Anastasia was born on June 5th 1901 according
to a Russian calendar which was 13 days behind
the rest of the world at the time. She was born
at the amazingly opulent Petrodvoretz Palace
(Peterhof) outside of St. Petersburg, Russia and
lived 16 priveleged years as the youngest of a
group of very charming, elegant and
well-educated young Romanov princesses.
Anastasia never achieved the physical stature
of her older sister, Tatiana, who was often
referred to as the tallest and most beautiful
Romanov princess. Olga and Marie were two
more older princesses known for their beauty
and charm. Anastasia was very close to her
younger brother, Alexii, who was the baby of the
family and a hemophiliac. Lenin, the cold hearted political idealist who in 1917 brought down the kingdom of Anastasia's father (Nicholas II), was the real evil character in the tragic true story of the young princess. Rasputin existed in real life but, as naughty a man as he may have been, he would not have been the type to specifically kill 17 year old Anastasia and her family the way Lenin did.
Lenin's brand of "communists" were able to
arrest the 16 year old Anastasia and her family
and soon claim power to rename Russia the
"Soviet Union." But the Soviets (also called the
"Reds" and the "Bolsheviks") were actually
not able to subjugate all of the Russian people
for another 4 years. During a cruel 4 year Civil
War, Lenin, for political reasons, needed every
last heir to the Russian crown eliminated so as
to give the anti-communists no hope to rally
around in restoring the revolutionary Russia
to the "stability" of a monarchy instead of a
totalitarian communist state (noone seriously
considered democracy in Russia at the time,
except for the secret U.S. Army unit which tried
to help the "White" Russian monarchists battle
the "Reds").
Lenin ordered that Anastasia's entire family be murdered. In a room of the country house in Yekaterinberg, Siberia where they had enjoyed a relatively pleasant imprisonment they were gathered around Midnight on July 16-17, 1918. Anastasia had just turned 17. They were told they were being transferred to another prison venue. The girls, including Anastasia, reportedly wrapped their bodices with their many jewels as a way to avoid being robbed by guards who were not allowed to touch the princesses. All the family assembled for what they thought was a portrait to be taken before they went on their journey. When eleven guards suddenly began firing bullets into the Romanov family the young women started screaming and they were the last to die because the jewelry was like a suit of armor for each princess. In fact the guards apparently had to go up to the wounded princesses and stab them with bayonets in order to finally kill them.
In 1991 the skeletons of the Romanov family were dug up in Siberia. But the skeletons of Anastasia and Alexii were apparently not identified. It is remotely possible that Anastasia's life was spared in the middle of that horrible July night. But why would those cruel murderers have risked Lenin's wrath by sparing her life? Her sisters' bullet ridden skeletons exist as evidence of a merciless execution.
Maybe the executioners conducted the massacre of the Romanovs to avoid being killed themselves by Lenin, but they drew the line at killing the two children (defined as being under 18). Rumours have existed for 79 years that Anastastia did survive to assume the identity of a Soviet woman, but this is unlikely. The skeleton of Anastasia's little dog Jimmy was found among the skeletons of the rest of her family. Because of the rumors, a Polish factory worker in Germany would declare herself to be "the lost princess" Anastasia in 1922 after a failed suicide attempt. Anastasia's real grandmother in Paris dismissed this woman as a fake. The "imposter" was, however, accepted by Park Avenue society in New York and was able to live the high life there until she lost too many friends for being arrogant and until she was institutionalized for being mentally ill.
Naming herself "Anna Anderson" to avoid the paparazzi, she moved back to Germany where relatives of the Romanov's blocked her court actions for 30 years in a successful attempt to stop the "imposter" from cashing in on her pretense of being the real Anastasia. DNA evidence has now proven that Anna Anderson was definitely NOT the Princess Anastasia. The princesses' grandmother in Paris had correctly rejected Anna as an imposter and the German courts had been justified in not awarding any Romanov money to the imposter.
