When was anastasia born

The war period was tough for Anastasia, and for the rest of her life she remembered the days spent with the wounded with tears in her eyes. In February , when the revolution in Russia was in full swing, none of the five imperial children managed to escape the measles. Anastasia was the last to fall ill, when the palace was already surrounded by rebellious troops. Nicholas was absent - he was at the General Headquarters in Mogilev - and the children were alone with their mother.

Aleksandra decided against telling the children the truth about the rebellion, so the girls and small Aleksey believed that simple military exercises were being conducted. The Empress wanted to conceal the truth for as long as possible. On the morning of 2 March Aleksandra learnt of the abdication of her husband, the now former Tsar.

On 8 March it was announced that the Provisional government was to take Nicholas, his children and his wife into custody; the family was permitted to list several people who would be allowed to stay with them.

Life under home arrest surprisingly proved to be quite bearable — although the menu was made simpler and at times, when the family walked in the park, common people gathered in front of the fence and cried out abuses and offences causing the time spent outside to be considerably reduced.

But these were the only real changes the family had to endure. Despite the arrest, the children continued to receive their home education and homework remained a must. As summer drew to a close, the Provisional government decided the family would be better off in Tobolsk, a small Siberian city that served as the capital of the Tobolsk Province. On the day before their departure they wished all their servants good-bye and took their last stroll in the picturesque park they loved so much.

On 26 August Nicholas and his family finally arrived in Tobolsk. The mansion they were supposed to occupy was not yet finished, so for the first week the steamboat that took them to Tobolsk was their only home. Life in the mansion was as monotonous and boring as the family could imagine and the main and practically only entertainments the children were offered were watching people walking in the street from the window and doing homework.

Anastasia and her sisters were sometimes allowed to go for a little walk with their father and to organize home theatricals; in winter the kids could take their sledges and slide outside. Anastasia also loved sewing and spent many long winter evenings engaged in this peaceful pastime. Only in September were the children allowed to go to the nearest church accompanied by their parents.

But the freedom was superficial as they were surrounded by soldiers at all times. However, the locals here, unlike those in Saint Petersburg, treated the family with due respect and kindness and were never rude or unfriendly towards them. After the Bolsheviks seized majority control of Russia in April, Aleksandra, Nicholas and Maria, who accompanied her parents, were summoned to Moscow — the former tsar was supposed to be present at his trial.

The rest of the family remained in Tobolsk and were supposed to wait for the news and keep the house while taking care of Aleksey who was once again seriously ill. The four children led a quiet life. The only entertainments were reading out loud in the evenings, walking and painting. In the numerous letters Aleksandra wrote to her children in Tobolsk, she implored them to hide the jewels the family owned as well as possible — so Anastasia and her sisters sewed them into their clothing in the hopes of hiding them from their captors; Aleksandra had warned them that she, Nicholas and Maria had been searched upon arriving in Yekaterinburg and had had many valuable items confiscated.

Aleksandra used the predetermined code word "medicines" for the jewels so that in case the letters were ripped open and read as indeed they were no one would understand what the former Empress was talking about.

At the end of May the three sisters and Aleksey, whose health had much improved by then, joined their parents and elder sister in Yekaterinburg. Anastasia, even though she was the youngest of the sisters, remained calm and optimistic and the fact that throughout the whole journey the children had to travel in closed carriages and cabins and even doctors were not allowed to see them, did not shatter her belief that things would eventually be set to rights.

In Yekaterinburg the children had to say good-bye to their tutors — Pierre Gilliard and the maids were not allowed to go along with them. Life in Yekaterinburg was as boring as could be; the sisters learned to bake bread and whiled away the time doing so.

The family was kept under constantly surveillance and in summer the privations of captivity affected Anastasia so grievously, that at one point she became so upset about the locked, painted windows that she burst one open to look outside and get fresh air. A sentry saw her and fired, narrowly missing her. She never tried it again.

On 14 July local priests in Yekaterinburg conducted a private church service for the family. They reported that Anastasia and her family, contrary to custom, fell on their knees during the prayer for the dead, and that the girls had become despondent, hopeless, and no longer sang the replies in the service.

Noticing this dramatic change in their demeanor since his last visit, one priest told the other, "Something has happened to them in there. It is believed that the decision about the execution was made on 16 July because rumors had appeared about an allegedly discovered plot to save the Tsar and his family. On the night of 17 July after a short dispute about the way the family was to be executed, they were woken up and asked to descend to the cellar. Until the very last moment the family members suspected nothing.

In the cellar they were asked to sit on the chairs that had been brought in, and everyone obeyed. The girls took their hand-bags with them, and Anastasia even took Jimmy, her dog, along.

Despite her privilege and status, Anastasia grew up to be a remarkably warm, down-to-earth young woman with a spirited personality. She was the darling of the family, popular with the Russian people, and world press.

When imperial rule ended with the family's brutal execution, loyalists to the crown-and others around the world-grasped at the possibility of her survival. A woman named Anna Anderson, claiming to be Anastasia, kept the fantasy of her escape and survival alive until when it was definitively disproved.

The first years of Nicholas II's reign were peaceful. By all accounts, the czar and czarina's primary interest was their family. They spent a great deal of time with the children, and kept them as far away from the social whirl of the court as possible. For Anastasia and her older sisters-Olga, Tatiana, and Marie-and later her brother, Alexei, home within the Winter Palace's 1, rooms was the family's private apartment.

Less opulent and imposing, the chambers reflected Alexandra's English upbringing with her grandmother, England's Queen Victoria. An observer noted, "English was the language which she always spoke and wrote to the Emperor…. Russia Under The Czars describes Nicholas "as handsome, charming, gentle to the point of weakness, and religious to the point of mysticism.

The match was as unpopular as it was strong. Russia was on unfriendly terms with Germany, and the czar's family disliked Alexandra's English upbringing. As time went on, and she had not produced the requisite male heir, she retreated from public life. Both parents agreed that discipline was important; hence, the children slept on hard camp cots with no pillows, made their own beds, and took a cold bath every morning just as their father had done as a boy.

Their studies included four languages, in addition to music, drawing, and needlework. Nobility had its rewards, as well; the family traveled aboard a blue imperial train or royal yacht when they went to Tsarskoe Selo, the "tsar's village.

The joy over the birth of Alexei in faded when it was learned that he had inherited hemophilia, an incurable disease that prevents blood from clotting. Specialists were consulted, and the czar and czarina prayed for a miracle. A year later they were introduced to Rasputin, a religious pilgrim of immense physical size. With his hypotonic eyes and inexplicable powers to stop Alexei's bleeding, Rasputin gradually gained a dangerous control over Alexandra and her fears.

In time, he also dominated Nicholas and exerted his influence on matters of state as well as Alexei's health. Other than close family friends, the children grew up playing among themselves without much interaction with the outside world.

In addition to the czar and czarina's distaste for court life, keeping Alexei's illness secret was crucial to maintaining strong Romanov rule. The nursery years were spent playing with many dolls and toys, each under the supervision of a personal nurse. Even at the age of three, Anastasia knew that Alexei's illness was a secret. As Anastasia grew older, she and her sisters followed a prescribed routine of visiting their mother in the morning, attending classes, playing, and then joining both parents for afternoon tea.

Anastasia, with her golden hair, sparkling blue eyes, and impish playfulness, exerted her head-strong personality and great energy. Nicknamed shvibzik, meaning "imp, " Anastasia was mischievous, and loved making others laugh. She delighted in mimicking pompous guests, as well as instigating pranks on nurses and tutors.

In his memoirs, her French tutor, Pierre Guillard, wrote, "She was the imp of the whole house and the glummest faces would always brighten in her presence, for it was impossible to resist her jokes and nonsense. Anastasia did not enjoy most of her schoolwork. According to Hugh Brewster, author of Anastasia's Album, her English teacher remembered her trying to bribe him with flowers so he would raise her poor marks.

When he refused, she gave them to her Russian teacher. She adored creative subjects, however, and wrote, "I excelled at composition. I must say that all my poems were satires, lampoons, from which no one was safe. She often spent hours illustrating letters with drawings, and hand-coloring photographs to highlight a special aspect.

Anastasia was easily bored, and always ready for breaks in the routine. Every March the family boarded the imperial train to go to their retreat on the Black Sea. Photographs portray a simple, informal life filled with swimming and long walks.

The family's happiest times were when they were away from duty and the public eye. She sewed, read, and painted. For decades, their unmarked graves were a closely guarded secret, until , when the Romanov family remains were discovered in the forest and positively identified using DNA technology.

Scientists believe the body of Anastasia is among those remains. But that did not put a stop to the widespread theories. In , a young woman was pulled out of a canal in Berlin, an attempted suicide. For months the woman refused to give her name or say much of anything. Transferred to an asylum, she was told one day by a fellow psychiatric patient that she looked like the Grand Duchess Tatiana, the second oldest daughter.

Later, when it was clear that she was too short to be Tatiana, the other mental patients wondered if she was actually Grand Duchess Anastasia. So-called White Russian communities, noble and upper-crust refugees who had been stripped of wealth and position, huddled in Berlin and Paris. Could one of these far-flung, desperate women be Grand Duchess Anastasia? Although it seems impossible that anyone could have escaped a Bolshevik firing squad with members handpicked for their willingness to kill the Romanovs, a great deal of uncertainty on who precisely died persisted for years.

Vladimir Lenin wanted it that way. The new government released the news that Nicholas II was dead, but would not confirm the executions of his wife and children. Kaiser Wilhelm and the Empress Alexandra were cousins—she was of the House of Hesse—and Wilhelm did not want her and her children harmed. He played for time with the Germans by offering vague details and denials. And so the rumors flew, ranging from guards rescuing one or two daughters to the Tsarevich Alexei being the one to escape.

None of the claimants to be resurrected Romanov children, then or later, rivalled the fame of the woman in the German mental hospital, who took the name Anna Anderson. The guard allegedly spirited her away and became her lover, only to die later in a street brawl. But others poked holes: Her mouth was too wide and other facial features were different. The Dowager Empress Marie, grandmother of Anastasia, refused to meet with her.

She never posted any reward. Yet some people persisted in believing that this young woman was Anastasia. Anderson lived on the charity of sympathetic monarchists in Germany and the United States, cycling in and out of mental hospitals until she married a Virginia genealogist named John Manahan, 18 years her junior.

All the time she still insisted she was a Romanov princess. In , the film Anastasia was released to great acclaim. The storyline followed the life of Anna Anderson, a confused young woman, played by Ingrid Bergman, who was retrieved from a river in on the point of suicide. Then fiction takes over. Yul Brynner plays a charismatic White Russian con man living in Paris who backs her claims in hopes of collecting a huge reward.

Helen Hayes, playing the Dowager Empress Marie, is eventually persuaded that her granddaughter survived. The producers say the legal action is without merit. A judge declined to dismiss the suit at the end of January. This is just as much a fairy tale as anything else. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert K. Massie—whose serious biography, Nicholas and Alexandra , was made into an Oscar-winning film—settled the question of the fabled inheritance in his later book The Romanovs: The Final Chapter.

They will not take no for an answer. Listen, if there had been family money here, it would have come out long ago.