came to my senses, I found that I was in the house of some soldier who had saved me. By the way, I went to Romania with his wife, and when she died, I decided to make my way to Germany alone, ”the woman said about her“ miraculous salvation ”.

The stories of Anna Anderson, who left the clinic and found support from those who believed her, changed over time and were full of inconsistencies. Despite this, opinion was divided on her account: some were convinced that Anna Anderson was an impostor, others also firmly insisted that she was really Anastasia.

"Anna Anderson vs. Romanovs"

In 1928, Anna Anderson moved to the United States, where she began to actively fight for the recognition of herself as Anastasia. At the same time, the "Romanov Declaration" appeared, in which the surviving members of the Russian imperial house resolutely denied any relationship with her.

The problem, however, was that less than half of the 44 Romanovs signed this document. Some Romanovs stubbornly supported Anna Anderson, they were joined by Tatiana And Gleb Botkins, children of the last life physician of the court, killed along with the royal family.

In 1928, Gleb Botkin stood at the origins of the creation of the joint-stock company Grandanor (Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia) - that is, the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia.

The company intended to defend the interests of Anna Anderson in the courts, seeking her recognition by Anastasia. At stake was "royal gold" - the foreign treasures of the Romanovs, which were estimated at tens of millions of dollars. If successful, Anna Anderson was to be their sole heir.

The trial "Anna Anderson v. Romanovs" started in Berlin in 1938, stretching for several decades. It was a series of lawsuits, which in 1977 ended in nothing. The court considered the available evidence of Anna Anderson's relationship with the Romanovs insufficient, although her opponents failed to prove that Anderson was not really Anastasia.

Opponents of "Anastasia" from among the Romanovs, having spent a lot of money on paying private detectives, provided evidence that Anna Anderson is in fact a Pole Franciska Shantskovskaya, a worker at the Berlin explosives factory. The wounds on her body, according to this version, were received during an explosion at the enterprise.

Anna Anderson even arranged a confrontation with the Shantskovskys, at which they identified her as their relative.

However, not everyone believed their testimonies, especially since the Shantskovskys themselves sometimes recognized Anna Francis, sometimes they refused their words.

"Alas, it wasn't her"

The long lawsuit made the alleged "Anastasia" very famous in the West, inspiring writers and directors to create works about her fate.

At the end of her life, Anna Anderson again found herself in a psychiatric clinic, this time in Charlottesville, in the US state of Virginia. On February 12, 1984, she died of pneumonia. Her body, according to the will, was cremated, and the ashes were buried in the chapel of Zeon Castle in Bavaria.

By 2008, numerous DNA analyzes of the alleged remains of the royal family, found in 1991, carried out by experts in several laboratories in different countries, gave an unambiguous conclusion - we are really talking about the family of Nicholas II, and all of its representatives really died in the Ipatiev house.

An analysis of Anna Anderson's tissue samples taken from her during her lifetime and preserved in the Charlottesville clinic showed that she had nothing to do with the Romanovs. But two independent DNA tests confirmed her genetic closeness to the Shantskovsky family.

Grand Duchess Anastasia, circa 1912. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Anna Anderson was the most famous, but far from the only false Anastasia. Great-great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I, Prince Dmitry Romanov said: “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.

"Children of the Emperor" as "Children of Lieutenant Schmidt"

The prince turned out to be wrong only in one thing - there were much more false Anastasius. To date, 34 “miraculously saved Anastasias” are known. Most of them did not show such activity as Anna Anderson, some of the "royal origin" was attributed posthumously by all sorts of lovers of historical secrets.

Who was not among the "Anastasias" - and peasant women who revealed the "secret" to their children before their death, and patients in psychiatric clinics, and clever scammers, sometimes having nothing to do with Russia at all. The last of the false Anastasias passed away in 2000, but some of their heirs, these women, are still fighting to recognize themselves as Romanovs.

“But why exactly Anastasia?” - a logical question of an inquisitive reader will be heard.

In fact, not only Anastasia. The “miraculously saved children of Nicholas II” are no less than the famous “children of Lieutenant Schmidt” from the Golden Calf. Researchers of this phenomenon counted 28 false Olgas, 33 false Tatyanas, 53 false Marys. But all the records were broken by the false Alexei - there are more than 80 of them today. And each has its own history of salvation, its supporters, confident in the truth of the applicant.

All this has nothing to do with the tragic fate of Alexei, Anastasia, Maria, Tatiana and Olga Romanov, as history False Dmitry has nothing to do with the fate of the unfortunate junior son of Ivan the Terrible.

But in history it sometimes happens that impostors leave a more vivid mark on it than those whose name turned out to be appropriated.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the fourth daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, was born on June 5 (18), 1901 in Peterhof.

Tsar Nicholas 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 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.

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.

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 Empress 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 time of the reign of Emperor 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 particular impatience - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended church, and then children's balls with their aunt, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. “The girls enjoyed every minute,” Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna recalled. - My dear goddaughter Anastasia was especially happy, believe me, I still hear her laughter ringing in the rooms. Dances, music, charades - she plunged into them with her head.

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 teacher, Pyotr Vasilyevich Petrov.

Basically, the family lived in the Alexander Palace, occupying only a part of several dozen rooms. Sometimes they moved to the Winter Palace.

Sometimes they visited the Polish estates belonging to the royal family, where Tsar Nicholas liked to hunt.

Despite the widespread campaign of slander against Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, Anastasia, like all the royal children, completely trusted the elder and shared her feelings and thoughts with him.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna recalled how once, accompanied by the tsar, she went to the children's bedrooms, where Rasputin blessed the grand duchesses dressed in white nightgowns for the coming sleep. “It seemed to me that all the children are very attached to him,” the Grand Duchess noted. “They had complete confidence in him.”

The same mutual trust and affection is seen in the letters of Elder Gregory, which he sent to the imperial family. Here is an excerpt from one of the letters dated 1019: “Dear children! Thank you for the memory, for the sweet words, for the pure heart and for the love for God's people. Love God's nature, all of His creation, especially light. The Mother of God kept busy with flowers and handicrafts”

Anastasia wrote to Rasputin: “My beloved, precious, only friend. How I long to meet you again. Today I saw you in a dream. I always ask Mom? when you visit us next time, and I am happy that I have the opportunity to send you this congratulation. Happy New Year and may it bring you health and happiness. I always remember you, my dear friend, because you have always been kind to me. I have not seen you for a long time, but every evening I remembered you without fail. I wish you all the best. Mom promises that when you come again, we will definitely meet at Anya's. This thought fills me with joy. Your Anastasia"

Enemies of the Russian Autocracy organized such dirty rumors around Petersburg that the emperor’s brothers and sisters took up arms against Rasputin, and Xenia Alexandrovna sent a particularly harsh letter to her brother, accusing Rasputin of “whistism”, protesting that this “deceitful old man” had unrestricted access to children . From hand to hand anonymous letters and cartoons were passed, which depicted the relationship of the old man with the Empress, girls and Anna Vyrubova. But the insidiousness of malefactors and envious people did not affect the relations of the imperial family with Rasputin and continued until his brutal murder on December 17, 1916.

A. A. Mordvinov recalled that after the assassination of Rasputin, all four Grand Duchesses “seemed quiet and visibly depressed, they sat closely pressed against each other” on the sofa in one of the bedrooms, as if realizing that Russia had set in motion, which would soon become uncontrollable. An icon signed by the emperor, empress and all five children was placed on Rasputin's chest. Together with the entire imperial family on December 21, 1916, Anastasia was present at the funeral. It was decided to build a chapel over the grave of the elder, but due to subsequent events, this plan was not realized.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, following her mother and older sisters, Anastasia sobbed bitterly on the day of the declaration of war in 1914.

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 1911, after her birth, the name of St. Anastasia the Patterner 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 M.F. Verzhbitsky. At 14, the emperor's youngest daughter 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, wrote letters home under their dictation, and in the evenings entertained them with telephone conversations, sewed linen, prepared bandages and lint.

“Today I sat next to our soldier and taught him to read, he really likes it,” Anastasia Nikolaevna noted. - He began to learn to read and write here in the hospital. Two unfortunates died, and yesterday we were sitting next to them.

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: “I remember how we visited the hospital a long time ago. I hope all of our wounded end up alive. Almost all of them were later taken away from Tsarskoye Selo. Do you remember Lukanov? He was so miserable and so kind at the same time, and always played like a child with our bracelets. His business card remained in my album, but the album itself, unfortunately, remained in Tsarskoye. Now I'm in the bedroom, writing on the table, and on it are photographs of our beloved hospital. You know, it was a wonderful time when we visited the hospital. We often think about it, and our evening conversations on the phone and everything else ... "

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Anastasia was small and dense, with blond hair with a reddish tint, with large blue eyes inherited from her father. The girl was distinguished by a light and cheerful character, she loved to play bast shoes, forfeits, in serso, she could tirelessly rush around the palace for hours, playing hide and seek. She easily climbed trees, and often, out of sheer mischief, refused to descend to the ground. She was inexhaustible in inventions, for example, she loved to paint the cheeks and noses of her sisters, brother and young ladies-in-waiting with fragrant carmine and strawberry juice. With her light hand, it became fashionable to weave flowers and ribbons into her hair, which little Anastasia was very proud of. She was inseparable from her older sister Maria, adored her brother, and could entertain him for hours when another illness put Alexei to bed. Anna Vyrubova recalled that "Anastasia was as if made of mercury, and not of flesh and blood." Once, being a very little girl, three or four years old, at a reception in Kronstadt, she crawled under the table and began to pinch those present by the legs, portraying a dog - for which she received an immediate severe reprimand from her father.

She also had a clear talent as a comic actress and loved to parody and mimic others, and she did it very talentedly and funny. Once Aleksey told her: “Anastasia, you need to represent in the theater, it will be very funny, believe me!”

To which he received an unexpected answer that the Grand Duchess cannot perform in the theater, she has other duties. Sometimes, however, her jokes became not harmless. So she tirelessly teased her sisters, once playing snowballs with Tatyana, hit her in the face, so much so that the eldest could not stay on her feet; however, the culprit herself, frightened to death, wept for a long time in her mother's arms. Grand Duchess Nina Georgievna later recalled that little Anastasia did not want to forgive her tall stature, during the games she tried to outwit, frame her leg, and even scratch her rival.

“She constantly reached a dangerous edge in her jokes,” recalled Gleb Botkin, the son of a life physician who was killed along with the royal family. “She was constantly at risk of being punished.”

Drawing of Grand Duchess Anastasia

Little Anastasia also did not differ in special accuracy and love for order, Halle Reeves, the wife of an American diplomat accredited at the court of the last emperor, recalled how little Anastasia, being in the theater, ate chocolate, not bothering to take off her long white gloves, and desperately smeared herself face and hands. Her pockets were constantly stuffed with chocolates and creme brulee, which she generously shared with others.

She also loved animals. At first, a Spitz named Shvybzik lived with her, many funny and touching cases were also associated with him. So, the Grand Duchess refused to go to bed until the dog joined her, and once, having lost her pet, she called him with a loud bark - and succeeded, Shvybzik was found under the sofa. In 1915, when the Pomeranian died of an infection, she was inconsolable for several weeks. Together with their sisters and brother, they buried the dog and buried it in Peterhof, on Children's Island. She then had a dog named Jimmy.

She loved to draw, and she did it very well, she enjoyed playing the guitar or balalaika with her brother, knitted, sewed, watched movies, was fond of photography that was fashionable at that time, and had her own photo album, loved to hang on the phone, read or just lie in bed . During the war, she began to smoke, in which her older sisters made up her company.

The Grand Duchess was not in good health. Since childhood, she suffered from pain in her feet - a consequence of a congenital curvature of her big toes. She had a weak back, despite the fact that with all her might she avoided the massage required to strengthen the muscles, hiding from the incoming masseuse in the buffet or under the bed. Even with small cuts, the bleeding did not stop for an abnormally long time, from which the doctors concluded that, following her mother, Anastasia is a carrier of hemophilia.

As General M.K. Diterikhs, who participated in the investigation into the murder of the royal family, “Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, despite her seventeen years, was still a perfect child. She made such an impression mainly by her appearance and her cheerful character. She was short, very dense, - "a little egg", as her sisters teased. Her hallmark was to notice the weaknesses of people and skillfully imitate them. It was a natural, gifted comedian. Forever, it used to be, she made everyone laugh, while maintaining an artificially serious look.

She read the plays of Schiller and Goethe, loved Malo and Moliere, Dickens and Charlotte Brontë. She played the piano well, and willingly performed pieces by Chopin, Grieg, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky with her mother in four hands.

French teacher Pierre Gilliard recalled her this way: “She was a spoiled woman - 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"

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 forced abdication of the Tsar.

On Wednesday, March 8, Count Pavel Benkndorf 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 removal of their father from power. Tsar 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 the already angry mob. Provocateurs and bloodthirsty traitors to Russia often watched through the bars of the fence how the family was walking in the park and sometimes met her with whistling and swearing, so the walks had to be shortened.

Despite everything, the education of children continued. The whole process was led by Pierre Gilliard, French teacher; Nicholas himself taught the children geography and history; Baroness Beckshavden took over the English and music lessons; Mademoiselle Schneider taught arithmetic; Countess Gendrikova - drawing; Dr. Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin - Russian; Alexandra Feodorovna - The Law of God.

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.

At this time, there was still hope for the family of the former king to go abroad; but the English King George V, the cousin of the Tsar, decided not to take risks and preferred to sacrifice the royal family, thereby causing shock in his own cabinet.

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.

Unexpectedly, Anastasia began to gain weight, and the process proceeded at a fairly rapid pace, so that even the empress, worrying, wrote to her friend: “Anastasia, to her desperation, got fat and looks exactly like Mary a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs ... Let's hope it goes away with age...

Anastasia wrote to Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna: “These days we have almost all the time the sun, and it is already starting to warm, it’s so nice! Therefore, we try to be more in the air. - We no longer ride from the mountain (although it is still standing), since it was spoiled and dug across the ditch so that we would not ride, well, let it be; it seems that they have calmed down on this for the time being, since for a long time it seems to many that it has been an eyesore. Terribly stupid and weak, really. Well, now we have found a new occupation. Sawing, chopping and chopping wood is useful and a lot of fun to work with. It's already coming out pretty well. And with this we help many more, and this is entertainment for us. We also clean the paths and the entrance, turned into janitors. - While I have not yet turned into an elephant, but it may still be in the near future, I don’t know why all of a sudden, there may be few movements, although I don’t know. - I apologize for the terrible handwriting, something the hand does not move well. We are all going to fast this week and we sing ourselves at our house. Were in church, finally. And you can also take communion there. - Well, how are you all doing and what are you doing. We have nothing special to write about. Now we have to finish, because now we will go to our yard, work, etc. - Everyone hugs you tightly, and I, too, and everyone else, too. All the best, Aunt darling"

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 empty house, life went on slowly and sadly. We read aloud to each other and walked around. 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.

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. 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.

On May 22, the ship arrived in Tyumen, and then four children were taken to Yekaterinburg on a special train. At the same time, Anastasia maintained an excellent mood, in a letter telling about the trip, notes of humor are heard: “My dear friend, I will 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 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.

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. Ermakov and the commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission Ya. 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 "testimony" 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.

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

The site of the destruction of the royal bodies was the tract "Four Brothers", 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.

From May 23 to June 17, 1919, investigator Sokolov conducted reconnaissance of the area and interviewed the villagers. 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.

The canonization of the family of the last tsar in the rank of new martyrs was first undertaken by the Orthodox Church Abroad in 1981. Preparations for canonization in Russia began in 1991. With the blessing of Archbishop Melchizedek, on July 7, a Pontifical Cross was installed in the tract. On July 17, 1992, the first bishop's procession to the burial place of the remains of the royal family took place.

In 2000, the decision to canonize the Royal Family was made by the Russian Orthodox Church. In the same year, with the blessing of the patriarch, the construction of the Ganina Yama Monastery began.

On October 21, 2000, His Eminence Vincent, Archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, laid the foundation stone for the future church in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. The monastery is built mostly of wood and houses seven main churches.

Russian poet N.S. Gumilyov, being an ensign of the Russian army during the First World War and being in the Tsarskoye Selo infirmary in 1916, dedicated the following poem to Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna on her birthday:

Today is Anastasia's day And we want through us Love and caress of all Russia Thank you. What a joy to congratulate us You, the best image of our dreams, And put a modest signature At the bottom of the welcome verses. Forgetting that the day before We were in fierce battles We are the holiday of the fifth of June Let's celebrate in our hearts. And we carry to a new section Hearts full of delight Remembering our meetings In the middle of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace.