Anastasia: Dead or Alive? 1x60
(PBS NOVA) Director/Writer
During the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas Romanov II was overthrown and exiled to the town of Ekaterinburg. In the middle of the night of July 16, 1918, Bolshevik guards, using the pretense that the Romanovs were in danger, led the Czar and his family into a basement and killed them. Although reports indicated that no one survived, some people believe that one of the Czar’s daughters, Princess Anastasia, may have escaped. In 1922 a woman claiming to be Anastasia surfaced in Berlin. Six years later, she visited the United States and registered in a hotel using the name Anna Anderson. Relatives, doctors, and former acquaintances of the Romanovs interviewed and studied her, but until the advent of DNA analysis, no one could prove or disprove her claim with certainty. NOVA investigates this mystery, presenting personal testimonies, evidence from DNA tests, and extensive efforts to determine her true identity.
“This fascinating search for identity keeps you tantalizingly in suspense until the last moment, but the real story behind “Anastasia: Dead or Alive” is the conflict between the emotional knowledge claimed by Anderson’s supporters, such as biographer Peter Kurth, and the objective data of biology”. LATimes
“Anastasia Dead or Alive?” brings the mystery of the youngest daughter of the last Czar of Russia up to date with all manner of forensic scrutiny” New York Times
