Anna Demidova

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Anna Stepanovna Demidova
Born 1878
Russia
Died July 17, 1918
Ekaterinburg, Russia
Occupation Chamber maid
Parents Stepan Demidov, father.

Anna Stepanovna Demidova, (1878 - July 17, 1918) was a chambermaid for Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.

She shared the Romanov family's exile at Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was murdered with them on July 17, 1918. Like them, she was canonized as a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981 as a victim of Soviet oppression.

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[edit] Life

Demidova, whose nickname was "Nyuta," was described as a "tall, statuesque blonde." [1] She was the daughter of Stepan Demidov, a well-off merchant from Cherepovets. Demidova graduated from the Yaroslavl Institute for Maids with a teaching certificate. [2]

She was a good friend of Elizaveta Ersberg, a parlormaid at the court, and was once engaged to Ersberg's brother Nikolai. In 1900 Ersberg secured her friend a position at the court. During her service at the Romanov court as a chambermaid, Demidova became smitten with the Romanov children's English tutor Charles Sydney Gibbes. Unbeknown to her, he was a homosexual. In his memoirs, Gibbes described Demidova as "of a singularly timid and shrinking disposition." [3]

[edit] Exile and death

Demidova accompanied Tsarina Alexandra, Tsar Nicholas II, and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia when they were transferred to Ekaterinburg from Tobolsk in April 1918. The remaining Romanov children and other members of the group stayed behind in Tobolsk for a month because the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia was ill. As the group left, Demidova told Gibbes, "I am so frightened of the Bolsheviks, Mr. Gibbes. I don't know what they will do to us."[4]

On the night of the murder, the family was awakened and told to dress. Demidova carried two pillows into which gems had been sewed. Demidova, who had fainted after being shot in the leg, revived and, finding herself still alive, exclaimed "Thank God! God has saved me!" Hearing her, the assassins turned on her. Screaming and crying, she attempted to defend herself, but was eventually cut down.[5]

[edit] Funeral

Demidova's great-niece, Natalie Demidova, attended the funeral held on July 17, 1998 in Peter and Paul Cathedral in St.Petersburg for Demidova, the Romanov family, and other victims killed by the Bolsheviks eighty years earlier.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ King, Greg, and Wilson, Penny, The Fate of the Romanovs, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-471-20768-3, pp. 63-64
  2. ^ "Anna Stepanovna Demidova," a thread at Alexanderpalace.org. alexanderpalace.org. Retrieved on February 25, 2007.
  3. ^ King, Greg, and Wilson, Penny, The Fate of the Romanovs, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-471-20768-3, pp. 63-64
  4. ^ King and Wilson, p. 87
  5. ^ King and Wilson, p. 311
  6. ^ "17 July 1998: The funeral of Tsar Nicholas II. romanovfundforrussia.org (1998). Retrieved on February 28, 2007.

[edit] See also