Anastasia: The Lost Princess of Russia

The murder of the fourth princess of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna
was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra has been
one of the greatest mysteries since the 19th century until the 20th century. Persistent rumors of her
possible escape circulated after her death. Anastasia’s survival stories have always been the most
famous, it inspired dozens of books and films. But the question is what did really happen? Here’s
a little knowledge on how the imperial family was assassinated.

As Russia had a near revolution in 1905 and the country was in chaos, Czar/Tsar
Nicholas II was pressured to abdicate and for a time he could not get back to his wife and children.
When the Russian Revolution took place in February 1917, there were calls for the end of the
imperial rule leading to the house arrest of the Royal Family. As revolutionaries approached the
royal palace, the provisional government removed the Romanovs and sent them to Tobolsk,
Siberia. On July 17, 1918, the night of the assassinations, they were awakened and instructed to
get dressed in a hurry. They were told that they would be moved to a safe house in the morning,
in case the White army returned for them. Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky, a Bolshevik
revolutionary, and his guards entered and informed the Tsar that they were to be executed.
Nicholas and Alexandra died first, in a hail of bullets, and the rest of the family and servants were
killed immediately afterwards. In July 1991, the crushed bodies of Nicholas II and his wife, along
with three of their five children and four of their servants, were exhumed. Because two bodies
were not present, many people believed that two Romanov children escaped the killings.

In 1920, numerous women claimed that they are the Grand Duchess Anastasia. There have
been at least five impostors who have claimed to be Anastasia but the most famous of these is
Anna Anderson. But I can assure you that none of them are her because in 2007, a Russian builder
found burned remains at a forest location that matched a description given by Yurovsky when he
detailed where the bodies had been left. A year later, these were identified as the two missing
Romanovs, although testing has been inconclusive as to which body was Anastasia and which was
Maria. DNA studies have accounted for both parents and all five children, concluding they did
indeed die in July 1918. This solves the mystery of Anastasia: The Lost Princess of Russia.