The Woman Who Said She Was Anastasia

Name: The Woman Who Said She Was Anastasia
Genre: Documentary

Anna Anderson transforms missing bodies and Soviet secrecy into the twentieth century's most famous royal survival claim.

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Transcript

Stories held that one or more Romanov children had survived; Anna Anderson claimed to be Anastasia.
The Soviet government refused information, and rumors filled the silence around the family.
The family was executed July 17th, 1918; Alexei and one younger daughter were missing from recovered remains.
The missing bodies were believed to have been incinerated, while survival stories circulated.
Several young women claimed to be Anastasia, including Anna Anderson.
Anna Anderson claimed for many years to be Anastasia.
In 1919, Nikolai Sokolov inherited the case and questioned witnesses tied to the family's exile.
His findings documented the family's final days in exile.
He collected photographs and testimony from servants, doctors, tutors, guards, soldiers, and eyewitnesses.
His findings filled eight volumes; one set eventually reached the Library of Congress.
In 1991, nine skeleton sets were excavated; nuclear DNA verified a family group.
But testing showed Anna Anderson had no genetic relationship to the imperial family.
In 2007, a second grave yielded 44 fragments and teeth, identified as Alexei and one sister.
DNA closed the door on Anderson's claim to the name. Anna Anderson was not Anastasia—but while the world argued about her, the first Romanov grave was already hidden in the Ural earth.
The investigation still lacked answers about the two missing children.

Anna Anderson was not Anastasia—but while the world argued about her, the first Romanov grave was already hidden in the Ural earth.

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