Eugenia Smith
Encyclopedia
Eugenia Smith, of Chicago
, also known as Eugenia Drabek Smetisko, (1899 – January 31, 1997) was one of several impostors who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
. She is the author of the Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia (1963), in which she claimed to be Anastasia. Though since World War II
there have been at least ten "Anastasias", only Anna Anderson
and Eugenia Smith achieved more than a small coterie of "believers."
, Eugenia Smith was born in 1899 in Bukovina
, in what was then Austria-Hungary
. However, as a claimant to the identity of Grand Duchess Anastasia, Smith would later assert that she was born in St. Petersburg on June 18, 1901.
at Yekaterinberg on July 17, 1918, and subsequently escaped to the west. By her own account, she regained consciousness in the cellar of the Ipatiev House
after the execution, and was rescued by an unidentified woman who moved her to a dugout below a nearby house and then nursed her back to health. Smith then began a trek to the west, accompanied by two men, one of whom was later identified to her as Alexander, a soldier who had been stationed at the Ipatiev House. The long journey, undertaken by train and on foot, took Smith and her rescuers through the towns of Ufa
, Bugulma
, Simbirsk
and Kursk
before reaching Serbia
, where they were accommodated in the home of a local man and his wife. The party later travelled further, arriving at the home of an unidentified Slavic-speaking woman on October 24, 1918. Smith's published memoir ended at that point.
, Yugoslavia. She had further identified her intended final destination as Hamtramck, Michigan
. She later settled in Chicago, where she reportedly worked as a salesgirl and a milliner.
Smith evidently returned to Europe later that decade, as another passenger manifest reveals that Eugenia Smetisko, now aged 30, arrived in New York again on September 23, 1929, sailing from Le Havre
aboard the S. S. De Grasse/ This document further indicates that she had applied to become a naturalized citizen of the United States on April 4, 1928, in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). Her residential address was given as 6263 Greenwood Avenue, Chicago.
, who also became her firm supporters. Smith would later described the younger daughter, Mrs Helen Kohlsaat Wells (1881–1959), as “a close friend and confidant for many, many years”. The two women began to collaborate on Smith's memoirs in 1930, and completed a first draft four years later. During this time, Smith was also a frequent guest of Mrs Wells' older sister, Miss Edith Kohlstaat, who still lived in the vast house that her parents had built at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
, in the early 1900s. Smith moved there permanently in 1935 but, as Miss Kohlsaat later recalled: “she was difficult to live with, she found fault with all my friends, but she seemed so lost that I wanted to help her”.
It was while staying with Edith Kolhsaat that Smith also met Mrs Marjorie Wilder Emery, another friend of John Adams Chapman. Mrs Emery (1882–1967) was the wealthy widow of William Harrison Emery, jr (1876–1938), founder of the Chicago Rawhide Company and former client of noted Prairie School
architect Walter Burley Griffin
. In 1945, Smith left Edith Kohlsaat's home in Lake Geneva and moved in with Mrs Emery in Elmhurst. Smith's new hostess remained a firm believer in her claim to be the Tsar's daughter, and celebrated her birthday each year on Grand Duchess Anastasia's actual birthdate of June 18. Smith remained living with Mrs Emery until 1963, except for a two years spent with her daughter, Mrs Norman Hanson, who lived across the street, and another year in New York when Mrs Emery was in California. Mrs Emery later echoed Edith Kohlstaat's comments that Smith was difficult to live with, recalling that she often seemed morose, objected to visits by some of Mrs Emery's friends, did not get along with the servant, and became annoyed when she was not permitted her to use the family car.
During the time that Smith lived with Mrs Emery, her story caught the attention of a genuine Romanov relative, Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich Romanov
(1902–1978), a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II and therefore first cousin to the real Anastasia. Prince Rostislav, who had lived in Chicago since the 1920s, was informed by his ex-wife, the former Princess Alexandra Pavlovna Galitzine (1905–2006), that Eugenia Smith was living in nearby Elmhurst. Keen to arrange a meeting, the princess invited Smith to lunch on no fewer than three occasions; in each case, however, the claimant declined on the grounds that she was too nervous.
In the late 1950s, Smith was introduced to writer and local historian Edward Arpee (1899–1979), author of such books as The History of Lake Forrest Academy (1944) and From Frigates to Flat-tops (1953), with whom she planned to collaborate on her memoirs. Arpee later recalled that he prepared a manuscript about the survival of Grand Duchess Anastasia “working from material supplied by Mrs Smith in odds and ends, and in innumerable interviews”. He later asserted: “She was difficult to get along with; I never received any thanks for my work during those years”. Smith had also continued to review her manuscript with her long-time champion, Helen Kohlstaat Wells, until the latter's death in 1959.
Women's Club on the subject of the Balkans and Denmark. In April 1943, at the invitation of the women's guild of St Elizabeth's Church in Glencoe
, she presented a lecture entitled “Russia Today and Yesterday.” At that time, it was also reported that she had previously spoken at the Chicago Mount Holyoke Club. In 1944, Smith (described as “a Russian artist and traveller”) spoke again on the topic of “Russia Before and Russia Now” before the Niles Center
Women's Club.
During the time that she lived in Elmhurst with Mrs Emery, Smith spent two years working in a silver shop on Michigan Avenue. She also attempted to start her own business as a perfume manufacturer, working from Mrs Emery's home, but later became irritated when her hostess refused to invest in the project.
Smith was also an avid painter, as was the true Anastasia. Many of her works depict scenes of her purported childhood in Russia in the Imperial family and are in a private collection.
, son of the Tsar's physician and a childhood friend of the genuine Grand Duchess Anastasia. Botkin, who was a fervent supporter of rival Anastasia claimant Anna Anderson
, was sceptical of Smith's claim. Speller & Sons subsequently requested that Smith undergo a lie detector test. This was undertaken by polygraph expert and former CIA agent Cleve Backster
, who, after thirty hours of testing, concluded that he was “virtually positive that his subject was Anastasia”. Gleb Botkin, however, remained unconvinced; he later stated that “the lie detector must have had a screw loose somewhere” and warned Speller & Sons not to proceed with the project.
Nevertheless, the publishers went ahead. Smith's manuscript was re-written as the memoirs of Grand Duchess Anastasia herself, and was published towards the end of 1963 under the title Anastasia: The Autobiography of H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia. Prior to publication, excerpts were printed by Life magazine, along with articles detailing the mixed results of the lie detector tests, handwriting analysis and an anthropologist's comparison of Smith's facial features with photographs of the actual Grand Duchess. There were also comments from two people who had known the Grand Duchess in childhood: Princess Nina Chavchavadze
and Gleb Botkin's sister, Tatiana Melnik
, both of whom rejected Smith's claims. Like her brother, Tatiana Melnik was convinced that rival claimant Anna Anderson was in fact the genuine article. Anna Anderson was herself aware of Smith's claims, and discussed them with journalist Alexis Milukoff in a series of taped interviews conducted in Germany in the mid-1960s. Of the story, Anderson simply quipped: “Is it not incredible?”.
In December 1963, Speller & Sons were contacted by Michael Goleniewski
, a former Polish army officer who, for some years, had claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia's brother, the Tsarevich Alexis. A meeting was arranged between the two claimants, which took place at the publisher's New York offices on December 31, 1963. As recorded by Anna Anderson's biographer, the late James Blair Lovell, “the two imposters tearfully embraced and affirmed one another's authenticity”. Although they later planned to collaborate on a memoir, the alleged siblings subsequently had a falling out. In 1965, Smith denounced Goleniewski as a fraud, although he reportedly remained convinced that she was his sister.
, in the early 1970s, where she attended the local Congregational Church until her death. During that time, she founded the St Nicholas House Foundation, a non-profit organization to establish a museum for Russian art and history in the United States.
In her later years, Smith distanced herself from earlier claims of Imperial origins. In 1984, Associated Press reported that she had refused to discuss her claims with them. A decade later, when she was asked if she would like to provide a blood sample for DNA analysis, she also refused.
Eugenia Smith died on January 31, 1997, at the Lafayette Nursing Home in North Kingstown, at the purported age of 95 years. The Reverend Lark d'Helen, who conducted her memorial service at the Newport Congregational Church, said of her: “Eugenia was a woman of character determined, tenacious, imperial even to the end”. Of her claim to be the grand Duchess Anastasia, another long-time friend stated: “She is an enigma.. that's not really important if she is or if she isn't. To me, she's just a human being. That's how everyone knew her”.
Many newspapers published her obituary using Anastasia's birth-date, or stated that she had been born in St. Petersburg. Unlike Anna Anderson
, who was cremated upon death, Eugenia Smith was interred in Orthodox fashion in the cemetery of Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery in Jordanville, New York
. Cremation is prohibited in Orthodoxy. She is buried in the back right side of the newer section of the cemetery.
Since her death, Smith's memory, and her efforts to establish a museum of Russian culture, remain perpetuated in a charitable trust known as the Eugenia Smetisko Memorial Fund.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, also known as Eugenia Drabek Smetisko, (1899 – January 31, 1997) was one of several impostors who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna....
. She is the author of the Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia (1963), in which she claimed to be Anastasia. Though since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
there have been at least ten "Anastasias", only Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson was the best known of several impostors who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia...
and Eugenia Smith achieved more than a small coterie of "believers."
Birth
According to naturalization papers she filled out when she emigrated to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Eugenia Smith was born in 1899 in Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
, in what was then Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. However, as a claimant to the identity of Grand Duchess Anastasia, Smith would later assert that she was born in St. Petersburg on June 18, 1901.
Escape from Russia
In her published memoirs, Smith provided a lengthy but unverifiable explanation of how she survived the execution of the family of Tsar Nicholas IINicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
at Yekaterinberg on July 17, 1918, and subsequently escaped to the west. By her own account, she regained consciousness in the cellar of the Ipatiev House
Ipatiev House
Ipatiev House was a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg where the former Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his family and members of his household were executed following the Bolshevik Revolution...
after the execution, and was rescued by an unidentified woman who moved her to a dugout below a nearby house and then nursed her back to health. Smith then began a trek to the west, accompanied by two men, one of whom was later identified to her as Alexander, a soldier who had been stationed at the Ipatiev House. The long journey, undertaken by train and on foot, took Smith and her rescuers through the towns of Ufa
Ufa
-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...
, Bugulma
Bugulma
Bugulma is a town in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Population: Bugulma is the birthplace of noted Tatar singer Alsou. It is also the location for a series of short stories by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, some of which have been published in English under the title 'The Red...
, Simbirsk
Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk The city is the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin , for whom it is named.-History:Simbirsk was founded in 1648 by the boyar Bogdan Khitrovo. The fort of "Simbirsk" was strategically placed on a hill on the Western bank of the Volga River...
and Kursk
Kursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...
before reaching Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, where they were accommodated in the home of a local man and his wife. The party later travelled further, arriving at the home of an unidentified Slavic-speaking woman on October 24, 1918. Smith's published memoir ended at that point.
Marriage
In later interviews, Smith claimed that she married Marijan Smetisko, a Croatian Cathoic, in October 1918, and they had subsequently had a daughter who died in infancy. She further claimed that her husband had given her permission to travel to the United States in 1922 and that the marriage was dissolved a few years later. In 1963, however, an American journalist tracked down Mr Smetisko in Yugoslavia and reported: “The man was found living in a poor hut with his wife; he said he'd never known anybody named Eugenia, or anybody from Chicago, or had ever been married before. He wanted only to be left alone with his cows”. It was generally concluded that Smith had simply used Smetisko's name in order to gain entry into the United States.Arrival
A search of passenger manifests confirms that Eugenia Smetisko, aged 22, arrived in New York City on July 27, 1922, travelling from Amsterdam aboard the S. S. Nieuw Amsterdam. According to this source, she was a citizen of Yugoslavia, but spoke German and was of German ancestry. She was described as a married woman, with her husband listed as Mr. M. Smetisko of SisekSisak
Sisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...
, Yugoslavia. She had further identified her intended final destination as Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck is a city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 22,423. Hamtramck is surrounded by the city of Detroit except for a small portion of the western border that touches the similarly surrounded city of Highland Park...
. She later settled in Chicago, where she reportedly worked as a salesgirl and a milliner.
Smith evidently returned to Europe later that decade, as another passenger manifest reveals that Eugenia Smetisko, now aged 30, arrived in New York again on September 23, 1929, sailing from Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
aboard the S. S. De Grasse/ This document further indicates that she had applied to become a naturalized citizen of the United States on April 4, 1928, in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). Her residential address was given as 6263 Greenwood Avenue, Chicago.
Supporters
During her early years in Illinois, Smith met John Adams Chapman, a prominent Chicago businessmen, who accepted her claim to be the Tsar's daughter. Through Chapman's connections, Smith befriended two daughters of former federal judge Christian Cecil KohlsaatChristian Cecil Kohlsaat
Christian Cecil Kohlsaat was a United States federal judge.Kohlsaat attended the University of Chicago and received an LL.B. from Illinois Law School, then read law to enter the bar in 1867. He was in private practice in Chicago, Illinois from 1867 to 1890...
, who also became her firm supporters. Smith would later described the younger daughter, Mrs Helen Kohlsaat Wells (1881–1959), as “a close friend and confidant for many, many years”. The two women began to collaborate on Smith's memoirs in 1930, and completed a first draft four years later. During this time, Smith was also a frequent guest of Mrs Wells' older sister, Miss Edith Kohlstaat, who still lived in the vast house that her parents had built at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Lake Geneva is a city in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,148 at the 2000 census. A resort city located on Geneva Lake, it is southwest of Milwaukee and popular with tourists from metropolitan Chicago and Milwaukee.-History:...
, in the early 1900s. Smith moved there permanently in 1935 but, as Miss Kohlsaat later recalled: “she was difficult to live with, she found fault with all my friends, but she seemed so lost that I wanted to help her”.
It was while staying with Edith Kolhsaat that Smith also met Mrs Marjorie Wilder Emery, another friend of John Adams Chapman. Mrs Emery (1882–1967) was the wealthy widow of William Harrison Emery, jr (1876–1938), founder of the Chicago Rawhide Company and former client of noted Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
architect Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect, who is best known for his role in designing Canberra, Australia's capital city...
. In 1945, Smith left Edith Kohlsaat's home in Lake Geneva and moved in with Mrs Emery in Elmhurst. Smith's new hostess remained a firm believer in her claim to be the Tsar's daughter, and celebrated her birthday each year on Grand Duchess Anastasia's actual birthdate of June 18. Smith remained living with Mrs Emery until 1963, except for a two years spent with her daughter, Mrs Norman Hanson, who lived across the street, and another year in New York when Mrs Emery was in California. Mrs Emery later echoed Edith Kohlstaat's comments that Smith was difficult to live with, recalling that she often seemed morose, objected to visits by some of Mrs Emery's friends, did not get along with the servant, and became annoyed when she was not permitted her to use the family car.
During the time that Smith lived with Mrs Emery, her story caught the attention of a genuine Romanov relative, Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich Romanov
Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia
Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia was a member of the Imperial Family of Russia.-Russian prince:Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich was the son of HIH the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich ‘Sandro’ and HIH the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna . His parents were first cousins once removed...
(1902–1978), a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II and therefore first cousin to the real Anastasia. Prince Rostislav, who had lived in Chicago since the 1920s, was informed by his ex-wife, the former Princess Alexandra Pavlovna Galitzine (1905–2006), that Eugenia Smith was living in nearby Elmhurst. Keen to arrange a meeting, the princess invited Smith to lunch on no fewer than three occasions; in each case, however, the claimant declined on the grounds that she was too nervous.
In the late 1950s, Smith was introduced to writer and local historian Edward Arpee (1899–1979), author of such books as The History of Lake Forrest Academy (1944) and From Frigates to Flat-tops (1953), with whom she planned to collaborate on her memoirs. Arpee later recalled that he prepared a manuscript about the survival of Grand Duchess Anastasia “working from material supplied by Mrs Smith in odds and ends, and in innumerable interviews”. He later asserted: “She was difficult to get along with; I never received any thanks for my work during those years”. Smith had also continued to review her manuscript with her long-time champion, Helen Kohlstaat Wells, until the latter's death in 1959.
Other Activities
Whilst living at Lake Geneva, Smith (still using the name Eugenia Smetisko) gained prominence as a lecturer at various women's clubs in the Chicago area. In August 1940, she gave a talk to the North ShoreNorth Shore (Chicago)
The North Shore is a term that refers to the generally affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois bordering the shore of Lake Michigan.- History :Europeans settled the area sparsely after an 1833 treaty with local Native Americans...
Women's Club on the subject of the Balkans and Denmark. In April 1943, at the invitation of the women's guild of St Elizabeth's Church in Glencoe
Glencoe, Illinois
Glencoe is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 8,723. Glencoe is located on suburban Chicago's North Shore. Glencoe is located within the New Trier High School District. Glencoe is regarded as one of the most affluent suburbs on...
, she presented a lecture entitled “Russia Today and Yesterday.” At that time, it was also reported that she had previously spoken at the Chicago Mount Holyoke Club. In 1944, Smith (described as “a Russian artist and traveller”) spoke again on the topic of “Russia Before and Russia Now” before the Niles Center
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
Women's Club.
During the time that she lived in Elmhurst with Mrs Emery, Smith spent two years working in a silver shop on Michigan Avenue. She also attempted to start her own business as a perfume manufacturer, working from Mrs Emery's home, but later became irritated when her hostess refused to invest in the project.
Smith was also an avid painter, as was the true Anastasia. Many of her works depict scenes of her purported childhood in Russia in the Imperial family and are in a private collection.
Publication of Memoirs
Eugenia Smith's public profile as a Romanov claimant was raised following her move to New York City in June 1963. She presented her manuscript to publishers Robert Speller & Sons, initially claiming that she was actually a friend of Grand Duchess Anastasia, who, before her death in 1918, had provided Smith with the notes on which the manuscript was based. Before proceeding any further, the Spellers contacted Gleb BotkinGleb Botkin
Gleb Evgenievich Botkin 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....
, son of the Tsar's physician and a childhood friend of the genuine Grand Duchess Anastasia. Botkin, who was a fervent supporter of rival Anastasia claimant Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson was the best known of several impostors who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia...
, was sceptical of Smith's claim. Speller & Sons subsequently requested that Smith undergo a lie detector test. This was undertaken by polygraph expert and former CIA agent Cleve Backster
Cleve Backster
Cleve Backster is a best known for his experiments with biocommunication in plant and animal cells using a polygraph machine in the 1960s which led to his theory of "primary perception." Backster began his career as an Interrogation Specialist with the CIA, and went on to become Chairman of the...
, who, after thirty hours of testing, concluded that he was “virtually positive that his subject was Anastasia”. Gleb Botkin, however, remained unconvinced; he later stated that “the lie detector must have had a screw loose somewhere” and warned Speller & Sons not to proceed with the project.
Nevertheless, the publishers went ahead. Smith's manuscript was re-written as the memoirs of Grand Duchess Anastasia herself, and was published towards the end of 1963 under the title Anastasia: The Autobiography of H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia. Prior to publication, excerpts were printed by Life magazine, along with articles detailing the mixed results of the lie detector tests, handwriting analysis and an anthropologist's comparison of Smith's facial features with photographs of the actual Grand Duchess. There were also comments from two people who had known the Grand Duchess in childhood: Princess Nina Chavchavadze
Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia
Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia, , was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia. A great-granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, she left her native country in 1914, before World War I...
and Gleb Botkin's sister, Tatiana Melnik
Tatiana Botkina
Tatiana Evgenievna Botkina-Melnik, , was the daughter of court physician Eugene Botkin, who was killed along with Tsar Nicholas II and his family by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918....
, both of whom rejected Smith's claims. Like her brother, Tatiana Melnik was convinced that rival claimant Anna Anderson was in fact the genuine article. Anna Anderson was herself aware of Smith's claims, and discussed them with journalist Alexis Milukoff in a series of taped interviews conducted in Germany in the mid-1960s. Of the story, Anderson simply quipped: “Is it not incredible?”.
In December 1963, Speller & Sons were contacted by Michael Goleniewski
Michael Goleniewski
Michael Goleniewski a.k.a. 'SNIPER', 'LAVINIA', , was a Polish officer in the People's Republic of Poland's Ministry Of Public Security, the deputy head of military counterintelligence GZI WP, later head of the technical and scientific section of the Polish intelligence,and a spy for the Soviet...
, a former Polish army officer who, for some years, had claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia's brother, the Tsarevich Alexis. A meeting was arranged between the two claimants, which took place at the publisher's New York offices on December 31, 1963. As recorded by Anna Anderson's biographer, the late James Blair Lovell, “the two imposters tearfully embraced and affirmed one another's authenticity”. Although they later planned to collaborate on a memoir, the alleged siblings subsequently had a falling out. In 1965, Smith denounced Goleniewski as a fraud, although he reportedly remained convinced that she was his sister.
Later Life and Death
Michel Goloniewski later claimed that his “sister” had died in New York City in 1968, reputedly murdered after a visit of “very powerful men... two of them were Rockefellers”. This, however, was not correct, as Smith was still alive and well at that time. She moved to Newport, Rhode IslandNewport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, in the early 1970s, where she attended the local Congregational Church until her death. During that time, she founded the St Nicholas House Foundation, a non-profit organization to establish a museum for Russian art and history in the United States.
In her later years, Smith distanced herself from earlier claims of Imperial origins. In 1984, Associated Press reported that she had refused to discuss her claims with them. A decade later, when she was asked if she would like to provide a blood sample for DNA analysis, she also refused.
Eugenia Smith died on January 31, 1997, at the Lafayette Nursing Home in North Kingstown, at the purported age of 95 years. The Reverend Lark d'Helen, who conducted her memorial service at the Newport Congregational Church, said of her: “Eugenia was a woman of character determined, tenacious, imperial even to the end”. Of her claim to be the grand Duchess Anastasia, another long-time friend stated: “She is an enigma.. that's not really important if she is or if she isn't. To me, she's just a human being. That's how everyone knew her”.
Many newspapers published her obituary using Anastasia's birth-date, or stated that she had been born in St. Petersburg. Unlike Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson was the best known of several impostors who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia...
, who was cremated upon death, Eugenia Smith was interred in Orthodox fashion in the cemetery of Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery in Jordanville, New York
Jordanville, New York
Jordanville is a hamlet in the town of Warren, Herkimer County, New York. Jordanville is in the northwest part of Warren, at the intersection of Routes 18 and 155. The community was settled before 1791.-Gelston Castle:...
. Cremation is prohibited in Orthodoxy. She is buried in the back right side of the newer section of the cemetery.
Since her death, Smith's memory, and her efforts to establish a museum of Russian culture, remain perpetuated in a charitable trust known as the Eugenia Smetisko Memorial Fund.
Further reading
- Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia, New York: Speller, 1963. [ISBN 1-125-90647-2]
- Anastasia: The Life of Anna Anderson, Peter Kurth, Pimlico, 1995. [ISBN 0-7126-5954-4]
- The Great Pretenders: The True Stories behind Famous Historical Mysteries, Jan BondesonJan BondesonJan Bondeson is a Swedish-born rheumatologist, scientist and author, working as a senior lecturer and consultant rheumatologist at the Cardiff University School of Medicine. Outside of his career in medicine, he has written several nonfiction books on a variety of topics, such as medical anomalies...
, W. W. Norton Co., New York, 2004. [ISBN 0-393-01969-1]