Customer Reviews

Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson

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This book is probably the most comprehensive collection of information on Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. The book begins with what is known of Anderson's early life and continues until her death, spanning several decades, two continents and many court battles.

However, I felt that the book leaned too heavily on the evidence that supported Anderson's claim. From the mystery's beginning until its conclusive end, there was always much evidence against the possibility on Anderson being Anastasia. Some is included in the book, but not dwelt upon as much as some of the other evidence.

The updated section on the DNA testing is fascinating and very well written and should prove once and for all the claimant's identity, although some doubters still remain.

Even though the mystery does conclude at the end of the book this is still a fascinating read, especially for anyone interested in Russian or royal history.

I read this book in the knowledge that the case of Fraullein Unbekannt/Anna Anderson is now meant to represent the story of the Twentieth Century's most famous impostor. So I expected I would easily be able to spot the holes in Anna Anderson's "story" and see the author's belief in her identity as little more then mawkish sentimentality. And his prose ebbs and flows ~ it is, at times, grating. Yet, after reading the extraordinarily convincing case he gradually presents, I simply was, and am, baffled. I am expected to be dismissive of this apparently "obsolete" book in the light of some negative DNA results, but I refuse to be. Besides, for me, the results of the DNA make it all the more mezmerizing. Of course, I do not want to believe the DNA results, any way. I try to remember A) that DNA is NOT 100 percent foolproof, and B) that it is possible (if relatively unlikely) that somebody, somehow, perpetrated some kind of "switch" on the samples tested. Yet, if I accept that the DNA was not tampered with, and moreover constitutes the best form of scientific identification ("proof") that mankind has on offer, then a huge gaping question remains: How did she do it? How could so many people simply have been so WRONG? The scientists, the graphologists, the friends and (some) relatives of the authentic Grand Duchess, the author of this book even, all of whom believed Anna was Anastasia? Has anybody made any attempt to reconcile the array of convincing evidence on hand ASIDE from DNA, or explain away the knowledge Anna had of the Romanov family, evidence which suggests she was indeed who she said she was? Her opponents, cited in the book, were fond of saying she was coached in her knowledge by "Russian monarchists", but how? How could Russian monarchists ~ most of whom never knew the Imperial Family ~ have had the knowledge Anna Anderson had? Am I really expected to believe that somebody falsely claiming to be a Russian princess just happened to be lucky enough to have so much evidence to prove it ~ identical hand~writing, ears matching at "seventeen anatomical points", scars such as one would expect to find on the survivor of a massacre like Ekaterinburg? It was furthermore a stroke of genius luck that Anna should claim to be Anastasia seventy years before the Grand Duchess's body was proven to be missing from the Romanov burial site. I was, in short, deeply impressed by Kurth's biography, but far more deeply baffled.

Kurth's book is a splendid account of the odd, beguiling and unique character that was Anna Anderson. The book, drawing from many unpublished sources, explains in detail the enthralling story of Anna's pathetic and tragic life. He details how recent DNA evidence is wrong by poking serious holes in the theory that Anna was the missing Polish factory worker Franziska Shantkovska. A wonderfull book and the best biography (with the exception of:Anastasia Survivor of Ekaterinburg by Harriet Von Kielmann-Rathlef 1929) on Anna to date.

It was a great pleasure for me to read Peter Kurth's book. I have read most of the books written about the Anna Anderson/Anastasia affair and I find Mr. Kurth's book to be the best due to the extensive amount of research he has performed. Although the DNA "evidence" has concluded that Anna Anderson Manahan was a polish factory worker...I still believe that she was indeed Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna Romanov. I would highly recommend Peter Kurth's book to anyone interested in this subject because it provides an opportunity to learn about all of the other overwhelming evidence in Mrs. Manahan's favor that contradicts the DNA results.

How far will one go to disbelieve scientific data? I guess I'm finding out because after reading Kurth's "Anastasia," I do believe that the woman known as Anna Anderson/Frau Tschaikovsky was indeed Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaievna, survivor of the executions of the Romanov family at Ekaterinburg in 1918.

[This book was written before the DNA testing was done, which makes it somewhat anachronistic, but doesn't diminish its readability and the fundamental story of the woman many thought to be the surviving Romanov.]

Kurth follows "Anastasia" from her attempted suicide in Berlin through her death (the version I have has an afterword that addresses that event), with some tantalizing background of the last days of imperial Russia that were fascinating. Anastasia divided the royal houses of Europe into definite camps, those for and against, with both sides passionate.

All along, Anastasia, as retold by Kurth, reveals compelling knowledge of her identity as the Grand Duchess. She recognizes other European royals by the sound of their voices. She has the exact same foot deformity as the grand duchess, with the same (unusual) color eyes, same height, build and hair color. She knows personal details of life at court that only those there could know.

One really fascinating aspect of the book is how Anastasia said she escaped Ekaterinburg after the executions and the scars on her body, which are inline with the bloody end of her family. (She said Grand Duchess Tatiana Nicholaievna fell on top of her, shielding her from fatal wounds, but that she had a bullet wound in her head behind her right ear and she was also stabbed. She was rescued by a Bolshevik soldier who realized that she lived and couldn't bury her, a man named Tschaikovsky. He took her out of Siberia, all the way to Bucharest in a horse cart, where she was briefly married to him and bore a child before Tschaikovsky was shot in a street brawl. She left the infant and Bucharest for Berlin, hoping to find her mother's family. That's where she threw herself in the canal and was institutionalized, and the story began.) She had problems with handwriting after she was found, problems learning how to tell time and she refused to speak Russian for many years, saying it was the last language she heard in Ekaterinburg, but she understood it perfectly, and sometimes uttered phrases of Russian that were definitely idioms that only a native speaker would know.

Kurth's retelling of the two trials in Germany to prove her identity are two chapters loaded with convincing information, including a witness who said he saw her alive at Ekaterinburg after the others were shot.

But, she was never victorious and, contrary to the film "Anastasia" with Ingrid Bergman, she never got to meet her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (formerly Dagmar of Denmark).

A side note that was compelling about this book is how it shows that all those richie-royals in Europe are related to each other. I was very naïve about that and found the realization bizarre.

Kurth clearly believed the woman to be Anastasia and in the book, Kurth convinces. I recognize that he's sympathetic to the "Anastasians" and knew the woman personally, but I have to say, I'm a believer. It's not just that one is sympathetic with "the invalid" as many referred to her (she wasn't very likeable for long; she was moody and held grudges, was demanding and volatile), but because the evidence of handwriting similarities and physical similarities rather sealed the deal for me.

Kurth starts out with Anna Anderson in Berlin, where she attempts suicide and then follows her all the way up through to her life in Charlottesville, my version of the book also has an afterwards about her death and the eventually DNA results. He then goes on to explain all of the information and mannerisms which many people believed distinguished her as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. I won't go into all the different details since so many reviewers before me already have, but all I have to say is that if she isn't Anastasia, I find it amazing that she was capable of fooling members of the royal families who knew her personally, and childhood friends.

Whether or not I believe Anna Andersons claim, well honestly, I'm not sure whether I do or not. If there was only the evidence of her knowledge to go by, then yes I would absolutely believe her, there's just to many things she has an intimate knowledge of to make it all a mere coincidence. I can't imagine how a poor Polish factory worker would be able to speak German and English, and understand Russian, or have such an air of royalty which all who met her agreed she was in possession of. Also, there would be no way for her to gain knowledge of all that she knew, personally conversations she had with childhood friends, events which would only be important to the Imperial family, and the secret visit of the Duke of Hesse in 1916, among many other facts. DNA evidence makes it impossible however to believe it truly is her, because DNA simply doesn't lie, so unless they were testing the wrong person (which many fanatics believe is true) there's no way she could be the Grand Duchess, so unfortunately I'm left unable to believe. Of course there's the third option that Anastasias spirit jumped into Anna Andersons body, which would explain her knowledge and mannerisms, this is however quite far fetched, and unbelievable.

Overall I found this book fascinating and feeling deeply for Anastasia, or whoever this woman is, Kurth clearly believes Anna Anderson is the Grand Duchess and presents his information in a biased way, but I don't believe this negatively impacts this book in any way. Hopefully one day this mystery will be solved, until then however we'll be left wondering who this woman is, and if she isn't Anastasia, how she got all of this intimate knowledge of the family.

Mr. Kurth's book has been out for some years now, so there is little that can be added at this point except that he did a marvelous job in presenting Anna Anderson's story to the world. This work is so thorough, in fact, that it convinced many non-believers that she was truly Grand Duchess Anastasia. In my opinion, the facts presented here far outweigh the dubious DNA tests that supposedly proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Anna was not Anastasia.

Firstly, IMHO, the DNA studies were used to try and hide the fact that Anastasia survived. The reasons behind this lie in the political realm, and this is not the forum to address these issues. However, time after time, Kurth provides us with information from and about Anna that only someone who actually lived through the life and times of the royal family would know. Although she made some errors (memory fails us all at times), it's the small details, such as Anna being overheard humming one of Anastasia's favorite tunes, that really strike the reader as having a great deal of validity. The fact that her Aunt Olga retracted her view about Anna's authenticity hints at family pressure, rather then a change in the belief that this was her niece.

Kurth's writing style is always interesting, and for those who are truly intrigued by this woman and the possible survival of one of the Grand Duchesses (and there are incidents beyond the scope of Kurth's work that also point to this very real possibility), the book is a must read. I found it hard to put down. I read it twice--once before the DNA results were made known and then again after it was announced that she was not the Grand Duchess. The evidence provided by Kurth far outweighs the results of tests that could be easily manipulated.

To sum up--Anna Anderson simply "knew too much". Even if coached, the wealth of her knowledge would have been impossible for a simple working class girl to learn from even the greatest of teachers. I hope Mr. Kurth was not swayed from his previous beliefs, for he has presented in this work some of the best evidence for this woman who lived through the glory of Imperial Russia and the living hell that followed.

I have always been keenly interested in Anastasia/Anna Anderson and this well written book was quite an education! Despite the "DNA evidence", I truly believe that this woman was exactly who she claimed to be. Mr. Kurth's research was well done and the information jumped out at me as though I were there myself. She was fortunate to have such a champion on her side.

The tragedy of the life of Anastasia is multifaceted: She knew the love her family, appreciating the richness of the world around her until the tragic day in 1918 when all was taken from her so horribly: the torture of the masacre of her family, her survival only to be raped, her lifelong suffering from brain damage, tuberculosis and psychological problems. Topped off with the denial of the one thing we all take absolutely for granted- her very identity. While she suffered the mental anguish of her memories and tried to forget the masacre, her relatives kept testing her with questions that only brought the past back to haunt her again and again. Yet most of them only did this to deny she was Anastasia, and never gave her the love and protection a family must.

The story is magnificently presented with compassion and clarity. All the details are there- the events leading up to the masacre of the Romanovs, the early details of Mrs. Anderson's return to public scrutiny, the complicated trials and associated cast of charaters. After reading this book, one is certain it is she. The final riddle is only how the DNA test was "fixed" to arrive at the results that deny Anna Anderson her true identity even from the grave.

I read this book after seeing "Anastasia", starring Ingrid Bergmen. This book held my attention the entire time. As I read the book I realized the trials this woman went through just to prove who she was. She was a lost soul, and whether or not she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia, your heart can't help but go out to this orphan. She was also a woman who was haunted by ghosts and suffered from depression. She was someone who truly needed love and a family. The two things she was always denied. I took this book to class with me everyday. (I'm sixteen years old) and I read it with eager interest, somtimes forgetting about my homework. I would recommend this book to anyone.