Anastasia, the Disney movie, highlighted something which was part of most people's historic understanding, that the whole Romanov family was assassinated in Russia, leaving behind their daughter....the last of the Imperial family that had ruled Russia for 300 years.
Many over the years claimed to be the missing princess, and thus the Duchess of Russia, but none of these claims stood.
Of course the cartoon is based loosely on some of the events that happened that fateful night of July 16-17 in 1918, but similar to the Grimm brothers telling of stories, our stories today are watered down to hide some of the horrors of the actual stories.
Just barely 17 years old, her family was swept up in political turmoil that cost the family the lives of everyone in it...thus ending the imperial rule, and starting Russia down the road of communism.
Did she escape? And why was she and her family murdered?
Firstly let's see what was happening at the time (draw comparisons to things happening in another great country).
Anastasia's grandfather, the Emperor Alexander III, a large and powerful man, was a strict autocrat that ruled with an iron fist. He was not the soft liberal that his father was, and was determined to keep the autocracy and rule under his control...thus reversing a lot of his father's rulings and laws.
He took much of the this from his own grandfather Nicolas I who also believed that they needed to remain true to the Russian Nationality, Orthodoxy and autocracy in order to quell the agitation being felt by his subjects.
He wanted a single nationality, language and religion and weakened the power of the then administrators in Russia called the zemstvo amd limited the freedom of the press.
You can imagine under any government what would happen if you start taking power away from those that are in local political and commercial power....you are starting to kick the skunk! The people are the weapons of these types of people and organisations.
Needless to say the people and minor political powers were not too happy when his son was to take over the reign, and he didn't have the controlling personality of his father at all.
In fact Anastasia's father said the following when crowned as TSAR: “What is going to happen to me…to all Russia?” he asked an adviser. “I am not prepared to be Tsar. I never even wanted to become one.”
Does that sound like a person that has any interest in ruling? Nope!
And it showed.
Nicolas was not prepared to rule a nation already in turmoil and his decisions did not help him in the least.
1400 people died in a stampede in 1894 at his coronation, when 500000 attendees pushed forward for food and drinks. It was seen as a bad omen.
100 unarmed protesters were killed at a peaceful assembly in 1905 by his government.
They were also part of a war that the Russian people didn't want to be part of.....he seemed like a man that didn't want to rule at all....
Over and above this, his son Alexei was born with hemophilia and the empress Alexandra, his wife, was completely enthralled by the mystic Grigori Rasputin because she believed he had the power to save her sons life.
Rasputin's influence and power also irritated the people and those vying for positions.
Rasputin](https://allthatsinteresting.com/rasputin-history)
Over and above all of this, Russia lost the greatest amount of people out of all participants in WW1. 1.8 million military deaths, and then a further 1.5 million civilian deaths as well.
Looking at this, one can understand the desperation of the people, and how those in power will use this to get things going their way.
Food and transportation systems fell apart and under immense pressure Nicholas stepped down in 1917.
Those that were clearly interested in taking control were the Bolsheviks, "the ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Marxism–Leninism, an ideology of a centralised, planned economy and a vanguardist one-party state, which was the dictatorship of the proletariat"[Wikipedia]
They being led by the well known Vladimir Lenin.
What seems terrible up until now just gets worse unfortunately.
The permanent removal of the Romanovs
Lenin in 1917 takes over the government, keeping the Romanov family imprisoned in a remote house.This house was in fact called by the Bolshevik , the "house of special purpose".
Room where they were kept and murdered](https://www.thoughtco.com/czar-nicholas-ii-of-russia-murder-1779216)
The Romanov's clearly still hoped to be saved or to escape, but late on a July 17th 1918 night, in what they were told would be another move, the Bolshevik turned on the family.
Using bullets initially, them then the butts of guns, bayonets and even fists and feet they killed the 7 Romanovs in a planned murder. Several servants and even their pet dog were all killed in the attack.
The Bolshevik had been preparing for that night, stocking up on benzene and acid to remove the bodies and keep them beyond recognition.
Lenin and his communistic regime
Nationalizing all manufacturing and industry throughout Russia, the output plummeted and over 5 million Russians died of famine in 1921!! Worse than Nicholas and his father did by being a bad leader.
A failed assassination attempt on his life caused him to create the Cheka, or Red Terror, that went and killed over 100000 of his opponents...anyone that wasn't loyal to his Socialist party!
The location of their bodies only became known after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Strangely enough the Russian people after hearing of the murders started wanting them back. In fact that remains till today where groups still collect moneys and push for the reinstatement of the monarchy.
Sadly for the Russian people, they got what they wanted, and paid the price for it too.
Look at these figures of deaths from the Socialist parties!! Credit
1917 Civil War - 3 284 000
1923 New Economic Policies - 2 200 000
1929 Collectivization - 11 440 000
1936 Great Terror - 4 345 000
1939 Pre WWII - 5 104 000
1941 WWII - 13 053 000
1946 Post War - 15 613 000
1954 Post Stalin - 6 872 000
Total = 61 911 0000
Back to Anastasia!
So did she survive?
In 1970 and amateur archaeologist uncovered the shallow graves of six adults and 3 children. In 1991 a forensic investigation identified the bodies belonging to Anastasia's family, with her and her brothers bodies missing.
however, in 2007 another DNA analysis of another grave that was discovered nearby the last grave conclusively identified both Alexei and Anastasia's bodies.
So after nearly 100 years, we now know that this poor family was wiped out by people that would ultimately wipe out many MANY families since then....but to think of how that legacy got wiped out in such a violent way is still sad.
Perhaps thinking of her a=in the way she was portrayed in the Disney movie is not a bad thing.....it is a wonderful way to think of things....hopeful, positive and with a good outcome.
Life and people however are often not Disney stories unfortunately. If anything we hope that people will at least learn from the History we have before us.
