Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia in 1918, Princess Helena Petrovna, the wife of Anastasia's distant cousin, Prince John Constantinovich of Russia, reported that a guard brought a girl who called herself Anastasia Romanova to her cell and asked if the girl was the daughter of the Tsar. Helena Petrovna said she did not recognize the girl and the guard took her away. Although other witnesses in Perm later reported that they saw Anastasia, her mother and sisters in Perm after the murders, this story is now widely discredited. Rumors that they were alive were fueled by deliberate misinformation designed to hide the fact that the
Princess Xenia Andreevna of Russia of Tsar Nicholas I. Her paternal grandmother, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, was the eldest daughter of Tsar Alexander III and sister to Tsar Nicholas II. Xenias's father - the Tsar's nephew - Prince Andrew Romanoff had in 1918 married Elisaveta Fabrizievna, daughter of Don Fabrizio Ruffo, "Duca" di Sasso-Ruffo. During the Russian Revolution Princess Xenia's parents took refuge in the Crimea where they married. They escaped Russia in December 1918. Xenia's mother was already pregnant with her when they left Russian soil. Princess Xenia had two brothers: Michael and Andrew. Her mother died of cancer during World War