She makes special mention of a manuscript illuminator we know only as Anastasia who she described as the most talented of her day.

In spite of depictions in various dramatizaions, Maria Feodorovna never met Anna Anderson, the impostor who falsely claimed to be her murdered granddaughter Anastasia.

Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia and the dog Ortino in captivity at Tsarskoe Selo in the spring of 1917 At Yekaterinburg, Tatiana occasionally joined her younger sisters in chatting with some of the guards over tea, asking them questions about their families and talking about her hopes for a new life in England when they were released.

Anastasia was seventeen years, one month old at the time of the assassination, while her sister Maria was nineteen years, one month old and their brother Alexei was two weeks shy of his fourteenth birthday.

The mass grave near Ekaterinburg which held the remains of the Tsar, his wife, and three daughters was revealed in 1991, but the bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters — either Anastasia or her older sister Maria — were not discovered there.

When Anastasia was born, her parents and extended family were disappointed to have a fourth daughter, because they wanted a son who would be heir to the throne.

Most in the household, including the servants, generally called the Grand Duchess by her first name and patronym, Anastasia Nikolaevna, and did not use her title or " Her Imperial Highness.

" Anastasia also had a deformity of her left foot, as did famous imposter, Anna Anderson.

Living up to her nicknames, young Anastasia grew into a vivacious and energetic child, described as short and inclined to be chubby, with blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair.

Grand Duchess Anastasia knitting in her mother's boudoir.

Anastasia sometimes tripped the servants and played pranks on her tutors.

Once, during a snowball fight at the family's Polish estate, Anastasia rolled a rock into a snowball and threw it at her older sister Tatiana, knocking her to the ground.

A distant cousin, Princess Nina Georgievna, recalled that " Anastasia was nasty to the point of being evil ," and would cheat, kick and scratch her playmates during games ; she was affronted because the younger Nina was taller than she was.

Hallie Erminie Rives, a best-selling American author and wife of an American diplomat, described how 10-year-old Anastasia ate chocolates without bothering to remove her long, white opera gloves at the St. Petersburg opera house.

Anastasia and her older sister Maria were known within the family as " The Little Pair.

Anastasia had a weak muscle in her back and was prescribed twice-weekly massage.

Anastasia, like all her family, doted on the long-awaited heir Tsarevich Alexei, or " Baby ," who suffered frequent attacks of hemophilia and nearly died several times.

Anastasia, her sisters and brother Alexei were all wearing their long white nightgowns.

Grand Duchess Anastasia with her mother, Tsarina Alexandra, in about 1908.

Grand Duchess Anastasia with her brother Alexei.

Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on its reverse by Anastasia, her mother and her sisters.

Grand Duchesses Tatiana, Maria and Olga in a formal portrait taken in 1900 Grand Duchess Tatiana's siblings were Grand Duchesses Olga, Maria, Anastasia, and the hemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei of Russia.

The real Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and Alexandra, was killed along with her parents and siblings on 17 July 1918 by communist revolutionaries in Ekaterinburg, Russia ; but the location of her body was unknown until 2008.

Gregory's homilies were well received and attracted ever-growing crowds to Anastasia.

Later, an American scientist concluded from dental, vertebral, and other remnants that it was Anastasia and Alexei who were missing.

However, recent research shows that all of the Romanovs, including Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Anastasia who had been thought to have escaped the Bolshevik attack, were killed.

Among these were several of the mob-affiliated hitmen belonging to the murder-for-hire group Murder, Inc., which was headed up by major mob leaders Louis " Lepke " Buchalter and Albert Anastasia.

Soon after the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei were murdered by the Bolsheviks at the Ipatiev House in this city.

She was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia and an elder sister of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, all of whom were falsely rumored to have survived the assassination of the Imperial Family.

Author Michael Occleshaw speculated that a woman named Larissa Tudor might have been Tatiana ; however, all of the Romanovs, including Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, were murdered by the Bolshevik assassination squad.

Those bodies were identified as Tsarevich Alexei and one of the four grand duchesses, generally thought by Russians to be Grand Duchess Maria and by Americans to be Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Anastasia's title is most precisely translated as " Grand Princess ," meaning that Anastasia, as an " Imperial Highness " was higher in rank than other Princesses in Europe who were " Royal Highnesses.

" Other family nicknames for Anastasia were " Malenkaya ," meaning " little ( one )," or " shvibzik ," the Russian word for " imp.

His mother and sister Anastasia, were carriers.

After they were killed by the Bolsheviks, it was discovered Anastasia and her sisters were all wearing amulets bearing Rasputin's picture and a prayer.

In February 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne and Anastasia and her family were placed under house arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo during the Russian Revolution.

After the Bolsheviks seized majority control of Russia, Anastasia and her family were moved to the Ipatiev House, or House of Special Purpose, at Yekaterinburg.

Anastasia and her sisters learned how to do their own laundry and assisted the cook in making bread while they were in captivity at the Ipatiev House.

The last victims, Maria, Anastasia and the maid Demidova, were on the floor beneath the room's one window.

Since the head wounds inflicted on Olga and Tatiana were instantly fatal, it is likely that Maria, perhaps only unconscious, was the sister who screamed, while Anastasia may still have been able to move and moan.

Dimitri and Vladimir had taught Anastasia all the answers, but when Anastasia independently ( though dimly ) recalls how Dimitri saved her ten years ago, the two men finally realize that she is the real Grand Duchess.

She learned more about Christianity under her mentor Anastasia, who taught her about the practice of repenting for one ’ s sins.