Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin
Prince (Knyaz

Knyaz

Kniaz, knyaz or knez 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....

) Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin (князь Николай Сергеевич Гагарин) (July 12, 1784—July 25, 1842)

Born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to the Rurikid Gagarin family

Gagarin family

thumb|right|250px|The Gagarin Coat of ArmsGagarin is a Rurikid princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma.-Origins:...

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

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 military force (July 1812). He took part in the Battle of Borodino

Battle of Borodino

The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...

, the largest and bloodiest single-day battle of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, involving more than a quarter of a million soldiers. Prince Gagarin also owned several businesses throughout Russia and Europe. In 1819, Prince Gagarin married Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky

Bobrinsky

Counts Bobrinsky or Bobrinskoy are a Russian noble family descending from Catherine the Great's natural son by Count Grigory Orlov - Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky .-The first count:...

 (Bobrinkaya), granddaughter of Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

 and Prince Gregory Orlov.

On October 16, 1833, Gagarin was appointed a post of vice-president of the His Majesty's Cabinet

Russian Council of Ministers

The Russian Council of Ministers is an executive governmental body that brings together the principal officers of the Executive Branch of the Russian government.- Committee of Ministers :...

 under Emperor Nicholas I

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

 and Chairman Viktor Kochubey

Viktor Kochubey

Count Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey was a Russian statesman and a close aide of Alexander I of Russia. Of Ukrainian birth, he was a great-grandson of the celebrated Vasily Kochubey. He took part in the Privy Committee that outlined Government reform of Alexander I. He served in London and Paris...

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

Winter Palace

The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...

 after a fire. During service as vice-president, he was the recipient of several distinctions: the Order of Saint Stanislaus

Order of Saint Stanislaus

The Order of Saint Stanislaus , also spelled Stanislas, was an Order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and The Kingdom of Poland between 1765 and 1831 and of Russian Empire from 1831 to 1917.-History of the Order of Saint Stanislaus:Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland, established the...

 1st class (1834), the Order of St. Anna

Order of St. Anna

The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...

 1st class (1835), the Order of St. Vladimir

Order of St. Vladimir

The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....

 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

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

and lived in France until recently. Parts of the Gagarin family now live in the United States.