Eugenia Smith

Eugenia Smith, of Chicago, also known as Eugenia Drabek Smetisko, (1899 – January 31 1997) was the author of the Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia, in which she claimed to be Grand Duchess 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."

She was born in 1899 in Bukovina, according to naturalization papers she filled out in 1929 when she emigrated to the United States. Her book was originally represented to its publisher as a manuscript given her by Grand Duchess Anastasia. The publisher required that she take a lie detector test to verify this, a test which she failed. She then changed her story, claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, and passed the test on that story. She then adopted the birth date 18 June 1901, that of the Grand Duchess, and accordingly changed her birthplace to St. Petersburg. This birth-date is listed on the cross marking her grave in the Holy Trinity Monastery Cemetery.

She became a fixture on the Manhattan party circuit when LIFE magazine featured her claims in a largely favorable article on 18 October 1963. The article pointed out that she had failed to convince two anthropologists (who compared her features to photographs of Anastasia), a handwriting analyst (who found no match between her handwriting and Anastasia's) and a cousin and childhood playmate of Anastasia. Tatiana Botkin was also asked to see her, but refused, saying she already knew where Anastasia was (in reference to her belief in Anna Anderson). The Orthodox Church rejected her claims. Still alive in 1995, Smith refused the DNA testing which would have scientifically proven or disproven her claims.

She was 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. She founded the St. Nicholas Foundation.

Many newspapers published her obituary using Anastasia's birth-date. 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.

References

• Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia, New York: Spellman, 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 Bondeson, W. W. Norton Co., New York, 2004. [ISBN 0-393-01969-1]