(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.