Yes, her. Forget all of the legends of her survival…she didn’t. All of the Romanov family is accounted for.
She is the sister that people think of when they consider the Romanov family. She is the one who supposedly survived the massacre, and went on to live decades longer. Those imposters…I’ve a few thoughts about them, particularly the grief and heartache they caused the remaining members of the Romanov family, particularly Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. She always held out hope that at least some of the Tsar’s children had survived, and she went to her grave not knowing the truth.
In some respects, perhaps that was a mercy, though to me, clinging to such a vain hope is so much worse. Whether or not the imposters actually believed their own stories (debatable at best), they were not Anastasia.
The real Anastasia was infinitely more fascinating than any of the legends that sprung up about her. Where do I even begin?
This kid was smart as a whip, though she was one who was severely disinclined to show it in terms of schoolwork. She took after her older sister Olga in that regard, though Olga would do her work if pressed. Anastasia more often than not had other things on her mind. This was the girl who would put on plays for her family. She loved to take photographs, and had no small number of selfies to her name (yes, you saw that correctly…the concept of selfies isn’t a new one).
Anastasia had a sharp and biting wit, and this was documented by several members of her family. Some would say that she could border on mean, particularly when she got carried away. I would chalk a lot of this up to being the ‘baby’ of the family for several years before her younger brother Alexei was born. Anastasia liked and craved attention, and using her wit and words was her best avenue to get what she wanted.
I think something that might have gotten to Anastasia was the idea that she was overshadowed in terms of physical beauty by her older sisters, especially Maria and Tatiana. Were the sisters competitive with each other in that way? From what I have read of them, no, I don’t think they were. I’m sure they would have heard what people said about their appearances, but I do not believe they would have belittled each other over their features.
I think she takes more after her mother’s family than her father’s. Personally, I think she bears a strong resemblance to her aunt Irene of Hesse and by Rhine. Had she grown to adulthood, she would have looked a lot like Irene and to a lesser extent, her aunt Victoria.
One thing to bear in mind is that there are comparatively few photos of Anastasia at the end of her life. Most of the ones that pop up on a Google search are from when she was younger, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. At that point, she was still holding on to the adolescent chubbiness, though by 1916 the pictures that survived show she was well on her way to dropping most of that. As an adult, I can picture her being similar in build to Maria, though maybe not quite as muscular.
Where Anastasia excelled was pranks. She held the record for infractions in the family, and as best I can tell, she was proud of that badge. Her proclivity for verbal barbs was unparalleled in the family’s history. Had she survived or lived in the modern day, I could easily see her going into some kind of performing arts, maybe stage acting or voice acting. She had a definite creative bent, much like Maria did with painting.
Would Anastasia and I have butted heads if I was her teacher? I can say with one hundred percent certainty, yes. The students that at gifted but lazy tend to be some of the hardest for a teacher to deal with, mainly because we see the potential that is not being used. Would she end up in detention on a weekly basis in a modern school setting? Probably, though I can see her being one of those kids who skirted the line of ‘playful’ and ‘disrespect’ so artfully that she could avoid trouble more often than not.
Was Anastasia a load of fun to write for me? Heavens yes! Reading her diaries and letters was a lot like talking to one of my current students…I swear, teenagers haven’t changed much over the years. She was a kid who could think on the fly, and Lord help you if you did manage to draw her ire. I firmly believe she could have given Kevin McCallister a run for his money.
