Boris Mikhailovich Skossyrev

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Borís Skossyrew (1934)

Boris Michailowitsch Skossyrew ( Russian Борис Михайлович Скосырев , also known under the spelling Boris Skossyreff ; * January 12, 1900 in Vilnius , Russian Empire , now Lithuania ; † February 27, 1989 in Boppard , Germany ) was a Russian nobleman who lived in Andorra for a short time (July 1934) when King Boris I appeared.

Origin and professional career

Boris Skossyrew was born in Vilnius, which was then part of the Russian Empire , into a noble Russian family to Michael Skossyrew and his wife Elisabeth Mawrusow, who fled to England during the Russian Revolution in 1917 . He started a diplomatic career at the British Foreign Office, which led him to secret missions to Siberia , Japan and the United States .

In 1925 he settled in the Netherlands , placed himself in the service of the royal court and immediately received the title "Count of Oranje" from Queen Wilhelmina .

On March 21, 1931, he married the French Maria Louise Parat de Gassier from the southern French landed gentry and significantly older than him (born 1886). He divorced two years later. In the marriage certificate, the spelling "Skosyrew" of his surname was officially set, although it appears in many sources under "Skossyreff".

First stay in Andorra and exile

After his divorce, he moved to the Pyrenees state of Andorra and lived in a house in Santa Coloma near Sant Julià de Lòria , which is still called "House of the Russians" today. In contact with the Andorran reality, he began to devise his plan to gain power in this country and to reform the country.

Andorra was a very poor country at the time, where survival was difficult and complicated. People lived from agriculture, animal husbandry and smuggling. Since 1278 the country has been ruled by two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix , whose rights later passed to the French king or emperor and finally to the President of the French Republic. Four times a year, the representatives of the valleys have always gathered in the Casa de les Valls to discuss the problems of the population and to address their concerns to the two co-princes. An attempt to build a casino modeled on Monaco led to the country's only civil war, fought between conservative and progressive valleys. The plan failed because the Bishop of Urgell in particular vehemently rejected it (he called the casino project "antechamber to hell").

By 1934, attempts by some progressive groups to undermine the bishop's authority had largely ebbed away, and relations with Spanish President Niceto Alcalá Zamora were also very good. It was not a particularly good time when Boris submitted his plan to the Andorran councils on May 17, 1934. The answer was his immediate expulsion signed by the French prefect (representing the president) and the bishop. Boris now settled in La Seu d'Urgell , not far from the Andorran border, lived there in the Hotel Mundial and started his campaign from there. He gave numerous interviews to foreign media in which he justified his project and made contact with Jean von Orléans , the Duke of Guise, aspirant to the French throne and, from the point of view of the monarchists, the legitimate heir of the Counts of Foix (not the French President) . Boris called himself from now on "Deputy King of France".

Boris submitted his proposal to the representative of the Andorra valleys to change the economic structures of Andorra by turning it into a tax haven modeled on Monaco or Liechtenstein and making it an important economic center in which banks and foreign companies would settle, to take advantage of tax benefits.

King Boris I.

On July 7, 1934, the proposal for a monarchy under Boris Skossyrev as king was submitted to the General Council. Boris received 23 votes out of 24, only one representative, Cinto from Encamp , was vehemently against it. The monarchy was thus established. Accompanied by a few loyal followers, the American millionaire Florence Mazmon and his lover, Boris settled down in the Calons inn in Sant Julià de Lòria and prepared himself for the throne.

Boris had 10,000 copies of his constitution printed, sent them to Spanish and French personalities and already played the role of a perfect monarch: he wrote official bulletins of the new monarchy, received important guests and organized official receptions and countless ceremonies.

France did not intervene, not being too interested in Andorran affairs, leaving matters to the General Council, and considering the monarchy valid. The Spanish Council of Ministers had already debated the matter and saw no need for action. Another vote in Andorra on July 9th led to the same result: 23: 1 votes for the new monarchy.

Another exile

But a representative overturned the plan: Cinto drove to La Seu d'Urgell and informed Bishop Justí Guitart i Vilardebò. He announced that he and the French president were legitimate co-princes, not a Russian in exile. Two weeks after the proclamation of the monarchy, on July 21, 1934, the bishop sent four Spanish policemen to Andorra and Boris was arrested; his subjects did not intervene. He was first taken to Barcelona , then to the Modelo prison in Madrid . After his release he was extradited to Portugal and spent the following years in Lisbon , Tangier and Gibraltar , acting like a monarch in exile. He never set foot in "his" country Andorra again.

In 1938 the French government allowed him to settle in Aix. In 1939 he was in a French internment camp with anti-fascist Spaniards and Italians. Why he got there or what was brought against him has not yet been clarified. According to unsecured information, he worked as a spy for the German Reich during World War II ; Among other things, Skossyrew is said to have attended the Yalta conference incognito and passed its content on to Hitler.

After being a prisoner of war, he lived in Boppard in Rhineland-Palatinate from 1956 , where he died in 1989.

Biographies

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.olhao.web.pt
  2. ↑ Eberhard von Zwehl: The man in Yalta. Hitler's secret commission to Boris v. Skossyreff. Druffel Verlag . Leoni am Starnberger See 1982, ISBN 3806110166
  3. ↑ O Rei de Andorra ( Memento of the original of July 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Portuguese website about Skossyrev's life @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.olhao.web.pt

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Skossyrew, Boris Mikhailovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Skossyreff, Boris; Boris I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian nobleman who briefly ruled Andorra as Boris I
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Vilnius
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1989
Place of death Boppard