Gordon, Patrick

Gordon, Patrick, 1635–99, Scottish soldier of fortune and Russian general, b. Scotland. After serving alternately on both sides in the war between Sweden and Poland (1655–60), he entered the Russian army (1661) and later became the devoted friend of the youthful czar Peter I (Peter the Great). The greatest service he rendered Peter was his aid (1689) in thwarting the coup by Peter's half sister, the regent Sophia Alekseyevna, who wished to become ruler in her own right. Excerpts from Gordon's diary were published in 1859.

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Gordon, Patrick 

(Petr Ivanovich). Born Mar. 21 (31), 1635, in Auchleuchries, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; died Nov. 29 (Dec. 9), 1699, in Moscow. General and rear admiral; of Scottish descent.

From 1655 to 1661, Gordon served in the Swedish and Polish armies. In 1661 he joined the Russian service. He participated in the Chigirin campaigns of 1676–78 and the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689. In 1689. commanding the Butyrsk regiment, he supported Peter I and assisted in his victory over the tsarevna Sofia. He was one of the first foreigners to teach and inspire Peter I to create a regular army. He commanded a detachment, directed siege operations in Peter I’s Azov campaigns of 1695–96, and participated in suppressing the uprising of the strel’tsy (semi-professional musketeers) in Moscow in 1698. Gordon left a three-volume diary in English, and it was translated into German between 1849 and 1852.

WORKS

Dnevnik .... parts 1–2. Moscow, 1892. (Translated from German.)