People Who Knew the Imperial Family and Anna Anderson

[helenazar]

From what I understand, Rachmaninoff paid for AA's prolonged stay at a hotel while she was in New York. But he was only one of numerous Russian emigres who financially supported AA during her "carreer" as a Russian grand duchess.

[lexi4]

From what I understand, Rachmaninoff paid for AA's prolonged stay at a hotel while she was in New York. But he was only one of numerous Russian emigres who financially supported AA during her "carreer" as a Russian grand duchess.

Love your choice of words, Helen   It was quite a career.

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

Many thanks Helen. My friend Andy loves classical music, as do I, we both love Rach. He'll be really intrigued to hear it.

[anna11]

Ive read a few books about Anna Anderson but Ive never heard, how come Irina(xenia's daighter) never met Anna Anderson?
In fact I don't even know whether she did or not it never says anything about her in books.

[Annie]

She did meet Irina's husband, Felix Yussoupov, in 1927. He proclaimed her a 'frightful playactress' and a 'wretched creature who could not possibly be the daughter of our Tsar." He said he spoke to her in Russian, English, French and German, yet she only responded in German. This was enough for him to denounce her immediately and testify against her in the trials for the rest of his life. I guess after he got home and told Irina, who was AN's cousin and knew her well, they had a good laugh, or perhaps a cry.

[Tania]

  Just an objective statement. Our daughter, and my husband speak more than a few languages. Many times they have been asked in these languages, direct questions, yet they respond in just the language they feel most comfortable in, or in the language they choose to respond. Sooo, what's difficult in comprehending that one may respond with how one responds ? Should someone be denounced because they don't respond to the person in the same language they make inquiry ?

How do you respond Anna when someone speaks to you Annie ? Do you speak any other language(s), or do you just speak one language. I'm trying to understand how others feel on this point? Thanks for any response.

Tatiana

She did meet Irina's husband, Felix Yussoupov, in 1927. He proclaimed her a 'frightful playactress' and a 'wretched creature who could not possibly be the daughter of our Tsar." He said he spoke to her in Russian, English, French and German, yet she only responded in German. This was enough for him to denounce her immediately and testify against her in the trials for the rest of his life. I guess after he got home and told Irina, who was AN's cousin and knew her well, they had a good laugh, or perhaps a cry.

[Annie]

Two things to consider:

1. She didn't understand the other 3 languages, which is why she ignored them.

2. German was the LEAST known and used of AN's 4 languages. She spoke Russian as her native language, learned English growing up because her parents spoke it to each other, and French because it was the language of the court. She took German lessons, but did not know it or use it nearly as much as the others. So why would it suddenly become the only one she understood? Because it wasn't AN, it was FS.

[ChatNoir]

1. She didn't understand the other 3 languages, which is why she ignored them.

Now now, miss Annie, aren't you going a bit over board? Already at Dalldorf it was determined that Anastasia spoke Russian "with a good accent and in whole, connected sentences, perfectly acceptable for a lady of high society".  Faith Lavington was going to give her English lessons at Schloss Seeon, and discovered that Anastasia already knew English. (Somebody who met "die kranke Dame" at Funkenmühle remember her as speaking more English than German.) And as for French, don't you remember the story from Paris when she ordered breakfast? As Agnes Gallagher said: I don't know if she actually spoke French, but we got exactly what we wanted for breakfast. So it is clear that the lady knew 4 languages long before she met Felix again. (I find myself in the same situation sometimes now, having spoken English for several years: I answer in English when being approached in another language.)
Kind regards
Chat Noir

[Annie]

Again, conflicting reports. He said this, she said this, he said she spoke this, she said she spoke that, he said she refused to speak this, she said she spoke Russian in her sleep, he said she blurted out Polish in church, blah and so on. We don't really know. But thankfully we have the DNA to solve the case and let us know who was right and wrong. No matter what she spoke and when she spoke it, she still wasn't Anastasia.

[ordino]

Hello everybody, just a point about the visist of Felix Y. to AA
I agree with AA if she did not want to speak with Felix Y, nor in Russian, English, German or morse.
Thanks.
Ordino

[Rachael89]

She did meet Irina's husband, Felix Yussoupov, in 1927. He proclaimed her a 'frightful playactress' and a 'wretched creature who could not possibly be the daughter of our Tsar." He said he spoke to her in Russian, English, French and German, yet she only responded in German. This was enough for him to denounce her immediately and testify against her in the trials for the rest of his life. I guess after he got home and told Irina, who was AN's cousin and knew her well, they had a good laugh, or perhaps a cry.

Do you mean that she only responded when questions were asked in German, or did she respond to the questions asked in the other languages as well?

Rachael

[Annie]

She did meet Irina's husband, Felix Yussoupov, in 1927. He proclaimed her a 'frightful playactress' and a 'wretched creature who could not possibly be the daughter of our Tsar." He said he spoke to her in Russian, English, French and German, yet she only responded in German. This was enough for him to denounce her immediately and testify against her in the trials for the rest of his life. I guess after he got home and told Irina, who was AN's cousin and knew her well, they had a good laugh, or perhaps a cry.

Do you mean that she only responded when questions were asked in German, or did she respond to the questions asked in the other languages as well?

Rachael

He said she only responded to the question he asked in German, in German.

[Rachael89]

Thankyou for making that clear Annie.

Did Felix know the Grand Duchesses very well? I know that Irina would of, growing up with them and frequently playing with the older girls, but I would of thought that Felix would of been too old to of been particuarlly close to Maria or Anastasia.

Rachael

[hg123]

Hello everybody, just a point about the visist of Felix Y. to AA
I agree with AA if she did not want to speak with Felix Y, nor in Russian, English, German or morse.
Thanks.
Ordino

But she did speak with him. Just only in one language. Nor do I know which reason the real Anastasia should have not to speak with Felix. She wasn't that close to Rasputin, was she?

Edit: I think he probably knew them well enough, they were part of the family after all. But obviously there were better candidates to identify AA, irina being one of them. In the end, I guess Felix took the chance to be in the spotlight again. No way he would have missed the opportunity. But I do think he knew them better than most of the very distant relations, who thought she was Anastasia.  

(HG123, who is as tempted to add, that if all members of this very big family had been as generous as Felix and his mother, the revolution might not have happened).

[ordino]

Maybe AA did not want to talk at all with Felix Y. Sometimes the best disregard is have not regard, example:
AA hated Felix Y., (because Rasputin and so on.......), he went to see her, so she spoken with him but, in german, her mother birth´s language. Like a said in my first reply in this point, I agree with AA I did not speak with Felix Y. nor in English, Russian either in morse
thanks. Ordino