Anastasia - Recap

Nimoy starts talking about Czar Nicholas’s family which included Anastasia. He explains how the Czar was somewhat of a tyrant. He says the Czar abdicated his throne when the people of his country started to revolt. He says many factions wanted to control Russia. He mentions that the former royal family was under Bolshevik guard and then allegedly murdered in 1918 and tossed into a mine shaft.

However, after the Romanov massacre it was uncovered that the families’ bodies was not found in the shaft. Instead, the theory is that the Romanov family was moved to another location and then murdered. In February, 1920 a girl is found and claims that she is Anastasia of the former royal family. The Czar’s mother and other relatives investigate these claims but the claims seem to be both accepted and refuted at the same time.

Nonetheless, without proof Nimoy says Anastasia was treated as royalty by Americans and Europeans. Then after WWII she lived in seclusion under the name Anna Anderson. In 1968, she later married an American. She became part of a country club. The so called Anastasia or imposter is actually interviewed with the husband. However, Anastasia’s attitude is rather evasive and arrogant. By this time Anna had become a shrill, old woman who seems tired by the whole ordeal of trying to prove she isn't a fraud. She provides no proof in the interview that she is Anastasia.

Nonetheless, Nimoy says new evidence has been found that might prove her claims. Anna’s husband shows a portrait that has Anastasia but Anna herself with old eyes doesn’t recognize herself. In 1967, a German court was investigating her case. The case lasted thirty- two years but in the end the courts neither supported nor destroyed her claims. Another expert is interviewed but all he provides is circumstantial evidence and opinion.

Then Grand Duke Vladimir, the heir to throne of the Romanovs says he doesn’t believe Anna is the real Anastasia and believes she is an imposter only out to get the riches of the tdynasty. Lastly, one other person Dr. Morris, a identification expert, using old photographs of the real Anastasia and Anna says that they are one and the same. One more interview is giving with Anna on the thoughts of the situation and ultimately says she “spits on it”. In the end, however, Anna Anderson never won any settlement or world wide claim that she was in fact the Grand Duchess of Russia.


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