As a college student studying history, I have to draw some important mistakes to your attention:
"There are a few historical inaccuracies in the movie Anastasia."
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"...[A]ll of the major characters in the movie Anastasia were actual real people, with the exception, of course, of Dimitri and Vladimir, the two con men who try to locate a suitable impostor to collect a ten million ruble reward which has been offered by the Dowager Empress Marie for the return of the real Anastasia."
Sure, the characters represented real historical people, but in no way did they represent actual characters. Marie is not the grandmother the movie portrayed, and she NEVER offered money and never would have, for she did not accept the deaths of her son and his family.
"The real Anastasia looked just like the cartoon character Anastasia (provided that the real Anastasia had lost about 15 pounds...."
Well, Anastasia looked slightly like the character of the same name, but not enough to warrant "looked just like the cartoon character...." Once again, society is trimming someone down to be more appealing, but what the cartoon artists really did was lose any real identity of the character by "molding" her.
"In real life, the Dowager Empress Marie, the only immediate member of the ruling Romanov family to escape the firing squad, did not settle in Paris but rather in Denmark."
True, she did live in Denmark after the revolution (which sadly was barely mentioned, but in my opinion the entire movie sucked). And again, she never saw any of the impostors because she could not lead herself to believe Anastasia and the rest of the Romanovs were dead.
"Tragically, Queen Victoria carried the gene of hemophilia, which she passed on to many of her 9 children, even though she herself was not afflicted with this disease. As a result, the royal families of Europe carry this disease and when two members of that family marry each other, the child is likely to be afflicted."
I'm sorry, but if you need help with the facts of hemophilia, you should contact someone instead of pulling random facts (and inaccuracies) out of encyclopedias and books. Queen Victoria carried the gene of hemophilia, therefore that makes her the "carrier." She was not directly affected (she was not a "bleeder") but your statement "she herself was not afflicted with this disease" is misleading. Secondly, your statement "when two members of that family marry each other, the child is likely to be afflicted." How can you back this up with your own information?
Nicholas II did not carry the gene (or he would have a hemophiliac, also). Hemophilia is a sex-linked recessive gene, which means males are afflicted and females less so (females with hemophilia are rare, but IT IS possible). This gene is found on the X-chromosome. Alexandra had two X-chromosomes (she was a female) and on one there was the hemophilia gene. When she and Nicholas had children, they had a 50% chance of passing this X-chromosome to each child, regardless of sex. That means that Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia could have been carriers of the gene or not. They would have inherited one X-chromosome from their father, and one from their mother (either the healthy X or the carrier X). In Alexis' case, he inherited the Y-chromosome from his father and an X from his mother. The X he inherited happened to be the carrier for the gene, thus afflicting him. If Alexandra would have had another son, that child would have had a 50% chance of receiving the gene; therefore, he could have been a hemophiliac like Alexis, or not. It's a gambling game. So your statement "...when two members of that family marry each other..." is dead WRONG.
And as for Victoria passing the gene onto her children, she did NOT pass it onto many of her nine children. Here are her children and their status (as carriers or hemophiliacs):
1. Victoria, Princess Royal (Empress of Germany) => not a carrier (no sign of disease in descendants)
2. Edward VII, King of England (1901-1910) => not a hemophiliac (therefore cannot transfer the gene onto children and grandchildren)
3. Alice (Grand Duchess of Hessen-Darmstadt) => carrier (mother of Alexandra; Alice passed the carrier gene onto one son, who died at the age of three, and at least two daughters, Irene (had two afflicted sons out of three) and Alexandra; Victoria could have been a carrier, but most likely not, and Ella had no children, so she could also have been a carrier).
4. Alfred (Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) => not a hemophiliac (disease not present in descendants).
5. Helena (Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderborg-Augustenburg) => could have been a carrier (had two sons and two daughters, none of whom had children; sons were not afflicted, but daughters could have been carriers -- Queen Victoria did not realize she carried the gene until her fourth son was born).
6. Louise (Duchess of Argyll) => possible carrier (no children).
7. Arthur (Duke of Connaught) => not a hemophiliac, therefore not present in descendants.
8. Leopold (Duke of Albany) => hemophiliac (passed disease onto daughter, who inherited the X-chromosome--all daughters of hemophiliacs are carriers, but sons are free because they do not inherit the hemophiliac gene from the father).
9. Beatrice (Princess of Battenberg) => carrier (two of her three sons were afflicted, and her only daughter was a carrier, who passed it onto two of her four sons)
"The royal families of England, Austria and Russia are all really the same family."
The royal houses of England and Russia were closely related due to Victoria's many grandchildren, but they are not related to the Austrians (maybe you were thinking of the Germans?).
"Is it possible that Anastasia is among us today and that you are Anastasia?"
Funny. Considering she was born 98 years ago, I highly doubt it.
"There are one billion dollars in assets on deposit in England, just waiting for Anastasia to walk in the door and claim them."
This "fantasy" of extra cash somewhere has never been proven; Princess Irene's granddaughter received much of the money Anna Anderson went to court over, and there was some money in a bank in England, but nothing close to one billion dollars.
Need any clarification? I hope this helps -- I hate seeing obvious mistakes, but information can be misleading and confusing. :-)
TatjanaAV
From your name, it seems that you are from there too.
I would like very much to post your letter on my web site. This will insure that your letter will get thousands of readers. It would be a shame to waste the letter on me, when I cannot respond to all of the work you have obviously done on it.
Can I have your permission to post your letter?
Sam Sloan
Sam,
Thanks for your reply.
I would be honored if you post my letter; you have my permission.
Unfortunately, I am not Russian, I am American. My real name is Ashley but I love the name Tatjana and it is a buffer. (I got the name, TatjanaAV, from the German spelling of Tatiana along with AV, which stands for Alexandrovna Vdovushkina = Alexandrovna for Czar Alexander II, a great reformer, and Vdovuskina for the Solzhenitsyn character, Vdovushkin, in "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.")
I have been interested in the Russian Imperial family for the past decade and have been studying the Romanovs and the last days at Ekaterinburg for some time now, although I do not claim to be an expert.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me. I love discussion of the Romanovs and will listen to your comments with restraint. (I do apologize for my anxiousness and my rudeness.)
Ashley (TatjanaAV)
http://www.shamema.com/tatjana.htm
Thank you very much.
I could not use your full name, because I almost never use file names more than 8 letters long. That is why I only love girls whose names have exactly 8 letters, such as Lewinsky, Lapinsky, Julinsey and Baumanis.
Sam Sloan