WEBVTT - Will the Real Anastasia Romanov Please Stand Up? 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:15.680 partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:19.360 third season of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.880 and motivations of some of the most notorious impostors throughout history. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.640 Gate I'm Maria Tremarqui and I'm Holly Fry And before 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.360 we can actually dig into this episode's impostor, we have 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.960 to talk first about Russian history. To lay a bit 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:37.080 of groundwork here, the Romanov family ruled Russia for more 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:41.080 than three hundred years, beginning in sixteen with Mikhail Romanov. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.600 The dynasty gave us Peter the Great, Alexander the Great, 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.320 and the very famous Catherine the Great and Nicholas the Second, 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.640 who took the throne in four was ultimately not destined 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.040 to be Nicholas the Great. It was widely said that 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.319 he was really a lot more interested in his very 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.440 tight knit family than in matters of state. Is quite 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.560 shy and gentlemanly, and he was known to be chronically indecisive, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:08.040 never a good quality for a leader, not at all. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.199 And he was also married to an unpopular German born 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:19.440 empress named Alexandra the Romanovs have five children. Their fourth child, Anastasia, 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.040 was born on June eighth. She was the youngest daughter 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.880 of zar Nicholas the second and Zarina Alexandra. But Nicholas 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.880 wasn't bombarded with congratulations when she was born. He was 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.399 bombarded with headlines though about the couple not yet having 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.120 a male air. This is one example from the New 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.160 York Times, which read star has another daughter. Russian people 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.920 again disappointed in their hope that an heir to the 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:49.600 throne would be born. So that's not the most auspicious 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.720 start to life, isn't no. And it's very telling that 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.000 that's something that was being reported worldwide, not just in 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.040 the Russian press, but New York Times over here in 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.720 the States. Of the sisters in the family, Olga was 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:07.200 the bookish one, Tatiana was a poised beauty, Maria was 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:12.120 sweet and kind hearted, and Anastasia was well, my most account, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.280 she was reportedly a little bit of a hell raiser, 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.600 just kind of that kid that's a free spirit. Yeah, 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.000 But considering that she was a royal, there's really not 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.639 a whole lot of information about Anastasia's life, and historians 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.720 believe that that's because there wasn't really anything remarkable about it. 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.600 It probably wasn't much different, for example, than that of 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.000 her sisters. And remember as well, she had been a 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:42.200 disappointment in terms of the country's desires, so meticulously documenting 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.440 her early life was probably not really a priority. Anastasia, 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.280 along with her older sisters, as well as her younger 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.680 brother Alexei, were known for their family name, of course, 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.960 but they weren't really known for their health. Alexei lived 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.960 with hemophilia. Anastasia suffered from a weak muscle in her 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.480 back as well as painful bunyans on her feet, which 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:08.040 both sometimes affected her mobility. Their mother often called upon 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:13.480 Gregory Resputin, who was believed to have healing powers. Over time, 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.600 though rescuted and became a close confidant to Alexandra, and 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.120 it's said he had quite a bit of influence in 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.560 her life. So this story is not about Rescpute and 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.960 though so we're not going to get into the scandal 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.399 of his relationship over the Romanoff children, and if we did, 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.400 we could be here for days, so we'll move on. 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.680 There's so much information in the world about Respute, and 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.360 if you're just eager for a trip down the rabbit hole, yes, 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.440 but in terms of the romanofs the children were formally educated, 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.320 but they were educated at home, and we know Anastasia 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.600 loved singing and dancing, and that she frequently painted with watercolors. 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.560 Some reports about her hint that although she was quite smart, 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.440 she also was not really what you would categorize as 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.080 an attentive student. A lady in waiting to her mother 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.120 called Anastasia quote a sharp and clever child who liked 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.800 to play practical jokes on her siblings, not surprising for 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:12.560 the hell raiser at all. While we don't really have 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.680 an immense amount of information about her early life, and 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:20.000 fortunately we do know about Anastasia's death. So her father, 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.560 Nicholas the Second, abdicated the throne on March fifteenth, nine seventeen. 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.360 That was in an attempt to prevent a civil war 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.800 from breaking out. That attempt did not work. The civil 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.320 war happened just the same, and he and his family 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.960 were taken captive and placed under house arrest. It was 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.159 early in the morning of July seventeenth, nineteen eighteen, that 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.839 the entire royal family, including a teenaged Anastasia, were taken 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.880 to the basement assured that they were being protected from 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.440 their rebellious violence, but instead the family along with four 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.640 members of their staff, which included Dr. Eugene Bodkin, the 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:59.880 family physician, Alexei trump valet To, Nicholas Anna Demidova, may 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.520 To Alexandra and Ivan Karatonov, the family cook, as well 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.760 as the family's dog, whose name we do not know, 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:11.640 but they were all executed in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The Romanov's 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.000 extended family were either killed as well or they were exiled, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.000 and according to an initial statement from the firing squad, 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.200 they had killed only Nicholas the second, but they later 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.760 reported they had killed the entire family, but the anaesthesia 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.480 was one of the last to be executed. The accounts 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.120 of the men from that firing squad, however, were mostly 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:37.359 confusing and mostly unhelpful, and they proved themselves only good 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.520 for spreading rumors and gossip. The assassination was carried out 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.560 by Communist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.880 A quick and very high level history note on this 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.240 time in Russia. So there was more than one more 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.279 going on, including World War One. When Lenin and his 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.400 party launched a coup against the Russian government that was 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:03.159 Nicholas's government, and within two day July sixteen, outside of 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.240 those executions of the royal family, there was no bloodshed 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.080 and Lenin rose to power as the country's new ruler. 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.640 The Bolshevik Party renamed themselves the Russian Communist Party, and 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.039 Lennon served as the founding head of the government of 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:21.560 Soviet Russia and then the Soviet Union until with Nicholas 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.680 off the throne, the assassination was a permanent end to 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.200 the royal family. The line of succession was over, and 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.919 so was the Romanov reign. So right now we're going 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.240 to take a break for a word from our sponsor, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.240 and when we're back, we're going to talk about royal impostors. 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.920 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's get back to the story 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.560 and talk about someone who was called Miss Unknown. Although 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.680 Anaesthetia died in nine eighteen, for years following the assassination 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.479 of her family, gossip and specy relations seemed to actually 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.200 keep her alive in the mind of Russians. Conspiracy theories 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.320 as well as impostors of the members of the royal 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.480 family began to emerge, and there are impostors claiming to 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.200 be pretty much everyone, including Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Alexei. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.440 But in total there were more than thirty women who 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.760 impersonated Anastasia and one guy who claimed that he was 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.200 her son. Those who have made the claim include a 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.680 Leonora Krueger between nineteen o one and nineteen fifty four, 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:33.360 who posed as the Grand Duchess in a Bulgarian village 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.600 just kind of lived out her life telling everyone that 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.080 was the scoop. It seems like they believed it. In 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.160 the mid twentieth century, there is a tragic story about 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.560 a mentally ill woman who spent years in hospitals and 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.080 prisons in the USSR. She actually died in a psychiatric 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:52.320 hospital in nine and the list really continues. There are 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.760 a lot of people we could talk about, but here 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.160 is an interesting one that is a little less tragic. 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:02.280 One impostor actually wrote Anastasia's memoirs as though she were Anastasia, 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.360 in which she described exactly how she escaped. That was 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.040 all false, And I have a new book from my 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:14.920 book class right. Perhaps the best known impostor of Anastasia 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.600 was a woman who called herself Anna Anderson. So we're 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.320 going to pause for just a minute, because this is 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.200 an important thing to tell you. The next part of 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:27.680 our conversation will include brief talk about a failed suicide attempt, 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.720 which may be triggering for some of our listeners. So 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.280 stay safe, mutis for just a minute, and we'll be 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.760 right back with that. Okay, So here we go. In Berlin, 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.800 in a woman was rescued from a canal after a 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.559 failed attempted suicide, and after she was rescued, she spent 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.360 several months in a psychiatric hospital which at the time 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.400 was called Daldorf Asylum. And upon her arrival and intake 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.560 at the asylum, though she was a total unknown. She 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.000 had no sort of identification on her at all, right, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.440 which makes it really difficult when you're trying to do intake. 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:07.360 So she became known at the hospital as Freuleine und Vicans, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:11.720 which translates into English as miss Unknown. So it said 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:13.720 that Miss Unknown would lie in her bed with a 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:15.920 blanket pulled over her face all day long, which to 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.400 me sounds like a woman who was really scared, right 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.480 and needs a little help. It took her nearly six 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.720 months before she felt comfortable enough to get out of 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.200 her bed and even to talk to other patients. Her 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.319 name was actually not Miss Unknown, to surprise no one, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.600 it was Anna Anderson, and around this time at the 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:40.760 psychiatric hospital she was at, a magazine article about Anastasia 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.560 crossed Anna's path. A woman named Anna Kemnets, who worked 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.000 at the asylum, gave an account of what happened. After 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:51.480 Anna saw this article and we quote, she asked me 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.120 if I didn't notice something about it, and I answered 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.000 that I didn't. She then said, can't you see the 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:02.320 similarity between us two. Anna's accent and her quote Romanov 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.040 Blue Eyes had some patients wondering if the former Miss 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.280 Unknown was actually Grand Duchess Anastasia, who of course had 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.240 been executed in nineteen eighteen. And Anna didn't deny that 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.400 she was, although at this point she didn't confirm it either, 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.480 and because she was a bit coy about it, others 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.760 in the hospital speculated that she was really royalty, and 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.240 as a consequence, Anna became quite a curiosity, and she 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.520 was a curiosity not just to the other patients in 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:34.240 the hospital. Journalists and Russian aristocrats learned about this unusual 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.559 woman and they kind of got hooked and a little 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.120 invested in her story as well. Some thought she could 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.360 be the genuine Anastasia, but others dismissed her as yet 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.360 another royal fraud because remember, there had been a lot 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.439 already by this time, yes, very many, And it didn't 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.240 help that there were also very many rumors swirling around 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.640 about this. For example, and this is one of my 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.440 favorite rumors that popped up, it was suggested that the 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:04.000 Romano daughters survived because there were jewels sewn into their 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:08.559 corsets and those jewels protected them from bullets. It's a fancy, 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:13.839 fancy bulletproof vest. I wish jewels could help them out 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.760 in the bullets situation, but sadly, probably not right. Some 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:19.960 versions of that story that I have seen suggests like 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.120 they were not intended to be clear to stop bullets. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.720 That was a way to hide the family wealth while 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:30.000 they were imprisoned, exactly. And it was noted in Anna's 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.280 file that she exhibited some antisocial behavior and that she 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.400 had some unusual scars on her body, and she also 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.320 spoke with a strange accent. While she had initially been 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.880 noncommittal on the matter, or you know, perhaps she was 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.480 waiting for the right time, Anna eventually claimed that she 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:53.160 was actually Anastasia and the only surviving member of the 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.160 Romanov family. Her story went like this. She had been wounded, 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.120 but she survived the attack, and a guard who was 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.360 sympathetic to the royal family smuggled her out of Russia. 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.960 She did know some little known facts about the royal family, 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.520 but that alone wasn't really enough to convince anyone that 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.599 she was the real thing. The immediate relatives of the 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:19.480 Romanov family did not believe Anna's story at all, said 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.960 Prince Nicholas Romanov, a cousin of Nicholas the second quote. 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.640 The murder of the Czar and his family was such 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.959 a horrible thing. There was that wish among the people 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.720 that it couldn't be so horribly true. After her stay 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.240 in the hospital, Anna was actually still a hot topic. 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.480 Books were written about her before and against whether or 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.600 not she was a fraud. Lawsuits were filed, although nothing 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.520 ever came from them, and she continued to make her 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:50.920 claim from all the way until and after many tries, 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.880 she actually was never able to get her claimed royal 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.400 name and lineage recognized by the European courts, which repeatedly 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.040 found that Anna couldn't provide concrete evidence that she was Anastasia. 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.800 But what did happen was that this woman who called 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:12.280 herself Anna Anderson but pretended to be Anastasia Romanoff unintentionally 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:16.360 kind of became an important and interesting part of Russian history. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.520 So let's take another break for a word from our sponsor, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.160 and when we come back, we'll figure out if Anna 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:34.080 really was who she claimed she was. Welcome back to Criminalia. Okay, 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:39.280 let's talk about one of my favorite subjects, skeletons. Yes, okay. 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:43.480 So around the time the USSR fell in a mass 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.200 grave of what was believed to be the royal family 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.480 was discovered. The remains were sent to a forensics lab 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.720 and all were eventually confirmed to be the Romanoff family, 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.160 but two victims were unaccounted for, anastasia sister Maria and 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.760 her brother Alexei. The remains that both children were eventually 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.840 discovered as well, but that didn't happen until two thousand 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.599 and seven. And there's an interesting thing here because his 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:12.600 earliest ninety seven, a Berlin newspaper ran an investigative report 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.760 on Anna and they actually got it all right, even 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.920 without DNA testing in today's forensic techniques. I totally want 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:24.280 to meet this journalist, I did right, like somebody was 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.920 super on the ball. So this report revealed that her 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.760 name was Franzisca Shingoska and that she was a Polish 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.160 factory worker and she had been reported missing after she 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.520 had been injured in a factory explosion, and this Berlin 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.520 paper noted that the timeline of her disappearance coincided with 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:49.320 when Anna relocated and appeared in Berlin. Annado continued to 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.560 refuse all claims suggesting that she was not missing Royal 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.000 She said that she was, and she would quietly remind 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.560 everyone that she was Grand Duchess Alexandra Romanov. Also problematic 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.200 for Anna right at this time was that she had 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:09.160 an actual brother, Felix, and Felix identified her as his sister. 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.200 In ninety one, after Anna's death, a DNA sample confirmed 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:19.280 what that newspaper had reported decades earlier, right she was 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:23.600 definitely not related to the Romanov family. Skeletal remains were 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.680 found in a forest near a Katerinburg and with DNA 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.480 testing it had been confirmed that they matched Nicholas the 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.800 second and his family, and then the bodies of the 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.160 two youngest children were still at this time, As Maria mentioned, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.080 a moment ago missing. In two thousand and seven, there 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.040 were two sets of remains found nearby the original burial sites, 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:49.440 again because of DNA testing and confirmed by multiple identification laboratories. Today, 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.400 it is believed that these skeletons that were found in 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.840 two thousand and seven are the remains of the two 0:15:54.880 --> 0:16:00.000 missing Romanov children, Maria and Alexei. In the Russian government 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.440 confirmed that Anastasia's bones were among the remains of the 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:08.120 royal family that had been identified conclusively in After two 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.880 years of research, scientists concluded that Anastasia's body was definitely 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:17.200 accounted for. This is kind of a bit of a 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.320 modern day side note rabbit hole to go on, but 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.920 it'll be fast. So Queenlizabeth the Second, her husband Prince Philip, 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.320 and all of their descendants are actually related to the Romanos. 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.080 It's all through Queen Victoria, who was Alexandra's grandmother. So 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.120 Queen Victoria and her husband Albert had nine children, and 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.560 they had dozens of grandchildren who married throughout the royal 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.280 houses of Europe, and for that reason, Victoria is sometimes 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.760 called the Grandmother of Europe. And done done, Yeah, Almost 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.840 every royal family has some quick connection back to Victoria 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.880 and Albert. More than one hundred years, give or take 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.240 a year, had passed when the Russian Orthodox Church actually 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.320 reopened the case of the Romano family. Today, all members 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.639 of the immediate family have been identified through DNA evidence, 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.960 But despite the findings, which were based on thirty seven 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:14.240 different evaluations by forensic, molecular, genetic, and handwriting experts, the 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.159 Church claimed that the scientific investigation had been mishandled and 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.000 they continue to believe that the remains that were found 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:25.080 are not those of the Romanov family, so then, of 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.000 course we have Anna. With genetic testing, it was determined 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:33.480 that Anastasia was assassinated along with her family. Annas fraud 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.919 was confirmed solidly when her DNA did not match that 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.399 of the Romanov remains, nor did it match any living 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:46.840 descendants of the Romanov family. Scientists also compared Anna's DNA 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.280 with that the man named Carl Malcher. She did match 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.800 with Carl, who happened to be a great nephew of 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.879 Francisca Shanoska. It was confirmed that Anna was, in fact 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.320 that missing Polish factory worker named you got It Franzisco. Today, 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.240 historians and scientists agree that Anna and princessca were the 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.199 same person, Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia, and I'm going 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.360 to quote him here. I am certain at the end 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.080 of her life she believed in her own story, and 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.239 in a confused way, she forgot her own life, and 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.240 there are those who wished to share her story. People 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.440 look for exceptional events to change the past, but history 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:28.480 is brutally effective in its solutions and brutally simple. I 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.520 have to say, based on the two quotes we have 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.560 of him here, I think he's an insightful person who 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:35.600 gets right to the point. He definitely gets right to 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.960 the point. Yes, of course, everyone wants to believe the 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.600 better and more hopeful story, and I understand that, but 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.200 you gotta live in reality, people. He has a point. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.639 He's like, everybody wants to believe in something that's a 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.720 fairy tale. Yeah, that's less horrific in reality. Yeah, understandable. 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.760 In nineteen sixty eight, Anna emigrated to the United States, 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.399 and she continued her story about being the Grand Duchess 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.880 her niece while Trashing reportedly said, we quote my Auntie 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.760 was the cleverest of the four children. She wanted to 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.920 come out into the world, wanted to become an actress. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.359 Something special. Well, Anna was something special, but just not 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.240 something that I would have imagined for. When she was 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.320 in the United States, she married history professor Jack Manahan, 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.080 and Jack was also a firm believer that his wife 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.960 was Grand Duchess Anastasia. He would later describe her as, 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.400 and I'm going to quote him here, probably Charlottesville's best love. 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:36.680 Eccentric in Anna dite of complications of pneumonia in Charlottesville, Virginia, 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.120 where she was known as Annie Apple, a mad local. 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.880 Anna story continues to be very popular. She has been 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.840 the plot of Broadway shows, Hollywood movies, The Royal Ballet, 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.160 Fox Animation Studios made a film about her, and there 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.520 have been books ranging in nature from very scholarly to 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.520 quite romantic. I like that she ended up with someone 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.280 who loved her so much that he thought that she 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.000 was on stage. Yeah, she she kind of got to 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:09.760 live out her her belief the way she wished. I 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.040 also love that her community when she was there in 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.159 the eighties referred to her as Annie Apple, a mad local. 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.879 It's sort of sweet. It's as if they knew her history, 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:27.000 but it really didn't bother them, you know, So before 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.719 we get into the drink. I was reading that in 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.800 nineteen there were mocktail bars popping up in New York 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.760 City and probably other cities around the country only mock tails, 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:40.879 and and just two years later they're like more than 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.159 a dozen in one city, and they're really just popping up. 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.320 So your recipes could be more and more popular. So 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.840 what do you have for us today? Yeah, I mean 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:53.360 it's interesting for a few reasons, right one, I mean, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.320 there is a bigger interest in the idea of having 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:00.119 like yummy librations that are are not alcohol laden. For 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.080 a variety reasons, there are some people who were just 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.199 less interested in drinking. I also wonder how much of 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.080 that is in terms of its growth as an industry, 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.439 is tied at least in some small part to the 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.120 fact that you don't need as many licenses to open 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.880 a mock tail bar. We don't need a liquor license 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:21.560 to sell juice. So my mock tail this time is 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:25.000 called the Other Romanov and this comes with its own 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:30.439 kookie story, so get ready. So, first of all, because 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:34.640 of the name similarities, I immediately thought of strawberries Romanov 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.480 when I began brainstorming about a drink that might suit 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.600 and a story. Yes, do you know the story of 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.760 Strawberries Romanoff? Though you have told this to me before. 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:48.080 There's a reason this particular dessert is so deeply appropriate 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.119 to link to this tale because it is normally credited 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.280 in its invention to a restaurateur who went by the 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:58.280 name Michael Romanov. His real name was Harry F. Gergison. 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.720 That was an anglicized version of his birth name, Herschel 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.080 giggs In, and he claimed to be a member of 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.240 the House of Romanov. But he ran a restaurant in 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.600 California that was very popular for a while, and that's 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:15.200 where he created, allegedly, strawberries Romanoff. Would you normally see 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:17.040 with two f's on the end instead of the V, 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.119 but they're sometimes interchangeable. So I thought it would be 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:22.919 fun if we came up with a drinkable version of 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.040 strawberries Romanoff. If you haven't ever had it, it's basically 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.840 like fresh cut strawberries in a beautiful crystal dish, often 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.800 with like a cream sauce that's sweet and has kind 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.400 of some nice layering of flavors to it. So this 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:39.600 is a little bit of a build your own adventure 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.480 drink because you want to alter some things to suit. Probably, 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.040 so it starts with two pints of strawberries, though, and 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.760 you want to, of course, you know, cut off the stems. 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:52.000 If you have a good blender, you don't really have 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:53.480 to do much more than that. You don't need to 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:55.600 chop them up or anything, just toss him in. And 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.679 then you need something to create that creamy element. I 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:01.920 have seen many different a piece for just literally making 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.879 strawberries roman off when you're not blending it into a drink. 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:07.639 But so you can use something like vanilla ice cream 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:10.320 or heavy cream here. But here's the thing, I actually 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.720 prefer sour cream for this. Like a half cup of 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.280 sour cream is perfect because it gives this this richness 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:19.960 and like it's a little cheesecakey when you sip it, 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:22.120 which is very nice. And then you're going to use 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:24.919 two to three table spoons of the sweetener of your choice. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.280 Some people like confection or sugar, some people like regular 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:31.400 granulated sugar. I like brown sugar because again it adds 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:35.240 a nice layer of flavor. I also add a teaspoon 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:38.560 of fresh orange zest. Just zest the skin of your 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:41.960 orange with your your fine greater over that blender. Throw 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.600 this all in a blender, blended, blended, blended, and then 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.240 take a peek at it, see what its consistency is like. 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:50.520 And add a milk I like oat milk for this one, 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.920 until it's liquid e and smooth enough that you're pretty 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:56.119 confident you can sip it through a straw without it 0:23:56.200 --> 0:24:01.760 being an effort that is uncomfortable. It is so stink 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.760 and delicious, and it is quite filling and heavy. It's 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:10.040 basically like a really rich smoothie and it's little Now 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:13.359 is the strawberries rumman off of I'm remembering correctly. About 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:16.159 the alcohol that usually is involved in it, is that 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:19.439 a brandy that goes into the sauce sometimes? Yeah, some 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:21.920 people also use Grand Marnier, which is why I put 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:24.760