Fictionalization of historic events

While it may seem uncourteous to cavil at inaccuracies in a fictional film in which a bat can sing, the movie did inspire some controversy as many history teachers quailed at the prospect of having to correct the misimpressions of a generation of students educated only by its tutelage, and several Orthodox Christians were offended due to the historical Anastasia's sainthood (declared formally the next year).

Some of the differences with actual history are recorded here:

• Though the body of two members of the Russian Imperial Family, including one of the daughters, have not been found, there is no evidence that any family members, including Anastasia, survived.

• In the film, a curse from Rasputin brings about the Russian Revolution. In actuality, it was Russia's dismal performance in World War I that caused the Revolution, and Rasputin was a religious pilgrim and friend to the royal family.

• The film depicts Anastasia as escaping from the Imperial Palace during the Revolution, when in fact she stayed with her family, living at first in Tsarskoe Selo and later in Tobolsk in Siberia until they were executed by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg more than a year after the Revolution.

• In the film, Anastasia is only a young child at the time of the Revolution, when in fact, she was nearly 16.

• The Dowager Empress did not live in Paris, either before or after the Revolution. She lived in Russia until 1920, when she evacuated the Crimea with White forces, and thereafter in her native Denmark.

• At the times the story takes place, St. Petersburg was known as Petrograd or Leningrad, not St. Petersburg, as it is called in the movie.

Bluth and Goldman, who did extensive historical research on the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia and the Russian Revolution for the film, never intended for their film to be scrupulously analyzed for historical accuracy; their film is based upon the (fictional) legend of Anastasia having survived the slaugther of the family. A disclaimer can be found at the end of the credits for the film. It reads as follows:

"While some of the characters and events depicted in this film were inspired by well-known historical figures and events, the portrayal of such characters and the depiction of such events are fictional. All other characters and incidents protrayed and names used were created for the purpose of fictitious dramatization and any similarity to the names, characters, and history of actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional."

1997 films

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