page_title: Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
section_title: Connection with Grigori Rasputin
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia / Biography / Connection with Grigori Rasputin
caption_attribution_description: Anastasia Nikolaevna (1901-1918)
context_page_description: Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna. Anastasia was murdered with her family on 17 July 1918 by the Bolshevik secret police. She was a sister of Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, Grand Duchess Maria, and Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.
  During the years of Communist rule nobody knew where she was buried. This led to many stories that she could have escaped and still be alive. The bodies of the Tsar, Tsarina, and three daughters were found in a grave near Yekaterinburg in 1991; however, the bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters were not there.
  In January 2008, Russian scientists said that the remains of a young boy and woman found near Yekaterinburg in August 2007 might be the missing bodies. On 30 April 2008, Russian scientists used DNA testing to prove that they were the Tsarevich Alexei and his sister. In March 2009, the last results of the DNA testing were published by Dr. Michael Coble of the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. This proved that all four Grand Duchesses were murdered.
  Several women have claimed to have been Anastasia.
context_section_description: Her mother trusted Grigori Rasputin, a Russian peasant and wandering "holy man". She thought his prayers had saved her son when he was sick many times. Anastasia and her sisters were told to treat Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to tell him their secrets. In the autumn of 1907, Anastasia's aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia went to the nursery with the Tsar to meet Rasputin. Anastasia, her sisters and brother Alexei were all wearing their long white nightgowns.
  "All the children seemed to like him," Olga Alexandrovna said later. "They were completely at ease (comfortable) with him." Rasputin's friendship with the Imperial children can be seen in some of the messages he sent to them. In February 1909, Rasputin sent them a telegram, saying, "Love the whole of God's nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework."
  But in 1910, Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva told other people in the family that Rasputin was allowed to see the four girls when they were wearing their nightgowns. Rasputin's visits to the children were completely innocent, but the family was shocked and angry. Tyutcheva told Nicholas's sister, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, that Rasputin visited and talked to the girls while they were getting ready for bed, and hugged and patted them. Tyutcheva said the children did not talk about Rasputin with her and kept his visits a secret. Tatiana wrote to her mother on 8 March 1910, that she was "so afr(aid) that S.I. (governess Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva) can speak ... about our friend something bad". Xenia wrote on 15 March 1910 that she did not understand "the attitude (behavior) of Alix and the children to that sinister Grigory". Nicholas asked Rasputin not to go into the nursery after that, and Alexandra later fired Tyutcheva.
  In the spring of 1910, Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova, a royal governess, said that Rasputin had raped her. The empress did not believe her, saying that "everything Rasputin does is holy". Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was told that they had made an investigation to see if what Vishnyakova said was true, but that "they caught the young woman in bed with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard." Vishnyakova was kept from seeing Rasputin after she claimed that he raped her. She was fired in 1913.
  But rumors still spread. People suggested that Rasputin had seduced the Tsarina and her four daughters. Rasputin had written warm, but completely innocent letters to the Tsarina and her four daughters. He released the letters, which made people gossip even more. "My dear, precious, only friend," wrote Anastasia. "How much I should like to see you again. You appeared to me today in a dream. I am always asking Mama when you will come ... I think of you always, my dear, because you are so good to me ..."
  Soon after, pornographic cartoons were printed about Rasputin having relations with the Empress, her four daughters and Anna Vyrubovna. After the scandal, Nicholas asked Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg for a time. Rasputin went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. Alexandra was very angry at this. However, though the rumors continued, the imperial family continued to be friendly with Rasputin until he was murdered on 17 December 1916. "Our Friend is so contented (happy) with our girlies, says ... their souls have much developed," Alexandra wrote to Nicholas on December 6, 1916.
  Later, A.A. Mordvinov reported in his memoirs that the four Grand Duchesses looked "cold and visibly terribly upset" by Rasputin's death. He added that they sat "huddled up closely together" on a sofa on the night they heard he was killed. Mordvinov remembered that they were sad and seemed to feel the beginning of great political troubles. Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on the back by Anastasia, her mother and her sisters. Anastasia went to his funeral on December 21, 1916. Her family planned to build a church over Rasputin's grave. After they were killed by the Bolsheviks, it was discovered Anastasia and her sisters were all wearing amulets with Ras
caption: Grand Duchess Anastasia in court dress in 1910.
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