The biography of Boris Mikhailovich Skosyrev could become an excellent plot for the novel by the famous Soviet satirists I. Ilf and E. Petrov. But Skosyrev, unlike Ostap Bender, was not a fictional character, but a real person. True, even the “great combinator” Ostap Ibragimovich Bender could envy many facts from his biography.

Boris Skosyrev was born on June 12, 1896 in the city of Vilna in a very wealthy family. Suffice it to say that his paternal grandfather was a successful merchant, a supplier of officer ammunition to the Imperial Palace, for which he was awarded the title of an honorary hereditary citizen of St. Petersburg. The father of the future adventurer Mikhail Mikhailovich Skosyrev in his youth was a cornet in the cavalry, and his mother, Elena Dmitrievna, came from the Russified Greeks.

As a child, Boris Skosyrev showed excellent ability to learn foreign languages. He was fluent in English, German, French and Spanish. It is not surprising that during the First World War Skosyrev was a translator in the British armored division, which took part in hostilities in alliance with the Russian army. Relatively quiet service as a translator saved his life, and knowledge of foreign languages ​​was very useful in the future.

In addition, Boris Skosyrev knew how to win over interlocutors. After the revolution, he claimed that he came from a family of Russian monarchists who managed to escape from Russia, where his family perished during those years. After the end of the First World War, he was able to reach London with the British division.

Later Skosyrev traveled almost all over Europe, having visited Germany, France, Portugal, Spain. He told the most incredible stories about his past. For example, he claimed to have a count’s title, studied at prestigious universities in Great Britain and France, and boasted of his personal acquaintance with many “powerful of this world.” True, in London, the “count” was once arrested for being in the country without registration, and also for using false checks.

The “hospitable” Great Britain had to leave, Skosyrev wandered for a long time not only across Europe, he was carried even to distant Colombia. In 1931, he entered into an official marriage with a French woman named Marie-Louise Para de Gassier. And two years later he found himself for the first time in the tiny state of Andorra.

At that time, the country, whose area is less than 500 square kilometers, was inhabited by several thousand inhabitants. Poor agrarian Andorra was ruled by the government of France and the Spanish bishop of Urgell, to whom it paid a symbolic tribute. It was in Andorra that Boris Skosyrev decided to give free rein to his violent fantasies as a state reformer.

And he began with the fact that on May 17, 1934, he appeared at the building of the General Council of Andorra and offered himself to be the king of this miniature state. The candidate for the post of monarch had ambitious plans: the creation of a prosperous country from a poor Andorra. Skosyrev assigned a special role to the development of the gambling business, as, for example, in Monaco.

The ideas of Boris Skosyrev did not arouse particular delight among the inhabitants of Andorra, accustomed to the patriarchal way of life, did not arouse. Moreover, it was decided to expel the impostor king from Andorra. Even despite the fact that Skosyrev presented a letter from Jean of Orleans, Duke de Guise, in which he allegedly transferred the rights to govern this country to Skosyrev.

But, Boris Skosyrev was not going to give up his plans, he soon returned to Andorra, where riots broke out caused by the poverty of the local population. On July 7, 1934, Skosyrev proposes his candidacy to the General Council for the second time. And receives 23 votes in favor and only 1 against. Already on July 9, Andorra proclaims itself an independent monarchy headed by the ruler Boris I.

Interestingly, France reacted calmly to the loss of control over the former dependent territory, but the Spanish bishop opposed and turned to the Spanish government for help. Despite the fact that Boris I announced his readiness to start hostilities, everything ended far from happy for him, on July 20, a detachment of gendarmes in the amount of five people arrested him. The reign lasted only a few days.

Two months later, a trial took place at which Skosyrev, according to eyewitnesses, behaved with true royal dignity. He failed to present any serious accusations, especially since the letter from the Duke de Guise gave him the right to be called the legitimate ruler.

As a result, Skosyrev was accused of illegal entry into the territory of Andorra even before accession to the throne. And he was sentenced to three months in prison. True, the term of pre-trial detention was counted and released. Currently, most of the documents on the case of the ruler of Andorra, Boris I, are not available to researchers; the materials disappeared during the Spanish Civil War.

Further traces of Boris Mikhailovich Skosyrev are lost. No one can say for sure where he lived and what he did. Therefore, the rumors were very different. According to one of them, during the Second World War, Skosyrev was in a concentration camp as unreliable. According to another version, he took part in the partisan movement in France. Some even argued that Skosyrev collaborated with the Nazis, and after the war he served time in the Gulag. Then he returned to Germany, where he spent the rest of his days.

It is officially believed that Boris Mikhailovich Skosyrev, a Russian émigré and ruler of Andorra, died on February 27 in 1989 in the small German town of Boppard. At the city cemetery there is a grave with an inscription on the tombstone: “Boris Skosyrev. 1900 – 1989”. True, the date of birth differs from the official by four years, but this could simply be a mistake.

Nowadays Andorra has turned into a wealthy state, the economy of which is based on tourism and a favorable tax regime. By the way, many of the reforms that were embodied in reality were proposed by Skosyrev.