Anastasia Nikolaevna daughter of Nicholas 2. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (Romanova Anastasia Nikolaevna ) (June 5 (18), 1901, Peterhof - on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Yekaterinburg) - the fourth daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna.

She was shot with her family in the Ipatiev house. The assassination plan was developed by Sverdlov and he personally controlled the course of the destruction of the tsar's family.

After her death, about 30 women declared themselves "the miraculously saved Grand Duchess", but sooner or later they were all exposed as impostors. She was glorified together with her parents, sisters and brother in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Russia as a martyr at the anniversary Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000. Earlier, in 1981, they were also canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Commemoration - July 4 according to the Julian calendar.

She was born on June 5 (18), 1901 in Peterhof. By the time of her appearance, the royal couple already had three daughters - Olga, Tatyana and Maria. The absence of an heir heated up the political situation: according to the Act of Succession to the Throne adopted by Paul I, a woman could not ascend the throne, therefore the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was considered the heir, which did not suit many, and first of all - the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In an attempt to beg God for a son, at this time she is more and more immersed in mysticism. With the assistance of the Montenegrin princesses Milica Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, a certain Philip, a Frenchman by nationality, arrived at the court, declaring himself a hypnotist and a specialist in nervous diseases. Philip predicted the birth of a son to Alexandra Fedorovna, however, a girl, Anastasia, was born. Nicholas wrote in his diary:

At about 3 o'clock Alix began to experience severe pain. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. Exactly at 6 am daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions quickly and, thank God, without complications. Because it all started and ended while everyone was still sleeping, we both had a sense of calm and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives in all parts of the world. Luckily Alix is doing well. The baby weighs 11½ pounds and is 55 cm tall.

The entry in the emperor's diary contradicts the statements of some researchers who believe that Nikolai, disappointed by the birth of his daughter, for a long time did not dare to visit the newborn and his wife.

Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of the reigning emperor, also commemorated the event:

What a disappointment! 4th girl! They named her Anastasia. My mother telegraphed me about the same and writes: “Alix again gave birth to a daughter!”

The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the Empress. The "hypnotist" Philip, not at a loss after the failed prophecy, immediately predicted to her "an amazing life and a special fate." Margaret Eager, author of the memoir Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court, recalled that Anastasia was named after the fact that the emperor pardoned and reinstated the students of St. Petersburg University who took part in the recent unrest, since the very name "Anastasia" meaning "returned to life", the image of this saint usually has chains torn in half.

The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova of Russia, however, they did not use it, in an official speech calling her by her first name and patronymic, and at home they called her “small, Nastaska, Nastya, egg-shell” - for her small stature (157 cm) and a round figure and “shvybzik” - for her mobility and inexhaustibility in inventing 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 holidays to the Livadia Palace, on which the Grand Duchess slept during her Siberian exile. One large room next door, divided in half by a curtain, served the Grand Duchesses as a common boudoir and bathroom.

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

Early in the morning it was supposed to take a cold bath, in the evening - a warm one, to which a few drops of perfume were added, and Anastasia preferred Koti's perfume with the smell of violets. This tradition has been preserved since the time of Catherine I. When the girls were small, the servants carried buckets of water to the bathroom, when they grew up - this was a duty for them. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the time of the reign of Nicholas I (according to the preserved tradition, everyone who bathed in it left their autograph on the side), the other - smaller - was intended for children.

Sundays were awaited with particular impatience - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls with their aunt, Olga Alexandrovna. Particularly interesting was the evening when Anastasia was allowed to dance with young officers.

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.

Letter from Grand Duchess Anastasia to Cousin Dick: “May 17, 1910. My dear Dick. I want to see you. How is the weather there? Are you all alone in London right now? When will you be able to meet your sisters?”

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, natural sciences, 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 childish immediacy "swinishness". 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, despite the fact that it was very large and cold, the girls Tatyana and Anastasia often got sick here.

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

We also rested in the Livadia Palace. The main premises housed the imperial family, in the annexes - several courtiers, guards and servants. They swam in the warm sea, built fortresses and sand towers, sometimes went to the city to ride a carriage through the streets or visit shops. In St. Petersburg, this could not be done, since any appearance of the royal family in public created a crowd and excitement.

They sometimes visited the Polish estates belonging to the royal family, where Nikolai liked to hunt.

As you know, Grigory Rasputin was introduced to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on November 1, 1905. The illness of the Tsarevich was kept secret, therefore the appearance at the court of a “muzhik”, who almost immediately gained significant influence there, caused conjectures and rumors. Under the influence of their mother, all five children got used to completely trust the “holy elder” and share their 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 1909:

Cute kids! 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 was all engaged in flowers and needlework.

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.

Sofya Ivanovna Tyutcheva, the governess of the imperial children, was shocked that Rasputin had unlimited access to the children's bedrooms and reported this to the tsar. The tsar supported her demand, but Alexandra Feodorovna and the girls themselves were completely on the side of the “holy elder”.

I am so afraid that S.I. will say something bad about our friend, - Tatyana wrote to her mother on March 8, 1910. - I hope our nanny will be kind to him. Grand Duchess Anastasia

At the insistence of Empress Tyutchev, she was fired. In all likelihood, the “holy elder” did not allow himself any liberties, however, rumors so dirty spread around Petersburg that the emperor’s brothers and sisters took up arms against Rasputin, and Xenia Alexandrovna sent her brother a particularly harsh letter, accusing Rasputin of “Khlystism”, protesting against the fact that this "deceitful old man" has unrestricted access to children. Anonymous letters and cartoons were passed from hand to hand, which depicted the relationship of the old man with the Empress, girls and Anna Vyrubova. In order to put out the scandal, to the great displeasure of the empress, Nikolai was forced to temporarily remove Rasputin from the palace, and he went on a pilgrimage to holy places. Despite rumors, the relationship of the imperial family with Rasputin continued until his assassination 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 huddled together” 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 “holy elder”, but due to subsequent events, this plan was not realized.

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, the youngest daughter of the emperor became his honorary commander (colonel), about which Nikolai made a corresponding entry in his diary. From now on, the regiment became officially named Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia's 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment.

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.

Grand Duchess Anastasia (1916)

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 used to visit 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 unhappy 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 ...

Under house arrest

Tatyana and Anastasia with the dog Ortino. Tsarskoye Selo Park (spring 1917)

According to the memoirs of Lily Den (Julia Alexandrovna von Den), a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna, in February 1917, at the very height of the revolution, the children fell ill with measles one by one. Anastasia was the last to fall ill, when the Tsarskoye Selo palace was already surrounded by the insurgent troops. The tsar was at that time at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, in Mogilev, only the empress with her children remained in the palace.

On the night of March 2, 1917, Lily Den stayed overnight in the palace, in the Crimson Room, together with Grand Duchess Anastasia. So that they would not worry, they explained that the troops surrounding the palace and the distant shots were the result of the exercises being carried out. Alexandra Feodorovna intended to "hide the truth from them for as long as possible." At 9 o'clock on March 2, they learned about the abdication of the king.

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

On March 9, the children were informed about the father's abdication. Nicholas returned a few days later. Life under house arrest was quite bearable. I had to reduce the number of dishes during dinner, since the menu of the royal family was announced publicly from time to time, and it was not worth giving an extra reason to provoke an already angry crowd. The curious often looked through the bars of the fence as the family walked in the park and sometimes met her with whistling and swearing, so the walks had to be shortened.

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

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; Dr. Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin - Russian; Alexandra Feodorovna - The Law of God.

Anastasia, Olga, Alexei, Maria and Tatiana after measles (June 1917)

The eldest, Olga, despite the fact that her education was completed, was often present at the lessons 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 George V, whose popularity among his subjects was rapidly declining, decided not to take risks and preferred to sacrifice the royal family, thereby causing shock in his own cabinet.

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 under the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission departed in the strictest secrecy from the siding.

Tobolsk

From left to right - Olga, Nikolai, Tatyana, Anastasia. Tobolsk (winter 1917)

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.

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.

Unexpectedly, Anastasia began to gain weight, and the process went on quite rapidly, so that even the empress, worried, wrote to her friend:

Anastasia, to her despair, has grown fat and looks exactly like Mary a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs ... Let's hope this will pass with age ... The iconostasis was terribly well arranged 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, that's when I fell, it was such a wonderful fall! .. yes! I told my sisters so many times yesterday that they are already tired, but I can tell a lot more times, although there is no one else. In general, I have a lot of things to tell you and you. My Jimmy woke up and coughs, so he sits at home, he bows. That was the weather! It was possible to scream directly from pleasantness. I tanned most of all, oddly enough, just an acrobat! And these days are boring and ugly, it’s cold, and we froze this morning, although of course we didn’t go home ... I’m very sorry, I forgot to congratulate you all my loved ones on the holidays, not three kisses, but a lot of times All. Thank you all very much for your letter.

She wrote to Sister Maria during the Easter week of 1917.

"Bouquet". Watercolor drawing of the Grand Duchess

These days we have almost all the time the sun, and it is already starting to warm, 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.

These are lines from another letter addressed to Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.

Yekaterinburg

July 13, 1918 in the Ipatiev house. The last photo of Grand Duchess Anastasia was taken (copyright reserved and no access to the photo)

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

The rest had to wait for them in Tobolsk, Olga's duties were to take care of her sick brother, Tatyana's to keep house, Anastasia's to "entertain everyone." However, at the beginning, the entertainment was tight, on the last night before leaving, 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 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 life 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 the 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 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.

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.

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

Basement of the Ipatiev house. The photo was taken during the investigation of the murder of the Royal Family by investigator Sokolov

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. In fact, the entire execution was controlled by Sverdlov, who, together with Lenin, decided to physically destroy the Romanov family in order to do everything possible in the future so that the Russian people forgot about the tsar and everything that could remind him of him.

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.

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. 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.

Character. Contemporaries about Anastasia

Anastasia in another mimic scene

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 an easy 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 maids of honor 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 Alexei said to 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 could not perform in the theater, she had 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.

With Tatiana and Maria (1908)

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 constantly risked being punished.

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 the big toes, the so-called lat. hallux valgus- a syndrome according to which she will later be identified with one of the impostors - Anna Anderson. 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 masseuse who came in the cupboard 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, testified:

Drawing of Grand Duchess Anastasia

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 happened, 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.

The French teacher Gilliard recalled her this way:

She was a darling, a flaw from which she corrected herself over the years. Very lazy, as sometimes happens 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 began, remembering the nickname given to her mother at the English court, to call her "Sunbeam".

Discovery of remains

Cross over Ganina Pit

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.

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 the Piglet Log near Yekaterinburg, 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 6. 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 The Empress, commenting on the figure of her sixteen-year-old daughter, wrote in a letter to Anna Vyrubova seven months before the murder: “To her despair, Anastasia has grown fat and looks exactly like Mary 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 of the remains of a young girl and a boy in the Piglet Log, 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. However, a group of well-known geneticists (who participated in all these DNA tests), led by Dr. Michael D. Coble, in the resulting article in 2009 write (section "Discussion", translated from English):

It should be noted that the widely publicized debate about whether the remains of Maria or Anastasia were found in the second burial cannot be settled on the basis of the results of the DNA analysis. In the absence of specification of the DNA data of each of the sisters, we can definitively identify only Alexei - only the son of Nikolai and Alexandra.

And also, in the "Reference Information" section of this article (in the comment to Fig. S1):

It was not possible to identify (the remains) as exactly Maria or Anastasia using DNA analysis. False Anastasia

The most famous of the false Anastasias is Anna Anderson

Rumors that one of the tsar's daughters managed to escape - either by running away from the Ipatiev house, or even before the revolution, being replaced by one of the servants, began to circulate among Russian emigrants almost immediately after the execution of the tsar's family. Attempts by a number of people to use for selfish purposes the belief in the possible salvation of the younger princess Anastasia led to the appearance of more than thirty false Anastasias. One of the most famous imposters was Anna Anderson, who claimed that a soldier named Tchaikovsky managed to pull her wounded out of the basement of the Ipatiev house after he saw that she was still alive. Another version of the same story was presented by the former Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda at the trial, in which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called the Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father”. Svoboda proclaimed himself Anderson's savior, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of "a neighbor who was in love with her, a certain X." This version, however, contained quite a lot of clearly implausible details, for example, about curfew violations, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the escape of the Grand Duchess, allegedly 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.

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. The other 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 an injured 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 allegedly 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. Anna Baoudin), in the 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.

The last of the false Anastasias, Natalya Bilikhodze, died in 2000.

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!

last point over i put 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 be those saved among the royal family.

Canonization

Icon of the Holy Martyr Anastasia New Martyr Anastasia Nikolaevna

The canonization of the family of the last tsar in the rank of new martyrs was first undertaken by the Orthodox Church Abroad (1981). Preparations for canonization in Russia began in the same year, 1991, when excavations were resumed in Ganina Yama. 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.

A new cross with an icon case was erected here by the Brotherhood in the name of the Holy Royal Martyrs.

On the night of July 17, 1995, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the cross, which is now held every year.

In 2000, the decision on canonization 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.

We hope that the construction of a skete at the site of the destruction of the bodies of the Royal Passion-Bearers in Ganina Yama, where a church prayer will soon be offered up, will erase the consequences of the terrible crimes that have been committed on the long-suffering Ural land.

On October 1, 2000, His Eminence Vincent, Archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, laid the foundation stone of the future church in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. The monastery was built mainly of wood, it contains seven main churches in particular - the main church in honor of the holy royal martyrs, the church of St. Seraphim of Sarovsky and others.

About the holy reign of the Great Martyr, Tsarina Alexandra, Tsarevna Olga, Tatiano, Maria, Anastasia, together with Tsarevich Alexy and the venerable martyrs Elizabeth and Barbara! Accept from our penitent hearts this warm prayer that is brought to you, and ask the All-Merciful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness for us and our fallen father, even to the seventh knee. As in your earthly life, you have done innumerable mercies to your people, so now have mercy on us, sinners, and save us from fierce sorrows, from ailments of the soul and body, from the elements, rising against us with the permission of God, from the battles of the enemy and internecine and brotherly shedding of blood. Strengthen our faith and hope and ask the Lord for patience and all that is useful in this life and useful for spiritual salvation. Comfort us who mourn, and lead us to salvation. Amen.

Nikolai Gumilyov's poem

The 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 dayAnd we want through usLove and caress of all RussiaThank you.

What a joy to congratulate usYou, the best image of our dreams,And put a modest signatureAt the bottom of the welcome verses.

Forgetting that the day beforeWe were in fierce battlesWe are the holiday of the fifth of JuneLet's celebrate in our hearts.

And we carry to a new sectionHearts full of delightRemembering our meetingsIn the middle of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. Films about Anastasia

Feature films about Anastasia "Clothes Make a Woman" (1928), "Anastasia" (1956) and "Anastasia: Anna's Mystery" (1986), as well as the cartoons "Anastasia" (1997), "Anastasia's Secret", based on on Anna Anderson's version. Also appears as a cameo character in the anime Blood+.

Anastasia is mentioned in the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil".
Anastasia is also mentioned in the movie Titanic (1997)
Anastasia is mentioned in Zhanna Bichevskaya's song "The Song of the Holy Royal Martyrs"
Anastasia is mentioned in Yuri Morozov's song "In Yekaterinburg-City"
Dmitry Bogachev said that a musical about Anastasia is planned to be staged in Moscow.
Anastasia is one of the playable characters in Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant RPG for Playstation 2.
Anastasia is mentioned in the series "Nikita" (2010)

In her honor, in 1902, the village of Anastasievka in the Black Sea province was named. The history of the formation of settlements in the Tuapse region. Dictionary of settlements

Some of the most famous impostors in history were the False Dmitrys, swindlers who, in search of easy money, with varying degrees of success, pretended to be the sons of Ivan the Terrible. Another "leader" in the number of "fake" children was Romanov family. Despite the tragic death of the imperial family in July 1918, subsequently many tried to impersonate the "surviving" heirs. In 1920, a girl appeared in Berlin, claiming that she was the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II, Princess Anastasia Romanova.

An interesting fact: after the execution of the Romanovs, "children" appeared in different years, who, allegedly, managed to survive in a terrible tragedy. History has preserved the names of 8 Olga, 33 Tatyan, 53 Mari and as many as 80 Alekseev, all, of course, with the prefix false-. Despite the fact that in most cases the fact of imposture was obvious, the case of Anastasia is almost unique. There were too many doubts about her person, and her story seemed too plausible.

To begin with, it is worth remembering Anastasia herself. Her birth was more of a disappointment than a joy: everyone was waiting for an heir, and Alexandra Fedorovna gave birth to a daughter for the fourth time. Nicholas II himself warmly received the news of his paternity. Anastasia's life was measured, she was educated at home, loved to dance and had a friendly, easy character. As was customary for the daughters of the emperor, having reached the age of 14, she led the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment. During the First World War, Anastasia took an active part in the lives of soldiers to cheer up the wounded, she arranged concerts in hospitals, wrote letters under dictation and sent them to relatives. In a peaceful everyday life, she was fond of photography and loved to sew, mastered the use of the telephone and enjoyed talking with her friends.

The life of the girl was cut short on the night of July 16-17, the 17-year-old princess was shot along with other members of the imperial family. Despite the inglorious death, Anastasia was talked about for a long time in Europe, her name gained almost worldwide fame when, after 2 years, information appeared in Berlin that she managed to survive.

They discovered a girl who pretended to be Anastasia by chance: a policeman saved her from suicide by making her on the bridge when she already wanted to commit suicide by throwing herself down. According to the girl, she was the surviving daughter of Emperor Nicholas II. Her real name was Anna Anderson. She assured that she was saved by a soldier who shot the Romanov family. She made her way to Germany to find her relatives. Anna-Anastasia was first sent to a psychiatric hospital, after undergoing treatment, she left for America to continue to prove her relationship with the Romanovs.

There were 44 heirs of the Romanov family, some of them issued a declaration of non-recognition of Anastasia. However, there were those who supported her. Perhaps the cornerstone in this matter was the inheritance: the real Anastasia was supposed to have all the gold of the imperial family. The case eventually went to court, litigation lasted for several decades, but neither side was able to provide enough convincing evidence, so the case was closed. Opponents of Anastasia argued that she was actually born in Poland, worked at a bomb factory, and there she received numerous injuries, which she later passed off as bullet wounds. An end to the history of Anna Anderson was put by a DNA test conducted a few years after her death. Scientists have proven that the impostor had nothing to do with the Romanov family.

Sourced from Commons.wikimedia.org

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 18, 1901. The sovereign had been waiting for an heir for a long time, and when the daughter turned out to be the long-awaited fourth child, he was saddened. Soon the sadness passed, and the Emperor loved the fourth daughter, no less than his other children.

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

Be sure to take a cold shower every morning. It was not easy to see her. As a child, she was very smart, she liked to climb where she didn’t get, to hide.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Years later, officers and soldiers who visited hospitals remembered the Grand Duchesses very warmly. The military, resurrecting those days from memory, seemed to be illuminated by an unearthly light. Wounded soldiers were interested in their fate. , it was assumed that all four sisters would marry four Balkan princes. The Russian soldier wanted to see the princesses happy, and prayed for them, giving them the crowns of the queens of European states. However, things didn't work out that way...

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

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

The tragic fate of Princess Anastasia Romanova

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova; (born June 5 (18), 1901 - death July 17, 1918) - Grand Duchess, fourth daughter (three more daughters - Olga, Tatiana and Maria) and Alexandra Feodorovna. The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the Empress. The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna is Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia.

Anastasia Nikolaevna was shot with her family in the house of engineer Ipatiev. After her death, about 30 women pretended to be "a miraculously saved Grand Duchess", but sooner or later they were exposed as impostors.

The mystery of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, to this day haunts both scientists, historians, and ordinary people: was it really miraculous that she was able to survive in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 1918?

In Western Europe, a young woman appeared who called herself the Russian Tsarina and Grand Duchess Anastasia. And throughout her long life, she tried in every possible way to prove it.

But in the USSR, not a word was said about this in any of the media. Of course, those "who are supposed to" knew about it. But even after the death of Princess Anastasia in the new, "democratic" Russia, nothing is known about the mystery of this mysterious woman and her amazing story ...

Contemporaries about Anastasia. Childhood

From the memoirs of contemporaries, imperial children were not spoiled with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Anastasia did not differ in diligence in her studies, she did not like grammar, she wrote with terrible mistakes, and she called arithmetic with childish immediacy "swinishness."

Anastasia was small and stocky, with blond hair with a reddish tint, and large blue eyes inherited from her father.

She inherited wide hips, a slender waist and a good bust from her mother. Anastasia was short, strongly built, but at the same time, she seemed somewhat airy. Her face and physique were rustic, yielding to the stately Olga and the fragile Tatyana. Anastasia alone inherited the shape of her face from her father - slightly elongated, with protruding cheekbones and a wide forehead. She was very much like her father. Large facial features - large eyes, a large nose, soft lips, made Anastasia look like a young Maria Fedorovna - her grandmother. Anastasia had wavy hair, rather harsh.

Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. 1903

She spoke quickly but clearly. The voice was high and deep. She had a habit of laughing and laughing out loud. 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 also had a clear talent as a comic actress, she loved to parody and mimic others, and she did it very talentedly and funny.

The princess loved to draw, and she did it quite well, willingly played the guitar or balalaika with her brother, knitted, sewed, watched movies, was fond of photography that was fashionable at that time, and at the same time she had her own photo album, loved to talk on the phone, read or just lay in bed .

Anastasia was not in good health. From childhood, she suffered from pain in her feet - a consequence of a congenital curvature of her big toes, according to which she would later be identified with one of the imposters - Anna Anderson. She had a weak back, despite the fact that the little Grand Duchess did her best to avoid the massage necessary to strengthen her muscles, hiding from the incoming masseuse in the cupboard or under the bed. Even with minor cuts, the bleeding did not stop for an abnormally long time, from which the doctors concluded that, following her mother, the girl was a carrier of hemophilia.

Revolution 1917

From the memoirs of Lily Den (Julia Alexandrovna von Den), a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna, in February 1917, at the very height of the revolution, the children fell ill with measles one by one. Anastasia was the last to fall ill, when the Tsarskoye Selo palace was already surrounded by the insurgent troops. The tsar was at that time at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, in Mogilev, only the empress with her children remained in the palace.

On the night of March 2, 1917, Lily Den stayed overnight in the palace, in the Crimson Room, together with Grand Duchess Anastasia. So that they would not worry, they explained to the children that the troops surrounding the palace and the gunshots that were heard were the result of the exercises being carried out. Alexandra Feodorovna intended to "hide the truth from them for as long as possible." March 2 at 9 o'clock learned about the abdication of the king.

At this time there was still hope for the family of the former emperor to go abroad; but George V, whose popularity among his subjects was rapidly declining, decided not to take risks and preferred to sacrifice the royal family, which caused shock in his own cabinet.

As a result, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the family of the former emperor to Tobolsk. On the day before their departure, they managed 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. 1917, August 12 - a train under the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission in the strictest secrecy departed from the siding.

1918–1920

How are you feeling? the doctor asked solicitously when the woman came to. - Do you remember your name, address?

I have to make an important announcement, - the stranger replied in a weak voice. - My name is Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. I am Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Emperor Nicholas II. I miraculously managed to avoid death in Yekaterinburg.

Royal Romanov family

Such a statement, made even in war-torn Germany, could not but arouse great interest not only from doctors, but also from the press and various kinds of special services - it’s not every day that Russian princesses are fished out of the Berlin canals! It became known about the statement of an unknown woman in Moscow: the Chekists had their own agents in Berlin.

They demanded explanations and proofs from the unknown young lady. And she told the amazing and mysterious story of her salvation. According to her, one of the officers of the Cheka or Red Guards guarding the house, named Tchaikovsky, fell in love with her and decided to save her. He managed to get Anastasia out of the house before the execution of the family, and they disappeared together, leaving Yekaterinburg.

Anastasia had to become Tchaikovsky's mistress, and together they made their way away from the Red Commissars. Finally, the fate and whirlwind of the Civil War brought them to Romania, where Anastasia's roommate died. The young woman was left alone, without funds and documents. For some time she wandered around various European countries, and then ended up in Germany, in Berlin. Unable to endure any more humiliation and suffering, the woman decided to commit suicide.

Who is she? False Anastasia or ...

In Moscow, on the Lubyanka, they considered the “Grand Duchess” a swindler. But just in case, they did not stop watching her almost to death: if something serious could arise, back in the 1920s, they probably tried to quickly eliminate the “pretender for the throne”, giving her a car accident, death under the wheels of a tram, or simply disappearing without a trace . And suicide is easier - after all, she has already tried to lay hands on herself. But Anastasia was not eliminated.

The Germans are distrustful people and did not want to take the word of the “Russian princess”. In Berlin there was a large colony of Russian emigrants, among whom many had been at the royal court and knew the Romanov family well. Some representatives of the family of the Romanov dynasty that ruled Russia also survived - they must recognize a relative! In addition, Europe is not so big: you can invite someone for identification from other countries.

Anna Anderson and Anastasia

The Germans and representatives of the special services of various countries arranged meetings with relatives and people who personally knew members of the imperial family, who had miraculously escaped Anastasia Nikolaevna. Strange, mysterious and mysterious, but ... reviews and opinions turned out to be almost diametrically opposed! Rational Germans did not know what to think and do after that.

She is a 100% scammer! - said the representatives of the former highest aristocracy of the Russian Empire.

She wants to compete for power in Russia when we return there,” said one representative of the House of Romanov.

She wants to get her hands on the royal inheritance left abroad! - said the third. - What if this is a well-trained agent of Dzerzhinsky, whom they want to introduce into the holy of holies of the Russian emigration?

Why did the Bolsheviks conduct secret negotiations with the Germans about the extradition of the Russian tsarina and her children to them in exchange for Russian political prisoners in Germany? This was already after the tragedy in Yekaterinburg! Is it all a bluff of the communists?

The Germans issued documents to the "Grand Duchess" in the name of Anna Andersen, not daring to either recognize or completely reject her statements. 1925 - Anna met with Olga Alexandrovna Romanova-Kulikovskaya, the younger sister of Nicholas II, the aunt of the real Anastasia, who could not help but recognize her niece. Olga Alexandrovna visited Anna-Anastasia in the hospital and treated her with kindred warmth. What they talked about remains a mystery.

I am unable to grasp this with my mind, - Olga Alexandrovna said after the meeting, - but my heart tells me, this is Anastasia!

To believe or not to believe the words of the younger sister of Emperor Nicholas II? 1928 - all the surviving Romanovs, who then numbered 12 people, as well as their relatives on the German line at the family council decided to reject the "Grand Duchess Anastasia", recognizing her story as untrustworthy, and she herself - an impostor. This suited Moscow very well, but to suspect the GPU of collusion with the Romanovs is at least stupid.

Later, Andersen released an autobiographical book "I am Anastasia", which was not published in Russia. Her dramatic story was made into a film starring Ingrid Bergman, who won an Oscar in 1956 for it. Anna repeatedly tried to prove her case in court, and the last decision of the German court in 1970 read: “Her claims cannot be neither proven nor disproved.

"Grand Duchess Anastasia", aka Anna Andersen, died in Germany in 1984. Only one word is engraved on the monument erected on her grave: "Anastasia".

What secrets did this mysterious woman take with her to the grave? During excavations and the discovery of remains recognized as the remains of members of the royal family and buried at the end of the 20th century in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, there were no body fragments that could belong to Grand Duchess Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei ...

One of the most mysterious fates among all members of the Romanov family - Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. She was resurrected 33 times, but it is still not known whether she managed to escape, or whether she suffered a bitter fate, the same as her parents, sisters and brother. Subsequently, many years later, the Romanov family was canonized for their torment and innocence in the punishment they had suffered.

Birth of the fourth daughter in the imperial family

Before the birth of Anastasia Romanova, Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna had already had three daughters: Olga, Tatyana and Maria. The absence of an heir greatly worried the imperial family, since, by right of succession, Mikhail Alexandrovich, his younger brother, was to rule the empire next after Nicholas.

Against the background of these circumstances, Alexandra Fedorovna fell into mysticism. Under the influence of the Montenegrin sisters, princesses Milica and Anastasia Nikolaevna, Alexandra Fedorovna invited a hypnotist of French origin named Philip to the court. He predicted the birth of an heir at the time of the fourth pregnancy of the Empress, thereby encouraging her.

On June 18, 1901, Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova was born, named, as historians suggest, in honor of the Montenegrin princess, a close friend of Alexandra Feodorovna. Here is what Nicholas II writes in his diary:

At about 3 o'clock Alix began to experience severe pain. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. Exactly at 6 am daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened under excellent conditions quickly and, thank God, without complications. Because it all started and ended while everyone was still sleeping, we both had a sense of calm and solitude! After that, he sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives in all parts of the world. Luckily Alix is doing well. The baby weighs 11.5 pounds and is 55 cm tall.

According to an already established tradition, Nicholas II, in honor of the birth of his children, assigned one of the regiments the name of his daughter. In 1901, some time after the birth of Anastasia, the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia was named in her honor.

Childhood

As soon as the girl was born, she was given the title "Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna." But in ordinary life they never used him, preferring to call him affectionately Nastya and Nastasya, and the comic nicknames "Shvybzik" for his mischievous character and "pod" for his full figure.

Contrary to popular belief, children in the imperial family were not spoiled for luxury. All four girls occupied only two rooms, lived two in each. Older sisters Olga and Tatyana shared one room, while Maria and Anastasia lived in another.

Gray walls with hung icons and photographs that family members loved so much, and painted butterflies on the ceiling, white and green furniture and an army couch - that's how you can describe the almost Spartan interior in which the girls lived.

These army bunks accompanied them everywhere until the very end. In hot weather, they could even be moved to the balcony to sleep in the fresh air, and in winter they were moved to the most lit and warm part of the room. These beds accompanied them on trains to the Crimea to the Livadia Palace, and even during their exile in Siberia.

The daily routine was pretty simple. At 8 am, awakening and hardening in a cold bath. After the morning toilet, breakfast followed. At noon, the whole family had lunch in the dining room. Tea time is at five o'clock in the evening, as in all decent families. Dinner was at eight o'clock, after which family members spent the rest of the day together playing musical instruments, reading aloud, solving charades, embroidering and other entertainment. Before going to bed, it was obligatory to take a hot bath with drops of perfume. While the children were small, the servants carried water to the bath. Later, when they grew up, the girls collected water on their own. Weekends were looked forward to with particular impatience, since these days they attended children's balls, which were organized in her estate by their aunt Olga Alexandrovna, the younger sister of Nicholas II.

Studies

All the offspring of the imperial family received home education, which began at the age of eight. The curriculum included foreign languages: French, English, German. As well as grammar, arithmetic and geometry, history, geography, the law of God, natural sciences, music, singing and dancing.

Anastasia Romanova was not distinguished by a special zeal for learning, like many capable children. She did not like grammar and arithmetic lessons. She even called the second subject "stinking", and made many mistakes in grammar.

Her English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that the girl once tried to bribe a teacher to raise her grade. She tried to give him flowers with childish spontaneity, but when he refused, she gave this bouquet to the grammar teacher.

The appearance of the young princess Anastasia

The advent of cameras allows us now to see what Anastasia Romanova looked like. Numerous photographs from the family's archives suggest that they were very fond of being photographed. Anastasia, at an older age, was seriously passionate about the art of photography and took numerous pictures of her family and close circle.

She was short, about 157 centimeters, and of a dense build. It was for this that Anastasia in the Romanov family was nicknamed the "pod". But at the same time, her figure was extremely feminine: wide hips and voluminous breasts, combined with a graceful waist, gave the girl a certain lightness.

Big blue eyes and blond hair with a slight golden tint made her face look like her father. She had a pretty appearance, like the rest of the children, but unlike her older sisters, she looked rather rustic. We can say that genetically she was the only one who inherited the features of her father to a greater extent - high cheekbones and an oval elongated face shape.

Poor health Anastasia inherited from her mother. Constant complaints of pain in the feet due to crooked big toes, pain in the back. At the same time, she diligently avoided therapeutic massage, which helps relieve symptoms and alleviate the condition. Presumably, she also suffered from hemophilia, like her brother Alexei, since even small wounds healed for a very long time.

Character

Like many small children born in a loving family, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was distinguished by a cheerful character. She loved outdoor games, such as hide-and-seek, serso and bast shoes, easily climbed trees and did not want to get off for a long time, which she loved to do in her free time. She constantly risked being punished because of her antics.

Anastasia spent a lot of time with her older sister Maria and was practically inseparable from her. She could entertain her younger brother for hours when another illness knocked him down and chained him to bed. She possessed artistry and often parodied the courtiers and loved ones, playing comical scenes. At the same time, it was not very accurate.

Anastasia had great love for animals. At first, she had a small Spitz dog named Shvybzik, with whom many cute and funny stories were associated. He died in 1915, in connection with which the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II was inconsolable for several weeks. Then the dog Jimmy appeared in the family.

She liked to draw, play stringed musical instruments with her brother, play pieces by famous composers on the piano with her mother, watch movies and chat on the phone for hours. During the First World War, she became addicted to smoking along with her older sisters.

Life during World War I

When it became known about the beginning of the war in 1914, Anastasia, along with her sisters and Alexandra Fedorovna, wept for a long time. When she was 14 years old, Anastasia received command of the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment, named in honor of St. Anastasia the Setter of Patterns, which celebrates its day on December 22.

Alexandra Fedorovna donated many rooms of the palace in Tsarskoe Selo to create a hospital. Olga and Tatyana began to play the role of sisters of mercy, while Maria and Anastasia, due to their young age, were patronesses of the hospital.

The younger sisters devoted a lot of time to the wounded soldiers, entertaining them in every possible way during the daytime by reading books, learning to read and write, playing musical instruments, theatrical sketches, and so on. The girls gave their own savings to buy medicine, wrote letters home on behalf of the wounded, played board games, provided the hospital with bandages and linen, and in the evenings spent a lot of time on the phone with soldiers, trying to distract them from physical and moral pain. Anastasia until the end of her days remembered this period in her life.

House arrest of the royal family

In 1917 the revolution began. It was during this period that all the daughters of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna fell ill with measles. Under the influence of disease and strong drugs, everyone begins to lose their hair. In this regard, it was decided to shave the heads of all bald. Together with them, Alexei, the youngest son, also expresses a desire to shave, to which Alexandra Fedorovna reacted very sharply. In the story of Anastasia Romanova, there is even a picture that shows imperial children with a bald head.

At this time, Nicholas II was in Mogilev. They tried to hide from the children as long as possible the true cause of the shots outside the palace, explaining this by the ongoing exercises. On March 2, 1917, the Emperor renounced the title of Tsar. Already on March 8, the Provisional Government decided to place the Romanov family under house arrest.

Living within the palace proved to be quite tolerable. However, they had to cut their diet so as not to cause discontent among the workers, since the menu of the royal family was publicized daily. And also to reduce the time spent in the courtyard of the palace. Passers-by often peered through the bars of the fence, and one could hear swear words addressed to all family members.

Despite the unfolding events in the Empire, life went on as usual. Children did not stop receiving education even in a confined space. At that time, the hope was not yet extinguished of leaving together abroad to England, to a safer place. But George V, King of Great Britain, to the surprise of the ministry, did not support his cousin in this matter.

In August 1917, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the family of Nikolai Alexandrovich to Tobolsk. On August 12, a train under the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission left the siding in the strictest confidence.

Link to Siberia

Exactly two weeks later, on August 24, a steamer arrived at the platform of Tobolsk. But the house intended for imprisonment was not yet ready, so the Romanovs lived on the ship for several days. As soon as the work in the building was completed, the whole family was escorted to the house, forming a living corridor of soldiers so that passers-by could not see them.

Life in Tobolsk was quite boring and monotonous. All the same, the education of children continued, the father taught them history and geography, the mother taught them the law of God. Surprisingly, they did not live at all like a royal couple, but rather looked like ordinary people who did not indulge in frills. Moreover, in conditions of exile, the way of life became even simpler.

In the biography of Anastasia Romanova, it is mentioned that the girl suddenly quickly began to gain excess weight, thereby causing concern to her mother.

In April 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the fourth convocation decides to try the tsar in Moscow. Together with Nikolai, Alexandra Fedorovna is going on the road together with Maria to support her husband. The remaining members of the family stayed to wait in Tobolsk. The moment of wires was rather sad.

As a result, on the road it became clear that they would not reach Moscow. It was decided to stay in Yekaterinburg, in the house of the engineer Ipatiev. And since the further route was not possible, Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia and Alexei were subsequently sent to Yekaterinburg by steamer with a transfer to the train in Tyumen. On the trip, the children were accompanied by ladies-in-waiting, the French teacher Zhillard and the sailor Nagorny, who was traveling in the same cabin with Tsarevich Alexei. At that time, Alexei felt better, but the guards locked the cabins and did not let even a doctor inside.

On May 23, the train arrived at the station platform in Yekaterinburg. Here the children were taken away from the escorts and sent to the Ipatiev house. Life in Yekaterinburg was even more monotonous.

On June 18, Anastasia celebrated her last birthday. On that day, she was only 17 years old. The weather was excellent, and only in the evening clouds pulled over and a thunderstorm broke out. They baked bread for the holiday, and the celebration continued in the yard. In the evening the whole family played cards after dinner. They went to bed at the usual time, at half past ten in the evening.

The death of Anastasia Romanova and the entire royal family

According to official data, the decision on the death penalty for the imperial family was taken on July 16 by the Ural Council. The Council came to this decision in connection with suspicions of a conspiracy to save the family of Emperor Nicholas II and the capture of the city by the White Guard troops.

On the night of this date, the commander of the detachment P.Z. Ermakov was given an order to be shot. At this time, all family members were already sleeping in their rooms. They were awakened and sent to the basement of the Ipatiev house under the pretense of being saved during a possible shootout.

As far as historians now know, the executed did not even suspect about the execution, and obediently went down to the basement. Two chairs were brought into the room, on which Nikolai with his sick son Alexei in his arms and Alexandra Fedorovna were placed. The rest of the children and attendants stood behind. The girls took with them several reticules and Jimmy the dog, which accompanied them throughout the exile.

According to the data, after a survey of the "executioners", Anastasia, Tatyana and Maria did not die immediately. They were protected from the first shots by jewels sewn into corsets. Anastasia resisted the longest and remained alive, so she was finished off with bayonets and rifle butts.

The corpses were taken outside the city and buried in the Four Brothers tract. The bodies wrapped in sheets were thrown into one of the mines, doused with sulfuric acid beforehand and mutilated beyond recognition. Until now, professionals and history buffs are arguing whether Anastasia Romanova managed to survive or not. The body of Anastasia was never found in the general burial.

"Resurrected" Anastasia

According to rumors, Anastasia managed to escape the death penalty. Either she ran away before the arrest, or she was replaced by one of the maids. After all, as you know, the emperor's family had several doubles. On this basis, a lot of impostors appeared, calling themselves the saved princess Anastasia.

The most famous false Anastasia claimed that she managed to escape thanks to a soldier named Tchaikovsky. Her name was Anna Anderson. According to her, this soldier managed to pull the wounded princess out of the basement of the Ipatiev house and helped her escape. Her similarity with the princess was evidenced by identical foot diseases. Anna Anderson even wrote the book "I, Anastasia" and until the end of her life claimed that she was the daughter of the king.

So, thanks to rumors of a miraculous salvation, 33 women officially claimed that they were the same Anastasia. Some close relatives of the Romanovs recognized the tsar's daughter in different girls. However, it was not possible to prove their relationship. Such excitement was connected, most likely, with the multimillion-dollar inheritance of the emperor.

Icon of the Holy Martyr Anastasia

In 1981, the Russian Church Abroad decided to canonize the family of the Russian tsar in the rank of new martyrs. Preparations for the canonization of the Romanov family took place in 1991. Archbishop Melchizedek blessed the Four Brothers tract for installation at the burial site of the Poklonny Cross. Later, on October 1, 2000, the Archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye laid the foundation stone for the future church in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.