Danna Long

"Anastasia: Fact or Fiction"

You have probably seen, or at least heard of, the beloved movie Anastasia, featuring Meg Ryan and John Cusack. You may have heard the popular songs “Once Upon a December” or “Journey to the Past”, or even caught yourself humming the catchy tunes. But have you ever wondered what the real-life inspiration behind the tale was?

Anastasia Romanov was a real Russian princess, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks stormed the palace and captured the Romanov family, only to execute them months later. However, rumors of the youngest daughter’s survival swirled around Russia, giving them hope during dark times. The legend of a lost princess quickly spread around the world and captivated everyone’s hearts, which is why 20th Century Fox created a movie in 1997 centered around the legend. The movie follows an orphan girl named Anya who has no memory of her past, and spoiler alert, she turns out to be the lost princess Anastasia. Though it may seem obvious why the story was such a great success—who doesn’t love a princess story that features love, family, and adventure?—one hidden factor that affected the success of the adaptation is the political context that it was released in, and more specifically, the relationship between the United States and Russia when it was released.

When the film Anastasia was released in 1997, Bill Clinton had been in office for 4 years and though he had promised to improve U.S.-Russia relations, he had not fulfilled this promise yet. The two countries had settled their feud in 1989, marking the end of the decades-long Cold War. However, their relationship was not so much a friendship as it was an alliance, meaning it was hesitant and rocky. Americans were still a little bitter about the failure of their crusade to “free Russia” and transform it into a country more like theirs, and Clinton’s lack of assertiveness was not helping. Because of this, directors of Anastasia decided to cut out aspects of Russian history and replace it with a fairytale instead. Rather than showing the gruesome Russian Revolution of 1917 and portraying communists as the bad guys, they created a ghoulish villain. Rather than focusing on the dreariness of the Soviet Union that followed the revolution, they focused on a love story between a princess and a commoner. By spinning the rather disheartening tale into a lovable cartoon, filmmakers were able to rise above the political context of the times and create an extremely successful film about Russia at a time when Russia was a controversial topic.