People Who Knew the Imperial Family and Anna Anderson

[investigator]

This thread is going to combine all of those threads about people who actually knew the Imperial Family and Grand Duchess Anastasia, but who also met or refused to meet Anna Anderson.      Edited by Alixz 05/27/09

In the tv-movie on Anastasia: the Mystery of Anna it was shown that the dowager empress had expressed her desire to meet Anna Anderson but she died the next day.  Is this a true historical event?  Did the dowager empress make such a request?

[Chris Snyder]

From all accounts, the Dowager was vehemently opposed to the notion that Anna Anderson was her granddaughter. She even bitterly opposed her daughter Olga from making her  famous visit in the early 20's to see Anna. No one in her household was even permitted to discuss it.  I think it was because she still wanted to believe her family was still alive, and if Anna was Anastasia, that meant her son and the rest of the family was dead.    I highly doubt she would have changed such a rigid stance, but maybe she was feeling guilty or remorseful at the end of her life?

[LisaDavidson]

There is not a shread of evidence that Maria Feodorovna ever expressed any interest in meeting Anna Anderson. This type of dramaic license might be acceptable if it were many centuries after everyone who ever knew them was dead.
That's not the case here, and these lies (for that is what they are) are still hurtful to those who knew the principals, Still, today, for whatever it may matter to anyone.

MF's opinion of what had happened to her sons and Nicholas' family is the source of much conjecture. My opinion only - she knew they were all dead but pretended otherwise as the last surviving Russian Empress and to encourage the monarchists. But I have no more way of proving this.

[NAAOTMA]

Another thought on the subject: if the Dowager Empress had acknowledged that the Tsar and his wife and his children were dead, there would have been huge pressure put on her to voice an opinion at the very least as to which family member should be the next Tsar. Her refusal to acknowledge the death of Nicholas and his family spared her the succession squabbles and all of the grief that would be caused by those Romanov family squabbles. So in a way it is a clever way to handle something very very painful and difficult. It also left the path open for the monarchists to hope for a restoration of the monarchy by not giving any closure to the subject as mentioned in the above post. So her manner of handling it works on more than one level.

[Nick Nicholson]

I almost hate to jump into this discussion, but I feel obliged to point out that Maria Feodorovna's opinions on who "should" succeed Nicholas are irrelevant.  The Pre-Revolutionary Russian law of succession was (and is) extremely clear.  Given the death of Nicholas II, and his two brothers George (before the Revolution) and Michael (in the Revolution), it was clear that the throne passed through Nicholas' closest Uncle (Vladimir) to his son Kirill.

I know Kirill betrayed Nicholas by his "pledge" to the provisional government, but that did not affect the laws of succession codified by Paul I.

I think Maria's silence had more to do with the simple reason of grief more than anything else.

Nick

[investigator]

True.  But i still believe that the dowager empress  hoped that one of them had survived.

[helenazar]

I think that the Dowager Empress was probably aware all along that none of the family members survived the July 17th 1918 massacre, but as long as she didn't have to face facts or see the bodies, she was able to pretend that they were still alive somewhere. So much confusion about the family's fate during that time contributed to this view. According to all historical documentation, Maria Feodorovna was against ever meeting Anna Anderson, who wasn't the first nor the last pretender to be her granddaughter Anastasia. There were many Anastasias, Tatianas, Olgas, Marias and Alexeis out there, long after the reported murders of the Imperial family. As far as MF was concerned, Anna Anderson was just another one of them....

[Annie]

Was there any big name Romanov or close friend who supported her claim? Some of her biggest foes were Gilliard and Yussupov, who always testified against her, and she had even been denounced by Sophie Buxhoevedon. GD Olga sadly dismissed her, did Xenia ever meet her or have comment?

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

There was in fact the very close friend of the Empress, Lily Dehn, who said she was Anastasia. She was completely convinced on this matter. This fact is really quite intriguing for me.

Lily was so close to the girls, so how could she mistake a Polish peasant for the girl she knew so well???

As for the Romanovs, Grand Duke Andrey Vladimirovich also supported her claim.

[Annie]

Thanks, I didn't know about either of them! I am surprised at Lili too, she knew the girls so well.

[Greg_King]

Also Princess Xenia Georgievna-daughter of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and his wife Marie.

The only member of the Romanov Family and said she wasn't Anastasia (and that after a tortured and confused set of correspondence that seemed to hint that OA was never really sure one way or the other) who ever met her was Olga Alexandrovna (not counting Felix).

Alix's sister Irene met her and said she wasn't Anastasia, though she later gave conflicting accounts, and her son Sigismund DID recognize her.

Greg King

[Annie]

Thanks, I always wondered who that Xenia was and how she was tied to the family. I didn't know about Irene and her son either, very interesting!

Wasn't there was some kind of accusation that Felix was about to change his story in the early 60's and support Anna's claim for a share of the money, a charge Felix later denied? He seemed so vehemently against her from the moment they first met, I'd hate to think he'd switch sides in some kind of bribe. I guess because I like Felix I want to think of him as having more honor than that. What is the true story?

[olga]

Annie, this is a good site for the geneaology of the Romanovs and the royal houses they are related to, etc. It's very useful.  

http://members.surfeu.fi/thaapanen/

[Annie]

Thank you!

[Annie]

I have read that when Felix Yussoupov met Anna Anderson in Germany in 1927, he pronounced her a 'frightful playactress' and that she could not possibly be Anastasia. He also said he asked her questions in 4 languages and she only answered in German. He testified against her in the court cases.

But I also see stories that she claimed Felix tried to kill her, that he rushed at her with outstretched arms and reaching hands yelling how he killed Rasputin and he'd kill her too, for what her mother did to his country! She claimed she ran from him and lost herself in the crowd downstairs.

If there were any truth to this why was Felix not arrested? Is it possible she made it up for some reason?