Reburial of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholayevna and husband in Russia

The remains of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolayevna and her husband Grand Duke Nicolas Nicholayevna have been re-interred in Moscow on 30 April 2015.

Grand Duchess Anastasia was born Princess Anastasia of Montenegro on 4 June 1868 as the daughter of King Nikola I Petroviç-Njegos of Montenegro and Queen Milena of Montenegro. She was one of twelve children. She was known as Stana in her family. On 28 August 1889, she married George Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg, the future Duke of Leuchtenberg. He had been married before to Therese Petrovna of Oldenburg, who had died in 1883 at the age of 31.

Anastasia and George had two children, a son and a daughter before divorcing in 1906.

In 1907 Anastasia married Grand Duke Nicholas. She was 39 at the time, and the marriage remained childless. Her sister Milica married her husband’s brother Peter, and they were thus also sisters-in-law. Anastasia and Nicolas were both very religious Orthodox Christians. Anastasia and her sister are credited with introducing Rasputin to Empress Alexandra Feodorovona. When the revolution began to take form, Anastasia and Nicolas lived first in the Caucasus and then in the Crimea. They eventually escaped from the Crimea on board the British battleship HMS Marlborough. At first, they lived with Anastasia’s sister Elena, who was Queen of Italy.They later lived in France. Nicolas died 5 January 1929 and Anastasia followed on 15 November 1935.

They were both initially buried in St. Michael the Archangel Church in Cannes, France. The request to transfer the remains came from Nicholas Romanovich, who died in 2014 and Dmitry Romanovich and was made last year. They are now reburied in the Chapel of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in the Bratsk military cemetery in Moscow.