Andrey Gagarin

Andrey Gagarin
Prince Andrey Petrovich Gagarin
Andrey Gagarin in Saint Petersburg in 2002
Born (1934-07-09)9 July 1934
Leningrad, Russia
Died 30 January 2011(2011-01-30) (aged 76)
Maryland, USA
Burial Saint Petersburg, Russia
Spouse Tatiana Andreevna Shmit
Tatiana Valentinovna Jakovleva
Tatiana Ivanovna Nukhina
Issue Princess Maria Andreevna
Prince Dmitri Andreevich
Princess Julia Andreevna
House House of Gagarin, House of Rurik
Father Prince Peter Andreevich Gagarin
Mother Varvara Vasilievna Sheshina

Andrey Petrovich Gagarin (Russian: Андрей Петрович Гагарин; 9 July 1934, in Leningrad, USSR [today St. Petersburg, Russia] – 30 January 2011, in Maryland, USA) was a professor of physics at Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University and a Russian prince of the Rurik dynasty.[1][2][3]

Ancestry and background

As the son of Prince Peter Andreevich Gagarin (Russian: Князь Петр Андреевич Гагарин, 1904–1938, victim of Stalin's purges [4]) and grandson of Prince Andrey Grigorievich Gagarin (Russian: Князь Андрей Григорьевич Гагарин, 1855–1920), Andrey Petrovich Gagarin walked in the footsteps of his closest ancestors. His father was a graduate of the same Polytechnical University for which his grandfather was the first rector,[5] and at which Andrey Petrovich Gagarin held a professorship. Great-grandfather was the well known diplomat, artist, officer and the vice-chancellor of the Imperial Academy of Arts Prince Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin (Russian: Князь Григорий Григорьевич Гагарин, 1810–1893), himself a son of Prince Grigory Ivanovich Gagarin (Russian: Князь Григорий Иванович Гагарин, 1782–1837), poet, diplomat and patron of the arts, later ambassador to Rome.[3]

After the Bolshevik seizure of power, most members of Andrey Grigorievich Gagarin's family left the country. Still some decided to stay, a decision that proved dear. In 1938 the last adult Prince Gagarin on Russian soil, Peter Andreevich was executed. His older brother Andrey Andreevich who also stayed in Russia had been executed already in 1937, leaving young Andrey Petrovich Gagarin, at the age of 4, one of the very few surviving rurikid princes in Russia. He was to be brought up by his mother Princess Varvara Vasilievna Gagarina (née Sheshina, later remarried to Vadim Mikhailovich Burlakov).[6] By using the family name of his stepfather (during 1947-1972),[7] Andrey Petrovich Gagarin was able to obtain higher education that otherwise would not have been accessible for a member of Russia's highest aristocracy.[8]

Prince Andrey P. Gagarin served as the chairman of the Nobility assembly of St. Petersburg[9] and a long-time CILANE delegate.

Marriages and Issue

Andrey Petrovich Gagarin was married three times. Firstly he married Tatiana Andreevna Shmit, no issue. Secondly he married Tatiana Valentinovna Jakovleva and had issue:

  • Princess Maria Andreevna Gagarina. Married to Alexander Stanislavovich Korotkov

Thirdly he married Tatiana Ivanovna Nukhina and had issue:

  • Prince Dmitri Andreevich Gagarin. Legitimated by parents marriage.[10] Dmitri Gagarin is married to Viktoria Viktorovna (née Kotelkova)
  • Princess Julia Andreevna Gagarina. Legitimitated by parents marriage.[10] Julia Gagarina is married to Jan Alexander von Heiroth

Title and dynastic branch

The title Knyaz (князь) is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke. The German translation is Fürst. The etymology of the title is a cognate of the English king, the German König, and the Scandinavian konung. In Russia the title was originally a hereditary title for the patrilineal descendants of Rurik.[11][12]

The princes Gagarin are a cadet line of the House of Rurik. They are descendants of Yaroslav I the Wise, himself a son of Vladimir the Great also known as St Vladimir, the Christianiser of Russia, and his wife Ingegerd Olofsdotter, daughter of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung. The fourth and favorite son of Yaroslav I and Ingegerd, Vsevolod I of Kiev, married Anastasia, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachos giving birth to the Monomakh branch of the Rurikids, the branch to which the Gagarins belong.

Yaroslav I had several of his daughters married to foreign princes: Anne of Kiev married Henry I of France, and was to be the first queen of France to act as regent, Elizabeth of Kiev who married Harald III of Norway, and Anastasia of Kiev who married Andrew I of Hungary. Finally, one of the theories regarding the origin of Agatha, the wife of Edward the Exile, himself the last undisputed heir to the last native English royal dynasty, the House of Wessex, is that she was a daughter of Yaroslav I as well.

References

  1. ↑ "Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project". Family Tree DNA. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  2. ↑ http://www.runewsweek.ru/science/8622/
  3. 1 2
  4. ↑ "Список граждан, расстрелянных в Ленинграде, вне Ленинграда и впоследствии реабилитированных (том 8 "ЛМ")". Visz.nlr.ru. Archived from the original on 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  5. ↑ "Origins". Spbstu-eng.ru. 1902-10-02. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ "Лучшая половина жизни". Sta-net.ru. Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  9. ↑ "Санкт-Петербургское губернское Дворянское собрание". Spbgds.ru. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  10. 1 2 "Ахакхнрейю Пеопхмрмшу Хгдюмхи \ Йнмяскэрюмрокчя: Йкюяяхйю Пняяхияйнцн Опюбю". Civil.consultant.ru. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  11. ↑ "князь". "Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary" online
  12. ↑ "knez". Oxford English Dictionary, 1989, online [1] (subscription required)
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