Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova

Maria Fedorovna

Nicholas I

Alexandra Fedorovna

Alexander II

Maria Alexandrovna

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the emperor’s children were not spoiled with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. The walls of the room were gray, the ceiling was decorated with images of butterflies. There are icons and photographs on the walls. The furniture is in white and green tones, the furnishings are simple, almost Spartan, a couch with embroidered pillows, and an army cot on which the Grand Duchess slept all year round. This cot moved around the room in order to end up 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 one could take a break from the stuffiness and heat. They took this same bed with them on vacation to the Livadia Palace, and the Grand Duchess slept on it 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 o'clock, second breakfast at 13.00 or 12.30 on Sundays. At five o'clock there was tea, at eight there was a general dinner, and the food was quite simple and unpretentious. In the evenings, the girls solved charades and did embroidery while their father read aloud to them.

Early in the morning it was supposed to take cold bath, in the evening - warm, to which a few drops of perfume were added, and Anastasia preferred Koti 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 their responsibility. There were two baths - the first large one, left over from the reign of Nicholas I (according to the surviving tradition, everyone who washed in it left their autograph on the side), the other, smaller, was intended for children.

Sundays were especially looked forward to - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls at their aunt, Olga Alexandrovna. The evening was especially interesting when Anastasia was allowed to dance with the young officers.

Like other children of the emperor, Anastasia was educated at home. Education began at the age of eight, the program included French and English, history, geography, the law of God, natural Sciences, drawing, grammar, as well as dancing and lessons in good manners. Anastasia was not known for her diligence in her studies; she hated grammar, wrote with horrific errors, and with childish spontaneity called arithmetic “sinishness.” Teacher in English Sydney Gibbs recalled that she once tried to bribe him with a bouquet of flowers to improve his grade, and after his refusal, she gave these flowers to the Russian language teacher, Petrov.

Grigory Rasputin

As you know, Grigory Rasputin was presented to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on November 1, 1905. The Tsarevich’s illness was kept secret, so the appearance at court of a “man” who almost immediately acquired significant influence there caused speculation and rumors. Under the influence of their mother, all five children became accustomed to completely trusting the “holy elder” and sharing their experiences and thoughts with him.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna recalled how one day, accompanied by the Tsar, she went into the children's bedrooms, where Rasputin blessed the Grand Duchesses, dressed in white nightgowns, for the coming sleep.

The same mutual trust and affection is seen in the letters of “Elder Gregory” that he sent to the imperial family. Here is an excerpt from one of the letters, dated 1909:

Anastasia wrote to Rasputin:

My beloved, precious, only friend.

How I want to meet you again. Today I saw you in a dream. I always ask Mom when you will 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 haven’t seen you for a long time, but every evening I certainly remembered you.

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.

Yours, Anastasia.

The governess of the imperial children, Sofya Ivanovna Tyutcheva, 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.”

At the insistence of the Empress, Tyutcheva was fired. In all likelihood, the “holy elder” did not allow himself any liberties, but rumors so dirty spread around St. Petersburg that the emperor’s brothers and sisters took up arms against Rasputin, and Ksenia Alexandrovna sent her brother a particularly harsh letter, accusing Rasputin of “Khlystyism,” protesting against that this “lying old man” has unrestricted access to children. Significant letters and cartoons were passed from hand to hand, which depicted the elder’s relationship with the empress, girls and Anna Vyrubova. In order to quell the scandal, to the great displeasure of the Empress, Nicholas was forced to temporarily remove Rasputin from the palace, and he went on a pilgrimage to holy places. Despite the rumors, the imperial family's relationship with Rasputin continued until his assassination on December 17, 1916.

A. A. Mordvinov recalled that after the murder of Rasputin, all four Grand Duchesses “seemed quiet and noticeably depressed, they sat closely huddled together” on the sofa in one of the bedrooms, as if realizing that Russia had come into a movement that 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 attended the funeral service. It was decided to build a chapel over the grave of the “holy elder,” but due to subsequent events this plan was not realized.

Maria and Anastasia gave concerts to the wounded and tried their best to distract them from difficult thoughts. They spent days on end in the hospital, reluctantly taking time off from work for lessons. Anastasia recalled these days until the end of her life:

I remember how we visited the hospital a long time ago. I hope all our wounded survived in the end. Almost everyone was 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 Tsarskoe. Now I’m in the bedroom, writing on the table, and on it there are photographs of our beloved hospital. You know, it was a wonderful time when we visited the hospital. We often think about this, and our evening conversations on the phone and everything else...

Under house arrest

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

Ultimately, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the family of the former Tsar to Tobolsk. On the last day before leaving, they managed to say goodbye to the servants and visit their favorite places in the park, ponds, and islands for the last time. Alexei wrote in his diary that on that day he managed to push his older sister Olga into the water. On August 12, 1917, a train flying the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission departed from a siding in the strictest secrecy.

Tobolsk

Ekaterinburg

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

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 body of Jimmy'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 birch trees.

Character. Contemporaries about Anastasia

Anastasia in another mime scene

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Anastasia was small and dense, with reddish-brown hair, and large blue eyes, inherited from her father. The girl had a light and cheerful character, loved to play lapta, forfeits, and serso, and could tirelessly run around the palace for hours, playing hide and seek. She easily climbed trees, and often, out of pure mischief, refused to go down to the ground. She was inexhaustible in her inventions; for example, she loved to paint the cheeks and noses of her sisters, brother and young ladies-in-waiting with fragrant carmine and strawberry juice. With her light hand, it became fashionable to weave flowers and ribbons into her hair, which little Anastasia was very proud of. She was inseparable from her older sister Maria, adored her brother, and could entertain him for hours when another illness put Alexei to bed. Anna Vyrubova recalled that “Anastasia seemed to be made of mercury, and not of flesh and blood.” Once, when she was just a baby, three or four years old, at a reception in Kronstadt, she climbed under the table and began to pinch the legs of those present, pretending to be 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 imitate those around her, and she did it very talentedly and funny. One day Alexey told her:

To which I received an unexpected answer that the Grand Duchess cannot perform in the theater, she has other responsibilities. Sometimes, however, her jokes became harmless. So she tirelessly teased her sisters, once playing in the snow with Tatyana, she hit her in the face, so hard that the eldest could not stay on her feet; however, the culprit herself, scared to death, cried 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, during the games she tried to outwit, trip her up, and even scratch her opponent.

Little Anastasia was also not particularly neat and loving of order. Hallie Reeves, the wife of an American diplomat accredited at the court of the last emperor, recalled how little Anastasia, while 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 filled with chocolates and Creme Brulee sweets, which she generously shared with others.

She also loved animals. At first, she lived with a Spitz named Shvybzik, and many funny and touching incidents 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 his sisters and brother, they buried the dog in Peterhof, on Children's Island. Then she had a dog named Jimmy.

She loved to draw, and she did it quite well, she enjoyed playing the guitar or balalaika with her brother, knitting, sewing, watching movies, was fond of photography, which 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 secretly from her parents, in which her older sister, Olga, kept her company.

The Grand Duchess was no different good health. Since childhood, she suffered from pain in her feet - a consequence of congenital curvature of the big toes, the so-called lats. hallux valgus- a syndrome by which she would later begin to be identified with one of the impostors - Anna Anderson. She had a weak back, despite the fact that she did her best to avoid the massage required to strengthen her muscles, hiding from the visiting masseuse in the cupboard or under the bed. Even with small cuts, the bleeding did not stop for an abnormally long time, from which doctors concluded that, like her mother, Anastasia is a carrier of hemophilia.

As General M.K. Diterichs, who participated in the investigation into the murder of the royal family, testified:

Drawing of Grand Duchess Anastasia

French teacher Gilliard recalled her this way:

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 its pits was chosen by Yurovsky's team to bury 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 literally next to the tract there was a road to Yekaterinburg; early in the morning the procession was seen by a peasant from the village of Koptyaki, Natalya Zykova, and then several more people. The Red Army soldiers, threatening with weapons, drove them away.

Later that same day, grenade explosions were heard in the area. Interested strange incident, local residents, a few days later, when the cordon had already been lifted, came to the tract and managed to discover several valuables (apparently belonging to the royal family) in a hurry not noticed by the executioners.

American scientists believed that the missing body was Anastasia's 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" body was buried under Anastasia's name. Photos of the girl standing next to her sisters, taken six months before the murder, show that Anastasia was several inches shorter than them Her mother, commenting on the figure of her sixteen-year-old daughter, wrote in a letter to a friend seven months before the murder: “Anastasia, to her despair, has gained weight and her appearance exactly resembles Maria several years ago - the same huge waist and short legs... Let's hope this goes away with age...” Scientists consider it unlikely that she grew much in the last months of her life. Her actual height was approximately 5'2".

The doubts were finally resolved in 2007, after the discovery of the remains of a young girl and boy, later identified as Tsarevich Alexei and Maria, in the so-called Porosenkovsky meadow. Genetic testing 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, reporting that an examination of the remains found in 2007 on the old Koptyakovskaya road established: the discovered remains belonged to Grand Duchess Mary and Tsarevich Alexei, who was the emperor's heir.

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 Ipatiev's house, or even before the revolution, by 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 the belief in the possible salvation of the younger princess Anastasia for selfish purposes led to the appearance of over thirty false Anastasias. One of the most famous impostors was Anna Anderson, who claimed that a soldier named Tchaikovsky managed to pull her wounded from the basement of Ipatiev’s house after he saw that she was still alive. Another version of the same story was told by the former Austrian prisoner of war Franz Svoboda at the trial, at which Anderson tried to defend her right to be called a Grand Duchess and gain access to the hypothetical inheritance of her “father.” Svoboda proclaimed himself the savior of Anderson, and, according to his version, the wounded princess was transported to the house of “a neighbor in love with her, a certain X.” This version, however, contained quite a lot of clearly implausible details, for example, about violating the curfew, which was unthinkable at that moment, about posters announcing the escape of the Grand Duchess, allegedly posted all over the city, and about general searches, which, fortunately , they didn’t give anything. Thomas Hildebrand Preston, who was the British Consul General in Yekaterinburg at that time, 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 legal battles for several decades, no final decision was made during her lifetime.

Currently, genetic analysis has confirmed already existing assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franziska Schanzkovskaya, a worker in a Berlin factory that manufactured explosives. As a result of an industrial accident, she was seriously injured and suffered mental shock, the consequences of which she could not get rid of for the rest of her life.

Another false Anastasia was Eugenia 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, capitalizing on the public's interest.

Rumors about Anastasia's rescue were fueled by news of trains and houses that the Bolsheviks were searching 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 guards brought a girl into her cell who called herself Anastasia Romanova and asked if the girl was the Tsar's daughter. Elena Petrovna replied that she did not recognize the girl, and the guards took her away. Another account is given more credibility by one historian. Eight witnesses reported the return of a young woman after an apparent rescue attempt in September 1918 on railway station in siding 37, northwest of Perm. These witnesses were Maxim Grigoriev, Tatyana Sytnikova and her son Fyodor Sytnikov, Ivan Kuklin and Marina Kuklina, Vasily Ryabov, Ustina Varankina and Dr. Pavel Utkin, the doctor who examined the girl after the incident. Some witnesses identified the girl as Anastasia when they were shown photographs of the Grand Duchess by White Army investigators. Utkin also told them that the traumatized girl he examined at the Cheka headquarters in Perm told him: “I am the daughter of the ruler, Anastasia.”

At the same time, in mid-1918, there were several reports of young people in Russia posing as escaped Romanovs. Boris Solovyov, the husband of Rasputin's daughter Maria, deceitfully begged money from noble Russian families for the supposedly saved Romanov, in fact wanting to use the money to go to China. Solovyov also found women who agreed to pose as grand duchesses and thereby contributed to the deception.

However, there is a possibility that one or more guards could actually 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 hallway of the house. Some guards who did not participate in the murders and sympathized with the grand duchesses, according to some sources, remained in the basement with the bodies.

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

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

Rumors of a "miraculous rescue", which seemed to have died down after the royal remains were subjected to scientific study in 1991, resumed with new strength, when publications appeared in the press that one of the Grand Duchesses (it was assumed that it was Maria) and Tsarevich Alexei were missing from the bodies found. However, according to another version, among the remains there might not have been Anastasia, who was slightly younger than her sister and almost the same build, so a mistake in identification seemed likely. This time Nadezhda Ivanova-Vasilieva was nominated for the role of the rescued Anastasia, who conducted most life in Kazan psychiatric hospital where she was assigned Soviet power, allegedly fearing the surviving princess.

Canonization

The canonization of the family of the last tsar in the rank of new martyrs was first undertaken by the foreign Orthodox Church (1981). Preparations for canonization in Russia began in the same 1991, when excavations in the Ganina Pit were resumed. With the blessing of Archbishop Melchizedek, a Worship Cross was installed in the tract on July 7. On July 17, 1992, the first bishop's religious procession took place to the burial site of the remains of the royal family.

About the Holy Reign of the Great Martyr, Queen Alexandra, Princess Olgo, Tatiano, Maria, Anastasia, together with Tsarevich Alexy and the Venerable Martyrs Elizabeth and Varvara! Receive from our repentant hearts this warm prayer brought to you, and ask us from the All-Merciful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness for the permission of the Regicide, against us and our father who fell, even to the seventh generation. Just 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 mental and physical ailments, from the elements that arise against us by God’s permission, from the battles of the enemy and internecine and brotherly bloodshed. Strengthen our faith and hope and ask the Lord for patience and everything useful in this life and useful for spiritual salvation. Comfort us, the grieving, and lead us to salvation. Amen.

The image of Anastasia in literature and cinematography

Poem by Nikolai Gumilyov

Other

Notes

At home, however, he had a reputation as a charlatan and was even prosecuted for medical practice without appropriate education.
Makeevich, A.; Makeevich, G. Waiting for the heir to the throne. Tsarevich Alexey. Retrieved August 21, 2008.
Massie (1967), p. 153

Anastasia Romanova: the mystery of the Grand Duchess

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of the latter Russian Emperor, June 18, 2006 would have been 105 years old. Or did it come true? This question haunts historians, researchers, and... swindlers.

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

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

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

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

In addition, there is little factual material left about the Grand Duchess; perhaps this also provoked the “heiresses.” Two years after the execution of the royal family, the first contender appeared. On one of the streets of Berlin in 1920, a young woman Anna Anderson was found unconscious, who, when she came to her senses, called herself Anastasia Romanova. According to her version, the miraculous rescue looked like this: along with all the murdered family members, she was taken to the burial place, but on the way the half-dead Anastasia was hidden by some soldier. She reached Romania with him, they got married there, but what happened next was a failure...

The strangest thing in this story is that Anastasia was recognized in it by some foreign relatives, as well as Tatyana Botkina-Melnik, the widow of Dr. Botkin, who died in Yekaterinburg. For 50 years, talk and court cases continued, but Anna Anderson was never recognized as the “real” Anastasia Romanova.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to these data, Georgian citizen Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze and Princess Anastasia have “a number of matching features that can only occur in one out of 700 billion cases,” stated members of the Foundation. A book by N.P. was published. Bilikhodze: “I am Anastasia Romanova,” containing memories of life and relationships in the royal family.

It would seem that the solution is close: they even said that Natalia Petrovna was going to come to Moscow and perform in State Duma, despite her age, but it later turned out that “Anastasia” died two years before she was declared heir.

In total, since the murder of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, about 30 pseudo-Anastasius have appeared in the world, NewsRu.Com writes. Some of them did not even speak Russian, explaining that the stress they experienced in the Ipatiev House made them forget their native speech. A special service was created at the Geneva Bank to “identify” them, an exam which none of the former candidates could pass.

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.

Shot along with her family in Ipatiev’s house. The murder plan was developed by Sverdlov and he personally controlled the progress 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 along with her parents, sisters and brother in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Russia as a passion-bearer at the anniversary Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000. Earlier, in 1981, they were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Memory - July 4th according to the Julian calendar.

Born 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 aggravated the political situation: according to the Act of Succession to the Throne, adopted by Paul I, a woman could not ascend the throne, therefore the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was considered the heir, which did not suit many, and first of all, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In an attempt to beg God for a son, at this time she becomes more and more immersed in mysticism. With the assistance of the Montenegrin princesses Militsa Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, a certain Philip, a Frenchman by nationality, arrived at the court, declaring himself a hypnotist and specialist in nervous diseases. Philip predicted the birth of a son to Alexandra Fedorovna, however, a girl was born - Anastasia. Nicholas wrote in his diary:

Around 3 o'clock Alix started severe pain. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. At exactly 6 am, daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened quickly under excellent conditions and, thank God, without complications. Thanks to the fact that it all started and ended while everyone was still sleeping, we both had a sense of peace and privacy! After that, I sat down to write telegrams and notify relatives in all corners of the world. Fortunately, Alix is feeling 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 Nicholas, disappointed by the birth of his daughter, did not dare to visit his newborn and his wife for a long time.

Grand Duchess Xenia, sister ruling emperor, also noted this event:

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

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 her “an amazing life and a special destiny.” Margaret Eager, author of the memoir Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court, recalled that Anastasia was named after the Emperor pardoned and reinstated the students of St. Petersburg University who took part in the recent unrest, since the name “Anastasia” itself means “returned to life,” the image of this saint usually contains chains torn in half.

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

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the emperor’s children were not spoiled with luxury. Anastasia shared a room with her older sister Maria. The walls of the room were gray, the ceiling was decorated with images of butterflies. There are icons and photographs on the walls. The furniture is in white and green tones, the furnishings are simple, almost spartan, a couch with embroidered pillows, and an army cot on which the Grand Duchess slept all year round. This cot moved around the room in order to end up 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 one could take a break from the stuffiness and heat. They took this same bed with them on vacation to the Livadia Palace, and the Grand Duchess slept on it during her Siberian exile. One large room next door, divided in half by a curtain, served the Grand Duchesses as a common boudoir and bathroom.

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

Sundays were especially looked forward to - on this day the Grand Duchesses attended children's balls at their aunt Olga Alexandrovna's. The evening was especially interesting when Anastasia was allowed to dance with the young officers.

The girls enjoyed every minute, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna recalled. - My dear goddaughter Anastasia was especially happy, believe me, I can still hear her laughter ringing in the rooms. Dancing, music, charades - she plunged into them headlong.

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 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 languages, history, geography, God's law, natural sciences, drawing, grammar, arithmetic, as well as dance and music. Anastasia was not known for her diligence in her studies; she hated grammar, wrote with horrific errors, and with childish spontaneity called arithmetic “sinishness.” English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that she once tried to bribe him with a bouquet of flowers to improve his grade, and after his refusal, she gave these flowers to the Russian language teacher, Pyotr Vasilyevich Petrov.

Basically, the family lived in the Alexander Palace, occupying only 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 were often sick here.

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

We also rested at the Livadia Palace. The main premises housed the imperial family, and the annexes housed several courtiers, guards and servants. They swam in the warm sea, built fortresses and towers out of sand, and sometimes went into the city to ride a stroller through the streets or visit shops. It was not possible to do this in St. Petersburg, since any appearance of the royal family in public created a crowd and excitement.

They sometimes visited Polish estates belonging to the royal family, where Nicholas loved to hunt.

It seemed to me that all the children were very attached to him,” noted the Grand Duchess. “They had complete confidence in him.

The same mutual trust and affection is seen in the letters of “Elder Gregory” that he sent to the imperial family. Here is an excerpt from one of the letters, dated 1909:

Dear children! Thank you for the memory, for the sweet words, for the pure heart and for the love for God’s people. Love God's nature, all of His creation, especially the light. The Mother of God was always busy with flowers and handicrafts.

Anastasia wrote to Rasputin:

My beloved, precious, only friend.

I always remember you, my dear friend, because you have always been kind to me. I haven’t seen you for a long time, but every evening I certainly remembered you.

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.

Yours, Anastasia.

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

At the insistence of the Empress, Tyutcheva was fired. In all likelihood, the “holy elder” did not allow himself any liberties, but rumors so dirty spread around St. Petersburg that the emperor’s brothers and sisters took up arms against Rasputin, and Ksenia Alexandrovna sent her brother a particularly harsh letter, accusing Rasputin of “Khlystyism,” protesting against that this “lying old man” has unrestricted access to children. Significant letters and cartoons were passed from hand to hand, which depicted the elder’s relationship with the empress, girls and Anna Vyrubova. In order to put out the scandal, to the great displeasure of the empress, Nicholas was forced to temporarily remove Rasputin from the palace, and he went on a pilgrimage to holy places. Despite the rumors, the imperial family's relationship with Rasputin continued until his assassination on December 17, 1916.

World War I

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, following her mother and older sisters, Anastasia wept bitterly on the day war was declared.

On the day of their fourteenth birthday, according to tradition, each of the emperor’s daughters became an honorary commander of one of the Russian regiments. In 1901, after her birth, the name of St. The Caspian 148th Infantry Regiment received Anastasia the Pattern-Resolver in honor of the princess. He began to celebrate his regimental holiday on December 22, the holy day. The regimental church was erected in Peterhof by the architect Mikhail Fedorovich Verzhbitsky. At 14, the emperor’s youngest daughter became his honorary commander (colonel), about which Nicholas made a corresponding entry in his diary. From now on the regiment began to be officially called 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia.

During the war, the empress gave many of the palace rooms for hospital premises. The older sisters Olga and Tatyana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, being too young for such hard work, became patronesses of the hospital. Both sisters gave their own money to buy medicine, read aloud to the wounded, knitted things for them, played cards and checkers, wrote letters home under their dictation, and entertained them with telephone conversations in the evenings, 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,” noted Anastasia Nikolaevna. - He began to learn to read and write here in the hospital. Two unfortunate people died, and just yesterday we were sitting next to them.

Under house arrest

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

According to the memoirs of Lily Den (Yulia 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 after another. Anastasia was the last to fall ill, when the Tsarskoe Selo palace was already surrounded by rebel troops. At that time the Tsar was at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief in Mogilev; only the Empress and her children remained in the palace.

On the night of March 2, 1917, Lily Den stayed overnight in the palace, in the Raspberry Room, with Grand Duchess Anastasia. So that they would not worry, they explained to the children that the troops surrounding the palace and the distant shots were the result of ongoing exercises. Alexandra Feodorovna intended to “hide the truth from them for as long as possible.” At 9 o'clock on March 2 they learned of the Tsar's abdication.

On Wednesday, March 8, Count Pavel Benckendorff appeared at the palace with the message that the Provisional Government had decided to subject the imperial family to house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo. It was suggested that they make a list of people who wanted to stay with them. Lily Dehn immediately offered her services.

On March 9, the children were informed about their father’s abdication. A few days later Nikolai returned. Life under house arrest turned out to be quite bearable. It was necessary to reduce the number of dishes during lunch, since the menu of the royal family was announced publicly from time to time, and it was not worth giving another reason to provoke the already angry crowd. Curious people often watched through the bars of the fence as the family walked in the park and sometimes greeted her with whistling and swearing, so the walks had to be shortened.

On June 22, 1917, it was decided to shave the girls’ heads, since their hair was falling out due to persistent fever and strong medications. Alexei insisted that he be shaved too, thereby causing extreme displeasure in his mother.

Despite everything, the children's education continued. The entire process was led by Gillard, a French teacher; Nikolai himself taught the children geography and history; Baroness Buxhoeveden took over English and music lessons; Mademoiselle Schneider taught arithmetic; Countess Gendrikova - drawing; Dr. Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin - Russian language; Alexandra Fedorovna - God's Law.

Anastasia, Olga, Alexey, Maria and Tatyana after measles (June 1917)

The eldest, Olga, despite the fact that her education was completed, was often present at lessons and read a lot, improving on what she had already 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 falling, decided not to take risks and chose 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 leaving, they managed to say goodbye to the servants and visit their favorite places in the park, ponds, and islands for the last time. Alexei wrote in his diary that on that day he managed to push his older sister Olga into the water. On August 12, 1917, a train flying the flag of the Japanese Red Cross mission departed from the siding in the strictest secrecy.

Tobolsk

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

On August 26, the imperial family arrived in Tobolsk on the steamship 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 henceforth to live. The girls were given a corner bedroom on the second floor, where they were accommodated in the same army beds captured from the Alexander Palace. Anastasia additionally decorated her corner with her favorite photographs and drawings.

Life in the governor's mansion was quite monotonous; The main entertainment is watching passers-by from the window. From 9.00 to 11.00 - lessons. An hour break for a walk with my father. Lessons again from 12.00 to 13.00. Dinner. From 14.00 to 16.00 walks and simple entertainment such as home performances, or in winter - skiing down a slide built with one's own hands. Anastasia, in her own words, enthusiastically prepared firewood and sewed. Next on the schedule was the evening service and going to bed.

In September they were allowed to go to the nearest church for morning services. Again, the soldiers formed a living corridor right up to the church doors. The attitude of local residents towards the royal family was rather favorable.

Suddenly, Anastasia began to gain weight, and the process proceeded at a fairly rapid pace, so that even the empress, worried, wrote to her friend:

Anastasia, to her despair, has gained weight and her appearance exactly resembles Maria a few years ago - the same huge waist and short legs... Let's hope this will go away with age... The iconostasis was terribly well set up for Easter, everything is in the Christmas tree, as it should be here, and flowers . We were filming, I hope it comes out. I continue to draw, they say it’s not bad, it’s very pleasant. We were swinging on a swing, and when I fell, it was such a wonderful fall!.. yeah! I told my sisters so many times yesterday that they were already tired, but I can tell them 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, bows to his helmet. That was the weather! You could literally scream from pleasure. I was the most tanned, oddly enough, like an acrobat! And these days are boring and ugly, it’s cold, and we were freezing this morning, although of course we didn’t go home... I’m very sorry, I forgot to congratulate all my loved ones on the holidays, I kiss you not three, but a lot of times to everyone. Everyone, darling, thanks you very much for your letter.

She wrote to her sister Maria on Easter week 1917.

"Bouquet". Watercolor drawing of the Grand Duchess

These days we have sun almost all the time, and it’s already starting to warm up, so nice! Therefore, we try to be outside more. - We don’t ride down the mountain anymore (although it’s still standing), since it was ruined and a ditch was dug across it so that we wouldn’t go, well, so be it; It seems that they have calmed down on this for now, since for a long time it seems to be an eyesore for many. Terribly stupid and weak, really. - Well, now we have found a new activity. We saw, chop and chop wood, it's useful and a lot of fun to work with. It's already coming out pretty good. And with this we help many more, and for us it’s entertainment. We are also cleaning the paths and entrance, we have turned into janitors. - I have not yet turned into an elephant, but this may yet happen in the near future, I don’t know why suddenly, there may be little movement, although I don’t know. - I apologize for the terrible handwriting, my hand doesn’t move well. This week we are all fasting and singing at home. We were finally in church. And you can also take communion there. - Well, how are you all doing and what are you doing? We don't have anything special to write about. Now we need 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, Auntie darling.

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

Ekaterinburg

July 13, 1918 in Ipatiev’s house. The last photograph of Grand Duchess Anastasia was taken (copyright reserved and there is 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 for the purpose of his trial. After much hesitation, Alexandra decided to accompany her husband; Maria was supposed to go with her “to help.”

The rest had to wait for them in Tobolsk; Olga’s duties included taking care of her sick brother, Tatyana’s responsibility was to run the household, and Anastasia’s was to “entertain everyone.” However, at the beginning things were difficult with entertainment, on the last night before departure no one slept a wink, and when finally in the morning, peasant carts were brought to the threshold for the Tsar, Tsarina and those accompanying them, three girls - “three figures in gray” saw off those leaving with tears right up to the gate.

In the empty house, life continued slowly and sadly. We told fortunes from books, read aloud to each other, and walked. Anastasia was still swinging on the swing, drawing and playing with her sick brother. According to the memoirs of Gleb Botkin, the son of a life physician 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 former Tsar's departure to Moscow was canceled and instead Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria were forced to stay in the house of engineer Ipatiev in Yekaterinburg, requisitioned by the new government specifically to house the Tsar's family . In a letter marked with this date, the empress instructed her daughters to “properly manage their medications” - this word meant the jewelry that they managed to hide and take with them. Under the guidance of her older sister Tatyana, Anastasia sewed the remaining jewelry she had into the corset of her dress - with a successful combination of circumstances, it was supposed to be used to buy her way to salvation.

On May 19, it was finally decided that the remaining daughters and Alexey, who was by then quite strong, would join their parents and Maria at Ipatiev’s house in Yekaterinburg. The next day, May 20, all four boarded the ship “Rus” again, which took them to Tyumen. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the girls were transported in locked cabins; Alexey was traveling with his orderly named Nagorny; access to their cabin was prohibited even for a doctor.

My dear friend,

I'll tell you how we drove. We left early in the morning, then got on the train and I fell asleep, followed by everyone else. We were all very tired because we hadn't slept the whole night before. The first day it was very stuffy and dusty, and we had to close 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 there, 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 for a long time at this story. In general, there were a lot of funny things along the way, and if there is time, I will tell you about the journey from beginning to end. Goodbye, don't forget me. Everyone kisses you.

Yours, Anastasia.

On May 23 at 9 a.m. the train arrived in Yekaterinburg. Here, the French teacher Gillard, the sailor Nagorny and the ladies-in-waiting, who had 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 Alexey were finally taken to the house of engineer Ipatiev.

Life in the “special purpose house” was monotonous and boring - but nothing more. Rise 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 pm. Anastasia sewed with her sisters, 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 enthusiastically devoted themselves to this activity.

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. Lilacs and lungwort were blooming. The girls baked bread, then Alexei was taken out to the garden, and the whole family joined him. At 8 pm we had dinner and played several games of cards. We went to bed at the usual time, 10.30 pm.

Execution

Basement of the Ipatiev House. Photo taken during a murder investigation Royal Family 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 alleged discovery of a conspiracy to save the royal family. In fact, the entire execution was managed by Sverdlov, who, together with Lenin, decided to physically exterminate the Romanov family with the goal of doing everything possible in the future so that the Russian people would forget about the tsar and everything that could remind them of him.

On the night of July 16-17, at 11:30 p.m., two special representatives from the Urals Council handed a written order to execute the commander of the security detachment, P.Z. Ermakov, and the commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission, Ya.M. Yurovsky. After a brief dispute about the method of execution, the royal family was woken up and, under the pretext of a possible shootout and the danger of being killed by bullets ricocheting off the walls, they were offered to go down to the corner semi-basement room.

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

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

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 body 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 birch trees.

Character. Contemporaries about Anastasia

Anastasia in another mime scene

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Anastasia was small and dense, with reddish-brown hair, and large blue eyes, inherited from her father. The girl had a light and cheerful character, loved to play rounders, forfeits, and serso, and could tirelessly run around the palace for hours, playing hide and seek. She easily climbed trees, and often, out of pure mischief, refused to go down to the ground. She was inexhaustible in her inventions; for example, she loved to paint the cheeks and noses of her sisters, brother and young ladies-in-waiting with fragrant carmine and strawberry juice. With her light hand, it became fashionable to weave flowers and ribbons into her hair, which little Anastasia was very proud of. She was inseparable from her older sister Maria, adored her brother, and could entertain him for hours when another illness put Alexei to bed. Anna Vyrubova recalled that “Anastasia seemed to be made of mercury, and not of flesh and blood.” Once, when she was just a baby, three or four years old, at a reception in Kronstadt, she climbed under the table and began to pinch the legs of those present, pretending to be 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 imitate those around her, and she did it very talentedly and funny. One day Alexey told her:

Anastasia, you need to perform in the theater, it will be very funny, believe me!

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

With Tatiana and Maria (1908)

She constantly reached the dangerous edge with her jokes, recalled Gleb Botkin, the son of a physician who was killed along with the royal family. - She constantly risked being punished.

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

The Grand Duchess was not in good health. Since childhood, she suffered from pain in her feet - a consequence of congenital curvature of the big toes, the so-called lats. hallux valgus- a syndrome by which she would later begin to be identified with one of the impostors, Anna Anderson. She had a weak back, despite the fact that she did her best to avoid the massage required to strengthen her muscles, hiding from the visiting masseuse 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, like her mother, Anastasia was a carrier of hemophilia.

As General M.K. Diterichs, 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 this impression mainly with her appearance and her cheerful character. She was short, very dense, “a little girl,” as her sisters teased her. Her distinctive feature was to notice weak sides people and skillfully imitate them. He was a natural, gifted comedian. She always used to make everyone laugh, maintaining an artificially serious appearance.

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

French teacher Gilliard recalled her this way:

She was a spoiled person - a flaw from which she corrected over the years. Very lazy, as is sometimes the case with very bright 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 dispel the wrinkles of anyone who was out of sorts that some of those around them began, remembering the nickname given to her mother at the English court, to call her “Sunbeam.”

Discovery of remains

Cross over Ganina Pit

Later that same day, grenade explosions were heard in the area. Interested in the strange incident, local residents, a few days later, when the cordon had already been lifted, came to the tract and managed to discover 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 village residents.

From June 6 to July 10, by order 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 Porosenkovo Log near Yekaterinburg, at a depth of just over one meter, remains were found that were identified as the bodies of the royal family and servants. The body, which probably belonged to Anastasia, was marked number 6. Doubts arose regarding it - all left-hand side the face was smashed into pieces; Russian anthropologists tried to connect the found fragments together and put together the missing part. The result of the rather painstaking work was in doubt. Russian researchers tried to proceed from the height of the found skeleton, however, the measurements were made from photographs and were questioned by American experts.

In 1998, when the remains of the imperial family were finally interred, the 5'7" body was buried under Anastasia's name. Photos of the girl standing next to her sisters, taken six months before the murder, 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: “Anastasia, to her despair, has gained weight and her appearance exactly resembles Maria several years ago - the same huge waist and short legs... Let's hope with it will go away with age..." Scientists believe it is unlikely that she grew much in the last months of her life. Her actual height was approximately 5'2".

The doubts were finally resolved in 2007, after the discovery of the remains of a young girl and boy in Porosenkovo Log, later identified as Tsarevich Alexei and Maria. Genetic testing 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, reporting that an examination of the remains found in 2007 on the old Koptyakovskaya road established that the discovered remains belonged to Grand Duchess Maria and Tsarevich Alexei, who was the emperor's heir. However, a group of well-known geneticists (who took part in all these DNA tests) led by Dr. Michael D. Coble write in the resulting article in 2009 (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 resolved based on the results of the DNA analysis. In the absence of specification of DNA data for each of the sisters, we can only definitively identify Alexei - only the son of Nikolai and Alexandra.

And also, in the “Background Information” section of this article (in the commentary to Fig. S1):

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

The most famous of the false Anastasias is Anna Anderson

Rumors about Anastasia's rescue were fueled by news of trains and houses that the Bolsheviks were searching 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 guards brought a girl into her cell who called herself Anastasia Romanova and asked if the girl was the Tsar's daughter. Elena Petrovna replied that she did not recognize the girl, and the guards took her away. Another account 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 the railway station at Siding 37, northwest of Perm. These witnesses were Maxim Grigoriev, Tatyana Sytnikova and her son Fyodor Sytnikov, Ivan Kuklin and Marina Kuklina, Vasily Ryabov, Ustina Varankina and Dr. Pavel Utkin, the doctor who examined the girl after the incident. Some witnesses identified the girl as Anastasia when they were shown photographs of the Grand Duchess by White Army investigators. Utkin also told them that the traumatized girl he examined at the Cheka headquarters in Perm told him: “I am the daughter of the ruler, Anastasia.”

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 looked after by his landlady, Anna Baudin. Anna Baoudin), in the building directly opposite the Ipatiev house.

“Her lower body was covered in blood, her eyes were closed and she was white as a sheet,” he testified. “We washed her chin, Frau Annuschka and I, then she moaned. The bones must have been broken... Then she opened her eyes for a minute.” Kleibenzetl claimed that the injured girl remained in his landlady's house for three days. The Red Army soldiers allegedly came to the house, but knew its landlady too well and did not actually 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, arrived to take the girl away. Kleibenzetl about her future fate I didn't know anything else.

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

Rumors of a “miraculous rescue,” which seemed to have died down 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 from the bodies found (it was assumed that it was Maria) and Tsarevich Alexei. However, according to another version, among the remains there might not have been Anastasia, who was slightly younger than her sister and almost the same build, so a mistake in identification seemed likely. This time, Nadezhda Ivanova-Vasilieva, who spent most of her life in the Kazan psychiatric hospital, where she was assigned by the Soviet authorities, allegedly fearing the surviving princess, was claiming the role of the rescued Anastasia.

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

In my memory, the self-proclaimed Anastasias ranged from 12 to 19. 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 was not her!

The last point above i The bodies of Alexei and Maria were found in the same tract in 2007, and anthropological and genetic examinations were carried out, which finally confirmed that there could not have been any saved among the royal family.

Canonization

Icon of the Holy Martyr Anastasia New Martyr Anastasia Nikolaevna

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

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

In 2000, the decision on canonization was made by the Russian Orthodox Church. In the same year, with the blessing of the patriarch, construction began monastery"Ganina's pit"

We hope that the construction of a monastery on the site of the destruction of the bodies of the Royal Passion-Bearers in Ganina Pit, where the Ascension will also soon take place church prayer, will erase the consequences of the terrible crimes committed on the long-suffering Ural soil.

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

Poem by Nikolai Gumilyov

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

Today is Anastasia's day,And we want that through usLove and affection from all RussiaI thanked you.

What a joy it is for us to congratulateYou, best image our dreamsAnd put a modest signatureBelow are the welcome verses.

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

And we take off to a new battleHearts full of delightRemembering our meetingsIn the middle of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. Films about Anastasia

In the USA, feature films about Anastasia “Clothes Make the Woman” (1928), “Anastasia” (1956) and “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna” (1986) were shot, as well as the cartoons “Anastasia” (1997), “Anastasia’s Secret”, based on based 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 film Titanic (1997)
Anastasia is mentioned in Zhanna Bichevskaya’s song “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 the role-playing game Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant for Playstation 2.
Anastasia is mentioned in the series "Nikita" (2010)

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

Sir Peacock stated: I am almost convinced that the Russian imperial family never opened an account either in the Bank of England or in any bank in England. Having read the book I Am Anastasia Romanova even before this meeting in the studio, and now having also listened to her speech on the screen, he immediately made a linguistic diagnosis: this is most likely a commoner, who, apparently, has worn out a lot in the aristocratic environment. The mischievous girl gradually grew up, but still teased the mirrors. I don’t know why they made Rasputin a negative character in the cartoon.

The weather is spring, the snow is melting well, and there is a lot of water everywhere. The last thing Anastasia could see, covering her face with her hands from the approaching bayonet, was how a dead dog with silky chocolate-colored fur fell out of the hands of her just killed sister... Anastasia's drawing was confiscated during a search in the Grand Duke's estate Kharaks, in the fall of 1919. Tsarevich Alexei was completely unable to walk at the time of his execution. In 1970, her claim was rejected by the court for lack of evidence. But who then is the mysterious prisoner from the Sviyazhsk special boarding school?

Is Anastasia Romanova alive?

The examination confirmed that Anastasia Romanova is alive.
The main proof of the existence of Grand Duchess Anastasia is historical and genetic examination.
This was announced by Professor of the Diplomatic Academy, Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladlen Sirotkin. According to him, 22 genetic examinations were carried out, photographic examinations were also carried out, that is, comparisons of young Anastasia and the current elderly one, and handwriting examinations.

All studies have confirmed that the youngest daughter of Nicholas II, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, and the woman named Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze are one and the same person. Genetic examinations were carried out in Japan and Germany. And on the latest equipment. There is still no such equipment in Russia. In addition, according to Sirotkin, there is documentary evidence of Anastasia’s escape from the executioner of the royal family, Yurovsky. There is archival evidence that on the eve of her execution Godfather, an officer of the tsarist secret services and an employee of Stolypin Verkhovsky, secretly took Anastasia out of the Ipatiev House and fled with her from Yekaterinburg.

Together they went to the south of Russia, were in Rostov-on-Don, Crimea, and in 1919 settled in Abkhazia. Subsequently, Verkhovsky guarded Anastasia in Abkhazia, in the mountains of Svaneti, and also in Tbilisi. In addition, Academician Alekseev found a stunning document in the State Archives of the Russian Federation - the testimony of the royal waitress Ekaterina Tomilova, who, under signature, to tell the truth, the truth and only the truth, told the investigators of Nikolai Sokolov’s Kolchak Commission that even after July 17, that is, after the execution of the royal family, I wore dinner for the royal family and personally saw the sovereign and the whole family. In other words, Professor Sirotkin noted, since July 18, 1918, the royal family was alive.

However, members of the commission for the study of the remains of the royal family, chaired by Boris Nemtsov, ignored this document and did not include it in their dossier. Moreover, the director of Rosarkhiv, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Mironenko, a participant in the program about Anastasia on REN-TV, did not include this document in the collection of documents The Death of the Royal Family, although he did not publish Yurovsky’s forged note without any indication that it was written not by Yurovsky, but by Pokrovsky once.

Meanwhile, there were more than three hundred reports that Anastasia had died, Sirotkin noted. According to him, there were 32 reports of living Anastasias from 1918 to 2002, and each of them died 10-15 times. In the real situation there were only two Anastasias. Anastasia Andersen, a Polish Jew who was tried twice in the 20-70s of the twentieth century, and Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. It is curious that the second court case of the false Anastasia is in Copenhagen. Neither representatives of Nemtsov’s government commission nor representatives of the Interregional Charitable Christian Foundation of the Grand Duchess were allowed to see him. It is classified until the end of the 21st century.

Me, Anastasia Romanova

The book about the family of Emperor Nicholas II was written by the emperor’s youngest daughter, Anastasia Romanova. A lively, sincere narrative reveals the world of the Romanov family from the inside; there are many intimate moments and, on the other hand, relationships with many people, when it is easy to get lost among them, but without going beyond acceptable limits and without getting lost, Anastasia is present in everything. Russia is presented in a romantic aura through the eyes of a fifteen-year-old girl and surprises with a broad view of events and relationships with people. This is Anastasia's book, her words, her thoughts.

Sources: habeo.ru, www.maybe.ru, www.takelink.ru, dic.academic.ru, babydaytime.ru

Hippolytus in Greek mythology:

The son of the Athenian king Theseus and the Amazon queen Antiope. According to Plutarch, Hippolytus's mother's name was either Hippolyta or Melanippe. Euripides...

Danaids

There is a tragic story in Greek mythology of fifty sisters, daughters of Danaus, who, at the behest of their father, wedding night killed...

Israeli Reserve Army

People are called up to the reserve service up to 43 years of age. Anyone who does not arrive at the military base on time...

Sumerian gods

The class of priests occupied one of the highest levels among the class classes. They unobtrusively ruled everything and represented...

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was born on June 5/18, 1901. Having learned about the birth of his fourth daughter, the Tsar walked for a long time alone and was sad, because he expected that a boy would be born. But when he returned, he completely changed, with a smile he entered the empress’s room and kissed the newborn child.

Having been born instead of the expected heir, Anastasia, indeed, by the liveliness of her character, resembled a playful boy. “The youngest of the Grand Duchesses, Anastasia Nikolaevna, seemed to be made of mercury, and not of flesh and blood,” wrote Lily Dehn.

The youngest Princess was bolder than her sisters, very fast and witty, quick-witted and observant, and was considered the ringleader in all pranks. She had a pretty face, long blond hair and quick eyes sparkling with enthusiasm and fun. Many found that her facial features resembled her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the Sovereign Martyr.

Saint Princess Anastasia, like all the royal children, was brought up in the Russian Orthodox spirit, combining work and prayer, as well as Spartan conditions: a cold bedroom, a hard bed with small pillows, a cold shower in the morning, clothes are always simple, inherited, as a rule, from older sisters.

“All these three Grand Duchesses, except for Tatiana, played pranks and frolicked like boys, but in their manners they were reminiscent of the Romanovs,” recalls Anna Vyrubova. Anastasia Nikolaevna was always playing pranks, climbing, hiding, making everyone laugh with her antics, and it was not easy to spot her.

The Younger Princess was extremely cheerful, brave, very fast, witty and observant, and was considered the ringleader in all pranks. Grand Duchess Anastasia was also a lively and carefree child, intelligent and not without cunning. She always managed to turn everything in her own way. WITH early childhood Plans for various pranks arose in Her head; later the Heir, always ready for pranks, joined Her. When the Tsarevich lacked boyish company, he was successfully replaced by the “bastard” Anastasia.

Her distinctive feature was to notice people's weaknesses and skillfully imitate them. “She was a natural, gifted comedian,” wrote M.K. Diterichs. “It always happened that she made everyone laugh, maintaining an artificially serious appearance.”

The Empress Mother understood perfectly well that for the sake of her daughter, her irrepressible energy had to be restrained from time to time. But unlike many modern mothers, the wise Empress Alexandra Feodorovna did not at all want to remake the child’s nature to her own taste, or break it. She allowed her daughters, relying on the instilled rules of Christian piety, to develop depending on their God-given qualities. As a result, playfulness, a quality that could have degenerated into something unattractive, turned into a virtue for Grand Duchess Anastasia: the cheerfulness of the young girl not only pleased, but also consoled those around her

She also pleased the Queen Mother with her notes. Here is a typical example - a note from Anastasia Nikolaevna dated May 7, 1915: “My dear sweet Mother! I hope that you are not too tired. We will try not to quarrel, argue or fight, so sleep well. God bless you! loving daughter Nastenka."

The daughters also wrote to the Father, whom they also loved and honored immensely. Although these letters are confessional, the measure of love in them is no less expressive. In these letters, the children were more relaxed; they could write as they pleased, which was not possible in correspondence with Mom. The most lively and playful ones were written by Anastasia.
Here is her “message” dated October 28, 1914: “My golden, good, dear Dad! We have just had lunch. So I am sending you my beautiful postcard. I am sure you will like it. Today I sat with our soldier and helped him read , which made me very happy... Olga pushes Maria, and Maria screams like an idiot. The dragon and the big idiot. Olga sends you a kiss again. I have already washed my face and must now go to bed. I will finish this letter tomorrow. Greetings Your Imperial Majesty ! Good morning! I'm going to have tea. I slept well without my mother and sisters. Now I have a Russian lesson. Pyotr Vasilyevich is reading Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter". Very interesting. I wish you all the best, 1,000,000 kisses. Your devoted and loving daughter, 13 year old servant of God Anastasia God bless you."

The kind, loving heart of the youngest Princess, combined with her liveliness and wit, incredibly inspired all those who had the good fortune to communicate with her. During the war, visiting hospitals with her sister Maria, she cheered up the soldiers, making them forget about pain for a while, and consoled all those suffering with her kindness and tenderness. Even many years later, soldiers and officers who once lay in the Tsarskoe Selo infirmaries, when remembering the Tsar’s daughters, according to eyewitnesses, seemed to be illuminated by an unearthly light, brightly recalling those days when the Grand Duchesses leaned over them carefully and tenderly.

The wounded soldiers and officers were keenly interested in the fate of the princesses.

The Holy Martyr Tsarana Anastasia walked with her family the entire mournful path from the Tsarskoye Selo Palace to the basement of the Ipatiev House, which the Lord prepared for them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the 1920s, a girl appeared in Berlin posing as Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova. The hope burned in the hearts of many Russian people that at least one of the daughters of the Sovereign Martyr had been saved. But these hopes did not come true. Neither the Tsarina's sister Irena of Prussia, nor Baroness Sophia Buchsgeven, nor the mentor of the royal children, Pierre Gilliard, recognized her as Anastasia. The girl turned out to be an impostor. Later, more and more impostors appeared. One of the reasons for these appearances was that the so-called. The “royal gold” was bequeathed by the emperor to his youngest daughter. And to this day the desire to receive the “inheritance” kept by Japanese Emperor, haunts many political adventurers who more than once wanted to profit from the tragedy of the Russian people - the betrayal of the Royal Family, which ended in regicide.

Reading the letters of Grand Duchess Anastasia and the memories of those close to her, you involuntarily come to the indisputable conclusion that under no circumstances would the Princess leave her beloved family. Even if she was given a chance to escape, she would never take it. Any of the Royal Martyrs would have done the same, since not one of them wanted to leave Russia and could not imagine himself without his family, where the souls and hearts of the Tsar, Queen, Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses were connected by an unbreakable thread, which even death could not break.

Anastasia was obedient to her parents and older sisters. A meek and silent spirit was inherent in her internally, and not externally, because Anastasia was humble. It is precisely humble, since the word “humility” attracts with the phrase “in peace” hidden in it. Accept everything in peace. Even the bullying of the Red “comrades” and executioners.

On the night of the martyrdom of the Royal Family, Blessed Maria of Diveyevo raged and shouted: "The princesses with bayonets! Damned Jews!" She raged terribly, and only then did they understand what she was screaming about. The wounded Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was finished off with bayonets and rifle butts. The most innocent suffered the greatest torment, truly the Holy Lamb.

Melnik-Botkina’s memoirs mention a conversation between members of the Provisional Government commission to investigate the guilt of the Royal Family. One of its members asked why letters from the Empress and the Grand Duchesses had not yet been published. “What are you saying,” said another, “all the correspondence is here in my desk, but if we publish it, the people will worship them as saints.”

HOLY MARTYR QUEEN ANASTASIA, PRAY TO GOD FOR US!