Princess Anastasia (Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia) was killed in 1918 when Bolshevik guards executed the Romanov family in a basement room in Yekaterinburg during the Russian Revolution. Later forensic and DNA evidence confirmed she died there with her parents and siblings, disproving the idea that she secretly survived.

What actually happened

  • On the night of 16–17 July 1918, Anastasia, her parents (Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra), her brother Alexei, and her three sisters were taken to a basement room in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.
  • A firing squad of Bolshevik guards then opened fire on the family and several loyal servants, killing them at close range in a chaotic and brutal execution.

How did Anastasia herself die?

  • Contemporary accounts from the executioners say Anastasia was hit in the initial gunfire but may not have died immediately because jewels sewn into the princesses’ corsets acted like crude armor and deflected some bullets.
  • One of the guards later claimed that when she showed signs of life, she was finished off with bayonet thrusts after the shooting stopped.

Aftermath of the execution

  • The bodies were initially taken to a remote area; some were thrown into or near an abandoned mine shaft and then hastily buried and concealed with acid and fire to hinder identification.
  • In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, remains of the Romanov family were recovered and analyzed; DNA testing showed that all immediate family members, including Anastasia, died in the 1918 execution.

Rumors, legends, and impostors

  • For decades, rumors claimed Anastasia had escaped, inspiring books, films, and the popular animated movie that turned her into a kind of lost princess legend.
  • Several women—most famously Anna Anderson—insisted they were Anastasia, but modern DNA comparisons proved they were not related to the Romanovs, ending the survival myth in the 1990s.

TL;DR: If you’re searching “how did Princess Anastasia die,” historians agree she was killed with her family by Bolshevik guards in a basement in Yekaterinburg in July 1918, shot at close range and likely finished off with bayonets when she did not die instantly.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.