Prince ('' Knyaz'') Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin (князь Николай Сергеевич Гагарин; July 12, 1784—July 25, 1842) was a Russian leader.

Life

Born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to the Rurikid

Gagarin family The House of Gagarin (russian: Гага́рин) is the name of a Russian princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma. Origins The descendant of the Great Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the Christianizer of Ru ...

, Prince Gagarin was appointed to the Highest command of the 1st infantry during a drawing up of the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

military force (July 1812). He took part in the Battle of Borodino, the largest and bloodiest single-day battle of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, involving more than a quarter of a million soldiers. Prince Gagarin also owned several businesses throughout

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In 1819, Prince Gagarin married Maria Alexeeva

Bobrinsky The Counts Bobrinsky or Bobrinskoy (''Бобринские'') are a Russian noble family descending from Count Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky (1762–1813), who was Catherine the Great's natural son by Count Grigory Orlov. The first Count Bob ...

(Bobrinkaya), granddaughter of Catherine II of Russia and Prince Gregory Orlov. On October 16, 1833, Gagarin was appointed a post of vice-president of the His Majesty's Cabinet under

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Nicholas I and Chairman

Viktor Kochubey Prince Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey (); ( – ) was a Russian statesman and close aide of Alexander I of Russia. Of Ukrainian origin, he was a great-grandson of Vasily Kochubey. He took part in the Privy Committee that outlined Government reform of ...

; in December 1837, he was appointed member of the commission for the restoration of the

Winter Palace The Winter Palace ( rus, Зимний дворец, Zimnij dvorets, p=ˈzʲimnʲɪj dvɐˈrʲɛts) is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the Russian Emperor from 1732 to 1917. The palace and its precincts now ...

after a fire. During service as vice-president, he was the recipient of several distinctions: the Order of Saint Stanislaus 1st class (1834), the

Order of St. Anna The Imperial Order of Saint Anna (russian: Орден Святой Анны; also "Order of Saint Anne" or "Order of Saint Ann") was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holst ...

1st class (1835), the

Order of St. Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir (russian: орден Святого Владимира) was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptize ...

2nd class (1839) and the Order of the White Eagle (1841). Prince Gagarin died a violent death by the hand of one of his former subordinates, a forest warden of the Rejnmana estate. Prince Gagarin met the forest warden at Rejnmana, and, after a brief conversation, was fatally shot in the neck. Despite medical aid, the prince died in minutes. Rejnman explained that he killed Gagarin because he had been exposed to oppression and had lost his rank. However, according to his contemporaries' testimonies, Gagarin had been a humane employer. Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin's descendants were forced into exile during the Russian Revolution and lived in France until recently. Parts of the Gagarin family now live in the United States. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gagarin, Nikolai Nikolai Gagarin 1784 births 1842 deaths Burials at the Dukhovskaya Church Expatriates from the Russian Empire Expatriates in the Kingdom of Great Britain