| Boris Skossyreff | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Borís I d'Andorra" | |||||
.jpg) Boris in 1934 | |||||
| King of Andorra | |||||
| Reign | 10 July 1934 – 23 July 1934 | ||||
| Born | Borís Mikhàilovitx Skóssirev-Mavrusov 12 June 1896 Vilna, Lithuania-Vilnius Governorate, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania) | ||||
| Died | 27 February 1989 (aged 92)[citation needed] Boppard, Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany (now Germany) (possibly) | ||||
| Spouse | Marie Louise Parat de Gassier (m. 21 March 1931) | ||||
| |||||
| Father | Micheal Skossyreff | ||||
| Mother | Elisabeth Mawrusow | ||||
Boris Mikhailovich Skossyreff (Russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Ско́сырев, romanized: Boris Mikhailovich Skosyrev; Catalan: Borís Mikhàilovitx Skóssirev pronounced [boˌɾis .mikˌaj.lo.vit͡ʃ ˈsko.si.ɾef]; 12 June 1896 – 27 February 1989) was a Belarusian adventurer, international swindler and pretender who attempted to seize the monarchy of the Principality of Andorra during the early 1930s, styling himself King Boris I of Andorra.
Skossyreff was born in Lithuania to a family of lower nobility from Belarus. Following the outbreak of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Skossyreff was able to seek political asylum in England, where he enlisted in the British army for the end of World War I. This was followed by his work in the British Foreign Office. He moved to the Netherlands in the mid-1920s, where he was in a list of Prominent Foreign Revolutionaries in 1924, prepared by the General Intelligence and Security Service, in which he was noted as an international swindler. Despite this, Skossyreff falsely claimed to have been working in the Royal household of the Netherlands.
Through his visits to Andorra, a co-Principality in the Pyrenees co-princed by the Bishop of Urgell and President of France, in the early 1930s, Skossyreff worked on gaining power. During extensive conversations with local politicians in May 1934, Skossyreff presented the Government of Andorra a document in which he justified his intentions of rule.
Through falsely portraying himself as a member of the European aristocracy, Skossyreff proposed freedoms, modernisation, foreign investments and the recognition of a tax haven to Andorra through his self-published constitution.