The ruling
dynasty of
Russia from
1613 CE until the
Russian Revolution in
February of
1917 CE. The last
Tsar of Russia was
Nicholas II, a member of the Romanov family. Supposedly, every member of Nicholas II's immediate family was executed by the
Communist revolutionaries in
Ekaterinburg in July of
1918. After the execution, however, a number of young women cropped up claiming to be
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolayevna, youngest
daughter of Nicholas II. These claims led to Anastasia's establishment as a semi-mythological character in world history: the exiled
noblewoman, unable to claim her rightful identity or fortune. An entirely
fictional account of "Anastasia's" escape from the revolutionaries was filmed in
cartoon format by
Disney.
The claims of one woman to the identity of Anastasia, calling herself Anna Anderson, persisted until her death in 1984. Her story was particularly accurate and compelling, but genetic tests in the 1990s proved that she was not a member of the Romanov family.
In many ways, the Romanovs were the last royal dynasty which operated as a power bloc in Europe. They deserve mourning; their rule may have been tyrannical, but not nearly so drastically as that which befell the Russian nation in the years of the Soviet Union.