Anastasia Romanova interesting facts. "Alas, it was not her"

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova is the daughter of Nicholas II, who, along with the rest of the family, was shot in July 1918 in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg. In the early 20s of the 20th century, numerous impostors began to appear in Europe and the United States, declaring themselves to be the surviving Grand Duchess. The most famous of them, Anna Anderson, was even recognized as the youngest daughter by some surviving members of the imperial house. Litigation lasted for several decades, but did not resolve the issue of its origin.

However, the discovery in the 90s of the remains of an executed woman royal family put an end to these proceedings. There was no escape, and Anastasia Romanova was still killed that night in 1918. A short, tragic and suddenly ended life Grand Duchess this article will focus on.

Birth of a princess

Public attention was riveted to the next, already fourth, pregnancy of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The fact is that according to the law, only a man could inherit the throne, and the wife of Nicholas II gave birth to three daughters in a row. Therefore, both the king and the queen counted on the appearance of their long-awaited son. Contemporaries recall that Alexandra Feodorovna at this time was increasingly immersed in mysticism, inviting people to the court who could help her give birth to an heir. However, on June 5, 1901, Anastasia Romanova was born. The daughter was born strong and healthy. She received her name in honor of the Montenegrin princess, who was close friend queen. Other contemporaries claimed that the girl was named Anastasia in honor of the pardon of students who participated in the unrest.

And although the relatives were disappointed by the birth of another daughter, Nikolai himself was glad that she was born strong and healthy.

Childhood

Parents did not spoil their daughters with luxury, with early childhood instilling in them modesty and piety. Anastasia Romanova was especially friendly with her older sister Maria, whose age difference was only 2 years. They shared a room and toys together, and the younger princess often wore the clothes of the elders. The room in which they lived was also not luxurious. The walls were painted grey colour, they were decorated with icons and family photographs. Butterflies were painted on the ceiling. The princesses slept in camp folding beds.

The daily routine in childhood was almost the same for all sisters. They got up early in the morning, took a cold bath, and had breakfast. They spent their evenings doing embroidery or playing charades. Often at this time the emperor read aloud to them. Judging by the memoirs of contemporaries, Princess Anastasia Romanova especially loved the Sunday children's balls at her aunt Olga Alexandrovna. The girl loved to dance with young officers.

From early childhood, Anastasia Nikolaevna was distinguished by poor health. She often suffered from pain in her feet, as she had overly crooked thumbs legs The princess also had a rather weak back, but she flatly refused a strengthening massage. In addition, doctors believed that the girl had inherited the hemophilia gene from her mother and was its carrier, since even after small cuts her bleeding did not stop for a long time.

Character of the Grand Duchess

From early childhood, Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova was significantly different in character from her older sisters. She was overly active and mobile, loved to play, and was constantly playing pranks. Because of her violent temper, her parents and sisters often called her “little egg” or “shvybzik.” The latter nickname appeared due to her short stature and tendency to be overweight.

Contemporaries recall that the girl had a cheerful character and got along with other people very easily. She had a high and deep voice, she loved to laugh loudly, and smiled often. She was her closest friend to Maria, but was close to her brother Alexei. She could often entertain him for hours when he was lying in bed after illness. Anastasia was a creative person, she was constantly inventing something. At her instigation, it became fashionable at court to braid ribbons and flowers into hair.

Anastasia Romanova, according to contemporaries, also had the talent of a comic actress, because she really loved to parody her loved ones. However, sometimes she could be too harsh, and her jokes could be offensive. Her pranks were not always harmless either. The girl was also not very neat, but she loved animals and was good at drawing and playing the guitar.

Training and education

Because of short life The biography of Anastasia Romanova was not full of bright events. Like the other daughters of Nicholas II, from the age of eight the princess began to undergo home schooling. Specially hired teachers taught her French, English and German. But she was never able to speak the last language. The princess was trained in world and Russian history, geography, religious dogmas, natural sciences. The program included grammar and arithmetic - the girl did not particularly like these subjects. She was not known for her perseverance, did not learn the material well, and wrote with errors. Her teachers remembered that the girl was cunning, sometimes she tried to bribe them with small gifts in order to get a higher grade.

Anastasia Romanova was much better at creative disciplines. She always enjoyed attending art, music and dance classes. The Grand Duchess was fond of knitting and sewing. As she grew up, she took up photography seriously. She even had her own album in which she kept her works. Contemporaries recalled that Anastasia Nikolaevna also loved to read a lot and could talk on the phone for hours.

World War I

In 1914, Princess Anastasia Romanova turned 13 years old. Together with her sisters, the girl cried for a long time when she learned about the declaration of war. A year later, according to tradition, Anastasia received patronage over the infantry regiment, which now bore her name.

After the declaration of war, the Empress organized a military hospital within the walls of the Alexander Palace. There, together with the princesses Olga and Tatiana, she regularly worked as sisters of mercy, caring for the wounded. Anastasia and Maria were still too young to follow their example. Therefore, they were appointed patronesses of the hospital. The princesses donated their own funds to buy medicines, prepared dressings, knitted and sewed things for the wounded, wrote letters to their families and loved ones. Often the younger sisters simply entertained the soldiers. In her diaries, Anastasia Nikolaevna noted that she taught the military to read and write. Together with Maria, they often gave concerts in the hospital. The sisters carried out their duties with pleasure, diverting from them only for the sake of lessons.

Until the end of her life, Anastasia Nikolaevna fondly remembered her work at the hospital. In letters to her loved ones from exile, she often mentioned wounded soldiers, hoping that they would subsequently recover. On her table were photographs taken in the hospital.

February Revolution

In February 1917, all the princesses became seriously ill with measles. At the same time, Anastasia Romanova was the last to fall ill. The daughter of Nicholas II did not know that there were riots in Petrograd. The Empress planned to hide news about the flaring revolution from her children until the last moment. When armed soldiers surrounded the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, the princesses and the crown prince were told that military exercises were being held nearby.

Only on March 9, 1917, the children learned about their father's abdication and house arrest. Anastasia Nikolaevna had not yet fully recovered from the illness and suffered from otitis media, so she completely lost her hearing for a while. Therefore, her sister Maria described in detail what happened on paper especially for her.

House arrest in Tsarskoe Selo

Judging by the memoirs of a contemporary, house arrest did not greatly change the measured life of members of the royal family, including Anastasia Romanova. The daughter of Nicholas II continued to devote all her free time to studying. Her father taught her and her younger brother geography and history, her mother taught her religious dogmas. The remaining disciplines were taken over by the retinue loyal to the king. They taught French and English, arithmetic, and music.

The Petrograd public had an extremely negative attitude towards the former monarch and his family. Newspapers and magazines harshly criticized the Romanovs' way of life and published offensive cartoons. A crowd of visitors from Petrograd often gathered at the Alexander Palace, who gathered at the gates, shouted offensive curses and booed the princesses walking in the park. In order not to provoke them, it was decided to reduce the walking time. I also had to give up many dishes on the menu. Firstly, because the government was cutting funding for the palace every month. Secondly, because of newspapers that regularly published detailed menu former monarchs.

In June 1917, Anastasia and her sisters were completely shaved bald, because after a serious illness and large quantity After taking the drugs, their hair began to fall out a lot. In the summer, the Provisional Government did not prevent the royal family from leaving for Great Britain. However, Nicholas II's cousin, George V, fearing unrest in the country, refused to accept his relative. Therefore, in August 1917, the government decided to send the family of the former tsar into exile in Tobolsk.

Link to Tobolsk

In August 1917, the royal family, in the strictest secrecy, was sent by train, first to Tyumen. From there they were transported to Tobolsk on the steamer "Rus". They were supposed to be accommodated in the former governor's house, but it was not prepared before their arrival. Therefore, all family members lived on the ship for almost a week and only then were transported under escort to their new home.

The Grand Duchesses settled in a corner bedroom on the second floor on camp beds that they brought with them from Tsarskoye Selo. It is known that Anastasia Nikolaevna decorated her part of the room with photographs and her own drawings. Life in Tobolsk was quite monotonous. Until September they were not allowed to leave the premises of the house. Therefore, the sisters, together with their younger brother, looked at passers-by with interest and studied. Several times a day they could go for short walks outside. At this time, Anastasia loved to collect firewood, and in the evenings she sewed a lot. The princess also took part in home performances.

In September they were allowed to attend church on Sundays. Local residents treated the former monarch and his family well; fresh food was regularly brought to them from the monastery. At the same time, Anastasia began to gain a lot of weight, but she hoped that over time, like her sister Maria, she would be able to return to her previous shape. In April 1918, the Bolsheviks decided to transport the royal family to Yekaterinburg. The emperor and his wife and daughter Maria were the first to go there. The other sisters and their brother had to stay in the city.

The photo below shows Anastasia Romanova with her father and older sisters Olga and Tatyana in Tobolsk.

Relocation to Yekaterinburg and the last months of life

It is known that the attitude of the guards of the house in Tobolsk towards its residents was hostile. In April 1918, Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova and her sisters burned their diaries, fearing searches. Only at the end of May did the government decide to send the remaining Romanovs to their parents in Yekaterinburg.

Survivors recalled that life in the house of engineer Ipatiev, where the royal family was housed, was quite monotonous. Princess Anastasia, together with her sisters, was engaged in everyday activities: sewing, playing cards, walking in the garden next to the house, and in the evenings reading church literature to her mother. At the same time, girls were taught to bake bread. In June 1918, Anastasia celebrated her last birthday; she turned 17 years old. They were not allowed to celebrate it, so all family members played cards in the garden in honor of this and went to bed at the usual time.

Execution of a family in Ipatiev's house

Like other members of the Romanov family, Anastasia was shot on the night of July 17, 1918. It is believed that until recently she was unaware of the guard’s intentions. They were woken up in the middle of the night and ordered to urgently go down to the basement of the house because of the shooting that was taking place in the streets nearby. Chairs were brought into the room for the empress and the sick crown prince. Anastasia stood behind her mother. She took with her her dog Jimmy, who accompanied her during her exile.

It is believed that after the first shots, Anastasia and her sisters Tatyana and Maria were able to survive. The bullets could not hit because of the jewelry that was sewn into the corsets of the dresses. The Empress hoped that with their help they would, if possible, be able to buy their own salvation. Witnesses to the murder said that it was Princess Anastasia who resisted the longest. They could only wound her, so after that the guards had to finish off the girl with bayonets.

The bodies of the royal family members were wrapped in sheets and taken out of the city. There they were first doused with sulfuric acid and thrown into the mines. For many years the burial place remained unknown.

The appearance of the false Anastasius

Almost immediately after the death of the royal family, rumors about their salvation began to appear. Over the course of several decades of the 20th century, more than 30 women claimed to be the surviving Princess Anastasia Romanova. Most of them failed to attract attention.

The most famous impostor posing as Anastasia was the Polish woman Anna Anderson, who showed up in Berlin in 1920. Initially, due to her external resemblance, she was mistaken for the surviving Tatyana. To establish the fact of kinship with the Romanovs, she was visited by many courtiers who were well acquainted with the royal family. However, they did not recognize her as either Tatiana or Anastasia. However, the trials lasted until Anna Anderson’s death in 1984. Essential evidence was the curvature thumbs legs, which both the impostor and the deceased Anastasia had. However, Anderson’s origins could not be accurately determined until the remains of the royal family were discovered.

Discovery of remains and their reburial

The story of Anastasia Romanova, unfortunately, did not receive a happy continuation. In 1991, unknown remains were discovered in Ganina Yama, which allegedly belonged to members of the royal family. Initially, not all the bodies were found - one of the princesses and the crown prince was missing. Scientists came to the conclusion that they could not find Maria and Alexei. They were discovered only in 2007 near the burial place of the remaining relatives. This discovery put an end to the story of numerous impostors.

Several independent genetic examinations determined that the remains found belonged to the emperor, his wife and children. Thus, they were able to conclude that there could be no survivors of the shooting.

In 1981, the Russian Church Abroad officially canonized Princess Anastasia along with the rest of the deceased family members. In Russia, their canonization took place only in 2000. Their remains after all necessary research were reburied in the Peter and Paul Fortress. On the site of Ipatiev’s house, where the execution took place, the Temple on the Blood is now built.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.

She flashed like a shadow on the historical horizon during the years of her country’s most serious trials, and together with her family found herself a victim of the terrible Russian revolution. She was not (and could not be) a politician; she could not influence the course of government affairs. She simply lived, by the will of Providence, being a member of the royal family, wanting only one thing: to live in this family, sharing with it all the joys and sorrows. The story of Anastasia Nikolaevna is the story of the family of Emperor Nicholas II, the story of good human relations between the closest people, who sincerely, to the depths of their hearts, believe in God and His good will.
It is precisely because the family was crowned that the story of the life and death of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (as well as her sisters and brother) acquires fundamental significance for Christian consciousness. The Romanovs, by their fate, confirmed the truth of the Gospel thought about the meaninglessness of acquiring “the whole world” at the cost of harming one’s own soul (Mark 9:37). This was also confirmed by Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, who was killed along with her entire family in the basement of Ipatiev’s house on the night of July 16-17, 1918...

Sunbeam

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna at the age of 3 years.

“Thank God, nothing...”

On August 1, 1917, together with her entire family and servants, she forever left the places where she spent the happy years of her short life. Soon she saw Siberia: she was to spend several months in Tobolsk with her family. Anastasia Nikolaevna did not lose heart, trying to find advantages in her new position. In her letters to A.A. Vyrubova, she assures that they settled down comfortably (all four live together): “It’s nice to see small mountains covered with snow from the windows. We sit on the windows a lot and have fun looking at people walking.” Later, in the winter months of New Year 1918, she again assures her confidante that they live, thank God, “nothing,” stage plays, walk in their “fence,” and set up a small slide for skating. The leitmotif of the letters is to convince A.A. Vyrubova that everything is fine with them, that there is nothing to worry about, that life is not so hopeless... She is illuminated by faith, hope for the best and love. No indignation, no resentment for humiliation, for being locked up. Long-suffering, integrity of the Christian worldview and amazing inner peace: everything is God’s will!
In Tobolsk, the Grand Duchess’s schoolwork also continued: in October, Klavdia Mikhailovna Bitner, the former head of the Tsarskoye Selo Mariinsky Girls’ Gymnasium, began teaching the royal children (with the exception of the eldest Olga Nikolaevna). She taught geography and literature. The school preparation of the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses did not satisfy K.M. Bitner. “You have to wish for a lot,” she said to the commissioner of the Provisional Government for the protection of the royal family, V.S. Pankratov. “I did not at all expect what I found. Such grown-up children already know so little Russian literature and are so little developed. They read little of Pushkin, Lermontov even less, and had never heard of Nekrasov. I'm not even talking about others.<...>What does it mean? How did you deal with them? There was every opportunity to beat the children the best teachers“And this was not done.”
It can be assumed that such “underdevelopment” was the price for the home isolation in which the Grand Duchesses grew up, completely cut off from the world of their peers. Naive and clean girls Unlike their mother, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, they did not have deep philosophical knowledge, although they were, apparently, well-read in theological literature. Their main educator and teacher - their mother - cared more about proper education(as she understood him) than about the full education of her daughters and heir. Was this the result of the empress’s conscious pedagogical policy or her oversight? Who knows... The Yekaterinburg tragedy closed this issue forever.
Earlier, in April 1918, part of the family was transported to Yekaterinburg. Among those who moved were the emperor, his wife and Grand Duchess Maria. The remaining children (along with the sick Alexei Nikolaevich) remained in Tobolsk. The family was reunited in May, and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was among those who arrived. She celebrated her last birthday - her 17th birthday in the House Special purpose In Ekaterinburg. Like her sisters, Anastasia Nikolaevna at that time learned to cook from the royal chef I.M. Kharitonov; I kneaded flour with them in the evenings and baked bread in the mornings. In Yekaterinburg, the life of prisoners was more strictly regulated, and total control was exercised over them. But even in this situation we do not notice despondency: faith allows us to live, to hope for the best even when there is no longer any reason for hope.

History of impostors

The mystery of the execution of the family of the last Emperor Nicholas II has not ceased to excite the minds of researchers throughout the 100 years that have passed since the date of execution. Were the members of the royal family actually shot, or did their doubles die in the basement of the Ipatiev House? Is it true that some of those sentenced to death were able to survive?

And were those who called impostors right those who tried to declare themselves as the miraculously saved children of Nicholas II? Of course, among the latter there were a lot of scammers, but sometimes the question still arises: what if one of them was telling the truth?

In 1993, Anatoly Gryannik, who worked at the Baltika Foundation, discovered Natalia Bilikhodze living there in Georgia, who admitted that she was the surviving daughter of Nicholas II, Anastasia Romanova. In 2000, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova Foundation was created with headquarters in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The goal of the foundation was to return royal values ​​to their homeland. In the imperial family, as stated, the youngest daughter Anastasia was given a special role. The Romanovs knew about several visionary predictions about tragic fate their families believed them. Therefore, from an early age, Anastasia’s parents forced her to memorize account numbers in foreign banks, which made it possible, if Anastasia was the only one left alive, to receive for her what the Romanovs had placed abroad.

Princess from Georgia

One of the members of the foundation, Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladlen Sirotkin, is convinced that in 1918 the Bolsheviks shot not the Romanovs, but their doubles the Filatovs. Moreover, the Filatovs were not only doubles, but also distant relatives of the Romanovs - it was because of this, in his opinion, that examinations carried out in the 90s discovered their genetic similarity. In addition, Professor Sirotkin devoted 20 years of his life to the search for Russian values ​​abroad. It was he who discovered that the bulk of the royal inheritance was placed in European banks, and Russia gave 48,600 tons (according to Professor Vladlen Sirotkin) of gold to the US Federal Reserve System in trust for 99 years. In this regard, members of the Princess Anastasia Foundation planned to return the lost trillions to Russia with the help of the found princess, who, as stated, turned out to be Natalia Bilikhodze.

Bilikhodze told the story of her salvation. As she said, she was taken out of the Ipatiev House by Pyotr Verkhovsky, who at the court of Nicholas II was responsible for training doubles - understudies of members of the imperial family

The fund's organizers actively defended their idea in the media, proclaiming that in order to return gold to Russia, Bilikhodze needed support. The fact that Bilikhodze is Anastasia Romanova, according to members of the foundation, is evidenced by the results of 22 examinations. In addition, Bilikhodze herself told the story of her salvation. As she said, she was taken out of the Ipatiev House by Pyotr Verkhovsky, who at the court of Nicholas II was responsible for training doubles - understudies for members of the imperial family. Then Anastasia was taken from Yekaterinburg first to Petrograd, from there to Moscow, and then to Crimea, from where she and Verkhovsky arrived in Tbilisi. Here Anastasia was subsequently married to a certain citizen Bilikhodze and named Natalia Petrovna. In 1937, her husband came under a wave of repression and died, and then all documents in the name of Anastasia Romanova allegedly disappeared. However, it was difficult to verify this story, since the local KGB archive burned down, and no documents from the Tbilisi registry office about the marriage were found.

On this topic

After the death of her husband, Natalia Petrovna got a job at the Tsentrolit plant, where, at the insistence of the director who sympathized with her, she changed her year of birth from 1901 to 1918.

Then she married again - to a certain Kosygin, who later died in the 70s. It seems very likely that both husbands were secret service employees. How do we know about all this? From the book “I am Anastasia Romanova” - memoirs recorded from the words of Bilikhodze. The memoirs also describe childhood stories of the princess against the background historical events, her escape from the Ipatiev House (by the way, during its destruction, a previously unknown underground passage was found, which Bilikhodze recalled) and life in Georgia. The main thing that Bilikhodze-Romanova asked was to return her name to her. For this, she was ready to transfer to the state everything that she could return from abroad.

22 "yes" and 1 "no"

As reported, 22 examinations were carried out in relation to Natalia Bilikhodze in Russia, Latvia and Georgia to identify her with Princess Anastasia. Experts compared literally everything: structural features of bones and ears, skeletal and gait features, biological age, handwriting, motor activity, blood, hereditary diseases, mental condition, photographic and video materials were also used, depicting the daughter of the last Russian sovereign. According to representatives of the foundation, all researchers came to the conclusion: Natalia may well be the youngest daughter of Nicholas II. At the same time, the best psychiatrists in Georgia claimed that Bilikhodze is mentally healthy and does not have sclerosis. Based on the combination of matching signs between Natalia Bilikhodze and Princess Anastasia, this can only happen “in one out of 700 billion cases,” members of the fund said.

Subsequently, they transported Bilikhodze to the Moscow region. Moving from warm Georgia to not too good conditions middle zone led to the emergence of left-sided inflammation lungs and cardiac arrhythmia, for which reason in December 2000 she was hospitalized at the Central Clinical Hospital of the UDP. There she soon died. However, the death certificate was issued by the Kuntsevo registry office in Moscow only in February 2001. For almost two months, Anastasia’s body lay in the morgue of the Central Clinical Hospital - at the initiative of members of the foundation, experts conducted genetic research Bilikhodze. The examination was conducted by Doctor of Biological Sciences Pavel Ivanov in Russian center Forensic medical examination of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The result of the DNA test was as follows: “The mitotype of Bilikhodze N.P., which characterizes the matrilineal (maternal) branch of her pedigree and should normally be present in all her blood relatives on the maternal side, does not coincide with the DNA profile (mitotype) Russian empress A.F. Romanova (from the burial?). Origin of N.P. Bilikhodze from the maternal genetic line of Queen Victoria of England is not confirmed. On this basis, consanguinity on the maternal side in any capacity Bilikhodze N.P. and Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova is excluded...”

Queen Victoria was Anastasia Romanova's great-grandmother, that is, the comparison went through two generations. Why didn’t the geneticist take biomaterial from Anastasia’s mother’s sister, Elizaveta Fedorovna? It is also unclear who double-checked Ivanov’s conclusions, as well as what methodology he used. By the way, it is very likely that the conclusion could not have been different if we take as a basis the version according to which all those executed in the Ipatiev House, with the exception of Anastasia, were doubles of members of the royal family.

2 trillion dollars

This is what members of the foundation wrote to Vladimir Putin at one time. “Today foreign banks are ready at the request of A.N. Romanova to resolve issues with her personal funds and the funds and values ​​of the entire Romanov family. It is possible to receive about 2 trillion dollars. Anastasia Romanova – legitimate return key Money through the US Federal Reserve. 12 of the world's largest banks formed the Federal Reserve System in 1913 with money belonging to the Russian Empire in the person of Tsar Nicholas II. Currently, their estimated commodity coverage is approximately $163 trillion.”

Why there is a problem with obtaining these funds was described in a letter sent to the Security Committee State Duma. “We believe that this situation has developed in connection with the possibility of receiving the specified financial resources by another applicant, namely Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, mother (died in 2002), since she is a dynastic relative of A. Romanova. The English royal family repeatedly appealed to the USSR Government with a request to issue death certificates for the family of Nicholas II, but the response from the country's leadership was negative, since it knew about the availability of funds and desire royal family get them. Things, for example, even got to the point where M.S. Gorbachev was given an ultimatum: “If you do not bury the family (which means confirming the fact of the death of the family), England will not support Russia.” But M.S. Gorbachev did not agree to this.”

Well, if all this is so, then Russian side It is worth collecting all the documents and presenting them to the Western side in order to return the valuables. Probably, here it is necessary to involve the Western detective agencies “Kroll” and “Pinkerton Agency”, which have already carried out work to search for Russian valuables and, probably, are ready to present the materials they have on certain conditions. In particular, “Kroll” worked on the instructions of Yegor Gaidar in 1992, and the “Pinkerton Agency” - in the 20s of the last century on the instructions of People’s Commissar Leonid Krasin, apparently collecting a significant database on Russian values ​​abroad.

The main proof of the existence of Grand Duchess Anastasia is historical and genetic examination

Message from Professor Vladlen Sirotkin about the results of the 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, Izvestia.ru reports.

The examination confirmed that Anastasia Romanova is alive

Research confirmed Anastasia Nikolaevna is alive

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. Moreover, on the latest equipment (so-called nuclear or computer forensics). There is still no such equipment in Russia.

Documentary evidence

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. (At that time he served in the Cheka).

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 in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (formerly the Central Archive October revolution) found a stunning document - 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 carried ... lunch for the royal family and I 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” (2001), although Yurovsky’s forged note without any indication that it was not written by Yurovsky , and Pokrovsky, published more than once.

false Anastasia

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 (Bilikhodze). It is curious that the second court case of the false Anastasia (Andersen) 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.

Russian scientists have collected the most complete archive of documents about the life of the notorious Anna Tchaikovskaya and came to the conclusion that she could be the daughter of Nicholas II Anastasia, who survived the night of her execution in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg in 1918

On March 27, in Yekaterinburg, the Basko publishing house published the book “Who are you, Mrs. Tchaikovskaya? On the question of the fate of the Tsar’s daughter Anastasia Romanova.” This work, which will obviously force the audience to be divided into two camps, was prepared by scientists from the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician Veniamin Alekseev.

Under one cover are collected for the first time published documents dating back to the 20s of the last century and capable of shedding light on a mystery that still haunts the minds of people interested in national history. Did Nicholas II’s daughter Anastasia really survive the night of her execution in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg in 1918? Did she really flee abroad? Or was the crowned family still in in full force shot and burned in Porosenkovo ​​Log, and a certain Mrs. Tchaikovskaya, posing as the surviving Anastasia, was just a poor, out-of-mind worker at a Berlin factory?

In a conversation with the compiler of the book, candidate of historical sciences Georgy Shumkin, RG tried to lift the veil of secrecy over the fate of the “most famous impostor.”

They say that your book can cause, if not a scandal, then at least controversy in the circles of interested people. Why?

Georgy Shumkin: The thing is that it contains documents that cast doubt on the truth of the official point of view existing today, which states that the entire family of Nicholas II was shot on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the house of engineer Ipatiev in Yekaterinburg, and later burned and buried in Porosenkovy Log not far from the city. In 1991, amateur archaeologist Avdonin announced that he had discovered the remains of the last Russian Tsar and his relatives. An investigation was carried out, as a result of which the remains were recognized as genuine. They were subsequently moved to Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, where he was reburied with all honors. Academician Alekseev, who was also one of the members of the government commission, did not sign the conclusion adopted by the majority of votes, remaining unconvinced. In short, it boils down to the fact that the commission’s conclusions were hasty, since a historical examination was not carried out on the basis of archival documents that were already available at that time.

That is, Alekseev already found something in the archives that made him doubt the truth of his colleagues’ conclusion?

Georgy Shumkin: Yes, in particular, in the nineties, he published the testimony of the waitress Ekaterina Tomilova, which he discovered in the state archives of the Russian Federation, where she says that she brought food to Ipatiev’s house on July 19, that is, the day after the execution, and saw women of the imperial family, alive and healthy. Thus, a contradiction arises, which in itself requires additional research.

What kind of documents were included in the book about Anastasia Tchaikovskaya? Are there any unique, newly discovered specimens among them?

Georgy Shumkin: These are documents from the personal archive of Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich Romanov. In the mid-nineties of the last century they were transferred from Paris to the State Archives Russian Federation, where they are still stored. We made only the first inventory of this fund, which included exclusively those papers that Prince Andrei collected in the case of Anastasia Tchaikovskaya. This woman is today called “the most famous impostor” who tried to pass herself off as the miraculously saved daughter of Nicholas II. Since the documents have been preserved in very in good shape, and at one time were drawn up according to all the rules of office correspondence, then their attribution seems to be quite accurate.

What exactly do they contain?

Georgy Shumkin: These are mainly letters about how the case of Tchaikovskaya’s personality was investigated. The story is truly detective. Anastasia Tchaikovskaya, also known as Anna Anderson, claimed to be the daughter of Nicholas II. According to her, with the help of soldier Alexander Tchaikovsky, she managed to escape from the house of the merchant Ipatiev. For six months they traveled on carts to the Romanian border, where they later got married and where she had a son, named Alexei. Tchaikovskaya also claimed that after Alexander's death she fled with his brother Sergei to Berlin. A reasonable question arises here: why did she, if it really was Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, while in Bucharest, not come to see her relative? cousin Mother Queen Mary? We don't have an answer to this question. Be that as it may, in Berlin Tchaikovskaya tried to meet Princess Irene, sister Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, but she was not accepted. Then she despaired and tried to commit suicide by throwing herself into the canal. She was rescued and, under the name “unknown Russian,” was placed in a hospital for the mentally ill. The woman refused to talk about herself. Later, a certain Maria Poutert, who had previously served as a laundress in St. Petersburg and, by coincidence, ended up in the same ward with her, recognized her neighbor as the daughter of the deposed Russian Tsar, Tatyana Nikolaevna Romanova.

Could it really be Tatiana?

Georgy Shumkin: Hardly. The woman’s face at that time was indeed somewhat similar to Tatyanino, but her height and build were different. The figure of the “unknown Russian” really more closely resembled Anastasia. And she was about the same age as the fourth daughter of the emperor. But the main similarity is that Tchaikovskaya and Grand Duchess Anastasia had the same leg defect - bursitis thumb, which is very rarely congenital. In addition, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova had a mole on her back, and Anastasia Tchaikovskaya had a gaping scar in the same place, which could have remained after the mole was burned out. As for appearance, there really is little in common between the girl in the photograph of 1914 and the lady photographed in the 20s. But we must take into account that Tchaikovskaya’s teeth were knocked out: upper jaw a dozen were missing, and three teeth in the bottom, that is, the bite had completely changed. In addition, her nose was broken. But all these are just clues that cast doubt on the official version. They still do not allow us to say with 100% certainty that Tchaikovskaya and Grand Duchess Anastasia are the same person.

Opponents of the hypothesis about the identity of Anastasia Tchaikovskaya and Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna have one compelling argument. They claim, citing data from certain studies, that no Tchaikovsky soldier existed in nature.

Georgy Shumkin: Unfortunately, I personally did not work with the regiment’s documents. In 1926 and 1927, two investigations were actually carried out in Romania, on the initiative of Queen Mary herself. Then they looked for traces of the Tchaikovskys’ presence in Budapest, but did not find them. Not a single church had a record of a couple with that last name getting married or having a child. But it could well be that Tchaikovskaya was taken out of Russia using someone else’s documents, and they were married using them.

Another argument against the identity of the two Anastasias is that Tchaikovskaya did not speak Russian, preferring to communicate with everyone in German.

Georgy Shumkin: She spoke German poorly, with a Russian accent. I actually tried not to speak Russian, but I understood the speech. Sometimes people addressed her in Russian, but she answered in German. Without knowing the language, you won’t be able to respond to cues, right? Moreover, while recovering from surgery for bone tuberculosis, Tchaikovskaya raved about English language, where, as is known, members of the imperial family communicated with each other. Later, moving to New York and stepping off the Berengaria onto American soil, she instantly began to speak English without an accent.

There is also a version that the “imposter” Anastasia Tchaikovskaya is actually a worker at the Berlin factory, Franziska Shantskovskaya. How viable do you think it is?

Georgy Shumkin: We have an interesting document in our book, a comparative table of the anthropometric data of Tchaikovskaya and Shantskovskaya. By all parameters, it turns out that Shantskovskaya is larger: taller, shoe size 39 versus 36. In addition, Shantskovskaya does not have any injuries on her body, but Tchaikovskaya is literally all chopped up. Shantskovskaya worked at a military plant during the war in Germany, and had to speak German perfectly, without an accent, and our heroine, as I already said, spoke poorly. While working at the factory, Francis was concussed in an accident and after that suffered mental damage and was hospitalized in various psychiatric clinics. Anastasia was also observed by a number of psychiatrists, including luminaries of that time, for example, Karl Bonhoeffer. But he unequivocally admitted that this woman is absolutely mentally healthy, although she is susceptible to neuroses.

On the other hand, among some of your colleagues there is an opinion that not only Anastasia, but all the women of the imperial family were saved. What is it based on?

Georgy Shumkin: This line is consistently pursued by Mark Ferro, a major specialist in the history of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. How does he justify his version? If you remember, Russia emerged from the First World War in 1918 as a result of the conclusion of the “obscene” Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, where at that time Emperor Wilhelm II, the closest relative of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, still reigned. So, under the terms of the peace treaty, all German citizens who were in Russia at that moment were to be released and sent home. Alexandra Feodorovna, Princess of Hesse by birth, fell completely under this rule. If she had been shot, this could have become a reason for the termination of the peace treaty and the resumption of the war, but with Soviet Russia, where at that time the internal crisis was gaining momentum. So, according to Ferro, the empress and her daughters were handed over to the Germans out of harm's way. After this, Olga Nikolaevna was allegedly under the protection of the Vatican, Maria Nikolaevna married one of former princes, and Alexandra Feodorovna herself, together with her daughter Tatyana, lived in a monastery in Lvov, from where they were transported to Italy in the 30s. Ferro is also inclined to think that Tchaikovskaya is Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, whom her relatives chose to disown because she once blurted out too much. The fact is that when she arrived at Princess Irene of Prussia, she said that she had seen her brother Ernest of Hesse during the war in Russia, and that he was secretly negotiating a separate peace. If this information were leaked, it would put an end to political career and Hessensky himself, and, possibly, his entire family. So, by mutual family agreement, Tchaikovskaya was recognized as an impostor.

Are there any documents included in your book that still cast doubt on the identity of the two Anastasias?

Georgy Shumkin: Of course, even despite the fact that Prince Andrei Vladimirovich himself tried to prove that Tchaikovskaya was his niece. Thus, we have published the testimony of Alexandra Fedorovna Volkov’s footman, who came to Berlin to identify Anastasia, but refused to recognize her as his young mistress. There are testimonies from other people close to the royal family. Most of them had a negative attitude towards Tchaikovsky. Of the entire family, only two people recognized her as Anastasia Nikolaevna - this Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia, married Leeds.

How did the life of the “most famous impostor” end?

Georgy Shumkin: She went to America and there became known as Anna Anderson. She married her admirer, the historian Manahan, and died a widow at the age of 84. She had no children, except for Alexei, who was born in Romania, who, by the way, was never found. Her body was cremated and her ashes were buried in a castle in Bavaria, where she lived for a time.

And yet, what do you personally think, is Anastasia Tchaikovskaya an impostor or not?

Georgy Shumkin: We categorically refused to express our own opinion in our book, citing only documents that everyone can interpret in their own way. But the question is spinning in my head: if Tchaikovskaya is not Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, then who is she? How could she identify herself with Anastasia Romanova, where could she get the most subtle details about the life of the royal family, intimate details that only people from her closest circle knew about? No matter who she is, in any case she is a phenomenal, unique person.

What argument do you think could firmly put an end to history, prove once and for all whether it is her or not?

Georgy Shumkin: There can be many arguments here. For example, during one of trials in Hamburg they looked for an advertisement about the search for the escaped Anastasia. A number of Germans who were held captive in Yekaterinburg in 1918 claimed that they had seen leaflets that said that Anastasia was being sought after the execution of the Tsar. Where did they go? Was every single one of them destroyed? If at least one was found, this would be a weighty argument in favor of the fact that Anastasia Nikolaevna really escaped. But it is extremely difficult to find an absolutely “iron” argument in this story. Even if this is a document indicating that Anastasia Nikolaevna really was in Romania, there will be people among skeptics who will doubt its authenticity. Therefore, it is unlikely that this mysterious story will be put to rest in the near future.

By the way

Academician Veniamin Alekseev in the preface to the book “Who are you, Mrs. Tchaikovskaya” writes that today the Royal Archives of Copenhagen contains a multi-volume dossier from the official judicial trial in the case of Anastasia Tchaikovskaya, which lasted in Germany from 1938 to 1967 and became the longest in the history of this country. There is also a report from the Danish diplomat Tsaale on the personality of Anastasia, dated 1919. The documents are marked with strict secrecy for 100 years, that is, it is possible that after 2018 at least part of them will fall into the hands of historians, and the data contained therein will be able to shed light on the secret of Anna-Anastasia.

Anastasia, Olga, Alexey, Maria and Tatyana after measles. June 1917. Photo: www.freewebs.com

Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, Tsarevich Alexei.
Photo: RIA Novosti www.ria.ru

Nadezhda Gavrilova