The novel examines the foundations of identity, specifically focusing on what qualities make a person recognizable not just to themselves but to others. Identity, as the novel suggests, is a blend of disposition, relationship, and accumulated experience. However, just as the meaning of an artwork is open to interpretation—as illustrated by a scene Anastasia remembers of viewing the painting The Rape of the Sabine Women—the novel posits that identity, too, is a matter of interpretation.

At the heart of the novel lies the question of how identity is verified. From the outset, Anna challenges the idea that proving identity is a matter of gathering information and insists that the reader listen to her confession before coming to conclusions. She says: “When I am finished, only then, will you have the right to tell me who I am” (1). However, she struggles to prove the legitimacy of relational ties. Her claim to be Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov requires her to justify her relationship to the surname Nikolaevna, which identifies Anastasia as the daughter of Nicholas II. The numerous proofs that others require in order to support Anna’s claim further indicate how deeply identity is formed from relationships and experiences. For instance, Gilliard says he will be satisfied she is Anastasia when she can demonstrate evidence of what Gilliard taught his pupil, and Frederick and his relatives want Anna to recall details of the family that only Anastasia would know.

Anna clings to four possessions that belonged to the royal family, and in her eyes, they legitimize her claim that she is Anastasia. Two of them, the photo album and the paper knife, are Anastasia’s chosen possessions. The icon of Saint Anna of Kashin bears the name she acquires—Anna is a diminutive of Anastasia—and in a sense, Anna’s attachment to this item shows that she sees it as a protective talisman, just as Saint Anna is said to be a protector of women. The icon that held the Empress Alexandra’s failed plea for help, along with the ivory chess set carved from the tusks of Sammi, the bull elephant that was Alexey’s pet, could be persuasive connections to Anastasia. Yet Anna never submits them for proof to a court of law. One reason for this could be that her acquisition of these items is suspect: She acquires two of them on the black market, and the other two are gifts from Tanya, a close friend of the family. These items instead become a private justification that she has some right to the claim she is making. Her refusal to surrender these items, even when her life is at stake during the Weser River crossing, shows her unwillingness to relinquish this self-construction. 

Likewise, she does not cease her insistence that she is Anastasia until her death, suggesting that, like memory, identity itself is a construction that is open to interpretation and revision. In the Epilogue, Anna argues that others—like Gleb and Tanya—encouraged, and even needed, her to be Anastasia. This highlights the idea that identity is not a stable construct, but a narrative shaped by context and imagination.