Portal:Saints/Selected biography/April 2008

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Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, (Russian: Великая Княжна Анастасия Николаевна Романова (June 18 [O.S. June 5] 1901 — July 17, 1918), was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna.

Anastasia was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana and Grand Duchess Maria, and was an elder sister of Alexei Nikolaievitch, Tsarevitch of Russia. She is presumed to have been murdered with her family on July 17, 1918, by forces of the Bolshevik secret police. However, rumors have persisted of her possible escape since 1918, fueled by reports that two sets of remains, identified as Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and either Anastasia or her elder sister Maria, were missing from a mass grave found near Ekaterinburg and later identified through DNA testing as the Romanovs. In January 2008 Russian scientists announced that the charred remains of a young boy and a young woman found near Ekaterinburg in August 2007 are most likely those of the thirteen-year-old Tsarevich and one of the four Romanov grand duchesses. Final results of the DNA testing are scheduled to be announced later in April or May 2008.

Several women have claimed to have been Anastasia, the most famous of whom was Anna Anderson. Anderson's body was cremated upon her death in 1984. Despite support for her claim from several people who knew Anastasia and denial by many who knew the real Anastasia, DNA testing in 1994 on pieces of Anderson's tissue and hair showed no relation to DNA of the Grand Duchess.