Alexandra Tegleva

Alexandra Alexandrovna Tegleva (; 2 May 1884 – 21 March 1955), also known as Shura Tegleva and Sasha Tegleva, was a Russian noblewoman who served as a nursemaid in the Russian Imperial Household. As nursemaid to the children of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, she went with the family into exile in Tobolsk following the abdication of Nicholas II during the February Revolution, but was ultimately prevented from staying with them during their house arrest at Ipatiev House. She survived the Russian Revolution and married Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss academic who served with her in the Imperial Household as the children's French tutor. She moved to Lausanne as a white émigré and remained there the rest of her life. Tegleva worked with her husband to investigate and debunk the claims made by Anna Anderson, a Romanov impostor who pretended to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.

Member of the Imperial Household

Tegleva was a part of the Russian nobility as a member of the Teglev family. She was educated at the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in Saint Petersburg. Tegleva served in the Russian Imperial Household as a nursemaid and governess to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, and Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. She lived with the family in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, occupying the thirty-first room on the second floor. In her room she had paintings by Vasily Volkov. She was assisted in hiding the jewels by the parlor maid Elizaveta Ersberg and lady's maid Maria Gustavna Tutelberg. In May 1918 the rest of the imperial family was taken to Ipatiev House, but Tegleva was not allowed to enter with them. Tegleva was detained with Pierre Gilliard, Charles Sydney Gibbes, and Baroness Sophie Karlovna von Buxhoeveden in a separate residence from the imperial family in Yekaterinburg. She was almost killed by the Bolsheviks in Tyumen but was freed by the White Army.

In 1919 she married Swiss academic Pierre Gilliard, who had worked with her in the imperial household as the children's tutor. She survived the Russian Revolution, arriving in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1920 as a white émigré. On her second visit to Anderson in St. Mary's Hospital in Berlin in 1925, Anderson mistook Tegleva for Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. On another visit, Anderson asked Tegleva to moisten her forehead with eau de Cologne, a comforting gesture Tegleva used to do for Grand Duchess Anastasia as her nursemaid. The interaction left Tegleva feeling shaken.

Tegleva was the godmother of her niece, Marie-Claude Gilliard Knecht. She was portrayed by Michele Valence in the play Daughter of A Soldier performed at the Theatre of the Open Eye in New York in 1988. She is also a character in the play The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women: An Interactive Comedy in Two Acts, written by Carolyn Gage and Don Nigro. She was portrayed by Milda Noreikaite in the 2019 Netflix documentary drama The Last Czars.