All kinds of impostors have met in the history of all states in all historical periods, and our country is unlikely to be an exception here. But in terms of the number of twins, and even more so in their "quality" and variety, it will not be easy to find equal to Russia. Who only and who only did not declare himself in different periods of Russian history. It was only important that the impostor, although a little like the original, and at the same time showed by all appearance that it was he and no one else who was the original.
False Dmitry
A classic example of an impostor in Russian history, approved as a legitimate tsar by foreign bayonets, is False Dmitry. And not one, but three at once. Although the “Dmitriev Ioannovich” are distinguished in this list, mysteriously escaping death, only two “tsars”: False Dmitry I and False Dmitry II, respectively.
False Dmitry I.
However, they differed from each other not only in serial numbers, but also in the course they followed when they seized power in the country. If False Dmitry II was an outright puppet of powers hostile to Russia, then with the first everything was much more complicated.
Whoever first began to pretend to be the son of Ivan the Terrible, he actually chose the course of defending the independence and sovereignty of Russia, thereby deceiving the foreign interventionists who secured the throne for him. It is not surprising that they quickly lost interest in him and, very likely, removed him with the hands of Vasily Shuisky, preventing the implementation of ideas that anticipated many of the reforms of Peter the Great.
The purpose of False Dmitry I, judging by his first steps, was to integrate Russia into the commonwealth of European countries, but not in the role of a vassal of the latter. This is what he, most likely, was not forgiven in the capitals of neighboring states, who were counting on just the opposite. Well, the fate of Grigory Otrepiev, or the real Demetrius (there is also such a version), decided the fate of his refusal to Catholicize the Orthodox country.
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Many of those who previously recognized the first False Dmitry as the real one, without batting an eye, recognized the second as such. But his contemporaries were especially impressed by the recognition of him by her husband Marina Mnishek. Against this background, the recognition or non-recognition of False Dmitry I by his son Queen Martha, the wife of Ivan the Terrible, looks like nothing more than an incident. You never know - I didn't see it right away, but when the conspirators captured the "son", I immediately regained the sight.
It is clear that all these confessions and non-confessions were hardly voluntary. But if they did not exist, neither the first nor the second False Dmitry would have achieved his goal. After all, they were anyone, but not Tsarevich Dmitri.
Peter's granddaughter
There were no less impostors in the history of Russia than impostors. And maybe even more. And they gained fame in no way inferior to male counterparts. There is only one difference - not a single impostor could do without some beautiful romantic story. The fate of one of the most famous - Princess Tarakanova - even became the theme of many works of art.
The famous painting by KD Flavitsky, depicting the despair of a young girl who dared to start a dangerous game and lost, is dedicated to Elizaveta Vladimirskaya, as she was actually called. She lost on the field where she was used to winning - beautiful and, as they would say now, sexy, she won the hearts of many representatives of the stronger sex, moreover, from among the strongest of this world. Believing in the irresistibility of her feminine charms, she herself fell into a love trap. She was lured into a sensual web by one of the associates of Empress Catherine the Great, the brother of her favorite, Alexei Orlov.
Princess Tarakanova.
Lovelace was able not only to convince the impostor of his alleged loyalty, but also of passionate love. The novel was beautiful, no doubt, but the ending turned out to be gloomy. He led the adventurer not to the crown and to the throne, as Orlov had promised, but to the casemates of the Peter and Paul Fortress. One can imagine the despair of Princess Tarakanova when she became convinced of the treachery and betrayal of the one whom she considered not just a friend, but also a lover.
Yes, Orlov acted not like a gentleman, but on the other hand, like a real patriot. Elizaveta Vladimirskaya herself, probably, did not notice how she became nothing more than an instrument in the hands of anti-Russian forces in Europe. That is why the lawful empress took the rumors spread by the young lady about her royal origin more than seriously. She, in fact, announced a hunt for the impostor.
Orlov took on the not very noble mission of a decoy duck in it. He took it, because he perfectly understood how a new turmoil could turn out.
His cunning for patriotic purposes became the basis of the plot of the play by the Soviet playwright Leonid Zorin, which was called “The Tsar's Hunt”. Later V. Melnikov made a film in which this love version is presented, with the luring of the impostor aboard the flagship of Alexei Orlov, who had fallen in love without memory.
The "special operation" with an imaginary marriage, when Orlova was married to the servant of God Elizabeth by a disguised sailor, was a forced step to neutralize the dangerous intriguer. In Petersburg, of course, it was assumed that the false daughter of Elizabeth and her favorite Razumovsky would try to use forces that were far from friendly to Russia in a complex game.
So there would be nothing mysterious in this story if Catherine the Great did not seek for some reason to keep the course and results of the investigation a secret. Most likely, the whole story was simply unpleasant to Mother Empress. Indeed, in 1762 she herself did what the young princess Tarakanova did not succeed in.
Anna Anderson
It is not difficult to understand the goals of Elizabeth of Vladimir and other impostors, as well as those who stood behind them. It was the most ordinary power struggle under the guise of a false name. But what the adventurer, who declared herself Princess Anastasia, was guided by, is completely unclear. More precisely, it would be unclear if it were not known under what circumstances the realization came to Anna Anderson that she supposedly miraculously survived the heir to the Russian throne at the time of the execution of the royal family. And it happened in a psychiatric clinic, where Anna Anderson got after a suicide attempt. Then, starting with manic persistence to prove the validity of her claims to the high rank of princess, she ended up in a psychiatric hospital again.
However, she really was very similar to the original, and so much so that some of the surviving Romanovs recognized her as their relative. True, not all of them believed the version of the liar. Rather surprisingly, the others were able to believe in it.
The very same version is extremely ridiculous: Anastasia supposedly, unlike everyone else, was only hit twice, but not killed. It is hard to believe that those who carried out the order of the Yekaterinburg Soviet could have failed to notice that one of the victims was alive and had missed her.
Then, in Anna Anderson's testimony, a void gapes, allegedly caused by her unconsciousness. As a result, "Anastasia" ends up with some soldier and his wife, thanks to whom she not only survived, but also moved abroad. Anderson's legend looks even less believable than Grigory Otrepiev's version that he, as the son of Ivan the Terrible Dmitry, was cleverly changed on the night of the assassination attempt.
However, Anastasia was far from the only one in the executed royal family who was declared miraculously saved. Tsarevich Alexei was also referred to as such. They called not just anyone, but the very chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR under Brezhnev - Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin. That was probably why he was surprised at such a paradoxical hypothesis.
Pugachev
The very fact of the presence of an impostor spoke of the popularity among the people of the one who was the original. This spoke, if not of love, then of the hopes of the people connected with them. This can explain the absolute readiness of the broad peasant masses to recognize Peter III in Yemelyan Pugachev. There was great faith among the serfs that the emperor who had been deposed by Catherine II could grant them freedom.
Portrait of Emelyan Pugachev in Rostov the Great.
Alexander Evdokimov