The film by the famous documentarian Jorge Cebrian "Boris Skossyreff - the swindler who became king" ("Boris Skossyreff, l'estafador que va ser rei") was released in Spain. The film tells the story of the Russian adventurer Skossyreff, who in 1934 became the king of Andorra. His rule lasted only a few days, but it left behind the memory of a very unusual and disturbing event not only for this region, but also for all of Western Europe.
"But in fact he was just a swindler"
The film is based not on myths and legends surrounding the personality of the Russian, but on thousands of archival documents - extracts from archives, letters, photographs, newspaper articles, as well as memories of people who knew Skosirev personally.
One of the undeniable advantages of the film is its credibility, says Fernando Torres, a professor of history at the University of Madrid. In his words, "it is not at all easy to penetrate the truth about Skosirev's biography".
Boris Skosirev was born in the Russian Empire into the family of a modest official. In exile, however, he presented himself as a Russian aristocrat, the Count of Orange, a man close to European monarchs, and for this purpose he even took on a title and called himself Boris von Skosirev. "But in reality he was just a swindler, repeatedly tried for fraud in different countries", says historian Fernando Torres.
Skosirev was involved in forging bank documents, non-payment of debts, drug trafficking, and animal sales schemes. But his biggest affair was the attempt to conquer Andorra. As the film notes, for centuries the mountain principality managed to preserve its patriarchal way of life. Since the 13th century, it has been formally ruled by France and Spain, and current politics are guided by a General Council controlled by local conservative clans.
In the first half of the 1930s, neighboring Spain, and especially its Catalan region, which shares a common language with Andorra, experienced a period of instability and revolutionary changes. This made the Andorran clans fear a loss of power, since under the influence of events in Spain, the population of Andorra also began to demand changes.
And just then, Skosirev appeared in Andorra, claiming that a representative of the French Orleans dynasty had transferred his rights to the principality to him. The Russian offered the inhabitants of Andorra to become their monarch, promising them independence from Madrid and Paris and general enrichment, to which the opening of a casino should contribute. Yielding to the persuasions, in July 1934 the General Council proclaimed the Russian king under the name Boris I.
It remains unclear whether Skosirev undertook this adventure alone or if someone was behind him. It is also not known where he got the money for his luxurious life in the Pyrenees, for the maintenance of his retinue, for his two mistresses, for receptions, balls, bribes of local officials and the propaganda of his personal views.
After analyzing the archives, the documentarian Jorge Cebrian came to the conclusion that the adventurer worked at that time for the special services of Nazi Germany, specifically for the Abwehr. It seems that Berlin, where Adolf Hitler was already in power, was interested in a presence in the Pyrenees.
King for a Few Days
In Spain, where Skosirev was suspected of cocaine trafficking, the news of his accession to the throne did not arouse enthusiasm. And when the newly elected king briefly left Andorra, he was captured by the Spanish gendarmerie and taken to Madrid, where he received a one-year sentence for petty fraud. After his time in prison, Skosirev, who was born in the Russian Empire, was exiled to Portugal.
The film also tells about Skosirev's adventures after Andorra. In 1939, he ended up in a French camp as an "unreliable element". Subsequently, the former king was released by the German occupation authorities in France and went to Germany. There, Skosirev joined the Nazis, began working as a military translator, and even received an officer's rank.
After World War II, the former king was captured by the Americans, and after being released, he settled in West Germany. After some time, he was arrested again by the French, who remembered his old sins. But Skosirev's adventures were far from over. In East Germany, where he smuggled Western goods, in 1948 he fell into the hands of the USSR Ministry of State Security and was sent to exile in a Siberian camp. He managed to return to Germany only in 1957.
Until his death in 1989, the Russian lived in the German city of Boppard on the Rhine, receiving a state pension as a war veteran. Interestingly, even in his old age, Skosirev did not betray his passion for hoaxes. In 1982, he published an autobiography titled "The Man in Yalta: Hitler's Secret Order to Boris von Skosirev". In this "work" he explains how, being a confidant of the "Führer" himself, he managed to convince the Allies during the Yalta Conference not to drop an atomic bomb on Germany.
According to film critic Garcia Sais, the film about Skosirev is interesting to the audience not only because of the adventures of the main character, but also because it shows how the modern world is not immune to populists and adventurers who stop at nothing in pursuit of their own selfish goals.
Author: Viktor Cheretsky