Anastasia Nikolaevna

Anastasia Standing; Maria sitting

She was the most famous though she didn’t do anything notable in her history. Her name was made famous by her own impersonator, Anna Anderson, who fooled everybody’s thoughts that she was the real Anastasia Nikolaevna. The fourth child of Nicholas II and Alexandra of Hesse, was born on June 5, 1901. Again, her birth dismayed the relatives of the Czar because she was a girl. She was a very charming baby, with the cornflower blue eyes of her Papa, the thin nose of her Mama, and a reddish-blonde hair, the next lightest hair to Olga. She was inclined to be chubby until her death. She even grew heavier on their imprisonment though the irony is that they were given the least amount of food during those times. Her other nicknames were Nastya,Anastasie, Malenkaya, and the most used Shvybzik which is a Russianized word of the German “schwips” meaning ‘tipsy’.. 
She was the smallest in the family being 5’1 or 5’2. Because of that, she envied Maria’s stature. She didn’t care much about her looks. Hence, many suspected she was a tomboy (fact is that she was not). She probably held the most number of misdeeds in the family according to Gleb Botkin, son of Yevgeny Botkin. She would show her scoundrel attitude to their servants and tutors. Her jokes sometimes strike one’s foibles. As a child, she would climb trees and refuse to come down after pleaded. Once in a snowball fight, she rolled a stone on her snowball and threw it to Tatiana, knocking her to the ground. She would also scratch, kick, and cheat her playmates on games according to her distant cousin, Nina Geogievna. A wife of an American diplomat, Hallie Erminie Rives, defined 10 year old Anastasia didn’t mind removing her long ,white gloves while eating chocolates in the St. Petersburg Opera House. Like her sisters, she knew to do crafts an early age. In contrary to her sprightly personality, she suffered stomach and back pains like her mama. She also had hallux valgus or swelling of the toes. In her schoolroom, she was the fastest learner among the OTMA according to Pierre Gilliard. Although she was that, she would not concentrate much on lessons. She was easily bored with schoolwork. She paints well. She was also a gifted actress. 
She was never known to have crushes on soldiers like her sisters did. She was never interested with them. She was more to cracking jokes and miming others movements. During the World War I, she and Maria didn’t become nurses because of their young age. They just visit hospitals and talk to the wounded soldiers or hold small concerts for them. She had two dogs, Shvybzik and Jimmy. The former died of cerebral inflammation in 1915. Since that, Anastasia became so morose. To revive her energy, Anna Vyrobova gave her Jimmy. Jimmy dog died with her at the early morning time of July 17, 1918 in the “House of Special Purpose”. 
At their imprisonment at Tobolsk, she and Mashka burned their diaries and letters for they were scared of handing them to their captors. At Ekaterinburg, Anastasia befriended guards together with her sisters especially Maria. One guard, Alexander Strekotin, remarked she was very friendly and full of fun. One guard also quoted the youngest Grand Duchess was offensive and a terrorist. At July 17, 1918, past one o’clock in the morning, bangs of guns were faintly heard from the cellar room of Ipatiev House. Anastasia was one of the assassinated persons at the time of crime. She and Maria crouched, leaning to a wall and covered their heads in terror, until finished with bullets to the head recalled Yurovsky. One account also said that Anastasia had been finished with bayonets. Whatever the version is, the fact is that Bolsheviks killed her on that Early Morning of Terror at the age of 17. 
Anastasie, though many said you would have become a great beauty like your sisters once you reached adulthood, you were not able to do so. You were bathed in the blood of your own and your family on July 17, 1918, how pitiful. Now you’re up above Heaven with Almighty God and the ones you loved and adulated for their loyalty, may you have peace of mind. I love you, Grand Duchess Anastasia. See you again sooner.