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Gleb Yevgenyevich Botkin (; 29 July 1900 – 27 December 1969) was the son of Dr. Yevgeny Botkin, the Russian court physician who was murdered at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks with Tsar Nicholas II and his family on 17 July 1918.
In later years, Botkin became a lifelong advocate of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the surviving Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. DNA results later proved that she was an impostor called Franziska Schanzkowska.
In 1938, he founded his own goddess-worshipping, monotheistic church, The Church of Aphrodite.
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".Kurth, p. 200 His obituary in the New York Times called him "a tenacious champion of fight for recognition as Anastasia" and a "devoted monarchist".
The Botkins immigrated to the United States via Japan, arriving in San Francisco from Yokohama on 8 October 1922.Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, 1893–1953. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787–2004, Record Group 85. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.Lovell, James Blair, Anastasia: The Lost Princess, Regnery Gateway, 1991, , pp. 125–126 Botkin worked as a photo engraving and attended art classes at the Pratt Institute in New York City. Later, he earned his living as a novelist and illustrator.Kurth, p. 199Lovell, p. 126
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.Kurth, p. 201
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.
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. Anderson never joined his church but did not object when Botkin finished his letters to her with this prayer: "May the Goddess bestow Her tender caress on Your Imperial Highness's head."
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 judge told him, "I guess it's better than worshipping Mary Baker Eddy." His wife, whom he doted on, converted to his church in later life.
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. The Gender symbol, a cross surmounted by a circle representing Venus, was embroidered on his headdress. He later published a book, at his own expense, arguing that Aphrodite was the supreme deity and Creation myth had been much like a woman giving birth to the universe. This symbol also was engraved on his gravestone at his death.
Botkin told a reporter for The Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, that his religion pre-dated Christianity. 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". On the other hand, he said that 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". 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 believed that it was inappropriate for a man to react to his wife's affair with the rage that was expected by society: "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." 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".
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 superficially similar to those of the Church of Aphrodite.
Schweitzer later expressed skepticism about the DNA results proving that Anna Anderson could not have been the Grand Duchess Anastasia.Massie, Robert K., The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, 1995, p. 198
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