Source:
Olga Grigor'eva at lastromanovs on VK
Above: Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, with a sailor on the family yacht the Standart. Photo courtesy of Ilya Chishko at lastromanovs on VK.
Above: Her paternal aunt, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (born June 5/18, 1901, died July 17, 1918) was the fourth and youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She was the younger sister of the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Maria and elder sister to the Tsarevich Alexei. Anastasia was famous, and sometimes infamous, within her family for being a big joker, imitator and prankster, to the point that she was nicknamed "Schwipsich", a German word meaning "imp" or "little mischief". As a teenager, during the First World War, her cheerful, ever optimistic disposition and constant joking was a great comfort to the wounded soldiers in the care of her mother and eldest sisters; and during the final months of their captivity after her father's forced abdication, she was the only one able to distract and amuse her family away from the despair, terror and uncertainty of their daily lives. Anastasia was shot to death along with her parents and siblings by a group of Bolsheviks in the early morning hours of July 17, 1918, just one month after her seventeenth birthday.
Rumours of Anastasia's possible survival and escape from the assassination and which claimed that she was living somewhere under a new identity, either through trauma-induced amnesia or a need to go into hiding, began circulating almost immediately after her death and persisted for decades, fueled by the fact that the location of her burial was unknown during the over 70 years of Communist rule in Russia. The abandoned mine serving as a mass grave near Ekaterinburg which held the acidified skeletal remains of the Tsar, his wife, three of their daughters, and four loyal servants who died with them was originally found in 1979 and revealed in 1991. These remains of the family were laid to rest among their Romanov ancestors in a state funeral at the St. Peter and Paul Fortress on July 17, 1998, 80 years to the day after they had been killed. The fragmented and burnt remains of Alexei and one of his older sisters were found in 2007, a short distance away from the original burial site. Although Anastasia was among the bodies found in the 1991 grave, opinion has been divided on whether the remains of the girl found with Alexei are those of her or Maria. Regardless, Anastasia's long-rumoured escape and survival has been tragically disproven beyond doubt. Scientific and DNA analysis confirmed that the remains found are indeed those of the Romanovs, proving that all four of the Grand Duchesses were killed in 1918. In an ironic twist, Anastasia's very name means "resurrection", a fact that is often pointed out in rumours of her survival. Said rumours have inspired films, books, and even a Broadway musical.
In the decades that followed the Romanov murders, several women came forward claiming to be Anastasia, the best-known of these impostors being Anna Anderson. Her body was cremated upon her death in 1984, but DNA testing in 1994 on available pieces of her body tissue taken during an operation found that she was not a Romanov, not royal, and not even Russian. She was most likely Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker who went missing as a young woman and who had a history of mental illness.
The letter:
1909 28
сентебря
Дорогая тетя Ольга
какъ твое здоровье
гдеты теперь я нодѣюсь что ятебя увижу мы все тебя цѣлуем ты купаешся въ море или нетъ?
Мы купались а вчера я не купалась. Какая увасъ погода.
Креснеца
Анастасія.
With modernised spelling:
1909 28
сентебря
Дорогая тетя Ольга
как твое здоровье
гдеты теперь я нодеюсь что ятебя увижу мы все тебя целуем ты купаешся в море или нет?
Мы купались а вчера я не купалась. Какая увас погода.
Креснеца
Анастасия.
With regular/corrected spelling, spacing and punctuation:
1909. 28
сентября
Дорогая тетя Ольга,
Как твое здоровье?
Где ты теперь? Я надеюсь что я тебя увижу. Мы все тебя целуем. Ты купаешся в море или нет?
Мы купались, а вчера я не купалась. Какая у вас погода?
Крестница
Анастасия.
English translation (my own):
1909. 28
September
Dear aunt Olga
how is your health
where are you now i hope i will see you we all kiss you are you swimming in the sea or no.
We went swimming and yesterday I did not swim. What is your weather like.
[Your] Goddaughter
Anastasia.
No comments:
Post a Comment