The Anastasia Story
Anastasia.
She’s everyone’s favorite Romanov. In fact, she’s usually the only Romanov people know by name. If you’ve been reading the other posts in this blog tour, you already know that the animated Anastasia movie is basically all lies. Why?
Because she’s the one who supposedly escaped and survived the executions.
Before I go on, I have to tell ( Read more... )
I was born and raised in Charlottesville and I saw Anna often when I was a small child. She was a wonderfully strange little woman who drove all over the place with a pack of dogs hanging out of her station wagon, all of whom adored her and followed her everywhere. After she died, the mystery as to whether she was, or wasn't the true Anastasia persisted. I know that there have been repeated DNA tests done by independent laboratories on the remains found in 2007 and they, for all intents and purposes, have been proven to be the missing Romanov children. But there is just enough of a conspiracy theorist in me to believe that there is more to it than what has been issued to the public. The remaining family of the Romanovs DO have a lot to gain by officially denying Anna Anderson's claim (namely, any remaining money belonging to the family) and while the DNA sample provided by Martha Jefferson (a very good hospital) was supposedly Anna's, there was a lot of issue surrounding it. At first they reported that all of her samples had been accidentally disposed of, then they reported that the samples had been contaminated. Only after all that did they 'discover' a last remaining sample that was then sent for testing. In addition, the fact that Anna died, and was cremated on the same day as her death, created quite a stir. It is a highly irregular occurrence. In fact, in 45 years as a funeral director, my father has never seen that happen. Not besides the Anna Anderson case. So it makes one wonder why there was such a rush to cremate her remains (which eliminates the chance for DNA testing) I'm not saying she WAS Anastasia, I'm not saying that all the 'facts' are lies. I'm just saying that for me, the mystery is still alive.
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-The remaining Romanovs really don't have anything to lose. All the money that belonged to the Imperial family was seized by the Reds ages ago. The remaining Romanovs, in fact, are pretty normal people (I don't want to say NONE of them are wealthy, because I don't know for certain, but they certainly aren't traveling in circles with royal family members from other countries). In fact, I'd think discovering one of the Romanov children would put them in a position to gain quite a bit of money in publicity alone.
-It's simply too dangerous to leave an heir to the throne alive. They already had the royal family captive; why kill all but one? Leaving anyone alive leaves the Whites room to recapture that person and put her on the throne, even if she's merely a puppet.
The only reason that might-- might-- make sense is if they were leaving one alive in order to marry her into a political alliance (like, they were going to get her to marry Lenin/someone close to him and join both facets of the revolution). I can't see that happening, frankly, but if that was the plan, they'd surely have chosen Olga or Maria, who were older, prettier, and more realistically of marriageable age.
-And anyhow, finally-- I don't know that it comes down to Anna Anderson's DNA so much as it comes down to the found remains. Those remains have been tested by multiple labs, more than once, and there's just not any way around it, so far as I'm concerned. That said, Anna's DNA matched-- with 99% accuracy-- that of a boy whose missing great-aunt was a Polish factory worker. Anna is almost certainly that woman (there's lots of nice info on it here: http://www.freewebs.com/anna-anderson/).
Even though I like a good conspiracy theory, and would LOVE to know one of the Romanovs made it out, I do think it's problematic for people to capitalize on a massive, horrible tragedy. That said, I've seen interviews with Anna, and I get the impression that she truly believe her own lie (wouldn't be the first time people have!). I know, though, that if it were my family, I would be bothered by people giving any credit to a total stranger-- especially when my brother and sister were lost in a Siberian forest for almost 100 years!
I think, though, the conspiracy lives because it's just so hard to accept that level of brutality, especially against children.
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