A List - Claimant's Name/History/Fate

[AGRBear]

Let's gather up all the claimants into one thread.

The point of this thread is to collect all  the names of those who have claimed to have been the children of Nicholas II and Alexandra.  With each name mentioned whom he/she claimed to have been.   Such as Anna Anderson claimed she was GD Anastasia.  Because she does have her own thread,  there is no need to mention Ana Anderson anymore than this one brief sentence.  However, there were others [some claim as many a 40] who made the claim they were Anastasia.  There were others who claimed they were GD Alexie, etc.

This is not a thread to prove they were or were not the  "real" person they claimed to be.  We can have spin off threads if we find someone of great interest.

And,  I repeat, please,  do not place your opinion  "for" or "against" a particular claimant or claimants.

 THIS IS A LIST THREAD

This thread is simple.  So let me give the rules:
1. Name the claimant
2. Give what information you have which you'd like to share
3.  Name the source where you found the claimant's information
4.  If you know what happen to the claimant, please, add this, too.
5.  If you have a correction or additional information please give the post so we can easily refer back to that post.

Thanks.

My first example:

Nadezhda V. "Ivanova-Vasilyeva claimed to be GD Anastasia

This article, "The Unsolved Riddle of Princess Anastasia," appeared on today's Pravda English site:

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/13367_Nicholas.html

I'll quote the parts pertinent to this thread:

"On the morning of April 7, 1934 an emaciated young woman in shabby clothes entered the Resurrection Church on the Moscow Semyonovskoye Cemetery before service. Priest Ivan Sinaisky felt as if he had seen her before, though she did not belong to the parish. The unknown lady
was sent by hieromonk Afanasiy for confession. The priest was amazed to learn during confession that the lady was Anastasia Romanova, the daughter of the last Tsar Nicholas II. When asked about her miraculous escape from slaughter,  the stranger said: "I can"t talk about that".

"Now it is too late to identify the person who informed the NKVD on the clergyman who displayed concern for the woman"s fate. The warrant to arrest Nadezhda V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva read: "Investigation into the activities of a counter-revolutionary clerical monarchical organization has revealed that at the beginning of 1934 an unknown
woman, 30, who impersonated the daughter of the former Tsar Nicholas II - Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolayevna Romanova, resided illegally in Moscow. With an active assistance of hieromonk Afanasiy - Alexander M. Ivanshin - the above impostor obtained a false passport issued to Nadezhda V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva. The above hieromonk Afanasiy helped her raise about 1,000 roubles and sent her to a safer place, the town of Yalta, the Crimea, where she currently resides maintaining close contacts with Ivanshin. In her recent letters "Ivanova-Vasilyeva" asked Ivanshin to send her a considerable sum of money intending to go abroad. Based on the above, Nadezhda
V. "Ivanova-Vasilyeva" is subject to arrest and charges under the Criminal Code."

"She was detained in Yalta and under escort brought to Moscow. The escort guards knew that their detainee was a singular person. The woman disclosed right away that she was the monarch"s daughter and told her story. In the inquiry form Ivanova-Vasilyeva indicated foreign language teacher as "place of service and position". She declared no property of her own and refused to give information on
her father"s property. In the lines "social origin" and "family" she wrote " from the noble" and "none", respectively.

"The NKVD officer who conducted the interrogation of Nadezhda V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva wrote the transcript of interrogation:

"In November 1933, I was discharged from the Solovetsky camp. I met with Anna D. Kuznetsova in 1930, several days before my arrest. During our talk Kuznetsova told that she had been maintaining contacts with the Swedish Embassy and promised to inform it about my arrival. I wrote a letter to the English King George, the cousin of Nicholas II, and Kyrill Romanov, and asked Kuznetsova to send the letters via the Embassy.  In my letters I told that I had been behind bars all the time and was asking them to help me financially and help me leave the country. A few days later Kuznetsova told me that she had delivered my letters and an embassy employee,  a Greta Janson, wanted to see me. I was requested to come to the Khudozhestvenny Theatre at the appointed time. Accompanied by Kuznetsova, I came to the rendezvous with Janson, who invited us to her flat where she asked questions about the Romanov house. Then Janson said that princess Vyrubova was in Finland and asked me to write a letter to her, what I did. I asked her to tell the Romanovs" relatives that I was alive and asked for some money ."

"The claimant had been in touch with her "relatives" abroad until she was arrested in Yalta. Ivanova-Vasilyeva was examined by Prof. Krasnushkin, an NKVD psychiatrist. He wrote in her medical certificate: " Citizen Nadezhda V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva aged 33, .. manifests clear symptoms of panic disease in the form of paranoia expressed as systematized delusion of grandeur and persecution. As a
mentally sick person, chronic and representing a danger to society, she is subject to compulsory treatment at a civil metal hospital". The rest of her life, over 35 years, the woman spent in mental institutions.

"A forensic medical examination report made at Serbsky Mental Institute in Moscow said that the examined person in the "area of the lower third part of her both shoulder bones is covered with extensive soft scars reportedly of firearm origin." Whether the princess claimant got the scars in the cellar of the Ipatiev House, or elsewhere, was impossible to establish.

"Nadezhda V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva died in 1971 in a metal hospital on Sviyazhsk Island and was buried in a unknown grave."

I cannot attest to the accuracy of this report; the first part of the article covers the "Anna Anderson" story, and is wildly inaccurate in places.  The last third of the story is devoted to the claim of Natalya Petrovna Belikhodze, whose tale -- that she is Anastasia, and that she, Nicholas and Alexei left Ekaterinburg alive, to be followed later by other members of the family -- is quite well known through the book, "The Testament of Nicholas II" by Anatoly Gryannik.

AGRBear

[Sergio]

The Chicago Anastasia

Name: Eugenia Smith

Eugenia Smith, of Chicago, also known as Eugenia Drabek Smetisko, (1899-31 January 1997) was the author of the Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia, in which she claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. Though since World War II there have been at least ten "Anastasias": only Anna Anderson and Eugenia Smith achieved more than a small coterie of "believers".

She was born, according to naturalization papers she filled out in 1929 when she emigrated to the United States, in 1899 in Bukovina. Her book was originally represented to its publisher as a manuscript given her by Grand Duchess Anastasia. The publisher required that she take a lie detector test to verify this, a test which she failed. She then changed her story, claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, and passed the test on that story. She then adopted the birth date 18 June 1901, that of the Grand Duchess, and accordingly changed her birthplace to St. Petersburg.

She became a fixture on the Manhattan party circuit when LIFE magazine featured her claims in a largely favorable article on 18 October 1963. The article pointed out that she had failed to convince two anthropologists (who compared her features to photographs of Anastasia), a handwriting analyst (who found no match between her handwriting and Anastasia's) and a cousin and childhood playmate of Anastasia. The Orthodox Church rejected her claims. Smith refused the DNA testing which would have scientifically proven or disproven her claims.

She was an avid painter. Many of her works depict scenes of her purported childhood in Russia in the Imperial family and are in a private collection. She founded the St. Nicholas Foundation.

Many newpapers published her obituary using Anastasia's birthdate. Unlike Anna Anderson, who was cremated upon death, Eugenia Smith was interred in Orthodox fashion in the cemetery of Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery in Jordanville, New York. Cremation is prohibited in Orthodoxy.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenia_Smith

[Sergio]

The Alexei from Vancouver

Name: Alexei Heino Tammet-Romanov.

Sources: http://www.npsnet.com/tsarevich_alexei/

Additional informations:
1) http://www.russia.com/forums/showthread.php3?threadid=8216
2) http://hydrogen.pallasweb.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=loonies;action=display;num=1094856918
3) http://hydrogen.pallasweb.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=loonies;action=display;num=1095366718

Fate: died in a Vancouver area hospital on the 26th of June 1977.

[stepan]

                     Marga Boodts          

"A woman calling herself Grand Duchess Olga was living from the twenties in various parts of Europe and in 1939 she settled in nortern Italy under the name of Marga Boodts. she said she was rescued by a loyal officer and then taken to Vladivostok,across China and on by sea to Hamburg,Germany.She was then recognized,she claimed, by the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm,who assured her financial independence during his lifetime. Later on her fortune foundered, but she had an enduring supporter in the shape of prince Sigismund of Prussia,the Kaiser´s nephew and first cousin of the real Grand Duchess Olga. In an interview at his home in Costa Rica in 1974 Prince Sigismund confirmed that he was still convinced of "Olga´s" authenticity. He had met her and said: "We spoke of so many familiar matters that an outsider could not have known about,because they were things that had happened between us two." When we visited Mrs Boodts at her Italian home in 1975 she declined to speak about herself or past events. nothing at all emerged during the to support the notion that she was either the Grand Duchess Olga or even a Romanov."  
This is a quotation from "The file on the Tsar" by Mangold and Summers.  It seems that this woman got some support and was taken seriously by some people.  After Prince Sigismund  recognized her in 1957 he introduced her to the hereditary grand Duke of Oldenburg who was a godson of the tsar. He took a keen interest and supplied her with funds until his death in 1970.  It seems that Marga Boodts lived a very withdrawn life and avoided publicity. I haven´t seen a photo of her and it seems very little has been written about her. It would be interesting if anybody had any more information on her.  She was certainly one of the more intersting claimants.
 

                                                         

[Michelle]

Are there any photos of Marga Boodts?  I'd just absolutely love to see what she looked like! When did she die?

[stepan]

Hi Michelle!    I think that Marga Boodts died in 1977 if I´m not mistaken.  I suppose there are photos of her somewhere but I´ve never seen any.  I heard she lived in a villa near lake Como in Italy. She has been mentioned in several books for instance in James Lovell´s "Anastasia"  but there was not much more information than was in Summer and Mangold´s book.

[Sergio]

About

1) Nadezhda V. Ivanova-Vasilyeva: http://sovsekretno.ru/2002/04/13.html.

2) Marga Boodts: http://sovsekretno.ru/2002/06/16.html. (I think this article says that the whole Imperial Family survived).


Only in Russian. Please, someone can translate them?

[AGRBear]

This was mention on another thread:
Known as:  Natalya Bilikhodze

No kidding! Got that link?

Here's  another *NEW* story on an Anastasia claimant, I'm not sure what to make of this one, I've never heard of her before!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/22/wanas22.xml



The last 'real' Anastasia is showing her age at 101
By Marcus Warren in Moscow
(Filed: 22/06/2002)


The latest - and almost certainly the last - woman to declare that she is Anastasia, the murdered Tsar's youngest daughter, has surfaced in the former Soviet Union, apparently the heiress to a fabulous fortune and aged nearly 101.

Apparently, the Grand Duchess was not shot dead by the Bolsheviks in 1918 but is now living in Georgia where she is known as Natalya Bilikhodze, a committee formed to prepare her homecoming has announced in Moscow.

Supporters said that Mrs Bilikhodze, whose whereabouts are a secret, will visit Russia in September when her real identity will be acknowledged and billions of pounds belonging to the Romanovs will then be handed over to her.

Committee's chairman, Yuri Dergausov, told a press conference:"Let us restore the honourable name of Anastasia as soon as possible and bring the funds back to Mother Russia."

The claims place Mrs Bilikhodze in a glorious line of dozens who have claimed to be Nicholas and Alexandra's fourth child.

Her famous predecessors include a Swede, Anna Anderson, "discovered" in a Berlin psychiatric hospital, and an American woman called Eugenia Smith.

The Anastasia legend has inspired books, a cartoon film, a ballet and numerous hoaxes.

An exhaustive post mortem examination of remains found in the forests outside Yekaterinburg confirmed that they belonged to the Romanovs.

They were buried in a vault in St Petersburg four years ago. Russian experts yesterday reacted with weary scepticism to the news that the "real" Anastasia had turned up at last.

Eduard Radzinsky, a historian, said: "Whenever I finish a lecture in the West, there is always some pathetic man or woman hanging around at the end claiming to have heard of, know, or actually be a Romanov. It's sad really."

Vladimir Solovyev, the prosecutor who investigated the Yekaterinburg bones, said: "If someone is trying to present themselves as Anastasia, they will have to do it through the courts and that is practically impossible."

AGRBear

[AGRBear]

From another thread I had written some time ago the following:

>> Massie mentioned some of the imposters in The Romanovs, The Final Chapter in Part II.
1. * Nadezhda Ivanova Vasilyeva died  in 1971 in a asylum in Riga
2.  Two women, real names uknown, however, know as Marie and Anastasia who died in the Urals in 1964
3. Filipp G.  Semyonov who was said to have hemophilia and claimed to have been Alexis
4. *Marga Boodts who lived in Italy and claimed to be Olga
5. *Larisa Feodorovna Tudor died 1927 and buried in Kent, England who claimed she was Tatiana.  [See Marga Boodts]
6.  A man who  lived in Madrid as Prince Alexis d'Anjou whom some said was Alex Brimeyer.... died in Spain
7. Man, name unknown, claimed to be Alexis and lived in Ulm, Germany
8. *Alexi Tammet-Romanov died in 1977 in Vancover, British Columbia
9.  Prince Alexis Romanov who died in 1986 and had lived in Scottsdale, Arizonia
10.  Another Alexis was said to have been assassinated in Chicago by the KGB...
11 & 12.   Two people who claimed to be Alexis and Anastasia met in USA and gained some attention by the press... names unknown
13.  *Michael Goleniewski died in 1993 [1954?]..
14. *Eugenia Smith lived in Illinois then R.I. and Massie said was still living in 1995
15.  others  
16. *Anna Anderson (Manahan), who always had the most attention, died 1984, and whom many believe was a Polish peasant
 
Anyone have any other names? <<
 
AGRBear  

PS   I'll add "*"  in front of name above if mentioned above this post or below......   Anna Anderson who's mention on other threads  

[AGRBear]

See thread on Vasili Filatov:
http://hydrogen.pallasweb.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=loonies;action=display;num=1089372646;start=0#0

AGRBear

PS: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~alexofdenmark/

[AGRBear]

Colonel Michael Goleniew[ski]
d. 1952 buried in parish cemetry, Wolsztyn, Poland


This claimant is mentioned in Guy Richard's  THE HUNT FOR THE CZAR on pre page 146 there are to photographs of this man who claimed to be Alexei.  One taken in 1946 and the other in 1964.  Another after 218 with other photographs of people like  Eugenia Smith, someone claiming she was Marie...

There is also an interesting photo of a Eugene Nicholaevich Ivanov who claimed he was Alexei after p. 146....

Back to Michael.  According to Summers and Mangold,  Michael had been in the Polish intelligence who defected with the help of the CIA....  The story is on pps 193-194 The File On the Tsar. p. 195 there is mention that Richard's wrote a book called Imperial Agent which supported Michael's claim.

There was never any evidence which proved Michael was Alexei according to the US govt. officals.

GRBear

[AGRBear]

Uspensky Convent Grp.  1919

A woman claimed she was "tsarina" and her "son" and "daughter" were declared impostors by the Bolsheviks who claimed the tsarina was a "schoolmaster's daughter",  the son  was the "son of a village priest" and the "sister" was a peasant's daughter .... p. 190 , File on the Tsar, Mangold and Summers.

AGRBear

[AGRBear]

Claimant of the village of Altai near Omsk:  

A boy of about sixteen.

A  General D.  asked Pierre Gillard to view a  boy  but Gillard thought the boy looked far to "strong" to be the real Tsarvich Alexei, however, the boy did look vaguely like the  Tsarvich

p. 193 File on the Tsar, Mangold and Summers

AGRBear

PS  On page 531 in Nicholas and Alexanda by Robert Massie is a brief mention of a boy found in Siberia whom Gillard had seen.  Massie tells us the boy was an imposter and could speak only Russian.  I do not know if this was the same boy mentioned in File on the Tsar but thought I'd mention it here, just in case it was.

[AGRBear]

Alexei Claimant in Iraq


p. 193 File of the Tsar, Mangold and Summers

Aparently Cecil  Edmonds bumped into someone who claimed he was Alexei who was serving in northern Iraq in 1926.  The man did have haemophilia.  Edmonds referred the case to King George V but the king rejected the possibility.

No farther evidence given.

AGRBear

PS  Cecil Edmonds was CBE, a former political officer with the old Colonial Office.
PSS  Evidently the British Director of the CID questions this boy who didn't change his story.  He was tested and did have hemophilia.  

[Robert_Hall]

To add to your claimant bibliography:
NO RESTING PLACE FOR A ROMANOV, [the Kent Tatiana] Sue Edwards, 1998. Privately printed, isbn 0 9529292 1X
And
THE CONSPIRATOR WHO SAVED THE ROMANOVS by Gary Null, 1971 no isbn [claims they all survived, esp. pushes the Goleniewsi story].
Cheers,
Robert