Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-06
Identity Is Battling.

Identity Is Battling.
Sheltered by the Duke of Leuchten-
| berg in his Castle Seeon, near Obing.
Germany, is young woman. whose
| identity presents modern history with
| a problem as battling and enigmatic as
| the Man in the Iron Mask. She has
maintained since first she came to pub
lie attention that she is Grand Ouch.
ess Anastasia Nicholaevna, daughter
Of the dead Car Nicholas of Russia,
and sole survivor of the shambles at
Ekaterinberg, Siberia, where, on July
II. 191S,her father, her mother, her
brother and her sisters were shot and
bayoneted by revolutionary execu.
tionary squad.
Obviously if this Frau Won Tchai-
kovsky'-as she is now known---is
Anastasia Nicholaevna, Grand Ouch.
ess of Russia. her survival and expert
ences since are one of the most as.
founding and tragic adventures that
ever befell human being.
Competent witnesses. including roy
al relatives of the Grand Duchess
Anastasia. say that Frau Won Tchai-
kovsky Is an impostor. Others that
she is madwoman. Others that she
may be the grand duchess, but they
cannot be sure. Some have identified
her as the grand duchess only to to re-
verse themselves later. Newspaper
correspondents have sought to estab-
lish the truth or falsity of her claims,
always TO come up against the blank
wall of no direct proof.
Is Destitute and Sick.
Meanwhile the unfortunate princi-
pal. destitute and sick. has been
passed from hand to hand. from disii-
fusion to disillusion, to her present
haven in Bavaria. From time to time
her claims have apparently been dis
posed of, but upon investigation these
identifications of her as some one
other than the Grand Duchess Anas
tasia yield no more direct proof that
the invalid CT Seeon is not the young
est daughter Of the late Car Nicho-
las than that she in Anastasia.
Any investigation must go through
the mazes of political plot and counter.
plot: must weigh the motives and in
terests Of those who embrace her
cause or who attack it. Indubita bly,
there is a large faction who for one
motive Or another wish Frau Won
Relationships story discredited and
the sick girl effectively removed from
further public concern. Opposed to
them are Russians loyal to the Grand
Duchess Anastasia Of Russia and
Tchaikovsky' of controversy is their
Grand Duchess Ana stasia.
Rescued From Canal.
So far as the public knows, the
story Of the mystery woman Of Seeon
starts on February II, 1920, when the
Berlin police rescued her from the
| Landwehr Canal, into which she had
thrown herself. She was taken to a
charity hospital. She refused stead
lastly to reveal her identity. After
thorities had her committed to the
Daldorf Asylum, Berlin's institution
for the insane.
The aristocratic bearing and ex-
IRENE reserve of the mysterious pa
tient excited the curiosity of the
asylum doctors and nurses. They
questioned her necessarily, but with
out result. For two years she was
listed on their books as "F'raulein
Unknown" When visitors came to
the ward she covered her head and
| turned her face to the wall.
! One night nurse who had been
| especially kind and tactful was APP
preached by the mysterious patient
/
man illustrated magazine containing
a picture of the Cars family. The
patient asked the nurse if she saw
anything curious in the picture. The
| nurse did not. "Fraulein Unknown"
then pointed to one Of the Cars
| daughters in the group and asked If
she observed anything striking about
it. After looking at the picture for
some moments, the nurse was struck
with the resemblance between the pa
tient and the Cars daughter. At this
point the night Waterman entered the
ward. "Fraulein Unknown" sprang
back into bed, covering her face until
he was gone. Several hours later she
| again rose and in state of violent
excitement told the nurse the story
of the Russian imperial family's exc
cution in detail.
Urged TO Leave Asylum.
Later a Frau peutert q patient at
the asylum, declared the unknown
frauiein to be a grand duchess.
On leaving the asylum, in 1922, Frau
Peutert spread the news among the
Russian emigres of Berlin that
"Fraulein Unknown" was the grand
duchess. They urged her to leave
the asylum and take shelter with a
Russian family. The hospital au'
thorities agreed to this; they had
never considered her insane.
From the Spring of 1922 until late
in 1924, still weak and ill. the puta
tive Anastasia lived with Russian
refugees. Some sought TO establish
her identity. Others squabbled for
the prestige of exhibiting her. Her
story of her experiences, AS evolved
bit by bit, was as follows:
On the night of the Ekaterinberg
execution Anastasia. the Car and
Czarina, the Grand Duchesses Olga
Tatiana and Marie, and the Care
witch, together with DR.. Eugene Bot
kin, personal physician to the i'm
perlal family, were awakened and or
dered into a single room Of the house
where they were held prisoners of the
| Bolsheviks. The leader of the Bolshe
vik firing squad shot her father
through the head with revolver
Immediately the other Bolsheviks
began shooting the prisoners. she
tainted, and remembered nothing
more until she came to consciousness
some days later in a cart filled with
straw. With her were two young
men, one in the uniform OF a Red
Guard, and two women. The Reo
Guard, a Pole. said his name was
Tchaikovsky. He told her that ne