Part I
The mystery in the shadow of the two-headed eagle
I agreed to describe moments from the dramatic story of Nora not with the intention to fan the flame of the sensation. Since 1920 many historians, journalists and writers worldwide tried, although unsuccessfully, to clear up the facts about the last days of Emperor Nikolay II and his family. After 1993 in Bulgaria also came out dozens of newspaper publications, and two books in 1998: “The Romanovs – the End of a Mystery” by the journalist from Stara Zagora Donka Yotova, and “The Secret of Nikolay II” by the examining magistrate Blagoy Emanuilov. At present he is completing his second book “Nikolay II and the Conspiracy of the Century”, where he sets forth two versions: First, in order to save the crown prince Alexey and one of his daughters, long before his execution the emperor replaced them with duplicates and the real ones were taken out of the country. Second, the execution of the tsar’s family was not a work of the Bolsheviks but the result of an international conspiracy.
My aim is different. If I could stir the interest of the diplomatic circles to help at last uncover and publish the truth about this mystery of the past 20th century. I think the statesmen, politicians and diplomats of several countries owe this much to the people of Russia in the first place, and then to the European and world community. This is necessary because after the American film “Anastasia” (1956), in the late 1990s 20th Century Fox released a cartoon fairytale “Princess Anastasia”, which impresses on the children worldwide untruths about the fate of a historical personality. And this is a crime against history!
Absurd hypothesis or version close to the truth?
It first appeared on the pages of the Kazanlak newspaper Weekly News (Sedmichni Novini No 1 of March 22, 1993) under the title “Are the Two Graves in Gabarevo Royal?” Its author, the writer Dr. Dimiter Nyagolov, neurologist in the Kazanlak Hospital, is son of the Gabarevo priest Hristo Nyagolov. The publication was provoked by an article printed in Trud newspaper (No 8 of January 11, 1993) that in 1991 from a common grave near Ekaterinburg skeletons were dug out which, according to information from the French journal Express, by comparative genetic examinations were identified as the remains of Emperor Nikolay II, his wife and three of his daughters, shot on July 17, 1918. The remains of two of the tsar’s children were not found – Alexey (born in 1907) and Anastasia (b. 1901).
This news stirred up excited comments in the home of the old priest. His daughter Maria reminded her brother Dimiter of mysterious conversations they heard in their childhood. “Write to some newspaper what we know!” Maria insisted. After much hesitation and apprehension least he would become a laughing-stock, Dr. Nyagolov made come checkups in the municipal and church archives to back up his version and finally decided to make public the secret kept by his family for over 40 years. The two graves he writes about in his article are those of Eleonora Albertova Kruger (Nora), who died on July 20, 1954, and of Georgi (Georges) Zhudin, who died in December 1930. As according to the inhabitants of Gabarevo he was Nora’s brother, it is logical to suppose that the missing Prince Alexey was hiding under this name. Metropolitan Prof. Yordan Yordanov, comparing the pictures of the 13-year-old Alexey and the 18-year-old Georges, affirms they are one and the same person! (Duma, March 16, 2004)
The insight of a historian
In 1947 the Austrian woman Charlotte, wife of attorney Nikolay Ganev from Gabarevo, settled in the village with her little son Zhoro. “She was a very kind, pleasant woman. We called her Lotte. We became friends. She was very close with the doctor’s wife madam Nora. She said they talked in German, which Nora commanded ‘as her mother tongue’ (remember this statement of Lotte!). Unfortunately, Charlotte and her husband divorced and she became a nun in a convent near Veliko Tarnovo. But she did not stay there long, she got a job in Kalofer and often came to Gabarevo. She renewed her friendship with us and Nora. She visited her often and sometimes would say to us: ’Nora is carrying a big secret!” This is what aunty Nedyalka, the 90-year-old widow of priest Nyagolov, told me. In Kalofer Charlotte came in contact with the curator of the Hristo Botev Museum, Vasilka Kerteva, a highly educated woman, who showed lively interest in Nora. Lotte introduced them and they met several times in Gabarevo. In 1949 or 1950 Kerteva went on a business trip to the Soviet Union to seek materials on Hristo Botev in the Russian museums. There she came upon one of the last pictures of the tsar’s family. The face of the girl on the right (Anastasia), elongated, with big intelligent eyes, the only one among the four daughters wearing a bang, seemed familiar, dÎjÈ vu. Finally she remembered, “Yes, in Gabarevo!” Upon her return to Kalofer, Kerteva suggested to Charlotte to visit Nora. They talked, Kerteva watched her carefully, and when the two left, she told Charlotte, “You know who madam Nora is? She is Anastasia, the daughter of Nikolay II!” These words and her positive affirmation that judging by pictures and dates of birth Anastasia and Alexey corresponded to Eleonora and Georges, Lotte shared as a secret with the priest’s family. These were things that it was dangerous to talk about in those times. So, the historian’s insight was kept secret for 4 decades.
The examining magistrate Blagoy Emanuilov, born in Gabarevo, set out to unravel the mystery with emotion and zeal. A team of research associates also took up the matter. The aim was to unbury the remanants of the supposed tsar’s children and run a DNA test. Unfortunately, since 1956 the old village cemetery was a park, which hindered the mission. In July 1995, anthropologist Prof. Yordan Yordanov from Sofia and Assoc. Prof. Maria Grozeva, forensic doctor in Stara Zagora, with permission from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the District Prosecutor’s Office, uncovered two graves but a suspicion was voiced that they were not the ones. Blagoy Emanuilov had greater success. On September 14, 1996, he came across skeletons, remnants of clothes and objects proving beyond doubt that they belonged to Nora and Georges. Emanuilov locked them away somewhere and hence started the absurd conflict who, where and how should send them for analysis. It is unexplainable why the Bulgarian and the Russian states did not intervene in this pursuit of monopolizing the revelation of the truth. But this is another story.
The impact
The version set forth was received differently – some received it with great curiosity, others found it absurd, even called it a “mare’s nest” (Duma, No 181, August 4, 1995), but most were the skeptics, and not without reason.
After the execution of the tsar’s family a rumour spread that some of the children had escaped. (Evidence of this is a secret telegram by Lenin, sent out on the next day to the soviets in Russia: “Trace down the missing Romanova!”) Since then more than 50 imposters have claimed at different times that they are heirs of Nikolay II. The most striking example is of Anna Anderson, who in March 1922 declared she was Anastasia. But after 64 years of delusion, when Anderson died, a DNA test showed she was a dummy and she was really the Polish woman Francisca Shankowska.
According to the historian Vladlen Sirotkin, the Georgian Natalia Balikadze is Anastasia. Even from a convent in Bulgaria came the rumour that allegedly a nun of Russian descent before her death confessed she was Princess Anastasia. There were false Alexeys, too. For example, a Heino Tamet from Vancouver. On the other hand, Prince Alexis d’Anjou de Bourbon-Conde Romanov-Dolgoruki, living in Spain, alleges he is grandson of the surviving Princess Maria (according to one version, the surviving princess was not Anastasia but Maria) from her daughter Olga-Beata. He died in Spain in 1995 at the age of 46 without seeing the DNA results from the laboratory of Dr. Peter Gill in Scotland Yard. All this gave grounds to the Bulgarian skeptics to say: “Well, why not fabricate a Bulgarian Anastasia?” Still, I will attempt a portrait of Nora, as I saw her in 1949.
Link of the text with picture:
http://www.diplomatic-bg.com/c2/content/view/404/47/
