Gagarin, Ivan Sergeievich

GAGARIN, IVAN SERGEIEVICH. - Jesuit, b. in Moscow on 20 July 1814, d. in Paris on 20 July 1882. From a princely family, he received an education in which Western culture had a great influence.

G. felt closer to the Western circles than to the Slavophile ones and admired P. Chaadaev, whose works he published in Paris, and he always remained deeply influenced by him.

Having begun a diplomatic career as attaché to the Russian legation in Munich (1832), he is found (1838) at the embassy in Paris where, in Madame Svedin's salon, he met with Montalembert, Falloux, Lamennais, Dupanloup and other figures.

In 1842 he became a Catholic and, a year later, a Jesuit. G. remained a Russian at heart and strove to make his homeland known abroad. His peaceful and understanding spirit greatly served this end, and it inspired his book La Russie sera-t-elle catholique? (Paris 1856) and led him to found the Work of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, and in 1857 the journal Etudes de théologie, de philosophie et d'histoire, which in 1862 became the celebrated journal Etudes of Paris. In its first period the publication limited itself to questions relating to Russia. Among G.'s other works are remembered Les sturovères, l'Église russe et le Pape (Paris 1857) and L'Église russe et l'Immortale Conception (1868). The suspicions launched by some, namely that G. had a part in the intrigues that led to the duel and therefore to the death of the poet Pushkin (1837), have proved unfounded.