The real control over Russian diplomacy during his lengthy term in office was exercised by Boris Kurakin until 1727 and by Andrey Osterman after his death.

In 1677, while still a young man, Gavrila Golovkin was attached to the court of the tsarevich Peter, with whose mother Nataliya he was connected, and vigilantly guarded him during the disquieting period of the regency of Sophia.

He accompanied the young tsar abroad on his first foreign tour, and worked by his side in the dockyards of Zaandam.

In 1706, he succeeded Golovin in the direction of foreign policy, and was created the first Russian grand-chancellor on the field of Poltava (1709).

On the death of Peter II in 1730, he declared openly in favour of Anna, duchess of Courland, in opposition to the aristocratic Dolgorukovs and Galitzines, and his determined attitude on behalf of autocracy was the chief cause of the failure of the proposed constitution, which would have converted Russia into a limited monarchy.