The False Anastasia

Book excerpt: The authors, Pierre Gilliard and Constantin Savitch have produced an excellent, incisive and detailed analytical account of Franziska Schanzkovski (aka Anna Anderson), a former Polish laborer who was used and misguided by a coterie of "friends" in an effort to gain control of the foreign investments of Tsar Nicholas II, particularly those in Germany. A prevalent rumor circulating at the time was that she was the illegitimate daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Mathilde Kschessinska, the famous ballerina with whom he had a three-year romantic relationship prior to his marriage to Alexandra Feodorovna in 1894. The doctors who examined her after she made an unsuccessful suicide attempt in Berlin on 17 February 1920 stated that she appeared to have been born between 1892 and 1894. Moreover, Anna Anderson-who bore no physical, mental or emotional similiarity to Anastasia Nicholaievna Romanov-was none other than a mentally unbalanced unmarried woman who was gradually and delusively led to believe that she was really Anastasia Romanov. Yet, when found, she spoke only Polish and German. On the other hand, the real Anastasia did not speak these two languages, but did speak English, French and Russian very well. To paraphrase Disraeli, in his book, "Konigsby," the true identity and saga of the real Anastasia and her family is enmeshed in deep intrigue, which can never be imagined by someone who is not behind the scenes. The saga of the real Anastasia Nicolaievna began in Peterhof, Russia on 18 June 1901 and ended in Newport, Rhode Island on 31 January 1997. The other members of the family lived out their lives in relative seclusion and anonymity as a result of a secret codicil in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918 that ended the war between Germany and Russia. This fact was also personally related by Lenin to Armand Hammer. Front cover photo: The Imperial Family, without the only son Alexei.