GORDON, PATRICK LEOPOLD

(1635–1699), born in Cronden, Aberdeen, Scotland, died in Moscow.

Patrick Leopold Gordon, known in Russia as Petr Ivanovich Gordon, was a descendant of a Scottish Catholic aristocratic family and studied at Braunberg College in Danzig (Gdańsk) where he graduated in 1655. Gordon served in the Swedish and Polish armies, and then entered Russian service in 1661 with the rank of major, given the task of training New Formation regiments. Gordon was dispatched as an unofficial Russian envoy to England in 1666–1667 where he met with James II and played an important role in reviving Anglo-Russian relations, including trade which had been of marginal significance since the expulsion of the English from the Russian interior in 1649. He advised the English government and the Muscovy Company on strategies to adopt for negotiations with Russia. He also was an active participant in the Chyhyryn (Chigirin) campaign in 1677–1678 and the Crimean expeditions of 1687 and 1689. Gordon headed the Butyrskii Regiment, was promoted to general-major in 1678, and general-lieutenant in 1683.

Having supported the regime of Sof'ia Alekseevna, in 1689 he switched sides back to Peter I (the Great) who deposed his half-sister. Gordon became one of Peter's close associates and played a crucial role in the creation of a regular Russian army. He headed the Kozhukhov campaign of 1694 and obtained Peter's permission for the presence in Russia of a Roman Catholic clergy, and in 1694 founded a Catholic church in Moscow. Gordon was a leader of the Azov campaigns of 1695–1696, and was in charge of the seizure of the fortress in 1696. Gordon subdued the Strel'tsy (Musketeer) Uprising of 1698. He authored an extensive diary describing his experiences in Sweden, Poland, and Russia, 1655–1699, and also produced a large number of surviving letters pertaining to Anglo-Russian political and commercial relations, and late Muscovite political history.

See also: peter i

bibliography

Gordon, Patrick. (1859). Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries, ad. 1635- ad. 1699. Aberdeen: Printed for the Spalding Club.

Konovalov, Sergei. (1963). "England and Russia: Two Missions, 1666–8," Oxford Slavonic Papers 10:47–58.

Konovalov, Sergei. (1964). "Patrick Gordon's Dispatches from Russia, 1667." Oxford Slavonic Papers 11:8–16.

Konovalov, Sergei. (1967). "Sixteen Further Letters of Patrick Gordon," Oxford Slavonic Papers 13:72–95.

Poe, Marshall T. (2000). "A People Born to Slavery: Russia." In Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476—1748. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Jarmo T. Kotilaine