Not the czar’s granddaughter

The May 14 article written by Caty Petersen claiming that her grandmother may have been the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov, the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, was quite fascinating.

It reads like a mystery thriller that captivated not only my attention but also that of countless of other Inquirer readers. As a matter of fact, this is not the first time nor, I’m sure, the last time that it will be claimed that Anastasia somehow survived the massacre of her entire family.

The most prominent impostor was Anna Anderson who, after a 30-year legal court battle, failed to impress the German courts into believing that she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Her quest for recognition was made into a movie, with Ingrid Bergman playing the title role. Finally in 1994, long after Anna Anderson’s death, it was shown through DNA testing that she was not related to either Czar Nicholas II or his wife Alexandra.

So is Petersen’s grandmother Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Russian emperor?

How I wish she were. But unfortunately, science has a way of destroying illusions and dreams, and based on DNA testing, Anastasia was among those executed in the early morning of July 17, 1918.

According to Wikipedia, Anastasia’s “possible survival has been conclusively disproven. In January 2008, Russian scientists announced that the charred remains of a young boy and a young woman found near Ekaterinburg in August 2007, were most likely those of the 13-year-old Tsarevich Alexei and one of the four Romanov grand duchesses. Russian forensic scientists confirmed on April 30, 2008, that the remains were those of the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his four sisters. In March 2009, the final results of the DNA testing were published by Dr. Michael Coble of the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, proving conclusively that the remains of all four grand duchesses have now been accounted for, and no one escaped.”

Petersen’s story is romantic, mysterious and thrilling. But she is not the granddaughter of Anastasia nor the descendant of Czar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia.

—ANTONIO C. PASTELERO,

Philippine Stock Exchange Centre,

Exchange Rd., Ortigas Center, Pasig City