I Was Anastasia: A Novel

Kenwood Estate, Oyster Bay, New York. July 1928: Anna knows that Xenia Leeds, with whom she is living, is watching Anna closely. Xenia is a Romanov relation and a princess in her own right. Xenia’s husband, William, is a rich businessman. While Anna feeds her green parrots, Xenia asks why Anna does not speak Russian. Anna says it is because it is the last language she heard in Ekaterinburg. Anna receives a letter from Gleb, who has learned that the tsar left a fortune in the Bank of England and the money will be dispersed to his heirs. Anna overhears Xenia conversing with Dmitri Leuchtenberg, another Romanov relative. Xenia says Anna remembers the Opening of Navigation tradition and this has convinced her Anna’s claim is true. Dmitri has come to interrogate her on behalf of the Romanov family. Anna calls Gleb and asks him to come get her.

Gleb and Xenia argue while Anna listens, along with Edward Fallows, her attorney. Dmitri has come to relay an offer from the Romanov family: They will support Anna for the rest of her life if she gives up her claim of being Anastasia. If she accepts, Xenia will take Anna to Copenhagen to meet the Dowager Empress. Gleb is furious at this offer; he believes Anna is entitled to the entire fortune. Anna loves Gleb for his protectiveness. If Anna does not agree to the terms, she has to leave Kenwood. So, she goes to pack.

Tobolsk, Russia. February 1918: Yakov Yurovsky sends away most of the family’s guards, replacing them with members of the Red Guard. Tomas becomes distant, and Anastasia notes that he looks sad. She feels her world has become more constricted and notices that Semyon seeks Yakov’s favor. Yakov says Vladimir Lenin has reduced the family’s living expenses. Pierre Gilliard helps where he can, and Anastasia realizes she was wrong to doubt his intentions. The family is given a ration card, and Anastasia’s mother will no longer be able to get coffee.

Three weeks later. Tobolsk, Russia. March 15, 1918: Gleb and Tanya Botkin are sent away. Gleb is upset. Anastasia gives him her photo album with pictures of her family. Botkin tells Anastasia that Gleb is besotted with her and would do anything for her. Gleb says Anastasia is not the sort of girl anyone would forget.

One week later. Tobolsk, Russia. March 21, 1918: Spring comes early, and Alexey is upset because the snow pile is gone, and he can’t sled anymore. He tries to sled down the stairs, injuring himself; he begins to bleed.

The Pier at East 13th Street, New York City. February 9: Anna’s arrival in New York makes headlines in the papers. Gleb believes the attention means people are starting to believe Anna is Anastasia. She assumed the name Anna Anderson for her passport to the US, and she thinks: “So she is now Anna Anderson. It will take some getting used to” (195). She was seasick on the voyage. She refuses to give interviews to the press.

Anna and Gleb travel to Oyster Bay to meet Xenia Leeds, who lives in an enormous mansion. Xenia is displeased about the headlines and asks Gleb to leave. Dmitri, with whose family Anna was staying previously, has publicly announced that they don’t believe Anna and they suspect that Gleb is trying to claim the tsar’s fortune. Anna wishes Gleb could stay with her “to help deflect any difficult questions” (200). She asks that no Romanov be brought to see her without her permission. Xenia says she is simply trying to do the right thing without being at odds with her family. Anna is impressed by the estate and the gift Xenia has for her: two green parrots. She decides to name them both Janus.

Tobolsk, Russia. April 23: Yakov announces that the family is to be removed from Tobolsk. Alexey is too ill to move. The girls draw straws to see which of them will go with their mother and father and who will stay behind. Anastasia realizes her mother is too afraid to console any of her children.

Semyon, who brags that he has no loyalties, is left in charge of the family. When he tightens his control over them, the girls do their best to treat him as “a man unworthy of respect” (206). It is a trick they learned at court, Anastasia says. He removes the locks on their bedroom door. Anastasia has seen the way he watches Olga. When Semyon enters the girls’ room that night, Anastasia reaches for her paper knife. Jimmy growls, and Anastasia threatens to turn him loose.

Wasserburg am Inn, Germany. May 11, 1927: Anna and Gleb go to visit Dmitri Leuchtenberg, the son of Anna’s current sponsor. The meeting was arranged by the private investigator with whom Gleb has been corresponding. Anna notes that Gleb has become familiar with her. Anna knows the third man seated with them; he visited her in the psychiatric institution in Berlin seven years ago. The private investigator introduces him as Felix Schanzkowska, a man who claims to be her brother. The private investigator is working for the recognized, surviving family of the tsar, who believe Anna is a fraud. Anna says she does not know Felix and walks out. She thinks that she is tired of this “incessant scheming.”

One day earlier. Wasserburg am Inn, Germany. May 10, 1927: Tanya Botkin takes Anna to an antique shop that is a black market for Russian imperial goods. They are introduced to a man named Albert. Anna is curious about a chess set, which Albert says was carved from the tusks of an African bull elephant the Tsarevitch Alexey kept as a pet. She also notices an icon of Saint Anna of Kashin that was taken from Viktor Zborovsky, captain of the Imperial Guard, who used it to try to smuggle a message asking for help from the British monarchy.

One day earlier. Castle Seeon, Germany. May 9, 1927: The occupants of Castle Seeon are divided on whether Anna is a fraud. She likes how the castle, an old monastery, sits in the middle of a lake. When she first arrived, she had many inquisitive visitors, but now she sees few people. Anna tells Tanya that Dmitri and his mother have gone to Copenhagen to see the Dowager Empress. Dmitri was angry because Anna knew that the Opening of Navigation was an important ritual. Gleb arrives. He wants Anna to come to Wasserburg to meet a man he thinks can help them find the evidence to prove she is Anastasia.

Sixteen months earlier. Mommsen Clinic, Berlin. January 1926: Anna has been in the clinic for months with tuberculosis. Gleb reads an article from a Copenhagen newspaper in which the sister of the tsar says that Frau Anderson is a deluded invalid. Several weeks ago, the same woman sent Anna a beautiful shawl. Anna doesn’t remember that Pierre Gilliard visited her. Gilliard calls Anna “a vulgar adventuress and a first-rate actress” (221).

Three months earlier. Mommsen Clinic, Berlin. October 1925: Anna struggles to breathe and is feverish from illness. A man (later revealed to be Gilliard) visits and asks her a relentless stream of questions. He wants proof that she is Anastasia, and Anna answers that she, herself, is the only proof she has.

Tobolsk, Russia. May 3: Pierre Gilliard reports that Nicholas II and Alexandra have been imprisoned in Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, which is part of the penal colonies. Protestors are demanding they be killed. Along with Anastasia’s mother’s jewels, her father’s maps were confiscated. Alexey recovers, and that means he and his sisters will be sent to join their parents.

Three weeks later. Tyumen Train Station. May 23, 1918: The children travel on the same boat that brought them to Tobolsk. Anastasia notices their guards seem like angry, frightful men. A soldier sleeps in the bunk across from Anastasia, and she realizes it is Tomas. At the train station, Gilliard is not allowed to go with the children. Semyon refers to them as “baggage.” That night, Semyon comes into the train car. He drags Tatiana out, and Anastasia hears her being sent to a compartment full of soldiers. Semyon then drags Olga out of the car, though she fights him. Anastasia is filled with hatred for Semyon. There is a third man still in the train car, and the novel later reveals that it is Tomas.