Anastasia: The Life of Anna Anderson

by Peter Kurth

The Life of Anna Anderson by Peter Kurth.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Russia, Romanovs, Mystery, Biography Memoir

Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

PETER KURTH is the author of "Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson," "American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson," "Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra," and "Isadora: A Sensational Life," and co-author (with Eleanor Lanahan) of "Zelda: An Intimate Portrait." His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveler, Forbes FYI, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Observer, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, and Salon.com.

Peter Kurth lives in Vermont.

Reviews

[Terri Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me begin by stating that I am an historian so my training has always required intensive and accurate research with multiple sources of verified facts. I do not take anything on faith and and do not believe in offering shoddy research as facts. Apparently Peter Kurth is the opposite. I was appalled to see one review on here from several years ago where a reviewer said she wished we did not have DNA testing because wouldn't it be so nice if we could pretend historical lies are really true. Well....NO!

If you are looking for real Russian history, may I suggest one of my favorites- Robert K Massie- for accuracy and truth.

Anna Anderson was not Anastasia Romanov. DNA testing has proven this but one should have known otherwise. The woman could not even speak Russian, for goodness' sake!

Peter Kurth seems to ignore all of the evidence that so glaringly points out that this is an impostor and cherry picks unproven things that he feels will make a case that she was. This is not historical research. Historical research demands cold, hard proof. Peter Kurth requires only the National Enquirer to say so. See the difference?

Those who have not had years of training in historical research (or even a good logic course in high school) ponder how Anna Anderson could know certain facts about the Russian royal family and about life in Russia. A few reviews suggest she must really be Anastasia (despite DNA evidence to the contrary) or else is "channeling" the real Anastasia or is a psychic or some other such nonsense.

Oh please, people! Don't be so gullible. How could Anna have that knowledge? That is simple- she could read books and stories about them and life in Russia just as you can and I can. She could spend time with and talk with people who know the Romanovs and who were Russian. Anna Anderson turned out to be a mentally ill woman from Poland. Many of the Romanov family and their households (who could talk accurately about such info) fled to Poland where Anna was from. She may have met one or more and heard their stories and being mentally ill, convinced herself that SHE was Anastasia and had experienced the things she heard about or read about. Many mentally ill people think they are people they have read or heard about. One of my aunts married to my mother's brother has her own brother who is convinced he is our first President George Washington and if you went by what he knows about George Washington, you'd have to think he was because he is a walking encyclopedia of everything George Washington and years ago even legally changed his name to that! He is mentally ill but harmless.
There is yet another reason why Anna had such knowledge. It was the son of the Russian doctor who was physician to the Romanovs who tried to get the Romanov fortune for Anna and thus for himself. The doctor, personal physician to the Romanovs, was put to death with them. The son, who moved to the USA, used this poor mentally unbalanced woman who was really a missing Polish woman named Franziska Schanzkowska to try to profit.

DNA testing in 2007 showed that the bodies of Nicholas and Alexandra and all but two of their children were the ones found together. In a separate location, the other two children were found and DNA testing has shown them to be the Anastasia and her brother. All have been accounted for and DNA testing has shown not only this but has proven that Anna is the missing Polish woman Franziska Schanzkowska. DNA taken from tissues removed and preserved from surgery Anna Anderson had was DNA tested with her great nephew Carl Mauchier and found to be matches. Not only that, her family has a rare genetic disease. This was found in both Anna's and Carl's genetic code. The Romanovs do NOT have the disease.


Why would Anna look similar to the Russians? Because she, like they, was a Slav. The Slavs all have many features in common. That does not make one a blood relative of the royals nor does it make one a royal. My mother in law's family are Polish and Croatian and THEY favor the Romanovs physically but my great-grandmother-in-law is not Anastasia though she told plenty of stories of those times and looked the part.

I seek truth and facts when reading history. Kurth offers only a few. Here are two places where you can obtain the medical facts.

(1) www.pilarrivett.com/anastasia-anna-an...

(2) www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1...

[Dolores Andral · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is especially interesting reading it in 2015, after the 1984 DNA tests ruled out Anna Anderson as the real Anastasia. (This is not a spoiler alert: it's 2015.) Even the protests of "Anastasians" who were diehard believers and held fast to a conspiracy theory because the bodies of Anastasia and her brother were still missing, were diminished in 2007 when those bodies had been found and tested. And outside those decrying foul play, I think most have come to realization that Anna Anderson was, like many of the women who claimed to be the last surviving Romanov, another Anastasia impostor.

To read this story in the light of those facts is very interesting in what it says about us and what we are willing to believe, regardless of facts. For example, Anna Anderson (thought to be missing factory worker Franzisca Schanzkowska) refused to speak Russian, which would have put to rest many doubts. Early on, she couldn't speak english, and only spoke German. Whereas the true Grand Duchess not only spoke Russian, and english, it was said that she didn't know German.

They originally thought the girl to tried to kill herself was around 25 when Anastasia would have been only 19 at the time.

The first claim was that Anna Anderson was actually the Grand Duchess Maria, but when an aunt immediately refuted that claim because Maria was taller than her, soon the story was changed to say Anna Anderson was Anastasia. Many of the first family members Anna Anderson encountered she didn't recognize or acknowledge and only afterward claimed it was because she expected them to recognize her first. Only then would she give an intimate story about the relationship.

The early doctors claimed that Anna Anderson's memory was "extraordinary" because of the way she remembered things. She couldn't remember her past. She couldn't remember what happened after "she escaped" but could only remember the assassination, which when she recalled it, burst into fitful tears unable to describe it. Grand Duchess Anastasia played the piano, when Anna Anderson was asked to play, she started crying. She refused to see or speak to many: doctors, officials, family throughout her entire life.

When I first started reading this story I didn't know whether Anna Anderson was the real Anastasia or not, and for about a quarter through the story I too was hopeful. I bought the idea that "she refused on principal" to speak Russian. That she suffered from some form of amnesia so couldn't remember how to play piano and all the other things she "forgot." But going into the story with 20/20, I would ask myself, if someone refuses to speak a language on principal, why then utter "a few words" as many have claimed she did. (And as she did later in life during her trial when she was "tricked" into being tested in Russian). Is saying one or two or three words no different than speaking a hundred in order to prove your status? Especially when you bring a lawsuit in order to receive the family inheritance?


Many people died, fought legal battles, and gave money believing that Anna Anderson was the true surviving Grand Duchess, many other died, fought legal battles etc believing that she was the greatest fraud. So it's interesting to see what we believe, why we believe it, how we refute it, and the passions on both side. I think of modern day "courts of public opinions" and how unwavering we are once we form an opinion.

There was a lot of information the author had to wade through, though I think he was a little biased in his reporting. For eg, it seemed incredulous to him that the court should want Anastasia to prove who she was, rather than it be the burden of the court to prove she wasn't who she said she was. And in a new afterword Mr. Kurth mentioned that despite the new DNA revelation he still believed Anna Anderson was the long lost Duchess (this book written before Anna Anderson's death and subsequent DNA test), but that was also before the last two bodies were found and exhumed.

Very interesting read to find out how this person, among all other impostors, came the closest to inheriting the Romanov fortune.

[Kathleen Celata · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious

We do now know that Anna A was beyond a doubt NOT Anastasia but I read the book interested in her story. The book is very confusing, too many names scattered here and there, I was constantly bouncing back and forth from Wikipedia. But more so, it's inconceivable to me that people supported this shrewish, unbalanced woman for decades. She seems to have had a hateful personality, was a complete ingrate and a whining, cringing bore, besides. I struggled through, but reading the book was a thankless task of repetition, confusion and very little illuminating information.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not convinced Anna Anderson is a fake. She knew too much about the royal family to be a peasant. If not Anastasia, then who?

[Jrivasmd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating at times, maddeningly slow at others, this book is quite convincing that Anna might indeed be Anastasia. Most convincing to me are the recollections of Anna concerning the time when her family was imprisoned. The book contained far too many names, lots of unnecessary data, and I struggled to finish the last quarter. Nonetheless, I finished it and definitely enjoyed parts.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story intrigues me to this day. I recommend this to all! (My personal opinion...Anna Anderson WAS Anastasia.)

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outdated info with a bias for dramatization but lots of pictures and information. Just keep in mind current DNA evidence.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting tale, though it has been told before. Many want to believe that Anastasia was not killed along with the rest of her family, but later DNA evidence proves the whole Romanov family was indeed killed. There is a question whether the DNA of her sister Maria is that of Anastasia instead, but all of the bodies are accounted for. Anastasia and her brother were cremated when the Soviet Union dissolved, their bodies were not buried with their parents and their other sisters.

The book was repetitive and rather dragged out. There were several trials in Germany used to prove if Anna Anderson was who she claimed to be, but they are all very similar. The main character is usually sick or throwing a temper tantrum. For a better version, The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry is more enjoyable.

[Bettina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a well written book, but it suffers from a very big problem: it believes the case of Anna Anderson who claimed to be Anastasia, the daughter of the last czar of Russia, or it is at the very least sympathetic to her cause. This book was published in 1983, and a couple of years later the scientific proof was delivered that Anna Anderson was not a Romanov, but in fact a Polish woman. So the book is based on a lie, although this is not the authors fault.

[Lin S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

and we still don't know for sure.............

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing what we know about the DNA evidence proving that the entire imperial family perished the night of their massacre, this book raises more questions than it answers. We now know that Anna Anderson was not Anastasia, miraculously escaped, and further evidence indicates that she was, in fact, the Polish worker that early investigations alleged was the "imposter."

History is unkind to imposters, even if perhaps they never intended to pose as someone else. This story is one of someone undoubtedly mentally ill--someone who was so damaged she either could not maintain her own identity or whose history was so terrible that she chose, consciously or unconsciously, to take on another identity. This identity may have come to her while reading popular media. It might have been impressed upon her. Or, both may have occurred at the same time, and imaginative, overly hopeful, or manipulative folk may have helped weave the story that made her, and everyone else, believe that she was Grand Duchess Anastasia.

The reactions of others to Anna Anderson are the most curious in this biography of confusion. First are those in her favor of being Anastasia. Their hope overwhelms even visual evidence and perhaps even good sense. Then are those opposed, whose attitude is even more curious--the adamant and hostile denouncement of this mentally ill woman reaches almost ridiculous levels--as if vociferousness ever encouraged anyone to believe something one way or another.

Behind the scenes is a tableau of royal family politics that is equally intriguing. The early events in this story happen at a time when royalty is at its most vulnerable, and the conflicts and loyalties at play emphasize how nervous they are about the future of their dynasty and its privileges. Could it have been that, even if Anna Anderson had been Anastasia, that they would have rejected her anyway?

What was the real story behind this woman's past? Was she injured in a grenade explosion as was supposed by someone who was said to know her? Did she really have a child and spend time in Romania? How much of her supposed regal bearing, knowledge of languages, and information about intimate family details was real and how much was the optimism who wanted her to be Anastasia?

Finally, what was Kurth's reaction to learning that Anna Anderson was not who he, after collecting evidence and interviewing her in person, believed her to be?

[Yaaresse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this ages before DNA testing was an easy/cheap tool or the remains of the real Anastasia were found, and I remember doubting both Kurth's "evidence" and the story spun by the woman claiming to be Anastasia. I still enjoyed reading the book because it was a sort of unsolved mystery at the time, and people had an active, ongoing curiosity about what happened. (I like reading about The Lost Colony and the Bermuda Triangle disappearances, too, and there's a wee part of me that hopes those are never fully explained.) Of course we all know for certain now that Anna Anderson was either delusional or bored enough with her life to devote a huge effort into pulling a con, but it's still an interesting bit of history. I think Kurth badly wanted to believe Anderson was the last Romanov. That it is not the first time nor the last that a writer has been fooled by someone, and that alone makes it still fascinating. Definitely needs to be read with some background knowledge of the history and evidence since publication.

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most anything to do with the last tragic first family of the Russian Empire intrigues me. I think Anna Anderson, the fake Anastasia, is particularly interesting. This book was good, but naturally, didn't prove anything (especially since DNA tests later proved that Anna Anderson was NOT Anastasia Romanov).

However, there is one part where Anna Anderson is explaining that while the royal family was imprisoned in their final days in Ekaterinburg, that the entire family was raped repeatedly by their captors. I don't know why, out of all the things I read in this book, this part was so particularly horrible, but it made it almost entirely impossible to finish the book. Once you know that scientific data proved that this woman was not Anastasia, it's hard to understand why she would make up stories like that to prove she was...

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive research into what must have been a difficult subject. So much about Anastasia has been written, and so many legal cases (some on incredible length) have transpired, and so many people in so many places had some contact or connection with the situation that simply wading through available resources would be monumental.

But the woman was a mercurial and enigmatic character, just like her story. So the account was interesting and moved more like fiction than biography. Kudos to the author.

I enjoyed reading and learning, not just Anastasia's story but about life of landless royalty and the German legal system.

It would have been better to be able to score this 9 out of 10, but since it's either 4 stars or five I opted for the higher.

A good read.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the time I read it, I found it to be a very convincing (therefore true) story of what happened to Anastasia, then several years later I read "The Romanovs: the Final Chapter" by Robert K. Massie. The book by Robert Massie was written several years later, at a time when more forensic evidence (not to mention the remains of the Romanovs) was available. It turns out that forensic evidence has revealed that the woman written about in "Anastasia: the Riddle of Anna Anderson" was a mentally off, runaway Polish factory worker.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought the book and started reading, the person of interest in the story was still alive.
Before I finished it (years later after I'd put it down for a while), I researched what had been determined after her death.
I was stunned that this wasn't Anastasia. I still can't explain everything the author uncovered about the possible Anastasia. I would have liked to beleive, and the story was so well written that it's hard not to. But, science proved otherwise.

[Donnamhiltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written before DNA testing was availble, the author made a compelling case for Anna Anderson's claim that she was Anastasia, daughter of the Nicholas & Alexandra, of the doomed Romanov family. Testing performed after her death subsequently proved her claim to be a lie, but the book is, nonetheless, fascinating.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book during my obsession with Russia at one time...I LOVED it...

Sometime at times, I wish we didn't discover DNA, it is nice to speculate rather than having cold hard fact on everything....Too bad she wasn't really the real princess...

[Chloe Katsilas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really makes you wonder...of course, I read this years before Anastasia's remains were found, thus disproving the lost princess theory. Regardless, the book is based on a true account of a person who believed she was someone else. Very interesting.

[RumBelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite biography of Anastasia, and Anna Anderson, that I have ever read. Kurth made the topic so engaging, he made you want to keep reading. It was an in-depth portrait of two women, their lives, loves and families. By the end, you truly believed that both women were one and the same.

[Debbie Rust · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book, covering decades of history. It was well researched and about a troubled period of time, crossing many countries. One woman’s desire to prove who she is, when there is no evidence but her beliefs and the belief and trust of her supporters.

[Nathalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was intersting, but really long winded, I had a hard time keeping all the russian names straight.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was obsessed with Anastasia and Anna Anderson. The book brought up interesting theories that have since been disproven.

[Marguerite · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite "Anastasia" book. Peter Kurth is an avid believer that Anna Anderson was the real Anastasia and so am I.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Longer than necessary, with too many confusing details at times. But an interesting read. This edition does not include the discovery of Romanov remains or any DNA testing.

[Linda M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. Makes you wonder if Duchess Anastasia really killed in 1918.

[Marian Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating life she lead. I loved this book and recommend it

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 3 out of 5]

For much of the 20th century, the fate of the Russia’s Nicholas II and his family was shrouded in mystery. One that opened the door for some to hope that at least one member of the family survived their reported execution in Ekaterinburg. Among those who inspired such hope was a woman who surfaced in Berlin in 1920 who became known as Anna Anderson who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. Among those fascinated by Anderson and her claim is author Peter Kurth who published this biography of Anderson shortly before her passing with an updated forward later in the 1980s.

Kurth’s biography is an exhaustive one. Taking in the six decades when Anderson surfaced in Berlin to her death in 1984, the scope is epic to say the least. There’s a wide cast of ever changing characters around Anderson from her initial doctors in Berlin to the exiled Russian emigre communities of two continents, a veritable army of lawyers, and her eventual American husband in the latter years of her life. Kurth takes readers alongside Anderson across those two continents, from post-World War I Berlin to Switzerland, Paris, and two very different times living in the United States. The depth of Kurth’s research and access to Anderson are abundantly clear throughout.

Which isn’t always a good thing. As exhaustive as it is, this biography is also exhausting to read at times. It becomes mired down in names, dates, and details, sometimes down to what people were eating for lunch on such and such a day. It’s something that shows off the depth of research, but it adds little to the overall story. It also makes parts of the book hard to follow without images to put names with faces (though that’s perhaps a fault of the Kindle edition I read over the original hardcover and paperback versions). Kurth neatly get across the two major court cases in West Germany where Anderson’s supporters made a legal case for her identity far better than he does a number of episodes you’d expect to be more interesting that legal back and forth. It’s something that takes an intriguing real-life story and turns into rather dry reading for what’s already a fairly lengthy title.

There is, of course, an elephant in the room coming to this book. Namely that, roughly a decade after it was published, DNA testing ruled out that Anderson was who she claimed to be. Given that this Kindle edition was published in 2018, I was expecting that Kurth might have updated his afterword to at least discuss the events that followed. Instead, the book leaves things just a short time after Anderson’s death, the great revelation of her identity and the wide acceptance that she was not who she claimed to be. Something which leaves this feeling like a time capsule of sorts, if a strange one given it was republished well after the fact.

And what can we make of Anna Anderson, who turned out to be one-time Polish factory worker  Franziska Schanzkowska as an early detractor claimed? Perhaps Dr Bonhoeffer, a psychoanalyst who examined her in those early days, was right all along when he suggested that his mystery patient had replaced her own identity with that of Anastasia. Reading Kurth’s biography, seeing how she acted when she met a number of people from in and around the royal court, often asking questions, it seems likely to have been the case from this reader’s perspective. Though, in their behavior toward her both publicly and privately, it must be said that that emigres and surviving members of the royal family don’t come across as entirely unselfish in their behavior toward her, often more interested in protecting their own claims and titles over answering questions of whether Anderson was or was not the Grand Duchess.

This then is a time capsule of a book. The history of a mystery, really two different mysteries. One being the fate of Anastasia, the other of just who this mysterious woman fished out of a Berlin canal in the years after World War I actually was. One that is exhaustive and exhausting in its accounting of both.

[Daniella Ivette · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a load of b......

I'm an history junkie, and since the Romanovs are one of my favorite subjects to read about, and after watching an Anna Anderson documentary and the Amy Irving movie, I jumped at the chance to read this book.

First off, let me get this off my chest: Kurth genuinely does want to sell us this idea of Anna being Anastasia. He weaved this web of bulls##t so well that you almost fall in it, unless you bother to nitpick every little thing he claims, as many of us did (i.e.: Anna not wanting to play the piano, when Anastasia was actually an expert at it; Anna not speaking Russian, English or French but German, when Anastasia was fluent in the first three but not the last one; just to name two)

A heavily dramatized and very biased vision of this conspiracy, I do not recommend this book. If you do still want to read it, take it as fiction, because it has not one base in reality.

As you probably know, Anna was proven to be a fake, whose real identity was that of a Polish/German worker named Franziska Schanzkowska, who was found in a sanatorium in Berlin, after trying to jump off a bridge. When another patient mistook her for a Romanov, the entire scam began.

The finding of 9 of the family's corpses in the late 1970s, and the remaining 2 corpses found back in the 2000s, along with the DNA testing of Anna's remains compared to Prince Philip of England (related to Anastasia's family) proving she was not related, AND compared to a Franziska's grandnephew (Karl Maucher) were the final nails on the conspiracy coffin.

The one question I have after reading this drivel is: was Anna a swindler out for money, or was she so out of her mind that she genuinely believed she was Anastasia?

Lastly, if you want an historically accurate account of the Romanovs, please read Robert K. Massie, Greg King and Helen Rappaport's books on the subject. These three authors are WAY more believable than this hack.

[Michael Alford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not complete this book.
The authors sincere , and well researched, belief that Anna Anderson was the last remaining member of the Tsar's family bleeds through every page of this book. It is obvious that Anna Anderson was a very confused woman, possibly suffering from a head injury. DNA tests years after this book came out confirm this.
The most interesting aspect of this story was how different members of the surviving Romanov family endorsed her, then rejected her. I don't claim to have any insight to the aristocratic mindset, but it comes across as very odd behavior.
It's also interesting how other people other than Anna herself fought tooth and nail to keep the idea alive that she was a Romanov. Anna seems almost disinterested in her 'previous life' and probably would have faded into anonymity if not for the constant support of others.