why so many anastasias?

[ilyala]

i didn't know where to place this but i think this is where it fits best... i have always had this curiosity: why out of the whole imperial family was anastasia most represented among the claimants? before the bodies were discovered, before anyone noticed a grand duchess was missing, before studies showing that it could be either her or marie (although after reading a little i tend to think it's marie).

why do you think the pretenders chose her to impersonate, rather than any of her sisters who hardly had any claimants?

just curious

[Janet_W.]

I'm guessing, Ilyala, that it would have to do with several important factors: 1) Of the five children, three were for most intents and purposes adults and fully grown, and would not have shown tremendous physical changes from 1918 through the 1920s and 30s. 2) Of the five children, two in particular--Olga and Tatiana--did make numerous public appearances during the war years, and their images were especially well known. 3) Of the five children, the heir, Alexei, was known to be physically frail, and after 1912 it was fairly well acknowledged that he was a probable hemophilliac. To believe that he would survive injuries during imprisonment, let alone a firing squad, would take a particular leap of faith. 4) Of the five children, Anastasia not only was known to have a strong constitution and fearless attitude, but had one of the lower profiles and was remembered as being a child more than a young lady.

[ilyala]

true but by the time she was killed, she was 17. i was actually very surprised to see that there are photos of her at that time. yes, they are not very publicized, but they exist. and while changes can still occur from then on, the major changes of one's faces happen before the age of 17.

do you think the claimants reasonably chose anastasia to impersonate? that would involve some kind of planning... and while i don't deny that there must have been some who were calculate about this, i think most of them were pretty much convinced that they were who they said they were... that is, a bit... loose could they have convinced themselves they were anastasia after realizing that she was the most logical choice? wasn't it more of a sudden awakening of the 'i am anastasia' sort?  :-/

[Janet_W.]

Yes, I do think that at least one of the Anastasia impersonators actually believed she was Anastasia . . . as the adage goes, "Thinking makes it so"! (Just as I believe a certain famous United States sports figure convinced himself that he didn't kill his wife, even though all rational evidence points to him being the murderer . .  . but I digress . . .  :-/  )

Strange as it seems to us now, Anastasia was actually the most obscure of the four girls at the time of the abdication. Even Marie had a coming-out party of sorts . . . this was the occasion, alas, where she slipped and fell down the steps! But by 1914 she was becoming fairly well recognized, due in great part to her physical maturity implying she was of marriageable age.

Yes, by the time Anastasia reached 17, her features would have been those of her adult self . . . but formal, official photographs of the family were not as plentiful by the beginning of the war, when she had just turned 14. I don't know that the women who claimed to be Anastasia were consciously choosing to be Anastasia, but anyone who wanted to financially back one of these ladies, or who wanted to believe in the survival of a royal family member, probably would find it easier to reconcil to the survival of Anastasia, for the reasons I mentioned above.    

[londo954]

Also one must remember that as time passed it seemed only practical that of any of the children to survive it would be either Anastasia or Alexi and Alexi's survival would immediate refuted due to the hemophilia

[ilyala]

Also one must remember that as time passed it seemed only practical that of any of the children to survive it would be either Anastasia or Alexi and Alexi's survival would immediate refuted due to the hemophilia

why do you say that? are you talking about the discovery of the bodies?

[calebGmoney]

Because Anna Anderson was the most famous claimant, and people were imitating her.

There weren't that many, and the only famous ones were Anna Anderson and Eugenia Smith.

[Mander]

I agree with Janet that Anastasia was probably the least publically recognized. The public didn't have access to photographs the way we do now. Many may not have even known what their own Czar looked like in the outerlying areas.

I'm also very into the history of the RMS Titanic. It is also a historical tragedy that has spawned NUMEROUS survivors. I once read that if the number of people who claimed to have been on board that ship actually had been, she would have sank at the pier!

[calebGmoney]

I agree with Janet that Anastasia was probably the least publically recognized. The public didn't have access to photographs the way we do now. Many may not have even known what their own Czar looked like in the outerlying areas.

I'm also very into the history of the RMS Titanic. It is also a historical tragedy that has spawned NUMEROUS survivors. I once read that if the number of people who claimed to have been on board that ship actually had been, she would have sank at the pier!

actually, there were many photographs of the imperial family posted in postcards and magazines.

[Rachael89]

actually, there were many photographs of the imperial family posted in postcards and magazines.

Yes, but the main focus of the media at the time was on the Tsar's elder and most importantly, marriable daughters, after 1914 very few current pictures of the family were availiable becasue of the war and for the public of Russia Anastasia would perpetually be around 12 or 13 years of age.

Rachael

[Lanie]

Most likely because she was the youngest.  Maybe people associated that with having more of a chance of surviving ( ).  Also it could be because she wasn't well known people would have a better chance of believing an imposter of Anastasia as opposed to Olga or Tatiana who were plastered all over newspapers?

[RomanovFan318]

I think its was probably because she was the youngest of the daughters and had probably not  made as many appearances as her older sisters -especially Olga and Tatiana who had served as nurses during WWI. It would have been easier to impersonate her.

I think that had Alexei not been a hemophiliac we would have many more Alexei claimants than Tammet, Vasili Filatov, and Michael Golienowsky(sp).

[calebGmoney]

I think its was probably because she was the youngest of the daughters and had probably not  made as many appearances as her older sisters -especially Olga and Tatiana who had served as nurses during WWI. It would have been easier to impersonate her.

I think that had Alexei not been a hemophiliac we would have many more Alexei claimants than Tammet, Vasili Filatov, and Michael Golienowsky(sp).

Trust me, there were. There were way more Alexei claimants than Anastasias most likely, judging from Massie's book.

[Romanov_fan]

I think there just seem to not to be that many claimants who said they were one of the Czar's other children until you start reading more, and discovering there were many other claimants who claimed be others of his children. The last poster is correct about the many Alexeis. I at first assumed most claimants chose to be Anastasia, until I started reading more, and then realized that that wasn't necessarily true, as true as it might seem at first glance, because in popular memory there is only Anna Anderson.. But while there might have been many claimants who were others of his children, perhaps his two youngest children were best represented...

[komarov]

My thoughts are that Anastasia is the most publicised, thereby there are the most claimants who really don't know what they're talking about...and by converse logic, that means there's better odds for the non-Anastasia claimants because 1, they know more, and 2, there aren't so many of them.  Does anyone follow that?