What was the role of this “suite” of perfectly different people, gravitating around Nora and Georges? The version of examining magistrate Blagoy Emanuilov is that they were really Prince Alexey and Princess Anastasia and every one of the satellites had a particular role to play in relation to the safeguarding of their lives and secret. Probably Mitrofan had the task to make sure they were implanted in a suitable environment, whether they felt sufficiently protected by their legend, and he went back to report at the relevant place. Konstantin Pavlovich probably had to provide them with French protection against annihilation, while in Western Europe the false card of Anna Anderson was played, whereby Soviet Russia tried to get hold of the immense cash deposits of Tsar Nikolay II in foreign banks.

Whoever Nora, Zhudin and Alexiev were, they left good reminiscences in the hearts of Gabarevites. In the Gabarevo community center hall two chairs in the front row are symbolically reserved for Nora and Dr. Alexiev with special plates. In the obituary notice issued 10 years ago (for the 40th anniversary of her death and 30th anniversary of his death) the inhabitants of Gabarevo wrote the following heart-felt words: “Having had the unfortunate fate of emigrants, these highly noble people found a quiet harbour in Gabarevo and selflessly gave to its population the fruits of their humane professionalism and elevated moral values.” On the initiative of examining magistrate Blagoy Emanuilov, a Prince Alexey and Princess Anastasia foundation was founded in Gabarevo.

Evidence in support of the version
Of all fantastic rumours people say: “There is no smoke without fire”. So it is with the version Nora-Anastasia. After its publication Petar Hristov Petrov from Kavarna sent a letter to the media (April 1993) setting forth facts in its support. The letter was published only in 1995 in No 28 of the Stara Zagora newspaper Dnes, and read: “In July 1953, Mr. Petrov – then a 16-year-old schoolboy – was taken in the Balchik hospital and was in the same room with a Russian whiteguard Peter Zamyatkin. Fearing he was going to die, the Russian confided in him a strange story. As second lieutenant in the security squadron of the tsar’s family he enjoyed the confidence of Nikolay II. One day he was summoned by the tsar and in the presence of the minister of war and a clergyman he was entrusted with a responsible secret mission – to take out two of the tsar’s children, Alexey and Anastasia, and hide them in his native village near Odessa until a special messenger came to fetch them, if things “worked well”. He was given money, gold and jewelry and he took away the children dressed as villagers. But then the execution of the tsar’s family followed and as no messenger came and it was dangerous to remain in Russia they decided to escape on a boat sailing from Odessa to Alexandria. In the last minute Red Cavalry came to the port and opened fire on the passengers on the deck (he supposed it was aimed at Anastasia). A bullet shot the dog she held in her arms and she was only wounded. After a long journey – from Turkey to Serbia and then to Bulgaria – they arrived in Sofia. Here the boy got sick and was taken in hospital, where Zamyatkin became acquainted with a wealthy patient from Kazanlak. This man proposed to accommodate the homeless in the house of his friends in a village near Kazanlak (Zamyatkin did not mention the name of the village). Following this lead and on the basis of certain juxtapositions, including graphological, examining magistrate Emanuilov conjectured that Zamyatkin and Sergey from Gabarevo (Sergo) were one and the same person.

The truth of Zamyatkin’s story is confirmed by a literary source. The writer Konstantin Paustovski worked in the early 1920s as a journalist in Odessa. In book three of his 6-volume collection “Short Novel about Life” (1968, translated by Atanas Dalchev) in chapter “The Last Shrapnel” we find a description of the same episode of skirmish at the port sometime in February 1920.

In one of his legends of his escape from Russia (he told several), Dr. Alexiev mentioned he was on a boat departing from Odessa and he helped a young girl wounded by the shots. One more coverage in support of Dr. Nyagolov’s version: in Chirpanski Novini newspaper, No 20 of July 13, 1998, the former mayor of Chirpan Petar Popdimitrov wrote that the whiteguard officer Sasho the Russian, with whom they worked in the community center, promised (this was around 1959-60) to confide in him a secret that would “blow his hat off”. But he only said that in the village of Gabarevo, Kazanlak district, there were “graves important for Russia”. Later he died and took the secret with him.

Yordanka Tropolova
Read in the next issue: “Myths and reality”