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Some people are willing to do anything to be recognized, but these individuals take the cake! They claim to have survived the ignominious execution of the Romanovs in 1918, and although some were exposed, they were dismissed by all as either mad or desperate. The Russian crown proved to be out of reach for this group of bad-faith individuals. Anastasia was murdered along with her parents and siblings on July 17, 1918, but this fact was only certified after the discovery of the late Grand Duchess’s missing remains, which were exhumed and identified in 2008.
1. Anna Anderson, allegedly Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
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The impostor, known as Anna Anderson, claimed to be the fourth and youngest daughter of the Romanovs. Although she managed to deceive part of the imperial elite, an investigation commissioned by the Empress’s brother revealed that she was actually a Polish factory worker named Franziska Schanzkowska who suffered from personality disorders.
Anna’s story begins in 1920 when she attempted suicide and was institutionalized in Berlin. She refused to give her name. One of the patients then mistook her for Grand Duchess Anastasia. In 1928, she moved to the United States and attempted to learn more from Xenia Georgievna, a relative of the Russian Imperial family. However, after a failed attempt to prove she was of royal blood, she returned to Germany.
For more than 20 years, she fought for European courts to recognize her name, to no avail. In 1968, she returned to the United States, where she married a wealthy man and became a naturalized citizen.
Anderson passed away in 1984 in Virginia. DNA analysis performed after her death revealed that she was not a Romanov.
2. Marga Boodts, claimed to be Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia
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Marga Boodts claimed to be Olga, the eldest daughter of Nicholas II. She was found in France at the beginning of the Second World War. There, she organized a collection of donations in the name of the Grand Duchess, explaining that she had miraculously escaped the execution of the Romanovs. She was later arrested for fraud. In court, she declared that she was a Polish szlachta (a privileged noble class).
A few years later, in 1950, she reappeared but denied her fraudulent activities. Boodts managed to win over the Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg, Nikolaus (Crown Prince of Germany), who supported her financially until her death.
While Marga remained silent for years, she voiced her claims when she heard of those made by Anna Anderson. Boodts did everything possible to ruin Anderson’s credibility. She wrote a book telling the story of her family, but it was never published.
Boodts passed away in 1976 in the Italian town of Sala Comacina, where she spent the rest of her life in profound solitude, refusing to receive journalists.
3. Michael Goleniewski, allegedly Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia
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Michael Goleniewski was a Polish officer and counterintelligence agent who cooperated with the KGB in the late 1950s while employed by his own country’s secret services.
Goleniewski later became a triple agent working with the CIA, the KGB, and the Polish secret services. In January 1961, he defected to the United States and officially joined the CIA.
A short time later, he declared himself to be Tsarevich Alexei, the youngest of the Romanov family and the only son of Tsar Nicholas II. According to Goleniewski, the members of his alleged family were all alive. Some people believed him.
In order to prove he was of royal blood, Goleniewski set out to find his sisters. He met the impostor Eugenia Smith, who claimed to be his sister. She returned the favor, recognizing Goleniewski as her younger brother.
However, Goleniewski’s papers prove that he was born in Poland 18 years after the birth of Tsarevich Alexei. In his defense, the claimant stated that he was a hemophiliac (the Tsarevich suffered from a genetic disorder) and that this disease made him appear younger than he was. A few people supported him, but he eventually lost his position at the CIA due to his lies.
Goleniewski fought until the end to recover his “true” name. He passed away in 1993 without having succeeded.
4. Ceclava Czapska, allegedly Grand Duchess Maria of Russia
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The story of Ceclava Czapska dates back to 1919, when she was taken under the protection of Queen Marie of Romania. She and Prince Nicholas Dolgorouky (or Dolgoroukov)—son of General Alexander Dolgorouky—were married. It was at this time that she claimed to be Grand Duchess Maria.
According to her, all members of the Imperial family, except for her “papa” Nicholas II and his servants, escaped death. Ceclava officially recognized the authenticity of the aforementioned claimants Anna Anderson and Marga Boodts (she knew the latter in person).
She passed away in 1970 in Rome. A post-mortem DNA test confirmed that she had no connection to the Tsar’s family.
Later, a man named Alexis Brimeyer claimed to have links to the Romanovs and other European royal houses. The son of a Luxembourgish engineer, Brimeyer was born in the Belgian Congo. According to him, all members of the Russian Imperial family were executed except for his “grandmother” Maria (Ceclava Czapska), who “bequeathed” the Russian throne to him.
Brimeyer claimed that Prince Dolgorouky was his grandfather and used fraudulent methods to combine titles and create names such as Prince d’Anjou Durazzo Durrassow Dolgorouki de Bourbon-Conde, which led to him being sued by the Dolgorouky family. Having failed, he proclaimed himself His Serene Highness Prince Khevenhüller-Abensberg, only to find himself in court again.
Curiously, a few years later, he received a passport from the Principality of Sealand (a micronation claiming a platform in the North Sea, off the English coast of Suffolk) under the name His Majesty Prince Alexis Romanov Dolgorouki.
Throughout his life, Alexis sought to be ennobled and even asked a number of aristocrats to adopt him. He passed away in 1995 in Madrid.
Source: https://fr.rbth.com