Page 35 - All About History - Issue 33-15

Murder In The House Of Romanov

THE ANASTASIA
IMPOSTERS

WiththefateoftheRomanovs
Revolutionary soldiers in shroudedinmystery,ahostof
Moscow at the outbreak
of revolution in 1917 imposters emerged. The most
notable claimed to be Anastasia
separatenessnotonlyfromthegovernmentbut governmental business on the home front while
from privileged society in general.” herrelationshipwithherfavourite,Rasputin,
In addition, a new social group had emerged caused outrage among common folk and officials NADEZHDAVASILYEVA
during the 19th century, defined less by its alike.Storiesofsexualrelationsbetweenthe
socioeconomicpositionthanbyitsattitudetowards peasant and the tsarina, though unfounded, were Vasilyeva appeared in Siberia in 1920
while travelling to China and was
imperial power. This ‘intelligentsia’ filtered through rife. Nicholas, meanwhile, was forced to raise taxes arrested by the authorities. She sent
different strata of Russian society as time went topayforthewar.Foreigndebtincreased,asdid letters to the British King George V
on, seepingintothenewmiddle inflation. When food shortages asking him to help her. In 1971, she
died in an insane asylum in the city
classes, andeventheupper “Foreign debt setin,thepopulacecouldtake of Kazan, the head of the hospital
classes as the aristocrats became nomore.Thetsar’sdayswere claiming that ”except for her claim
more commercially aware. increased, as numbered. Indeed, Figes points that she was Anastasia, she was
These social groups united to to a popular Russian joke that completely sane.”
ignite the flames of revolution did inflation. says the tsar himself should
that burned during the 1905 When food have been awarded the Order of EUGENIASMITH
uprising. This the tsar survived, theRedBannerforservicesto
having in the October Manifesto shortages set the revolution. Though not as famous as Anderson,
agreed to the formation of an Once Nicholas abdicated and Smith wrote the Autobiography
elected legislature, the duma, in, the populace the Bolsheviks under Lenin took Of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna
and the concession of many couldtakeno control of the country later in Of Russia in 1963, in which she
civil rights. Though autocratic the year, they pledged to put recounts in great detail her life in
the Russian Imperial family up until
power was weakened, it was not more” ‘Bloody Nicholas’ on trial. Yet their execution. She eventually
necessarily doomed. both he and his family were distanced herself from the claim
It took theoutbreakofWorld murdered. Was this because the and is said to have refused a DNA
test shortly before her death in 1997.
War I to finally bring down the Bolsheviks were worried that
tsar. The firstyearofconflict the White Army would take
proved disastrous for Russia, Ekaterinburg, liberate Nicholas ANNAANDERSON
and in November1915,Nicholastookcommandof andusehimasatotem?AsFigesnotes,itis
the armed forces. This was a misguided decision. highly unlikely that the Whites would want such During the 1920s, Anna (a Pole called
Hundreds of thousands died in the trenches. anunpopularanddiscreditedfigureastheir‘live Franziska Schanzkowska) appeared in
Germany claiming to be Anastasia.
“Throughout his reign,” writes Orlando Figes, banner’.Rather,hesays,itwastheideaofatrial
Her lack of Russian and rebuttals
“Nicholas gavetheimpressionofbeingunableto that became problematic. by Romanov relatives undermined
cope with thetaskofrulingavastempireinthe ToputNicholasinthedock,Figessays,wasto her case but she received support
grips of a deepening revolutionary crisis.” presupposethepossibilityofhisinnocence.“And from Rasputin’s daughter. The
most famous of the imposters, her
He certainly could not cope with commanding inthatcase,themorallegitimacyoftherevolution story inspired a 1956 film, Anastasia, © Joe Cummings, Alamy
the armed forces, a task for which he was poorly woulditselfbeopentoquestion.Nicholashadto starring Ingrid Bergman.
qualified. Alexandra, meanwhile, interfered in diesothatSovietpowercouldlive.”
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