History Main / DidAnastasiaSurvive

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} of Creator/AAPessimal, there is no doubt about it for people who can join the dots: (Olga) Anastacia Romanoff is alive and well and lives in Ankh-Morpork. She is in direct line of descent to the last acknowledged Tsar of [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Rodinia]], a state which [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp crumbled into lots of smaller regions and nations amidst much acrimony]]. Catching magic at the age of twelve and covertly educated as a Witch by the local Literature/BabaYaga, she ran away to Lancre to pursue a different destiny, much to her noble father's anger. Today, she is in her thirties and [[Fanfic/ThePriceOfFlight commands the Ankh-Morpork City Air Watch]]. This is all she ever wanted to do and all the Empire she needs. Anyone wanting her to become Little Mother to a New Rodinia will get very short shrift and she prefers to go her own way and make her own destiny.

* Suzanne Weyn's young adult novel ''The Diamond Secret'' from the ''Once Upon a Time'' collection (a series of YA retellings of popular fairy tales and legends, no relation to [[Series/OnceUponATime the TV series]] retells the standard Marcelle Maurette-inspired plotline of two conmen trying to pass off an amnesiac girl as Anastasia, only to find that she just might be a GenuineImposer.

* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' offers an interesting variation with Tzarevich Alexei (Anastasia's brother). Sergei Taboritsky, possible leader of the Komi Republic, fervently believes that Alexei survived, but will only return when Russia is sufficiently purified. If Taboritsky unifies West Russia, he initiates a reign of terror that rivals or even exceeds what the [[AlternateHistoryNaziVictory victorious Nazis]] have done in Europe. In reality, Alexei is very dead, making this an aversion. [[spoiler:Eventually, if he is not defeated by another unifier, Taboritsky eventually realizes that Alexei is never coming back and all his killing was for nothing. This epiphany kills him, and his Holy Russian Empire collapses.]]

Coincidentally, [[MeaningfulName the name Anastasia means "resurrection"]]. This will often be mentioned in works employing this trope. Also, the proper Russian pronunciation of her name is, "ah-nah-stah-SEE-yah," but many works will use the modern Anglo pronunciation of, "an-ah-STAY-zhah."

Coincidentally, [[MeaningfulName the name Anastasia means "resurrection"]]. This will often be mentioned in works employing this trope. Also, the proper Russian pronunciation of her name is, "ah-nah-STAH-see-yah," but many works will use the modern Anglo pronunciation of, "an-ah-STAY-zhah."

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} of Creator/AAPessimal, there is no doubt about it for people who can join the dots: (Olga) Anastacia Romanoff is alive and well and lives in Ankh-Morpork. She is in direct line of descent to the last acknowledged Tsar of [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Rodinia]], a state which [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp crumbled into lots of smaller regions and nations amidst much acrimony]]. Catching magic at the age of twelve and covertly educated as a Witch by the local BabaYaga, she ran away to Lancre to pursue a different destiny, much to her noble father's anger. Today, she is in her thirties and [[Fanfic/ThePriceOfFlight commands the Ankh-Morpork City Air Watch]]. This is all she ever wanted to do and all the Empire she needs. Anyone wanting her to become Little Mother to a New Rodinia will get very short shrift and she prefers to go her own way and make her own destiny.

* Creator/NatalieWood was set to play the role of famous impostor Anna Anderson in ''Anastasia'', a play that was to open in Los Angeles in 1982. Alas, Wood was found dead at sea in November 1981.

* ''GameMod/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' offers an interesting variation with Tzarevich Alexei (Anastasia's brother). Sergei Taboritsky, possible leader of the Komi Republic, fervently believes that Alexei survived, but will only return when Russia is sufficiently purified. If Taboritsky unifies West Russia, he initiates a reign of terror that rivals or even exceeds what the [AlternateHistoryNaziVictory victorious Nazis]] have done in Europe. In reality, Alexei is very dead, making this an aversion. [[spoiler:Eventually, if he is not defeated by another unifier, Taboritsky eventually realizes that Alexei is never coming back and all his killing was for nothing. This epiphany kills him, and his Holy Russian Empire collapses.]]

* ''{{Theatre/Anastasia}}'', a 2016 Broadway musical, this one based on the Don Bluth film (so just to be clear, this is [[RecursiveAdaptation a play based on a movie which was a remake of another movie which was itself based on a play]]). It removes the supernatural elements, with a [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre Chekist officer]] taking Rasputin's place as the villain.
* ''Anya'', a 1965 Broadway musical based on the Marcelle Maurette play and the Ingrid Bergman film. It flopped.

* In ''[[Radio/TheShadow The Shadow Strikes]]'', Anastasia has survived and [[spoiler:is on a campaign of revenge]].

Why the focus on Anastasia and not another of the Tsar's five children?[[note]]In the Soviet Union, in fact, the daughter believed to have survived was generally either Tatiana or Maria; there were also some lesser-known rumors that Tsarevich Alexei might have also survived, but these never gained much traction due to the fact that Alexei had a severe form of hemophilia that made it exceptionally unlikely that he could have survived being wounded, on top of which Alexei was unable to walk at the time of the shooting and therefore would have had no way to even try to take cover.[[/note]] Well, it all began in 1920, two years after the execution of the Romanovs, when a mysterious Slavic-accented woman turned up in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}. Suicidal and apparently amnesiatic, she was admitted to a local mental hospital. History generally refers to this woman by the adopted name of Anna Anderson. Within a couple years, she would claim to be the [[UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova Grand Duchess Anastasia.]] Anderson gained much publicity through a lengthy legal battle in which she sought to establish her identity as Anastasia in order to claim a share of the remaining Romanov fortune. Public opinion sided overwhelmingly with Anderson due to the inherent romance of a RagsToRoyalty story. The case was finally ended in 1970, with the inconclusive ruling that there was no proof either way, but nevertheless denying Anderson the Romanov riches. When Anderson died in 1984, still claiming that she was the lost Grand Duchess, there was still no way to be certain what the truth was. After all, DNA testing wasn't a thing at the time, so the argument for both sides ultimately rested on hearsay. And besides, the site of the Romanovs' murder was located deep behind the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain, hidden from the world by the Soviet Union's secretive government, so who could say for sure what had happened there?

* ''Literature/EventGroup'': Book 5, ''Primeval'' (released in 2010), states that yes, Anastasia and Alexei did indeed escape, with the aid of Russian soldiers loyal to their father (a pair of body doubles were left in their place), and made it to Canada, along with a whole lot of gold and two enormous diamonds (payment to the lead soldier). Most of the soldiers died in the fall of 1918 after attempting to betray their leader (believing the bad luck that had fallen on them was because of a curse on the Romanovs and wanting to kill the two children in order to save their own lives), and Alexei the following March, but Anastasia and the lead soldier not only survived, they married and lived out the rest of their lives in that area, dying of old age in the mid 1950s; they were survived by their daughter. Anastasia's daughter married at some point, but her own child and their spouse died later (one in childbirth, the other a few years later), and by the end of the book, only Anastasia's great-granddaughter remains, content to live out her life in peace and asking the protagonists to keep her ancestry a secret.

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Then came TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, and the Romanov burial site was revealed to the world. At first, it seemed there was hope for the legend, since the bodies of Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters were missing from the grave. Meanwhile, however, [[ScienceMarchesOn science marched on]] with advent of DNA testing, which finally proved that Anna Anderson not only had absolutely no relation to the Imperial family, but also was, in fact, ''not even Russian''. In all likelihood, Anderson was actually a woman named Franziska Schanzkowska, a missing Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness, perhaps suggesting that her impersonation was a NapoleonDelusion to some extent. In 2007, another grave was discovered in Yekaterinburg, this one containing the remains of Alexei and his remaining sister, so at long last, all the Romanov children were accounted for. The last Romanov bodies were confirmed through DNA testing in 2009, establishing once and for all that the entire Romanov family, including Grand Duchess Anastasia, was killed in Yekaterinburg by Bolshevik guns on July 17, 1918. Case closed.

* At the end of one ''Manga/CaseClosed'' movie, ''The Last Wizard of the Century'', the protagonists find her as the solution of this film's mystery (Actualy not Anastasia, but Maria).

One of the StockUnsolvedMysteries of the twentieth century, until it was solved in 2007 [[DownerEnding with a definite "no"]].

Then came TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, and the Romanov burial site was revealed to the world. At first, it seemed there was hope for the legend, since the bodies of Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters were missing from the grave. Meanwhile, however, [[ScienceMarchesOn science marched on]] with advent of DNA testing, which finally proved that Anna Anderson not only had absolutely no relation to the Imperial family, but also was, in fact, ''not even Russian''. In all likelihood, Anderson was actually a woman named Franziska Schanzkowska, a missing Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness, perhaps suggesting that her impersonation was a NapoleonDelusion to some extent. In 2007, another grave was discovered in Yekaterinburg, this one containing the remains of Alexei and his remaining sister, so at long last, all the Romanov children were accounted for. The Romanov bodies have been confirmed through DNA testing, establishing once and for all that the entire Romanov family, including Grand Duchess Anastasia, was killed in Yekaterinburg by Bolshevik guns on July 17, 1918. Case closed.

* At the end of one ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' movie, ''The Last Wizard of the Century'', the protagonists find her as the solution of this film's mystery (Actualy not Anastasia, but Maria).

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%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image.

Why the focus on Anastasia and not another of the Tsar's five children?[[note]]In the Soviet Union, in fact, the daughter believed to have survived was generally either Tatiana or Maria.[[/note]] Well, it all began in 1920, two years after the execution of the Romanovs, when a mysterious Slavic-accented woman turned up in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}. Suicidal and apparently amnesiatic, she was admitted to a local mental hospital. History generally refers to this woman by the adopted name of Anna Anderson. Within a couple years, she would claim to be the [[UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova Grand Duchess Anastasia.]] Anderson gained much publicity through a lengthy legal battle in which she sought to establish her identity as Anastasia in order to claim a share of the remaining Romanov fortune. Public opinion sided overwhelmingly with Anderson due to the inherent romance of a RagsToRoyalty story. The case was finally ended in 1970, with the inconclusive ruling that there was no proof either way, but nevertheless denying Anderson the Romanov riches. When Anderson died in 1984, still claiming that she was the lost Grand Duchess, there was still no way to be certain what the truth was. After all, DNA testing wasn't a thing at the time, so the argument for both sides ultimately rested on hearsay. And besides, the site of the Romanovs' murder was located deep behind the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain, hidden from the world by the Soviet Union's secretive government, so who could say for sure what had happened there?

Then came TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, and the Romanov burial site was revealed to the world. At first, it seemed there was hope for the legend, since the bodies of Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters were missing from the grave [[note]]This also supported some much lesser known rumors that Alexei may have also survived, and there were several men who tried to claim his name as well. These claims never received much public support or attention, however, as Alexei was a hemophiliac, making the notion that he could have survived any serious injuries all but impossible, and providing a test that imposters couldn't convincingly fake.[[/note]]. Meanwhile, however, [[ScienceMarchesOn science marched on]] with advent of DNA testing, which finally proved that Anna Anderson not only had absolutely no relation to the Imperial family, but also was, in fact, ''not even Russian''. In all likelihood, Anderson was actually a woman named Franziska Schanzkowska, a missing Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness, perhaps suggesting that her impersonation was a NapoleonDelusion to some extent. In 2007, another grave was discovered in Yekaterinburg, this one containing the remains of Alexei and his remaining sister, so at long last, all the Romanov children were accounted for. The Romanov bodies have been confirmed through DNA testing, establishing once and for all that the entire Romanov family, including Grand Duchess Anastasia, was killed in Yekaterinburg by Bolshevik guns on July 17, 1918. Case closed.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* At the end of one ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' movie, ''The Last Wizard of the Century'', the protagonists find her as the solution of this film's mystery (Actualy not Anastasia, but Maria).

* In ''The Shadow Strikes,'' Anastasia has survived and [[spoiler:is on a campaign of revenge]].

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9184213/1/The-Woman-Who-Counted The Woman Who Counted]]''- a ''Series/DoctorWho''/''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' crossover where the Tenth Doctor is travelling with Molly Hooper- sees the Doctor and Molly arrive in Russia a few days before the Romanovs are to be executed. The Doctor states that the Romanovs' deaths are a fixed point in time that can't be altered, [[spoiler:but when a group of alien invaders end up trapped as duplicates of the Romanovs, they allow Molly to take the original family away as the aliens believe that they can use the Bolsheviks to take over Russia. Molly is subsequently able to convince the real Romanovs to come with her, as well as persuade the Doctor to trust her after he's rendered unconscious for a few hours and misses the moment when the aliens were trapped. As a result of the aliens taking their place, while [[TrickedOutTime history still records the deaths of the Romanovs]], in reality Molly and the Doctor take the family to safety in the 1990s so that they can start new lives]].

[[folder:Film]]
* The Anastasia legend got its cinematic start with the 1928 silent film ''Film/ClothesMakeTheWoman'', in which she is saved by a sympathetic Bolshevik soldier. Years later, they reunite in Hollywood, where the ex-Bolshevik is now a famous movie star, and he casts her in a movie about her own life. They fall in love, of course.
* The 1956 film ''{{Film/Anastasia}}'', starring Creator/IngridBergman in her comeback from six years of exile from U.S. cinema and Creator/YulBrynner, is a straight adaptation of the Marcelle Maurette play (see the "Theatre" section for more information).
* 1956 also saw a German movie called ''The Story of Anastasia'', again based on the life of Anna Anderson.

* In the film ''Anastasia: Once Upon a Time'', Anastasia initially escapes her family's capture when Rasputin opens a portal to 1988, [[spoiler:but after a brainwashed Rasputin nearly captures her, Anastasia is able to go back and save her family, the film concluding with Anastasia [[TheSlowPath reuniting with her 1980s friend Megan after growing old and becoming a grandmother]]]].

* ''The Romanov Cross'' by Robert Masello depicts Anastasia surviving the execution and escaping with the aid of a young soldier who had fallen for her, but a chain of events lead to her [[spoiler:being trapped and isolated on a distant island off the coast of a village in Alaska, shortly before the rest of the island's population are killed by UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu (it is all but explicitly stated that Anastasia's survival of these misfortunes is part of a 'gift' from Rasputin)]]. While written after the denouncement of the theory that Anastasia survived, characters note that the DNA evidence supporting the idea that Anastasia is dead is actually rather slim, considering that the remains of her sisters could have been mixed together and the decades since their deaths would make DNA test results sketchy at best, particularly when dealing with siblings who would have been genetically similar anyway.
* ''Literature/EventGroup'': Book 5, ''Primeval'' (released in 2010), states that yes, Anastasia and Alexei did indeed escape, with the aid of Russian soldiers loyal to their father (a pair of body doubles were left in their place), and made it to Canada, along with a whole lot of gold and two enormous diamonds (payment to the lead soldier). Most of the soldiers died in the fall of 1918 after attempting to betray their leader (believing the bad luck that had fallen on them was because of a curse on the Romanovs and wanting to kill the two children in order to save their own lives), and Alexei the following March, but Anastasia and the lead soldier not only survived, they married and lived out the rest of their lives in that area, dying of old age in the mid 1950s; they were survived by their daughter. Anastasia's daughter married at some point, but her own child and their spouse died later (one in childbirth, the other a few years later), and by the end of the book, only Anastasia's great-granddaughter remains, content to live out her life in peace and asking the protagonists to keep her ancestry a secret.
* Discussed in ''Literature/AnastasiaKrupnik'', as the titular character learns that she was named after the historical Anastasia from her parents and promptly declares that she must be the missing Romanov. Her dreams are quickly dashed when her parents point out that as a 10-year-old in 1979, she is far too young to be ''that'' Anastasia.
* In ''Fire Ice'' a spinoff of ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'' the story shows that while the Romanov men were executed, the deaths of the women were faked due to loyalists smuggling them to an escape ship (as detailed in the prologue). When the communists chased down and destroyed that ship, Anastasia herself is killed, but one of her sisters is saved by the dying captain.
* ''Literature/TheRoyalDiaries'': The epilogue of ''Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess'' mentions the legend and leaves it as an open-ended question, as the book was released before the last two bodies were found.

* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse'' plays with the legend in "Fire and Reign", positing that Anastasia was [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy actually a witch]] who tried (and failed) to use her magic to save her family from their demise.
* The 1986 NBC MadeForTVMovie ''Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna'', starring Creator/AmyIrving as Anna Anderson. It's most notable for following Anna Anderson's actual life, more or less, instead of taking its cues from Marcelle Maurette. The movie leaves it as an open question as to whether Anderson was really Anastasia. (It's ''really'' most notable for being Creator/OliviaDeHavilland's last acting gig, playing Tsar Nicholas II's mom.)
* The 1996 HBO MadeForTVMovie ''Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny'', references this theory in its epilogue, which shows the Romanov family's execution, but ends just before Anastasia and Alexei are shot, leaving them to an UncertainDoom.

* ''Anya'', a 1965 Broadway musical based on the Marcelle Maurette play and the Ingrid Bergman film. It flopped.

* Anastasia is a playable party member in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts Covenant'', which takes place in a ''very'' fictionalized alternate UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne. After the main cast defeat the demon-possessed Rasputin, Anastasia joins them to help protect Russia and the rest of the world. The mystery isn't directly referenced, but in the good ending [[spoiler:the playable characters scatter to different parts of the timeline, unable to return back to the time that they left, meaning that from the perspective of her contemporaries Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov disappeared mysteriously and would be unaccounted for in whatever happened to the rest of her family]].

* The DS game ''The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks'' has the final twist of the story involve this. Borrowing from the 1997 animated film, Anastasia had survived and traveled to France, where she married and had a daughter. That daughter later became a grandmother to one of the passengers on the Royal Express: [[spoiler: Isabelle]]. What's more, the game depicts Anastasia ''still alive'' and meeting her great-grandchild at the end of the game.

* The Anastasia legend got its cinematic start with the 1928 silent film ''Clothes Make the Woman'', in which she is saved by a sympathetic Bolshevik soldier. Years later, they reunite in Hollywood, where the ex-Bolshevik is now a famous movie star, and he casts her in a movie about her own life. They fall in love, of course.