The youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, was believed to have been murdered during the 1918 Bolshevik Revolution alongside her family, who were under house arrest at the time. However, a few years later, a woman named Anna Anderson surfaced in Germany, asserting she was the Grand Duchess.

In 1920, a woman attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge in Berlin. Remarkably, she survived and was taken to a hospital for treatment, but without any identification, the authorities were unable to ascertain her identity or contact her relatives. Consequently, she was admitted to Dalldorf Asylum.

For the first six months in the asylum, the woman remained silent, refusing to engage with others. She bore numerous scars on her body, and when she eventually spoke, she exhibited an accent that many believed to be Russian.

One of her fellow patients, Clara Peuthert, suggested that Anna might be one of the last surviving Romanovs. After her discharge, Clara reached out to former Russian officials, expressing her belief that Anna was Grand Duchess Tatiana. She also contacted former servants of the royal family, who visited Anna and similarly confirmed their suspicions.

When questioned, Anna often evaded direct answers, hiding beneath her covers and refusing to meet visitors. On one occasion, Captain Nicholas von Schwabe, who worked for the Dowager Empress, visited her with family photographs. Anna reacted emotionally, later telling the nurses that he possessed a picture of her grandmother.

Numerous acquaintances of the Romanov family came to assess Anna's claims. Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, a court lady, remarked that while Anna bore some resemblance to Tatiana, she was too short to be her, to which Anna replied she had never claimed to be Tatiana. Grand Duchess Olga, Nicholas II's sister, visited and declared Anna a stranger, asserting that her features did not match those of Anastasia, as many believed.

Anna's striking beauty lent credibility to her tale, in which she claimed that she and her sisters concealed their jewels in their clothing during their escape. She recounted how Bolsheviks attempted to stab her with bayonets, leaving her with scars, and how she faked her death. A sympathetic Bolshevik allegedly aided her escape, leading her to Berlin, where she unsuccessfully sought her family before attempting suicide.

Upon her release, Anna was cared for by those who believed in her story, including Gleb Botkin, the son of the Romanov family physician. Many distant relatives and friends began to think she might be Anastasia due to her similarities and knowledge of details about the royal family. However, Anastasia’s grandmother never visited Anna or acknowledged her claims. Conversely, skeptics pointed out that Anna's lack of proficiency in various languages contradicted her supposed royal upbringing.

Anna's supporters, primarily Czarists, provided her with protection while Soviet intelligence monitored her. They sought to prove her legal claim as Anastasia, which would allow her to inherit the Romanov fortune and become a political symbol for the Czarist movement.

Over the years, four other women also claimed to be Anastasia, with some asserting they were her siblings. One woman imprisoned in Russia even wrote to King George V, declaring herself Anastasia, while another published a book on her supposed identity.

The Grand Duke of Hesse, Anastasia's uncle, did not accept Anna as his niece and enlisted a private investigator who uncovered her true identity as Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish-German woman from Pomerania who had worked in a factory before her disappearance in 1920. She had a history of mental health issues, and a man named Felix claimed to be her brother, attributing her scars to a factory explosion in 1916.

In 1964, a German doctor asserted that Anna and Anastasia were the same person after comparing photographs. A handwriting expert later corroborated this claim. A few years later, Anna married an American professor, Manahan, and moved to the U.S., but she lost her lawsuit to authenticate her identity in 1970. They lived in Charlottesville under less-than-ideal conditions, and Anna eventually ended up in a mental institution, where she passed away from pneumonia.

In 1991, the remains of the Romanov family were discovered and exhumed, yet Anastasia’s remains were not found, as none of the skulls matched her. Utilizing DNA analysis with the assistance of British scientists, it was determined that the remains included four males and five females, among whom two were believed to be the Czar and his wife, while three were thought to be their daughters, leaving one daughter and one son unaccounted for.

Anna was cremated in 1984, making it impossible to verify her claims through DNA testing. In 1994, a small blood sample was extracted from her intestine, leading the Russian government to announce that Anna was not Anastasia and that the Grand Duchess had died in 1918 with her family, her remains among those uncovered.

To this day, a Facebook page exists that supports Anna's claims, utilizing photos, documents, and testimonies from the past to assert that she was indeed Anastasia. In 1997, an animated film titled "Anastasia" was released, blending elements of fact and fiction from the lives of both Anastasia and Anna.

Was Anastasia truly alive for all those years, or was it merely an elaborate ruse? The truth may remain elusive, as multiple women have claimed the title of the Lost Grand Duchess. Nevertheless, many continue to believe that Anna was indeed the last surviving Romanov.