Anastasia Ramonov and Anna Anderson?

Question:Did Anastasia Romanov die with the rest of the her family or is she Anna Anderson? I know that this is met with some wide controversy, but I need some fact based opinions. I'm doing an essay comparing the 1997 movie with the history of the Russian Revolution and need to know this.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Did Anastasia Romanov die with the rest of the her family or is she Anna Anderson? I know that this is met with some wide controversy, but I need some fact based opinions. I'm doing an essay comparing the 1997 movie with the history of the Russian Revolution and need to know this.

When Anderson was questioned by Romanoff family representatives on specific events of her alleged youth she would frequently change subjects, attempt to bluff her way through or feign an emotional or physical breakdown to gain sympathy and extricate herself.
The fact she couldn't speak or read Russian, English or French at the time like all the tsar's daughters, was sufficient proof for former court tutor Pierre Gilliard she was an impostor, the fact she was unable to remember defining events of "her" life but could rattle off specific details of family bank accounts (including secret passwords) the real Anastasia would never have been told.
DNA testing done in 1994 proved conclusively that she was nto realted to the Romanov line in any way.

I know the movie uses a lot of poetic licence but Anna Anderson came under much scrutiny as she had a lot of memories and knew a lot of details that only the Grand Duchess would have known. Also they never found Anastasia's body but it is said that it could still be missing or could have decomposed. A dental test after Anna Anderson's death suggested she was not genetically linked to the Romanov line so its a bit of a mystery!

Good Luck with your essay it sounds really interesting!

Anastasia died with the rest of her family and her body was found in the mass grave when it was found in 1991. The two bodies missing from that grave were those of Aleksei and Maria.

However, in 2007 the grave of these two was found, not far from the mass grave. The DNA test results are not yet in, but it's clear beyond all but a remote chance that the whole family has now been found.

BTW. Anna Anderson's DNA was tested after her death using a sample taken during an operation in 1979 and it was clearly established that she had no link to the Romanov family at all.