Boris Skossyreff
A Russian adventurer, international con artist, and pretender named Boris Mikhailovich Skossyreff sought to overthrow the Principality of Andorra's monarchy in the early 1930s by assuming the title of King Boris I of Andorra.
Skossyreff was born on January 12, 1896, into a poor aristocratic family in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was then a part of the Russian Empire. Skossyreff sought political shelter in England during the 1917 Russian Revolution and enlisted in the British army there until the war's end. Later on, he was employed by the British Foreign Office. Midway through the 1920s, he relocated to the Netherlands, where he was included on the Directorate of Intelligence and Security's list of Outstanding Foreign Revolutionaries of 1924 and was regarded as an international forger.
Skossyreff settled down in the community of Santa Coloma d'Andorra, close to Sant Julià de Loria, on his first trip to Andorra. He is claimed to have started preparing his "coup" during this visit. All around Andorra, he engaged in numerous talks with farmers, craftsmen, and politicians. On May 17, 1934, Skossyreff delivered a document including his suggestions to the Valley Council (the previous name of the Government of Andorra) and other advisers, arguing that they justified his wish to reign. The Council members, however, made fun of his attempts. Skossyreff wants to turn Andorra into one of the major global commercial hubs, where banks, financial institutions, and multinational corporations may quickly establish their social addresses. There, benefit from the tax system. In order to be named Prince of Andorra by the General Assembly, he requested payment in exchange for his gift to the Andorran people.
However, the reign of "King Boris I" was short-lived. Skossyreff was imprisoned and kept in a French prison camp in February 1939 among anti-French Spaniards, and anti-fascists from Italy and Central Europe who had fled the Third Reich's pre-World War II occupations. He wasn't released until 1956 when he then went back to Boppard, where he passed away in 1989.
