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Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

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Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova

Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, in Russian: Великая Княжна Анастасия Николаевна Романова, Velikaya Knyazhna Anastasiya Nikolaevna Romanova) (June 18 [O.S. June 5] 1901 – July 17, 1918?), sometimes nicknamed Nastya, Nastas, or Nastenka, was the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra. She was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana and Grand Duchess Maria, and was an elder sister of Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. After 1918, several women have claimed to be her, the most famous being Anna Anderson and Eugenia Smith.

Brief Life

She shared her name with Tsaritsa Anastasia of Russia, a 16th century Russian aristocrat whose marriage to the first Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave the Romanov family their claim to the throne. She and her older sister Maria were known within the family as "The Little Pair" and also shared a room, like their two older sisters. All four affectionately went by the group name, OTMA.

A tomboy and intelligent, she was reportedly comically good at impersonations and possessed a sharp wit and appreciation for sarcastic jokes, although she was never interested in the restrictions of school. She loved animals and always had her two dogs with her, Shvybzik and Jemmy. She spent time playing her record player, writing letters, watching movies, taking pictures (a family hobby), playing the balalaika with her brother Alexei and lying in the sun doing nothing. She also suffered from stomach ailments and the painful medical condition hallux valgus (bunions), which affected both joints of her big toes.

In February 1917, she and her family were placed under arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo during the Russian Revolution. As the Bolsheviks approached, Alexander Kerensky of the Provisional Government had them moved to Tobolsk, Siberia. They were later moved to Ekaterinburg where they were presumed executed. Some witnesses said they later saw her, her mother Alexandra Fyodorovna and sisters in Perm after the execution.

From Mystery to Legend

She was presumed executed along with the rest of her family in the cellar room of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. The extra-judicial execution was carried out by forces of the Bolshevik secret police under Yakov Yurovsky. According to the infamous Yurovsky Note, the executioners' bullets ricocheted off the corsets of the Grand Duchesses because of the jewels and diamonds hidden inside them. According to rumors, she had actually feigned death, amongst the bodies of her family members. These rumors were fueled by reports of trains and houses being searched for 'Anastasia Romanov'. Strangely, there were also reports of a woman who claimed to be a daughter of the Tsar saying she had been in the hands of the guards who had beaten and raped her. Shortly afterward, she disappeared.

In 1991, when the bodies of the Imperial Family and their servants were exhumed from the mass grave which had at last been discovered, the world was shocked when it was discovered that two bodies were missing. Alexei and, according to the late Dr. William Maples, Anastasia were missing from the family's mass grave. Russian scientists contested this however, claiming that Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was missing from the grave. In 1998, when the bodies of the Imperial Family were interred, a body measuring 5'7 inches was buried under the name of 'Anastasia', despite the fact that Anastasia was the shortest of the Grand Duchesses. Some historians believe their bodies were missing because they were burned in the woods nearby. In 2000, the family was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Anastasia's possible survival is one of the celebrated mysteries of the 20th century. In 1922, as rumors spread that one of the grand duchesses had survived, a woman later called "Anna Anderson" appeared and claimed to be Anastasia. She created a life-long controversy and made headlines for decades, with some surviving relatives believing she was Anastasia and others not. She died in 1984 and her body was cremated. The consensus is that Anna was not, in fact, Anastasia; however, some people question the continued validity of the DNA tests conducted. [1] Another claimant, Eugenia Smith appeared in 1963, at the height of the 'Anastasia/ Anna Anderson' controversy, but her story had inconsistencies; additionally, she refused testing.

Genetics

As a matrilineal descendant of Victoria of the United Kingdom, she is a member of mitochondrial haplogroup H.

Influence on Culture

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, 1910

The possible survival of Anastasia has been the subject of several films. The earliest was made in 1928, called "Clothes Make the Woman", about a woman who turns up in Hollywood to play the part of the rescued Anastasia, but the solider who rescued her also appears recognizes the woman as really being Anastasia.

The most famous, however, is probably the highly fictionalized 1956 Anastasia starring Ingrid Bergman as Anna Anderson, Yul Brynner as the fictional General Bounine, and Helen Hayes as the Dowager Empress Marie, Anastasia's paternal grandmother. The film tells the story of a woman from an asulym who appears in Paris in 1928 and is captured by several Russian emigrés who feed her information so they can fool Anastasia's grandmother into thinking it is her grandaughter in order to obtain a Tsarist fortune. As time goes by they begin to wonder if this 'Madame A. Anderson' really is the murdered Grand Duchess.

In 1986, NBC broadcasted a mini-series based on a book published in 1983 by Peter Kurth called Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson. The movie, called Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna was a two-part series which began with the young Anastasia Nicholaevna and her family being sent to Ekaterinburg, where the were executed. The story then moves to 1923, when Amy Irving portrays Anna Anderson. The movie also starred many veteran TV actors.

The most recent film is a 1997 animated musical version based on the Anastasia (1956 movie). It involves a young Anastasia who escapes the evil Grigori Rasputin through a sealed door in a wall. She loses her memory and ends up in an orphanage, where she escapes and meets up with two money-hungry Russians who attempt to teach her to be Anastasia, but one of them, Dimitri, realizes she really is Anastasia.

Anastasia's possible survival is also the subject of the songs "Yes Anastasia" by contemporary musician Tori Amos. Tori said of the song "It's a journey. Anastasia Romanov... it's not like I've read loads of books on her. I was aware of the family and that's about it. So I'm in Virginia, and I had crab sickness, I had eaten bad crabs in Maryland! But I couldn't cancel the show. I was at soundcheck, and needless to say, when you are very, very ill, it is easier to communicate with your source... you are fragile and vulnerable. Well, her presence came. Now I have only heard of her in history, I've got no point to make. She comes and goes 'you've got to write my tune.' I 'go ohhh, now's not really a good time.' She says 'no, you've got to understand something from this, there's something here that you've got to come to terms with.' And that night came," as she softly sings the line "'We'll see how brave you are,' and that was really about the whole record. That came just about before everything. And whenever I sing that chorus, 'we'll see how brave you are,' it means so many different things to me. It's part of my self, my spirit self saying to the rest of myself, 'if you really want a challenge, just deal with yourself. The funny thing is that Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia, died very close to where I was playing, an hour or so from there in the 80s. The feeling I got that Anna Anderson was Anastasia Romanov. She always tried to prove it and a lot of people believed her and some people didn't want to believe her, because of what that would have meant. And again, it's really working through being a victim. 'Counting the tears from ten thousand men, and gathered them all, but my feel are slipping." "I Remember Me" by the band Innocence Mission mentions Anastasia. Anastasia is also mentioned in the 1968 Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil" in the line 'Anastasia screamed in vain'.

Anastasia also appears as a playable character in the 2004 PlayStation 2 Console role-playing game Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Older namesake

Another Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (Великая Княжна Анастасия Михайловна) (July 28, 1860 - March 11, 1922) was the daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail of Russia. She was married to Grand Duke Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

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