After seeing pitches yesterday comping ANASTASIA, I wish more than ever that we stop using the name of the last Russian Tsar’s daughter, Anastasia Romanov, as a way to grab attention for stories that have NOTHING whatsoever to do with Anastasia or her tragic life.

(a thread)

Anastasia gained baffling notoriety in the 20th century after numerous women came forward claiming to be the only surviving daughter of the Tsar. These women, the most famous being Anna Anderson, said they escaped the execution that took the lives of Tsar Nicholas’s family.

To further complicate matters, in 1991, when the burial site of the imperial family was found and excavated, it revealed only 9 bodies. Some scientists claimed that Anastasia’s body was indeed missing, that she really escaped.

This, of course, spurred on many stories, some of which we ALL know and love. But stories about Anastasia, her life, her possible escape, and the imposter women claiming to be her is one thing.

It is quite another to use her name and tragic life for stories that have nothing to do with her. It is trendy to make Anastasia some kind of rebel, pretending that a fantasy world excludes that author from a responsibility to use historical figures with a modicum of respect.

Because the fact is, and as much as people want to ignore it, all the bodies of the doomed imperial family were eventually found in August 2007. This means that poor Anastasia died alongside her family that day, on July 17, 1918, at the heartbreaking age of 17.

The tragedy of the last imperial Romanov family is a tragedy that is burned into the consciousness of each Russian person. It is hurtful (and frankly very culturally inappropriate) when it is twisted and warped for the sake of selling a story. I hope someday this stops.

***end of thread***