GORDON, PATRICK (1635-1699), Russian general, de scended from a Scottish family, was brought up in Aberdeenshire, but entered, in his i 5th year, the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, Prussia. In 1655 he enlisted at Hamburg in the Swedish service. In the course of the next five years he served alternately with the Poles and Swedes as he was taken prisoner by either. In 1661 he took service in the Russian army under Alexis I., and in 1665 he was sent on a special mission to England. After his return he fought against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In 1678 he was made major-general, in 1679 was appointed to the chief command at Kiev, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. He visited England in 1686, and in 1687 and 1689 took part as quartermaster-general in expeditions against the Crim Tatars in the Crimea. On the outbreak of the revolution in Moscow in 1689, Gordon with the troops he commanded virtually decided events in favour of the tsar Peter I., and against the tsaritsa Sophia. The tsar confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia, employed him in organizing his army accord ing to the European system, and raised him to the rank of general in-chief. He died on Nov. 29, 1699. The tsar was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes.
Gordon left a diary of his life (in English), the ms. of which is in the archives of the Russian Foreign Office. It was translated into German (Moscow and St. Petersburg, 1853 and 1855). Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635 '699) was printed in