WHO WAS ANASTASIA?

    The Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov was born on June 5, 1901 as the youngest daughter of Nicholas II and Alexandra Romanov of Russia.  She had three sisters (Olga, Tatiana, Marie) and one brother (Alexei) who was a victim of Hemophilia.  Throughout her childhood, Anastasia
was known as a tomboy, prankster, and family clown.  For instance, one time she put a rock into a snowball and threw it at her sister.  She was also prone to hiding in trees and bribing teachers in order to escape her daily lessons.  Anastasia was a typical child and enjoyed her record player, balalaika, sun bathing, playing a game "Coloito", perfume, photographing with her Kodak camera, movies, talking on the telephone, giving tours of her yacht, picnics,  flirting with the sailors, and her pets.  She had two dogs, Shipka and Jemmy.  Shipka unfortunately died from brain disease. On the other hand, Jemmy was murdered with the rest of the Romanov family.  People believe that Anastasia was murdered at the age of 17.
 

HOW WAS THE ROMANOV FAMILY MURDERED?

    The story of the Romanov murders begins with the appointment of Rasputin as Alexei's doctor and caretaker.  With a revolution at hand, Nicholas went off to war.  This left Alexandra to run the government.  Rasputin began to act as an advisor and controller to Alexandra.  Much damage was done to the Imperial family during this time period.  He was eventually murdered.  All over Russia there were war losses, food shortages, riots, and mutinies.  The palace was overrun with soldiers and the Imperial family was taken prisoner in their own home.  They were moved to Siberia and placed under constant surveillance.  The girls even had to be accompanied to the bathroom.
    On July 16, 1918, the family doctor (Dr. Bortkin) was woken up at midnight.  A man by the name of Yurovsky told him that the family needed to be moved to the basement for safety reasons.  Dr. Botkin proceeded to wake up the family and three of their servants.  When they arrived at the basement, they noticed that the room held no furniture.  Alexandra questioned the room.  With that, a soldier brought two chairs for them.  Then, they were told to line up together along the back wall, where they were told that they were posing for a picture.  Yurovsky then ordered eleven Bolshevik soldiers to come in the room.  At once, they began to fire at the family and servants.  Everyone died instantly except for Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia.  The bullets had bounced off of their chests.  As it turns out, they had sewn diamonds into their dresses in order to smuggle them from place to place.
   The three sisters were then stabbed by the executioners' bayonets.  The soldiers then chopped up the bodies into fine pieces and burned them.  However, when they did this, they could not find Anastasia's body.  They thought nothing of it, and proceeded on.
    This brings up the question of whether or not Anastasia survived the murdering of the Romanov family.
 

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