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beffun by Count Ostermann, but abandoned, as it would seem, under
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Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
X PREFACE.
beffun by Count Ostermann, but abandoned, as it would seem, under
the burden of state aflfairs which gradually pressed upon one who
already a Councillor was soon to be Chancellor of Russia. A few
years afterwards, Professor Baier drew from the Diary almost
everything of value in his relation of the Muscovite campaigns
against the Crim Tartars in 1688-89. and of the siege and capture
of Asof in 1696. The work was next to fall under the eye of the
learned author of the Origines gentis et nominis Russorum^ Gerard
Frederic Muller. This laborious scholar was anxious that the
Journal should be translated into German, then much more than
now the literary language of St. Peteisburg. The task was too much
for himself, but it was undertaken by his assistant, John Stritter,
upon a plan which cannot be called a happy one. Regarding the
work as important chiefly for the military history of Russia, he
cut down or expunged almost everything which did not seem to
him to bear upon that subject. The Diary, stripped in this way
of many of its most interesting and characteristic details, was still
farther disfigured by being recast into a narrative in the third per-
son — the ' I marched,' ' I did write,' ' I was at the Czars' hands' of
the original being rendered ' He marched,' ' Gordon wrote,' ' He
was admitted to the presence of the Emperors.' Such as his version
or adaptation was, Stritter did not live to complete it, nor did he
print any part of what he had finished. Still, in some shape more
or less defective, information derived from the Journal continued to
find its way to the public, as many as six books built upon its
foundations having appeared in Russia between 1766 and 1834. A
seventh was projected in England, but was never published, and
that it was even contemplated, is now known only by the allusion
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.
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