![]() One Bolshevik soldier, she said, finding her alive, had helped her, and she eventually escaped to the West. Her body showed ugly scars, which she said she incurred from Bolshevik knives during the execution of her family. She refused to tell authorities her identity and was committed to the Dalldorf Asylum, where she lived in anonymity until 1922, when she suddenly announced that she was none other the Grand Duchess Anastasia.Īt the time, Europe was filled with Russian exiles who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution, and a number of sympathetic czarists rushed to the aid of this young woman, who at first glance was certainly articulate and beautiful enough to be the lost Anastasia. In 1920, an apparently suicidal young woman was pulled from the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. Europe, however, had yet to meet Anna Anderson. Several pretenders came forward, hoping to cash in on the Romanov fortune reportedly held in European banks, but they were quickly exposed as frauds. At the same time, however, a persistent rumor spread through Europe, telling of a Romanov child, usually Anastasia, who had survived the carnage. Later, reports that the entire family had perished were confirmed by Russian investigators. Finally, what was left was thrown into the mine pit, which was covered with dirt.Īt first, the Bolshevik government reported that only Nicholas was executed and that his wife and children were moved to a safe location. The executioners then took the bodies to an abandoned mine shaft some 14 miles from Ekaterinburg, burned them in a gasoline-fueled bonfire, and doused the bones with sulfuric acid to further disguise the remains. Those who were still breathing when the smoke cleared were stabbed to death. ![]() Suddenly, nearly a dozen armed men burst into the room and shot the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. ![]() There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows–for a photograph, they were told, to quell rumors that they had escaped. Botkin, were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. Just after midnight on July 17, 1918, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children, and four family retainers, among them Dr. Fearing that Nicholas and his family would be rescued, the local authorities passed a death sentence on the Romanovs. Civil war raged throughout 1918, and in July anti-Bolshevik Russian forces approached Ekaterinburg. Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their four girls and one son were held at Czarskoye Selo palace and then taken to Ekaterinburg in the Urals after the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution. In 1917, the February Revolution in Russia forced Czar Nicholas II to abdicate the throne. Registering for one hotel during her visit, she used the name Anna Anderson, which later became her permanent alias. ![]() Nevertheless, she was treated as a celebrity during her stay in New York and occasioned society parties and fashionable hotels worthy of a Romanov heir. READ MORE: The Romanov Family Tree: Real Descendants and Wannabesīetween 19, more than half a dozen other women had come forward claiming to be a lost heir to the Romanov fortune, so some American reporters were understandingly skeptical of Tschaikovsky’s claims. ![]()
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