Claimants of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich

[aleksandr pavlovich]

Re:  Michael Goleniewski

How he think anyone would buy his story (Yurovsky helped them escape, yeah, right)?  Like AA, he was lucky that, at the time, the fate of the IF was still a mystery.

Besides, he was too young to have been Alexei.  In 1961, when he first made the claim, Alexei would have been 57.  Goleniewski did NOT look 57 in the pictures I saw.

 This seems to be a revival of an older topic here.
 I'm commenting on this basicly from memory, thus I could easily stand corrected.  After his defection to the West, when USA and other security obtained what they felt was most/if not all of the information that he had to offer them, they were nonplussed at his continually escalating his claim that he was the Heir.  If I recall correctly, one of his "handlers" said something to the effect that "he had flipped his wig."  Thus his "Imperial" antecedents story came to be treated "in house" as embarassed nonsense.  He was quickly pensioned off and he continued to draw up lists of funds world-wide that he felt were his.  He even found an (authentic) childhood playmate of the Heir (all this has been on the Forum before, name, etc.) who felt indeed that he WAS the Heir via memories of places, conversations, etc. This relationship quickly went downhill.
  He married in the USA, having his marriage performed by a descendant (son?) of Count Grabbe, and the Church chastised the priest for it:  Goleniewski had used the Heir's name on the marriage documents. Thus not everyone believed him and he slid eventually into oblivion.  
  His background in Poland had been checked, even to examining the birth registers/gravestones, etc. of the parents, etc., etc.  
  As to his "illness versus age/appearance", he said that his illness made him a "child twice over," thus he had a youthful appearance.  I'm not even certain that it was determined that he HAD haemophilia.
   Then of course there is the utter nonsense few meetings in the US with his "sister, Anastasia," known as "Eugenia Smith." Interestingly, at least the initial meeting was recorded by the son of a well-known small publishing house.
   All just "passing footnotes" in the pitiful saga of hoped-for survival.
   Amusingly, while Goleniewsi has gone, the Heir still lives!!   Like the quote re the American Santa Claus, "He's everywhere!"  Even on this Forum, the Heir has EARLIER appeared in the form of a no longer contributing member who has said (on several of his MANY little sites) that he has been "certified" by a medium to have the memories of the Heir!  The last time I checked the web site source of the "medium/certifier" who allegedly did the "certifications" ,  she posts at the end of her site under "Terms and Conditions," that "All content is for entertainment purposes only."  But the Heir still lives!     AP.

[TimM]

As to his "illness versus age/appearance", he said that his illness made him a "child twice over," thus he had a youthful appearance

And he actually thought people would buy that silly story!?

[Jen_94]

Too add to that, he was born in 1922, making him a good several years younger than the Tsarevich, making him 34 (if I'm right) when he first made the claim. Such a silly story!

[TimM]

That is why he cooked up this "child twice over" story, to cover the fact that he was almost twenty years younger than Alexei 

[Jen_94]

Yep, adds the silliness of the story definitely!

[Robert_Hall]

Tim, people have bought far sillier and still do.
 I this guy's book and almost choked laughing. No way I could take it seriously. Especially his meeting with his "long lost" sister.  That said it all.

[Jen_94]

Did Eugenia recognise Michael as Alexei, yet claimed that she was the only survivour at Yekaterinburg? Strange...

[aleksandr pavlovich]

Tim, people have bought far sillier and still do.
 I this guy's book and almost choked laughing. No way I could take it seriously. Especially his meeting with his "long lost" sister.  That said it all.

   Robert, I am certain that you are referring to GUY Richard's booK, "The Hunt for the Czar" (1970). I am unaware that Goleniewski himself wrote and/or published a book/memoir. Yes, agreed it is, IMO, a fallacious tale pieced together from truth and fantasy. One wonders just how much Mr. Richards actually/truly and unquestionably believed, but of course this was BEFORE more recent information became available from pertinent archives, the finding of the remains, etc.
   An addition/clarification I would add to my previous post:  The priest that conducted the marriage was Father Georgi, a NEPHEW of Count Grabbe.  I did not have materials in front of me at the time of last posting and had said "son?"   Regards, AP.

[Kalafrana]

One of the cases I was involved in when I was training as a solicitor was the HIV haemophilia litigation in the late 1980s. My main job was sifting the medical records of about 30 haemophiliacs treated at the haemophilia centre in Newcastle upon Tyne. All of them aged over 30 had had their knee joints in particular wrecked by bleeds and were having hip and knee replacements (the younger ones, who had grown up in the era of Factor VIII, were much less affected).

There is absolutely no way a haemophiliac of Alexei's generation could have reached adulthood in anything approaching normal health.

Ann

[Robert_Hall]

AP, you are probably correct in that, it was Guy Richard's work but "The Imperial Agent was what I was remembering.. However, somewhere in my files I have a magazine article I clipped, LIFE most likely telling his story and the meeting with "Anastasia.  That I cannot access at the moment, my library is going through yet another renovation.
 There is also And Jen, yes,  Eugenia claimed she did not know he had survived. Of course they were both frauds.
 Then there are also "Blood Relative" by  Michael Gray and  "The escape of Alexei" by Petrov, et al.
 These stories are endless, proving Tim's point, people still buy them.

[feodorovna]

I wonder where, having written these books that they presumably believe, the authors disappear to. I'm thinking especially of Michael Gray, who clearly believed himself to be the natural son of the Russian Tsarevitch and widowed British Duchess. I have some sympathy for him. As a fellow "adopted" I know how easy it is to latch onto the hope that ones' natural parents are in some way special, but by setting his sights so high, the anti climax, when it came must have been hard. Silly as it may sound, I really wanted his story to be true.

[Robert_Hall]

His book was better than most, I admit. A good read. But, to me, fiction.
 I know what you mean Feod. about being adopted.  I was pretty much farmed out to relatives and never really knew my father, so I made him a war hero.  Whether or not he was, I have no clue and now, do not care.
   Michael Gray.... I have not been able to find out anything about him recently so do not know waht he is doing now.  I was briefly in contact with him,  as I wrote to him and he responded [1998]  I think he was somehow invloved with John Kennedy [English] in the revival of the ill fated Almanach de Gotha.
 And the reasons ? Who knows ? Is it drive for attention or just to make some money ? The Romanovs have been an open field for this, for centuries, actually.  The false Dimitris, Pugachev, etc.

[aleksandr pavlovich]

I wonder where, having written these books that they presumably believe, the authors disappear to. I'm thinking especially of Michael Gray, who clearly believed himself to be the natural son of the Russian Tsarevitch and widowed British Duchess. I have some sympathy for him. As a fellow "adopted" I know how easy it is to latch onto the hope that ones' natural parents are in some way special, but by setting his sights so high, the anti climax, when it came must have been hard. Silly as it may sound, I really wanted his story to be true.

  In the case of author Guy Richards, it is my understanding that he has been dead for some years now.   Regards,   AP.

[Jen_94]

I would say it is a bit of both, for attention AND money. More so money, but that is just my own opinion.

And I have just been reading a little about Michael Gray on the internet.The whole story does sound well put together, but as Robert said, fictionalised. Does anyone have any photos of him at all?

[Robert_Hall]

Only ones I are in his book, as a baby and at ages 18 and 28. Handsome young man, but no Alexei, IMO. Of course he was not claiming to be the heir, just his illegeimate progeny.
 Some one here on the Forum might though.