GAGARIN, IVAN SERGHIEVIĆ. — Jesuit, born in Moscow on 20 July 1814, died in Paris on 20 July 1882. Of princely descent, he received an education in which Western culture exerted a strong influence.
G. felt closer to Western circles than to the Slavophile ones and admired P. Caddèv, whose works he published in Paris and whose influence upon him remained profound.
He began his diplomatic career as an attaché to the Russian legation in Munich (1832); in 1838 he is found at the embassy in Paris, where, in the salon of Madame Svedin, he met with Montalembert, Falloux, Lammenais, Dupanloup, and other notable figures.
In 1842 he became a Catholic and, a year later, a Jesuit. G. remained Russian at heart and undertook to make his homeland known abroad. His peaceful and understanding spirit contributed greatly to this aim; it inspired his book La Russie sera-t-elle catholique? (Paris 1856) and led him to found the Work of SS. Cyril and Methodius, as well as, in 1857, the journal Etudes de théologie, de philosophie et d'histoire, which in 1862 became the celebrated Paris journal Etudes. In its first period, the publication was limited to questions relating to Russia. Among G.’s other works are Les sturovères, l'Église russe et le Pape (Paris 1857) and L'Église russe et l'Immortale Conception (1868). The suspicions voiced by some—that G. had been involved in the intrigues that led first to the duel and then to the death of the poet Pulkin (1837)—have proved unfounded.