Commonly spread myths, rumors and misleading info
How the myths have spread and perpetuated, and how easily they are debunked
So
much of the story has become legend that, though the story itself
isn't even true, there are even parts of the fictional story that are
no more than rumors.These lines are often tossed about as fact when
there is little to no basis for them when you do some investigating.
It's disgraceful how many of these misleading
statements work their way into the story, and even history, until many
people don't know any better than to accept them as facts when they are
not. Seeing so many of them show up on the web lead me here today to
try to refute, or at least clarify them, before more fiction becomes
presumed reality.
She knew things only the real Anastasia would have known, and even the court intimates didn't know about!
She did? Well then tell me, WHO verified these things as accurate? If no one knew but the family, and they were dead, and even surviving court intimates wouldn't know, how do we know if these things are true or not? And how does one determine exactly what 'only Anastasia' would know? This statement doesn't have a leg to stand on, with or without a triangular bayonet scar on the foot.
How did she know so much?
Many of the things mentioned as being something she could only have known if she were Anastasia were readily available in books at the time, such as the story of the jewels being sewn into the clothing. This story has been used by supporters over the years to boost her claim of knowing 'inside information', but the details of the jewels being sewn into the clothes to hide them are clearly stated in the 1920 book "The Last Days of the Romanovs" by Robert Wilton. The information came from the examination of Pierre Gilliard, who was an early visitor of Anderson, so the info could have come from him, or the book, but either way, the story was out there in print before Anderson ever claimed to be Anastasia so it was not anything special for her to know. Another 'secret' detail of their lives in captivity that was supposed to have proven AA was actually there as Anastasia was the stories of the plays they put on in Tobolsk, however, this too is mentioned in the same 1920 book! The more her 'memories' are researched, the more can be traced to an existing source and the more hot air comes out of her claim.[1]
It's also not reported by Anderson supporters that many of her 'memories' were inaccurate or wrong. She claimed her finger had been smashed in a door, when in reality it was Marie. She got the details of the Malichite room wrong, as well as other colors and details of the interior of the palace. She claimed her Aunt Xenia called her "Astouchka", [2]yet no one in the family had heard anything of this nickname. She claimed Sydney Gibbes walked with a limp though he did not, and said Anna Vyrubova was a redhead, which she wasn't. Of course her supporters always excused these gaffes due to her 'trauma' and 'memory loss.'[3]The more contact she had with the emigre' community, the more anecdotes she obtained. It's apparent that what happened is that she picked these little stories up, but got some of them wrong, or perhaps her sources had remembered incorrectly. Either way, Anderson was never in any of the palaces, and didn't 'know' anything about them or the family from personal experience.
She
knew about the secret trip her Uncle Ernie of Hesse-Darmstadt made to
Russia in 1916, only Anastasia could have known about that!
First
of all, we have no proof the trip actually happened. It seems unlikely
that it did, but there is no absolute proof one way or the other.
Anderson's supporters hinge much value to Ernie's alleged campaign to
'discredit' AA because, as they claim, 'the publication of such a
story could brand him as a traitor' and 'it
was of utmost importance for him to discredit the invalid'. Supporters
call this 'dropping the bomb' and go on to villanize Ernst and deny his
detectives' discovery of her identity as Franziska Schanzkowska as just
a way for Ernst to hide the 'bomb'. However, this twisted legend isn't
true! There was already a book published in Germany in 1922 "In the Face of
the Revolution", that openly accused Ernie of making the trip and claiming to have facts
to back it up.[4] Does this mean Anna Anderson must have been Anastasia if
she was right? No, quite the opposite. Because this book was available
to the public in Germany in 1922, this proves that the story of the
'trip' was already out there before Anderson spoke of it, and there is
a very high chance that is where she or her supporters got the idea for
it. It was a German girl who owns a copy who told me of the book, and
that it was unpopular and today very obscure. It was
published only in German, so
this is why few if any Americans ever heard of it. (It is
likely Harriet von Rathlef, a writer and supporter, would have had
knowledge of it) Seemingly, one or more of her supporters found out these rumors and decided to use them to blackball, or blackmail, Ernie with them, but it didn't work. So while we still cannot prove if the trip
happened or not, we can prove one thing- Anna Anderson had
access to the 1922 information before she accused Ernie in 1925,
so there is nothing unique or mysterious that "only Anastasia could
have known."
No 'bomb' to set Ernst out on a campaign to 'discredit' his 'niece.' So
another one bites the dust. The real reason Ernst fought against the
claimant is because he knew she really truthfully wasn't Anastasia.
Perhaps the biggest thing in Ernie's favor on this is that his diaries prove he was in France at the time of the alleged trip.[5] What a shame the truth could not have been discovered in his lifetime. There are probably
a lot more ways to refute the things she came up with if we only look
hard enough.
This was not only not true, and has been proven by an extensive
examination of all records recently. It was only made up to discredit and attack Sophie for
her outright denial of Anderson when she was "Tatiana" in the mental
asylum.[5a] This, like the 'Ernie's secret trip' story, were
invented by Anderson and her early supporters in attempts to make
'Anastasia' appear to be in possession of 'secret' knowledge no one
else knew, and if the story could be believed, so would her
'identity'. Anderson's claims that Buxhoevedon betrayed the family
to the Bolsheviks by giving away secrets in exchange for her freedom is
no more than an elaborate fantasy by Anderson supporters. Examining the
facts, we see that all of the 'betrayal' rumors are unfounded. One
claim is that she betrayed them by taking their money, others claim she
betrayed them by telling the Bolsheviks they had jewels when they got
to Ekaterinburg- but as the 1920 book "The Last Days of the Romanovs" reveals, the
Reds were not naive and fully expected the wealthy ex royals to be
packing jewels, and didn't need anyone to tell them. They searched the
family's belongings and confiscated jewels and other valuables, upon
arrival,[6] and continued long afterward.[7][8] Some will try to say she
told the Bolsheviks about the
jewels sewn into the clothing, even quoting unverified, 'unpublished'
sources, however, the real, published, verified sources all clearly
state that the Bolsheviks knew absolutely nothing of the 'medicines'
until they had all been shot and stripped. Proof of this in
Yurovsky's
1934 testimonies, where he explains how they had no idea why the
bullets bounced off the girls, or that they had jewels in their
bodices, until after they were dead- proving nobody them beforehand, so
Sophie did not tell the Bolsheviks, or they'd have known.
Here is the
proof, from Yurovsky himself. He later told the story of how he
finally found out about the jewels: "They shot the daughters but nothing happened, then (Y)Ermakov set
the bayonet in motion and that didn't help; then they were finally
finished off by being the head. Only in the forest did I discover what
hampered the shooting of the daughters.." [9]
Yurovsky wrote about the discovery of the jewels, and how he figured out why the bullets and bayonets had such a hard time penetrating the women: "Things that had been sewn into the daughters' and Alexandra's clothing were discovered when the bodies began to be undressed..The daughters had bodices made up of diamonds and other precious stones that served not just as a receptacle for valuables but as protective armor. This is why neither bullets nor bayonets yielded results during the shooting and bayonet blows..there turned out to be eighteen pounds of such valuables."[12]
That is all the proof needed to show he and the other Bolsheviks were not 'tipped off' about any jewels sewn into clothing. The earlier searches, and pilfering of the family's valuables as described in Alexandra's diary[12a] and in later reports, also go to show that if they had known about the sewn-in ones, those certainly would not have been spared, only to be revealed on the dead bodies of their owners. Avdiev's men regularly raided the family's personal items, even if front of them and his men took what they wanted from the storeroom.[12b] If they'd really been informed of the hidden ones, they would have not been exempt from the thefts. When Yurovsky took over, he made the Romanovs show all the jewels they had with them, and he took all of them except Alexei's watch and the items which were too tight to be removed. He made a list of them, and checked them every day.[12c] If he had been aware of of the ones in the clothing, he would have demanded those as well. But of course he didn't know, because he said so himself. [12d] The entire story of Buxhoeveden telling about the jewels is false and there is proof.
Fact-checking the allegations against Buxhoeveden, more glaring inaccuracies appear. Her accusers claim she told the Bolsheviks about the large diamonds covered with fabric and disguised as buttons, but the Bolsheviks were never aware of such things, as the true evidence bears out. One of the large diamonds that had been carefully covered and concealed in a button was never discovered by the Bolsheviks. They were so oblivious to its existence and location it was later found by the Whites after they took Ekaterinburg, trampled into the mud at the grave site like trash. If they had been told of it, this would not have happened. The relic was identified by Ersberg and Toutelberg, two former servants who had helped the Grand Duchesses sew the jewels into the clothing.[13] In that same alleged comment to the Bolsheviks, she was supposed to have told them about a belt of pearls. This, too, was not discovered until after the murders, on Alexandra,[13a] who hadn't even traveled on the Rus, where the alleged pointing it out as 'that belt there' was supposedly uttered- yet another huge hole in the story. Because the belt with the rope of pearls was not discovered until it fell out after she was dead proves they also had no prior knowledge of it, either. (The list of its finding documented in other books may well have been where those who started the rumor may have gotten the idea to mention it specifically, and the same can be said of the buttons.) "Last Days" mentions that Olga wore a satchel around her neck with some special gems and wore several ropes of pearls concealed across her shoulders. "The manner in which the concealment effected misled the superficial search of the bodies at the (Ipatiev) house."[14] This is proof the Bolsheviks were completely fooled and unaware of the hidden pearls. They never found or knew of any sewn in items as long as the family was alive. The jewels were sewn into double camisoles, thin undershirts worn under the corsets. two were sewn together and the loose stones were quilted into them. the whale bone of the corsets would have prevented anyone from feeling the stones in a pat down search.
Another very glaring error in her accusers' storyline is adding the maid Anna Romanova as an accomplice. This young woman, who was said to have also gone over to 'rat out' the family's jewels, was reported to have been extensively interrogated by the Ural Soviet upon reaching Ekaterinburg. The problem here is, while it's implied she did, Romanova never made the trip on the Rus, and was never in Ekaterinburg! Col. Kobylinski, who was in charge of the family until they left Tobolsk, stated to investigators later the names of those who traveled with the family, and Romanova was not on the list. He also listed her specifically by name as one who did not make the trip, but stayed in Tobolsk![15] Romanova did betray the family, and she did go over to the Bolsheviks and marry one of their commissars, as accused. However, it had nothing to to with Buxhoeveden or any hidden jewels. She was an accomplice of Boris Soloviev, husband of Maria Rasputin, who married her to gain the trust of the wealthy Monarchists sending money to Siberia to fund a possible rescue mission.[16] It was he who took the money he blamed others for stealing, and he, with a little help from Romanova and some hand signals, betrayed the family- not Sophie Buxhoeveden.[17] The truth, like a bad penny, always turns up in the end.
The idea put forth by AA supporters that Baroness Buxoevedon betrayed the family in exchange for her own freedom are ridiculous, untrue, and inaccurate, when you find out all the real facts. Sophie's own book, "Left Behind", shows that Sophie had no easy path to 'freedom.' She was separated from the family when they were transferred to Ekaterinburg along with Gilliard, Gibbes and other foreign nationals. The Bolsheviks were having enough trouble fighting off the monarchist White Army in the Russian Civil War which followed the revolution, and they were afraid of angering any foreign governments who might also attack them and weaken their fragile power hold. For this reason, they would not imprison citizens of other nations. Though Sophie was born and raised in Russia, her father was of Danish descent, and her name was mistaken by the Bolsheviks for being Swedish.[18]
Afterward, she faced no easy way out of the country. For thirteen
months she and her companions traveled, hid out, and lived in fear of
being caught and killed as turmoil and even anarchy raged about them
while each faction, Red, White, and Green, took and retook each area of
Siberia. They were witnesses to many atrocities, including the public
execution of children. They were in almost constant fear for their
lives. It was only when they made their way to Omsk, which was then
under British control, that they were given passage safely out of
Russia on a British Military train.[19] It was by no favor of any
Bolsheviks! The whole betrayal story is again fiction and without any
basis in reality. So clear this woman's name, and chalk up another blow
for Anderson's bogus story.
If by 'historians' this means the people who supported her who wrote books about her, that's all there is. No scholarly historians in the academic world accept the Anna Anderson story, and if any ever did, they stopped after the DNA tests came out. Major news agencies state for a fact that she was actually Franziska when doing stories about the family.[20][21] There are other supporters, but they are not actual historians. In the academic world, Anna Anderson being Anastasia has gone the way of the flat earth.
Anna Anderson and Franziska Schanskowska were both accounted for at the same time
There is no evidence that anyone mentioned having contact with
Franziska between Feb. 17 and March 9 while Anderson was in the asylum.
Franziska wasn't reported missing immediately (see more on this in
"Appearance of AA/Disappearance of FS") but that does not mean she was
still walking around as a different person as certain avid Anderson
supporters would desperately like for you to believe. She was not,
they were the same person.
A TV show in the 1990's did new tests proving Anna Anderson and Anastasia were the same person!
False. This misinformation found its way into Peter Kurth's book "Tsar" and stated that at the same time the DNA tests were coming in, a British documentary used facial and ear tests to prove 'with certainty' that Anderson was Anastasia. The book does not even list the name of the program, but the shows in question were Britain's channel 4 documentary "Mystery of Anastasia", which aired Oct. 5, 1994, and its American version, PBS's NOVA episode "Anastasia: Dead or Alive" which aired Oct. 10, 1995. These shows used the same information. Geoffrey Oxlee, an expert in forensic identification, used modern computer technology to compare pictures of Anderson and Franziska Schanzkowska, and found them to be the same person- NOT Anderson and Anastasia. It was also claimed that ear tests were done, and they were, though no one declared Anderson to be Anastasia. Dr. Peter Venezis and his team compared several photographs of the ears of Anderson and Anastasia, and found them very similar. Venezis gave them a 4 out of a possible 5, not a perfect match due to them being of various ages, angles and lighting. [22] If you would like to see these things for yourself, the NOVA episode is available for sale on the internet, and the British version is probably available in the United Kingdom. They may also be rerun on television at certain times, or be kept in some libraries to be checked out for personal use.
The family believed it was her but rejected her for money. One of Xenia's grandsons said "We always knew it was her."
Quite the opposite, this quote is not true and they never believed it was her. When the DNA tests were revealed, Prince
Rostislav Romanov(grandson of Xenia Alexandrovna) was quoted as
saying "I never had a shadow of a doubt. My father was raised with
Anastasia, and this woman would never see him."[23] She would avoid those
who knew her best out of fear of damning rejections. Xenia and Sandro's
children were first cousins of the Imperial children and saw them
often. Interestingly enough, none of them were ever sought
out to identify her as "Anastasia." It's also interesting to note that the alleged 'source' of this statement is none other than megasupporter Gleb Botkin, and there is nothing to back it up other than his word.
There was a guy who saw Anastasia alive in the house across the street after the shootings!
His name was
Heinrich Kleibenzetl, he was an Austrian tailor, and he claimed he
sewed uniforms for the Bolsheviks so he had access to the Ipatiev
house. He boarded at the house across the street, and he said when he
came home one night his landlady told him Anastasia was in his bed
wounded. He gave testimony on this in Anderson's favor.
Okay,
what's wrong with this story? The first thing that comes to mind is how
does this even help Anderson's claim? Her 'escape' story mentioned
nothing of her being in a house, on the contrary, the rescuers put her
into a waiting cart and fled the scene immediately. The man never even
ID'd Anderson as the same person he saw in the bed. Besides this the
very fact that it most surely never happened. The Bolsheviks didn't
have the money or the vanity to hire a private tailor, and they
wouldn't have trusted a foreigner. I doubt there was a house that close
to the Ipatiev that things could be seen going on there, as he claimed.
The Bolsheviks chose it for a 'special purpose', they wouldn't have
allowed a tailor and his landlady to watch them freely. Even IF
Anastasia had been taken wounded from the house, it's not realistic
anyone would have left her in such close proximity to the murder scene,
because if she was missing that would have been the first place they
searched and everyone would have been shot. Sadly, it's also unlikely
anyone would have risked their lives to help someone the Bolsheviks
wanted dead. There are reports that Grand Duchess Elizabeth (Ella), and
some of the other victims thrown into the pit at Alapaevsk
the day after the Romanovs were shot lived and suffered for days. The
local peasants heard them singing hymns and crying out for help, but no
one came near in fear of their lives.
To prove even further just how unrealistic this is, here is the statement of Sir Thomas Preston, who was British Consul-General in
Ekaterinburg at the time of the Romanov murders:
"On the night of the murder a curfew had been imposed, forbidding
anybody to appear in the streets after 8 p.m. on pain of death, a
regulation which nobody who valued his life would have dared to
disobey. In these circumstances we are asked to believe that Svboda
'and his friend' were able to produce a house and cart, to (enter) the
House Epatiev, identify and bring out the wounded Anastasia (whom they
had never seen before), and take her to a house nearby when every house
in the vicinity was under the strictest surveillance of the ubiquitous
agents of the Tcheka."[24]
This entire story of allegedly seeing Anastasia alive and wounded is, to put it kindly, completely fabricated.
What about the people who saw Alexandra and the girls alive in Perm the next day?
The
Perm story gets a lot of mileage. However, this too is false.
Ironically, it began as a story the Bolsheviks made up to hide the fact
that the women were dead, but over time it has become one of the
favorite stories used to 'prove' they lived!
How
is this possible? One of the ways Lenin was able to gain enough support
for the Bolsheviks to take over the country was to promise to end
Russia's involvement in WWI, which had become very bloody and unpopular
and helped drive the Tsar, and later Kerensky and the Provincial
Government, from power. The Germans were occupying parts of Russia
after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and Kaiser
Wilhelm, Alexandra's first cousin, had expressly demanded the safety of "all princesses of German blood"
meaning Alexandra and the GDs. So when the Ekaterinburg soviet killed
them, Moscow had to pretend they were all still fine, by claiming "I have taken all necessary steps in favor of the Tsarina and Princesses of German Blood"[25] To admit they had been killed was to risk angering
the Germans, whom they were trying to make peace with. Though the treaty had been signed in March, there is evidence from
eyewitnesses including Prince Felix Yussoupov that the Germans were
still trying to negotiate using it as a bargaining tool well into the
summer. In May, when the Kaiser's aide de camp arrived in the Crimea to
offer to restore the monarchy to any Romanov who would sign the treaty.
The Germans did not leave Russian territory until the Armistace in
November.[26] Until then, the Russians were certainly concerned with their
presence.
Secondly, there
was indeed much international demand for their safety. The King of
Spain was also trying to negotiate with Moscow for the safe release of
Alexandra and the girls. To save face, Moscow issued the fake story that they had been moved to a place of safety, or taken away to Perm. In July, two versions on the
tsar's family's disappearance from Ekaterinburg started to circulate. Opposing the evidence of the tsar's family's execution, several witnesses testified that the tsar's family was not shot but moved from Ekaterinburg to Perm or Verkhoturye. However that version was not supported by the objective data of the investigation. None of the witnesses had claimed that he had actually seen the tsar's family leaving.[27]
Don't
forget, the Bolsheviks already KNEW the whole family was dead by this
point, yet they are lying to the Germans about the women being alive.
For this reason, they had to invent stories of sightings to give some
credence to these claims. In 1963, Medvedev, a Bolshevik involved in the killings, admitted: "A day or two later (after the announcement by Urals Regional Soviet that Nicholas had been shot) in Ekaterinburg's newspapers the news appeared that Nicholas II had been shot according to the people's verdict and that his family had been taken out of the town and hidden in a safe place. I do not know the true aims of the Bodorodov's maneuver but I suppose the Urals Regional Soviet did not want to tell the inhabitants that women and children had been shot. Probably there were some other reasons, but neither I nor Yurovsky were aware of them. Anyway, that deliberately false information in the newspapers inspired tales about the rescue of the tsar's children, Anastasia's escape abroad and other legends that are still alive."[28]
The false story to cover their deaths completely twisted meanings grew into a fictional legend to use as proof they were alive! The Perm story claiming the women were still alive after the execution has spread mostly due to unproven and now proven untrue speculative theories presented as possible truth by Summers and Mangold in their book "The File on the Tsar."
Even the official telegram between the Bolsheviks reeked of intended deception from the beginning. This shows they had planned ahead of time to lie about how the family died:
To MOSCOW, KREMLIN for GORBUNOV, Secretary of Council of Peoples Commissars
Please confirm receipt
Tell Sverdlov that the entire family has met the same fate as its head. Officially, they will perish during the evacuation.
BIELOBORODOV[29]The Bolsheviks frequently lied about who they killed to cover themselves, and there is precedence.. They also often spread rumors of the victims being seen alive to throw off suspicion deceitfully after they had actually been executed. When they murdered Ella, the Konstantinovichi brothers, Sergei Mikhailovich, Prince Paley and Sister Varvara at Alapaevsk, after they had committed the deed, they ran back to the town, and as the executioner Rybov wrote in his memoirs, 'rang the church bells and announced that the prisoners had been taken away by unknown persons!' [30] Sadly, this led to false hope for the families, as the bodies were found later when the White Army took over the region.
When the Tsar's younger brother, Grand Duke Michael, was taken out by three men and shot with his secretary, the Cheka falsified documents to say that the three men were 'unknown.[31] For some so tough eager to kill, none of the Bolsheviks at any level had the intestinal fortitude to admit what they'd done and take the blame themselves.
Further evidence of the Bolsheviks covering up the murder of the entire family is this headline:
From NY Times:
LONDON,
July, 20.--Nicholas Romanoff, ex-Czar of Russia, was shot July 16,
according to a Russian announcement by wireless today.The former
Empress and Alexis Romanoff have been sent to a place of security.[32]
Another
big factor in all of these 'sightings' of the girls is that it's
unlikely anyone would have been able to recognize and identify the
girls anyway, or even tell OTMA apart.They looked nothing like the
glamour shots of the Tercentenery family photos, often shabbily
dressed, their hair still short from their heads being shaved the year
before due to measles, covered with hats. Consider also that people in
those days, especially that far out, most of them poor, probably didn't
see many, if any, family pictures. They didn't have access to the
internet and a pile of books like we have today. So even if someone had
seen them, which they didn't because they weren't there, would they
even know? In a letter to a friend, Anastasia had relayed a story to a
friend that a young boy at a train station on the way through Siberia
had mistaken her for a man, calling her 'uncle', and it hurt her
feelings. No one ran up and said "Look there's Grand Duchess
Anastasia!" Don't forget, there are plenty of "Elvis" sightings,
too.
Now for some of the sillier ones:
Anna Anderson must have been
royalty, she didn't know anything about how to count or spend money
because Anastasia had never been shopping!
Anna Anderson had
a triangle shaped scar on her foot that was exactly the same shape as a
special bayonet only used by Bolsheviks in that region of Russia at
that time!
Okay, she had a scar on her foot. It could
have been from the explosion at the grenade factory, or dropping a knicknack or glass
when she was a kid. Very likely it could have been from dropping a broken bottle with jagged glass at the brewery where she'd worked. But it wasn't from "a special bayonet only used by
Bolsheviks in that region of Russia at that time!" Where is this mythical magical bayonet? There is no such thing!
The Bolsheviks of that region at that time did not have any particular
uniform issued weapons. They were more like a band of insurgents, or a
'rag tag army' like the Americans in the Revolutionary war, at the time, they didn't
have crisp matching uniforms, spit shined shoes and identical weapons.
At that point, they didn't even have total control of the country, or
the army. There were several warring factions, and Moscow had certainly
not been able to make sure all the Reds had a special bayonets all
alike. They used what they had and were glad to get it. The 'special'
bayonet with this unique shape on the point that was 'only' used by
certain Bolsheviks in a certain place at a certain time did not exist! Besides, there is documentation that they had been practicing by cutting their bayonets into the door stops, and those cuts were slices, not stars.[34]
So this story is completely rumor and supporters manifesting themselves
quite a story out of one scar on a woman's foot. Anna wasn't really Anastasia and therefore was never in
Ekaterinburg the night of the massacre.
Anna Anderson played the piano beautifully, just like Anastasia!
In 1925, Anderson had an operation on her left arm due to tuberculosis of the bones. It was also infected, and a threat to her life. While her arm was saved from amputation with surgery by Dr. Rudnev, a supporter, it had suffered severe damage, leaving it paralyzed from the elbow down at an 80 degree angle for the rest of her life.[35] So, she couldn't have played the piano very well with one hand. Besides, there isn't actual evidence of Anderson playing the piano. This same argument (only one functional hand) can be used to refute the 'embroidery' claim, though that, like music itself, is not exclusive to the wealthy and there is really no reason to believe a poor person like Franziska couldn't know these skills.
Anna Anderson had all the same exact scars all over body as Anastasia got during the shooting in the basement!
Since
there is no way to determine exactly what injuries the real Anastasia
sustained, how can we do an accurate match? There are various accounts
of the execution from the Bolsheviks, but the details are not clear
enough to go by, and some contradict others. By most of these accounts,
she was only injured in the head, either with a bayonet or a bullet to
the face. It's doubtful that most of the firing squad even knew one
girl from the other to name as "Anastasia" or anyone else. So we can't
prove this at all, though it's sadly become a taken for granted part of
the legend.
Franziska and Gertrude had different mothers!
This was a rumor spread by Anderson supporters/DNA naysayers. Ah, but it did match! This rumor started on a message board due to a mistake in a book, perpetuated in another which used it for a source, that Felix and Franziska were 'children of the second marriage'. This unwittingly left the dangerous impression that the others, including Gertrude, had a different mother. This would make Franziska and Gertrude not maternally related. However it was an error, the person giving the information to the authors was mistaken. There were two wives, but not two sets of children. Mr. Schanzkowska's first wife died, probably in childbirth, leaving no children. So really every one of them were 'children of the second marriage' and whole siblings. As it turns out, Franziska was the oldest, Felix one of the youngest, with Gertrude in between. All of the Schanzkowska siblings, Franziska, 1896, Gertrude, 1898, Valerian, 1901, Felix, 1903 and Maria Juliana, 1905, were all born to the same parents, Anton Schanzkowska and his second wife, Marianna Wiscek.The scientists knew what they were doing when they found a maternally related candidate, and the family knew very well his relationship to Franziska.
Some people just don't want to believe it was her because they want to think the whole family died and became Holy Martyrs together and if one lived it messes that up so they have to hate Anna and deny her because they're so afraid she really was Anastasia!
Um...no. People who don't believe in Anna Anderson being Anastasia don't believe it because she was a fraud and DNA tests proved it. If the real Anastasia had lived even though the rest of her family died, I'm sure all of those who care about the Romanovs would have rejoiced. But it's just not true.
There were so many rich and powerful people
and royalty involved they didn't want to be embarrassed that their
family had denied the real Anastasia so the Queen had the results
rigged!
This theory is so ridiculous, I'm having trouble
dignifying it with a response. It's impossible anyone could do this,
even if they wanted to, which they don't. How would this be done,
kidnap a member of Franziska's family, cut him open and take out
exactly the same piece of intestine she had removed and sew him back
up? Or leave him to die? What exactly was it supposed to have been
switched with? The DNA matched that of the Schanskowska family.
Entertaining any thoughts of being rigged by the Queen is an insult to
the integrity of all involved in the testing.
Anna Anderson was a chimera!
A
chimera is defined as an animal having two or more different
populations of genetically distinct cells. I suppose this is a
desperate grabbing at straws theory by Anderson's supporters to explain
away the DNA test results. theory that the reason. They suggest Anderson may have had two different DNA sequences because she was a chimera. First, the two samples in question (the intestine and the blood slide) are mtDNA. Which of course that even if, in the extremely unlikely, AA was a chimera, the two mtDNA sequences would still be identical. Another issue is this: how do we explain the fact that one of the sequences matched Maucher's and Margaret Ellerick's? This cannot be explained by AA being a chimera, no matter how you slice it. This is perhaps the most ridiculous theory of all.
The
intestines were switched!
This isn't even a myth, it's a conspiracy theory. Here is something else to think about: what would they have switched the intestines with? They'd have had to kidnap a member of the Schanzkowsky family, cut them open, and take out exactly the same piece of intestine AA had taken out so nobody could tell. Now, see how ridiculous it is? It just plain couldn't have happened!
Conspiracy theories
Here are some websites about the conspiracy theories on the switched intestines and rigged results:
http://www.freewarehof.org/manahans.html
http://www.snowtao.com/mr/anastasi.htm
For more informaton and serious answers on the details of the storage, handling, and testing of the samples, please click here DNA tests
The Alleged "Differences"
"Beating the poor old dead horse" and "grasping at straws"
To this day, Anderson supporters will rant off a feeble list of
'differences' between Anderson and Franziska which are supposed to
'prove' they couldn't have been the same person, even in the face of
DNA evidence. People may accept this is a fact when they are told it,
or just see it in passing as a general comment they have no reason to
question. But when we research and examine these 'differences', we will
see they are mostly hearsay, he said/she said that can never be proven,
and commentary from one individual years after the fact. This house of
cards falls easily in the slightest breeze. Anderson supporters have
never learned that just because someone says something that doesn't
validate it as a 'fact.' While it may be a 'fact' they said it, that
does not necessarily make what they said a 'fact'. To this day, they
continue to cling to such weak 'proof' that is really no more than a
tired list of comments that may well have been inaccurate memories or
even lies, and mean absolutely nothing now against the DNA test
results. Here are some of the most popular ones listed by Anderson
supporters, and how they can be explained away using common sense and
logical deduction. I take these 'differences' directly from a list sent
to me by an avid Anderson supporter:
Anna Anderson was 5'2" and Franziska was 5'6"
We
do know that Anna Anderson was 5'2", because she was measured in the
hospital. We also know that the real Anastasia was 5'2", though she may
have grown taller like her sisters had she lived. But do we really know
that Franziska was 5'6"? No, we don't. There are no records to prove
this, and there is no evidence she was ever measured. As far as I have
been able to find out, no one ever even said she was 5'6", the quote
about her height came from the Wingender sisters, who claimed Franziska
was 'a little taller' than they were.(their height was 5'3") A foreman
at her old job at the munitions factory said he thought she was 'about
5'4".[1] So we are actually taking about possible 'difference' of only 2
inches, not 4, and that is if the Wingenders' height of 5'3" was
correct, which also isn't able to be proven as fact.
So if the 'evidence' of her height came only from people
giving vague, guess-like statements based on what they remember about
her years later, that's not much 'proof'. They could very easily have
been incorrect. Height is very subjective, and memory of such details
is very suspect in retrospect. Besides the person having their view of
her height distorted in their mind's eye, other factors could have
caused a misrepresentation of her size. Where a person is standing on
level or elevated ground, a step, a hill, etc. could alter someone's
view of their true height. Even a fuller or higher hairstyle worn by
Franziska may have made her appear slightly taller. The sisters may
very well have been mistaken about her height in comparison to their
own.
This is not unusual. For example, I'll use a personal
experience. A group of about ten fans met a famous singer, and all came
back to their message board to report it and discuss it. They all got
into an argument over how tall he was. Some said he was as short as
5'2" or as tall as 5'8", though all were standing right next to him.
One person swore she was 5'5" and the singer was taller than she was.
Another fan was persistant that she, at 5'4", had to look down on him.
They all had a different view in their memory, but only one was
correct. How tall is he, really? I don't know, since everyone gave a
different report. Yet all of the people were convinced they were right
and everyone else was wrong. This is how fallible such memory is, and
how inaccurate it is in precise confirmation.[2]
In their article "The Magic of the Mind", exploring the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketchum explain how this occurs:
As
new bits and pieces of information are added into long-term memory, the
old memories are removed, replaced, crumpled up, or shoved into
corners. Little details are added, confusing or extraneous elements are
deleted, and a coherent construction of the facts is gradually created
that may bear little resemblance to the original event.
Memories don't just fade, as the old saying would have us
believe; they also grow. What fades is the initial perception, the
actual experience of the events. But every time we recall an event, we
must reconstruct the memory, and with each recollection the memory may
be changed--colored by succeeding events, other people's recollections
or suggestions, increased understanding, or a new context.
Truth and reality, when seen through the filter of our memories,
are not objective facts but subjective, interpretive realities. We
interpret the past, correcting ourselves, adding bits and pieces,
deleting uncomplimentary or disturbing recollections, sweeping,
dusting, tidying things up. Thus our representation of the past takes
on a living, shifting reality; it is not fixed and immutable, not a
place way back there that is preserved in stone, but a living thing
that changes shape, expands, shrinks, and expands again, an amoebalike
creature with powers to make us laugh, and cry, and clench our fists.
Enormous powers--powers even to make us believe in something that never
happened.[3]
In addition to this very likely explaination,which can also apply to
many of the comments and even testimonies of Anderson supporters, there
is also a chance she may have been a little taller, and shrank. It is
possible, since Franziska, by the time she was in the hospital as Anna
Anderson, was suffering from Tuberculosis of the bones. While it was
mainly in her arm and elbow, it's not impossible that it may have
effected other bones. Just throwing this out there, but my main
conclusion is that the women who guessed Franziska taller simply did
not remember correctly. Certainly we cannot rule out that Anderson was
Franziska due to this one shaky statement.
AA wearing size 36 shoes and FS size 39
This,
again, is no 'proof', only a statement. I am having trouble even
finding a source for this information in writing. In any case, if this
was alleged, the person naming the size could have been wrong. It's
also possible the pair of Franziska's shoes in question, it even
existed and wasn't only a hypothetical size guess, may not have even
belonged to Franziska, or they may not have even been the right size
for her. Perhaps they were from a charity barrel? She was poor and
times were hard. But most likely the 'difference' is once again someone
being mistaken or remembering incorrectly. I have even heard conflicting
reports on who even gave the size of Franziska's shoes.One 'source' is
said to be Franziska's late father's third wife, a woman she never knew
well or lived with.(her father had left the family, the children were
raised by their real mother) There is so much conflicting on this subject, we cannot be sure of what is accurate. Maybe she got bunions from wearing the wrong size shoes, who knows? Another person giving what they think was
her shoe size really isn't much to go on. As an experiment, I asked
three people I know well to name my shoe size. All of them gave a
different size and all of them got it wrong. Is this proof I am
someone else because someone gave a size other than the one I actually
wear? When you think about it that way, you can see how weak this
'shoe' argument really is.
AA having Hallus Valgus and FS having none
Bunions.
Anderson had them, and her brother Felix, after he refused to claim
her, said Franziska had 'pretty feet.' So this is proof? This means
they were not the same person? Again, no. For one thing, most brothers
don't go around looking at their sisters' feet. He had probably not
really seen her feet since they were children playing in the creek.
Besides, once he had made the decision not to admit to claiming her, he
couldn't very well back himself into a corner by admitting to things
that might match up. He probably didn't even know for sure. FS most
likely developed the condition later, after leaving home, standing on
her feet working in the factory and the brewery. This is once again and
extremely weak and unproveable piece of 'evidence'. Also, having this condition is not as rare as Anderson's doctor Rudnev and her supporters like to claim.[4]
AA having 'unforgettable blue' eyes and FS not
The most self defeating thing about this is that Anastasia herself, the real Anastasia, was never known or commented on for having 'unforgettable blue' eyes. That was her sister Marie who had the large dark blue eyes nicknamed "Marie's Saucers."[5] Sidney Gibbes, who had been the childrens' English teacher, remembered Anastasia's eyes as "grey and beautiful." [6] Anderson's eyes became noticeable to those who went to see her since in many cases that was usually all they saw of her as she hid herself beneath the sheets and peeked over with a bulging, frightened stare! As Franziska, no one had paid any attention to them.
AA having blonde hair and FS almost black
Again,
word of mouth, statements made years after FS had been seen. "Almost
black" is very, very subjective. A lot of people call any hair that is
dark or looks darker to them 'black' when it could actually be a shade
of brown. Hair that is greasy and unwashed can appear much darker.
Anderson's hair appears to be a medium brown in most pictures, but
since they are all black and white, and her hair was gray before she
had a color picture taken, we will never know for sure what the natural
hair color was. Hair color has got to be the weakest argument of all,
not only because of the subjectivenes of each person's view of color,
but the fact that it can be changed so easily. Even in the 1920s, women
dyed their hair. So this means nothing.
In addition to all that, the colors used by the AA supporters
sometimes change every time they make the list, casting even more doubt
on the validity of the rumors surrounding the hair. Perhaps the
silliest piece of 'evidence' an AA supporter ever gave was the claim
that, since Franziska's brother said she usually wore her hair in a
long braid, her hair being up in a bun means the picture was not really
her. Give me a break! Hair styles can change even faster and easier
than hair color! Again, nothing here.
AA being a refined lady, and FS a mere factory worker
What's
wrong with this? First, it's very unkind to assume that anyone who
works in a factory worker is rough, crude and unrefined. People work
where they must work to earn a living. Times were hard. Factory was not
her choice of employment. In her younger days, Franziska was said to
have put on airs and often pretended to be better than her sisters. She
also, according to her niece, dreamed of becoming an actress. Why can't
a poor farm girl who worked in a factory behave like a classy lady?
Hollywood is and always has been full of girls from poor backgrounds
who became glamorous actresses able to portray any role, even royalty.
So why is it out of the question Franziska couldn't have pretended, or
acted, long enough to fool some people? (especially if she was being
coached, a la "My Fair Lady") Besides this, if you examine the
remaining videos and recordings of Anderson late in life, she appears
and sounds rather rugged and unsophisticated. This is even more reason
to presume that when she was taken for 'high class' in the 1920s and
30s, she had been acting, or people were seeing in her what they chose
to see and believe.In an internet Anderson discussion, one person
mentioned that she seemed to be very fake when she tossed her boa and
put on airs, acting like what she thought people would expect from a
princess rather than it actually being a part of her natural ways. On a
final note, why would anyone go to so much trouble to act refined and
prissy when the real Anastasia herself had been a tomboy,[7] and
complained of having to get dressed up and participate in court
formalities? Another factor for consideration that she was acting all
along.
Not everyone accepted her as a lady of high breeding. In 1927,
Felix Yussoupov described her as 'hysterical, vulgar, and common.'[8] Gerda Von Kleist said she witnessed her manners as being so poor she ducked down and wiped her nose under the table.[9] Berenberg-Gossler wrote: "My impression of her at the time, judging by her mannerisms, usage of
language, etc, was she resembled a house maid, but not at all of royal
blood, she had an unattractive peasant like face and reminded me of a
charwoman." (menial cleaning lady).
[10] Add to all this the fact that though she married a man of means, she ended up living in squalor of her own choosing, her house, yard and car full of garbage. Not too classy!
This once again is very presumptuous of Anderson supporters to claim as a 'fact.' Just because there is no record of Franziska having a child certainly does not prove she never had one. The supporters point out that Franziska's siblings denied she'd had a baby. Consider the time and place in which she lived. This was not America in the 21st century. A 'bastard' 'out of wedlock' child was looked upon as a disgrace and a sign of a bad reputation, so girls who had one wouldn't go about proudly announcing it to everyone. Quite the opposite, they'd hide it, lie about it, try to cover it up, sometimes abandon their babies at an orphanage or even the proverbial basket on a doorstep. Even to this day, it's not uncommon to hear tragic stories of young girls whom their families never knew were pregnant having babies and throwing them in the trash can. One recent news story told of a teenage girl who had given birth, wrapped the baby up in a blanket and stuffed it in her closet until he suffocated, and the discovery was not made until weeks later. Again, her family never even knew she was expecting. So why is it not reasonable to believe that Franziska, living in more prudish times, would have hidden her illegitimate pregnancy from her family? It's also possible that even if the family did know, they may have lied about it to spare themselves the 'shame' associated with such a child.
When doctors examined Anderson, they determined that she'd had a child. This is why Anderson had to add the baby to her 'escape' story. Despite her obviously ficticious Romanian orphanage story, we really don't know what became of the infant. Also consider that this child may have been stillborn, or that Franziska could have miscarried or even had an abortion. A child of at least 4-5 months gestation leaves the same scars on the uterus as a full term baby,[11] so something may well have happened to the fetus before it was even born and its existence would still have shown up in a medical exam. There is proof that Anderson had been pregnant. But there is no record of her child, is there? So why is it 'proof' that Franziska didn't have a child because there is no record? We do not know that Franziska didn't have or lose a baby and hide it from those she knew.
We will never know what became of the child, or even if he or she lived or died. Franziska never gave her up her secret. Whatever story is behind it, the loss, abandonment, or death of this child most surely played a large part in Franziska's depression that led to her suicide attempt at the canal.
AA speaking Russian, English and
bad German (and French), and FS only speaking good German and a little
Kashoubian (Polish dialect) or "She spoke all the same languages as Anastasia!"
This sentence is in itself
inaccurate, but remember, it was written by an avid supporter. In
reality, there is no valid proof that Anderson spoke anything other
than German when she was in the asylum, and it was fairly good, not bad
German. It was clearly her language of choice. The statements on what
she spoke and when are nothing but statements by people on both sides.
While her supporters, then and now, will claim she spoke Russian, many
others stated that she did not, and there really is no hard proof that
she did. She famously refused to speak it, using for an excuse it was
the last language heard in 'that house' (Ipatiev in Ekaterinburg) because her family had suffered so much and hearing Russian reminded her of those bad times. [12]
Convenient, isn't it? Dr. Rudnev, one of her biggest supporters,
claimed she spoke it to him, but other than his word there really is no
proof of this. There are some reports that Xenia Leeds, a Romanov
cousin, said she spoke it at her house in New York. There is a vague
statement that a nurse in the Berlin asylum said she heard her speaking
Russian in her sleep, but besides the possibility this may not even be
true, it's also possible that the German nurse mistook the Kashoubian
Polish for Russian,[13] just as many Americans mistake German for Dutch,
Italian for Spanish, etc. Kashubian is considered to be a Polish
dialect. So she probably spoke a little Polish and understood it
completely, along with some Russian, both being slavonic languages. We
cannot rule out the chance the stories of her speaking Russian may even
be partly or totally fictional. I have not seen anything that would
make me believe Anderson spoke the Russian of a native speaker, which
Anastasia was. There is no evidence to back it up other than the word
of a few supporters. Since there is so much contradictory evidence,
it's most likely Anderson did not really speak the languages, and those
who claimed she did were either mistaken or even lying or embellishing
in order to help her cause.
Interestingly enough, also, is that
these claims of her speaking it were all very early on, and that it was
later that she started using the 'that house' excuse. If it were true,
wouldn't the trauma of it have been fresher in the 1920's and 30s than
it was in the 1960's? Most likely, Franziska simply forgot whatever
little Russian she may have been coached in by her supporters, if she
ever really spoke it at all, if the stories are even accurate.There are
several accounts by supporters that she spoke English, French and
Russian with perfect accents, but there is no proof of this other than
their word for it. What proof there is, such as recordings of her
voice, tell a very different story. Supporter Tatiana Botkin declared
that Anderson's illness in 1925 caused her to forget the languages and
only be able to use German[14]. She was never officially proven in court to be able to speak
Russian.[15] (please read on below for much, much more investigation into Anna Anderson and Languages}
The Truth about Anna Anderson and Languages
Anna Anderson and languages
To this day, Anderson supporters continue to claim she had a knowledge of Russian, English and French from the earliest days of her claim. This is simply not true. When examining the evidence, these claims come from supporters, such as Rathlef, or very vague sources, such as the great nephew of Inspector Grunberg who spent the night once at his house. Anderson supporters will boldly, but falsely, tout that Anderson had all the same language skills Anastasia had, but this is not true. When she was first found, she spoke nothing but German, and it continued to be her language of choice her entire life. Over the years, she picked up poor English, and by some accounts could understand Russian, but this was after many years of living and visting with polylingual emigres'. She originally had no knowledge of those languages, and what she acquired in later years was far inferior to what Anastasia would have spoken. The real Anastasia, by many, many personal accounts by those who knew her, spoke Russian and English from babyhood and learned French later with Gilliard. She had very minimal exposure to German lessons, and knew no more than a few words at best, while others who knew her said she knew no German at all. Yet here is Anderson, choosing German over all other languages, even to native Russian speakers. Why this was not suspicious to all supporters, no matter how hopeful, is hard to understand. The excuses would have worn thin after awhile, it seems. Fact checking all the evidence, we can see that she really didn't know the languages, and the supporters embellished, made excuses, and in some cases probably lied to cover for her lack of linguistic skills of the real Anastasia.
When Olga Alexandrovna and Felix Yussoupov met her at different times in the 1920's, both reported that while they had spoken to her in all four languages (Russian, English, French and German) she only responded in German, and seemed to have little to no understanding of the others. Olga found this peculiar, since Anastasia, like her siblings, had been raised speaking Russian and English, learned French later, but while they were tutored in German, it was never learned nearly as well by any of the children, and never used by the family.[1] So of the four languages, German would have been the least know language of the real Anastasia, yet it was the most fluent for Anderson- just as it was for Franziska.
There are some who say they would have known German because Alexandra was a German princess, but when you find out more about Alexandra's life, you see much evidence that English was her main and preferred language all her life. She had an English mother (Princess Alice of England, daughter of Queen Victoria) and after her mother's death when she was only 6, she spent much of her growing up time in England with her Grandmother. Besides that, she had British nannies, notably Miss Orchard, who moved to Russia with her and was also a nanny for Alexandra's children. By all accounts of her friends who wrote books about her, Alexandra spoke English with a proper British accent. Her diaries and the vast majority of her letters were in English, and it was the language that Nicholas and Alexandra used to speak and correspond with each other.[2] So the children grew up naturally learning English as well as Russian. Anna Vyrubova, best friend and confidant of the Tsarina, wrote in her book that the family when together used English "almost exclusively". [3] Alexandra was of course fluent in German, but German was not generally needed, since their only frequent German contacts, Alexandra's siblings and Kaiser Wilhelm (son of Alexandra's mothers' sister) spoke and wrote to the family in English too. (All the famous "Willy Nicky" letters between the Tsar and Kaiser were in English) The children were essentially raised naturally bilingual in Russian and English, even before any lessons. They spoke English with their mother, Russian alone with their father, and usually Russian among each other.[4] They were also very adept at French, since it was the court language, and they had a live in French tutor, Pierre Gilliard. The girls enjoyed reading both British and French novels. Those who knew the family intimately have written they heard no German used among them [5]. So Anderson using German as her most fluent language when it was Anastasia's least known is another strike against Anderson being Anastasia. Throughout the years, even to this day, Anderson supporters continue to embellish both Anastasia's knowledge of German and Anderson's knowledge of the other three languages, though these statements are misleading at best, false at worst. The facts strongly show us that Anderson originally used German exclusively and did not pick up English until later, never used French, and could not function in Russian. All statements of her allegedly using Russian and French come from supporters and/or second hand reports we cannot verify. French was the most ignored language of Anderson, showing her total ignorance of it, and this never improved.(one reason Gilliard was so certain she was not Anastasia.) Anderson never proved she could speak, read or write Russian, though in time she was able to answer questions put to her in Russian using German or English to answer. Of course after many years of having chances to learn, and living with Russian people, she must have been able to pick some up and develop some level of understanding certain words, but she didn't speak it, or prove in public or in court she knew Russian. The issue remained unresolved.
At times, during the 1950's court cases, Anderson was so desperate to avoid Russian language experts that she holed up in her Black Forest shack and refused any visitors. When the court was brought to a town nearby to accomodate her, she still used excuses, such as that she couldn't come because she was distraught over the death of a neighbor. When she was finally taken before the judge, she said she couldn't read the Russian because she forgot her glasses, and a pair loaned to her didn't fit. Other times, she just sat silently, not answering. [6]
Explanations made by her supporters for her lack of English, Russian and French, mainly by Tatiana Botkin and Harriet Rathlef-Keillman, varied between being 'traumatized' or sustaining 'brain damage'- both suffered, allegedly, in Ekaterinburg during the massacre. A common excuse by Anderson that she shunned (if she were Anastasia) her native language because it was the last she heard in 'that house' (Ipatiev before the murders) is contradicted by claims by those who insist she 'spoke it like a native'. Some supporters argue that when staying with Romanov cousin Xenia Leeds on Long Island, NY, she walked through the garden, 'calling things by their quaint Russian names'. [7] Hmm, that sounds wistful and cheerful, not traumatized! This makes no sense, what, did she get traumatized, then get un-traumatized and speak it and go back to traumatized into forgetting it again? So even her own supporters' comments often worked against her.
By making excuses for her, they as much as admitted Anderson did not know the languages, which very much contradicts the modern Anderson supporters who vehemently argue and boast she 'spoke all the same languages as Anastasia'. Tatiana Botkin, sister of Gleb, claimed "Anastasia" had 'forgotten' the languages after her injuries. "She has not only forgotten languages, but she has in general lost the power of accurate narration...even the simplest stories she tells incoherently and incorrectly; strung together in impossibly ungrammatical German." [8] (This seems to be making excuses not only for her lack of languages but her inaccurate memories as well!) When a supporter who was close to the claimant has to make such sweeping grabs for excuses, it looks even more like there was a need for them- such as, Anderson was not really Anastasia! Were they that naive, or that desperate to support her claim? We may never know, but history and science have proven them wrong.
Baroness Sophie Buxhoevedon, telling of her meeting with Anderson, reported:
.."speaking to her in English while using the types of phrases I would have used while speaking with the Grand Duchesses, but I did not refer to her by any name other than 'Darling'. She did not reply and I saw that she did not understand a word of what I had said."[9]
Olga Alexandrovna explained her experience with Anderson and languages at their meeting:
When Olga entered the room, the woman lying on a bed asked a nurse: “Ist das die Tante?”[Is this the Aunt?] “That”, confessed Olga, “at once took me aback. A moment later I remembered that the young woman having spent five years in Germany, would naturally have learnt the language, but then I heard that when she was rescued from that canal in 1920, she spoke nothing but German – when she spoke at all- which was not often. I readily admit that a ghastly horror experienced in one’s youth can work havoc with one’s memory but I have never heard of any ghastly experience endowing anyone with a knowledge they had not had before it happened. My nieces knew no German at all. Mrs Anderson did not seem to understand a word of Russian or English, the two languages all the four sisters had spoken since babyhood. French came a little later, but German was never spoken in the family."[10]
Dmitri Leuchtenberg, son of one of Anderson's biggest supporters, never believed her claim. In a letter to Olga A.'s biographer, Ian Vorres, he stated:
When Mrs. Tschiakovsky arrived in Seeon she did not speak or understand Russian; she did not speak or understand English, except for what she learned from lessons taken in Lugano and in Obersdorf before coming to Seeon; she did not speak or understand French. She spoke only German with a north German accent. Grand Duchess Anastasia, on the contrary, spoke always Russian to her father, English to her mother, understood and spoke French and did not speak any German.[11]
So here we actually have evidence of her being coached in English! This is something no Anderson supporter is going to tell you.
The younger generation of Russian emigres' apparently did not fall for the imposter like their parents. Greta von Kliest, daughter of the baron, declared in court that Anderson spoke no English or Russian when she arrived at their home in 1922, and that she cried out in her sleep in Polish.[12]
Even after being coached and having opportunities to pick up language skills along the way, her lack of Russian and French, and her simple knowledge and improper use of English stymied her time and time again as people who met her could not reconcile the weak language skills of Anderson with what would have been known and used by the real Anastasia.This was one reason she would not speak in some instances, if you don't open your mouth, you can't make a mistake, and the silence could be written off to 'trauma.' Her supporters continued to deny this and make excuses, even exaggerating her abilities, but regardless of what they said or wrote, reality set in when she met people face to face in public.
"It was not the English of someone who had spoken English since childhood as Anastasia did." said the English writer, Michael Thornton, when he met her in 1960. "The accent was Germanic, the sentence structure German, the grammar hopeless." [13]
Dave Howey, who met Anderson, by then Mrs. Manahan, when he was a cadet at a Virginia military academy in 1977, wrote of their meeting that "Her husband talked for her since she spoke very little English. Her only functional language was German, her Russian having been wiped out, we were told, as a result of the trauma from seeing her family gunned down in the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg, Russia." [14]
When examining the videos and recordings of Anderson and listening to her voice, there is no trace of a girl who was raised by a mother and nannies, and even a father, who spoke proper English with an upper class British accent around her every day, as Anastasia would have been. Anderson's English was rough, broken, and even after many years in the US she seemed to struggle with it greatly. Listen to Mrs. Manahan on the NOVA special Anastasia: Dead or Alive to hear and judge for yourself.[15] The real Anastasia would have been nearly fluent in English and would have spoken it with an upper class British accent. Anastasia's English teacher, Sidney Gibbes, declared when he met her, "if that's Anastasia, I'm a Chinaman." [16]
Again, there are conflicting reports on what she spoke, to whom and when and how well. There is only one vague, alleged comment of someone claiming they heard her speak French, and this was from supporter Dominique Aucleres, who said she used it while ordering at a French restaraunt. If it even happened, it doesn't mean she knew French. A lot of people can learn to read French menus well enough to order food, it is not proof they know the language. Her utter lack of speaking or understanding any French is one of the main reasons Pierre Gilliard, the royal childrens' French tutor, was so certain Anderson was not his former student. Anastasia had studied French for years and could speak and read the language. Anderson could do neither, and never even bothered to try to prove it in court or in public.
In Nicholas and Alexandra, Massie describes each of the children as they were remembered by those who knew them. Anastasia's special gift was that she was a born mimic, and was able to pick up any language and its proper accent easily. She could amuse the other children by doing imitations of people and always got their accents right. [18] That's very unlike Anderson, who had one unidentifyable accent she used to speak regardless of the language used; her English especially poor. The real Anastasia would not only have known Russian fluently, she would have known proper English with a British accent, as she was exposed to growing up, so Anderson's broken, struggling, heavily accented English is a huge strike against her. There may be quotes from supporters saying how lovely she spoke, but we have the audio of her voice to tell a different story. So in conclusion, the language issue actually works AGAINST Anderson in a big way, since she did not have the language knowledge or skills Anastasia would have possessed.
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