Anastasia's father the Tsar Nicholas II or "Papa" as his daughters called him was the autocratic ruler of the Russian empire. Nicholas II was born in 1868 at the Alexander Palace, the son of Alexander III and Maria Fyodoronvo.
Anastasia's mother Alexandra Fyodoronva was born in the Duchy of Hesse-Darnstadt on the Rhine in 1872. She changed her name from Victoria Alix Helena Louis Beatrix when she married and joined the Orthodox Church.