Anna Stepanovna Demidova (26 January 1878 – 17 July 1918) was a lady-in-waiting in the service of Empress Alexandra of Russia.
[2] In his memoirs, Charles Sydney Gibbes, the Romanov children's English tutor, described Demidova as "of a singularly timid and shrinking disposition.
In April 1918, after the Russian Revolution, she accompanied her mistress, Tsar Nicholas II, and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia when they were transferred by Bolsheviks from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg.
The remaining four Romanov children and other members of their retinue stayed behind in Tobolsk for a month because the Tsarevich Alexei was ill as a result of his hemophilia.
Their identities were confirmed by DNA analysis, but the Russian Orthodox Church asked to retain Alexei's remains for more testing and, as of 2015, still held them.
A state funeral was held on 17 July 1998, in Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg for the Romanov family, Demidova, and the other victims killed by the Bolsheviks 80 years earlier.
Anna and other members of the court who stayed with the royal family until their last moments, ending up being murdered by the Bolsheviks, were also canonized.