Gleb Evgenievich Botkin
Gleb Botkin in 1959 or 1960.
Born	1900 Finland
Died	December 1968 Charlottesville, Virginia
Occupation	Author, illustrator, Church of Aphrodite Archbishop
Spouse	Nadine Konshin
Parents	Eugene Botkin and Olga Botkina

Gleb Evgenievich Botkin, (1900 – December 1969), was the son of Dr. Eugene Botkin, the court physician who was murdered at Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks with Tsar Nicholas II and his family on July 17, 1918. The Grand Duchy of Finland (Magnus Ducatus Finlandiæ Великое княжество Финляндское ' Velikoe knjažestvo finljandskoe) was the Predecessor Charlottesville is an Independent city located within the confines of Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state The Church of Aphrodite was a nature-based church founded by Gleb Botkin on Long Island New York in 1938 In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated Bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and others this means that they lead Dr Yevgeny Sergeivich Botkin, also known as Dr Eugene Botkin, ( March 27, 1865 – July 17, 1918) was the court physician for Dr Yevgeny Sergeivich Botkin, also known as Dr Eugene Botkin, ( March 27, 1865 – July 17, 1918) was the court physician for Yekaterinburg (Екатеринбу́рг also romanized Ekaterinburg, formerly Sverdlovsk) is a major city in the central part of Russia The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Events 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

In later years, Botkin became a lifelong advocate of Anna Anderson, whom he believed to be the surviving Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Anastasia Manahan, usually known as Anna Anderson (probably 22 Dec[[ 896]] — 12 February 1984 was the best known of the several women who claimed to be Grand Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia ( Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova) (Великая Княжна Анастасия Николаевна Романова ( – DNA results later proved that she was most likely an impostor called Franziska Schanzkowska.

In 1938 he founded his own neopagan church, The Church of Aphrodite, which was one of the earliest churches in the neopagan movement in the United States. Neopaganism or Neo-Paganism is an Umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements particularly those influenced by historical The Church of Aphrodite was a nature-based church founded by Gleb Botkin on Long Island New York in 1938

Early life

He was the youngest son of Eugene Botkin and his wife, Olga. His parents divorced in 1910, when Botkin was a child of 10, due to his father's demanding position at court and his mother's affair with his German tutor, Friedrich Lichinger, whom she later married. Eugene Botkin retained custody of the children following the divorce. ^[1] His two older brothers, Yuri and Dmitri, were both killed in action during World War I. ^[2] As a child, he and his sister Tatiana played with the children of Nicholas II during holidays. Tatiana Evgenievna Botkina-Melnik (1898 - 1986 was the daughter of court physician Eugene Botkin, who was killed along with Tsar Nicholas II and his family by the He used to amuse the grand duchesses on holidays and when they were all in exile at Tobolsk with caricatures of pigs dressed in human clothing acting like stuffy dignitaries at court. Tobolsk (Тобо́льск Tatar: Tubıl) is a historic capital of Siberia, now an ordinary town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia. A caricature is either a Portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness or in literature a description Pigs, also called hogs or' swine', are Ungulates which have been domesticated as sources of food leather and similar products since ancient times ^[3]

Botkin was described by one historian as "articulate, sensitive, with pallid skin and soulful green eyes" and as "a talented artist, a wicked satirist, and a born crusader. "^[4]

Exile

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the murder of his father, Botkin fled Tobolsk. See also Russian Revolution (1905 The Russian Revolution of 1916 refers to a series of popular revolutions in Russia, and the events surrounding them He later spent a summer at a Russian Orthodox monastery and briefly considered becoming a priest, but decided against the religious life. See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. For the life inside monasteries and its historical roots see Monasticism. He married Nadine Konshin, the daughter of the former President of the Russian Bank of State under Tsar Nicholas. They lived in Japan for a brief period before emigrating to the United States. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. ^[5] Botkin worked as a photo engraver and attended art classes at the Pratt Institute in New York City. Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it Pratt Institute is a specialized private college in New York City with campuses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as in Utica New York The City of New York Later, he earned his living as a novelist and illustrator. ^[6][7]

Association with Anna Anderson

Botkin first visited Anna Anderson in May 1927 at Castle Seeon, where Anderson was a guest. Anastasia Manahan, usually known as Anna Anderson (probably 22 Dec[[ 896]] — 12 February 1984 was the best known of the several women who claimed to be Grand Anderson had asked Botkin to bring along "his funny animals. " Botkin wrote later that he immediately recognized Anderson as Anastasia because she shared memories of their childhood play.

Historian Peter Kurth wrote that Botkin tended to overlook some of the more unattractive aspects of Anderson's personality, such as her stubbornness and rapid changes in mood, or to view them as manifestations of her royal heritage. "She was, to Gleb's way of thinking, an almost magically noble tragic princess, and he saw it as his mission to restore her to her rightful position by any means necessary," wrote Kurth in Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson. ^[8]

Botkin penned letters in support of Anderson to various Romanov family members, wrote books about her and the Romanovs, including The Woman Who Rose Again, The Real Romanovs, and Lost Tales: Stories for the Tsar's Children, and arranged for Anderson's financial support throughout his life. He was Anderson's friend even when other supporters abandoned her. ^[9]

Religious views

Botkin, who following his father's murder had considered becoming a priest, eventually turned away from the Russian Orthodox Church. See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure According to one man who said he knew Botkin in the 1960s, Botkin once commented somewhat scornfully that a Russian Orthodox Church priest had refused to give up a seat on a cramped boat that was taking Botkin and other refugees to Finland because the priest had to survive to carry on God's work. ^[10] Botkin eventually turned his interest in religion towards his own nature-based religion, which he started first in Long Island, New York and later in Charlottesville, Virginia. Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches Charlottesville is an Independent city located within the confines of Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States His church was called The Church of Aphrodite. The Church of Aphrodite was a nature-based church founded by Gleb Botkin on Long Island New York in 1938 ^[11] Botkin was of the opinion that patriarchal society had caused many of the problems plaguing humankind. Patriarchy is the structuring of Society on the basis of Family units where fathers have primary responsibility for the welfare of hence authority over "Men!" he once said. "Just look at the mess we've made!"^[12]

Gleb Botkin used this symbol of Aphrodite on the vestments for his Church of Aphrodite. The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religions especially the Latin Rite and other Roman Catholics The Church of Aphrodite was a nature-based church founded by Gleb Botkin on Long Island New York in 1938

His church drew from ancient pagan rituals and from some of the tenets of the Old Believers, a rebel branch of the Russian Orthodox Church who had separated after 1666 - 1667 from the hierarchy of the church as a protest against liturgical reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Introductory summary of origins In 1652 Nikon (1605 – 1681 Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1652 to 1658 introduced a number of ritual and textual See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure Nikon ( Russian: Ни́кон, Old Russian Нїконъ) born Nikita Minin ( Никита Минин; May 7, 1605 ^[13] Anderson never joined his church, but didn't object when Botkin finished his letters to her with the prayer, "May the Goddess bestow Her tender caress on Your Imperial Highness's head. A goddess is a Female Deity. Many Cultures have goddesses Often deities are part of a polytheistic system that includes several deities "^[14]

Botkin had argued his case before the New York State Supreme Court in 1938 and won the right to an official charter for the religion. The Supreme Court of the State of New York is New York State 's Trial court, and is of General jurisdiction. The judge told him, "I guess it's better than worshiping Mary Baker Eddy. Mary Baker Eddy (born Mary Morse Baker July 16, 1821 &ndash December 3, 1910) was the founder of the Christian Science " His wife, whom he doted on, converted to his church in later life. ^[10][15]

The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485. The Birth of Venus is a Painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the Sea as a full grown Gleb Botkin created a modern-day church to worship the ancient goddess of love.

Botkin held regular church services in front of a statue of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, and presided over them dressed in the regalia of an archbishop. In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated Bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and others this means that they lead The female symbol, a cross inside of a circle representing Aphrodite, was embroidered on his headdress. A gender symbol is a Symbol used to denote the Sex of a Life form or the Gender of a human being The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University ^[10] He later published a book, at his own expense, arguing that Aphrodite was the supreme deity and creation had been much like a woman giving birth to the universe. See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always ^[10]

While he devoted much of his time and energy to his church in his final years, Botkin reportedly never pressured friends to follow his beliefs or asked for money from any who attended a service. He enjoyed chatting with people from the University of Virginia and other friends about world religions, a subject he knew a great deal about. The University of Virginia (also called UVa, UVA, Mr Jefferson's University, or The University) is a highly selective public research ^[10]

Botkin told a reporter for The Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, that his religion pre-dated Christianity. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings With Christianity, he said, "you have the dilemma of either following the straight and narrow path and going to Heaven or having fun on earth and going to Hell. Heaven may refer to the physical heavens the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the Universe beyond Hell, according to many Religious beliefs, is a location in the Afterlife, which may be described as a place of suffering " On the other hand, he said, his "Aphrodisian religion" was based on "truth and reality. Anything true will survive. Life itself is the blossoming of love, and love is the basis of goodness and happiness. "^[16] He thought his church would expand in coming years.

The student newspaper reporter commented on Botkin's "unorthodox" beliefs regarding sexual relations between men and women. Botkin didn't believe it was appropriate for a man to react to his wife's affair with the rage that was expected by society. For other uses see Love Affair or Scandal An affair may refer to a form of nonmonogamy, to Infidelity or to Adultery. "A woman falls in love with another man. All that is necessary is to let her have her fling. After that she is often a better wife and mother. It is like a person who loves to play Bach and suddenly wants to play Beethoven," he said. ^[16] One historian commented that Botkin's church "was a curious faith, to be sure," but "the Church of Aphrodite was not nearly so wanton as it sounds. "^[17]

The church did not continue long after Botkin's death from a heart attack in December 1969, but some of his followers went on to join neopagan movements with beliefs that drew from the Church of Aphrodite. Neopaganism or Neo-Paganism is an Umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements particularly those influenced by historical ^[15]

Botkin's church is mentioned in the recent book Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America, by Chas S. Clifton.

KGB visit

To the end of his life, Botkin detested the Communist government then in place in the Soviet Union. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based

In 1967, agents of the KGB allegedly visited Botkin in Charlottesville and invited him to return to Russia. KGB ( Transliteration of "КГБ" is the Russian abbreviation of Committee for State Security ( Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty Botkin is said to have replied, "No thanks, not after you murdered my father," and to have appeared shaken when he told others about the incident. ^[10]

DNA used to identify father's remains

Botkin and his wife had four children, daughter Marina and sons Nikita, Peter, and one other son. He also had a stepdaughter, Kyra. ^[18][19] His daughter Marina Botkina Schweitzer's DNA was later used to help identify the remains of her grandfather, Eugene Botkin, after they were exhumed in 1991 from a mass grave discovered in the woods near Ekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg (Екатеринбу́рг also romanized Ekaterinburg, formerly Sverdlovsk) is a major city in the central part of Russia Schweitzer's DNA was compared against the DNA of her maternal half-sister Kyra, who also gave a blood sample, to help scientists isolate the DNA Schweitzer shared in common with her grandfather. This enabled scientists to create a "Botkin DNA profile" and use it to positively identify Dr. Botkin. Scientists in the early 1990s were unable to identify Dr. Botkin using mitochondrial DNA, or DNA that is passed down from mother to child, as they used it to identify the Romanovs. Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. Schweitzer was descended from Dr. Botkin in the paternal line and didn't share mitochondrial DNA with her father and grandfather. ^[20]

Schweitzer later expressed skepticism about the DNA results proving that Anna Anderson could not have been the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Anastasia Manahan, usually known as Anna Anderson (probably 22 Dec[[ 896]] — 12 February 1984 was the best known of the several women who claimed to be Grand ^[21]

Notes