Alexei Tammet-Romanov was the name assumed by Ernest Veermann (died June 26, 1977), an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n immigrant to Canada, when he claimed to be the last heir to the throne of Russia,

Tsarevich Tsarevich (russian: Царевич, ) is a Slavic title given to tsars' sons. Under the 1797 Pauline house law, the title was discontinued and replaced with ''Tsesarevich'' for the heir apparent alone. His younger brothers were called '' Veli ...

Alexei Nikolaevich of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. For many years prior to this, Veerman had been known as Heino Tammet, a name he first used when in the printing business. A few of his postcards are extant. Veerman began to claim he was Alexei Nikolaevich when he was 68 years old. Letters to British royalty, claims that he had met Scandinavian royalty and other such incidents led to a visit from the

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

, a medical examination and a gentle warning to cease and desist. His belief that he was once the young prince persisted more quietly, while his health gradually declined. Veermann died of a form of leukemia in 1977. His claims are championed at present only by his third wife, Sandra, and by Vancouver journalist John Kendrick. Unfortunately for the claim, the tsarevitch Alexei was a

hemophiliac Haemophilia, or hemophilia (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, ...

, and Heino Tammet was not. In an attempt to explain this away, Kendrick has maintained that the Tsarevitch's disease was misdiagnosed, and that Tammet had a disease that might conceivably cause similar symptoms. An article written by Kendrick, and published in the ''American Journal of Hematology'', provided a full exposition of Kendrick's hypothesis, though without any disclosure of its relationship to the Tammet case. Subsequent genetic studies have determined that Alexei had

hemophilia B Haemophilia B, also spelled hemophilia B, is a blood clotting disorder causing easy bruising and bleeding due to an inherited mutation of the gene for factor IX, and resulting in a deficiency of factor IX. It is less common than factor VIII defi ...

. Tammet's wife gave a tooth (or teeth) to scientists for DNA testing, but the tests were not done and the specimen has not been returned. No other suitable specimens have been submitted for testing. Tammet, deaf in one ear, claimed that that was the result of a gunshot at close range fired by

Yurovsky Yurovsky may mean two related surnames. It is a Russian surname, a variant of the Polish surname Jurowski and the Slovak surname Jurovský. Notable people with the surnames include: *Vladimir Mikhailovich Yurovsky *Yakov Yurovsky (1878–1938), Sov ...

near the tsarevitch's ear. Tammet also claimed that he had an undescended testicle corresponding to the tsarevitch's undescended testicle. In July, 2007, the remains of the Tsarevich Alexei and his missing sister were discovered in the Koptyaki Forest, in just such circumstances as Yakov Yurovsky described. This accounts for all the members of the Russian Imperial Family.

References

*Russia's Imperial Blood: Was Rasputin Not the Healer of Legend?, American Journal of Hematology, Vol. 77, No. 1, September 2004

*Margarita Nelipa & Helen Azar, ““An Inheritance No One Desired”, ''The European Royal History Journal'', Issue XLVII, Vol. 8.5, October 2005, pp. 23–29, continued in Issue XLVIII, Vol 8.6, December 2005, pp. 31–35; an analysis of the historical and scientific distortions perpetrated by those who advance Tammet's claim.
a recent, article on Heino Tammet's claims

External links

Kendrick's site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tammet-Romanov Romanov impostors 1977 deaths Year of birth missing